After I finished recording this episode, I realized I'd played two records featuring Jorge Santana - one by his group Malo, and another with him as a guest with the Fania All-Stars. I looked him up and realized he had sadly passed away last spring. Rest in Power Jorge Santana! I hope everyone enjoys his guitar work on these tunes as well as the other tracks featured here.

Tracklist: JAB, Malo, Reuben Wilson, Rimshots, Fania All-Stars

April 7 2021

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Pullin from the Stacks - Episode 163

THE SQUEEZE (Main Single)

An amazing record recently landed in my post office box, an absolute classic of an album I honestly never thought I’d see in person let alone get a copy of: Winston Mankunku Ngozi’s quartet masterpiece “Yakhal Inkomo” - I insist everyone at least take a listen to this on Spotify or elsewhere. On this episode I've included the title track to start off the set. There is also an excellent interview with South African jazz scholars Percy Mabandu, Kevin Davidson, Nduduzo Makhathini and Salim Washington discussing the importance of this recording, available at: https://www.allaboutjazz.com/yakhal-inkomo-a-south-african-masterpiece-at-fifty-winston-mankunku-ngozi-by-seton-hawkins

Anyway, I decided to partner it on this podcast with a few other horn-heavy selections. Hope you dig!

Tracklist: Mankunku Quartet, Azar Lawrence, Lee Morgan, Sahib Shihab, John Coltrane

October 20 2021

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Pullin from the Stacks - Episode 179

This is Volume 4 of 4 from Rap Production wizard Jake One released in 2005 (when modern soul was still virgin territory). Nothing but the ill 80s modern soul and funk.

Jake One - AR-4 (2005)

yet another master has ascended.
on this episode of Grand Groove Radio we celebrate the life of Leon Ware via musical selections from the likes of Stro Elliot, Quadron, Trina Broussard, Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, Michael Wycoff, Minnie Ripperton, Omar Lyefook, Vesta Williams, Raphael Saadiq, Maxwell, Incognito, Marcos Valle, Thundercat, Marlena Shaw, The Miracles & (of course) Marvin Gaye.
Leon was responsible for writing and producing the majority of Marvin's 'I Want You' LP. 
playlist here: http://bit.ly/2lOqM1g

Grand Groove Radio-February 24 2017-Musical Massage

Order vinyl / CD / digital: https://bbemusic.lnk.to/SaturdayNightSpecial
In association with DJ Amir’s 180 Proof Records, BBE is honoured to present another gem from the small yet significant Strata catalogue. A precursor to New York’s Strata East, Detroit’s Strata Records was founded in the late 1960s by former Blue Note artist Kenny Cox. Starting life as a music-led community organisation, coffee shop studio and venue, Strata released only a few titles as a record label, gaining the imprint a cult following among record collectors and jazz lovers across the globe.
Possibly the best known of Strata’s releases, The Lyman Woodard Organization’s ‘Saturday Night Special’ is rightly heralded as a jazz fusion classic. Recorded in 1975, ‘Saturday Night Special’ features organ, electric piano and Mellotron by bandleader Lyman Woodard alongside guitar and bass by Ron English, with drums and percussion by Leonard King, Bud Spangler & Lorenzo “Mr. Rhythm” Brown respectively. Despite the fairly sparse instrumentation, ‘Saturday Night Special’ lays down an impressive wall of sound, powerfully atmospheric in its almost low-fi aesthetic. Hinting at more traditional jazz, rhythm & blues, afro-cuban styles and more, the uniqueness of this album is surely in its feel: summoning up images of a vast industrial landscape, assembly lines and urban decay. In other words, this record sounds like Detroit.
No great album artwork is complete without a good story to match, and ‘Saturday Night Special’ does not disappoint. Snapped by photographer and political activist Leni Sinclair (responsible for seminal pictures of Miles Davis, Fela Kuti and John Coltrane and many others), the cover image shows the contents of Lyman Woodard’s pockets placed on the hotel bed after a show: cigarette papers, cash and a pistol.
Following Woodard’s death in 2009, this incredible album was reissued in highly limited numbers by Wax Poetics; now just as hard to come by as the original pressings. It’s our pleasure to make this important and influential chapter in the story of contemporary jazz available on vinyl once again.

The Lyman Woodard Organization - Creative Musicians

Of course, happiness never comes alone! BTS 2018

MR BOP - PUT DIS ONE IN U'RE BACKPACK 3.0

____FULL WILL SESSIONS MARBLE BAR SET 2019

Firing up the gear for another round of rare groove classics spun with real life vinyl! Join me on IG live or on YouTube live for better optics. 8-9 PM EST Saturday night. Shout outs are always free.

Keep up on more live streams: https://www.instagram.com/soulstrut/

Soul Strut Live - Solitary Selections - Ep. 5 - Crate Digger Classics (April 25, 2020)

Much appreciation to everyone who's tuned in the last six years! We made it to 150 episodes, way farther than I ever anticipated. Couldn't have gotten here without so many folks tuning in. Special shouts to Pipomixes and everyone else who's reposted episodes on the internets! Also big thanks to all the guest selectors the last fifty - DadBodRapPod, J. Rawls, Bruce Phillips, Evolve-One, DO77 and Waffles Hidalgo. So - I feel like every fifty episodes is a good time to pull the hip-hop rarities and b-sides out the crates. Here's another short stack of a few favorites of mine! Dig it.

Tracklist: 
Dirty Treats ft. Praverb the Wyse
Makeba Mooncycle ft. J. Sands
K-Otix
Mad Fanatic ft. RagChyld
Rascalz
Konceptual Dominance 
Sly Da Brown Hornet ft. Jumbo, Libretto, Dubb Flex and Vursatyl
Grouch and Eligh ft. Abstract Rude and Asop
Wisdom ft. Breezly Brewin and Adagio
Jean Grae
A-Butta and L-Swift
Damu the Fudgemunk

December 9 2020

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Pullin from the Stacks - Episode 150 (Another Hip-Hop Episode)

Buy / Stream the album here: https://orcd.co/jjazz3

BBE Music presents J Jazz volume 3, the latest in its definitive compilation series exploring the finest modern jazz from Japan.

Since the first volume in February 2018, the J Jazz compilation series has showcased some of the most creative, inspired, and sought-after jazz recorded in Japan during a golden period spanning the 1960s to the 1980s. Illustrating the richness and versatility of the composers and musicians on this collection, the music spans a wide yet coherent range of styles: samba, funk fusion, modal, spiritual, post-bop, and bossa all combine to present an aural portrait of a jazz scene that was constantly moving and shifting its multiple musical centres of gravity.

Mastered at the Grammy-nominated Carvery studio in London, many of the tracks featured are reissued for the first time, including mega-rare private press cuts from the Yasuhiro Kohno Trio, Masaru Imada Trio, and Hideyasu Terakawa Quartet. There’s heavy post modal bop by J Jazz legends Kohsuke Mine and Koichi Matsukaze; samba heat from Tatsuya Nakamura, Hideo Shiraki and Seiichi Nakamura; and funky dance floor energy by Hiroshi Murakami, Ryojiro Furusawa Quartet and Shigeharu Mukai.

Selected albums from which the tracks are drawn will be reissued in full as part of the acclaimed BBE Music J Jazz Masterclass Series. Released as a deluxe, heavyweight x3 vinyl set in a gatefold sleeve with obi strip and insert, the collection comes with extensive artist biographies and track information. J Jazz volume 3 is also available in a x2 CD set with three bonus tracks, and selected tracks are available across digital platforms for download and streaming. J Jazz is conceived, compiled, and annotated by Tony Higgins and Mike Peden for BBE Music.

Masao Nakajima Quartet – Kemo Sabe

Founded in 1999, Soul Strut is one of the original vinyl record communities on the web (and still going!).  We have had the honor of hosting some of the best vintage Funk, Soul, Jazz, Breaks, Vinyl Mixes you will ever hear.  www.soulstrut.com