Funk & Soul Essentials From San Francisco, Oakland, and the Bay Area 1967-1976, Vol. 1 (2003)

For some reason, California has become a center for funky musical archaeology; there's the Now-Again and the Quannum labels, but Luv N'Haight has been the busiest. ''Funk & Soul'' documents some supertight Bay Area also-rans from the days when neighbors like Sly and the Family Stone and Tower of Power were rocking seismic grooves. ''Arthur'' Verocai is something else again -- a lost slice of Brazilian psychedelic samba-pop from 1972 that shows hippie-era culture from another angle. AGE AIN'T NUTHIN' BUT A NUMBER Sugar Pie DeSanto, whose ''Git Back'' jump-starts Funk, is still rocking stages at the age of 68. You go, girl.