During the David Axelrod craze this was a 2nd or 3rd tier record collectors would check for because Axelrod produced it. I thought The Funky Organization of Henry Cain would be your typical run of the mill organ Jazz album, and in many ways it is, but there are a couple times when Cain surprised me. First up is The Way I Feel that has a little Ray Charles groove to it. MORE

Gene Chandler is best known for his 1962 Doo Wop classic Duke Of Earl. His career was much longer than that one song. Chandler was a mainstay of the Chicago Soul scene, and Situation was one of his more successful albums because of the hit Groovy Situation. MORE

Ray Charles recorded A Message From The People with his longtime friend Quincy Jones. Charles gets off to a great start with a completely re-arranged and soulful version of Lift Every Voice And Sing. Two mellower numbers, Seems Like I Gotta Do Wrong and Heaven Help Us All, follow that. Charles brings it all around with Hey Mister that’s a little bit Soul, and a little bit Blues. MORE

This album collects together Marvin Gaye’s recordings with Tammi Terrell, Mary Wells and Kim Weston. There are four tracks with each female artist. The songs with Wells are a little too mellow. It Takes Two with Weston finally kicks things off with its fast pace. The best songs by far are the ones with Terrell. MORE

Glass House was a four piece, male-female vocal Soul outfit. They were signed to Holland-Dozier-Holland’s Invictus label and released two albums. This was their debut. The group starts off with two sweet Soul numbers, Look What We’ve Done To Love and You Ain’t Living Unless You’re Loving. The group doesn’t find its stride however until the mid-tempo groove of I Surrendered. MORE

I was originally drawn to this record because of the cover. I gotta say, it’s hot with a black dude with a fro in a corner of a room, sitting on a rug with the shades drawn, his sunglasses on, playing his sax with a whiff of smoke in background. The music however, is not as good as the cover. MORE

Thelma Houston had a big hit with “Don’t Leave Me This Way” in the 70s. On Sunshower, her debut album however, she sounds like a Jazz singer trying to sing Soul. Most of the tunes have orchestration and rich arrangements that give many of the songs a MOR sound. MORE

Organist Charles Kynard worked with Rusty Bryant, Virgil Jones, Melvin Sparks, Jimmy Lewis, Idris Muhammad and Bernard Purdie to record Wa-Tu-Wa-Zui. While not as good as his self-tilted release on Mainstream, this record does come through with two solid Soul-Jazz numbers. MORE

On Woga, keys player Charles Kynard found a nice groove. There’s the funky Soul-Jazz numbers like Little Ghetto Boy with sharp horn stabs, the more laid back title cut, Slop Jar and Name The Missing Word. The first is light and airy with plenty of brass work, while the last two have a much darker and moodier feel to them. MORE

Moon Shadow was Labelle’s second album. They start off with a cover of the Who’s Won’t Get Fooled Again that’s not half bad. There’s also a good power ballad Ain’t It Sad It’s All Over, the more upbeat Peace With Yourself, and the melodic title cut, which is the best of the lot. MORE