Soul Jazz

Notes: This book celebrates over 100 years of photography in the Caribbean. From calypso kings to Vodou priests, revolutionaries to dictators, colonialism to independence, slave trade to tourist paradise - the many uses and abuses of the Caribbean are vividly captured here.

The image of the Caribbean is as much a creation of the outsider as it is the complex identity of its people, a melting pot of races created out of the participants of the 400 year slave trade - enforced Africans, indigenous Caribbeans and their colonisers - French, Spanish, Dutch, English.

From luscious and beautiful backdrop of tourism and hedonist retreat, to colonial outpost and revolutionary threat within North America's backyard, the complex identity of the Caribbean stands at the intersection of tourism, the detritus of the slave trade, the decline of colonialism and the region's tropicality.

The regions politics span an almost constantly changing path of ideas, radicalism and revolutionaries - from Castro's Cuba and Michael Manley's Jamaica, to the violent right-wing dictatorships of Haiti's Francois 'Papa Doc' Duvalier and the Dominican Republic's Rafael Trujillo.

The hundreds of fascinating and unique photographs featured here illustrate more than one hundred years of Caribbean history, culture and industry as well as the subsequent diaspora of its people to America, England, Canada and elsewhere.

Introduction by Paul Gilroy. Edited by Stuart Baker.

Paul Gilroy is the author of There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack: The Cultural Politics of Race and Nation (1987), The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (1993), Black Britain - A Photographic History (2004) amongst others.

Stuart Baker is the editor of a number of photography and design books all of which deal with culture and identity including Punk 45 (with Jon Savage), Dancehall (with Beth Lesser), Kanaval: Vodou, Politics and Revolution on the Streets of Haiti (with Leah Gordon), Voguing (with Chantal Regnault), Bossa Nova, Freedom, Rhythm & Sound (both with Gilles Peterson) and more. He is also the founder of Soul Jazz Records.collection.

Notes: New 10th anniversary edition on Soul Jazz Books/Soul Jazz Records of this now classic large format deluxe book - the definitive photography book and essential guide to Jamaican Dancehall in the 1980s featuring 100s and 100s of amazing photographs - all with accompanying text, interviews and biographies.

'Dancehall' is an essential reference book for anyone interested in Reggae and captures a previously unseen era of musical culture, fashion and lifestyle in stunning, vibrant colour.

Dancehall is a culture that encompasses music, fashion, drugs, guns, art, community, technology, and more. Born in the 1950s out of the neighbourhood soundsystems of Kingston, Dancehall grew to its height in the 1980s before a massive influx of drugs and guns made the scene too dangerous for many. Today Dancehall remains at the centre of Jamaican musical and cultural life. From its roots in Kingston in the 1950s to its heyday in the 1980s, Dancehall conquered the globe spreading to the USA, UK, Canada, Japan, Europe and beyond.

In the early 1980s Jamaica was in the throws of political and gang violence - photographer Beth Lesser ventured where few other dared and this book is a never-before-seen record of the exciting, dangerous and vibrant world of Dancehall.

Living in Jamaica in the late 70s and early 80s she photographed and documented a cultural explosion as producers, singers, DJs and soundsystems who all made a living out of the slums of Kingston. With unprecedented access to the incredibly vibrant music scene during this period, Beth Lesser's photographs are a unique way into a previously hidden part of Jamaican culture.

Notes: Massive new 360 page deluxe 12" x 12" hardback book Disco - An Encyclopedic Guide To The Cover Art of Disco, featuring over 2,000 album cover designs as well as over 700 12" sleeves, including sections on roller disco, disco instruction albums and more. As well as being a comprehensive visual document on the era, the book comes complete with interviews of a number of important disco figures, histories, biographies and discographies of all the major disco record companies. Sections on Roller Disco sleeves, Disco Instruction albums, 12" sleeves and a scrapbook of disco ads are all brought together in one stunning and stylish package.

Forewards by Tom Moulton and Nicky Siano (The Gallery), also interviews with Mel Cheren (West End Records), Ken Cayre (Salsoul), Marvin Schlachter (Prelude), label features and more. The book is compiled by Disco Patrick and Patrick Vogt, introduction by Claes Widlund.

Notes: Soul Jazz Records are proud to present this amazing collection of sleeves from the deepest, deepest jazz music ever - compiled by Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records).

This is a unique collection of cover artwork of revolutionary jazz music between 1965-83. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and the civil rights movement of the 1960s loom large as self-determination, economic power and musical freedom led to jazz artists finding new paths - both musical and economic.

Years before the D-I-Y cultural revolution of punk, Sun Ra, John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, the Art Ensemble of Chicago and others 'took control' of their own work by recording, releasing and distributing their own music themselves.

The record sleeves of this era are as iconic and historically unique as the music itself and a striking reflection of the time; pre-desktop publishing, pre-internet these small-run (sometimes as low as 500 copies), self-made sleeves are graphically bold and radical.

'Freedom, Rhythm and Sound' is the first ever collection of this fascinating goldmine of album art, which represents the first wave of inspired independent production within popular music.

'Freedom, Rhythm and Sound' includes a large introduction contextualising the music and artwork as well as features on many of the people involved. Alongside the musicians mentioned above these include Rashied Ali, Steve Reid, Mary Lou Williams, Horace Tapscott, Lloyd McNeil, Tribe, The Last Poets, The Pharoahs, Philip Cohran, Black Artists Group and many others.

Review: For the first time since 2016, Jamal Moss has pitched up on Soul Jazz with a typically eccentric and mind-altering full-length excursion. As you'd expect, The Red Room is another triumph - an inspirational collection of otherworldly and melodious cuts that effortlessly combine elements from Moss's many major inspirations. One minute, you're wigging out to his jacking, piano-heavy fusion of gospel house and synth-jazz ("The Seduction Syndrome"), the next he's laying down a chunk of deep space ambient with Terry Riley synthesizer cycles ("Awake and Energize"). And so it goes on, breathlessly joining the dots between Sun Ra, Juan Atkins, Adonis, Steve Reich, L.I.E.S and Jeff Mills while sounding thoroughly different to all of them.

Review: For the first time since 2016, Jamal Moss has pitched up on Soul Jazz with a typically eccentric and mind-altering full-length excursion. As you'd expect, The Red Room is another triumph - an inspirational collection of otherworldly and melodious cuts that effortlessly combine elements from Moss's many major inspirations. One minute, you're wigging out to his jacking, piano-heavy fusion of gospel house and synth-jazz ("The Seduction Syndrome"), the next he's laying down a chunk of deep space ambient with Terry Riley synthesizer cycles ("Awake and Energize"). And so it goes on, breathlessly joining the dots between Sun Ra, Juan Atkins, Adonis, Steve Reich, L.I.E.S and Jeff Mills while sounding thoroughly different to all of them.

Notes: Get down with the get down! Fantastic new season colours in Soul Jazz Records' classic 12" Record Bags (holds about 30 LPs). Fantastic for DJing, impressing your stylish friends or just 'carrying stuff'.

Notes: Get down with the get down! Fantastic new season colours in Soul Jazz Records' classic 12" Record Bags (holds about 30 LPs). Fantastic for DJing, impressing your stylish friends or just 'carrying stuff'.

Review: 'Mojo Rocksteady Beat' is the new compilation of classic recordings from The Sound Dimenison, the funkiest group in the history of Reggae.
The Sound Dimension have recorded some of the most important songs in Reggae music; songs such as 'Real Rock', 'Drum Song', 'Heavy Rock',
'Rockfort Rock', and 'In Cold Blood' - all classic songs that have become the 'foundation' of Reggae music, endlessly versioned and re-versioned
by Jamaican artists since the time they were first recorded.
As the in-house band at Studio One in the late 1960s, The Sound Dimension also played alongside everyone from The Heptones, and Alton Ellis,
to Ken Boothe, Marcia Griffiths and more. Similar to their US counterparts, The Funk Brothers at Motown, and Booker T and The MGs at Stax,
The Sound Dimension recorded, on a daily basis, incredibly catchy and funky tunes matched by a seamless musicality.
Featuring musicians of the calibre of Ernest Ranglin, Jackie Mittoo, Eric Frater, Leroy Sibbles, Don Drummond Jnr, Deadley Headley and more,
the Sound Dimension existed from around 1967 to 1970 and all the recordings featured here were originally released during this period. For a band
with a fluid line-up, they had an amazingly consistent sound, laying down classic rhythms for the singers of the day at Studio One as well as stretching
out with their own recordings. Check out the amazing trombone of Vin Gordon, rightly re-named 'Don Drummond Jnr' by Sir Coxsone, honouring both
the musical abilities of the young Gordon, and that of his forerunner in the Skatalites and ex-Alpha Boys teacher. His sparring partner on horns would
usually be Deadly Headley Bennett.
The Sound Dimension featured a unique combination of musicians from different backgrounds, such as those from the original jazz big bands on the
island or players from the north coast hotel music circuit; listen to 'Park View' and hear the two unique styles of Eric 'Rickenbacker' Frater, with his
fuzz-box lead guitar, dueling with the jazz virtuosity of fellow guitarist Ernest Ranglin. After Jackie Mittoo officially emigrated to Canada in 1968
(although often continuing to return for sessions), keyboard duties were also supplied by the equally funky Richard Ace or Robbie Lyn, all against the
rhythmic bass-lines of the Heptones' own Leroy Sibbles.
None of this can explain the importance of this music. The melodies to their classic songs are a thousand times better known than the musicians who
originally created them. Played and re-played by every house band for every producer on the island, these iconic rhythms became the basis for dancehall
and laid the foundations for the future of Jamaican music. This album can be seen as a companion to the earlier Sound Dimension release 'Jamaica Soul
Shake' and together these two albums make a unique and definitive document of a seriously important set of recordings.

Review: Amongst Nigerian soul and disco collectors, Tee Mac's Night Illusion has long been regarded as one of the great "lost albums". It was originally privately pressed and released on the enigmatic producer's own label in 1980, with only 1,000 copies in existence. It's perhaps unsurprising that Soul Jazz Records has chosen to reissue it, serving it up on CD for the first time. It's a cracking set, all told, with Marjorie Barnes' superb vocals riding rhythm tracks that variously touch on horn-heavy reggae, sumptuous disco-soul, Blaxploitation style funk, and, of course, authentic Nigerian Afro-disco. Despite the record's obscure roots, it's brilliant produced, and actually superior sound and vibe wise to many American-produced disco and soul albums of the period.

Notes: · This deluxe 200 page hardback 12”x12”book
features hundreds of stunning full size record
cover designs from the legendary Studio One
Records.
· Described by Chris Blackwell as The University Of
Reggae, Studio One is by far the most important
record label in the history of Reggae music, an A-Z
of Jamaican music as iconic as Motown was to
soul, or Blue Note for Jazz.
· The book features classic artwork from Bob Marley
And The Wailers, Horace Andy, Alton Ellis, Freddie
McGregor, The Skatalites, Marcia Griffiths, Burning
Spear, The Heptones, Toots and the Maytals and
many more artists all of whom launched their
careers at Studio One.
· As well as many classic sleeves there are
numerous rare designs, including a collector’s
section featuring many alternate, silkscreen and
rarely seen designs.
· As Jamaica approaches the 50th anniversary of
independence, this stunning deluxe book is a
timely look at Reggae music’s legendary record
label and the artists and musicians that it made
famous.
· The book also features an introductory essay by
Steve Barrow (author of ‘Rough Guide To Reggae’)
and is edited by Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records).

Review: New Orleans: one of jazz music's most spiritual homes, the US city was also a hotbed for raw, groundbreaking funk fusion in the 60s. But as most releases experienced limited distribution, many of its most distinctive funk talents remained solely within the city boundaries and have since become something of a collector's boon. As proved with the previous two volumes, the collectors had every right to seek these out... From the smoky blue grass subtleties of "Little Baby" to the tribal voodoo fusion of "Two Way Poc A Way" via the jazz harmonies and aquatic wah wahs of "Jockey Ride", each one tells a once forgotten tale of raw, spirited grooves, repping New Orleans in a whole way. A must have for all funk aficionados.