When Free As The Wind was released the Crusaders had lost one of their original members Wayne Henderson. Still working with the band however were Larry Carlton and…
On Evil Ways, as the title might hint, Willie Bobo tries his hand at a number of popular covers such as Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, Knock On Wood, Ain’t Too Proud To…
If you didn’t pay close enough attention, you might take a look at this album and just think it was another easy listening piece. However, on closer inspection…
Closer To It! featured Brian Auger changing his supporting band. Gone was the first version of Oblivion Express (Barry Dean, Jim Mullen, Robbie McIntosh), and in was…
Last year I really got hooked on Muse Records. It started with a Muse compilation that I picked up that led me to track down all the original albums. Since then I’ve…
Akilah! was another good find I picked up at the KUSF record swap. Sparks had the usual suspects of Prestige studio musicians to create this fine record. Backing him…
Stanley Turrentine had a long career as a jazz saxophonist spanning several labels and styles. During much of his early career he was paired with his then wife, Shirley…
On Woga, keys player Charles Kynard found a nice groove. There’s the funky Soul-Jazz numbers like Little Ghetto Boy with sharp horn stabs, the more laid back…
The record comes in a gatefold cover with some cool pics of Eldee Young and Redd Holt getting down. Most of the first side is mellow jazz with typical covers like…
Flying Start was the last album to feature the original line-up of the Blackbyrds. Their mentor/producer Donald Byrd also hooked them up with session musicians like…
Les McCann going Latin? According to the liner notes a Limelight A&R man came to McCann discussing the popularity of Boogaloo in NYC. What followed that conversation…
I found this record in a dollar bin one summer in the suburbs of Chicago. It’s by far one of my best dollar finds. Melvin Jackson was from Chicago and the bassist…
Ahmad Jamal was a Pittsburgh piano player known for his melodic style of play. By 1973 he was recording with 20th Century and released this fine Soul-Jazz Fusion album…
Black Messiah was the first or second Cannonball Adderley LP that I ever bought. It’s a double album recorded live at the Troubadour Club in L.A. featuring Cannonball…
In the late-1960s Lou Donaldson released a number of soul-jazz albums on Blue Note to attain more commercial success. Alligator Bogaloo was the first of these albums.…
I’d passed on this Impact Of Brass LP a couple times before, but I finally couldn’t say no to a $5 copy at a record show. The album is mostly covers of…
Unlike Fire Eater, on For The Good Times, Rusty Bryant plays a series of very, very mellow Jazz cuts, which is probably why I’d always passed on this record…
The sound of a 707 airplane taking off opens up Blackbyrd, an apt beginning to Donald Byrd’s playing on the first song Flight Time. It’s a very light,…
Like a lot of early records I bought, I purchased Stan Getz’s Another World because it was sampled. That comes on the funky Fusion piece Keep Dreaming used by…
Just a while ago I cataloged all of my records and found that about 20 of my pieces that I had bought years ago turned out to be re-issues. Since then I’ve been…
