1970

everybodydigs#152 The Ahmad Jamal Trio – The Awakening

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everybodydigs# is a series of posts about Jazz, Funk, Soul & R’n’b albums released from the 20s to the 90s, you can read a brief description/review and listen to a small preview (when it’s possible). everybodydigs# is like when someone tells you “hey you should listen to this album!” and nothing less, enjoy!

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 double-timing 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. These are intriguing performances showing that Ahmad Jamal was continuing to evolve.

Rappamelo’s favorite track.

everybodydigs#129 Freddie Hubbard – Straight Life

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everybodydigs# is a series of posts about Jazz, Funk, Soul & R’n’b albums released from the 20s to the 90s, you can read a brief description/review and listen to a small preview (when it’s possible). everybodydigs# is like when someone tells you “hey you should listen to this album!” and nothing less, enjoy!

This is a remarkable and often overlooked album by one of the finest and most innovative trumpet players of the ’60s and ’70s. Steeped deeply in funk, Hubbard brings his bright tone and evocative, mercurial playing to the post-Bitches Brew soundscape of electrified instruments, Latin percussion, complex polyrhythms, and “free” blowing focused on texture and atmosphere. Straight Life charts waters different from Davis’ masterpiece, however. Whereas Bitches Brew is a dark, ominous journey into a jungle of rhythm clusters and tonal coloring, Hubbard’s work is sparer, cleaner, and characterized by catchy, almost pop-like themes.

Straight Life is much more than a mere groove-fest, though, as the top-notch players (including Joe Henderson, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and a young George Benson on guitar) unfurl formidable chops and vibrant backing throughout. The first two tracks, Hubbard’s title track and Weldon Irvine’s “Mr. Clean,” are lengthy, soulful workouts whose propulsive qualities and buoyancy are contrasted by the third track, the artist’s delicate and gorgeous flugelhorn treatment of “Here’s That Rainy Day.” Taken together, the cuts on Straight Life are musically sophisticated, stirring, and eminently groovy, making this “soul-jazz” of the highest order.

Personnel: Freddie Hubbard (trumpet, flugelhorn); Joe Henderson (saxophone); Herbie Hancock (piano); George Benson (guitar); Ron Carter (bass); Jack DeJohnette (drums); Weldon Irvine (tambourine); Richie Landrum (percussion).

Rappamelo’s favorite track:

everybodydigs#118 Donny Hathaway – Everything Is Everything

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everybodydigs# is a series of posts about Jazz, Funk, Soul & R’n’b albums released from the 20s to the 90s, you can read a brief description/review and listen to a small preview (when it’s possible). everybodydigs# is like when someone tells you “hey you should listen to this album!” and nothing less, enjoy!

Already a respected arranger and pianist who’d contributed to dozens of records (by artists ranging from the Impressions to Carla Thomas to Woody Herman), with this debut LP Donny Hathaway revealed yet another facet of his genius — his smoky, pleading voice, one of the best to ever grace a soul record. Everything Is Everything sounded like nothing before it, based in smooth uptown soul but boasting a set of excellent, open-ended arrangements gained from Hathaway’s background in classical and gospel music. Donny Hathaway’s debut introduced a brilliant talent into the world of soul, one who promised to take R&B farther than it had been taken since Ray Charles debuted on Atlantic. (allmusic)

Rappamelo’s favorite track:

everybodydigs#103 Woody Shaw – Blackstone Legacy

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everybodydigs# is a series of posts about Jazz, Funk, Soul & R’n’b albums released from the 20s to the 90s, you can read a brief description/review and listen to a small preview (when it’s possible). everybodydigs# is like when someone tells you “hey you should listen to this album!” and nothing less, enjoy!

Blackstone Legacy is the first instance of Woody Shaw stepping into the position of bandleader in the recording studio, something long overdue at the time. With a handpicked ensemble, Shaw was given total creative freedom, and the result is a landmark. His intention was to portray various sociopolitical dramas then being played out, from the ghettos of his youth to the war in Vietnam. That intention is clear in the complex energy exchanged between the horns and in Lenny White’s driving, polyrhythmic drumming.

Compositions by Shaw, such as the title track, are alive with urgency and exploration. His trumpet is warm and fierce as ever and sparkles with all his influences, from Clifford Brown to Lee Morgan. Keyboards player George Cables contributes two fine tunes, “Think On Me” and “New World”; the latter builds from its slow, emotional intro into a funky, rock & roll energy, perfectly reflecting the charged political climate of the early ’70s. Blackstone Legacy was a bold step forward.

Personnel: Woody Shaw (trumpet); Bennie Maupin (flute, bass clarinet, tenor saxophone); Gary Bartz (soprano saxophone, alto saxophone); George Cables (piano, electric piano); Lenny White (drums).

Rappamelo’s favorite track:

everybodydigs#94 Curtis Mayfield – Curtis

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everybodydigs# is a series of posts about Jazz, Funk, Soul & R’n’b albums released from the 20s to the 90s, you can read a brief description/review and listen to a small preview (when it’s possible). everybodydigs# is like when someone tells you “hey you should listen to this album!” and nothing less, enjoy!

The first solo album by the former leader of the Impressions, Curtis represented a musical apotheosis for Curtis Mayfield — indeed, it was practically the “Sgt. Pepper’s” album of ’70s soul, helping with its content and its success to open the whole genre to much bigger, richer musical canvases than artists had previously worked with. All of Mayfield’s years of experience of life, music, and people were pulled together into a rich, powerful, topical musical statement that reflected not only the most up-to-date soul sounds of its period, finely produced by Mayfield himself, and the immediacy of the times and their political and social concerns, but also embraced the most elegant R&B sounds out of the past.

Rappamelo’s favorite track:

everybodydigs#33 Ennio Morricone – Le Foto Proibite Di Una Signora Per Bene

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everybodydigs# is a series of posts about Jazz, Funk, Soul & R’n’b albums released from the 20s to the 90s, you can read a brief description/review and listen to a small preview (when it’s possible). everybodydigs# is like when someone tells you “hey you should listen to this album!” and nothing less, enjoy!

Ennio Morricone composed hundreds of original soundtracks for this style of low-budget thriller. The original soundtrack for this obscure Italian thriller from 1970 prominently features the voice of Edda Dell’Orso, who cropped up frequently in Morricone’s work during this period. Additionally, the Canori Moderni vocal ensemble features heavily in the evocative soundtrack. Most striking is the manner in which the composer uses repetition in an almost minimalist fashion. The unusual orchestrations of his work, which would later become a signature of his soundtrack compositions, are strikingly evident here. ~ Skip Jansen.

Rappamelo’s favorite track:

everybodydigs#18 Stanley Turrentine – Sugar

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everybodydigs# is a series of posts about Jazz, Funk, Soul & R’n’b albums released from the 20s to the 90s, you can read a brief description/review and listen to a small preview (when it’s possible). everybodydigs# is like when someone tells you “hey you should listen to this album!” and nothing less, enjoy!

One of the main weapons in sax legend Stanley Turrentine’s arsenal was the knowledge that a real groove requires just the right amount of energy without hitting the listener over the head. That knowledge is put to practical use throughout Turrentine’s first recording for CTI, SUGAR. Aided by the subtly soulful organ of Butch Cornell and the smoldering sensuality of George Benson’s guitar, Turrentine churned out solidly grooving (though not literally “funk”) tunes that employ blues-based economy and bob-schooled chops in equal measure. The fiery trumpet interjections of Freddie Hubbard keep things moving, but Turrentine’s mastery of the mid-tempo groove is exemplified throughout, whether on the down-and-dirty jam “Sunshine Alley” or a soulful take on John Coltrane’s “Impressions.” And don’t worry, the music is leagues more tasteful than the questionably raunchy cover art.

Personnel: Stanley Turrentine (saxophone); Lonnie Liston Smith Jr, Johnny Hammond (electric piano); Hubert Laws (flute); George Benson (guitar); Butch Cornell, Johnny Hammond (organ) Airto Moreira (percussion); Freddie Hubbard (trumpet); Ron Carter (double bass); Billy Cobham, Billy Kaye (drums).

Rappamelo’s favorite track: