After a three month hiatus, Backbeats is back here on The Hideaway. Today, HERC takes us through two 70s Jazz collections. For those of you keeping score at home, these discs are Jazzy Vibes - Soulful Jazz Licks From The 70s [2010] and In The Pocket - 70s Jazz Funk [2013], #20 and #40 respectively, in the forty-two volume Backbeats Series.
Jazzy Vibes is mostly forgotten stuff from the legendary Philadelphia International vault. Although not readily associated with "jazz" in most fans minds, there are enough Gamble/Huff sonic trademarks and recognizable artists from their roster to ease even the most casual listener into all this jazz. HERC really liked track two, "In Good Faith" by Norman Harris and fortunately for him, a classic Harris album is up on Spotify for him to dig even deeper into.
In The Pocket unearths lost treasures from the Columbia and CBS labels vault. The songs are a little bit longer in length and definitely more funky than those included on Jazzy Vibes. Several tracks feature international jazz dialects, phrasing and instrumentation while others would sound right at home as incidental music on early Seventies cop shows. HERC's favorite track is the first one - "Just Around The Corner" by Herbie Hancock, which incidentally was released in 1980. It features Freddie Washington on bass, the great Alphonse Mouzon on drums and someone named Sheila Escovedo on percussion.
The "Jazzy Vibes" album is hardly what I would call "soulful jazz" as it is '70s fusion. The second album's title is much more appropriate (and is a better album IMO). I can't see how either fits in the Backbeats catalog, but I'm not paid to make such decisions. Both remind me of the Capitol Rare CDs in Blue Note's Blue Series.
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