Rating:
Genre:
Jazz
Release Date: 09/13/2005
Any
jazz purist who hovered over record bins during the '70s knows to stay away from this, as one quick glance is likely to trigger flashbacks of feeling like a vampire shoved into daylight. Some background info:
Fonce Mizell established his do-it-all studio career as part of
the Corporation, a
Motown team that worked for
the Jackson 5,
Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, and
Edwin Starr. His brother
Larry, who had recorded with him prior to the
Motown gig, began working with him again -- as
Sky High Productions -- on
Donald Byrd's sharp left turn into
funk,
Black Byrd. In addition to inciting howls from purists, the session ignited
Fonce and
Larry's professional partnership and established their specific sound. Intricately arranged and often incorporating strings and state-of-the-art keyboards and synthesizers, their productions were supremely vibrant, funky,
and slick, fusing dancefloor-friendly
R&B and
jazz to the point where there were no visible seams.
Bobbi Humphrey,
Gary Bartz,
Rance Allen, and especially
Byrd (a remarkable five-album run) all benefited from their genre-bending
Blue Note sessions with
the Mizells, showcased on this 11-track anthology. There's no point in singling anything out. Each track is filled with rich melodies, complex-elegant rhythms, and lush textures. Whether on a crowded dancefloor or driving with your partner on a summer evening just before sunset, everything translates. The two previously unreleased tracks --
Bartz's blistering
"Funked Up," featuring vocals from
Syreeta, and the dynamite
"N R Time," recorded during
Humphrey's
Satin Doll sessions (albeit without the flutist) -- should seal the deal for collectors. As thoroughly enjoyable and representative as this disc is, it's somewhat arbitrary. Blame
the Mizells for their quality control, not the people who put the set together.
Sky High, a just-as-valuable 1998 set released in Europe, is concrete evidence of this fact, containing only two of the same selections. It reaches beyond the brothers'
Blue Note work (a couple
Johnny Hammond cuts,
A Taste of Honey's
"Boogie Oogie Oogie") and puts a different spin on their sessions with
Allen,
Bartz,
Byrd, and
Humphrey. Both sets still leave much to explore, including but in no way limited to
Johnny Hammond's
Gears and
Gambler's Life (which are just as compulsory as the
Byrd albums),
Roger Glenn's
Reachin', and
L.T.D.'s
Love to the World.
~Andy Kellman, All Music Guide
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