Sylvester - Stars 1979
Sylvester San Francisco 1978
Last week I stumbled upon Dennis Coffey’s 1976 album Finger Lickin Good. Initially, I pulled this record out of the 8,000 record stash because I thought the cover was epic and I was just going to add it to my Instagram feed of interesting/funny album art. I brought the record home, put it on the turntable an discovered that it was a pretty decent disco instrumental guitar album (although Disco is my least favorite genre) and I decided to dig deeper.
It turns out that Dennis Coffey doesn’t just have amazing taste in choosing his album covers, but he is also an accomplished funk/soul musician (who occasionally dabbled in the dark side of Disco). Coffey played on numerous landmark Mowtown records as a studio musician, bringing a distinctive, rock guitar driven sound to these recordings and finally broke thru individually in 1971 when he recorded and sold a million copies of his instrumental single “Scorpio”, putting him all the way up to #6 on the Billboard Charts. His success on the charts lead him to be the first white artist to perform on Soul Train. (1)
Yes, Coffey is not black, something which came as a great surprise to me after seeing the album cover and listening to the record. However, Coffey has some real street/Motown cred, from throwing down some serious funk for The Temptations to his work on the sound track for the cult classic film Black Belt Jones. Coffey’s work has even been sampled by Public Enemy, LL Cool J and The Beasty Boys (2). Coffey recently gained notoriety in the 2012 documentary “Searching For Sugarman” for being cited one of the guys who discovered folk legend Sixto Rodriguez in Detroit where Sixto was playing a gig in a smoke filled, decrepit bar named The Sewer (1)
Coffey’s album also boast creativity in it’s song titles. They include::
“If you can’t dance to this, you got no business havin-feet” and “El Tigre”
As mentioned previously, I am not a disco fan, but I enjoyed Coffey’s rendition of Fame by David Bowie on this album and “I’ve got a real good feeling” which has a little more funk on the track. On Fame, Coffey showcases his ingenious use of the wah wah pedal to make his guitar sing some of the refrains of the songs, Peter Frampton style. I will try to track down some real funk from Coffey and post it to the blog.
(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Coffey
(2) http://www.allmusic.com/artist/dennis-coffey-mn0000244254
High Inergy - Shoulda gone dancing
Flora Purim
Carry On
@1979 US Pressing
******
In 1979, jazz was no longer George Duke’s primary focus; his albums were emphasizing soul/funk, and many of the R&B fans who knew him for late ’70s hits, like “Dukey Stick,” “I Want You for Myself,” and “Reach for It,” knew little or nothing about his work with Cannonball Adderley, Billy Cobham, or Jean-Luc Ponty. But Duke was still producing some jazz albums here and there, although they weren’t necessarily straight ahead. Even though Flora Purim’s Carry On, which Duke produced, is primarily a Brazilian jazz album, it isn’t for jazz purists — rather, Purim provides an eclectic blend of jazz, samba, R&B/funk, rock and pop. Purim has many inspired moments on this LP and is joined by members of Duke’s late ’70s band — bassist Byron Miller, drummers Ricky Lawson and Leon “Ndugu” Chancler, percussionist Sheila Escovedo (who became Sheila E after joining forces with Prince in 1984), keyboardistBobby Lyle, trumpeter Jerry Hey, and saxman Joe Farrell. In addition to excelling on Duke’s funky title song, Gilberto Gil’s “Sarara,” and Toninho Horta’s “Beijo Partido,” Purim really lets loose on Milton Nascimento’s “From the Lonely Afternoon.” Those who associate “From the Lonely Afternoon” withWayne Shorter’s superb Native Dancer album will find Purim’s interpretation to be faster and more intense.
AMG
Gloria Gaynor & Giorgio Moroder - Last Night
Patti Boulaye - You Stepped Into My Life (Melba Is Toast ReWork)
