Phil Upchurch - Darkness, Darkness and Feeling Blue

This is a follow-up to Chris' fine Upchurch post. I regret that I seem to have let both of these cd's go without keeping a lossless copy of each but here are my mp3 versions until you can find better.

Recorded in 1971, shortly after he departed Cadet Records in Chicago where he served as a prime sideman to both Curtis Mayfield and Jerry Butler, guitar king Phil Upchurch headed for the West Coast and Blue Thumb Records. Produced by Tommy LiPuma, Upchurch's Darkness, Darkness is his quintessential (double) album, full of laid-back funky grooves, elegant, mind-blowing guitar work, and in-the-pocket string and horn arrangements (as well as some fine Fender Rhodes work) from Donny Hathaway with legendary session bassist Chuck Rainey and smooth jazz piano great Joe Sample in the house. Upchurch is one of the rare guitarists who can walk the line of jazz, blues, rock, soul, and funk and fold them all into one another without sacrificing anything in the process, and that is displayed on countless occasions here. On the cover of the Youngbloods on the title track, Upchurch leaves all the fuzz tone and distortion of his early work behind him for the shimmering cleanliness of the West Coast sound. He gets the dirty grooves through the notes, not the effects, bringing out a funkier side of the Jesse Colin Young tune than its author ever knew existed. Hathaway's spare, tasty muted horn arrangements follow in counterpoint to the melody, creating an extended harmony that acts almost as another voice. On "Fire and Rain," the James Taylor nugget that was a current hit, Upchurch begins tenderly, wringing the melody slowly and purposefully from the guitar before the keyboards and strings reach in and grab hold of it. Forced to respond, he chunks up with large Wes Montgomery-styled chords and knotty fills for the piano and horn lines, cascading like water in the background. He increases the tempo and turns it out as a funky soul tune, resonating with the haunting melodic invention that brings it back to its rooted, poignant lyric. And while these tunes signify Upchurch as capable of turning even the most melancholy of folk tunes into funk-driven boogaloos, it's on the soul tunes where he shines brightest. His covers of James Brown's "Cold Sweat," Percy Mayfield's "Please Send Me Someone to Love," and Marvin Gaye's "Inner City Blues" carry the record into the pop stratosphere. While the rock music was danceable and inspiring to begin with and was reinvented both structurally and emotionally by Upchurch's playing, it's when he digs into classic R&B material that things really start to happen. He plays with so much soul and sticky groove that he wrings every sweat-drenched ounce of emotion from these songs and turns them into anthems of funky transcendence. There isn't anything extra in his silky approach, but there is a profound knowledge of when to move and when to slip, slide, and groove through these charts that is a trademark for Upchurch. No one could take a raw tune like "Cold Sweat," smooth it out, an still give it the tough, minimal, feeling read that Upchurch does here. His fingers are flying all over the place but are never outside the reach of the rhythm section. Never. Darkness, Darkness is the soul-jazz album of 1971 to beat, and one of the finest albums of its genre ever released. Upchurch is a genius and this album proves it beyond doubt.
_______________________________________________________________________________

In 1967 many aspiring musicians picked up the guitar as their instrument of choice, but most were interested in becoming the next Bob Dylan rather than the next Wes Montgomery. It’s understandable, then, that Phil Upchurch’s debut as a leader got lost in the shuffle. At this point he had worked as a sideman with some of the best artists in the rhythm and blues field, like Otis Rush and B.B. King, and would later follow the fusion movement with George Benson’s outfit in the seventies. However, Feeling Blue demonstrates that he was more than capable of handling the spotlight.

Half of the selections feature a high octane horn section where Upchurch no doubt felt right at home, and the R&B leanings of “Feeling Blue” and “Muscle Soul” give the guitarist plenty of opportunities to exercise his chops, cleanly executed and tasteful at any speed. But when the group approaches jazz standards and pop tunes they fall prey to the over-orchestration that marred Wes Montgomery’s later releases. “Tangerine,” for instance, is too muscular, and “Up, Up, and Away” sounds horribly dated today.

If the entire session featured this approach, then the album as a whole would be clearly sub par. However, the real treats are the quintet tracks, in which Upchurch is the sole lead instrument and is backed by a crack rhythm section. The handful of jazz standards and originals showcase his skill with single note and chord-based solos. The guitarist makes serviceable material out of “Corcovado” and “I Want A Little Girl” but turns in two truly great performances with a heavily swinging “Israel” and a bluesy “Sabaceous Lament” that display a formidable soloist with a bit of edge and plenty of tasty licks. Released for the first time on CD, Feeling Blue is a great jazz guitar record that, while flawed, displays a musician of considerable talent.