Starcrost (reissue) CD

For the 30th volume in the label's ongoing "holy grail" series of rare jazz reissues, Jazzman has once again mined the vaults of obscure Texan label Fable Records. Starcrost was a short-lived six-piece whose members included trumpeter Mike Mordecai, the man who founded Fable in part to get the band's music onto wax. Their self-titled 1975 debut album has long been a favorite of crate-digging jazz-funk and soul-jazz heads, so this reissue is long overdue. It features a mixture of sweet and soulful vocal numbers, solo-rich instrumental workouts and heady cuts that throw suitably spiritual influences to the band's fizzing, funk-fuelled take on mid '70s jazz.