Tag: Harry Whitaker

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Roy Ayers Ubiquity – Change Up The Groove (1974)

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Roy Ayers Ubiquity
Change Up The Groove
Polydor PD 6032

This record probably gets overlooked a bit in favor of the Ubiquity releases that preceded it, but it is solid album.  Any record with Pretty Purdie on the drum kit is a solid album though, amiright? Soulful covers of Stevie Wonder, the Theme From MASH, and Roberta Flack are peppered among the originals. In fact, the latter artist – represented by Eugene McDaniels’ “Feel Like Makin’ Love” – is a particularly homegrown choice, as keyboardist Harry Whitaker was now a regular contributor to Roberta Flack’s group and would work as her arranger for a while.  Actually if I’m being honest, as the longest tune on the album I find it a bit boring, in spite of featuring what sounds like a Mellotron (not credited on the jacket). And the MASH theme (aka Suicide Is Painless) is kind of corny.  The real highlights are the original tunes like Sensitize, Fikisha, and The Boogie Back.  The group’s interpretation of the ubiquitous Stevie’s Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing does take celestial carefree flights of joy and should make you grin.  Don’t be fooled by the worn-out jacket: this Sterling Sound pressing is actually in very nice shape and I think the rip came out pretty good. Stay tuned for more Ubiquity from me this summer Continue reading

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Harry Whitaker / Black Renaissance – Body, Mind and Spirit (1976)

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Black Renaissance
Body, Mind and Spirit

1. Black Renaissance
2. Magic Ritual

Recorded at Sound Ideas, New York, NY (01/15/1976).

Arranger: Harry Whitaker.

Players: Harry Whitaker (piano); Lani Groves, Edna Holt, Sandy Nakarmura, Assata Dolby (vocals); Azar Lawrence (soprano & tenor saxophones); David Schnitter (tenor saxophone); Woody Shaw (trumpet); Buster Williams (bass); Billy Hart, Howard King (drums, percussion); Mtume, Earl Bennett (percussion)

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For those of you who have never heard of this album, it will come as a lovely surprise. For those who have heard about it but have yet to actually hear it, it might well seem a bit over-hyped, due in no small part to the douchebaggery of one Giles Peterson, who prattles on in the liner notes about how cool he is for knowing about it and showing it off to any other DJ’s who “dared to challenge” him. Well if you ignore that bloated musical neocolonialist (and snappy dresser), you can immerse yourself in what was truly a lost gem, lost even to its creator for decades.

Recorded on Martin Luther King Day in 1976, Whitaker invested his own hard-earned money as an arranger, writer, and session player into making this boldly uncommercial soul-jazz exercise in musical stretching. It features understated riffing from Azar Lawrence, David Schnitter, and the eternally-underrated Woody Shaw. Anchoring the rhythm is stalwart bassist Buster Williams with Howard King on drums and James Mtume on percussion. These latter two would go on to release the first album from the band Mtume the following year, and it’s interesting to keep that in mind while listening to this. While the first side of this album straddles a line between between mellow funk and spaced-out soul jazz (and is a bit long-winded at 23 minutes), the second and shorter side ‘Magic Ritual’ is a more aggressive, agitated piece of Afrocentric celebration. There is effective use of spoken word here that puts us comfortably in Strata-East and loft scene territory. More industry/label hype is compelled to claim this is “one of the earliest examples of rap” or some such nonsense. How many records are we going to bestow that honor on? At any rate claiming this for an album released as late as 1976 is a ludicrous statement that ignores so many musical ancestors it barely merits discussion. So, I’ll stop discussing it.

Since it is Martin Luther King Day in the United States, and since the next US president is likely to abolish that holiday, this makes today probably the last opportunity to celebrate this album without being locked up and held in indefinite detention without Habeas Corpus.

The sound on the CD is burdened with distortions, but given that the masters were destroyed and the source used here is presumably the Japanese bootleg that until now was the only available release, at the end of the day it sounds surprisingly good.

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