HOW TO BUY
Soul Jazz Compilations
The sounds of the universe, expertly curated.
By the MOJO staff.
On the front line: the Soul Jazz vinyl racks at the label’s Soho record shop.
AS A MOJO reader, you probably see yourself as a bit of a cratedigger. You know your stuff, the canonical classics and the hidden gems, but you’re also aware there’s more to discover. Your tastes are wide, but they could always be wider, and you know when a little help is required: a superinformed record store clerk, perhaps, to guide you to hitherto unexplored corners of their shop. Or a record label, born out of the culture of those eclectic, open-minded record shops, that can dedicate 30 years to putting out precisely the kind of compilations – at once scholarly and exciting, specialised and anti-elitist – that you’ve needed all along.
This, in essence, is the MO of Soul Jazz Records, a label that’s established themselves as masters of the formal mixtape since 1991. Soul Jazz was founded by a second-hand record dealer called Stuart Baker, and they run a great shop in London’s Soho called Sounds Of The Universe, as well as having promoted club nights that often revolved around their 100% Dynamite! series of reggae comps.
“Every release an unerring labour of love.”
It was these Dynamite sets, and a hefty catalogue of Studio One-related releases, that initially tagged Soul Jazz – despite their name – as reggae specialists. But from the start, their remit has been vast, encompassing music from
CAST YOUR VOTES…
This month you chose your Top 10 Soul Jazz comps. Next month we want your Ravi Shankar Top 10. Send selections via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or e-mail to mojo@ bauermedia.co.uk with the subject ‘How To Buy Ravi Shankar’ and we’ll print the best comments.