News & Updates — classic albums

Born today in 1942: a true soul man, Isaac Hayes! Before his multi-platinum singing career as a psychedelic gospel-soul-jazz artist who would bring Burt Bacharach songs into the extended length stetched-out mind-trip format, he was a crucial foundational member of the Stax operation. He wrote or co-wrote, produced and/or played on many '60s hits for Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, Johnnie Taylor, The Soul Children, Judy Clay, Rufus Thomas, Otis Redding, The Mar-Keys, William Bell and others, often times in collaboration with David Porter and Booker T & the MGs. Of particular note are "Soul Man", "Hold On I'm Coming",...

Happy birthday to James Ramey aka Baby Huey. He cut a great album with his Babysitters band (produced by Curtis Mayfield) but died at only 26. From Richmond, IN he moved to Chicago after high school and formed Baby Huey & his Babysitters in 1963. They played a mixture of rock and R&B and cut some singles before the classic sampladelic full length album, The Baby Huey Story, which actually came out after he passed. He rapped & rhymed during the well-remembered live shows back in the late '60s. Curtis Mayfield and Donny Hathaway took notice and agreed to put...

Happy birthday to the visionary Cuban trombonist/composer/producer Juan Pablo Torres. He made some very funky Latin jazz both in and outside of Cuba, and some of his albums stand as some of the most "fucked-up" or psychedelic-aligned music you'll ever hear from the island. Aside from his own masterpieces, you can hear him with Paquito D'Rivera, Gilberto Santarosa, Hilton Ruiz, Arturo Sandoval, Tata Güines and others. He also led the groups Estrellas de Areito, Algo Nuevo and played in the groundbreaking Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna.

Happy birthday to Al Hibbler, the uniquely gifted and underrated vocalist and civil rights activist who's career was disturbed by a near-blacklist recording ban due to his arrests in the movement. Born in Mississippi, he joined a choir at a school for the blind in Little Rock at age 12. He developed his baritone voice and started singing blues in the '30s. In the early '40s he sang in territory bands in the South and Midwest and also with Jay McShann (the same band with young Charlie Parker) where he made his first recorded appearance. In '43 he joined the...

Happy birthday to the man who James Brown owes his career to, Bobby Byrd. Byrd was JB's discoverer and longtime business partner, as well as a singer/composer of his own note. Byrd came from a gospel music family in Georgia and sang and played piano & organ. He and his siblings would take secular jobs in South Carolina, unbeknownst to his elders, and they got to be known in the region. Professional by 1952 when he met Brown during a prison baseball game and the Byrd family helped get him paroled. Upon release, Brown immediately joined Byrd's band The Famous...