Billy Ray

These two Ray Goodman and Brown albums date from mid to late 80’s and have the production style of that era. Take it to the limit from 86 contains the late boogie track ‘Why must I Wait’, whilst ‘Mood for Lovin’ from 88 has some nice 2-step grooves ‘Where did you get the love’ and ‘Mood for Lovin’, and the uptempo ‘Electrified’..

Another quality L&R Records production that has been saved by a reissue on Evidence Music. Originally recorded in 1982, Chicago's Young Blues Generation features the raw, frantic work of guitarist Lurrie Bell and harp blower Billy Branch, who remain the closest the blues scene has to a modern-day Buddy Guy and Junior Wells. Back in 1982, Bell and Branch were still carving out a sound of their own - an amalgam of Rice Miller, the West Side guitar slingers (namely Guy and Magic Sam), and the funkier Stax and Hi Records hitmakers. This album consists entirely of reworked blues and R&B covers, each one drawn out by lengthy, tag-team soloing - sometimes derivative, but more often wildly inspired and unpredictable…

This is a particularly well-constructed session by pianist Billy Taylor who is featured in a combo with bassist Christian McBride, drummer Marvin "Smitty" Smith, the congas of Ray Mantilla and, on three songs, tenor-saxophonist Stanley Turrentine; Grady Tate also contributes two warm ballad vocals. All nine songs were composed by Taylor (including three pieces taken from a more extended work in tribute to Martin Luther King) and the results are melodic, boppish and swinging.

Billy Hawks played the organ and sang the blues – a combination that in the late '60s, when Hawks recorded and released The New Genius of the Blues and More Heavy Soul! for Prestige, meant that he was most certainly a practitioner of soul-jazz. Working in a similar vein to Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff, and other funky professors of the Hammond organ, Hawks didn't play straight-up jazz on either of his Prestige LPs, here captured on a single-disc 2014 reissue by Ace. For one thing, he sang, a choice that positions his recordings much closer to R&B than jazz. Clearly, Ray Charles made an impression on Hawks – "I Got a Woman" shows up on New Genius, "Drown in My Own Tears" on More Heavy Soul! – but with his intimate trio (on New Genius, he's supported by guitarist Joseph Jones and drummer Henry Terrell; on More Heavy Soul! by, Maynard Parker sits in for Jones, and Buddy Terry is added on tenor sax), he was grittier and funkier than Charles was in the '60s, walking the line between mod-jazz and soul.