Tuesday Morning
River
Listen to the mellow groove of Tuesday Morning for a taste. River sounds like something straight from one of Eugenes solo albums from the early 70's. It's got that folky feel. There are three more good funk tunes, some more soulful ones and then there's the 10-minute jazz-funk tune Hello To The Wind.
Funky stuff from organist Merl Saunders who passed away recently. Some instrumental tracks, some with vocals. The album was released on Fantasy in 1973. Players are Merl Saunders on keyboardsand vocals, Jerry Garcia on guitar and vocals, Tom Fogerty and Mike Howell on rhythm guitar, John Kahn or Chuck Rainey on bass, Bill Vitt, Christopher Parker, Bill Kruetzman or Gaylord Birch on drums, Bill Sommers and Ken Nash on percussion and Walter Hawkins on vocals. Really nice funky music with some blues and jazz elements.
Nice soul with a real fatback sound on some tracks. There's also some jazzy and some bluesy touches here and there. Released on Polydor in 1971, arranged and conducted by Horace Ott. Her version of My Way is really nice and gets lowdown and funky before the fade. Hey World, Let Love In is the song for the straight up funk heads.
Another record from bass player Isao Suzuki, this one released in 1973 on Three Blind Mice. Suzuki plays bass and cello, Kunihiko Sugano plays piano and fender rhodes, George Otsuka plays drums and a second bass player, Takashi Mizuhashi, is added on four tracks. Aqua Marine is a nice, hypnotic tune with sweet rhodes piano. Blow Up is funkier and sort of hectic.
The Arrival Of Bobby Jones was released in 1972 on Cobblestone Records. The players are Bobby jones on tenor sax, soprano sax and clarinet, Richard Davis on bass, Charles McPherson on alto sax, Jaki Byard on piano, Mickey Roker on drums, Bob Dorough plays rhodes on two tunes and Sue Evans handles percussion duties on three tunes.
http://rapidshare.com/files/138445215/Blue_Mitchell_-_Blue_Mitchell.rar.html
This is jazz-funk, heavy on rhythm, released on Island in 1973. Sun Treader was a project led by drummer Morris Pert who handles drums and percussion. The other members were Peter Robinson on electric pianos (there's plenty of nice rhodes playing on this one), Alyn Ross on bass and Robin Thompson plays soprano saxophone on two of the four tunes. The last song is weird but nice space-out music, while the other three tracks brings the funk.http://rapidshare.com/files/138180777/Sun_Treader_-_Zin-Zin.rar.html
Rick Laird, most famous for his time playing bass with The Mahavishnu Orchestra, recorded this album for the Muse/Timeless label in 1976. However, this vinyl copy of mine wasn't released until 1979, so perhaps this is a re-release, maybe someone can shed some light on this. Anyway, this is much more straight jazz than The Mahavishnu Orchestra, although there is some electric involvement. The players are Joe Henderson, who also produced the date, on tenor saxophone, Tom Grant on piano and rhodes and Ron Steen plays drums. There's some really nice and mellow moments on this one, I especially like it when the rhodes and drums stay in the background accompanying Laird and his electric bass.http://rapidshare.com/files/137985027/Rick_Laird_-_Soft_Focus.rar.html
Jazz-funk (with emphasis on jazz) from Horace Silver, released on Blue Note in 1972. As you might have figured out from the title, All is the third part of his United States Of Mind trilogy. Horace plays electric piano only throughout the record, Cecil Bridgewater plays trumpet, Harold Vick plays tenor saxophone, Richie Resnicoff is on guitar, Bob Cranshaw plays bass and Mickey Roker plays drums. Every song contains vocals (more or less) and the most prominently featured vocalists are Andy & Salome Bey.http://rapidshare.com/files/135866157/Horace_Silver_-_All_The_United_States_Of_Mind_Phase_3.rar.html
So i got a complaint regarding this link and I took it down. Its a good record. Track it down!
This record is cool. A cool mix between rock, jazz and soul/funk released in 1970. The Peddlers were a english trio consisting of Roy Phillips on vocals, organ, piano and rhodes (he also wrote a couple of the tunes), Tab Martin on bass and Trevor Morais on drums and percussion.http://rapidshare.com/files/135332974/Peddlers_-_Three_For_All.rar.html
This is a groovy one from my own neighbourhood of Sweden. A mixture of jazz and funk with some vocals, but its mostly instrumental workouts. Plenty of electronics going on. This one is pretty rare too, I imagine its even rarer outside of sweden so dont skip this one up now that you've come across it. Released on Harvest in 1976. The players are too numerous and I'm too tired to list them all, but check the back cover (included in the zip. file) for full details.http://rapidshare.com/files/133162860/Sundance_-_Sundance.rar.html
Here's a quick post before I go to bed. Released on Black Jazz in 1973, this record is pretty much the usual Black Jazz-sound, plus there's a sort of pop-jazz version of You Are The Sunshine Of My Life. Get Down is fine ass, funky jazz with a heavy bassline intro. Players are Henry Franklin on bass, Calvin Keys on guitar, Ndugu on drums, Charles Weaver on conga drums and Eddie Gee joins in on tambourine.
Link removed at the request of Black Jazz Records
This album by pianist Mike Nock was released in 1980 on Sutra Records. Mike is most known to me as founder of The Fourth Way, a jazz-rock group that released two albums (that I know of) in the end of the 60's/beginning of the 70's. This is a little more in a straight jazz direction, although there's still some fusion in there, especially on the track Mind Blind. Alex Foster is playing saxophone, Ratso Harris bass, Tom Rainey drums and Ray Mantilla is playing percussion.http://rapidshare.com/files/130218991/Mike_Nock_-_Succubus.rar.html
