Paul Humphrey

Although this is billed to Wes Montgomery, it is in fact a combination of two early-'60s LPs by the Montgomery Brothers – The Montgomery Brothers and The Montgomery Brothers in Canada – onto one disc. (Also note that it's almost entirely different from the Montgomery Brothers' Milestone double LP that also bears the name Groove Brothers, which mostly features material from their Riverside LP Groove Yard.) With Wes on guitar, Monk on bass, and Buddy on piano (Larance Marable fills out the quartet on drums), The Montgomery Brothers (1960) is a boppish set of five lengthy tracks, divided between both originals (penned by either Wes or Buddy) and standards. "June in January" is a particularly good vehicle for Wes' fluid single-note runs, while "D-Natural Blues" is one of his more enduring and good-natured compositions from the period. Buddy Montgomery, who often played the piano with the Montgomery Brothers, sticks exclusively to vibes on The Montgomery Brothers in Canada, which in addition to Wes and Monk has Paul Humphrey on drums.

Blue Mitchell - Bantu Village (1969) {Blue Note–Soul Brother Records CD SBCS 47 rel 2011}
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© 1969, 2011 Blue Note / Passion Music / Soul Brother Records | CD SBCS 47
Jazz / Soul Jazz / Jazz Funk / Trumpet

One of the funkiest albums ever on Blue Note – a set that mixes the trumpet talents of Blue Mitchell with some killer backings from Monk Higgins – all in a groove that more gritty edges than the best funky soundtracks of the time! Higgins keeps the backings full, but always quite lean – fusing all elements together into a sharp, tight rhythm that steps along with some of the slight African touches you might guess from the title – a groove that's not really that authentic, but which resonates with some of the best inspirations that Hugh Masekela was bringing to American music at the time.

Wes Montgomery - So Much Guitar! (1961) {OJC Remasters Complete Series rel 2013, item 26of33}
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© 1961, 2013 Riverside / Concord | 60th Anniversary of Riverside Records | 0888072345966
Jazz / Hard Bop / Guitar

Concord Music Group will release five new titles in its Original Jazz Classics Remasters series. Enhanced by 24-bit remastering by Joe Tarantino, several bonus tracks on nearly each disc (some previously unreleased) and new liner notes providing historical context to the original material, the series celebrates the 60th anniversary of Riverside Records, the prolific New York-based label that showcased some of the most influential jazz artists and recordings of the 1950s and '60s.

Charles Kynard - Your Mama Don't Dance (1973) {Mainstream-P-Vine PCD-23933 rel 2007}
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© 1973, 2007 Mainstream Records / P-Vine Records | PCD-23933
Jazz / Jazz Funk / Soul Jazz / Organ Hammond B-3

Recorded in 1973 for Bob Shad's Mainstream label, the cast for the album is a dream ticket who's-who of funky cats: as well as Kynard himself, there's bass-meister Chuck Rainey, who I grew to know and love through his work with Steely Dan (check his nifty bass solo here on 'So Much Trouble'), guitarist Arthur Adams (wicked throughout, you gotta love his volume knob-twiddlin' solo on 'Superstition'!), and groove assassins Paul Humphreys and Ray Pounds on kit. Dunno which of the two drummers played on which tunes, but the slinky grooves of 'Mama Jive' and 'Zambezi' are pure rhythmic pleasure, and I love the buzz rolls at the end of 'Summer Breeze'. There's some fulsome horn charts too, courtesy of Richard Fritz, which lean towards soundtrack/big band vibes in places, with unison figures, stabs, punches and the like, kind of karate horns if you will.

Rhino's expansive six-CD box set of 1970s soul called Can You Dig It?, this wonderfully sequenced collection stands as an impressive survey of the genre in its own right, running the gamut from Al Green and Marvin Gaye to the Chi-Lites, Sly Stone, the Staple Singers, and Earth, Wind & Fire and beyond with nary a slack track in sight. It may technically be a sampler, but in being so it doesn't have the luxury of pausing for breath or historical reflection, which means this compilation, sampler or not, delivers bang for the buck from end to end.

Long-awaited reissue of an interesting and rare masterpiece by jazz guitar virtuoso Joe Pass, who took on jazz funk! This is the first release on Gwyn Records, a minor label in California, and features a very impressive lineup. Paul Humphrey and Earl Palmer on drums, Carol Kaye (label owner) and Ray Brown on bass, J.J. Johnson, Tom Scott, and Conte Candoli on horns, this is truly a historical session that brought together the top musicians of the West Coast at the time. From the cool funk of "Better Days" at the beginning of the session, almost the entire album was a storm of jazz funk. "Free Sample" by Joe Sample, "Burning Spear," with its impressive undulating beat, "Head Start," with its too-subtle bass line, and the boogie shuffle "Gotcha!"…