Rating:
Genre:
Jazz
Release Date: 11/10/2009
Run Time: 43:03
Here is an overlooked gem from a most unlikely source, recorded in a most unlikely genre -- commercial '70s jazz/funk -- just as the disco era was gathering steam.
Tom Scott controlled the production, with
Severinsen overdubbing all of the brass choruses and occasionally passing his horns through a phase shifter and wah-wah pedal. The coterie of overworked sessionmen from L.A. and NYC --
Richard Tee,
Eric Gale,
Lee Ritenour,
Anthony Jackson,
Ralph MacDonald, etc. -- work this session as you would expect, with the danceable beat always in mind. Yet they pulled off a great, thoroughly musical record because the tunes are often uncommonly good, particularly the two non-
Scott numbers,
Tee's joyous
"Virginia Sunday" and
MacDonald's truly haunting "There Is a Girl." Although
Doc's work on trumpet and flugelhorn is mostly subdued, at times he bursts out of his shell and delivers a sizzling reminder that he could burn with the best. When interviewed many years later,
Doc thought this was one of his best albums -- and this writer is very inclined to agree, for the 50-year-old
Tonight Show big band leader somehow managed to chase the trends and create memorable music, a rare thing in 1977. Unfortunately the public, jazz and otherwise, ignored it.
~Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide
;)
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