al Jareu

From December 1954 to December 1955, jazz producer Jack Lewis recorded a series of outstanding albums at RCA Victor’s famous Webster Hall Studios in New York City with Al Cohn and Joe Newman, each leading several small swinging bands, and as sidemen on Freddie Green’s only album as a leader.

This is a snapshot of Al Jarreau a few years after achieving pop stardom, caught live before a large crowd at London's Wembley Arena. In contrast with the lean, dynamically subtle backup band on the earlier live Look to the Rainbow, here Jarreau arms himself with a flashy, heavily electronic R&B/funk band with horns, and subtlety often goes out the window in favor of high-energy showmanship. Unlike his studio albums from this period, though, this concert allows him a little bit of room to display glimpses of his famous vocal acrobatics. The set starts with a burst of high-tech pizzazz on "Raging Waters" and "Black and Blues" and ultimately settles into a partying groove with "Roof Garden" and "We're In This Love Together."

Trust In God (1984). Released in 1984, Trust in God finds Green distracted throughout. Around the same time of this, a brilliant documentary, The Gospel According to Al Green, was being worked on. The film's subtext of Green shunning yet still loving R&B worked its way into the studio, too. This is gospel all right, but often of the perfunctory, barely awake variant. As pure gospel was causing Green's mind to wander, he attempted to solve the problem by covering early-'70s pop songs. Joe South's "Don't It Make You Wanta Go Home" gets a great and involved vocal from Green. The best song, the Jean Terrell-era Supremes "Up the Ladder to the Roof," turns into a prime Al Green song, with its sly drums and all of Green's attention…

The Lord Will Make A Way (1980). This 1980 album was released after Green received a wake-up call by way of tumble off a stage in Cincinnati. No doubt Green planned a straight-laced, devotional work with The Lord Will Make a Way, but his charisma and sex appeal was also part of the package. The title track is powerful, reverent, and sensual, with Green's voice possessing the intensity and tone of his earlier secular tracks. Like many of his best albums, this one has an immediacy that makes it a joy to listen to. Although Green's clear switch in his lyrical manner – changing she/her for love of the Lord, Jesus, and God - should be striking, the transition is seamless. The gospel standard "Pass Me Not" gets the Al Green treatment with his acoustic-guitar strums and strong call-and-response vocals…

This is a two-album-on-one-CD release from the U.K.'s branch of Hi Records. Out of the two albums here, Precious Lord is the more staid and religious. Recorded in Nashville and engineered by country producer Billy Sherrill, it's Green's most traditional gospel statement. Standards are abound, with the title track, "How Great Thou Art," "Rock of Ages," and a warm "In the Garden." Although the performances are felt, the country-style production and lack of veering from the script made the effort come off not as moving as one might think. The contemporary original "Morningstar" displayed more of what Green is capable of doing. The blend of Al Green's style and his inherent charm seemed to inform the majority of I'll Rise Again…

"Elysium" is the climax of this process so far. The artist has arrived where he always wanted to be. He himself thinks of Elysium as a "place of perfect happiness". A paradise where acoustic and electric components, triumphant rock and finely entwined jazz, delicate and pumping rhythms, guitars and keyboards, wide panoramas of rock and diaphanous carpets of sound come together in harmony. In this magical Elysium, everyone complements each other. Al Di Meola has brought together a five piece band with no bass. While he plays all the guitar parts himself, both acoustic and electric, including unbelievably fast and elegant riffs and effervescent rocking chords, three keyboard players and pianists provide shades of colour.

Kooper's seventh solo release opens daringly enough, with his own funky version of "This Diamond Ring," which he transforms completely from its Drifters-inspired origins. Most of the album is in a mid-'70s soul-funk vein, with Tower of Power turning up elsewhere and Kooper trying (with considerable success) to sound soulful on songs like "She Don't Ever Lose Her Groove" and "I Forgot to Be Your Lover." The playing throughout is excellent, with guitars by Kooper himself (who also plays sitar, Mellotron, organ, and synthesizer) as well as Little Beaver and Reggie Young, with Joe Walsh sitting in on one song, and horn arrangements by Kooper and veteran soundtrack composer Dominic Frontiere. The real centerpiece is the epic-length "Hollywood Vampire," which can't quite sustain its seven-minute length. The funkier numbers work, but some of the rest, like "In My Own Sweet Way," don't come off so well. This is two-thirds of a pretty fair album, and only lacks consistency.