VA - Jazz Dispensary: At The Movies (2023)

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VA - Jazz Dispensary: At The Movies (2023)

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For the latest installment of the boundary-blurring, mind-expanding Jazz Dispensary series, the homegrown label’s highly discerning sound sommeliers have curated an irresistibly funky selection of songs from midnight movies of the ’60s and ’70s. A movie marathon’s worth of wildly infectious grooves, Jazz Dispensary: At The Movies features can’t-miss classics and deep cuts from Melvin Van Peebles, Isaac Hayes, Booker T. & The M.G.’s, and many more of the soul, funk, and R&B legends behind the soundtracks to a multitude of seminal cult favorites.

A treasure trove of timeless jams, At the Movies kicks off Side A with the euphoric and gospel-inspired “Saturday Night” by Melvin Van Peebles, featured in the famed actor/filmmaker/composer’s musical film Don’t Play Us Cheap (a 1973 release adapted from Peebles’ Broadway production of the same name). Next, Booker T. & the M.G.’s break into the Hammond B-3 organ-driven instrumental “Time Is Tight,” originally recorded for their soundtrack to the 1968 film UpTight and later covered by everyone from The Clash to The Blues Brothers to Buckwheat Zydeco. Another standout on Side A, “The Riot” is a soul-jazz masterpiece performed by Ed Bogas and Ray Shanklin for the score to the 1972 film Fritz the Cat (an adult animated comedy based on the comic strip by R. Crumb).

Elsewhere on At the Movies, Peebles joins forces with a then-unknown Earth, Wind & Fire for “Sweetback’s Theme” — an epic instrumental from Peebles’ 1971 feature film Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, widely credited with creating the blaxploitation genre. Also including cuts from more obscure blaxploitation films like Black Girl (Ed Bogas and Ray Shanklin’s “B.J.’s Step”) and The Dynamite Brothers (Charles Earland’s “Incense of Essence”), At the Movies features two songs from soul-music superhero Isaac Hayes: “Joe Bell” from the 1974 crime-action film Three Tough Guys, and “Pursuit of the Pimpmobile” from Truck Turner (a 1974 blaxploitation film starring Hayes himself as a former professional football player turned bounty hunter).

Limited to 5,400 copies worldwide and pressed on Purple Haze vinyl, At the Movies features original artwork by Tiffany Chin. It's also available digitally in 192/24 HD audio.