Mickey Finn

I don't claim any expertise, but I think there are regional differences. Darn sarf you might find more 90s onwards (street-style rnb) and reggae, as well as jazzier flavours, whereas oop north it tends to be more gritty and/or slanted towards older tunes. That said, there's also variation there, as there's more jazz and uptempo boogie flavoured stuff played in the north west in my (limited) experience, including newer releases. Much depends on the event/promoter/jocks of course, and it will be easy to find opposite examples everywhere, but these are just my general impressions. The Reading alldayer story always makes me chuckle, wish I could have seen it, but choosing a record like "magic fly" by Space supposedly to bring the scenes together shows that it wasn't only the northern scene that was struggling to maintain quality in the late 70s. There was a lot of questionable stuff smuggled into the jazz funk scene through disco, which was cheapened by the cash-in releases of people like Ethel Merman, Max Bygraves, even Sinatra for goodness sakes. Boundaries were very fluid and "disco" included Tina Charles, Leo Sayer, John Miles, Abba, Bee Gees, Blondie... see countless comps for proof. "Disco" was also used by the industry to mean black popular music more generally, hence the need for "underground" disco as a way of separating the wheat from the manure. But with blurred lines not really separating disco/funk/jazz-funk/funk-soul/soul, and record majors exploiting it for all it was worth, it's not surprising that there remained separate scenes as people found refuge in music that had greater authenticity. By reacting against the commercial dross, people might also have closed their ears to anything different. In one way the blurring and diluting of all these styles opened the ears of many people to music they might otherwise have never appreciated. A jock like Tony Blackburn makes no apologies for that, and doesn't need to as he has championed soul music for decades. But he also describes Chris Hill's approach as "elitist", which may have come as a surprise to those attending that Reading alldayer.

This even made the pop charts at the time, showing how popular the genre really was, especially considering how selective the compilers were.

Ellie Hope:

Nice one Lee Ritenour signed his new cd for me but there was a huge queue so no pic. His son was drumming on the tour, and certainly has the chops for it - definitely one to watch. Must say I'm jealous - Dave Grusin is a very very smart and gifted musician, done so many great things. One of my favourites is the album he produced for guitarist Kevin Eubanks in 1986, featuring Marcus Miller on some tracks - the combination of acoustic guitar, Miller's bass and Grusin's string arrangements is hard to beat: As for Billy Cobham, for me he ranks with Alphonse Mouzon, in terms of styles covered and sheer technique. This relatively recent tune (2001) got some airplay in Finland on commercial radio believe it or not...

I'm not surprised, as it seems to be fashionable just now. Good if it leads people to buy more serious equipment to properly enjoy a growing collection, but we'll see how that goes in the next 2-3 years probably. Will we be tripping over stacks of novelty turntables in Oxfam in years to come? No question the record companies are loving it, but it's surely gonna feel strange to some people to be paying the same money for usually 2 tracks on a relatively faster degrading and more easily damaged medium than for many more tracks on a robust (if manufactured properly) and less easily damaged medium that is sonically superior Let battle commence!

They always manage to bring something new to the covers they make, and that's certainly a classic. Should be a great concert. I saw Lee Ritenour last year, was well worth it. Thanks for posting.

Dr John's 1978 LP "City Lights" showcases his soulful side to good effect:

Bob James made a name for himself as both recording artist and in-house arranger for CTI Records before moving across to CBS in the mid-70s, where he continued recording and producing other artists, including on his own Tappan Zee label. So far in this thread we've seen/heard Wilbert Longmire (Black is the color), Richard Tee (First love) and Steve Khan (Darlin darlin baby), but there is so much more from this period. Expansion recently released a twofer of the Tappan Zee albums recorded by Mark Colby - this from 1979: Back in 1976, Freddie Hubbard had already left CTI and was on to his third CBS album (fourth if you count the Japan-only "Gleam"), produced by James. According to James the chemistry between them didn't work, but maybe that explains the intensity of this funk jam: Someone who pops up a lot in these sessions is guitarist Eric Gale, who was also a regular player for Van McCoy and Ashford & Simpson, among others. In 1977 James produced his "Multiplication" album, from which comes this - also worth checking out for "Morning glory" featuring Alphonso Johnson on bass, and a great gospel tune, "Mary don't you weep": Back to 1979 for this classic by Mongo Santamaria, who recorded one album on Tappan Zee. Featuring Hubert Laws on flute, gorgeous summer sound:

Nice try I've got thousands but I'm hanging on to them and accumulating more. With the reissues still coming (although apparently less than before) as well as new comps (feels like more than before), for music lovers it's a steal. Disagree about the obsolete bit, though ... if true, it's a matter of fashion rather than technology.

and Elkie Brooks, Robert Palmer (both Vinegar Joe) also Melody Stewart

Eric Burdon, Delaney and Bonnie, David Clayton-Thomas and Nils Landgren

And while we're at it, Rod Stewart and Steve Marriott

Also Jimmy Messina, Bobby Caldwell ... and on the rockier side of things, Paul Rodgers of Free, Frankie Miller, and James Dewar of Robin Trower fame

His collaborations with John Lee Hooker are also worth checking out but the less said about Cliff Richard the better

Another overlooked UK singer songwriter is John Martyn, whose original background in acoustic folk maybe allows people to forget some truly soulful work from the 80s: