Mindblowing work from Minnie Riperton – her first solo album, cut at the end of the 60s, after a number of years of work with the group Rotary Connection. The album builds off the now famous sound of Rotary Connection – but takes it to the next level, with arch-baroque production by the great Charles Stepney – who couches Minnie's fantastic vocals in a suite of shimmering soulful tracks that mix strings, horns, jazzy piano, and slight touches of bouncing rhythms. The overall sound is impossible to describe – sort of a cross between Burt Bacharach on A&M, Scott Walker's 3rd album, and the sound of Marvin Gaye's What's Goin' On. The album's pure genius all the way through – one of the highlights of the Chicago scene of the 60s – and proof that Riperton, Stepney, and crew were shooting for the outer limits of soul music! Titles include "Les Fleur", "Only When I'm Dreaming", "Rainy Day In Centerville", "Memory Band", "Expecting", "Whenever Wherever", and "Oh, By The Way". ~ Dusty Groove
A beautiful little record, and one that's a bit hard to place – it's partly jazz, but something else as well – as Robert Stillman has more of a legacy in more serious composition, but here delivers a session of improvisations on Fender Rhodes! Yet this isn't your typical Rhodes album either – not funky or soulful, but instead uses the instrument in a really different way – almost like Philip Glass discovering the farfisa organ many years back – as here Stillman is using the keyboard to generate these waves of electric sound that are completely seductive! The album features seven "Portal" tunes – and one short "Break", which has a bit more of a familiar Fender Rhodes approach. ~ Dusty Groove
Dan Berkson's had a hand in many different styles of music over the years, but this set is a wonderfully contemporary expression of his keyboard talents in jazz – served up here both on acoustic piano and Fender Rhodes – as Dan works in a "trio plus" mode that has some other artists joining in the sound from time to time! At the core is the combo with Andrea Di Biase on bass and Jon Scott on drums – musicians who do a good job of blocking them selves around Berkson's keyboard lines, which have this open sense of flow that creates its own structure, even when loose – maybe evolved out of the Bill Evans school, but very much Dan's own bag. The leadoff track "Unity" is a great Rhodes number, with Magnus Pickering on trumpet and Alam Nathoo on tenor – and one more track features Pickering as well, on titles that include "Live Bait", "Sketches", "The Court", and "Maggie's Last Day". ~ Dusty Groove
Another round of Studio One butter from the folks at Soul Jazz! By this point you're well informed about the status of Coxsone Dodd's Studio One operation as the cornerstone of so much Jamaican music, and Soul Jazz has approached the catalog from just about every angle, covering nearly all the bases before landing here on this dub set. The sly Island grooves are stripped down to their bare essentials, then given a tasteful bit of dubby gloss at the hands of Sylvan Morris, for a massive collection that'll rule your stereo like Studio One rocked the sound systems back in the day. 17 tracks in all, wrapped in a nice package that includes interviews with Morris and Dodd, and fully annotated as to which numbers the rhythms were originally cut as the backing for. Includes "Bionic Dub", "Sky Rhythm", 'Taurus Dub 2", "Hooligan", "Dub Rock", "Hi Fashion Dub", In Cold Blood Version" and "Feel The Dub". ~ Dusty Groove
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