* Ace’s ongoing acquisition of some of the very best West Coast 1950s R&B catalogues has yielded some stellar compilations for fans of the genre in the past, and there’s plenty more to look forward to in 2009 and beyond.

* Ace kick off the year with a second multi-artist set drawn from the tapes and acetates that came as part of the purchase of the catalogues that were originally owned and operated by Los Angeles R&B entrepreneur, John Dolphin.

* Owner of the most prominent R&B record shop on the West Coast, Dolphin was inevitably a magnet for some of the best Los Angeles talent of the early 1950s and he, like all of the local R&B producers, always recorded far more than he could actually find time, space and money to release. Thus it is that most of the repertoire on The Toast Of The Coast” has never been issued before. It may have taken over half a century, but no R&B fan will dispute that it’s been worth the wait.

* This heady brew of jumpin’ R&B and cool blues offers stellar names like Pee Wee Crayton, Jimmy Witherspoon, Peppermint Harris and Memphis Slim, cult heroes such as Erwin ”Big Boy” Groves, moonlighting doo wopper Vernon Anders aka Vernon Greene of the Medallions and one or two mystery artists whose names may be lost in the mists of time, but whose talent remains apparent and abundant. The source material is in remarkable shape considering its age and the conditions it was stored under for many years, and the sublime remastering puts the listener on the studio floor with the musicians.”