Saxophonist Martin Fierro first came through in the mid-1960s as a member of Texan garage-psych outfit Sir Douglas Quintet but later relocated to San Francisco where he played with West Coast favourites including The Grateful Dead and Quicksilver Messenger Service – and founded Shades Of Joy with a handful of other Texan émigrés. This eponymous debut is a swirl of sunshiney latin vibes, day-glo soul featuring the sugar sweet vocals of Millie Foster, and upbeat proto-jazz-rock similar to the pioneering sounds The Free Spirits were laying down over on the East Coast, with Fierro's sax spiraling off into the same enthusiastic skronk that Jim Pepper investigated on that group's only album, Out Of Sight And Sound, a couple of years before. The following year, Fierro assembled a larger, 15-piece version of Shades Of Joy to record the soundtrack to Alejandro Jodorowsky's cult psychedelic western El Topo. Far out.

Vinyl sold for $50 at ebay.com in February 2012