Timeless organic jazz/dance excellence captured on a wide-grooved platter, courtesy of the long lived Loft Classics series. Front and center on this installment are Johnny Hammond's unbeatable "Los Conquistadores Chocolates" (drum break heads wrap your mind around the intro) and the full-length version of the Crusaders' suave"Street Life" with Randy Crawford on vocals. Dexter Wansel's lush spacefunk "Life On Mars" is also included: dig on one of the coolest intros ever, a swirl of fender rhodes that coalesces into a keyboard riff of galactic magnetism. Anyone interested in the roots of house music look close. 

• music label: Loft Classics

reviewed by monk 10/2005