VANESSA FARLEY – ONE LAST MEMORY
Vanessa Farley may be a relatively obscure soul singer from
New Jersey – but she sings here with a sophisticated style that's like the best
female artists on the 70s Philly scene! Vanessa is the cousin of Phyllis Hyman,
and definitely has an influence from that side of the spectrum – but we also
hear echoes of some of the Philly International work of Jean Carn, and maybe
even The Jones Girls in the way the tunes are put together. The production and
instrumentation is great – very classic overall, as is the structure of the
songs – and titles include "Shake It Up Tonight", "I'm Not
Waiting", "I'm In Love Again", "Someday We'll All Be
Free", "No One Can Love You More Than I", "I'm Hurtin Deep
Down Inside", and "When You Coming Home". ~ Dusty Groove
PEOPLE’S CHOICE – JAMMIN’ PHILLY STYLE
The long-overdue return of People's Choice – a great Philly
group who gave us some killer funky 45s in the late 60s, then moved towards
more of a clubby groove in the following decade! The sound here is much more in
that later vibe by the group – produced and arranged by Butch Ingram, who works
the right sort of studio magic to make these guys sound surprisingly youthful
overall and really strip down to the funky core of their sound! The group
handles most of the instrumentation on the rhythms, and also does a great job
of trading vocal lines back and forth – which really opens up the more
party-hearty side of their sound – on cuts that include "Let's
Groove", "Jammin Philly Style", "Party Is A Groovy
Thing", "Do It Any Way You Wanna", "Nursery Rhymes",
"TSOP", "I Wanna Know Your Name", and "Jam Jam
Jam". ~ Dusty Groove
BOBBY WATSON – MADE IN AMERICA
A fantastic set from one of our all-time favorite
saxophonists – a musician who gave us a flurry of wonderful albums in the 80s
and 90s, but hasn't graced the record racks as much in recent years!
Fortunately, Bobby Watson's lost none of his charms at all – and really sounds
beautiful here in some very familiar company – the trio of bassist Curtis Lundy,
one of Watson's first important musical partners – which also features Stephen
Scott on piano and Lewis Nash on drums! The group's got every bit of the
soulful swing that you might expect – and Watson soars out with those sublime
note on alto sax that we first fell in love with when he was part of the Jazz
Messengers in the 70s. The material is very fresh too – as the set includes
loads of originals by Bobby – reminding us again what a hell of a writer he can
be – on titles that include "The Aviator", "The Cyclist",
"The Goat", "The Luckey", "The Real Lone Ranger",
"The Butterfly", and "The Guitarist". ~ Dusty Groove
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