Various Artists - Chris Bangs Presents The Playbox / Various 2LP (United Kingdom - Import)

*Please note: This title will ship on or around its release date June 06, 2025. Date and availability is subject to change. We will ship all items in your order when the last title is released and available – so if you would like anything else on your order shipped separately, please place separate orders. Thank you. 

Why ask Chris Bangs to do a compilation for Ace? Maybe because of my long, varied and unusual musical career. I started off as a failed guitarist with space rockers the Mighty Om, then went on to become a club DJ playing jazz, funk and soul across London and the south of England six nights a week. I then diversified to play more varied DJ sets that featured modern soul, rare groove, Baptist beat, Brazilian samba, bossa and beyond. As I got established, I was offered DJ residencies. My first was playing five nights a week at Bogarts in West London which had the first Technics SL1200 record decks in the UK, previously only found in swish American venues like Studio 54. Then there was two years playing every Saturday at the Exeter Bowl, Bournemouth, where I also teamed up with DJ/promoter, Bob Masters to run the legendary Bournemouth soul weekenders through most of the 80s. In 1982 I met 16-year old Gilles Peterson, playing his first DJ gigs in a local wine bar. This led to a partnership that spanned the best part of a decade. Our first sets were in a tiny function room above the Derby Arms near the Belvedere Arms in Sheen, West London where, in the late 80s, Gilles played his celebrated DJ sets. There were one-off nights culminating in our Mambo Madness parties and the Original Jazz Bops, promoted in tandem with Gilles' Mad On Jazz show on Radio London. Just imagine 1,600 hardcore jazz clubbers dancing to class tunes and live acts at the Town & Country Club in Kentish Town. My musical journey as a DJ peaked in the mid- to late 80s with the legendary Cock Happy and Special Branch nights and Doos At The Zoo, spread across various venues in London. There were other joint one-offs, including a memorable night dropping tuff jazz tunes from the likes of Art Blakey and Charles Earland surrounded by giant Victorian machine generators at Kew's Museum of Steam where instead of our usual banners and posters, we decorated the room with toilet paper. I also guested fortnightly on Gilles' Monday jazz night at the Wag Club getting home at 5am and at work, in body if not in mind, at 8am. There were also Special Branch holidays in Ibiza and Corfu, Rockley Sands, Prestatyn and Caister weekenders, dropping jazz dance, funk, rare groove and even a bit of Cliff Richard on the holidays and playing classic Blue Note jazz and Santana at Cafe Del Mar.

Label: Beat Goes Public BGP
UPC: 029667026710
Release Date: June 06, 2025

Track List

1. Los Conquistadores Chocolatés - Johnny Hammond
2. Brazilian Skies - Bill Summers
3. Quiet Fire - Roy Haynes
4. Nuther'n Like Thuther'n - Willis Jackson
5. Sentido En Seis (Six Feeling) –
6. Louie Bellson ; Walfredo De Los Reyes
7. Vera Cruz (Empty Faces) - Flora Purim
8. Visions Of A New World (Phase Ii) - Lonnie Liston Smith ; The Cosmic Echoes
9. No Matter What - Pleasure
10. Njia Walk - Fatback Band
11. Gunky - Johnny Lytle
12. Jubilation - Patrice Rushen
13. Mambo Mindoro - Cal Tjader
14. Yatra-Tá - Tania Maria
15. Braun-Blek-Blu - Dom Um Romao