Cooking Kingston sounds from the 60s – a heady helping of work from the under-documented Caltone label – an early imprint whose quality level was right up there with Studio One! Caltone was a smaller operation, but managed to issue sides by some of the best on the scene at the time – and did so in a way that often created a nice sense of variety, given the looser setup of the company. Most of the grooves here are in a rock-solid rocksteady mode – with plenty of echoes of American 60s soul – and although the instrumentation is great throughout, the sublime vocals on some cuts are really what make the package crackle! Titles include "Killer Joe" by Tommy McCook & The Supersonics, "Making Love" by Devon & The Tartans, "Hold Your Love" by The Cool Cats, "Hear Them Say" by Eric Monty Morris, "Gypsy" by The Emotions with Lynn Taitt Band, "The Journey" by The Uniques, "Return Home" by Alva Lewis, "I'll Never Try" by The Clarendonians, "Why Wipe The Smile From Your Face" by The Kingstonians, "Listen To The Music" by Lloyd & The Groovers, and "You Are The One" by King Rocky & The Willos. ~ Dusty Groove
"Music is the sound track of people's life. Aaron's compositions are poetic running water with gyroscopic textures and shapes. And his trumpet playing outlines his extremely talented and sincere musical artistry. Brilliant, Bravo!" Tiger Okoshi
"Bahr is a detail man: He writes for large ensembles, taking care to bring out small melodic ideas. Prologue includes four incandescent suites, a horn-plumped Beatles cover, and a nod to Miles."- East Bay Express
Aaron Bahr is a trumpet player and composer from the California Bay Area. He is a graduate from Berklee College of Music in Boston where he was the 2008 Jimmy Lyons Scholar. While attending Berklee, he had the pleasure of performing and studying with such artists as Greg Hopkins, Tiger Okoshi, Phil Wilson, Maria Schneider, Ron Carter, Dave Liebman, among many others. He plans to continue his studies at New England Conservatory in their Master's in Jazz Composition program.
Aaron is devoted to making music that is musically lush, rich with orchestration, but always devoted to simple, singable melodies. He believes that music does not need to sacrifice quality or expression in the name of mass-appeal; that music can be complicated but made from the simplest building blocks and be made into something everyone can enjoy. ~ CD Universe
England was a surprisingly funky place in the 60s and 70s – home to a rich array of great grooves created by the scene's important sound library labels – staffed by the cream of the crop of the British jazz musicians and soundtrack composers of the time! The work of these cats often backed bigger names in film and TV – James Bond, The Avengers, Dave Allen, and others – but this set digs even deeper, to uncover a host of great instrumental moments that go way beyond famous movie themes – a wealth of excellent cuts from the late 50s through the late 70s – starting with exotic jazz modes, moving into 60s mod swingers, and including a fair bit of 70s electric funk as well! This scene's been reissued a bit before, but never this well – as Soul Jazz do their usual top-shelf job of bringing the music together – and offering up detailed notes and a great package that really sends the whole thing home. Part 2 – 2LP version features 17 tracks that include "Canvas" by Brian Bennett, "Death Line" by Will Malone, "Folk Song" by James Clarke, "Steam Heat" by Barbara Moore, "Artful Dodger" by Syd Dale, "Jaguar" by John Gregory, "Whole Lotta Love" by CCS, "Face Up" by Alan Moorehouse, "Angels" by Alan Parker, and "Soul Thing" by Keith Mansfield. ~ Dusty Groove
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