Various Artists - Pops Side Of Impulse! 1963-1967 (2021)

Japanese music critic, writer and DJ Minoru Wakasugi continues his series of compilation reissues that began with the long-running hit "Jazz Side of MOTOWN." The new release turns to the jazz label Impulse!, founded in 1960, viewing its catalog through the lens of popular music. The label's weighty and wide-ranging legacy is reimagined here under the motto "light, refined, clear" — turning dense jazz recordings into a compact, accessible collection.

The compilation unfolds like a journey: the first part is devoted to tracks built around funk, the middle section carries the listener through a groove-filled corridor of R&B and ethnic sounds, and the second half settles into the tones of blues and bossa nova. Along the way come rare groove, soft-rock-tinged jazz, blues-funk, bright orchestral arrangements, Latin and bossa flavors. A separate thread runs through cover versions of songs by The Byrds, The Beatles, and New Vaudeville Band, which let the record also work as a vocal album. The compilation closes with a symbolic voyage from New Orleans to Copacabana — a calm, cooling finale to the whole journey.

Tracklist:
1-1 Mal Waldron - The Search [1:23]
1-2 Gabor Szabo - Caravan [2:59]
1-3 Phil Woods - Greek Cooking [3:53]
1-4 Tom Scott;The California Dreamers - The Honeysuckle Breeze [4:08]
1-5 Mel Brown - Greasy Spoon [5:31]
1-6 Gary McFarland & Co.;Clark Terry - Ira Schwartz's Golden Dream [3:34]
1-7 Clark Terry & Chico O'Farrill - Spanish Rice [2:45]
1-8 Bob Thiele And His New Happy Times Orchestra - Eight Miles High [5:08]
1-9 Gary McFarland;Gabor Szabo - The Word [2:12]
1-10 Hank Jones & Oliver Nelson - Winchester Cathedral [2:25]
1-11 Freda Payne - It's Time [2:07]
1-12 Yusef Lateef - Sister Mamie (Part 1) [2:06]
1-13 Mel Brown - Slalom [2:32]
1-14 Michael Brown - Ruth Snyder [4:30]
1-15 John Lee Hooker - Shake It Baby [4:22]
1-16 Curtis Jones - Lots of Talk for You [2:36]
1-17 Della Reese - Good Morning Blues [5:14]
1-18 Chico Hamilton - A Trip [5:15]
1-19 Dannie Richmond's "In" Crowd - Pfoofnick [3:56]
1-20 Lorez Alexandria - Little Boat [2:14]
1-21 Johnny Hartman - The Day the World Stopped Turning [2:30]