Rating:
Genre:
Jazz
Release Date: 01/27/2009
Run Time: 29:28
Quincy Jones followed up
Smackwater Jack and his supervision of
Donny Hathaway's
Come Back Charleston Blue soundtrack with this, a mixed bag that saw him inching a little closer toward the R&B-dominated approach that reached full stride on the following
Body Heat and peaked commercially with
The Dude. That said, the album's most notorious cut is
"The Streetbeater" -- better known as the
Sanford & Son theme, a novelty for most but also one of the greasiest, grimiest instrumental fusions of jazz and funk ever laid down -- while its second most noteworthy component is a drastic recasting of
"Summer in the City," as heard in
the Pharcyde's
"Passin' Me By," where the frantic, bug-eyed energy of the
Lovin' Spoonful original is turned into a magnetically lazy drift driven by
Eddie Louis' organ,
Dave Grusin's electric piano, and
Valerie Simpson's voice. (
Simpson gives the song a
"Summertime"-like treatment.) Between that, the title song (a faithfully mellow version, with
Jones' limited but subdued vocal lead), a medley of
Aretha Franklin's
"Daydreaming" and
Ewan MacColl's
"First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," and a light instrumental, roughly half the album is mood music, and it's offset with not just
"The Streetbeater" but a large-scale take on
"Manteca," a spooky-then-overstuffed
"Superstition" (where the uncredited
Billy Preston,
Bill Withers, and
Stevie Wonder are billed as "three beautiful brothers"), and the
"Streetbeater" companion
"Chump Change" (co-written with
Bill Cosby). The best here can be had on comps, but the album is by no means disposable. [Given a straight reissue in early 2009 via
Verve's
Originals series.]
~Andy Kellman, All Music Guide
;)
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