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releases

VARIOUS ARTISTS - Jazz Travels compiled by Casbah 73

Picture the scene: It's the butt-end of that most rinky-dink of decades, the eighties. All around you it's lycra leggings, big hair and even bigger shoulder pads. The music is tinny & brittle-sounding; served on flaccid flexi-vinyl & played on those oh-so-handy, all-in-one "hi-fi solutions" that everyone seemed to own back then. There's a brand new music format on which you can apparently eat your breakfast as well as listen to, well, not much yet. Are we talking dire straits? If, like me, music is your life, then - you bet. Life is not pretty.

Then, one day, a copy of a new compilation somehow finds it's way into your hands... You drop the needle and as the music starts playing, your life is instantly transformed. The Headhunters, Larry Young's Fuel, Roy Ayers, Don Blackman... the names are a complete mystery, the sounds - raw slices of uncut funk, jazz & soul, are like a hammer to your heart.

A whole new vision of life has just been opened up to you. Suddenly, you know why you love music and you know what you need. You're fiending for it, that depth, richness & variety you've always wanted to hear, but didn't know existed. You cast around for more, search high & low, bother just about everyone you can think of, but few, if any, seem to know what you're talking about. There is no information.

Question: Your life's just been turned on it's head. So what do you do?

You go travelling. Which is exactly what I did. In fact, for more than a decade, that's pretty much all I did. There were tours of the States, sometimes up to four in a year, giving me intimate knowledge of that fine nation's roadside motels and upstanding second-hand record dealers. Meetings with mohair-wearing radio dj's from the sixties with an unhealthy Manson-fixation and 60,000 pristine promo LPs in their basement, buried deep in the snow-covered Connecticut forest. Tracking down out-of-town, out-of-mind shacks with a locked metal cage protecting the counter, a notice fixed to the front: "maximum two questions per customer". Anywhere, really, that held the promise of yet more undiscovered troves of records, that dusty pile that nobody seemed to be interested in, the artist whose name draws blank stares or occasionally, a raised eyebrow and a look of glee in the seller's eye – "I got a box of those in the back" (sub-text "hello sucka!").

Pretty soon, I was supplementing my US trips by venturing further afield. Musical hot spots included Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, with regular European incursions to Brussels, Lisbon, Barcelona. The jazz-funk-latin-soul nexus had spread everywhere - so much good music just waiting to be discovered, so many new musical connections to be made and all you needed was a good ear, an open mind and a portable player.

Looking back now and seeing how that whole scene has developed, I feel privileged to have been a part of that journey of enlightenment. I was making great connections around the world, with DJs, musicians, collectors & music lovers, helping to break forgotten sounds to a whole new set of listeners. It truly is a global phenomenon. From the UK, where they were 'Talkin' Loud' and the 'Freedom Principle' ruled, to New York, where your 'Body & Soul' was at stake, everywhere, legions of people were busy at work restoring the lines of communication, introducing the new music to the old and having one hell of a party.

Today, the situation is greatly improved. The bridge between the great black music of yesteryear and that of today is ever stronger. New developments such as the internet provide the means to share information and create a richer, more informed musical culture. Everyone now has access to a wealth of great music.

Which is where this collection of songs comes in. Taking that same spirit of open-mindedness which so inspired this 'scene' in all its shapes & forms, I've put together these 12 tracks; a collection of songs from around the world, spanning three decades, from the 60s to the early 80s, all connected by a certain jazziness of style and in many cases, infused with a healthy dose of latin feeling. Most have never been reissued since their original release and only obtained minimal exposure at the time, making them extremely difficult to find in their original format.

I hope you enjoy listening to them as much as the artists obviously enjoyed creating them, this is music from the heart.

Oli Stewart (Casbah 73) Madrid 2006

VARIOUS ARTISTS - Jazz Travels is available through Hitop Records, and distributed by Creative Vibes