RAY BARRETTO - LA CUNA - FEATURING TITO PUENTE / CHARLIE PALMIERI / JOE FARRELL / JOHN TROPEA / STEVE GADD
Digitally
remastered by Chris Herles (Sony Music Studios, New York). Producer Creed
Taylor has inspired everything from praise to anger among jazz fans. His work
has been brilliant at times, detrimental at others (his worst flaw being a
tendency to overproduce). Taylor plays a mostly positive role on La Cuna, a
jazz-oriented effort uniting Ray Barretto with such first-class talent as Tito
Puente (timbales) and the late Joe Farrell (tenor & soprano sax, flute). As
slick as things get at times on La Cuna (originally released on vinyl by Taylor's
CTI label and reissued on CD in 1995), Taylor wisely gives the players room to
blow on everything from the haunting "Doloroso" and the driving
"Cocinando" (a piece by Carlos Franzetti that shouldn't be confused
with Barretto's major salsa/cha-cha hit) to a somewhat Gato Barbieri-ish take
on Mussorgsky's "The Old Castle." Barretto successfully moves into
soul territory on Stevie Wonder's "Pastime Paradise" (which rapper
Coolio recast as his hit "Gangsta's Paradise" in 1994). Barretto may
hate the term "Latin jazz," but make no mistake: La Cuna is one of
his most memorable contributions to that genre. ~ Alex Henderson 2013 Japanese
pressing BLU-SPEC CD. Remastered. CTI Recorded at Van Gelder Studios,
Hackensack, New Jersey in August 1979. Includes liner notes by Arnold Jay
Smith. Personnel: Ray Barretto (congas, percussion); Willy Torres (vocals); Joe
Farrell (tenor & soprano saxophones, flute); Carlos Franzetti (piano);
Charlie Palmieri (piano, percussion); Jeremy Wall, Suzanne Ciani
(synthesizers); John Tropea (guitar); Francisco Centeno (bass); Steve Gadd,
Mark Craney (drums); Tito Puente (timbales). ~ cduniverse.com
ESTHER PHILLIPS - FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM
One of
Esther Phillips finest '70s releases, From a Whisper to a Scream is the first
of seven albums the singer recorded for CTI offshoot Kudu. Arranged and
conducted by Pee Wee Ellis, the December 1971 session also involved principal
players such as bassist Gordon Edwards, drummer Bernard Purdie, percussionist
Airto, guitarists Cornell Dupree and Eric Gale, keyboardist Richard Tee, and
saxophonists Hank Crawford and David Liebman. Setting the tone for Phillips'
Kudu era, Whisper offers a series of spacious, yet fully arranged ballads of
burning heartache, along with a handful of relatively funky numbers that do
nothing to compromise her talent, dishing out loads of classy grit. It's a
definite point of departure from the likes of Esther Phillips Sings and And I
Love Him, her field of contemporaries closer to Al Green and Aretha Franklin
than before. She grabs onto "Home Is Where the Hatred Is," Gil
Scott-Heron's most harrowing rumination on drug dependency -- which, at that
point, wasn't even a year old -- as if it were her very own, and it's all the
more poignant given its parallels with her own life. (Its meaning was only
compounded by her death in 1984. ) Though there is absolutely nothing lacking
in the album's more energetic moments, it's still the ballads that shine
brightest, like the alternately fragile and explosive "From a Whisper to a
Scream" (Allen Toussaint) and a staggering "Baby, I'm for Real"
(Marvin and Anna Gordy, made popular by the Originals) so vulnerable yet
commanding that it really should've closed the album. ... Full Description ~ Andy Kellman 2013
Japanese pressing BLU-SPEC CD. Remastered. CTI Rolling Stone (7/6/72, p. 62) -
"... She puts her bitter yet warm personal stamp on everything on the
album, and covers a really broad range of material, from blues to
ballads..." Mojo (Publisher) (p. 69) - "[With] an incredible
funked-up version of Gil Scott-Heron's harrowing portrait of drug addiction,
'Home Is Where The Hatred Is'. ~ cduniverse.com
ERIC GALE - FORECAST
Eric
Gale's 1973 Forecast album on the Kudu label is one of his most varied
texturally. Produced by Kudu label boss Creed Taylor, the rhythm tracks were
arranged by Gale, and the horns and strings by Bob James. Taylor surrounded
Gale with the cream-of-the-crop of the current session players: jazz's most
soulful drummer, Idris Muhammad, was in the house for most of the album, and
Rick Marotta filled out the rest. Saxophonists included Joe Farrell, Pepper
Adams, and Jerry Dodgion (an underrated ace who made his name with Curtis Amy
on his Pacific jazz sides in the early '60s), and trumpeters included Randy
Brecker and Jon Faddis. Hubert Laws and George Marge sat in the flute chairs,
and James played piano and synths. Gale, for his part, was blended into a
meticulously arranged and gorgeously orchestrated set of mixed tempo originals,
and a pair of carefully chosen covers: "Killing Me Softly," by
Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel, and Antonio Carlos Jobim's and Aloysio de
Oliviera's deeply moving "Dindi." Gale's single string lines bite
harder than some of the Brazilian counterparts, but because his blues
inflection is so pronounced against the lush strings, keyboards, and horns, it
works wonderfully. ... Full Description
Gale's own grooved out "Cleopatra," and the otherworldly funk and
blues feel of "White Moth," are just off-kilter enough to add a
labyrinthine dimension to the album. Gale was a tear when he was on Kudu, and
this album is the first example of his particular brand of street tough yet
bedroom romantic soul-jazz for the label. ~ Thom Jurek 2013 Japanese pressing
BLU-SPEC CD. Remastered.~ cduniverse.com
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