Mamas Gun - DIG! (2026)

UK import

I'm a fan of singer/composer/producer/retro-guru Andy Platts and here he's gifted us another collection of neo-soul originals that somehow immediately takes me back to my primary school days. Platts even persuaded Brian Jackson to perform on the title track. Both lyrically and musically, there's a bit more gospel influence on this album than the group's previous releases and that doesn't bother me a bit (just the opposite, actually). Just sit back and let the smooth '70s sounds wash over you. Cool music for warm weather.

Online reviews:

• willwork4funk.com: "In turbulent times, Mamas Gun’s music certainly connects and is a welcome balm for the soul. Uplifting, questing, nourishing and golden, DIG! is a pure delight to experience and without a doubt their most accomplished album to date."
• soulandjazzandfunk.com (4/5): "Dip in anywhere across this 11 tracker and you’ll enjoy quality blue-eyed soul – with the emphasis on that last word.
• shatterthestandards.com: ★★★★☆

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: No skips.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None, but I've got a strong suspicion this album will soundtrack a good chunk of my Summer 2026.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Cure The Jones (2022)
Golden Days (2018)

Pages (1978)

Japanese import

After discovering the self-titled 1981 Pages album, I dove into their back catalog, starting with this self-titled 1978 Pages album. It's not the greatest debut album, but there are a couple of smooth West Coast/Adult Oriented Rock cuts to be found. The guys in Pages - specifically Richard Page and Steve George - had been session vocalists and back-up musicians for a number of artists, including Andy Gibb. So they had no problems finding some familiar names to help out with this album, to wit: Randy & Michael Brecker, Philip Bailey, Victor Feldman, Lani Groves, and Dave Grusin. More filler than killer with choruses better than verses, but the band improved with each successive album.

Press of the time:

• Billboard: "smooth, efficient and musically well-oiled"
• Record World: "a very potent debut album"

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: The song that initially grabbed me and hasn't let go yet is It's Alright. After a 30 second string introduction, the piano and vocal enter. The verse has a beautiful melody over a simple, stepwise bass pattern, but the song really kicks in with the gorgeous chorus sung by a female voice. Then, as if it wasn't good enough already, we're treated to a sweet saxophone solo from Michael Brecker, who keeps playing for the remainder of the track. The only single released from the album was track 6, If I Saw You Again; it failed to chart, even on the Adult Contemporary chart and I struggle to understand why. The album ends with a decent ballad, I Get It From You, which Herb Alpert later covered on his Magic Man album. As you could probably guess, Richard Page has a much nicer singing voice than Herb Alpert. Other good parts are the choruses of Let It Go, Listen For The Love, and Room At The Top.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
Pages (1981)

Herbie Hancock - Takin' Off (1962)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 2007 Rudy Van Gelder Edition with 3 bonus tracks.

Hancock's debut as a leader at the age of 22. The album wasn't always well-received at the time by the critics (see below), but is now considered with more respect and appreciation. In my book, it's a fantastic, swinging hard bop album that features some legends in the group playing some outstanding compositions. Plus it's freakin' Herbie Hancock, Jazzer Laureate of the United States. (I just made up that title, but it should actually exist and Hancock should be so named.) He's still touring at age 86!

Hancock - piano
Freddie Hubbard - trumpet
Dexter Gordon - tenor saxophone
Butch Warren - bass
Billy Higgins - drums

Original liner notes by Leonard Feather.

Reviews/ratings:

• Billboard: "[Hancock's] work at the keyboard is impressive as are his talents as a writer."
• Stereo Review: "He is a forceful, well-organized pianist, but here he shows little stylistic originality."
• CashBox: "A nice showing."
• Downbeat (★★★½): "slightly disappointing...Still, there is much to recommend in this release."
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★½
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★½
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: It's a brave move to include all original compositions on a debut album; I'd have guessed the label might have insisted on a couple of standards. But if you can write stuff like Watermelon Man and Driftin' plus the beautiful ballad Alone And I, why would you need anything else?

Bonus tracks: Alternate takes of Watermelon Man, Three Bags Full, and Empty Pockets.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:

Best of The Blue Note Years (1988)	Head Hunters (1973)
Round Midnight Soundtrack (1986)	Speak Like A Child (1968)
Lite Me Up (1982)	Maiden Voyage (1965)
Sunlight/Feets Don't Fail Me Now (1978/1979)	Empyrean Isles (1964)

Various Artists - Best Of Buddha (2002)

UK import

"Bar de Lune - The most sexy label in the world presents a new album for the mind, body and soul."

I'm guessing this 2 CD set is another world beat chill-out compilation from our friends at Buddha Bar, but the bar isn't mentioned anywhere on the packaging so it may just be a coattail rider. In any event, it's the same kind of stuff - repetative background music for your next cocktail party. I bought a CD lot of Buddha recordings after a visit to the French Caribbean in 2025. This set is the last of that lot.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks:

CD1
	Artist	Title
1	Moby	Another Woman
2	Gotan Project	Last Tango In Paris
3	Fila Brazillia	Soft Music Under Stars
4	Kevin Yost	7th Heaven
5	Da Lata	Binti
6	Radar	Running Away
7	Fragile State	Song Of Departure
8	Bonobo	Terrapin
9	Christophe Goze	Barcelona (Faze Action Mix)
10	Al-Pha-X	Mi Corazon (Smokers Mix)
11	Dust	Dead Cowboys
12	Nitin Sawhney	Homelands (Joe Claussell Mix)

CD2
	Artist	Title
1	Nitin Sawhney	Bengali Song (Extended Mix)
2	Alex Gopher	The Child
3	Delerium	Silence (Album Mix)
4	Al-Pha-X	Blue Jay (Zape Vala Sojk Pitcha)
5	Christophe Goze	Manana
6	Al-Pha-X	Hojar
7	Christophe Goze	Sirocco
8	Kinobe	Slip Into Something More Comfortable
9	Badmarsh & Shri	Sajanaa
10	Dust	I'll Take You There (Chris Bowden Remix)
11	Fragile State	The Barney Fade
12	Moby	Porcelain

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: See my first Buddha Bar blog post.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Buddha Lounge (2002)
Buddha-Bar IV (2002)
Buddha-Bar III (2001)

Ultravox - Vienna (1980)

European Import

Note: this release was originally purchased as a UK import LP, later replaced by the 2 CD 2018 Remastered Definitive Edition containing a bonus disc with 11 bonus tracks.

The group's fourth studio album, but the group's first release with Midge Ure as a member. Ure was able to focus the band's efforts and provide a template for an overly-polished synth rock sound. It yielded commercial results in the group's native UK, but only one track saw any US chart action (Sleepwalk, #24 dance). There's plenty of stylish gloom but also memorable melodies and great beats, somehow balancing atmosphere with accessibility. If I want to lean into hyperbole, I could say the album laid the groundwork for the New Romantic movement, showing that synths weren't just cold, futuristic, novelty tools, they could also be commercially successful. I've put off buying a CD version of this album and I have absolutely no idea why. It's a nostalgic trip back to the early '80s for me as the album remains a fascinating document of a time when overwrought synthpop musicians became convinced that indifference equaled cool sophistication. At the time, adolescent me attempted (unsuccessfully) to join them in that attitude. Good times.

Press of the time:

• Billboard: "futuristic, electronic based songs, several with a hard rock edge."
• Record World: "Ultravox has been making pop music longer than most other groups in the genre"
• CashBox: "Ultravox may do for electronic music what Jimi Hendrix did with the electric guitar."
• Smash Hits (8 out of 10): "Synthesizer music with backbone and muscle."
• Rolling Stone (★★): "overblown arrangements, familiar and banal electronic effects."
• Trouser Press: "Ultravox is attempting to reconcile synthesizer lessons with more accessible forms - a move that should bring them the larger audience they deserve."
• Robert Christgau (C): "dance music for the locked pelvis"
• New Musical Express: "an album of gaudy, sometimes magnificent, but mostly hollow edifices"
• Record Mirror (+++½): "electronic rock songs which are beautifully executed but never inspiring."

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #164
• CashBox: #154
• Rolling Stone: #59

Tracks: The album contained four UK singles and all charted there: Vienna (#2), All Stood Still (#8), Sleepwalk (#29), and Passing Strangers (#57). I like those four and also the instrumental lead track, Astradyne. However, I've always been captivated by Mr. X, a haunting noir piece with definite Neu!/Kraftwerk influences plus some bizarre spoken word, provided by the group's drummer/drum machine programmer, Warren Cann, and a disjunct solo on electric violin from Billie Currie. It's all very strange, and was especially affecting to a 16 year-old boy growing up along the rural Texas coast in the early 1980s (i.e., one of my general height, weight, and build). The silliness of the text is overshadowed by the serious, minor key synth pads. I'm not sure I've ever liked this thing yet I can't stop listening to it.

The skippable filler tracks are New Europeans and Western Promise.

Bonus "Further Listening" disc: The usual suspects. B-sides, a couple of live cuts from August 1980, rehearsal recordings, demos, and an extended cut of All Stood Still which I already had on the Extended CD. The only track of any interest to me is Herr X, a German version of Mr. X that was the b-side of the Vienna 12" single. I would say "for completists only" but a completist would own the 6 disc "Deluxe Edition" issued in 2020.

The WKRP crew stand in contemplation
of the krautrock influences on this album.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I'm certain my first Ultravox album purchase was Quartet sometime in 1982, but I picked up Vienna soon after. It was my first UK import purchase and remember how different the flimsy album packaging felt in my hands compared to what I was accustomed to buying in the US. I loved the differences and began seeking imports whenever possible (and affordable).

Previously revisited for the blog:
Extended: A Collection of 12" Remixes (1998)
The Collection (1985)
Quartet (1982)
Rage in Eden (1981)

Various Artists - Blues Masters, Volume 4: Harmonica Classics (1992)

This blues compilation is Volume 4 in an extensive blues series of CDs from Rhino which is slowly finding its way to my collection. In both the liner notes and the song selection, the focus is on Chicago blues and its use of amplified harmonica to be heard alongside electric guitar, ignoring the use of harmonica with acoustic guitars down in the Mississippi Delta. Nevertheless, there's great variety here and it is one my favorite Rhino Blues Masters CDs I've encountered thus far.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks:

	Song	Artist	Year
1	Juke	Little Walter & His Night Cats	1952
2	Ends & Odds	Jimmy Reed	1958
3	Rocket 88	Jimmy Cotton Blues Quartet	1965
4	Help Me	Sonny Boy Williamson	1963
5	Messin' With The Kid	Junior Wells Chicago Blues Band	1965
6	Blues With A Feeling	The Paul Butterfield Blues Band	1965
7	Sugar Coated Love	Lazy Lester	1958
8	Steady	Jerry McCain	1961
9	I'll Be Around	Howlin' Wolf	1954
10	I Was Fooled	Billy Boy Arnold	1955
11	Take A Little Walk With Me	Big John Wrencher with Joe Carter	1976
12	Easy	Jimmy & Walkter	1953
13	Boogie Twist	Snooky Pryor	1963
14	Wolf Call Boogie	Hot Shot Love	1954
15	Last Night	George "Harmonica" Smith and The Chicago Blues Band	1968
16	I Got Love If You Want It	Slim Harpo	1957
17	Cherry Pink & Apple Blosson White	The Fabulous Thunderbirds	1981
18	Christo Redemptor	Charlie Musselwhite	1967

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None with these particular tunes, but I do recall several failed attempts to learn to play harmonica. My first musical instrument was the trumpet, an instrument through which you have to blow air to produce a sound and only inhale to take a breath. The harmonica, on the other hand, produces different notes when you inhale and exhale and my mind simply couldn't make that paradigm shift. These days, this dog is too old to learn new tricks.

Previously revisited for the blog:

Volume 2: Postwar Chicago Blues (1992)	Volume 8: Mississippi Delta Blues (1993)
Volume 3: Texas Blues (1992)	Volume 15: Slide Guitar Classics (1993)
Volume 6: Blues Originals (1993)	Blues Masters Sampler (1993)
Volume 7: Blues Revival (1993)

Ike Quebec - It Might As Well Be Spring (1964)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 2006 Rudy Van Gelder Edition.

This album was recorded on December 19, 1961, but the LP wasn't released until 1964. In the meantime, Quebec tragically died of lung cancer in January 1963 at age 45. Delayed album releases happened fairly often with Blue Note in the '60s as musicians recorded many brilliant sessions while Alfred Lion calmly stacked tape boxes like a jazz leprechaun sitting on a pot of gold. Some records appeared years or even decades later. In any case, this is quality stuff and well worth a listen, regardless of year.

I always use the word "meaty" to describe Quebec's tone, but I'm getting out my thesaurus and opting for "luxuriant" in today's post. The program is relaxed, romantic, and perfect for late night listening. Pairs quite well with Quebec albums Blue & Sentimental and/or Heavy Soul. Organist Freddie Roach is the perfect band member, knowing exactly when to shine and when to support. I gotta tell ya, I was completely unfamiliar with Quebec until I fell down the RVG Editions rabbit hole around 2020. And boy-oh-boy am I happy to have finally heard his stuff. I simply love his tone. Had he lived, he would have no doubt given other soul-jazz saxophone players such as Stanley Turrentine and Lou Donaldson a run for their money throughout the decade.

Quebec - tenor saxophone
Freddie Roach - organ
Milt Hinton - bass
Al Harewood - drums

Original liner notes by Nat Hentoff.

Reviews/ratings:

• CashBox: "The jazzophiles will want this one."
• DownBeat (★★★★): "the playing is as relaxed and spontaneous, yet cohesive, as if these were four steady companions."
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★½
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: The album is brief (35:37), but like Quebec's playing, it is all very economical - no wasted space here. Of the four standards and two Quebec originals, the highlight is the beautiful title track, a wonderful Rodgers & Hammerstein ballad originally from the 1945 film, State Fair.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
Easy Living (1987)
Blue & Sentimental (1963)
Heavy Soul (1962)