Pharoah Sanders - Karma (Impulse! - 1969)

Pharoah Sanders - Karma

Difficult to comment a record that has been already described numerous times by jazz specialist and for very good reasons like a masterpiece even for a soul and funk head like me. Karma is made of only two songs: a 32'42" psychedelic ride called The Creator Has A Master Plan and the only 5'37 long Colors. With the help of Leon Thomas on vocals and percusion and Lonnie Liston Smith on Piano, The Creator Has A Master Plan starts like a sultry repetition of the soulful main theme built around Pharoah Sanders saxophone. Then the voice of Leon Thomas comes in before the song falls into noisy bruitist and abstract chaos for several long minutes to finally come back to the main theme. This shit just grabs your mind, even if you're not high and definitely propels you into another world.

The Zapp & Roger Anthology - We Can Make You Dance (Warner Bros./Rhino - 2002)

The Zapp & Roger Anthology CD 1

The Zapp & Roger Anthology CD 2

If the Troutman brothers wouldn't have existed, nor P-Funk nor West Coast gansta rap would have been the same. Discovered by, guess who, Georges Clinton himself, the band led by Roger Troutman, rapidly acquired a major status amongst funk players. Zapp live shows, for those lucky to watch them, were unique moments of funky madness while their infectious singles, even if not that successful outside the R&B charts, set the definition of black music for the next decades: a strong emphsis on the drum and bass lines, the use of talkbox, easy texts and infectious chorus. Sounds kind like the definition of R&B today right? Zapp and Roger have been so much sampled, especially More Bounce To The Ounce, that using their songs is now the ultimate music production cliché. Dre gave to Cesar what belongs to Cesar revitalizing Roger career by offering him the chance to sing the hook of 2Pac's hit California Love in 1996. The saddest thing in Zapp glorious story is the end with the violent and mysterious death of Roger and Larry Troutman in 1999 by gunshots. This anthology selects the 29 best tracks from Roger Troutman's various incarnations: The Human Body, Zapp, Roger and H-Town. This is a must.

In The Pocket With Eddie Bo - New Orleans Rock&Roll, R&B, Soul & Funk Goodies 1955-2007 (Vampisoul - 2008)

In The Pocket With Eddie Bo

Getting a hand on Eddie Bo recordings for a decent price a rare experience. During 50 years, Eddie Bo was a funky hurricane, one of the go to guy from New Orleans funk and soul scene. He wrote, recorded, produced or arranged hundreds of records for a good dozen of different labels, mostly 45s, and staid a lot of times uncredited. It was really time to rehabilite this guy and its storming recipe: raw drums, tick bass lines and a catchy hook, enhanced from time to time by horns or strings. The 28 songs on In The Pocket With Eddie Bo features Eddie Bo under his own moniker or the numerous bands and artists he worked for: Barbara George, The Barons, Eddie Lang or Chuck Garbo & The Soul Finders. Raw swampy sweaty shit but it's just to bad this records lacks what is probably Eddie Bo's most sampled song and used breakbeat, Hook And Sling.