Hard to spin vinyl when you're cooking up a storm in the kitchen - too much running up and down the stairs. But to help get in the spirit of the season (I don't happen to celebrate Xmas, but I do enjoy a lot of Xmas-themed music - and food):
James Brown - Santa's Got A Brand New Bag (Rhino compilation LP, 1988) Including the immortal "Santa Claus Go Straight To The Ghetto".
VA - Soul Christmas (Atco compilation LP, 1968) Stax and Atlantic artists including Clarence Carter, King Curtis, Otis Redding, Joe Tex, Booker T. & The MG's, Carla Thomas, Soloman Burke, and William Bell.
Slap on a CD and you can flail away in the kitchen for longer without worrying about your needle skipping merrily along in the leadout groove while you try not to burn something:
Dyke & The Blazers - Funky Broadway/The Very Best Of (Collectibles CD, 1999) The heaviest of 60's deep funk.
The Smoke - High In A Room/Anthology (Castle/Sanctuary British Import CD, 2002) English 60's mod/psych/pop-rock/hard-rock group best remembered for their drug anthem "My Friend Jack" (especially, for some reason, in Germany).
Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band - Express Youself: The Best Of (Warner Archives CD, 1993) Late 60's/early 70's loose groovin' soul/funk band filled the gap between Sly and bands like War and early EWF. I've noticed the title track being used in some TV commercial recently...
Otis Spann - The Blues Is Where It's At (Beat Goes On reissue, British Import CD 1994, orig. rec. 1966) The legendary Chicago pianist with electric touring band live-in-the-studio complete with audience, has Muddy Waters guesting on guitar, excellent sound and performance, loads of down-home atmosphere (Bob Thiele produced). Spann's resonant, laconic vocals somewhat recall Sonny Boy Williamson. Doesn't focus as much on the piano (but rather on the telepathically sympathetic g/g/b/d/h band) and is a little more rocking and up-beat than some of his better-known albums, though this wouldn't be a Spann record if it didn't boast a few nice slow drags.
Sam Cooke - Night Beat (Abcko reissue CD, 1995, orig. rec. 1963) A concept album of sorts, of intimate, late-night gospelly blues interpretations backed by a spare combo, roughly sequenced to build from hushed to exuberant through the set. Some of Cooke's best vocals and least distracting production on record, and very good sound too.
Joe Henderson - In 'N Out (Blue Note reissue CD, 2003 RVG edition, orig. rec. 1964) Tenor saxophonist leads the date with frequent collaborator Kenny Dorham t., plus Richard Davis b., and Coltrane's comtemporaneous rhythm section of McCoy Tyner p. and Elvin Jones d. The title is a pretty fair description of where this music is at in jazz terms. The used record store where I picked this up had both this RVG (Rudy van Gelder, the original recording engineer) remaster and the older 1994 CD version open for comparitive auditioning, which I did using their cheap DVD player through their equally cheap headphones. Despite the gear handicap, the sonic differences between the two redbook masterings were so stark they almost sounded like they weren't even the same recording. It's hard to know exactly what the differences really are, due to the inadequecy of the available playback system, but the older issue sounded much brasher, coarser, and more up-front, the new issue softer, smoother, more delicate, and considerably less in-your-face. In the store the old version almost sounded more exciting through that system, but through my own system the RVG sounds great (and not on the lean and bright side like some in the series) without lacking at all in excitement. That tells me something about all the non-RVG Blue Note re-ish CD's I've accumulated down the years, many of which seem to share a lot of fundamental characteristics shown by the older issue in the store.
Miles Davis - Sorcerer (Columbia/Legacy reissue CD, 1998, orig. rec. 1967) With Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams. I don't have another version of this recording to compare with, but this remaster - which was also remixed, for a box set from which this release was culled - sounds even better than the RVG above, and probably even better than I recall the 20-bit remaster of Kind Of Blue sounding, though that comparison is inherently skewed by the several years between the original recording dates, not to mention the different band. This effort, which followed its Shorter-era predecessors ESP and Miles Smiles and preceded Nefertiti and Water Babies, didn't sell very well (in obvious contrast to KOB), but I really like the music here and recommend checking this out if you're a fan who hasn't heard it yet.
