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Borboletta
As Carlos Santana evolves musically and spiritually — for the time being the two paths seem to be one — he chooses his associates more carefully. The demands of the music he conceives are dictating his personnel and the Santana band has become, for recording purposes, an aegis under which various players perform. Borboletta and […]
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To Know You Is to Love You
The title tune alone is worth the price of admission. Stevie Wonder and Syreeta Wright composed it. Stevie plays electric piano, B.B. turns in a powerful vocal performance that is ably supported by his crackling guitar, and the incomparable Sigma Sound rhythm section—the musicians who back Billy Paul, the O'Jays, the Intruders, and the Stylistics—contributes […]
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Greatest Hits
As Carlos Santana evolves musically and spiritually — for the time being the two paths seem to be one — he chooses his associates more carefully. The demands of the music he conceives are dictating his personnel and the Santana band has become, for recording purposes, an aegis under which various players perform. Borboletta and […]
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Hell
In 1965 James Brown altered the role of the rhythm section in black popular music radically and irrevocably. White listeners, understandably enthralled by the innovations of groups like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, paid scant attention at first. But black fans understood immediately, perhaps because the components of Brown's new bag had long been […]
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Come A Little Closer
Etta James possesses one of the R&B voices, and she has been pushing it past its limits since her classic sides for Modern—"Roll With Me Henry," "Crazy Feeling" — and her teenage years as an opening act for Little Richard. Her masterful Sixties recordings for Chess, preserved on the essential Peaches, became more and more […]
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Big Fun
Most of Big Fun consists of outtakes from Bitches Brew and Live/Evil days, and one can only wonder why superb performances like "Great Expectations" and "Lonely Fire" were canned. The former piece gets a mesmerizing, other-worldly texture from electric sitar, tamboura, berimbau (Brazilian musical bow) and electric guitar and has one of Miles's most lyrical […]
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Welcome
The choice of "Welcome," a John Coltrane composition from Kulu Se Mama, as the title tune of the new Santana album is a natural follow-up to Carlos' album with Mahavishnu John McLaughlin. Coltrane pioneered the direct rendering of spirituality through music in performances like "A Love Supreme" and "Welcome," and the recent resurgence of interest […]
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In Concert: Live At Philharmonic Hall
This double album chronicles Davis' most recent Philharmonic Hall concert, featuring his On The Corner band. It's an excellent group, and on the surface Davis would seem to be doing the musicians a disservice by neglecting to identify them by name. But in Davis' mind, it's probably a question of self-preservation. Playing with Miles has […]
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Green Is Blues
Green Is Blues is a resurrection of Al Green's first album for Hi. It appeared during the summer of 1969 and died quietly even though it contained Green's first substantial single hit, "Tomorrow's Dream." With Green now sitting on top of the world, Hi has repackaged the album, leaving the original liner notes ("… a […]
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Everybody's In Showbiz
Ray Davies continues to wear his English citizenship like a badge. The Kinks have often used American musical idioms — especially variations on Richard Berry's "Louie Louie," as revived by the Kingsmen and by the Kinks themselves — but Ray has regularly used his considerable songwriting talents to anatomize situations of class and culture that […]
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