Sts Digital

Jean Knight could do no wrong in 1971, when the strutting "Mr. Big Stuff" was climbing the pop and R&B charts, well on its way to becoming one of the most familiar chart hits of all time. Her debut album, with its no-brainer title, featured a lot of good material on it, not all of it in the same vein as her hit. Producer/arranger Wardell Quezergue (he also appeared on keyboards) handled the record well, with a band consisting of Malaco hands like guitarist Jerry Puckett and drummer James Stroud.

This 1974 release has King using his upside-down Flying V to slash a blues path through the Memphis Horns, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, and the dawn-of-disco funk rhythm players. He half-sings with one eye on B. B. King and Bobby Bland and the other fixed on hot-buttered soul crooner Isaac Hayes. "Crosscut Saw" best captures the album title, with the leader and astounding drummer, Al Jackson, charbroiling a song the two had soul basted back in the mid 1960s with Booker T. Jones.