Soul Jazz & Groove Music CDs

In addition to being one of jazz's greatest drummers, Art Blakey was one of its top talent scouts. As leader of The Jazz Messengers from 1955 until his death in 1990, Blakey consistently featured some of the top up-and-coming players in jazz. He not only pushed them to play at their best in...

Cannonball Adderley was one of the finest alto-saxophonists in jazz history, and one of the most beloved of all jazz musicians. He and his brother cornetist Nat Adderley had originally planned to spend their careers as schoolteachers in Florida but then fate intervened. In the summer of 1955,...

When Jimmy Smith burst upon the scene in 1956, he quickly became the dominant force among jazz organists, a position he never lost. Before Smith, the organ had been played in jazz on a rare basis by Fats Waller and Count Basie, and in R&B-ish jazz by Wild Bill Davis and Bill Doggett. However...

Remastered!Son of Ice Bag; The Call of the Wild; Think; Three Blind Mice; Slouchin'.Lonnie Smith, Organ; Lee Morgan, Trumpet; David Fathead Newman, Tenor Sax/Flute; Melvin Sparks, Guitar; Noberto Apellaniz, Willie Bivens, Percussion/Congas; Marion Booker, Jr., Drums; Henry Pucho Brown,...

When George Benson was signed to Columbia Records in 1965, he joined an elite group of preeminent artists — including Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Charlie Christian, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin and Bruce Springsteen — considered the...

One of the major jazz guitarists to emerge in the early 1960s, Grant Green emphasized single-note lines in his solos (almost never playing chords), was influenced as much by horn players as by guitarists and he had many opportunities to display his versatility when he was the house guitarist for...

This is one of Grover Washington, Jr.'s best-loved recordings and considered a classic of r&bish jazz. All four songs (which includes Billy Strayhorn's "Passion Flower") are quite enjoyable but it is "Mister Magic" that really caught on as a major hit. Bob James...

If ever there were a record that both fit perfectly and stood outside the CTI Records' stable sound, it is Sugar by Stanley Turrentine. Recorded in 1970, only three tracks appear on the original album (on the reissue there's a bonus live version of the title track, which nearly...

Saxman Lou Donaldson, who once declared that “Everything I play is funky” and organist Jimmy Smith are two of the best representatives of the soul jazz genre, having laid down some of the greasiest, down-homiest jazz-funk grooves ever....

As part of the Finest Hour series from Verve, guitarist Wes Montgomery is spotlighted on 16 tracks recorded between 1964 and his death in 1968. These sessions highlight the widely accepted jazz-pop combination he achieved on these Verve and A&M releases, which followed a four-year stint on...

One of the most popular soul-jazz albums of all time, and one of the best, although Harris (and trumpeter Benny Bailey) had never played or rehearsed with the Les McCann Trio before, and indeed wasn't even given the music. Perhaps that sparked the spontaneous funk that comes through clearly...

As a pianist, songwriter and bandleader, Horace Silver was an innovator. During an era when Bud Powell's brand of bebop was the dominant force on most younger pianists, Silver developed a funkier soulful style of his own, one that influenced Les McCann, Bobby Timmons and other soul jazz...