Howard Tate: Rediscovered : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

On "rediscovered," his first new album in nearly three decades, sixty-three-year-old soul singer Howard Tate is in fine form. His voice recalls both the sly sensuality and spiritual authority of Pops Staples, and when he lifts into his trademark falsetto, he induces chills. He is reunited here with producer and songwriter Jerry Ragavoy, with whom he did his signature work in the Sixties and Seventies. Ragavoy, the author of such gems as "Time Is on My Side," creates taut settings for Tate, with the Uptown Horns providing muscle. Apart from a spry cover of Prince's "Kiss," Ragavoy also wrote or co-wrote all the songs on this set, and they're not always as strong as Tate's stellar performances. But the album closes with his spellbinding reading of Ragavoy's classic "Get It While You Can," and, after being gone so long, the singer sounds determined to do just that.

ANTHONY DECURTIS
(RS 928, August 7, 2003)