Like Stevie Wonder and Allen Toussaint before him–and Prince and D'Angelo afterward–Shuggie Otis was a musical visionary whose early 1970s recordings showed he could do it all, writing, arranging, performing, and producing some of the decade's most satisfying, innovative, and, unfortunately, overlooked music. This reissue of his 1974 Inspiration Information album–a soulful song cycle that took three years to create and was worth every minute–ranges from early drum machine-driven experiments like "Xl-30" and "Aht Uh Mi Hed" (note the Sly Stone spelling influence) to Otis's most stunning pop confection ever, "Strawberry Letter 23." (The latter song, which ended up being a big hit for the Brothers Johnson, is one of four bonus tracks taken from Otis's 1971 Freedom Flight album). Otis, who once turned down an offer to replace Mick Taylor in the Rolling Stones, continues to perform around the Bay Area on his own and with his father, bandleader Johnny Otis. Hopefully, the long-awaited resurrection of this material will help bring him the attention he deserves.

The Rascals (initially known as The Young Rascals) were an American rock band, formed in Garfield, New Jersey in 1965. Probably their most underrated record, 1969's 'See' featured a gospel rave-up in 'Carry Me Back', an atmospheric, jazzy romp in 'Nubia' and a flat-out rocker with its title cut, plus a killer cover of 'Temptation's Bout to Get Me' in short, an eclectic, challenging album.

The vocalist, saxophonist, composer and arranger Bobby Boyd, arrived in New York at a young age after completing his schooling in Augusta, GA. His musical adventures began in the mid-60s with the release of his debut single “My Type Of Dancin’” on Veep Records in 1965, a fledgling R&B subsidiary label of United Artists. Encouraged by their positive impact on his career, he went on to release his second single “Whatcha ‘Gonna Do About It” on Bang Records in 1968.

Singular blues journeyman Lonnie Holley returns, flanked by acolytes Moor Mother, Michael Stipe, Bon Iver, Sharon Van Etten, Rokia Koné, and Jeff Parker for a significant new album.

The first solo album by the former leader of the Impressions, Curtis represented a musical apotheosis for Curtis Mayfield - indeed, it was practically the "Sgt. Pepper's" album of '70s soul, helping with its content and its success to open the whole genre to much bigger, richer musical canvases than artists had previously worked with. All of Mayfield's years of experience of life, music, and people were pulled together into a rich, powerful, topical musical statement that reflected not only the most up-to-date soul sounds of its period, finely produced by Mayfield himself, and the immediacy of the times and their political and social concerns, but also embraced the most elegant R&B sounds of the past…

2008 digitally remastered two CD set containing a pair of albums from Felix Cavaliere and The Rascals: Peaceful World (1971) and Island of Real (1972), both originally released on Columbia Records. These recordings, sadly, were to prove the last for the band, though founder Felix Cavaliere went on to a solo career. Comes housed in a slipcase with extensive liner notes.
What's remarkable about both these recordings is how far ahead of their time they were. Cavaliere had become deeply interested in the writings and teachings of the great Sufi master musician Hazrat Inayat Khan, who - through his own tradition - looked at music holistically, as an integral part of earthly and spiritual life. He also came under the sway of the emerging sounds of jazz, gospel, and the emerging uptownfunk and soul of the period…

Released in early 2007 as part of Universal's extensive and cheaply packaged Number 1's: Temptations series (see also: volumes dedicated to James Brown and Marvin Gaye), this disc compiles 19 number one R&B singles from the Temptations. It's worth mentioning that some of the inclusions – "The Way You Do the Things You Do," "You're My Everything," "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me," "Ball of Confusion" – were number ones on the Cash Box chart, rather than the Billboard chart (the usual source), and 1998's "Stay" is a bit of a stretch since it topped Billboard's Urban Adult Contemporary chart. Nothing can argue against the set as a decent introduction to the group, even though several great singles – such as "Cloud Nine" – peaked below the top spots.

Soul singer Barbara Massey and jazz guitarist Ernie Calabria paired up for this rare 1971 album. With Calabria having worked with Nina Simone and Harry Belafonte, among others, and Massey having sung backup for artists including Jimi Hendrix, Cat Stevens, and Herbie Hancock, the pairing was an inspired one and resulted in this superb soul-jazz outing. Massey has a dry yet passionate and evocative vocal quality that often brings to mind Grace Slick. Fittingly, the duo takes on Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody to Love," turning the Summer of Love anthem into a steamy and hypnotic soul-funk jam. Elsewhere, the duo touches upon such varying styles as folk, Latin, and psychedelic rock with cuts like "For You" and "Do You Know?," bringing to mind such similarly inclined acts as the Free Design and Bill Withers. Anyone who has even a passing interest in this kind of '70s cross-genre aesthetic will certainly want to seek out Prelude To…

Mother's Finest tried to smash the embargo blocking black rock acts with this live record. It was the closest any album came to actually conveying the kind of nonstop excitement, spontaneity, and unpredictability of their live shows, although it also showed how vocally erratic they could be in performance. The failure of a band that had as exciting a vocalist as Joyce Kennedy and did both solid rock and fine grinding funk proved one of the '80s' more puzzling questions. It couldn't just be attributed to racism either, because Mother's Finest actually did better among white audiences than black ones.

Sly Stewart is one of pop and rock's great enigmas. A charismatic performer, full of a boundless, good energy, a wonderful songwriter and, at least when he was in his prime, a man with a sure vision, Sly still somehow managed to throw it all away by the mid-'70s. The classic work he did with Sly & the Family Stone, though, is worth its weight in gold. This 20-track set has all the essential hits, including "Stand," "Everyday People," "Everybody Is a Star," "Family Affair," "Dance to the Music," and "I Want to Take You Higher," among others, and for most casual listeners, it has everything they'll really need.

Can it get any better? If aliens came down needing to know what funk was all about, in all its talented, embrace-anything-and-everything, screw with your head and get your butt down glory, then this is a prime candidate for what to give them. The man, his voice, his bass, the backing of a prime core band including his guitarist brother Catfish, Fred Wesley, and Maceo Parker leading the brass – beautiful, hilarious, and just plain great. This one-disc collection could easily be a two-disc or more if one wanted to include every last highlight from Collins' up-down-all-around career – his work with James Brown alone is beyond the bomb – but when it comes to solo work, this is as perfect a place to start as any. Drawing mostly on the albums done with the active help of George Clinton in the late '70s, Back in the Day is a model for what a good compilation should be. Sound is excellent throughout, while full details on who plays what and where, along with where everything came from in the first place, all appear in exhaustive detail. The liner notes, meanwhile, come from longtime funk road manager (Brown, Prince, plenty of others) Alan Leeds, explaining every step of Collins' wonderful story.