dr Barbara O'neil

Soul singer Barbara Massey and jazz guitarist Ernie Calabria paired up for this rare 1971 album. With Calabria having worked with Nina Simone and Harry Belafonte, among others, and Massey having sung backup for artists including Jimi Hendrix, Cat Stevens, and Herbie Hancock, the pairing was an inspired one and resulted in this superb soul-jazz outing. Massey has a dry yet passionate and evocative vocal quality that often brings to mind Grace Slick. Fittingly, the duo takes on Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody to Love," turning the Summer of Love anthem into a steamy and hypnotic soul-funk jam. Elsewhere, the duo touches upon such varying styles as folk, Latin, and psychedelic rock with cuts like "For You" and "Do You Know?," bringing to mind such similarly inclined acts as the Free Design and Bill Withers. Anyone who has even a passing interest in this kind of '70s cross-genre aesthetic will certainly want to seek out Prelude To…

Barbara McNair is certainly not the only singer to get lost in the shuffle at Motown at the company's mid-'60s zenith, but her tenure there seemed particularly star-crossed – as this 48-track Ultimate Motown Collection illustrates, much of her finest material was inexplicably withheld from release (in particular the much-bootlegged Northern soul classic "Baby a Go-Go"), while official singles like "My World Is Empty Without You" were issued in the wake of existing hit renditions by other Motown artists. But McNair boasted a genuinely sophisticated, sexy style that was unique in the Motown canon, and her voice – though by no means a powerhouse – is nevertheless stronger and more affecting than Diana Ross, whose hand-me-downs she often received. Compiling her full-lengths Here I Am and The Real Barbara McNair, the unreleased Barbara McNair Sings Smokey, non-LP singles, and rare vault material, this two-disc set finally pays McNair the respect she's always deserved – complete with informative liner notes and excellent sound, it's tough to imagine a better representation of her music.