Playlist Manu Boubli - Spring 2006 - Jazzin' In The Grass
2006-05-29
01. Walt Harper - Viva Tirado (1971 / Birmingham Records)
02. Beatconductor - Kumbara (2006 / G.A.M.M.)
03. The Afro Soul-Tet - Slave Traders (1968 / Banyan)
04. Psyco - Mister President (2006 / Mind)
05. Quasimode - Down In The Village (2006 / Raw Fusion)
06. Bobby Cole - A Perfect Day (1964 / Concentric)
07. Jazz Juice - Montuno Uno (2006 / Freestyle)
08. Jazzconductor - Swahili Jazzin (2006 / G.A.M.M.)
09. Doctor L & Antibalas - Family Affair (2006 / Mind)
10. Hadley Caliman - The Latin Thing (1976 / Catalyst)

The Bamboos - Step It Up
Phish - Live at Madison Square Garden New Year's Eve 1995
Quantic - presents The World Rarest Funk 45s
Speech Defect - Freshcoast Gettin' Rowdy
Ugly Duckling - Bang For The Buck

The year 2006 seems to be a good one for funk, old school hip hop party music, quality stuff, black grooves and phat beats... Australian outfit The Bamboos tear the roof off with some breezy 1970 raw funk. Cult jam band Phish offer one of their best live recordings ever, and if you can manage to agree that they were the best live band of those last 15 years with no challenger whatsoever, you might know what I mean. Funky-beasty-beats-meister Quantic finally presents his selection of rare funk 45s that we were eagerly waiting for. And Speech Defect & Ugly Duckling bring both a heavy dose of fun and party to conclude this selection with the hands in the air - party style! All this music is guaranteed with 0% mainstream punky-pop attitude. KnowhatImean kids?

David Axelrod - The Edge
Henri Guédon - Early Latin & Boogaloo Recordings By The Drum Master
Gilles Peterson - Digs America
Sound Dimension - Jamaica Soul Shake
Various - Searching For Soul

So many good records are issued these days that commercial music needs to buy more and more space in the big outlets to keep on being sold... If, like us, you don't give a damn about this commercial shit the people who pull the strings are desperatly trying to sell, everywhere, in every media, then you're in right place. A warm and comfy one. A place that tries to attend to your musical needs with quality stuff that happens now. you should be able to find all these records easily almost everywhere, maybe not for a long time, but in the coming weeks it should be OK.
This time, we'll play it rootsy, starting with the excellent retrospective of one of our favorite producers ever, David Axelrod, the man who put space into jazz to make it sound heavy. We'd be advising next the Henri Guédon compilation from Manu Boubli on Comet Records, a nice companion to the tribute mix you'll find on these pages. It's starting to be hard to find, but as it's a can't miss in memory of the late drum master... Other obvious choices are Gilles Peterson's new compilation, which finds Gilles at the top of his digging force, or the new Soul Jazz Records gathering of some Sound Dimension's superb instrumentals tracks from Studio One, or else a new "buy-it-with-your-eyes-closed" Luv'n'Haight compilation of rare american soul, "Searching For Soul". OK, there's nothing new in there, but trust us, cos' it's all top of the hip.

Ray Barretto - Acid
James Brown - In The Jungle Groove
Tim Buckley - Goodbye & Hello
Joao Donato - A Bad Donato
Jimmy Smith - Root Down - Jimmy Smith Live!

Here comes a first set of classics selected for you by the Paris DJs crew. All 5 titles come from a golden era in music: 1968-1972. No collectors-only selection or happy-few-only elitism in here, we're talking massive albums, essential listening for your musical education, pleasure for your boddhi and body, and easy-to-find records for birthday presents. Things start on a sad note, as beloved percussion master Ray Barretto has left us last week. But it's still time to (re-)discover his wonderful music. That's why we'll present on ParisDJs.com next monday a respectful tribute podcast to celebrate his life and oeuvre. Meanwhile, for this weekend we urge you to go for his "Acid" album from 1972, simply one of the bests latin jazz, percussion and soul albums out there.
Another good shopping idea would be the "In The Jungle Groove" James Brown compilation from 1986, recently reissued with a new bonus track, and available these days for 6.99 Euros! Don't me misguided, it's a pure selection of ultimate JB funkiness from 1969-1972, that could have made one hell of an ultimate James Brown album if it had been issued as such at the time.
If you're looking a little bit of California spirit, you could try the "Greeting from LA" de Tim Buckley, a white rhythm'n'blues classic from Los Angeles at the beginning of the seventies that you can't get tired of.
Or you could try bossa nova pianist Joao Donato 1970's excursion into brazilian, jazz, funk, rock, and electronic fusion music... That one's called "A Bad Donato - Psychedelic Funky Experience" and it's arranged by none other than Eumir Deodato. Nuff' said.
This week's bag of marvels ends with an essential raw'n'soul jazz live album from Hammond B3 organ king Jimmy Smith, "Root Down". It's still smoking hot, so don't hesitate!

Darondo - Let My People Go
Burnt Friedman & Jaki Liebezeit - Secret Rhythms 2
Nostalgia 77 Octet - 7's & 8's - Live At The Jazz Café
Various - Stay On The Groove: 20 Modern Funk Anthems
Various - Studio One Soul 2

This week's selection aims for the groove in your mind.
Things kick off with Gilles Peterson sublime rediscovery, Darondo, who mixes everything we love from the San Francisco sound of the beginning of the 70s. Out on one of our favorite labels out there for so many years now: Luv'N'Haight, the reissues subsidiary of Ubiquity Records.
We've chosen next two splendid and untemporal jazz albums, one where former Can percussionist Jaki Liebezeit joins forces again with german dub electronics maestro Burnt Friedman (the -excellent-first volume was issued in 2002, on Nonplace Records too), and another where Nostalgia 77 downtempo outfit from the Tru Thoughts label expands its wings in a full 8-piece british-afro-american-sun-jazz orchestra.
After this passionate soul-soothing session, you could either go for some brand new roots funk, with the best selection of what's happening in the scene today, from The Bamboos to Sharon Jones, Breakestra, The New Mastersounds or Quantic ("Stay On The Groove", out on Freestyle Records), or opt for a perfect tracklist of cool reggae soul, masterminded as usual by the nice folks at Soul Jazz Records, who're really doing the job as it should be.