Even in the darkest depths of my lifelong jazzophobia I had a soft spot for Carla Bley. I’m not sure why; maybe because a female jazz musician is such a rarity.

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Roy Head had his solitary hit single with Treat Her Right in 1965 – aided by his extraordinary dance moves on TV shows like this.

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The Rolling Stones channel their vintage heyday with guest performers Stevie Wonder and Lady Gaga on a bluesy gospel-flavoured new tune, Sweet Sounds Of Heaven, from their new album Hackney Diamonds.

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Over the years there have been songs that caught my imagination without the artist ever finding a place in my musical life. This is one of those songs – and Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band are one of those artists.

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Candi Staton had been singing in gospel groups for years when the future disco diva recorded a solo album of secular Southern soul at Muscle Shoals in 1969.

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Jamaican dancehall star Ini Kamoze started out singing roots reggae long before he topped the charts with his signature song Here Come The Hotstepper.

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Butcher Brown are a self-proclaimed “proud throwback to the progressive jazz-funk bands of the 1970s with a 21st century twist” – a phrase that would once have filled me with horror.

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Here’s an oddity from the depths of my punk-era singles collection. It was only decades later that a friend picked this obscurity out and recognised two of the names on the sleeve – not as musicians, but as music journalists.

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For years I knew the name (once heard, never forgotten) but never really paid any attention to the Brian Jonestown Massacre. Until I saw them in the rockumentary Dig!

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Here’s a marriage of two marvellous musicians making magic when they meet – Welsh harpist Catrin Finch and Irish violinist Aoife Ní Bhriain.

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