The arrival of these two compilations
of 1970s jazz/funk begs one simple
question: what took RCA so long?
The fact that the mini-revival known
as acid jazz peaked about five years
ago puts these otherwise intriguing
packages in the unfortunate position
of sounding outdated... a second time.
But if you can get past that little detail
there’s quite a bit to enjoy in these two
flashbacks.
Though Flying Groove and Flying
Funk draw from the RCA and Bluebird
catalogues, they rely most heavily on
material from Bob Thiele and his Flying
Dutchman label. As a longtime jazz
producer and shrewd businessman,
Thiele kept one eye on the past and the
other on the charts. Thus we find the
neo-Coltrane wailings of Gato Barbieri
on Flying Groove and the proto-rap
street poetry of Gil Scott-Heron, who’s
included on both discs.
Flying Groove will appeal more to
the traditional jazz lover, with the aforementioned
Barbieri sharing disc space with
Wild Bill Davis, Count Basie and Lambert,
Hendricks and Bavan. And speaking
of Hendricks—I mean, Hendrix—
what ’70s acid jazz flashback would
be complete without a dollop of Gil
Evans’ tribute to Jimi (represented here
by the spaced-out “Crosstown Traffic”)?
Similar head trips from David Axelrod
and Oliver Nelson (!) will put you in a
psychedelic mood, capped off with the
set-closing classic from Leon Thomas,
“The Creator Has a Master Plan” (this
four-and-a-half minute version omits
Thomas’ yodeling).
Flying Funk will appeal more to soul
fans and listeners in general, since the
more out-there stuff is replaced with
solid grooves. Not surprisingly, keyboardist
and urban jazz pioneer Lonnie
Liston Smith gets not one, but two
cuts here (including “Expansions”),
and Scott-Heron’s “Home Is Where the
Hatred Is” is possibly the most harrowing
first-person account of drug addiction
ever set to music. The inclusion
of tracks by the Main Ingredient, New
Birth, and the Jimmy Castor Bunch
show in an eye-opening way just how
much jazz and soul music borrowed
from each other in the ’70s.
One can imagine many of these
tunes sampled by today’s hip-hop artists,
and no doubt most of them already
have been. But the question remains:
Can this music start a revival—again?
This review originally appeared in All About Jazz: San
Francisco.
~ Frank Federico
