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!

Although introduced as a protégé of John Coltrane and touted by many as his heir apparent, reedman Pharoah Sanders quickly proved his own man. His shared interest in the “cosmic” music of Coltrane’s final period belies the fact that Sanders frequently plays with an unhurried sense of peace and satisfaction rarely found in his mentor’s music. His use of space, African and Asian motifs and instruments, and simple, repetitive melodies also pointed the way for jazz, rock, and new age musicians in the ’70s and ’80s, while his sometimes raucous use of harsh, shrieking runs influenced many of jazz’s most adventurous saxophonists.

The centerpiece of Karma is the marathon half-hour octet recording “The Creator Has a Master Plan.” Although the track features a warm vocal by Leon Thomas, its true feature artist for almost the entire length is Sanders, who carries the melody, feel, and improvisation firmly on his shoulders. All of Sanders’s key elements–Afro-centric spiritualism, sweeping use of mood from long, relaxed intervals to frenetic cacophony, and a deep sense of melody and rhythm–are in evidence. The album’s religious feeling is cemented by the album’s closer, “Colors,” which serves as a deeply felt invocation. –Fred Goodman

Personnel includes: Pharoah Sanders (tenor & soprano saxophones, alto flute, fife, bailophone, brass bell, bells, maracas, cow horn, percussion); Michael White (violin, percussion); Lonnie Liston Smith (bailophone, piano, electric piano, claves, ring cymbals, percussion, background vocals); Cecil McBee (bass, finger cymbals, percussion, sound effects); Clifford Jarvis (drums, maracas, bells, percussion); Roy Haynes (drums); Chief Bey, Majid Shabazz, Anthony Wiles, Nat Bettis (percussion); James Jordon (ring cymbals).

Rappamelo’s favorite track:

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!

Having taken Benson along with him when he founded CTI, Creed Taylor merely leaves the guitarist alone with a small group on his first release. The payoff is a superb jazz session where Benson rises to the challenge of the turbulent rhythm section of Jack DeJohnette and Ron Carter, with Clarence Palmer ably manning the organ. Benson is clearly as much at home with DeJohnette’s advanced playing as he was in soul/jazz (after all, he did play on some Miles Davis sessions a few years before), and his tone is edgier, with more bite, than it had been for awhile. The lyrical Benson is also on eloquent display in “Ode to a Kudu” (heard twice on the CD, as is “All Clear”), and there is even a somewhat experimental tilt toward Afro-Cuban-Indian rhythms in “Somewhere to the East.” A must-hear for all aficionados of Benson’s guitar. (allmusic.com)

Rappamelo’s favorite track:

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!

For George Benson’s second CTI project, producer Creed Taylor and arranger Don Sebesky successfully place the guitarist in a Spanish-flavored setting full of flamenco flourishes, brass fanfares, moody woodwinds and such. The idea works best on “California Dreamin'” (whose chords are based on Andalusian harmonies), where, driven by Jay Berliner’s exciting Spanish rhythm guitar, Benson comes through with some terrifically inspired playing. On “El Mar,” Berliner is replaced by Benson’s protégé Earl Klugh (then only 17) in an inauspicious — though at the time, widely-heralded — recorded debut. The title track is another winner, marred only by the out-of-tune brasses at the close, and in a good example of the CTI classical/jazz formula at work, Heitor Villa-Lobos’ “Little Train of the Caipira” is given an attractive early-’70s facelift. Herbie Hancock gets plenty of nimble solo space on Rhodes electric piano, Airto Moreira contributes percussion and atmospheric wordless vocals, and Ron Carter and Billy Cobham complete the high-energy rhythm section. In this prime sample of the CTI idiom, everyone wins. (allmusic)

Personnel: George Benson (guitar); Earl Klugh, Jay Berliner (acoustic guitar); Ron Carter (bass); Jane Taylor (bassoon); Romeo Penque (oboe, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet); George Marge (flute, clarinet, oboe, english horn); Phil Bodner (flute, oboe, english horn); Hubert Laws (flute); Gloria Agostini (harp); Wayne Andre (trombone, horn); Alan Rubin, John Frosk (trumept, flugelhorn); Airto Moreira (percussions, vocals); Phil Kraus (vibraphone, percussions); Herbie Hancock (electric piano); Bill Cobham (drums).

Rappamelo’s favorite track:

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 rarest and greatest Roy Ayers albums of all time – the sly, funky and spiritual masterpiece He’s Coming from 1971 – really the beginning of the funk years from Roy Ayers Ubiquity! This one’s a totally solid mix of soulful jazz, jazzy soul and righteous funk – and it’s straight up wonderful all the way through – with a groove that’s hugely influential to say the least! Includes the amazing track “We Live In Brooklyn Baby”, which has a slow sample bassline in the intro that’s just incredible – plus groovy cuts like the spiritual funk classic Jesus Christ Superstar “He’s a Superstar”, “He’s Coming”, and “Sweet Tears”. The lineup includes Sonny Fortune on soprano sax and flute and Billy Cobham drums and percussion, and the record’s co-arranged by Harry Whitaker, who’s also on keys and vocals – with other tracks include “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother”, “Ain’t Got Time”, “I Don’t Know How To Love Him”, “Sweet Butterfly Of Love” and “Fire Weaver”. Amazing stuff, really a beautiful encapsulation of Roy Ayers in peak form! (dustygroove.com)

Rappamelo’s favorite track: