Soul Jazz has done sterling work mining the Crescent City's musical archives and they've focused on funk and jazz for previous sets. Here it's soul sides recorded from 1966 to 1976 which gives this compilation its flavour. By the late 1960s, the city had lost some of its standing as a musical centre of excellence as tastes changed, but people like Allen Toussaint, Marshall Selhorn and Cosimo Matassa (who passed away last month) instigated labels, studios and distributors to give fresh talent a platform. In the late 1960s, acts such as Aaron Neville, Betty Harris and Francine Kinghit a rare run of form. While Matassa's subsequent bankruptcy created many business problems, the sounds coming out of the Big Easy during that short window still make for very good times. souljazzrecords.co.uk JIM CARROLL