As the annual Jazzkaar festival shows, Estonia has both an eager audience for jazz as well as an impressive contemporary talent pool. These two brilliant compilations shine a light on the historical depth of the latter. Covering a pivotal period, from the early 1970s to the mid ‘80s, when the country was still part of the Soviet Union, the material has a unique blend of local folk and international flavours, making the point that black music, evolving through jazz, soul and funk, found its way to the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic (ESSR), where bands and singers embraced changing times all the while retaining their personal identity.

Certainly, the sound of Uno Naissoo, Jaan Kumani, Collage, Tonis Magi and Gunnar Graps & The Magnetic Band whipping up heavy percussive and dancefloor grooves is a real treat. So too are the reprises of soul anthems such as Earth, Wind & Fire’s ‘September’ and The Commodore’s ‘Slippery When Wet’.

But what captures the spirit of Estonia as a place of great defiance and imagination is the heavenly voice of Marju Kuut, a national icon, who was willing to take risks under Moscow’s beady eye and record poetry such as ‘Maskeraad.’ Over the two discs a picture emerges of a resourceful, creative country that punches well above its weight.