Woody Shaw - Love Dance (1975) [Jap-CD]

A fantastic album by Woody Shaw - spiritual, soulful, and filled with some nice modal grooving! The group's one of the best he ever worked with on Muse - with Billy Harper on tenor, plus Rene McLean, Steve Turre, Joe Bonner, and Cecil McBee - and the approach reminds us of some of the work on Strata East from the same time. The highlight of the record is the cut "Sunbath", which was done in a more famous jazz dance version by singer Joyce Hurley - but Shaw's version has a very similar groove. Harper makes many of the other tracks shine brilliantly, and titles include "Love Dance", "Obsequious", and Harper's own beautiful composition "Soulfully I Love You". ~ Dusty Groove.

Muse Records, MR 5074, 1976
Sony Records, SRCS 9405, 1998
Recorded November, 1975 at Blue Rock Studio, New York City 

Musicians:
Woody Shaw - Trumpet
Steve Turre - Trombone, Bass Trombone
Rene McLean - Alto & Soprano Saxophones
Billy Harper - Tenor Saxophone
Joe Bonner - Piano, Electric Piano
Cecil McBee - Bass
Victor Lewis - Drums
Guilherme Franco - Percussion
Tony Waters - Congas 

Tracks:
1. Love Dance {Joe Bonner} (12:37)
2. Obsequious {Larry Young} (9:28)
3. Sunbath {Peggy Stern} (6:33)
4. Zoltan {Woody Shaw} (6:48)
5. Soulfully I Love You [Black Spiritual Of Love] {Billy Harper} (8:13) 

Total Time: 43:58 

Credits:
Producer - Michael Cuscuna
Engineer - Eddie Korvin
Mastering - Joe Brescio
Art Direction, Design, Photography - Hal Wilson
Liner Notes - Dan Morgenstern 

Love Dance

Ramsey Lewis & Nancy Wilson - The Two Of Us (1984)

Now this is a great album but, fact is this isn’t a full one duet album between Ramsey Lewis and Nancy Wilson. It's primarily a Ramsey Lewis solo album with his regular band featuring a handful of songs featuring Nancy on vocals. After the generally more 70's styled production of ‘Les Fleurs’ it became time for Ramsey to start more heavily acknowledging the more electronic/synthesizer sounds of the mid 80's. For that he went to none other than Stanley Clarke who the same year was heading in the exact same direction with his ‘Time Exposure’. There are two numbers that really point to that concept better than anything else. Both are electro-funk/break dance type numbers that, while very modern for their time are still rooted strongly in 70's style jazz-funk arrangements and rhythms as opposed to more brittle hip-hop/electronica beats. "Ram" is the faster of the two tunes with some sparse vocals and Ramsey working his Chicago style soul-jazz piano anywhere he finds a place for it. "Breaker Beat”, being more midtempo is the funkier of the two and has some great 80's jazz-funk synthesizer swirls to boot. "Quiet Storm" has a more fluid Grover Washington Jr. style groove and relies heavy of Paul Jackson holding the trio rhythm section into place. "Closer Than Close" is a similarly styled vocal piece but the vocal is by the fine male singer Daryl Coley, not Nancy Wilson. She does show up on three elegantly produced and arranged urban R&B/pop/jazz tunes "Midnight Rendezvous","Slippin' Away”, “Never Wanna Say Goodnight" and the title song, all of which find a balance between the "retro nuevo" sound of Anita Baker and Will Downing later in the decade and what people like Patti Austin and James Ingram was doing around this same time. In that respect it captures urban contemporary vocal pop/jazz as it were in a state of transition. The final cut on the album is an original Ramsey composition "Song With Words [Remembering]” a swirling solo piano number that interestingly enough would've been just about perfect for Nancy's vocals but actually survives more than well on its own without it. As a Nancy Wilson duet album this isn't particularly complete though all of her contributions are strong additions to the album. As it stands this is an excellent Ramsey Lewis album and one of his very finest of the period. ~ Andre S. Grindle, Amazon.com. 

Columbia Records, FC 39326, 1984
Sony Records, SICP 20298, 2011
Recorded & Mixed at Mad Hatter Studio & Sound Castle Studio, Los Angeles, California 

Musicians:
Ramsey Lewis - Concert Grand Piano [Steinway]
Nancy Wilson - Vocals (#5), Lead Vocals (#2,4,7)
Don Freeman - Keyboards (#2,4,5,7,8)
Vassal Benford - Piano (#5,8)
Robert Brookins - Synthesizer (#1,3,6)
Rory Kaplan - Synthesizer (#7,8)
Paul Jackson Jr. - Guitar (#1-8)
Stanley Clarke - Bass (#2), Sitar (#5)
Freddie Washington - Bass (#2,4,7)
John Robinson - Drums (#2,4)
Ricky Lawson - Drums (#7,8)
Daryl Coley - Vocals (#5), Lead Vocals (#8)
Lynn Davis - Backing Vocals (#2,4,7)
Josie James - Backing Vocals (#4)
Frieda Woody, Backing Vocals (#7)
Marcy Levy - Backing Vocals (#7)
Celia Kitengeth - Narrator (#1)
George Del Barrio - Arranger [Strings]
Barbara Hunter, Bill Hughes, Bonnie Douglas, Brenton Banks, Catherine Gotthoffer,
Christine Ermacoff, James Getzoff,, Janet Lakatos, Karen Jones, Murray Adler,
Norman Carr, Paul, Roland Kato, Ronald Folsom - Strings (#1,5) 

Tracks:
1. Ram {Ramsey Lewis, Stanley Clarke} (5:15)
2. Midnight Rendezvous {David Roberts} (3:53)
3. Breaker Beat {Ramsey Lewis, Stanley Clarke, Robert Brookins} (4:17)
4. Slippin' Away {David Foster, David Paich, Leon Ware} (4:45)
5. The Two Of Us {Jeremy Lubbock, Vassal Benford} (4:32)
6. Quiet Storm {Ramsey Lewis, Stanley Clarke} (4:14)
7. Never Wanna Say Goodnight {Ellen Schwartz, Franne Golde, Roger Bruno} (3:15)
8. Closer Than Close {Patrick Henderson, Vassal Benford} (4:56)
9. Song Without Words [Remembering] {Ramsey Lewis} (5:04) 

Total Time: 40:14 

Credits:
Producer - Stanley Clarke
Executive-Producer - Dr. George Butler
Engineer - Erik Zobler
Engineer [Assistant] - Duncan Aldrich, Gary Wagner, Jeff Vaughn, Mitch Gibson, Paul Erikson
Remixing Engineer - Don Hahn
Mastering - Bernie Grundman
Photography - Norman Seef
Design [Album] - John Berg
Liner Notes - Lawrence Tanter, Yvonne Daniels 

The Two Of Us

Miroslav Vitous - Purple (1970) [vinyl]

An interesting early fusion mélange, very open settings, Vitous overdubbing electric, or even electric piano, everybody leaves a lot of space in the music for the others, like a Bitches Brew stripped down to the very essence. The complete line-up is only on part of the album. It is totally different from his US debut Infinite Search, which is powerplay, in comparison - Purple is not exactly restrained or thoughtful, but takes its time much more. Somewhere in between In a Silent Way and the first Weather Report. On side one, Zawinul on Rhodes, Vitous on acoustic and Cobham play the title track, which is a rocky Vitous original (some bowed bass solo overdubbed), and Ron Carter's Mood. I like Zawinul better here than on any other album, I must admit. Side two starts with McLaughlin, Vitous on electric bass and piano (overdubbed), and Cobham doing Water Lilie, which could have made it to Weather Report's first LP as far as the mood is concerned; Shorter's Dolores with just Vitous and Cobham, two basses, arco overdubbed, similar to Mountain in the Clouds from Infinite Search; and Vitous' It Came From Nowhere, an experimental rockish track with Vitous and Cobham, both oberdubbing electric piano and a second drumset. ~ mikeweil, organissimo.org. 

CBS/Sony Records, SOPC 57101-J, 1970
Recorded 25th August, 1970 At Apostolic Studio, New York City 

Musicians:
Miroslav Vitous - Bass, Electric Piano (#B1,B3)
Joe Zawinul - Electric Piano (#A1,A2)
John McLaughlin - Guitar (#B1)
Billy Cobham - Drums

Tracks:
A1. Purple {Miroslav Vitous} (9:33)
A2. Mood {Ron Carter} (7:25)
B1. Water Lilie {Miroslav Vitous} (8:52)
B2. Dolores {Wayne Shorter} (4:09)
B3. It Came From Knowhere {Miroslav Vitous} (5:11) 

Total Time: 35:10 

Credits:
Producer - Miroslav Vitous
Engineer - David Baker
Photography - Yuzoh Satoh 

"I made that album after Infinite Search. I was working with David Baker, the engineer, and was experimenting with different musicians and material. I had Billy Cobham, John McLaughlin and Joe Zawinul there. They experimented with me. After six months, I thought I had enough material and put together an album. I think there is some excellent music on it. Purple was made before Weather Report started, but you can already hear some material that we later played with the band. There’s a song called "Water Lily," which has an identical skeleton to a piece we recorded with Weather Report called "Morning Lake." There’s another Weather Report piece called "Seventh Arrow" that was also on Purple. There was a development of the material on Purple that ended up in Weather Report. It was a stepping stone." ~ Extract by Miroslav Vitous, innerviews.org.