Still digging into early-Seventies soul, I have to admit I’d never heard of Brick and consequently I’d never heard of their disco and jazz hybrid that they called “dazz.”

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In 1977 I was listening to a solid diet of one-chord wonders, varied only with a weekly dose of Top of the Pops to find out what the rest of the country was listening to while I pogoed.

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Everybody knows Aretha Franklin. Few apart from hardcore soul fans remember the Queen of Soul’s big sister Erma. (more…)

This nine-minute extravaganza is essentially an extended guitar solo, much like Funkadelic’s extraordinary Maggot Brain. And just as good.

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Jazz-funk was never my thing, conjuring nightmarish visions of George Benson and Level 42, but it did provide a moment of Pleasure in 1979.

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This is one big funk party from the moment Tom Browne blows his trumpet, voices start to chatter and Marcus Miller’s thunderous bass begins to rumble.

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I have to confess I never really paid much attention to the rise of D’Angelo, wrongly filing him away as a smooth R&B crooner of bedroom ballads.

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Dublin trio JJ72 were going to be the Next Big Thing after two successful singles and a lot of hype around the turn of the millennium.

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This was always one of my favourite Stones songs, and this is the moment it was kicked into life – at Ronnie Wood’s house.

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The Geraldine Fibbers blended experimental noise and rock guitars with gentle country-tinged melodies on their 1995 debut.

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