Shepp, a tenor saxophonist and sometimes a collaborator of John Coltrane, turned his talents to protesting the death of over 40 prisoners and guards during a 1971 uprising at Attica State Prison — the title track on this album was a collaboration between over 30 people, including a reading of the lyrics by lawyer William Kunstler, and was described as "a tribalistic frenzy of near hysteria that is one of the most amazing sounds ever achieved on record." Shepp continued active careers as both a musician and a college professor.

What We Said Then: "Unless your reaction time is that of a hippo, they've got you like a strong current and there's nothing to do but ride with them to the end. 'Attica Blues' is not just a masterpiece of protest: like the musics of Sun Ra, the Holiness Church, the Mahavishnu Orchestra and others, it is more a politico/religious experience, an appeal to higher human consciousness to, for God's sake, help us out of this torment." — Stephen Davis, RS 115 (August 17th, 1972)

Toshiko Akiyoshi, a Japanese-American pianist born in Manchuria, formed this West Coast big band with her husband Lew Tabackin (of the Tonight Show band with Doc Severinsen): she composed the music, while Tabackin was the featured soloist. What set this West Coast ensemble apart was Akyoshi's compositions, which changed up the standard big-band sound with hypnotic flute grooves and Japanese percussion. She was 20 years into a career in which she would ultimately release over 50 albums.

What We Said Then: "With a name like the Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band, you'd better be good, and this group is right at the top of the heap of the remaining large jazz ensembles. Like all the survivors worth listening to, TA-LTBB reflects the musical thinking of one person — in this case, one of the most distinctive jazz sensibilities extant." — Bob Blumenthal, RS 266 (June 1st, 1978)

This Brazilian chanteuse with a six-octave range and a penchant for making unusual sound effects collaborated with Stan Getz and Chick Corea and attracted high-profile fans such as Stevie Wonder. Soon after this electrifying debut album was released, Purim served a 16-month prison sentence for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute — although while she was a prisoner, the Terminal Island warden did let her play one all-star concert at the correctional institution. After she served her time, she continued her career and went on to be known as the "Queen of Brazilian Jazz."

What We Said Then: "Flora Purim is a Brazilian who looks like an incandescent cockatoo and doesn't so much sing as instrumentalize vocally. She sounds like the next important female jazz singer. Her percussionist husband, Airto Moreira, leads the impossibly hot little band on this album — George Duke on piano, reedman Joe Henderson and Stanley Clarke on bass… Flora's debut album stands out as one of the best from the jazz world so far this year." — Stephen Davis, RS 166 (August 1st, 1974)

Huey Simmons (a.k.a. Sonny Simmons) came up in San Francisco and Oakland with fellow saxophonists Pharoah Sanders and Dewey Redman — but with this incandescent double album, he showed the breadth of his talent, from barnburners like "New Newk" to space odysseys like "Things and Beings." Unfortunately, after this album, Simmons became homeless and spent many years busking before putting his life and career back together in the '90s.

What We Said Then: "Simmons and friends have taken the developments of the past ten years, from Bop to Freedom, from Ornette to Trane, from Dolphy's 'Out There' to Miles' Bitches' Brew, and compacted them into an ever-changing kaleidoscope of spaces and densities that make a lot of what’s au courantseem pale by comparison. If you buy only one LP of 'jazz' music this year, make it this one." — Bob Palmer, RS 97 (December 9th, 1971)

There was plenty of jazz-rock fusion in 1974, but the notion of jazz-reggae seemed revolutionary. (Reggae had not yet broken in a big way in the USA, although everyone was expecting it to happen.) Saxophonist Robin Kenyatta, however, fearlessly mashed up both worlds, covering songs as unlikely as the Allman Brothers' "Jessica" for what we called "a varied and rewarding album, Kenyatta's best by a long shot." Kenyatta relocated to Europe and founded a jazz school in Lausanne, Switzerland — where he died in 2004.

What We Said Then: "The combination of tight, repetitive reggae and improvised solos doesn't seem logical at first, but John Coltrane and his followers have demonstrated the ability to construct interesting lines over droning, trancelike rhythm-section playing, and reggae does offer much rhythmic interest. Kenyatta, a one-time refugee from the Sixties avant-garde, turns Allen Toussaint's 'River Boat' into a stomping, soaring joy with the help of the Kingston rhythm section that backed Paul Simon and Jimmy Cliff." — Bob Palmer, RS 175 (December 5th, 1974)