Jiro Inagaki & His Soul Media – In the Groove

Jiro Inagaki & Soul Media's In The Groove captures a crucial step in the group's evolution. Soul Media formed in 1969 with a clear jazz-rock agenda, but this 1973 session pushes that idea somewhere sharper and more physical: jazz takes the lead, rock is streamlined into edge and attack, and funk supplies the album's drive. That balance matters in the story of the band, because contemporary notes describe it as the record that set Soul Media on the road to Funky Stuff.

What makes In The Groove so rewarding is the way it refuses to sit neatly inside one category. The music is often framed as Jiro Inagaki's answer to The Crusaders, a group he was closely following at the time, and you can hear that ambition in the album's blend of toughness and polish. Cuts such as "That's How I Feel," "Put It Where You Want It," and "Papa Hooper's Barrel House Groove" point to a band chasing groove with real precision rather than simply adding funk as surface colour.

For collectors, this Pure Vinyl edition also explains why the record keeps drawing attention beyond Japan. Issued by Nippon Columbia as a Japan import, it presents a much-loved Soul Media title in an audiophile-minded pressing that emphasizes clarity, stability, and the album's crisp, cutting ensemble sound.

Features

• LP, 180g, Pure Vinyl, Black Vinyl
• Japan import on Nippon Columbia
• Pressed on uncolored virgin vinyl