Phil Upchurch: Upchurch (Cadet 1969)
This album, depending on your perspective, either comes at the end of this Chicago guitarist's early career or at the beginning of his mid-career (either way, he was more commercially successful prior and after) but Upchurch is arguably his best soul-jazz album (which probably explains why no one bought it). Charles Stephany produces it and the overall sound is surprisingly a little dense for a guitar-driven album (this is no Wes Montgomery or Grant Green album to be sure) but there's definitely some solid soul and funk influences. On the former side, you could do worse with the angelic "You Wouldn't, You Couldn't Be True" , a super-mellow, sparse track that's mostly just Upchurch and a choral accompaniment, with a dash of flute and slightest shuffle of a drum brush. In comparison, the very next song "Cross Town Traffic" funks it up with a driving blues beat and that aforementioned choral back-up. Reminds me of something that may have been on Bo Diddley's Black Gladiator album only less grindin' and a little more melodic.
Drummer Morris Jennings puts in solid work throughout - he doesn't get any solo moments, but he provides good backbeats throughout. Pianist Donny Hathaway is less heard however, but his organ playing gets more shine on Upchurch's cover of "Spinning Wheel" which ranks among the better versions of that hit. Upchurch's two Hendrix covers though: "Voodoo Chile" and "Midnight Chile" didn't do much for me - too dense for my tastes.
Nina Simone: Live in Europe (Trip 1977)
This album is actually a bootleg of a 1968 Paris concert, previously released under the title of The Great Show Live in Paris from 1975 (this begs the question of what happened to the tapes for the 7 years prior...did they forget about 'em. It's a solid concert session regardless and Simone runs through some great vocal cuts on here, including "Please Read Me", "No Me Guitte Pas" and "Gin House Blues." My tastes run towards the funky "Back Lash [Blues]" which is a politically charged number hitting on all the social turmoil ongoing in the U.S. in the late '60s. She also has a version of "See-Line Woman" on hear which is great - it's such a fantastic song in general and this time, they give the song an even more twisting, Afro-soul twist to it...it's very sparse - just congas, a tambourine and male vocals on back-up - and the simplicity really brings out the chant-like quality of the song.
[Robin] Robert Henkel: Let's Get Squished (Robert Henkel: 1979)
I admit - I picked this up on the strength of the title...it looked nutty (once I get the photos up, you'll see what I mean) and when I flipped it to the back, he had a song on there called "Latin Jam" so I figured - what the hell? What I got was a pleasant surprise - Henkel's a total joker on this album - he has a pretty lousy voice but you get the idea that he knows he does and just plays it up. I mean, this is a guy who wrote a song called "Big Plates" which is half love song, half ode to diner food. Peep:
I ignored my coffee
I ignored my fries
my burger's getting cold
as I gazed into your eyes
For real though, the production is actually pretty good - he definitely has a slight jam band quality to it but for '79, the vibe is still pretty funky. Clean sounding rather than grimy but it bumps thanks to solid bass and guitar work (both of which Henkel handles). The butter joint (if you can call anything on this album butter) is "You're the Only Woman For Me" which kicks off with a simple poppin' bassline, sprinkles in some clavinet and then Ned Hall gets to kick off a slick little back beat. Once Henkel starts singing, the song drifts into tongue-in-cheek mode but this cut reminded a lot of something Lyrics Born might put together. Alas, as for "Latin Jam" - not very Latin, not very jammy.
Postscript: when I did some background research on this LP - not expecting to find anything, as it turns out, Henkel has his own website, though some what strangely, there, his name is Robin but all over the album, he's referred to as Robert. Go figure.
