Wah Wah Watson Elementary

Two gems from The Undisputed Truth – back to back in a single package. First up is Method To The Madness – a killer classic from the second chapter of the Undisputed Truth – that time when the group stepped away from their Motown home, and followed producer/creator Norman Whitfield to his own label in California. The shift of record companies also marks a cool shift in styles too – an approach that still has all the bold, bassy elements you'd know from the earlier hits – but one that also has some fuller, more cosmic elements too – which are hinted at by the image on the cover.

Stolen Moments: Red Hot + Cool is one of the compilation albums from the Red Hot project. This fifth entry in the Red Hot AIDS Benefit Series was heralded as the "Album of the Year" by TIME upon its release in 1994 by GRP Records. The double disc — the second compact disc was included as a "Bonus" — features collaborations between renowned jazz performers and contemporary hip hop artists. The title refers to a 1961 jazz standard by Oliver Nelson, which is also covered on this album…

Perhaps the funkiest album of Herbie Hancock's early- to mid-'70s jazz/funk/fusion era, Man-Child starts off with the unforgettable "Hang Up Your Hang Ups," and the beat just keeps coming until the album's end. "Sun Touch" and "Bubbles" are slower, but funky nonetheless. Hancock is the star on his arsenal of keyboards, but guitarist Wah Wah Watson's presence is what puts a new sheen on this recording, distinguishing it from its predecessors, Head Hunters and Thrust. Others among the all-star cast of soloists and accompanists include Wayne Shorter on soprano sax, Stevie Wonder on chromatic harmonica, and longtime Hancock cohort Bennie Maupin on an arsenal of woodwinds.

Gary Bartz - Anthology (2004) {Soul Brother Records CD SBPJ 23}
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© 1970s, 2004 Soul Brother Records / Passion Music | CD SBPJ 23
Jazz / Jazz Funk / Modern Creative / Soul Jazz

Soul Brother has given us a long overdue compilation of Gary Bartz's experimental jazz material from the 1970s, beginning with his classic Harlem Bush Music albums, Taifa and Uhuru from 1970 and 1971, with his band NTU Troop. While it's impossible to overstate the influence his brief tenure with Miles Davis had on him (Bartz is featured on the Live-Evil recordings), the saxophonist and composer was exploring other avenues of creative black music as well, from funk to soul to the blues. The 12 cuts here begin with the sublime "Celestial Blues," from that seminal NTU Troop debut set.

George Benson - Songs and Stories (2009) {Concord Japan UCCO-1085}
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© 2009 Concord / Universal Japan | UCCO-1085
Jazz / Contemporary Jazz / Crossover Jazz / Jazz-Pop / Smooth Jazz / Guitar

George Benson's sound is so recognizable that, in its way, it's quite comforting to hear his voice or his guitar come across on the radio or in a club. His recordings have been polished and extravagant in many cases, but there are those signature elements – his relaxed delivery and silky touch on the strings and his voice, as evocative as a cool breeze floating across a hot summer night. Songs and Stories doesn't deviate from his formula a great deal, but it doesn't have to. He's chosen ten ubiquitous pop tunes from a variety of songwriters (and one by a relatively new kid on the block), and with the help of producers John Burk and Marcus Miller, he puts them across in fine style.

John Lee and Gerry Brown's Blue Note debut pairs the duo with producer Skip Drinkwater, who strips their fusion approach to its bare essentials to create a moody, deeply funky sound that smolders with intensity. Bolstered by session aces spanning from Motown studio great Wah Wah Watson to Belgian guitarist Philip Catherine, Mango Sunrise burns as slow and steady as a stick of dynamite – while Drinkwater's production is undeniably slick, it also eliminates the superfluous sounds and technical wankery that undermine so much of Lee and Brown's subsequent output.