Sax infused house is something Hed Kandi know a thing or two about. With The Lovely Laura among their residents, you can be sure to hear plenty of classic sax numbers and jazz reworks at their glamorous Saturday night affairs at Es Paradis. So who better then to hand pick some of these dance floor anthems for your listening pleasure? Hed Kandi presents their new compilation Summer of Sax…
The album accompanies Questlove’s directorial debut documentary Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised). Like the documentary, most of the audio recordings that were recorded during the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival have not been heard for over 50 years, keeping this incredible event in America’s history lost - until now. The Summer of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is a joyous musical celebration and the rediscovery of a nearly erased historical event that celebrated Black culture, pride and unity. For the album, Questlove carefully selected 17 live renditions of jazz, blues, R&B, Latin, and soul classics performed over the course of The Harlem Cultural Festival in 1969 as chronicled by the film.
Universal International's The Ultimate Collection lives up to its name with a sprawling three-disc (for some people, a single-disc Ace of Base compilation just doesn't cut it) overview of the alternately beloved and reviled Swedish dance-pop outfit's career. For the most part, UC covers all of the same ground as 2000's Greatest Hits, 2003's Singles of the 90s, and Arista's Platinum & Gold Collection, balancing radio behemoths like "Don't Turn Around," "The Sign," and "All That She Wants" with smaller hits such as "Wheel of Fortune" and Bananarama's "Cruel Summer." What distinguishes The Ultimate Collection from previous comps is the inclusion of some deeper album cuts and an entire disc of remixes, in case "The Sign" didn't get stuck in your head the first time around. ~ James Christopher Monger