The Verve Music Group is making available some long sought after titles in its new “Originals” series. Packaged in simple digipacks with original artwork, the series is kicking out some titles that have either been long unavailable in the U.S. or, more importantly, are making American debuts on compact disc. The standard list price is $11.98, but a number of retailers are selling them for less — at least initially. Here are four compelling candidates that CD buyers have paid big money for in the past, and in one case, the third one, lies a title that deserves major reconsideration in the present era.

Among the most notable is the first American edition of the legendary funk classic Come into Knowledge by RAMP. The name is an acronym for Roy Ayers Music Productions, and was a songwriting venture for the jazz-funk master who produced the band’s lone effort and wrote or co-wrote all but two tunes on the set. Edwin Birdsong wrote a pair with Ayers and penned “Give It” (sample), one of the set’s best tracks. The record is a monster, basically perfect. For more evidence, check out the Ayers and Birdsong collaboration “The American Promise” (sample).

Bassist Stanley Clarke was a full-time member of Return to Forever with Chick Corea, Flora Purim, Joe Farrell, and Airto Moreira, when he recorded Children of Forever, his first solo offering. Unlike any of his later dates as a leader, this one — recorded in December of 1972 and released in March of ‘73 — with its hip sci-fi cover, is actually an ecstatic, soaring blend of spiritual soul-jazz, spindly funk, and killer improvisation by a band that included Corea (who produced), drummer Lenny White, guitarist Pat Martino, and flutist Stan Webb. It is also graced by the presence of two of the finest vocalists to work in the music period: Andy Bey and Dee Bridgewater. The album was recorded after Clarke played bass on Norman Connors’ classic Dance Of Magic, which was cut and released earlier in ‘72 and definitely influenced him. Check out the title cut (sample).

Another entry in this excellent series is 1978’s Ruby, Ruby, the lesser-known follow-up to Gato Barbieri’s breakthrough 1976 album, Caliente!. Produced and engineered by Herb Alpert for A&M, this set, like its predecessor, was a far cry from the vanguard wailing and Third World folk-jazz fusion of his earlier Impulse offerings. Instead, the listener gets basked in the big romantic tone of Barbieri’s tenor surrounded by stellar studio musicians; they include Alpert, Lew Soloff, Lenny White, Steve Gadd, Marvin Stamm, Don Grolnick, Lee Ritenour, Ian Underwood, and Paulinho Da Costa, to name a few. Gato and company perform simmering, funky jazz versions of Marvin Gaye’s “Latin Reaction” (sample) and Stevie Wonder’s “Ngiculela-Es Una Historia-I Am Singing” (sample). These tunes are interspersed with groove-ridden, Latin-based steppers like Barbieri’s “Nostalgia” and beautiful ballads like Alpert’s “Midnight Tango” (sample).

On the jazz side of the fence, Quincy Jones‘ brilliant 1961 album Quintessence is finally reissued again with the full remastering treatment the Japanese release received (for a mere fraction of the cost). Appearing on Impulse in 1961, this big-band jazz orchestra recording features a who’s who of noteworthies including Freddie Hubbard, Melba Liston, Milt Hinton, Oliver Nelson, Snooky Young, Phil Woods, and Julius Watkins, just to name a few. Check a bit of the title track (sample). This is Jones, fairly early on, offering a sublime portrait of the modern progressive big band, showcasing an entirely new range of possibilities for the form.