Record Shopping Etiquette
The do’s, the don’ts, and best practices when it comes to shopping for vinyl.
Listen back to this past Saturday, January 10th BeatCaffeine Radio show on Motion FM, hosted by TJ Gorton — first show of 2026! The broadcast included some selections that I recently picked-up in London, including the new Isao Suzuki reissue from Jazz Room Records, music by Stone Alliance, Duke Pearson, Sahib Shihab, Freddie McCoy, The Danish Jazzballet Society Ensemble, Joanne Grauer (a salute Dingwalls!) and much more.
It’s 2026, however before turning attention to the new year, here is one final “best of” list for 2025, highlighting some of the standout compilations that came out over the past twelve months. From funky deep jazz and spiritual grooves to obscure global selections, these well-crafted releases illuminated incredible gems in a carefully curated format.
Listen back to this past Saturday, December 27th BeatCaffeine Radio show on Motion FM, hosted by TJ Gorton. The broadcast included some of our favorite selections from 2025 including music from The Circling Sun, Collettivo Immaginario, Marcello Cassanelli, Gerardo Frisina, The Sultan’s Swing, Ensemble C and much more!
As with the new music releases of 2025, many incredible reissues and previously unreleased recordings emerged throughout the year. The recordings unearthed each year continue to amaze. As mentioned in past years, the quality of these reissue releases seems to keep improving over time.
Similar to past years, narrowing down this list was probably the most challenging task among all the year-end lists (sorry, I always forget a few worthy titles). For this list, the focus is mostly on full-length reissues, though a few standout 7-inch selections are included.
Listen back to this past Saturday, December 13th BeatCaffeine Radio show on Motion FM, hosted by TJ Gorton. The broadcast included selections featuring Longineu Parsons, VS Quartet and the Nottingham Jazz Orchestra, jazz dance classics by Tamba Trio, Ronald Snijders, and Romano Mussolini, cosmic cuts from Hiroshi Suzuki and Hugh Masekela, along with new music from The Circling Sun and Louie Vega’s Elements of Life and much more!
For our second year-end list, we spotlight 10 standout EP releases from 2025. As in recent years, this list notably includes some superb selections from two standout UK-based labels that continue to put out forward-thinking jazz fusion and peak-time dancefloor material in Steve Conry’s Ten Lovers Music and Colin Curtis Presents imprint. This overall selection of EPs are arguably up their with the year’s best full-length albums, when it comes to quality and impact.
It’s that time of year again, when we look back on some of the year’s best albums. As in previous years, we’ll start with the top new releases, followed by deep dives into standout reissues, EPs, compilations, tracks, and more in the days and weeks ahead.
Listen back to this past Saturday, November 29th BeatCaffeine Radio show on Motion FM, hosted by TJ Gorton. The broadcast included a selections by The Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble, Marco Di Marco, and Sacbé, jazz dance classics from Mongo Santamaria, Carlos Garnett, and Bhakti Jazz, standout nu jazz cuts by Gerardo Frisina, Elements of Life and much more!
Listen back to this past Saturday, November 15th BeatCaffeine Radio show on Motion FM, hosted by TJ Gorton. The broadcast included a selections by Wayne Shorter, Airto Moreira, and Carlos Garnett, jazz dance classics from Pacific Jam, Paulinho Da Costa and Don Randi, along with new music from Brian Jackson and Masters At Work and much more!
The superb New York-based Frederiksberg Records has unearthed and recently reissued an extremely hard-to-find mid-70’s spiritual jazz album from the Oakland ensemble The People’s People, titled The People’s People Present The Spirit Of David.
Listen back to this past Saturday, November 1st BeatCaffeine Radio show on Motion FM, hosted by TJ Gorton. The broadcast included a selections by Mike Perras, Vinícius Mendes, and Gerardo Frisina, jazz dance classics from Working Week and Cedar Walton, along with new music from Chris Bangs & Mick Talbot, Ruby Ruston, Babo Moreno and much more!
Catching up on some essential releases over the last couple of weeks — this edition of BeatCaffeine’s Weekly Record Rundown highlight’s the superb debut Brazilian flavored album from Babo Moreno, the incredible collaborative EP featuring Brian Jackson, Masters at Work, Omar and others, and the return of two prominent UK-based groups that have released brand new albums, Ruby Rushton and Da Lata.
Listen back to this past Saturday, October 18th BeatCaffeine Radio show on Motion FM, hosted by TJ Gorton. The broadcast included a jazz dance classics from Raices, Mr. Circle, Carpenters, Twylyte ’81, and new music from Nicola Conte and Nico Lahs, The Earthsouls, Ella & The Bossa Beat and much more!