Eddy Senay - Step by Step (1972)

And here it is!
The second smoking Sussex album from guitarist Eddie Senay, and arguably even better than the first! The tracks here are all instrumentals, played with a style that's tight, right, and very on the money, mixed with keyboards from Rudy Robinson, who also arranged the numbers on the set. There's kind of a choppy early 70s soundtrack funk groove to the whole set, with Eddie's guitar bad-stepping its way over Rudy's sweet keyboards, all in a relatively lean groove that's laidback and loose, but still supremely funky!
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Eddy Senay - Hot Thang (1972)

A heck of a great little guitar funk album, one of two rare sides cut by the amazing Eddie Senay! The record's all-instrumental, and Eddie's fuzzed-out guitar takes center stage over tripped-out arrangements that recall the best psychedelic funk of the early 70s, bubbling along with just enough drums, bass, and keyboards to make for a chunky bottom groove, while Senay wails over the top on guitar! The record reminds us of similar guitar funk albums from the time, including the work of Dennis Coffey, Eddie Fisher, or Donald Austin, but the groove's even more laidback and trippy, with a few nice breakway moments from the rhythm section.
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The Ahmad Jamal Trio - The Awakening (1970)

By 1970, pianist Ahmad Jamal's style had changed a bit since the 1950s, becoming denser and more adventurous while still retaining his musical identity. With bassist Jamil Nasser (whose doubletiming lines are sometimes furious) and drummer Frank Gant, Jamal performs two originals (playing over a vamp on “Patterns”), the obscure “I Love Music” and four jazz standards. Intriguing performances showing that Ahmad Jamal was continuing to evolve.
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D Train - You're The One For Me (1982)

One of the most enduring albums on the Prelude label, and a great bit of modern soul by James “D-Train” Williams. Hubert Eaves produced the album, and he added lots of tasty electro keyboards to the set, played with his usual jazzy touches and a nice flourish that gives Williams' voice a strong kick on the best cuts. Sparklingly sophisticated, and proof that the indie labels could still churn out quality soul as well as they could disco!
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Edwin Starr - War & Peace (1970)

Certainly Edwin's most enduring album for Motown, and the one that had him shifting from groovy Agent OO Soul into the heavier soul artist who cut the classic War (What Is It Good For)! The album's also got a killer version of "California Soul", one of the best Motown-penned tracks from the time, plus the tracks Time, I Just Wanted To Cry, and She Should Have Been Home.
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Chocolate Milk - Action Speaks Louder Than Words (1975)

A killer album of 70s New Orleans funk! Chocolate Milk were an amazing funk group in their best moments (and this album is certainly one of those moments) a blistering batch of tracks that set a whole new style for the Crescent City scene, and which showed that producers Allen Toussaint and Marshall Sehorn could easily hit the hipper notes of the 70s! There's a tight rhythmic sound at the core of most numbers, but expanded instrumentation over the top, bits of spacey electrics or jazzier electronics that never would have shown up in Sansu records of years back, but which show that with the right group, New Orleans funk could easily take on the hippest styles going down on both coasts! The title cut, "Action Speaks Louder Than Words", is a slow funk classic, and the record also includes the incredible electronic-tinged "Time Machine", a perpetual favorite these days. Arguably the band's best album ever!
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Johnny Hammond - Wild Horses Rock Steady (1972)

Excellent Kudu work from one of the greatest organists of the 70s, a player who was just a minor player back in the 60s, but who rose to tremendous fame with the more sophisticated groove of the new decade! Johnny's dropped the "Smith" from his name, and has taken up "Hammond" as his monniker, not just to avoid confusion with the guitarist of the same name, but also to emphasize the fact that he's still strongly committed to using the Hammond organ, yet also willing to open it up to lots more hip new modes! The set's got some great arrangements from Bob James -- who seems to respect Johnny's roots as an organist, but encourage him to explore some of the sounds and space that he was bringing to his own work of the time. And the backings are relatively large, but never too much so, just enough to give the record a hip sort of soundtrack funk approach -- cast out over some sweet longer tracks with plenty of organ by Johnny!
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The Brand New Heavies - The Brand New Heavies (1991)

Many of the artists who were part of Britain's soul scene of the late 80s/early 90s, including Soul II Soul, Lisa Stansfield, and Caron Wheeler, took a high-tech, neo-soul approach, combining 70s-influenced R&B and disco with elements of hip hop. The equally impressive Brand New Heavies, however, used technology sparingly, stressed the use of real instruments, and were unapologetically retro and 70s-sounding through and through. Drawing on such influences as the Average White Band and Tower of Power, the Heavies triumph by sticking with the classic R&B approach they clearly love the most. The band has a jewel of a singer in N'Dea Davenport, who is characteristically expressive on Dream Come True and Stay This Way. Real horns (not synthesizers made to sound like horns) enrich those gems as well as the sweaty vocal funk of People Get Ready and Put the Funk Back in It and the jazz-influenced instrumental BNH. While this fine album enjoyed cult hit status, it was sadly ignored by American urban contemporary radio.
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Carla Whitney w/ Choker Campbell & the Super Sounds - Carla Whitney (1975)

Carla Whitney was an obscure soul singer from Canada who cut one album, a self-titled affair, for the Attic label in 1975. It was produced and arranged by Choker Campbell, who'd once been the house bandleader at Motown; he also co-wrote much of the material, sometimes with Whitney herself.
The highlights are the mid tempo modern dancer I’ve Been Hurt So Many Times and the beat ballads Lovin At Midnight and I’m Still In love With You. Also check the string laden mid tempo Questions, the ballads What Made you Change Your mind and Tears On My Pillow, the semi-funky War and the funky soul stompers Its You For Me and Wisdom Song. Strong album!
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Kurtis Blow - Kurtis Blow (1980)

Back in hip-hop's old school era (roughly 1978-1982) albums were the exception and not the rule. Hip-hop became a lot more album-minded with the rise of its second generation (Run-D.M.C., Whodini, the Fat Boys, among others) around 1983-1984, but in the beginning, many MCs recorded nothing but singles. Two exceptions were the Sugarhill Gang and Kurtis Blow, whose self-titled debut album of 1980 was among hip-hop's first LPs and was the first rap album to come out on a major label. Thus, Kurtis Blow has serious historic value, although it is mildly uneven. Some of the tracks are superb, including The Breaks (a Top Five R&B smash in 1980) and Rappin' Blow, Part 2, which is the second half of Blow's 1979 debut single, Christmas Rappin'. And Hard Times is a forceful gem that finds Blow addressing social issues two years before Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five popularized sociopolitical rapping with 1982's sobering The Message. Some of the other tracks, however, are decent but not remarkable. Switching from rapping to singing, Blow detours into Northern soul on the Chi-Lites-influenced ballad All I Want in This World (Is to Find That Girl) and arena rock on an unexpected cover of Bachman-Turner Overdrive's Takin' Care of Business. While those selections are likable and kind of interesting (how many other old school rappers attempted to sing soul, let alone arena rock?) the fact remains that rapping, not singing, is Blow's strong point. And Mercury really screwed up by providing only the second half of Christmas Rappin'; that landmark single should have been heard in its entirety. But despite its flaws and shortcomings, Kurtis Blow is an important album that hip-hop historians should make a point of hearing.
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Earth Wind & Fire - Earth Wind & Fire (1970)

The debut for the nine-member Earth, Wind & Fire was as assured as that of any rock band from the '60s and early '70s. Already fluent with the close harmonies of the classiest soul groups, the deep funk of James Brown, and the progressive social concerns and multiple vocal features of Sly & the Family Stone, the group added (courtesy of auteur Maurice White) a set of freewheeling arrangements, heavy on the horns, that made Earth Wind and Fire one of their finest albums, the artistic equal of their later hits, if not on the same level commercially. Unlike the work of most early funk bands, the songwriting was as strong and focused as the musicianship; the record boasts a set of unerringly positive compositions, reflecting the influence of the civil rights movement with nearly every song urging love, community, and knowledge as alternatives to the increasing hopelessness plaguing American society. The stop-start opener Help Somebody, the deep funk extravaganza Moment of Truth, and the sweet ballad Love Is Life were unified in their pursuit of positivity, while even the potentially incendiary title Fan the Fire was revealed in a peaceful context: “The flame of love is about to die/Somebody fan the fire”. And the instrumental closer, Bad Tune, is hardly a cast-off; the furious kalimba work of Maurice White and wordless backing vocals combine to create an excellent piece of impressionist funk.
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David Axelrod - Seriously Deep (1975)

Recorded and released in 1975, Seriously Deep is the only album producer, arranger, conductor, and composer David Axelrod recorded for Polydor. Strangely enough, Jimmy Bowen and Cannonball Adderley produced it, not Axe. He did write everything here, and one has no doubt that he hand-selected most of the set's players: Joe Sample on Fender Rhodes, clavinet, and Arp synth; Ernie Watts, Jerome Richardson, Jay Migliori, and Gene Cipriano on reeds and winds; trumpeters Snooky Young and Allen DiRienzo; Jimmy Cleveland and Dick Hyde on trombones; Billy Fender and John Morell on guitars; Jim Hughart on bass; drummer Ndugu Chancler; percussionist Mailto Correa; and concertmaster Jack Shulman for the strings. Sonically, the enormous orchestral arrangements from his Capitol and RCA albums are all but gone here, and instead Axe moves toward the jazz sounds of the age: jazz-funk. There is an even tone throughout the proceedings with big blotchy synth washes, rubbery basslines, funky breakbeats, and taut melodies articulated from the piano and horn charts. Given its time period, the album stands out in many ways from the dance-based funky soul and disco that were beginning to pervade electric jazz at the time, and instead creates a sense of driven slippery jazz-cum-funky big-band grooves that incorporate soul, film soundtrack music, and knotty but short solos from his horn players. The tough, break-driven Miles Away is clearly the album's standout. While it doesn't seem to cater to the dancefloor crowd, you can hear how punters would be driven out of their seats toward the center of the room because of its finger-popping 4/4 groove. With edgy guitar fills and the drums front and center, Sample moves around most of it to take a solo on the Arp, as the strings add harmonic changes to the basic melody structure. Sample adds the riff before some enormous fuzzed-out bass pops in for a moment; a ten-second guitar break follows and the strings are at it again. The hand drums, congas mostly, are tough and interact with Chancler beautifully.
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David T. Walker - David T. Walker (1971)

Sublime grooves from studio guitar genius David T. Walker, an album that's a perfect summation of the laidback, yet all-there sound he crafted for so many other artists over the years, finally cast out in the lead, and set up in a sweet set of larger soul instrumental backings! The style's a bit like the Kudu Records mode of the time, with a core instrumentalists grooving out over a larger ensemble, but the overall focus is a bit less jazz, and more in a soul instrumental mode, one that follows the melodies nicely, yet still has Walker bringing in some great chromatic touches on his hollow body electric. There's a similarity here to the sound of O'Donel Levy on Groove Merchant, although a bit tighter overall, and other musicians on the set include Joe Sample on keyboards, Billy Preston on organ, and Paul Humphrey on drums.
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Lonnie Smith - Turning Point (1969)

A stone killer from organist Lonnie Smith, one of his completely cooking early albums for Blue Note, and a hard-burner all the way through! Smith's working here with a really great group that includes Idris Muhammad on drums and Melvin Sparks on guitar, both of whom give the album a really heavy bottom, and almost make the set feel like one of those classic Prestige jammers from the same time. But added to them is a great horn section of Lee Morgan on trumpet, Julian Preister on trombone, and Bennie Maupin on tenor, all of whom give the record a slightly hipper, more modern feel, in keeping with the Blue Note groove of the time. Tracks are all nice and long!
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Marvin “Hannibal” Peterson & the Sunrise Orchestra - Children of the Fire (1974)

Trumpet and koto player Marvin “Hannibal” Peterson has led a reclusive career in jazz since the early '70s, when he first started making albums. A free jazz player in the style of Don Cherry with the metallic tone of Freddie Hubbard, Peterson is widely unknown even to the most diehard jazz fans. His low profile is strange given that he played with popular artists like Pharoah Sanders and Elvin Jones and was a regular member of Gil Evans' big band from '72 to '81.
On first album, Children of the Fire (Sunrise, 1974), Peterson takes his Sunrise Orchestra deep into jazz-classical territory, making his music sound like the Third Stream of Charles Mingus and Gil Evans.
Children of the Fire is a suite in five movements, beginning with Forest Sunrise, a magical segment of bird-sounding whistles and string arrangements in front of a percussion backdrop. The second part of the movement, Rhythm Ritual, starts off with the orchestra but then breaks into a straightahead but funky rhythm by drummer Billy Hart, bassist Richard Davis and pianist Michael Cochrane. Peterson then enters with a fiery blues solo that recalls the big fusion band sound of electric Miles.
Peterson composed all of the music on Children of the Fire, including the poetry on the spiritual hymn Song of Life, sung by Waheeda Massey. The music and poems on the album were dedicated to the children of Vietnam during the tail end of the war in Southeast Asia. The highlight of the album is the fourth movement, The Aftermath, which has a rapid and colorful drum solo by Billy Hart and a long free bop solo by Peterson that is encouraged by the spontaneous trio of Hart, Davis, and Cochrane.
Children of the Fire is an excellent snapshot of where fusion was headed during the early '70s. Electric jazz-rock, injected with heavy doses of classicism, was made popular by the Mahavishnu Orchestra during this time. But the underground Sunrise Orchestra delivers the goods, mixing hard bop and abstract jazz with a Far Eastern spirituality.
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Wilson Simonal - Simona! (1970)

On this album in 1970, Simonal was backed as usual by maestro Cesar Camargo Mariano's Som Tres group. Although Simonal often complained of the tacky and tasteless songs that the record company and TV executives forced him to sing, Simona! shows Wilson maturating into a great soul and ballad singer, as well as his usual uptempo sound. Here he covers the 40s Ary Barroso classic Nao Baixo do Sapateiro known in the US simply as Bahia, a well known tune which even featured in Citizen Kane, but here takes on the full Black Rio treatment, in a precursor to the later sound of the eponymous Banda Black Rio. The nordestino funk pop of Severino Nono, Antonio Carlos & Jocafi's fantastic tale of a northeastern singer who goes to Rio, becomes a star and forgets his roots, the latino cha-cha of Comigo é Assim, and the upbeat almost Northern Soul of Fred Falcao/Arnoldo Medeiros number Sem Essa all stand out, as does the Marcos Valle-like Moro No Fim da Rua. Even Sistema Nervoso, has an underlying charm with its gorgeous chord progression by arranger Cesar Camargo, despite the dodgy sound effect.
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Rice & Beans Orchestra - Dante's Inferno (1979)

One of the most ambitious albums ever recorded by disco combo Rice & Beans, a set that's got a bit more focus than some of their other 70s work, and which (as you might guess from the title) is built around Dante's Inferno! The album works as one long suite of tracks, building with heavy percussion, riffing guitar, and plenty of strings on the top, all in the best polished TK disco mode, with impeccable arrangements from Hector Garrido. And while other high-toned efforts like this never seem to work that well, this record comes off really great, never over-pedaling the artier aspects of its premise, and somehow managing to fold in 12 different cantos into a single extended disco suite!
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Santana - Caravanserai (1972)

Drawing on rock, salsa, and jazz, Santana recorded one imaginative, unpredictable gem after another during the 1970s. But Caravanserai is daring even by Santana's high standards!
Carlos Santana was obviously very hip to jazz fusion, something the innovative guitarist provides a generous dose of on the largely instrumental Caravanserai. Whether its approach is jazz-rock or simply rock, this album is consistently inspired and quite adventurous. Full of heartfelt, introspective guitar solos, it lacks the immediacy of Santana or Abraxas. Like the type of jazz that influenced it, this pearl (which marked the beginning of keyboardist/composer Tom Coster's highly beneficial membership in the band) requires a number of listenings in order to be absorbed and fully appreciated. But make no mistake: this is one of Santana's finest accomplishments!
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The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band - In the Jungle, Babe (1969)

Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band were near the peak of their popularity on this, their third Warner Brothers LP featuring three chart singles. Artistically, they are right there. The rough unevenness of LP number one is gone, and it flows smoother than their second album, which spawned Do Your Thing. Till You Get Enough, a heavy dose of funk, charted at number 68 pop and 12 R&B in 1969; the slow, sensuous Love Land faired much better overall at number ten pop and number 20 R&B in 1969. A final single, Must Be Your Thing (1970), charted at number 67 pop and 12 R&B. The band also affix their disjointed rhythmic approach to remakes of Edwin Starr's Twenty Five Miles, the Doors' Light My Fire, and Wilson Pickett's I'm a Midnight Mover. In the Jungle, Babe is easily one of the most satisfying album of the bands' career.
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David Ruffin - Gentleman Ruffin (1980)

As the lead singer of the Temptations, Ruffin was one of the most urbane and charismatic singers around. His work as a solo act was spotty at best. Writers and producers at Motown had Ruffin screaming at the top of his lungs over everything from run over dogs to Dear John letters. A 1970 set with his brother Jimmy Ruffin and a trio of albums with producer Van McCoy in the late 70's were the only respite from a steep artistic decline. Ruffin left Motown in 1977. This 1980 album presents him as more of a love man and is the follow up to 1979's Soon We Change, also produced by Don Davis. The most striking thing about this effort is Ruffin's voice. Unlike other singers of the raspy/loud type, his voice actually improved and he didn't have to resort to howls to make up for a lost midrange. Producer Don Davis plugged Ruffin into a polished, contemporary R&B setting that featured, among others, Leon Ware and Ronnie McNeir on backing vocals. I Got a Thing for You has Ruffin coming on smooth and confident as he sings, Felt the feeling, without a touch. He even has to laugh. The dramatic Can We Make Love One More Time shows Ruffin didn't lose his cool while begging. Even the borderline unctuous Don't You Go Home works even though his "love call" should have made his object of desire head for the exits. Gentleman Ruffin is Ruffin's last album as a solo act. Although there are a few weak spots, no comprehensive Ruffin collection should be without it.
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George Benson - Good King Bad (1975)

The R&B elements get stronger, the sound and mix are more attuned to the dancefloor, yet this brings out the best in George Benson's funky side. Thanks in part to the more rigid beat, Benson pares down his style to its rhythmic essentials, refusing to spray notes all over the place at random, and as a result, the record cooks and dances. His treatment of Vince Guaraldi's “Cast Your Fate to the Wind”, hugely complemented by Joe Farrell's wistfully prancing flute, is a mini-masterpiece in the use of space, of hitting exactly the right stabbing note right in the pocket. Again, Creed Taylor turns to a James Brown alumnus, David Matthews, for arrangements, and he discreetly and wisely stays out of Bad George's way. Check this one for “Cast Your Fate”, but there is plenty more to savor here.
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Poet & the Roots - Dread Beat An’ Blood (1978)

One of Jamaica's most significant reggae albums, originally released in 1978 on Frontline Records. Poet is Linton Kwesi Johnson; the Roots are Vivian Weathers (bass guitar, vocals), Dennis Bovell (guitar, keyboards), Desmond Craig (keyboards), Winston Cumiffe (drums), Lloyd Donaldson (drums), Everald Forest (percussion), John Vamom (guitar), and Lila Weathers (vocals). All but two songs first appeared in Johnson's 1975 poetry book, Dread Beat An' Blood. The poems are political in nature, dealing with England's racist regime and the way some dealt with the oppression: doping, fighting, and wasting one another in bars, as depicted in “Five Nights of Bleeding (For Leroy Harris)”. Johnson does little singing, he simply delivers his poems in cadence to the music. Only on a couple of tunes like “Song of Blood”, led by Lila Weathers, does any real singing occur, but Johnson's powerful, inspirational, descriptive words needs little embellishment.
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Jewel - Cut ’n’ Polished (1982)

An incredible record by an obscure Chicago group, a little known combo from the early 80s, but one who sparkle with the brilliance of Earth Wind & Fire from their best period of a few years before! The group have a sound that definitely earns the “polished” in the title, but it's also one that's never slick, that great balance of soul, jazz, and grace that filled the best EWF albums in the mid 70s, and which is served up beautifully here by a group who should have been huge! There's a warmth here that's uncommon for albums of the early 80s, and a professional, focused approach that's also quite rare among indie soul sets like this.
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Andy Bey- Experience And Judgment (1974)

   A classic! Just in case some of you had been missing on this one, here's Andy Bey's splendid solo album, a righteous companion to the records he cut at the same time with spiritual jazz greats Gary Bartz (the NTU troop albums) and Horace Silver (the terrific United States of Mind trilogy). Bey's voice, tone and artistry is unique and very well suited to the richness and ambition of the music.

  Recently hailed as a prime reference by current vocal jazz sensation Jose James, he remains criminally overlooked by academics, critics and purists who refuse to listening to anything outside of conventional jazz vernacular. His delivery on Experience and Judgment goes beyond anything he previously committed to tape, revealing a spiritual side that's punched up and supported by a jazz-funk ensemble. The album includes a remake of "Celestial Blues", which he did with Gary Bartz, plus the tracks "Being Uptight", "Tune Up", "Hibiscus", "Experience", and "The Power Of My Mind".

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Greg

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