Zoo UK From Issue 536, 18 24 July 2014 in Pdf

Soul City Los Angeles presents recordings which served to establish the musical direction of LA and neighboring West Coast conurbations in the late 1950s and early 1960s when R&B was evolving into the style that became known as soul. Compiled and annotated by soul music authority Clive Richardson, Soul City Los Angeles is the latest in a series that has previously explored the nascent soul scenes in Detroit, New York and Chicago.

By 1960, the sound of black popular music had turned away from a driving, largely uptempo rhythm and blues towards a more emotionally poignant style described at the time as secularised gospel. The term soul popped up here and there, but only became common parlance after Ray Charles's I Believe To My Soul was released at the end of 1959. This compilation, part of the History of Soul series, brings together the finest tunes before soul went mainstream, accompanied by a 28-page booklet exploring the historical background from the years 1959 and 1960.