The six-CD R&B Box is impressively ambitious, arching as it does from the "race record" era to the day before disco. Jump blues, boogie, postwar vocal groups, shouters and honkers, early rock & roll, doo-wop, and myriad varieties of soul music all rear their heads here; while the selections may often seem obvious to longtime listeners, the set will certainly knock out anyone new to the history of these sounds. --Rickey Wright