Let's Play Tag

One of the biggest and best albums ever for Hamilton Bohannon – filled with quirky rhythms and really unusual grooves! Bohannon was one of the key forces in setting the scene for disco in the early 70s – and by the time the rest of the country was hitting the dancefloor in the middle part of decade, he was still moving forward, into a whole new realm of groove! The tracks on this set have some really mad rhythms – skittish and scattered, still with a dancefloor approach, but with lots of odd touches that set them apart from the rest of the pack. A key example of this is the great tune "Me & The Gang", which has this off-key piano loping out over chunky beats – but the whole thing's great, with a lot more of a sly edge than you'd expect from the cover. Titles include "Summertime Groove", "The Street Dance", "Let's Start The Dance", "Listen To The Children Play", and "I Wonder Why". (Cover has some wear and creasing.)

Disco may have been a dirty word as the 70's came to a close but during the 80's its influence on much of this selection helped create some of the greatest dance music recorded. As a poet and philsopher once said, 'Lets Groove Tonight'…..

This groundbreaking performance seems as if it is happening in real time. At its best, and seemingly counter-intuitively, opera is at its most effective when we don’t notice that the characters are singing: such is the case here. If you know this opera, then the third of the men’s trios in scene 1 (“Una bella serenata”) will seem very fast; hearing it with fresh ears, Jacobs’ breakneck tempo seems utterly natural—these guys have been worked up into a fun/competitive frenzy and can’t wait to get started on what they think will be a grand adventure. Similarly, the little quintet before the men depart (“Di scrivermi…”) is so slow that you feel the melodrama; if they are going to play, they are going to play thoroughly, making each word and situation count.