Melvin Jackson – Funky Skull (Verve By Request Series, 180g)

On his sole album as a leader, bassist Melvin Jackson — a veteran of the Eddie Harris band (this album includes two Harris originals) — plays with a bow, plucks and plugs his upright bass into a Maestro G-2 filter box, a Boomerang, an Echoplex, and an Ampeg amp. The result is soulful, psychedelic, and of course, funky — at once one of the grooviest and most avant-garde albums you'll ever hear.