Skip to content

Kelle Patterson – Maiden Voyage (1973) (2020 Black Jazz / RGM) – 12 Days of Xmas, Day 1

Kellee Patterson – Maiden Voyage
Vinyl transfer in 24-bit/192 kHz | 300 dpi scans | Jazz, Vocal Jazz
2020 Real Gone Music RGM-1189/ Original Release 1973 Black Jazz

Welcome to what might become a new tradition here: Flabbergasted Vibes’ Twelve Days of Christmas.  There’s been a ton of great music that has helped me get through the last year, and although I don’t have as much time to write about it as I did once upon a time, I’d still like to spread the word and the joy, hence this “holiday event” with some short and sweet blog posts.  In 2021, reissue label Real Gone Music finished putting out the rest of the Black Jazz catalog, the first time this significant body of work has received a legitimate reissue campaign. This Kellee Patterson album was resissued last year, and is a singular entry in the catalog of Black Jazz records – a set of sweet and soulful vocal jazz. She would go on to make some solid jazz-funk-disco albums later in the decade, but nothing that sounded quite like this.   Note that the title track is the classic by Herbie Hancock with the addition of lyrics.  The reissue features informative liner notes from Pat Thomas, but unlike the original releases, these are not also pressed as quadrophonic discs.

Kelle Patterson – Maiden Voyage (1973) (2020 Black Jazz / RGM) – 12 Days of Xmas, Day 1

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

 

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 decade.  Now that we’ve got that out of the way, the music:

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

Roland Haynes – 2nd Wave (1975) (2020 Black Jazz / Real Gone Music)

 

It’s a total coincidence (or is it?) that my first two posts about the Black Jazz reissues have been by keyboardists, without any brass or reeds in their band. Weird, eh? This record, “2nd Wave” is great stuff by a one-and-done mysterious key tickler, Roland Haynes. There are actually two Fender Rhodes players here, so that should be welcomed by those of you for whom there is Never Enough Rhodes.  Not much is known about Roland Haynes, a situation that is not cleared up by the liner notes by Pat Thomas in the insert.  Roland Haynes – 2nd Wave (1975) (2020 Black Jazz / Real Gone Music)