A mostly original program of solid, relaxed, and funky (if not quite inspirational) soul-jazz on this 1969 date, which also features Rusty Bryant on sax and Bernard Purdie behind the drums. The album’s been combined with the 1970 follow-up, Boogaloo Joe, on the Legends of Acid Jazz CD reissue.
Somewhere between “funky” era Grant Green and plain funky Melvin Sparks lyeth the great Boogaloo Joe Jones. Its the early 70’s… admittedly the organ thing is dying out, but labels are still desperate to capture the “young” generation… hence along come the Boogaloo… a funky Jazz guitarist who is the epitome of both “soul” and “Jazz” and a sound that has the crispness of the old funky Blue Note sound… with a bit of extra bite added in.
A killer South African Jazz Funk album from Johannesburg, totally undiscovered and recorded in 1975.
The project Abahambi is a never mentioned band with the very famous bass-player Sipho Gumede, as the band leader.Unfortunately no more recording sessions of this particular formation are known. Sipho’s reputation grew higher in the early 80s, while he produced the african Combo „Sakhile“.
Produced by Thomas R. Mdakane
Recorded 1975 in Johannesburg
Organist Jimmy Smith’s Blue Note and Verve back-catalog is the stuff of legend, and the man plays as well on Dot Com Blues as he ever has. But this session is more than another Jimmy Smith album. At times you wonder where Jimmy is among all the accompanying star power, but if you listen, he is still there, rubbing the honeyed keys as B.B. King, Etta James, Dr. John, and Keb Mo wail and work it. Smith shows he is still the master of the blueswalk in “8 Counts for Rita,” “C.C. Rider,” “Tuition Blues,” and the title track, as well as on a sumptuously slow version of “Mood Indigo.” Here, Smith solos with gritty abandon in a small-group setting with such notables as guitarist Russell Malone, drummer Harvey Mason, and percussionist Lenny Castro. Smith is more often felt than heard elsewhere, though, and maybe that is understandable when Etta James lets rips on a wobbly version of “I Just Wanna Make Love to You.” The opening “Only in It for the Money” is better balanced, perhaps because Dr. John understands the value of less-is-more and, as a fellow keyboardist, doesn’t want to step on Smith’s celebrated toes. Finally, B.B. King helps make “Three O’Clock Blues” a rocking blowout that transports the listener back to some rock & blues tent meeting circa 1956. Dot Com Blues proves that Jimmy Smith can still raise the rug and do what he does best, star power in attendance or not.
Although Charles Kynard led a date for Pacific Jazz in the early ’60s and five albums for Prestige from 1968-1970, he never really became famous. A fine organist in the style of Jimmy Smith, Kynard could always groove and chug along with the best of them. This Prestige date (reissued on an LP in the Original Jazz Classics series but not yet on CD) matches Kynard with an interesting cast of players: tenor saxophonist Wilton Felder (of the Jazz Crusaders), guitarist Joe Pass (a few years before he became famous for his Pablo recordings), electric bassist Carol Kaye, and drummer Paul Humphrey. The music is quite groove-oriented and chiefly of interest for the contrasting solos of Kynard, Felder, and Pass. [The entire album has been combined with another 1969 session, The Soul Brotherhood, on Prestige’s 2001 CD reissue The Soul Brotherhood.]
GRANAZI 