Dick Khoza
Chapita

Cloud’s sought after Brit-Funk classic ‘All Night Long’ remixed by GE-OLOGY from the original studio tapes for a two-track 12” featuring main and extended dub versions.“Remixing these rare classics is so great, gems I’ve been playing out in clubs for years and then getting to work from the tapes to create something new is a special thing,” says Geo.Originally released in 1980 as a white label single, Cloud’s debut was the first in a handful of titles released by record dealer, label owner and producer Alan Osborne.In the early 80s, Swindon Town’s Flashback Records shop was a major hub for the local jazz-funk scene, supplying DJ’s and punters the latest US imports across the West Country. Ran by Alan, an avid record collector and DJ, he’d started the business from his bedroom in the mid-70s before setting up shop in the town specialising in oldies.“That was just around the time of the start of disco and punk and I was contacted by a shady guy who used to sell stuff to me out the back of a van. So I began to get a reputation for stocking all the latest disco and funk imports, which started as a sideline but gradually changed the nature of the business, though I still kept the name” (Alan Osbourne from Record Collector interview, Oct, 2020)He got involved with Cloud after a band member who was a regular customer brought in a demo tape for consideration and it went from there. Alan explains, “We recorded the original of ‘All Night Long’ at Tudor Studios in Swindon. It was quite a new set-up at the time ran by some metalheads who were keen to hire out the studio. When we were there they thought the music we were making sounded pretty strange, they said they’d heard nothing like it before ... I think it was also pretty unique at the time for a jazz-funk band to be from outside London or Manchester so it was worth promoting that. The west country was pretty big on jazz-funk but largely neglected.”Whilst Cloud was generally a live band playing mostly covers, the musicians wrote their material for the studio recordings, with Alan producing, arranging and tailoring the final mixes for club playback. As the band line-up changed, this formula continued for several singles appearing across various labels including his Rygel Records venture featuring Cloud offshoot Style X as well as various new wave and punk bands.

Long lost 1968 album from visionary South African jazz composer incorporating traditional African music sources and instruments. Officially licensed from the Nxumalo family and reissued with inner sleeve containing archival photographs and new liner notes by Francis Gooding.Gideon Nxumalo’s Gideon Plays might just be the most mythologised and sought-after LP in the whole South African canon. A sophisticated bop excursion with a distinctive African edge, it was only Nxumalo’s second LP as leader, despite his crucial place in South African jazz history. Pianist Nxumalo was a visionary jazz composer who had recorded regularly during the 1950s, and his 1962 Jazz Fantasia album was the first South African jazz recording to incorporate traditional African musical sources and instruments. But he was also the country’s most significant radio presenter and jazz tastemaker – from 1954 onwards, he had worn the nickname ‘Mgibe’ to introduce ‘This Is Bantu Jazz’, South African radio’s premier jazz show.But in the aftermath of the Sharpeville Massacre in 1961, Nxumalo had been side-lined from radio play, and was eventually sacked for playing records with political meanings. By 1968, he had not been heard on record or airwave for several years. Gideon Plays was a celebrated return to the studio for one of South Africa’s best loved and most forward-thinking jazzmen, and it showcases Nxumalo’s deep understanding of jazz, his brilliant touch as a composer, and his commitment to bringing South Africa’s indigenous sound into the music.However, it was released on the tiny JAS Pride label owned by production impresario Ray Nkwe, and after one pressing in 1968, Gideon Plays fell into the undeserved silence that has obscured so much of the South African jazz discography. It has since become a legend: hardly more than a rumour, it has been bootlegged by the unscrupulous, changed hands for eye-watering sums, and has scarcely been heard outside the circles of the most committed South African jazz devotees. It goes without saying that it has never been released outside South Africa, and even now only a handful of original copies are known to have survived.