Reviews
Leroy Vinnegar - The Kid (2005)
Released on Q-TapeAdded Sunday, January 31, 2010
The old guard of jazz musicians had trouble when the 70s came along. Their sales went down, frustrations went up, and they couldn’t understand the appeal of what labels like Milestone or Impulse were releasing. Finally producers were called in to hip these fossils to new genres that are all the rage with the kids (man). Take for instance Lionel Hampton’s “Off Into a Black Thing”. No offense to Hamp, but he sounds kinda confused being backed by Willie Henderson.Bassist Leroy Vinnegar did exactly the opposite in the 70s with “The Kid”, released on the small LA label PBR. Well after his fame in the 60s as jazz’s greatest walker dissipated, he didn’t call it a day. Instead, he came back and self-produced one hell of an album that rivals anything of the period on a major label! The album is seriously sublime and funky, built up from improvised studio jam sessions. The younger players in the group are a little green but put their hearts into the songs with solid playing. The album has a loose, fun, after-school quality, and because Vinnegar orchestrated these tracks, you know they have class. His solid bass keeps things tight through the haze of spacey jazz, blues, and funk, even on the more lounge-y cuts.The title track sounds like a lost cut from Herbie Hancock’s “Fat Albert Rotunda” The addition of an off-kilter synthesizer lead by Dwight Dickerson sets the party atmosphere of the album perfectly. (Dickerson also plays on “Glass of Water”, a similar album released on Vinnegar’s own Legend label around the same time) Kaftan charts a Rhodes-drenched route over an languid 7 minutes, and as for the nonsensically titled “Damn my Feet Hurt”, I have trouble thinking of another album that has banjo so funky. The liner notes are spot-on when they talk about the group as playmates, and that’s about right. This is an album to sit back and chill to. If something’s on your mind, you’ll feel better about it. And if there’s nothing on your mind, you’ll at least have a smile on your face
Filed under: Music, Funk, Jazz