Soul Mastery

Shirley Scott - Soul Sister (1999) {Prestige PRCD-24233-2 rec 1960-1964} (Legends of Acid Jazz Series)
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© 1960-64, 1999 Prestige Records / Fantasy | PRCD-24233-2
Jazz / Hard Bop / Soul Jazz / Organ

Few organ players can kick into swinging grooves with as relaxed a feeling as those Shirley Scott generates on these two outstanding sessions from the Sixties. She was associated early in her career with tenor saxophonists–most notably Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Stanley Turrentine–but Prestige Records regularly varied the settings in which she was presented on disc. These are two of the most unusual. The ever-tasteful guitarist Kenny Burrell shares the spotlight on tracks one through six, while Lem Winchester lends his vibraharp mastery to the remainder to help create a unique–and ultimately satisfying– organ/vibes front-line.

Al Hudson & The Soul Partners originated in 70s Detroit, had an international chart hit with “You Can Do It” on becoming One Way with Alicia Myers in 1979, and continue to perform across the USA to this day. In January 2015 they performed in the UK, their show to include a celebration of their start at ATCO in 1975.

Gene Chandler's second LP for Brunswick suffers from comparisons to its predecessor, but consider how difficult it must have been to top an album padded with several tracks previously released as Constellation singles. The two singles here, "Those Were the Good Old Days" and "There Was a Time," are as good as anything he'd recorded for the label. Though the titles evoke similar themes, they're radically different songs. The first is (as expected) a good-time nostalgia tune with a sweet female chorus, but the second is a torrid horn-driven salute to the best dances of recent years; one looks back to the heady Chicago soul of the Impressions, while the other looks ahead to the increasingly intense urban funk of Curtis Mayfield. Chandler again displays an amazing mastery of voice control, adding brilliant tossed-off vocals between lines on the choruses…