
Playtime - 10 pure 70's jazz-funk tracks
Compiled by Brad Whitaker
Superclasse
|
|
If you get a compilation with 70s jazz-funk in your hands, you'll expect at least a Roy-Ayers track, or the Headhunters right? Well, not if your main man in his lil' bedroom full of records is Brad Whitaker. Hey, Brad, push your bed to the side and dig in your are collection!
Brad digs in and from under his bed, comes one of his most precious gems. Aquarian Dream's "You're A Star". Man, this is the stuff I look for! Steaming intro, superb bassline, hot sax, this things evens out right alongside "Life on Mars" or "Runnin'". Superb jazzfunk that stimulates the dancing muscles more than any disco-stomp.
Too bad there isn't much more room under Brad's bed for more gems, or he's saving them for volume 2 to 12. Most of the rest comes from the rows of records on the side. Egba's "Takdropp" gives us hefty moogs and a "put yer shades on" atmosphere but the remainder of Side 1 is standard jazz-funk a la John Klemmer in his non-funky mood so to speak. Sax, drums, just easin' along. Not the fire Grant Green started with his superb "Sookie Sookie" that made jazz funk like never before. But that was the 1960s, you'll have to check Brad's living room for that collection.
Side 2 doesn't have a killer track like Aquarian Dream but the funkiness of the bass in David Fatman Newhead's "dance of the honey bee and the funky fly" (gotta luv the title) makes this track wortwhile. The compilation ends in the style it started: with the less essential, but hot "Do it to it" by Jimmy Owens in a very fashionable dance. Twisting and turning around in Brad's little bedroom. It's crampy in here but seeing that we can throw out around half of the way too cheesy jazzfunk, we should be able to still have a party in here! Play that Aquarian Dream track again man!
Outspan
feb2002
|