Bobbi Humphrey – Blacks and Blues (1974) (24-bit 192 khz)

Bobbi Humphrey
Blacks And Blues
1974 Blue Note BN-LA142-G

Chicago, Damn  6:44
Harlem River Drive  7:24
Just A Love Child  8:21
Blacks And Blues  4:30
Jasper Country Man  5:16
Baby’s Gone  8:47

Recorded at Sound Factory Studios Hollywood, CA
Mastered at The Mastering Lab
Manufactured by United Artists Records, Inc.

Arranged By, Conductor – Larry Mizell
Backing Vocals and vocal arrangements – Fred Perron, Larry Mizell & Fonce Mizell
Clavinet, Trumpet – Fonce Mizell
Composed By – Larry Mizell
Congas – King Errison
Drums – Harvey Mason
Electric Bass  – Chuck Rainey, Ron Brown
Flute, Vocals [Solo] – Bobbi Humphrey
Guitar – David T. Walker, John Rowin
Percussion – Stephanie Spruill
Piano, Electric Piano [Fender Rhodes] – Jerry Peters
Synthesizer [Arp] – Fred Perren

Producer – Chuck Davis, Larry Mizell
Liner Notes – Leonard Brown
Photography By, Art Direction – Bob Cato
Engineer [Recording Assistant] – Chuck Davis, John Arias
Engineer [Recording] – John Mills
Engineer [Remix] – Chuck Davis, John Arias*, John Mills
Design – John Williams
Executive-Producer – George Butler

Notes
Recorded June 7 & 8, 1973 at Sound Factory, Hollywood, California.
Mastered at Mastering Lab, Hollywood, California.
Matrix / Runout (Runout Side 1 etched): 22 BN – LA 142 G – I
Matrix / Runout (Dead Wax Side 1 stamped): TML
Matrix / Runout (Runout Side 2 etched): 22 BN – LA 142 G – 2
Matrix / Runout (Dead Wax Side 2 stamped): TML

RIPPING INFO:
Blue Note BN-LA142-G vinyl; Pro-Ject RM-5SE with Audio Tecnica AT440-MLa cartridge; Speedbox power supply); Creek Audio OBH-15; Audioquest King Cobra cables; M-Audio Audiophile 192 Soundcard ; Adobe Audition at 32-bit float 192khz; clicks and pops removed with Click Repair on light settings, manually auditioning the output; further clicks removed with Adobe Audition 3.0; dithered and resampled using iZotope RX Advanced. Converted to FLAC in either Trader’s Little Helper or dBPoweramp. Tags done with Foobar 2000 and Tag and Rename.

 

This is one of the best records crafted by the production team of the Mizell Brothers for Blue Note, who also did notable albums for Donald Byrd, Freddie Hubbard, Johnny Hammond (for Salvation Records, a Motown subsidiary), and Gary Bartz, among others.  It was the first of three albums they made with Bobbi Humphrey, and although I’m not completely sure whether or not this was her biggest seller, it certainly put her on the map. The soaring, epic funk of tunes like Harlem River Drive sound deceptively effortless. There’s actually a lot going on there. Bobbi  does some singing on this album too in a girlish but charming voice.  The Mizells crafted their own genre in a way, pushing jazz-funk and soul-jazz into a kind of cinematic disco-jazz, as if all your favorite 2-3 minute instrumentals from Blaxploitation soundtracks were given new, deeper treatments and allowed to stretch out into full-fledged compositions.  Actually this a mediocre analogy for this record, because those constant qualities of blaxploitation film music – the tension of danger or menace – are nowhere to be found here.  There’s still a sense of something exciting going on, but it’s a lot more Summer Breeze than Superfly, I guess.  Pretty much all joyful exuberance here – this is another post I meant to do during the summer, but it’s about to be summer soon enough in the southern hemisphere so maybe I’m early rather than late.   The ensembles found on the Mizell Bros albums were always filled with heavyweights and this one does not disappoint, with stalwart Harvey Mason on the drum kit and the regal King Erisson on congas pinning down the lush soundscapes to solid earth.  Fans of the Arp synthesizer (and who isn’t a fan of the Arp?) won’t be disappointed either as it’s put to great use.  Also don’t be put off by the scrappy condition of the album cover – I lucked out and found an almost Near Mint copy of this in a “previously well-loved” jacket. Hope you enjoy it.

password: vibes


 

Liked it? Take a second to support Dr. Vibes on Patreon!
Become a patron at Patreon!
Bookmark the permalink.

15 Comments

  1. holy cow. this is unbelievable. thanks!

  2. I have had this LP on repeat play numerous times. Check the piano on ‘Baby’s Gone’ – massive tune.

  3. A nice find! Thank you for sharing.
    This vinyl rip is easier to Bobbi’s voice. The CD is much brighter.
    And hey, this one has more siren sound effects from the 70’s!

  4. This looks great. Thank you very much Dr. V!

  5. Damn it! Down already. Gotta pay more attention in the future. Fantastic album.

  6. Oooow?!…you shouldn’t have. Ever so thankful. Jasper Country Man in 24/96…now playing…and waiting for that sublime break 🙂

  7. Gracias 🙂

  8. Well, I`m too late. This one is down.. Must be amazing as an HD rip.
    Thanks anyway, Dr. Vibes 🙂 Great music on your blog

  9. Cheers, Doc….missed this first time around, so am very glad I dropped in today and found it. Always nice to have a decent hi-rez vinyl rip to replace CD!

  10. JUst to let you know, this is down

    • Hi

      Sorry about the terse comment. I only just read the section where you say you dislike one line repost requests.

      In my defence I had written a long post praising the blog and explaining how I used to visit regularly almost from the beginning but for various reasons recently started visiting again to find many links down.However it didn’t seem to go through, so I didn’t try again.

      In that missing post I mentioned that another Brazilian blog had a brilliant way if uploading and downloading via the Telegram messaging app – android and windows. It’s quick – and because it’s not a file locker I imagine links might stay up, which I assume is why he did it.

      I assume the last post automatically failed because I included a link to his blog so you could see his Telegram app service in action. Ill mention it in edited form

      bibliotecamusicaldoamarildoDOTblogspotDOTcom

      Thanks for all your legendary work. Keep fit and healthy, if for no other reason than to save music obsessives from mass suicide if this blog ever ends

      Obrigado

      • Ha, no worries in this case my friend. I am trying to locate what I did with these files and will try to fix it soon.

Leave a Reply to AnonymousCancel reply