Hampton Hawes - Playin' In the Yard

This live LP mostly features Hampton Haweson electric piano, performing at the 1973 Montreux Jazz Festival in a trio with electric bassist Bob Cranshaw and drummer Kenny Clarke. Hawes interprets three of his originals, Sonny Rollins' catchy "Playin' In the Yard," and "Stella By Starlight." Although well-played, little memorable occurs, and Hawes never did sound as distinctive on keyboards as he did on acoustic piano.

Tracks:
1. Playin' In the Yard
2. Double Trouble
3. Pink Peaches
4. De De
5. Stella by Starlight

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Melvyn Price - Rhythm and Blues

The late ’60s were an explosive time in America. Flower power was blooming, civil rights were in full swing, and while American soldiers were fighting in Vietnam, American musicians were creating several brands of rebellious music back home. One such musician, a trombonist/conga player from Pontiac, Michigan, had grown weary of his nation’s volatile political climate. While evading the draft, Price traveled a well-worn path overseas where he toured Europe with a set of congas on his back. Eventually, he befriended a young Swedish girl with whom he would return to the States. Their stay, however, would be brief. With the birth of Melvyn’s first child on the horizon and social tensions mounting, the two longed to return to a country more befitting for a young family.

In the wake of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, Price set sail for Sweden where he immediately began gigging with Scandinavia’s jet-set jazz musicians. Although Price had cut his teeth in Motown, the folk explosion of the mid-’60s and Afro-Cuban music’s increasing visibility were both making major impacts on Price’s musical leanings. In 1974, after a pair of primarily percussive albums intended to aid dance instruction, Price composed and recorded his masterpiece, Rhythm and Blues, released on his own Meldor label. The music was simple, yet inspiring, pairing Sweden’s disciplined session players with imported Latin-American percussionists. Rhythm and Blues was never widely distributed abroad, and has, in recent years, fetched top dollar at auction.

1. Voodoo Love Dance
2. Toward Brazil
3. Behind Kungstradgarden
4. Happiness Is ...
5. Five O'Clock Traffic
6. Last Train

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Stanley Turrentine - La Place

1. Terrible T.
2. Cruisin'
3. Night Breeze
4. Take 4
5. Touching
6. La Place Street
7. Sparkle

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Eddie Henderson - Realization

Although the electric Herbie Hancock Sextet (and septet) left only a slim three-album discography on Warner Bros. and Columbia, you can expand it considerably by adding the two LPs that Eddie Henderson made as a leader on Capricorn -- a Georgia rock label known mostly for recording the Allman Brothers. Henderson's band is, in fact, the Hancock Septet minus Julian Priester with a second drummer (Lenny White) added, and they play the same brand of fantastic, electronically charged, intergalactic jazz-rock.

Henderson extends and develops the Hancock approach, sputtering and moving laconically about in a manner greatly affected by Miles Davis but more ebullient in tone. There are five compositions here, most of them by Henderson, with a contribution from Hancock (the subtly beautiful "Revelation") and the delicately textured "Anua" from Bennie Maupin. The drumming (from White and Billy Hart) is brilliantly propulsive; Hancock logs a lot of solo time and gets to play with his Echoplex, while Patrick Gleeson slips in mind-blowing streaks and whooshes of sound from his Moog and ARP synthesizers. This is one of the great lost treasures of the jazz-rock era; the music is a bit looser than that of the Hancock records yet every bit as invigorating and forward-thrusting.

1. Scorpio - Libra
2. Mars in Libra
3. Anua
4. Spiritual Awakening
5. Revelation - Realization

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Eddie Henderson - Mahal

Mahal from '78 include the fantastic up-tempo version of Herbie Hancock's Butterfly featuring the man himself on keyboards, along with most of the Headhunters. This album also includes another jazz-funk favorite, Prance On and Amoroso, a beautiful mid-temp track which illustrates Eddie's trumpet playing. Another track from this album Cyclops became a club hit at the time with some DJ's playing it at 45 RPM instead of 33!!

1. Butterfly

2. Cyclops
3. Emotions
4. Prance On
5.Amoroso
6. Mahal
7. Ecstasy

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Ronnie Laws - Mr. Nice Guy

The music Ronnie Laws created in the 80's has always tended to be miscatagorized under the name of jazz. And such as with his previous album Solid Ground this recording contains very little that resembles even jazz FUSION let alone acoustic music. What you get in both cases is wonderfully crafted modern funky pop/R&B with some pop-jazz references. Overall the music here is closer to being that of an 80's era Jr.Walker (a fact not betrayed by the fact his classic hit "What Does It Take" is covered almost by wrote here).

As for this album taken on it's own Ronnie Laws has taken the slick elements he began adding as far back as 1979's Every Generation and updated them with more mid 80's elements such as lightly gated drums and hand claps. The odd chords on the excellent shuffling album opener "Can't Save Tomorrow" are innovative and like so much music of this era contains a strong inspiration from Stevie Wonder's compositional style. The same use of chords shows up on the eerie near instrumental "Rolling". In between that the album emphasizes nothing but uptempo tunes of which the bouncy title track,"In The Groove","You" and "Off And On Again" offer in abundance. Ronnie takes a few more little creative soujourns on "Third Hour" and "Big Stars" but generally keeps the sound intact and the material consistant. Those people who have been collecting Ronnie Laws recordings all along will find this yet another in a string of solid consistant recordings he's made since 1975. And for reference purposes I actually like Ronnie's smooth soul singing on these songs and never had a problem with it at all; don't many believe as me that in the case of Laws, Norman Connors and Michael Henderson that vocals actually enhance their music? Either way this is a must have for any Ronnie Laws fan.

1. Can't Save Tomorrow
2. Mr Nice Guy
3. In the Groove
4. Third Hour
5. You
6. Big Stars
7. Rolling
8. What Does It Take
9. Off and on Again

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with thanks to Will for All

Ronnie Laws - Every Generation

A great little set of soulful fusion -- played by one of the artists who helped invent the genre! Ronnie's mixing soul and jazz easily here -- hitting a sweet groove that's a bit more electric than ever, but which still has all the warmth and depth of his 70s work. A few tracks feature Ronnie singing lead vocals -- but most of the numbers are instrumentals that focus on his extremely catchy work on saxophone -- in that rhythmically soloing mode that first broke big on the earlier hit "Always There". Backing vocals on the set are by Eloise Laws and Miki Howard -- and titles include "Young Child", "Tomorrow", "Every Generation", "As One", "Love's Victory", and the sublime mellow cut "Thoughts & Memories".

Personnel include: Ronnie Laws (vocals, saxophone); Pat Kelly (guitar); Hubert Laws (flute); Joe Sample, Larry Dunn, Patrice Rushen, Ronnie Foster, Bobby Lyle (keyboards); Barnaby Finch (Moog synthesizer); Nathaniel Phillips (bass instrument); Eloise Laws, Miki Howard (background vocals)

1. Young Child
2. Never Get Back to Houston
3. Every Generation
4. Tomorrow
5. O.T.B.A. (Outta Be A Law)
6. Love's Victory
7. Thoughts & Memories
8. As One

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