A killer collection of Barbara Lynn's records for Atlantic – a set that includes many of her 45-only tracks, which weren't on her full album for the label – plus one song that was only first issued in recent years! Lynn's a real standout in 60s soul music – a singer with a style that's as deep and personal as any of the best southern soul artists of the time, but also a way of putting over a tune that's maybe even more forthright and confident – partly because Barbara composed a good deal of her own material! A good deal of the work was produced by Huey P Meux in Mississippi – with a vibe that's both different from more familiar southern styles of the time, and even some of Huey's later material in the 70s – one more quality that really makes the work sound quite fresh. A few more tracks were recorded by the great Spooner Oldham – who brings in some sweet Muscle Shoals elements – and titles include the unreleased "Soul Deep", plus "This Is The Thanks I Get", "He Ain't Gonna Do Right", "You Make Me So Hot", "You'll Lose A Good Thing", "I'm A One Man Woman", "Sufferin City", "Maybe We Can Slip Away", "You're Gonna See A Lot More Of My Leavin", "You're Too Hot To Hold", and "Nice & Easy". ~ Dusty Groove
With the success of Maria Maria in 1976 behind them, Nascimento reunited with his writing partner Fernando Brant in 1980 to produce another ballet, Ultimo Trem (Last Train). This time, they chose to tackle a more contemporarily relevant subject, the impact of the closure of a train line that connected certain towns and cities in the North East of Minas Gerais to the coast. Featuring much of the same all-star line-up as Maria Maria – including legendary Brazilian musicians Naná Vasconcelos, João Donato, Paulinho Jobim and members of Som Imaginário, like Maria Maria, the album holds what Milton himself considers to be the definitive versions of some of his most beloved tracks, including 'Saídas E Bandeiras' and 'Ponte de Areia'.
Legally blind from birth, Brazilian keyboard player, composer and bandleader Manfredo Fest learnt to read music in braille and began studying classical music at a young age. By 17 he had fallen in love with jazz (particularly the music of fellow blind pianist George Shearing) before becoming swept up in Rio’s emergent bossa nova movement in the sixties. Moving to the States in 1967 where he would go on to work with fellow countryman Sergio Mendes, Fest recorded and self-released Brazilian Dorian Dream in 1976, enlisting Thomas Kini (bass), Alejo Poveda (drums, percussion) and Roberta Davis (vocals).Like a turbo-powered, intergalactic elevator ride, Brazilian Dorian Dream builds on the principle of the modal diatonic scales of the Dorian mode, with influences of Brazilian rhythms, North American jazz and funk, and music of the European baroque and romantic era. The coming together of these intergenerational and intercontinental styles coupled with Fest’s visionary use of the Fender Rhodes, Clavinet, Arp and Moog synthesizers (plus a whole load of effects units), makes for an album light years ahead of its time. Manfredo passed away in Florida in 1999, and his music never quite reached the audiences it deserved. Due to the independent nature and limited run of the original release, Brazilian Dorian Dream has to this day remained almost impossible to find on vinyl. Far Out Recordings is making this masterpiece available to new audiences with a remastered vinyl, CD and digital reissue in 2020.
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