Sonny Forrest - Tuff Pickin' 1966 Decca lp OG RARE Groove Jazz Funk Idris Purdie

$

26

Welcome to our ( further continued!) Winter Special 2026 "Gigantic" Jazz-Funk, Soul Jazz, Spiritual, Fusion, Private Press, Part 3.The main focus is jazz-funk, spiritual jazz, fusion, soul-jazz, rare groove lp's, largely from the late 1960's-1970's into the early 80's, all originals, no reissues! WE COMBINE SHIPPING! :)
150 lp's, all originals (no reissues!), many have soundclips, which are from the actual record!

This week features part III, there was so much we just didn't have the time to properly list in the first two auctions, (there also will be a Part IV later in Spring, of curated grail pieces!), this one has a lot of amazing rare jazz-fusion, heavy jazz-funk, cinematic library style jazz-funk rare groove, the funkiest instrumental jazz-rock, leftfield electronic jazz, rare private presses, spiritual jazz/avant and tons of open drum breaks! Beginning with quickly rising to grail status Sam Morrison - Natural Layers 1977 Chiaroscuro record on to  albums like Gil Scott-Heron's 1977 masterpiece "Bridges" on Arista, numerous MPS records from George Duke, to Rhythm Combination, and Csaba Deseo, an extremely rare unknown jazz-fusion private press by Rob Dame (No, not the known "November"!), a large # of lp's from the ECM label, Jan Hammer's hype rare 1977 "Melodies" (Peep David Earle Johnson's "Time Is Free" 1977 Vanguard lp if you dig that one!), sureshots like Lonnie Liston Smith's "Expansions", Mike Longo's "900 Shares Of The Blues" on Groove Merchant, the 1st press 1974 Impulse! John Coltrane - Interstellar Space, the 1968 Ozzie Torrens - Boogaloo in Apartment 41 lp on Decca, Woody Shaw, Herbie Hancock, Grassella Oliphant, M'Boom, The Peddlers 1972 UK Only "Suite London", rare Nanette Natal, Caroline Peyton, and so much more :) 

**Note on grading: We have been proud to send thousands of records to delighted customers, but there is always room for improvement, we want to continually strive to be as accurate, honest, and detailed as possible. These records that have been collected and loved over the years, coming from a collector, one who listens to the records, enjoys the music, we are only growing more meticulous in our visual aspect of grading the vinyl, while also maintaining a balanced emphasis on the sound quality, utilizing sound clips (we do not manipulate them whatsoever, and we never will!), full front to back recent thorough listenings, and for the covers to use detailed photos, write detailed aspects for the grade, we want people to know exactly what they're getting, as collectors, lovers of music, we promise to always carry ourselves with integrity, we're in the business of delighting people, to treat others as the best experiences we've had as buyers, and all of our items are guaranteed. We won't stop growing, learning, and listening. A very special warm thank you to all our incredible return "customers", we really think of you all as fellow friends in vinyl, and if this is your first time bidding with us, we hope our "record" speaks for itself, ensuring a secure feeling to bid with confidence, thank you all, truly together we make this community one that spreads the love, sharing in this special thing of all of ours :) ***

* After this week's auction, (In no particular order) we have in the auction pipeline:
A major Modern soul/Gospel Boogie/AOR lp's
A "golden era" late 70's - early 70's funk/soul lp's
A Psych / Rock / Country / Alternative rare lp's
A Random Rap GFunk Indie R&B, Rare Hip-Hop, Neo-Soul, New Jack Swing CD's & Tapes
A Part 4 "Giant Jazz" sale lp's
A funk/soul/boogie 7" 45rpm's
*^(Each are loaded with some of the rarest, high end stuff, plenty that haven't shown up in years, unknown mind-blowers, Grail Pieces, like always, all original editions!)
We'd be honored if you'd consider saving us as a favorite seller :)***


All soundclips used are unedited directly from the item up for sale :). See below for detailed grading!
***Everything is 100% guaranteed! We've sold over 1,500+ records in the past year alone, with 100% positive feedback, bid with confidence :)

Feel free to message any questions!

*Note: Any Item that does not have a soundclip, feel free to message us, and we can make one for you :)

**Note: for items with multiple players, the title of track is above each player; the player enables scrolling through!**

Soundclip info: B3 "Tuff Pickin'" -(Open drum break out the gate!), A2 "Unchain My Heart", A4 "Steppin'", B2 "Mashin' It", B4 "What Is This Thing Called Love", a2 begins at 1:17, a4 begins at 2:35, b2 begins at 3:51, b4 begins at 4:36     
Soundclip:  Update your internet browser to latest version in order to play audio clip.

Media Grade:  EX (conservative grade, top copy, peep the soundclips!) 
Sleeve Grade:  VG (if not for clipped corner would be VG+, light staining on back, overall decent average used copy)
Year / Label / Catalogue #:   1966  /  Decca  / DL 4716 (1st press, Mono) 
Brief Comments: Well, this is one insane obscure gem, one-off release by funky/jazzy guitar maestro Sonny Forriest, the majority of the tracks are his original compositions, what's mind-blowing is this may be the only release to have BOTH Bernard Purdie, and Idris Muhammad on drums! (Idris had yet to convert, still Leo Morris), the whole line-up is just "Whoa!", with legendary Sun Ra sax player Charles Davis, Willie Rodrigeuz on Conga's, Albert Dailey on piano, Ernie Hayes on organ, legendary jazzman Grachan Moncur III, among others! A very early example of jazz-funk, rare groove playing, this record was a couple years ahead of its time, somehow it's gone deep under the radar, there's never been a reissue of it, and clips are hard to find. It's one you never see (it took me 10 years to find a copy, the only one I've ever had), and even online, there's copies in not great shape, but finding a nice one, is maddeningly difficult. 
You'd think with such top notch tracks (so ahead of is time!), one of the most mind-blowing ensembles of legends playing, it's very real rarity, that it would have been "uncovered" by the deep digger set, complete with Wax Poetics story, reissue, etc. 
But for reasons unknown, the record was killed off pretty quickly by Decca (likely to make room, it was a fairly novel record, all instrumental, and the single didn't make it past promo (a store stock was dumped off on Canada), Decca managed to get Japan to help off-load copies to off-set costs, usually how that worked, is giving a better deal on high selling stuff (usually twice a year the major labels would lump their "off-load" lists to whatever country they had distribution in, that would take the deal, sometimes it made for some interesting arrangements, there might be a US press, an Australian press, and a Colombian press, when you see that for obscure major label releases, it's because of the "dumping / off-load" game). Perhaps the obscurity, the cover itself might lead someone who didn't know to think it's some corny blues/soul "crossover" (I.E. water it down for whites, which happened at the time) release, it's hard to say.
Sonny would contribute a track to label mate Marian Montgomery's 1966 "What's New" lp, killer vocal jazz release, and then he played guitar on Hank Crawford's killer 1967 Atlantic "Mr. Blue" lp, then disappeared from recording, (he passed away in 1999), he had played on two Hank Crawford lps prior to this release, and several Ray Charles recordings, it also came out during the reissue era that he played on some of the Coasters doo-wop releases, early Percy Mayfield, also prior to this. It's hard to even find mentions of this recording, I have Idris Muhammad's autobiography (Private Press itself! It's book world, where that term originated, fun fact!), and he does mention it, a large part is devoted to how Bernard Purdie (allegedly, these are Idris's words) begged Idris to teach him the shuffle beat, and would pass it off as his own, but there's also some salient commentary, Idris talks about how "this guitarist, you see he had played with Ray Charles Band, toured on the road, but also had jazz chops, played with Hank Crawford...", Idris at the time hadn't broken into the jazz world, he was about to, he had been considered too "R&B" having played on many Fats Domino hits, lots of classic oldie R&B singles, but he also played jazz, and wanted to record jazz, he saw in Sonny Forriest for the first time, a musician comfortable in both worlds, who could seamlessly fuse the two together, Idris was excited to be playing with established jazzmen like Charles Davis, Grachan Moncur III (who had recommended Idris to Lou Donaldson! - it makes sense now, they played together on the date, prior to this!), and just how talented Sonny was, Idris kind of intimates, heavily hints at heroin being the downfall, and the label finding out (which would have been clean-cut Decca...), and that was it, I think it makes sense that Hank Crawford would swoop in, to get him enough bread playing on 1967 "Mr. Blue" to have a chance. He did live until 1999, maybe he went back home, got clean, and just lived a normal life, the music scene being too much of what we'd call a "trigger" these days, and if someone hooked on heroin, one of the toughest habits to kick, was serious about quitting it, even if it meant giving up their music dreams, then they might be well-inclined, by 1966 certainly we'd seen too many tragedies related to it....
But Sonny Forriest is a legend, he did record, and leave us this, a glimpse into the mind of a genius, a man who saw further ahead, who could play, compose, gather a tight group together, and make some of the most killer early rare groove music ever put to wax! Even if what Idris hints at is true (and he is very compassionate about it), and if he did give up his music career to stay clean, and live, that is heroic, I think at least. He left the kind of legacy on one genius record, that a lot of musicians, don't get to do on half a dozen albums. 
Rare as hen's teeth, OG mono 1st press, peep the soundclips, and get ready for that two ton blast action :)




*Tariffs aren't going to impact used vinyl records / music media, we wish they were never in place at all, so for international buyers, don't worry on that account!
For our record grading, we stand by the merits outlined in the scale below, anything VG or below will have a detailed explanation in brackets next to the grade.
For sleeves, we will mention anytime there is split, or defect not visible in the photos in brackets next to the grade, otherwise we refer to the photos for the merit of the grade. Of course any questions, concerns, are always welcome :) 
Our media grading scale is as follows: [*Quick note, our VPI is still in storage on the other side of the US, we do brush clean many  items carefully, but we have to prioritize, we won't leave anyone stranded with a filthy record, only "filthy" good! We don't factor dust particles into the grading]
NM = Essentially a pristine album, like new, rarely used.
EX = Under bright light if there is any scuffs or mark, which will be inaudible, most collectors and sellers would tend to consider it closer to NM, EX is also the grade others might call VG++ under the same level of conservative scrutiny.
VG+ = More then a small handful of scuffs, light marks, nothing feelable, will have high-gloss, a thoroughly enjoyable copy that may only have tiny moments of barely perceptible surface noise overpowered by the music. Our VG+ will satisfy the vast majority of collectors as a nice keeper copy, as collector's ourselves for nearly two decades, this grade is aimed to be a great keeper. Note if say the record has a light DNAP warp, but otherwise is NM, we will automatically put it to VG+ and detail that. Another scenario is if a copy plays at a solid EX, but visually is VG, the composite grade will be VG+, and detailed as such.
VG = More hairlines, more marks, maybe a few visible scratches, no more then two feelable scratches (which automatically lowers to VG-), there likely will be surface noise, but will play through, still being an enjoyable copy, the audio quality will satisfy most collector's (the golden rule: if it doesn't satisfy us, it won't be VG), if a record is otherwise EX, but has a slight momentary skip, where 99% of the record is EX, we will note that, and put it at VG. Usually will retain a nice gloss.
VG- = More Scratches than VG, surface noise will jump out more, it be overpowered for longer stretches, or compete with the music in places, it will likely play all the way through on most turntables, a copy that you can still get a decent play enjoyment from.
G+ = Lots of scratches, deeper ones, surface noise now mostly overpowers or competes with the music. It may skip in some places. We don't tend to sell G+ copies, unless the rarity is so great, and that will be precisely detailed.
Thrashed = Pretty much a "Theoretical Grade" for us, it be for all intents & purposes virtually unplayable, it would be for display purposes, or perhaps if you needed the cover but not the record. It's "theoretical" because so far we haven't sold or identified anything intended to sell at this bottom level.
Every item is guaranteed to YOUR satisfaction, no questions asked, 100% refund. We stand by our integrity, our goal is to make sure you are absolutely delighted with your purchase, to deliver a cherished album to your collection :). On the slightest chance of human error, if we make a mistake, we take accountability for that, we don't anyone to have a record they aren't happy with! Bid with confidence :)
If you have multiple items, please wait for us to combine shipping for you! We can combine up to 4 items for the standard shipping rate, and save you $ on additional items. We don't charge a single penny over what the shipping costs, so you are paying only the amount the postal service receives!
Default shipping is USPS media mail, USPS International mail. If you prefer a different carrier, or expedited shipping, please message us before payment, so we can set up the invoice for you :)
We have it set to 5 day shipping / handling time, as a just in case, typically about 98.7% of our orders are shipped out the day of payment (first day the post office is open), with the vast majority being the second day. We'll message on the extraordinary off-chance if doesn't go out on Tuesday (our auctions mostly ending on Saturdays, Sundays), with the reason and day it will go out, so far that's only happened once on a giant order, and all was well.
Thank you from EnfieldVinyl, a family business, and the auction venture of EnfieldRecords :)
Kindly,
-Alec :D
&
-Ellie :)