Michael Matthews

David Matthews & Electric Birds - Digital Love (1979) {Japan Electric Bird The Best 1000 Series KICJ-2371 rel 2014}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (image)+CUE+LOG -> 298 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 106 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 17 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24-bit remastering
© 1979, 2014 Electric Bird / King Record Japan | KICJ-2371
Jazz / Jazz Funk / Fusion

Reissue with the latest 24-bit remastering. Features original cover artwork. Comes with a descripton in Japanese. Fast and funky fusion from David Matthews – building off the sound of his later Kudu recordings with a sweet electric groove! The album's got a pretty full approach overall – with Matthews on electric piano, and directing a large group of players that includes Mike Maineri, Michael Brecker, Jon Faddis, Shunzo Ohno, and Ronnie Cuber – and a number of tracks feature a vocal chorus that includes Ullanda McCullough and Yvonne Lewis. The overall style is slick, but not in a bad way – and Matthews more than meets the Japanese fusion sound head to head for this non-US release from the time!

A collaboration stemming from longtime mutual admiration, Iain Matthews and Elliott Murphy find more than a little common ground on La Terre Commune. With each contributing four songs to covers of Bob Dylan's "Blind Willie McTell," Bruce Springsteen's "Sad Eyes," and Jesse Colin Young's "Darkness, Darkness," the two succeed in creating a seamlessly cohesive song cycle…

David Matthews - Shoogie Wanna Boogie (1976) {King Records Japan KICJ 2580 rel 2017}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 236 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 88 Mb | Artwork | 5% repair rar
© 1976, 2017 CTI Records / King Records Japan | KICJ 2580
Jazz / Jazz Funk / Funk / Uptown Soul / Fusion

Kudu arranger and session pianist David Matthews erased the boundary between jazz-funk, soul, and disco on Shoogie Wanna Boogie, issued near the end of 1976. His charts, packed with enormous horn and string sections, vocalists, keyboards, and guitars and paired with snapping crisp production, set a benchmark – one that horrified jazz purists and delighted fans of club music and jazz played on the radio. It's like Matthews took the success of Grover Washington, Jr.'s "Mister Magic" and "Feels So Good," and used their inspiration to go even further. Matthews hauls from the Detroit area, and one can see that influence in his song selection; half the tunes were Motown standards – "My Girl," "You Keep Me Hanging On," and "Just My Imagination" – but Berry Gordy never envisioned them quite this way.