London Jazz Classics

The Rare Groove Show

In the mid-nineties the ‘Soul Jazz Records’ label quietly released a series of compilations which were a huge influence on fans of black music, jazz dance and provided a summation of the time after seminal club events, such as Gilles Peterson’s Dingwalls Sunday Sessions in Camden Town. The excitement of Acid Jazz had faded and these songs had come out of a club context and into people’s homes and onto serious playlists. A large list of songs had somehow become related to each other and come to define the jazz scene in London. They had something to say to clubbers and ex club goers. Most had been discoveries of influential Djs like Peterson, Paul Murphy, Chris Hills and Baz Fe Jazz; all names- with the exception of Peterson- that have been lost to some extent in more recent times. Soul Jazz had begun to have a major influence from its shop in Ingestre Place, Soho, London and would go on to release the influential 100% Dynamite Series, compilations from underrated labels such as Tribe and Black Jazz and a great deal of overlooked Latin and Nu Yorican music from the likes of Papete and Ocho. The ‘London Jazz Classics’ series, however, was defining for label and shop. London Jazz Classics consisted of 3 albums of disparate songs and styles from the laid back jazz grooves of Michel Sardaby and the UK’s Robin Jones 7 to the urgency of Patsy Gallant. Soul Jazz also threw in some songs of heavy relevance to those from the hip hop scene such as the Brooks Brothers ‘Forty Days’. All the songs were cool, virtually impossible to find on vinyl and the packages cleverly gave you curated information about recording sessions and musicians. These three LPs have become a touchstone for DJs and are long deleted. This mix involved pulling down the LPs and simply playing a selection from all three- something which gave me great pleasure over the hour. If you like the mix please do check out Soul Jazz Records and their shop- still in Soho but moved to Broadwick Street and renamed ‘Sounds Of The Universe’ www.soundsoftheuniverse.com