Record of the week is soul jazz masterpiece Mister Magic from Grover Washington Jr. which I first heard as a student in the 80s. It's smooth, it's funky and it's cool (like the cover). Released in 1975 it was Grover's 4th album and his first commercial success.
~
1. Midlake - The Courage of Others
2. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
3. Amadou and Mariam - Dimanch a Bamako
4. Grover Washington Jr. - Mister Magic
5. Prem Joshua - Yatri
6. Various - The Karma Collection CD1
~
Mister Magic opens with the experimental Earth Tones (12:20) which is a Miles Davis like jazz fusion piece by arranger and keyboardist Bob James. Book-ended by Washington's soprano sax riff the mid section goes free form underpinned by Harvey Mason's hi-hat emphasized drums. Passion Flower (5:32) is an arrangement of a smooth melodic piece from the 40s, backed by rich strings. Title track Mister Magic (9:00) is punchy and funky with a circular Eric Gale guitar riff. Amy Winehouse covered the track on her Frank album. This super tight album ends with Black Forest (6:06) - a big band arranged chunky piece of JBs like funk.
A very satisfying album that tends to be liked by anyone I play it to. Hashtag What'sNotToLike?
#WhatABand Grover grooves through Mister Magic
Speaking of cool the Grover Washington album merges seamlessly into the equally cool Prem Joshua album. Prem is a German multi-instrumentalist majoring on Indian sitar. Beautifully produced and packaged Yatri is a gorgeous world fusion piece of authentic ethnic sounds over understated modern beats.