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Review: DJ-friendly and top rare jazz vocals with piano trio in a swinging samba vibe, available on vinyl for the first time! 4 Tracks/ Exclusive Non Album Vinyl only recorded at VARA Studio Hilversum/ Netherlands for the Dutch radio show "Metro`s Midnight Music" in February 1974 produced by Joop De Roo. Remastered 2006. US-singer Mark Murphy is one of the world's greatest jazz vocalists of the 20th century. A six-time Grammy nominee, he has enjoyed a prolific 40-year recording career, with over 40 releases to date. Stereo Review dubs Mark 'one of the major artists of our age. Mark Murphy is a jazz singer.' For decades the question 'What exactly is a jazz singer' has had two easy answers, Betty Carter and Mark Murphy. 'He is arguably the best male jazz singer in the business' declares Rex Reed. Mark's musicianship, range, intonation, diction, inventiveness and incredible rhythmic sense are all of a piece and all marvellous.' Vocal greats Betty Carter, Peggy Lee, Cleo Laine and Shirley Horn all sing Murphy's praises as one of the best in the business and the legendary Ella Fitzgerald declared 'he is my equal.' It was Sammy Davis, Jr. who first discovered the young Mark Murphy in 1953 at a jam session in Murphy's hometown of Syracuse, New York. Impressed with Murphy's talent, Davis invited him to his show that night, where he even asked Mark to join him on stage. In 1974, Dutch radio producer Joop De Roo invited him to the VARA Studios Hilversum for a short rehearsal and a first but final take on the same day with the excellent Louis Van Dyke Trio. The corresponding recordings were shelved in the radio archives over the years and chosen by Joop for inclusion into his programme, that was broadcasted every week around midnight until 1980. Parts of the rare trio recordings feat. Mark Murphy were previously released on a Japanese CD fifteen years ago in very small amounts, unmastered and falsely marketed as the "North Sea Jazz Sessions", although the musical material cannot be connected in any manner to the famous Dutch festival of the same name. The sought after four tracks on this exclusive vinyl EP will NOT be included on the forthcoming Various Artists compilation "Metro`s Midnight Music" featuring rare and unreleased tracks from the Dutch NOS radio archives 1970-1975, carefully remastered in 2006 incl. tracks by the Metropole Orchestra, The Louis Van Dyke Trio, Mark Murphy, Helen Merrill, Eddie Jefferson, Greetje Kauffeld, Dave Pike and others (Sonorama-16/ 2 Lp & 2 CD), to be released in October.

Review: Former band "Kadri Six" - five men plus singer "Lamia" - have devoted themselves to the real spirit of funk and soul music with the release of 'Cold Sweat' on Sonorama. Their trademark sound is "real", "alive" and "black", with raw vocals, moving organ, hard hitting bass lines and trombone or sax riffs to set every dancefloor on fire.

Review: First released in 2007 and here reissued for the first time since, Jennifer Lara's inspired reggae cover of Marlena Shaw's 1968 soul classic "Woman Of The Ghetto" was reportedly one of the last recordings made by both Lara and producer Clement Seymour "Sir Coxsone" Dodd. It remains a stunning version, with Lara's weary, heartfelt vocal working perfectly with the chunky, dub-wise riddim provided by the Jackie Mittoo-fronted Sound Dimension backing band. The trippy, flipside "Side Walk Doctor Version" revision is arguably even better, with snippets of Lara's vocal echoing across Dodd's formidably dubbed-out soundscape.

Review: GrandMagnetto, masters of skanking pop reggae covers,
return with 'Everybody's Talkin' by Harry Nilsson, off of
the Midnight Cowboy soundtrack. Blundetto transformed
the track into a killer deep dubby hit. Both tracks are storming.