Leo Gooden had his own little RB and soul-jazz kingdom going in East St Louis in the early 1960s, and as a politician, club owner, local businessman, and sometimes vocalist, he wore a lot of hats and held a lot of strings. Through his LG family of labels he issued a handful of singles and a pair of albums, usually using a backing and instrumental ensemble called Leo's Five, a group of exceptional musicians initially assembled to be the house band at Gooden's Blue Note nightclub. The group, anchored by the Hammond B-3 playing of Don James, the dynamic drumming of Kenny Rice, and the tenor sax work of Charles Little Man Wright, pre-shadowed the organ-led jazz combos that appeared later in the decade featuring such artists as Jimmy Smith and Jimmy McGriff, and they played an RB-laced brand of soul-jazz years before the term had any credence at all. The various releases by the band became highly sought after collector's items over time, due in no small part to their wonderfully vibrant and immediate sound, which, whether Gooden had much of a hand in its architecture or not, was distinctive and remarkably consistent in quality. Several of these rare single 45s and the key tracks from Leo's Five's lone album are collected for the digital era on the single disc Direct from the Blue Note Club, issued by Ace in 2008. ~ Steve Leggett, Rovi