Mason Hammond

Johnny Hammond - Gears (1975) {2014 Japan Rare Groove Funk Best Collection 1000 UCCO-90336}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 216 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 79 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 185 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1975, 2014 Milestone / Fantasy / Universal Music Japan | UCCO-90336
Jazz / Soul Jazz / Funk Jazz / Organ

Reissue with the latest remastering. Amazing stuff! Johnny "Hammond" Smith began his career as a simple soul jazz organist – but by the time of this album, he'd teamed up with the mighty Larry Mizell, the genius arranger/producer who'd breathed new life into the careers of Donald Byrd and Bobbi Humphrey. Mizell works with Hammond in the same way he does with other jazz artists – by taking a groove that works best with their solo style, and slowly layering other instrumentation and effects on top of it, so that when the solo kicks in, it's supported on waves and waves of funky sounds and soulful grooves.

Harvey Mason is an American jazz drummer, record producer, and member of the band Fourplay. He has worked with many jazz and jazz fusion artists, including Bob James, Dave Grusin, Chick Corea, the Brecker Brothers, Chuck Loeb, Nathan East, Lee Ritenour, Casiopea, Herbie Hancock's Headhunters and almost all the Mizell Brothers productions with Donald Byrd, Johnny Hammond, Bobbi Humphrey, and Gary Bartz. He is featured on George Benson's multi-platinum-selling breakthrough jazz to pop crossover album of 1976, Breezin'. Mason is the father of Harvey Mason Jr.

Johnny Hammond - Gambler's Life (1974) {2013 Japan Blu-spec CD CTI Supreme Collection KICJ-2349}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 365 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 123 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 182 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1974, 2013 CTI Records / King Records Japan | KICJ-2349
Jazz / Jazz Funk / Soul Jazz

Reissue features the high-fidelity Blu-spec CD format (compatible with standard CD players) and the latest remastering. Exposing a jazz purist to most recordings involving Fonce and Larry Mizell is much like shoving a vampire into daylight. Gambler's Life, the first of two Johnny "Hammond" Smith albums featuring the brothers' ambitious handiwork, isn't an exception. Watch a purist seek shelter in his dank cave whenever this album is within earshot. Smith switches to Fender Rhodes for most of the material, and the Mizells bring their ARPs, spirited if unpolished group vocal arrangements, wah-wah guitars, and soaring instrumental arrangements made to shine on the dancefloor. Strong throughout, the album runs as efficiently and as sweetly as any other groove-heavy album of its time.

Every time Harvey Mason decides to record a new album he calls on a few old favours and boy it still amazes me who the Mason gang comprises of. The above looks like a ' who's who ' of the fusion jazz music industry. The musicians who didn't appear were probably on tour or on a holiday on the moon. Joining Harvey on this album too are family members Harvey Junior and Heather, who like the maestro himself, are wonderfully gifted all round musicians.

Easily the greatest album ever by funky drummer Harvey Mason – and quite possibly the only one to live up to the rhythmic complexity that Mason brought to countless other fusion sessions for other groups in the 70s! The tracks are all spacious and snapping with brilliantly funky touches – a sound that resonates with Mason's contributions to Johnny Hammond's Gears album, but which comes off slightly differently here, thanks to a stronger focus on the drums. Keyboards are still a prime element of the set – played here by Herbie Hancock, Dave Grusin, and Jerry Peters – the latter 2 of whom helped out on arrangements for the record – and other players include an all-star lineup of 70s jazz funk legends such as Blue Mitchell, Bennie Maupin, Paul Jackson, Hubert Laws, and others.