All Categories — LPs  

A nice little tribute to Boston boy Charlie Mariano – done by the Berklee School Of Music, at a time when the group included John Abercrombie on guitar, Yasuo Arakawa on bass, Alf Clausen on French horn, and Ernie Watts on sax and flute! Herb Pomeroy directs, and titles include "Iberian Waltz", "Miss Blue Eyes", "Little T", "Come Fall", and "Impressions Of Kyoto".

Excellent live set from the early 70's, featuring George Duke, Airto, Ernie Watts, and brother Nat. David Axelrod produced, and the LP's got that nice hard funky sound that he did so well during his stint with Cannonball. Includes the 12 minute groover "The Brakes", plus "Oh Babe", "Music, You All", and "Capricorn". Lots of funky drums and bass, and with a lot of space in the arrangements to let things break down!

An underappreciated soul set from George Duke for Epic – his Rendezvous from '84 – an engagement worth keeping! Given the mid 80s release date, you might be expecting a whole lot of programming and drum machine action – there's a bit of it, but this is a really lively set with some great musicianship across the board – and the songs are pretty strong, too. Duke produced, sings and handles an array of instrumentation from keys to synths and programming, with Stanley Clarke, Paulinho Da Costa, Ernie Watts, Oscar Castro Neves and other great players in the mix. Titles include "Got To Get Back To Love", "Take It On", "She Can Wait Forever", "Stay Awhile", "Thinking Of You" (with some nice extended string arrangements), "Secret Rendezvous", and "Ipanema Lady"

An excellent pairing of funk talents – the tight trumpet of Blue Mitchell, and the super-soulful backings of Monk Higgins! Higgins has a groove that was schooled in the funky 45 underground of Chicago – and here, he really finds a great way to pick things up for Mitchell – relieving him of the duties of being a leader on his own, and coming up with tight jams that then let Blue step out as the main solo talent! Other players include Paul Humphrey on drums, Anthony Ortega on tenor, Jim Horn and Ernie Watts on flute, and Monk Higgins himself on organ, tenor, and piano! The whole thing's a great jam, and includes many tasty cuts, like "Deeper In Black", "Jo Ju Ja", "Blue On Black", "Monkin Around", and "Keep Your Soul".

A cool collection of space-themed club tracks from Gene Page – and possibly one of his greatest albums of the 70s – dispite a gimmicky approach! There's a tightly soaring feel to most of the cuts that's Page at his best – arranging fully with styles borrowed from Barry White, but also hitting with a bit of Philly inspiration too – never too over the top, and never too commercially driven as you might expect from the concept. There's some great moogy bits on the record – and plenty of great session players who include David T Walker and Wah Wah Watson on guitars, Jack Ashford on percussion, and Ernie Watts on alto sax. Great Phillinganes sings a bit on the record – and titles include "Star Trek", "Close Encounters", "Saturn", "Dancin In The Sky", "I Feel Like I've Been Livin", "Beyond The Hole Space", and "I Sho Like To Ride On Your Star".

Although Buddy's always been a bit laughable, he was always trying to keep his bag moving, and his band of the late 60s included some pretty darn nice players. The group on this session includes Ernie Watts and Bobby Shew, and the band wails hard and fast in a live setting with lots of tight little numbers. Tracks include "Wack Wack", "Norwegian Wood", "The Beat Goes On", and "Mexicali Nose".

One of Gerald Wilson's hippest albums for World Pacific – and all of them are pretty darn hip! This set is one of Gerald's last for the label – cut in a run of very successful, and very strong big band soul jazz albums that brought together the cream of the crop of the LA underground. Like the other sets, this one's got a great lineup – with players that include Anthony Ortega, Hadley Caliman, Harold Land, Ernie Watts, and Bobby Hutcherson – but the real strength of the album lies with Groove Holmes, who cuts some pretty fantastic solos on the album's best tracks – bubbling his Hammond through the larger arrangements with the space and expression that Wilson allowed his individual players on these sessions. Titles include great versions of "Aquarius" and Coltrane's "Equinox" – plus the original tunes "Celestial Soul", "Scorpio Rising", "Pisces", and "Bluesnee".

Despite the fact that most of these guys participated in some of the best funky fusion records coming out of the 70s west coast scene, this record's not what it should be – especially when you consider it's got players like George Bohannon, Ernie Watts, and Oscar Brashear. Still, it's not a bad bit of pop funky fusion – in sort of a later Crusaders mode – and it does feature some vocals by Syreeta and Denices Williams. Titles include "Suite Syreeta", "Kwanzaa", "Well", and "Funk De Mambo".

A bundle of soul from Freddie Hubbard – one that has him blowing beautifully over full arrangements from Bert DeCoteux – the 70s super-soul maestro who really brings a new sound to Hubbard's music! The style's a bit smoother than other Freddie albums of the time, but still really great – a wonderful plenty of his well-timed, well-punctuated work on trumpet with warm grooves supplied by Bert – filled with instrumentation that includes David T Walker on guitar, Ernie Watts on sax and flute, Azar Lawrence on tenor, David Garfield on keyboards, and even Dorothy Ashby on flute. Titles include "Portrait Of Jenny", "Rainy Day Song", "Bundle Of Joy", "From Now On", "From Behind", and "Rahsaan".

An excellent album of Barry White-styled instrumentals – put together by Barry's right hand man Gene Page, and produced by Barry himself! The record's one of the best that Page ever cut – apart from his seminal blacksploitation soundtracks – and it's very much in the mode of White's Love Unlimited Orchestra albums from the same time, although perhaps with less of a string section. Players are an all-star cast of LA studio groovers that includes David T Walker, Wah Wah Ragin, Ernie Watts, Wilton Felder, and others – and tracks are mostly originals by Page and White. Titles include "Jungle Eyes", "She's My Main Squeeze", "I Am Living In A World Of Gloom", "Satin Soul", and "To The Bone".