The Sugarman Three is a retro-funk jazz unit that caramelizes its sugar over a high flame. Their latest release, "Pure Cane Sugar," is their best album yet. Track two, "Take It As It Come" could be mistaken for a long-lost James Brown-Jimmy Smith collaboration. It's that good. Sugarman Three's sound has been called "deep funk," but "hard funk" fits just as well. They resurrect the intense grooves of early-'60s R&B, soul, jazz and funk, blend them, and cook up tasty music.

Bandleader Neal Sugarman did time with funk outfits in New Orleans, then returned to New York to bring together Brother Jack McDuff's drummer Rudy Albin, Hammond B-3 whiz Adam Scone and guitarist Al Street, whose playing makes it seem as if he sat through every session recorded at the famed Muscle Shoals R & B recording studio.

You can chalk it up to nostalgia -- a longing for a JB horn section and the soulful wailing of a B-3 -- but good-time music always transcends boundaries, whether of time, place or race. And unlike many retro bands, Sugarman 3 never overdoes it. Rather than hurrying their tempos, they savor each juicy, down-home riff. Every opening guitar or organ chord drops deep into a measured groove. Each drum break gives you time to suck in a breath of air. Every horn-section turnaround adds the proper dose of energy. This careful parceling out of elements at the right time, in the right proportion, ensures the funk comes out with a syrupy smoothness that's never oversweet and never saccharine.