Category: Soul jazz

Dorothy Ashby – Afro-Harping (1968)

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Dorothy Ashby – Afro-Harping  Orig. release 1968 Cadet Records / 2018 Geffen / UMe Next to Alice Coltrane, Dorothy Ashby is easily the best-known proponent of “jazz harp.”  I mean, it’s not exactly a crowded scene, is it?  This record stimulates all my auralgenous zones, drawing on ‘soul jazz’, pop, Latin, post-bop, R&B and proto-funk.  It may even evoke “exotica”, but only in the best ways: the lead-off track has a theremin in it, FFS.  It’s the kind of thing jazz purists used to overlook or disdain, with many nods to contemporary pop (“The Look of Love” closes the record, […]

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Grant Green – Alive! (1970) Day 10 of FV’s 12 Days of Xmas

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Grant Green – Alive! 2019 Blue Note 80 Series BST-84360 – Original Release 1970 Absolute barn-stormer of classic soul-jazz funk with a lineup that can’t be beat. Idris Muhammad is at his funkiest, but the other show-stealer is Ronnie Foster on the organ. Lean and mean stuff, if you dig this then you need to hear the Live at Club Mozambique from this same era, but which wasn’t issued until the 00’s. I=

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Lonnie Smith – Think! with Lee Morgan & David Newman (1969)

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Lonnie Smith Think! Original release 1969 Blue Note This 2019 reissue, Blue Note 80 Vinyl Reissue Series This week the world of music lost one of the greats of the jazz organ, “Dr.” Lonnie Smith.  I regret never having caught him live during his return to the spotlight, as he had quite the career.  He was part of a second (or third?) wave of soul-jazz organists that hit the scene in the latter half of the 1960s.

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Chester Thompson – Powerhouse (1971) (2021 Black Jazz / RGM)

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  Chester Thompson – Powerhouse 2021 Real Gone Music RGM-1202 / Original Release 1971 Black Jazz This is a short (seriously short, only 27 minutes) but sweet LP from future Tower of Power and Santana organist, Chester Thompson.  Not to be confused with the drummer Chester Thompson, who toured with Genesis in the post-Peter Gabriel years and also played in Santana’s 1980’s lineup at the same time as this Chester, which caused this Chester to start using his middle initial to help people keep them straight.  There is also a song called Mr. T that predates the A-Team by a […]

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Gene Russell – New Direction (1972) (Black Jazz BJ01 – RSD 2020)

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Gene Russell New Direction Real Gone Music RGM1018 Released: 29 Aug 2020 Limited Edition, RSD exclusive, Clear with Black Swirl US  Original release on BLACK JAZZ RECORDS as BJ/1 in 1971 Well, it has been nearly two months since my last post here. I had planned to share this record at the beginning of the year, hoping that 2021 would symbolize a “new direction” for the world.  But those hopes got dashed just a few days in. I haven’t been sitting around in the bad kind of funk and stewing in my own juices, however.  The Doctor has just been […]

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Roy Ayers Ubiquity – Live At The Montreux Jazz Festival (1972/1996)

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Roy Ayers Ubiquity – Live At The Montreux Jazz Festival Original release 1972 Polydor (Japan) 1996 CD reissue Verve Records 314531641-2 Dipping back into the Roy Ayers Ubiquity catalog, this live performance hails from pretty early in their trajectory, and this version was expanded from the original LP to include 4 extra tracks for what is probably a pretty complete representation of their set.  (more below the break)

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