| CUSTOMER REVIEWS: | 5/5 - Funky jazz or jazzy funk?
Club Charles opens the album on a very 'up' note. It's a real club jazz number with tight sax and vibes, pinned down by seriously solid bass and drum tracks with glorious piano all over it.
The repetitive sax line that hooks you at the start of Willie Don drives home the point that is a jazz album to dance to, cruise to and just have fun to. The groove is irresistible.
I love the chugging bass and clavinet sound of The Poe House - it's a bit 70's, no make that very 70's and the way that organ is used as a rhythm instrument is very original.
That funky bass is doing all the right stuff on El Dorado for me. It's mean and moody as is the piano - sounding like Bob Mamet - and a smoky sax. This track is utterly sublime.
What a nice intro to It's Love - it could go anywhere - into a full blown funk number or a ballad. It does the former and it does chaotically - with a spacey female vocal, crazy percussion and horns that sound like they came off a 70's latin album.
The irrepressible groove of War's Low Rider will be familiar instantly. It's a pretty straight rendition with some cheeky rhythm guitar added. Great fun!
The trancey keyboards which open Blaze make way to a mid-tempo dream on sax and vibes. That electric piano sounds fabulous and that bass line winds round it all in a very sexy way. It's the little touches which make this song - particularly the string sounds which are very retro.
The funky clavinet sound is back for The Horse You Came in On. So is that in-your-face Crusaders-style electric piano. The melody is strong, if you stop dancing long enough to listen. You can't call it smooth jazz - it's moving, grooving, in-the-pocket stuff!
I adore the rhythm on The Block. The piano leads the melody, but also provides a mass of rhythm accents, together with amazing funky guitar. The keyboard and sax breakdown in the mid section catapults you back to the late 70's but by the next verse you're bang up to date. It's like travelling in a jazz-funk time machine.
Fluid acoustic bass swings like mad on Nevermore and this mid-tempo funk number has so many layers of rhythm it makes my head spin. The sweet sax whips it all up into a frenzy. Some sounds on this song are utterly unique.
A breathy sax and a doubled-up acoustic and electric bass line make Schmoke an attention-grabbing song. The electric bass then doubles the piano line on the chorus section - on this slow, hypnotic track, the bass is doing some exceptional things. You'll rarely hear music this inventive.
The drum track sounds synthesised on Tio Pepe and it rattles along perfectly, never getting in the way of the sweet, sweet piano or that busy bass. I love the spacey synth breakdown on this song. The music on this CD spans the gap between the golden age of jazz-funk and the current acid jazz and smooth era with ease - and great style.
Goose is a mid-based funky jam held down by mean bass and purposeful drums. It's alive with riffs from tenor sax and electric piano. Touches of vibes, vocal chants and Ohio Players-style horns provide the 70's feel on what is essentially a modern-sounding song. |
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Wednesday, October 8, 2008
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