Round 2

Henryk Debich: String Beat (Muza 1975) - Arguably the Holy Grail of Muza albums, this Polish jazz LP is filled with tasty breaks and basslines. Act like you knew.

Galt MacDermot: First Natural Hair Band (UA 1970) - Excellent instrumentals from one of the masters. It's not like this LP is slept-on or anything but I'd put it up against the best of Lalo Schifrin (though not quite Axelrodian in its sublimity).

Les McCann Ltd.: McCanna (Pacific Jazz: 196?) - Surprisingly hard-to-find Les McCann album with a few quality Latin-influenced pieces including the fantastic title cut. This is a great, underrated Latin jazz LP.

Clare Fischer: Manteca! (Pacific Jazz 196?) - Speaking of good Latin jazz LPs, here's another one. Features the debut of Fischer's original composition, "Morning," which would be improved upon by Cal Tjader who covered the song twice.

Pete Terrace: King of the Boogaloo (A/S 1967) - The boogaloos aren't necessarily super innovative on here but it's a solid collection and features the very funky "Do the Boogaloo."

Tito Rodriguez: Tito Tito Tito (UA Latino 1968) - Excellent Latin dance album with two standouts, "Descarga Malnga" and especially the slick groovin "Descarga Cachao."

Hidden Strength: S/T (UA 1975) - Decent mid-70s funk outfit. "Hustle On Up" is a solid dance/disco cut (this is back when disco was good, dig?).

The Globetrotters: S/T (Kirshner 1970) - Mostly a novelty soul album featuring the b-ballers - it has one decent cut, "Globetrottin" on it.

The No License Required Music Library Vol. 11 (NLRInc. 1984) - Mostly cheesy mid-80s library album with two good, funky instrumental pieces, "Bu Bu" and "Mambo Tambo".

Sandra Alexandra: The Intimate Side Of (UA 197?) - Interesting soul vocal album with some truly strange covers. The good: the Isley Bros.' "I Turned You On" and "It's Your Thing". The strange, Elvis' "In the Ghetto". The ugly: "Aquarius" (there are very few good covers of this song though).

George Semmper: Makin' Waves (Imperial 196?) - Good funk organ instrumentals though the standout cut is his cover of "Get Out of My Life Woman." (Note: Semper has two versions of this song, another on 45 that is NOT the same as what's on this LP. BOTH are very good though, just not identical).

Sir Edward: The Power of Feeling (Encounter 1973) - Another one of the handful of albums recorded for Bernard Purdie's own Encounter label. Looks more promising than it turns out to be but it does have a good cover of "People Make the World Go Round," and a decent original, "Peace, K.D."

Jorge Ben: Tropical (Island 1976) - Looks questionable (the cover art is wack) but this is actually a really good, disco era Brazilian album that finds Ben covering some of his better known compositions including excellent versions of "Chove Chuva" and "Mas Que Nada."

Czerwone Gitary: Rytm Ziemi (Muza 197?) - Breakbeats galore on this Polish rock album (3 diff. songs to be exact). Quality percussive blasts.

Cosa Nostra: S/T (Raff 197?) - Kick ass Mexican rock album that includes everything from a funked up boogaloo (Pete Rodriguez's "I Like It Like That") to a hellacious cover of CCR's "Proud Mary," to bombastic original tracks: "Get Down and Do It" and "Squeeze It Tight." They have another album which is also good but this cannot be topped.

Walter Bishop, Jr.'s 4th Cycle: Keeper Of My Soul (Black Jazz 1973) - One of my favorite Black Jazz titles. "Sweet Rosa" is a good original composition but the money cut is his cover of "Summertime." Very soulful, very funky, probably the funkiest version of the song I know.

Shirley Scott: Superstition (Cadet 1973) - Lots of good funky covers here including "Lady Madonna," "Last Tango In Paris," "Superstition," and "People Make the World Go Round." Not kick ass but worth keeping if you find it (not one of her more common titles though).

Paul Jackson: Black Octopus (Direct Disk/East World 1978) - Rare funk album by Bay Area musician Paul Jackson, recorded in Japan. The sound is definitely post-P-funk influenced but not sloppy at all. One of the few albums whose rareness is matched by its quality.

Cannonball Adderley: Soul of the Bible (Capitol 1972) - The Holy Grail of Cannonball/Nat Adderley albums. It's not that it's uber-funky - for that, their team-up on "Love, Sex and the Zodiac" is actually far superior. This is just really ambitious jazz concept album about spirituality that has some great compositions on it, funky or otherwise.

Weldon Irvine: Spirt Man (RCA 1975) - One of Irvine's best known albums, namely for "We Gettin' Down." Not as good as "Sinbad," but essential, nonetheless.

Weldon Irvine: The Sisters (Nodlew 1980) - Personally, I couldn't find anything on here that I could really get into and I love Irvine's work. Rather syrupy compositions and vocals. Reissued in 1998 on Saucerman.

Jeremy Storch: From a Naked Window (RCA 1970) - Moody, folksy psych rock album. The cut to check is "I Feel a New Shadow."