Jimmy Castor Bunch - The Everything Man: The Best Of The Jimmy Castor Bunch (1995)
R&B, Soul/Funk, Jazz-Funk, Doo Wop | EAC Rip | FLAC, Img+CUE+LOG+Scans (TIF) | 01:14:36 | 545,70 Mb
Label: Rhino Records (USA) | Cat.# R2 72209 | Released: 1995-11-21
Some music is just so immediately full of the groove and desire to dance that anyone who doesn't or can't must be dead, if still breathing. Jimmy Castor is a master of same, and if the slightly overheated claims in the knowledgeable and appreciative liner notes for this excellent compilation making him second only to James Brown might be a bit much in cold print, the music is its own best argument for his quality. Starting with his great Latin/soul hit "Hey Leroy, Your Mama's Callin' You" and concluding with an item from his doo wop days in the '50s, "I Promise to Remember," Everything Man covers whole eras of American popular music with style and skill. The two numbers that sealed his fame and reputation into the hip-hop era are unsurprisingly here: the Latin funk monster "It's Just Begun," with one of the deepest basslines in creation and a fantastic mid-song percussion breakdown, and "Troglodyte," with its freakish, wigged-out spoken word intro.