Various: Tender Feelin's

Reviewed by GRAHAM REID

(Herald Rating: * * * * )

Subtitled "silky cuts for cool cats" just about sums up this smooth 16-track compilation which features the pre-Sade sexy vocals of the late Minnie Ripperton who slinks in with Light My Fire (duetting with Jose Feliciano) and the soul-funk of I'm A Woman.

Also featured are organist Ronnie Foster (Me and Mrs Jones), soul man Lou Rawls (You Made Me So Very Happy), Marlene Shaw (Feel Like Makin' Love), and trumpeter Donald Byrd with the funked-up Places & Spaces.

Labi Siffre gets it right with title of Love-A-Love-A-Love-A-Love-A-Love.

Also in this series are the equally excellent Home Cookin' — jazzy and infectious grooves featuring organist Lonnie Smith, Cannonball Adderley, Buddy Rich, Stanley Turrentine and the Jazz Crusaders — and Say It Loud, 14 tracks of politicised soul-funk, with titles which include Sly Stone's Don't Call Me Nigger Whitey (by Gene Harris), Walk Tall (Cannonball Adderley), Design A Nation (Donald Byrd) and Black Rhythm Happening (Eddie Gale).

Three different but coherent soul food collections. Recommended.

(Blue Note/EMI)