Cut The Cake (1975)
In the informative liner notes that he wrote for Rhino’s early-’90s reissue of Cut the Cake, writer A. Scott Galloway explains that this excellent album was recorded under less-than-ideal circumstances. The Average White Band’s original drummer, Robbie McIntosh, died of a heroin overdose in 1974, and the surviving members were still in mourning when they started working on their third album, Cut the Cake (which originally came out on LP in 1975). Steve Ferrone, a black drummer from London, England, was hired as a replacement — ironically, he became the first black member of a Scottish soul/funk band that had a very African-American sound and a largely African-American following. Despite the fact that AWB’s members still had McIntosh’s death on their minds when they were writing and recording Cut the Cake, this isn’t a depressing or consistently melancholy album; far from it. In fact, parts of the album are downright fun, especially up-tempo funk gems like “School Boy Crush,” “Groovin’ the Night Away” and the hit title song (which made it to number seven on Billboard’s R&B singles chart). Cut the Cake is also the album that gave us the ballad “Cloudy” (one of the more melancholy tracks) and AWB’s version of “If I Ever Lose This Heaven,” a smooth soul classic that was originally recorded by Quincy Jones in 1973. The song wasn’t a chart-buster — it peaked at number 25 on Billboard’s R&B singles chart — but it did become a favorite among AWB fans and enjoyed a lot of exposure on quiet storm formats. AWB’s members certainly don’t sound like they’re in mourning on Cut the Cake. If anything, they honor McIntosh’s memory by showing their resilience and delivering one of their finest, most engaging albums. (AMG)
Tracks:
1. Cut the Cake
2. School Boy Crush
3. It’s a Mystery
4. Groovin’ the Night Away
5. If I Ever Lose This Heaven
6. Why
7. High Flyin’ Woman
8. Cloudy
9. How Sweet Can You Get
10. When They Bring Down the Curtain
**Listen**
Average White Band – Cut The Cake (1975)
Diciembre 19, 2008 a 6:42 pm (Funk, Funk Jazz)
Fred Wesley & The J.B.’s – Damn Right I Am Somebody (1974)
Diciembre 19, 2008 a 5:06 pm (Funk)
Damn Right I Am Somebody (1974)
Damn Right I Am Somebody captures the J.B.’s at the apex of their extraordinary powers. This James Brown-produced set is both their most fiercely polemical and their most musically daring, incorporating otherworldly electronic elements, eccentric time and rhythm shifts, and idiosyncratic studio effects to brilliantly articulate the increasing turmoil and insanity of the times. It’s quite possibly the most challenging record ever released under the Brown aegis, favoring open-ended grooves and epic solos rooted in avant-jazz. The rhythms remain surgically precise and hypnotically intense, however, and every cut here, from the funk juggernaut “I’m Payin’ Taxes, What Am I Buyin’?” to the righteously mellow “Same Beat,” is a marvel. This is funk at its heaviest — musically, yes, but intellectually as well. (AMG)
Tracks:
1. Damn Right I Am Somebody
2. Blow Your Head
3. I’m Payin’ Taxes, What Am I Buyin’
4. Same Beat, Pt. 1
5. If You Don’t Get It the First Time, Back Up & Try It Again, Parrty
6. Make We What You Want Me to Be
7. Going to Get a Thrill
8. You Sure Love to Ball
**Listen**
