Messin' With Seldon Powell

[JSngry]

http://www.dustygroove.com/item.php?id=mpn...p%3Bincl_cs%3D1

One of the only albums that sax genius Seldon Powell ever cut as a leader -- and a tight smooth set of 70s funk tracks with a stone cold CTI or Kudu Records sound! The set was produced by Bernard Purdie --and features Purdie on drums, plus keyboards by Paul Griffin, trumpet by Jimmy Owens, guitar by Cornell Dupree, and some occasional vocals by Maretha Stewart, Barbara Massey and others. Powell's tone is very right-on -- sounding a lot like Eddie Harris' from the same time. The track selection scans a bevy of some of the most forward looking soul and jazz numbers of the period, including Gamble/Huff's "Back Stabbers" and "One Night Affair", "Afro Jazz", Leon Ware's "I Want To Be Where You Are", Galt MacDermot's "Weeping", Powell's own Messin'" and "Afro Jazz", and more!

Pretty damn good, actually. As noted, produced by Bernard Purdie, who's on board along w/Cornell Dupree, Gordon Edwards, and others, perennial/consummate studio pro Powell makes a record that sounds like a love child of Eddie Harris & Stanley Turrentine (and on the two flute cuts, like Herbie Mann trying to prove that he can really play, if you know what I mean). Ordinarily, that sort of contrivance is a prescription for Running Away As Fast As You Can, but in this case, hey, not unlike Wilton Felder's Bullit, everybody came to play, and play they did. quite well, actually, freely, openly, and with groove & soul front and center. Not quite the Serendipitous Sensation of Felder's side, but if that one gets an unreserved *****, this one gets an unabashed ****.

For those who are into such things, highly recommended!

Edited June 13, 2008 by JSngry

[JSngry]

btw - Executive Producer is listed as Lloyd Price. Was Encounter his label?

[Cliff Englewood]

Nice collars.

[Soul Stream]

Thanks for the heads up Jim. Big Seldon Powell fan...he kills on JH Smith's Black Coffee. And everything I every hear him on I dig a LOT. Gotta pick this one up. Plus anyone covering Backstabbers is happening in my book.

[AllenLowe]

great playeeer

(left unedited for Dan Gould to correct)

[JSngry]

Plus anyone covering Backstabbers is happening in my book.

Word on that, but the highlight for me is a gorgeous (and gorgeously soulful) version of Galt MacDermot's "Weeping", a song with which I was wholly unfamiliar, but one which sounds like it might have been a prototype for John Lennon's "Beautiful Boy". But truthfully, all the material is nice, or at least played in such as way as to make it nice.