Sounds from the Verve Hi-Fi

Get ready for your jazz education. These virgin, unremixed tracks taken from the 1960s Verve vaults were a major influence on Thievery Corporation's Rob Garza and Eric Hilton years before they spun epic documents like The Mirror Conspiracy. Their time capsule is a bubbling, Brazilian soul-jazz blast, starting with the sensuous "Menina Flor" by Stan Getz and Luis Bonfa. Jimmy Smith's "Road Song" is a classic of '60s hard bop, while Kenyon Hopkins's "Hard Latin" shows the kind of groovy organ jazz that was popular in bars from Philly to hot 'Lanta. Things go left with Cal Tjader's "The Fakir," a day-glo Middle Eastern track influenced by Coltrane's "My Favorite Things," while Astrud Gilberto pulls a Nancy Sinatra on another freaky standout, "Light My Fire." Walter Wanderley, Wynton Kelly, Chico Hamilton, and Elis Regina also light up the night, along with your hi-fi. --Ken Micallef