In the 1950s, Chet Baker and Dave Brubeck made cool West Coast jazz from LA. If there is a band in 2026 that can also claim the title of cool West Coast, but in the funk and soul genre, it is without a doubt Family Company. The regularity with which the band from LA releases excellent albums is reminiscent of the heyday of jazz, when artists came up with one sublime album after another. For instance, less than a year ago, Family Company released the album Pieces of Us with Gr

Arthur Conley had one of the most beautiful voices of the 1960s American soul scene. Otis Redding and Sam Cooke come together when you hear him sing; listen to the vibrant track Sweet Soul Music from 1967. In it, he honors his heroes, who also welcomed him into the soul community of that time. Otis was his patron, who envisioned a great future for Conley. When Otis died at the age of 27 in a tragic plane crash, it suddenly became difficult for Conley to stay afloat in the cut

Some bands sound rehearsed. Rabbit Ambush sound connected. The NYC-based trio, made up of musicians from Peru, Thailand and Japan, blend deep funk grooves with hypnotic textures, psychedelic moments and flashes of Asian musical traditions into something that feels strangely familiar and completely their own at the same time. What started as three musicians playing together in a church worship band slowly turned into one of the freshest instrumental projects we’ve heard in a w