Hank Crawford turns his back on the cover of this sweet little set from Kudu - but the groove itself is very upfront, strongly in the best mix of funky jazz and club the label had going down into the late 70s! Arrangements are by David Matthews, who keeps things lean and mean, even when the instrumentation is fairly large - and Hank's nicely burning alto is firmly in the lead, blown with a sound that echoes back to older soul jazz modes of the 60s, but which has some smoother touches overall for the 70s. The album's got plenty of keyboards from Richard Tee, plus trombone solos from Fred Wesley, flute from Jeremy Steig, and guitar from Eric Gale - plus backing vocals on some of the cuts. © Dusty Groove, Inc.
Kudu Records, KU-33 S1, 1976
Recorded at Mediasound in New
York
Personnel:
Hank Crawford - Alto
Saxophone
Fred Wesley - Trombone
[Solos]
Jeremy Steig - Flute [Solos]
Richard Tee - Electric Piano
[Solos]
Eric Gale - Guitar [Solos]
Gary King - Bass (#A1-A3)
Anthony Jackson - Bass
(#B1,B2)
Andy Newmark - Drums (#A1-A3)
Steve Gadd - Drums (#B1,B2)
Nicky Marrero - Percussion
Frank Floyd, Ray Simpson,
Zachary Sanders - Backing Vocals
David Matthews - Arranger
Tracks:
A1. Funky Pigeon {David
Matthews} (6:07)
A2. I Can't Stop Loving You
{Don Gibson} (3:07)
A3. You'll Never Find Another
Love Like Mine {Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff} (6:47)
B1. Canadian Sunset {Eddie
Heywood, Norman Gimbel} (6:11)
B2. Midnight Over Memphis
{John Stubblefield} (11:23)
Total Time: 33:35
Credits:
Producer - Creed Taylor
Engineer - Alan Varner, Alec
Head, Joe Jorgensen
Engineer [Assistant] - Doug
Epstein, Ramona Janquitto
Mixing & Mastering - Rudy
van Gelder
Album Design - Rene
Schumacher
Album Photography - Wendy
Lombard
