Roy Ayers Ubiquity (2024)

UK import

2024 box set of five albums by vibraphonist Roy Ayers - sometimes known as the "Godfather of Acid Jazz" - released in the years 1975-1977. I almost didn't buy this set because I already had two of the five albums, but I wanted to hear Vibrations and this set was the cheapest way to pick up a (legitimate) copy. At $30 ($6 per album), it's a hard to pass up this shining set. I mean, everybody loves the sunshine, right?

---

A TEAR TO A SMILE (1975)
10 tracks, 40 minutes

In which Ayers moves from his early '70s funky jazz to a funk-jazz-soul-R&B-disco mix while maintaining his bona fides as one of the best vibraphone players in the land. There's a new focus on vocal tracks that sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. There's some great grooves and performances to be had throughout. With this album, Ayers begins his slow transition from jazz player to conductor/producer/arranger as he inches toward the smoother, more commercial sound of his late '70s peak.

I love how he adds descriptors for each performer in the credits.

Reviews/ratings:

• Record World: "The feel flows throughout"
• CashBox: "a low keyed approach to funk, sprinkled ever so lightly with the essential life juices of jazz and rhythm and blues."
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: Did not chart
• Billboard Jazz: #8
• CashBox: #181
• Record World Jazz: #11

Tracks: I enjoy 2000 Black, Show Us A Feeling, The Old One Two (Move To Groove), and A Tear To A Smile. My current favorite cut is the ethereal ballad, Miles (Love's Silent Dawn). The only track that plays it safe is a cover of Earth, Wind & Fire's The Way Of The World, but just because it's safe doesn't mean it's not extrememly enjoyable. (And quite frankly, that song is just begging for jazz covers.) Ayers hits the vibes more on this album than a few of the subsiquent releases, especially on tracks like Ebony Blaze, Time And Space, That's The Way Of The World, Miles (Love's Silent Dawn), and the title track.

---

MYSTIC VOYAGE (1975)
10 tracks, 43 minutes

Previously appeared on The CD Project. Note: the 7" version of Evolution is included in this box set as a bonus track.

---

EVERYBODY LOVES THE SUNSHINE (1976)
10 tracks, 40 minutes

Previously appeared on The CD Project.

---

VIBRATIONS (1976)
11 tracks, 42 minutes

Following up the success of Everybody Loves The Sunshine, so we've got more of the same. I'm not complaining. Rather than trying to reinvent himself, Ayers doubled down on the formula he had been refining all decade: warm vocals, sophisticated jazz harmonies, and irresistible funk grooves. This album also marks the beginning of a shift to utlizing disco/dance grooves on a few tracks. While not having the commercial success of Everybody Loves The Sunshine, Vibrations did quite well on a variety of charts.

Reviews/ratings:

• DownBeat (★½): "I've been known to walk out of restaurants for no other reason that stuff like this coming over the loudspeaker."
• Billboard: "elements of jazz and soul that fuse together for a varied array of mellow and upbeat compositions."
• CashBox: "Roy Ayers Ubiquity is a classy jazz/rock/funk aggregation that, on each album, gets better and better."
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #74
• Billboard R&B: #11
• Billboard Jazz: #8
• CashBox: #94
• CashBox Jazz: #4
• Record World Jazz: #4

Tracks that could have fit on Everybody Loves The Sunshine: Baby I Need Your Love, The Memory, Better Days, Searching, Vibrations, and Baby You Give Me A Feeling.

Tracks embracing the disco trends of the time: Domelo (Give It To Me), Come Out And Play, and Moving Grooving.

Too funky to fit neatly in either of the above categories: Higher and One Sweet Love To Remember.

Bonus track: 7" version of Domelo (Give It To Me)

---

more to come...

Previously revisited for the blog:
Everybody Loves The Sunshine (1976)
Mystic Voyage (1975)

Brenda Russell - Two Eyes (1983)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 2002 Spy reissue.

In 2020, I picked up a copy of Brenda Russell's 1981 album, Love Life, quickly fell in love with it and announced it as "the best new-to-me album I heard in 2020" and bluntly stated "I love the thing." For the record, both statements still hold true. Soon after, longtime friend o' the blog Dirk Digglinator let me know that if I liked Love Life, I absolutely needed to check out its follow-up, Two Eyes. And he was most certainly correct. Russell's brand of smooth soul-pop goes down easy, plus there's plenty of recognizable names in the credits: Bill LaBounty, James Newton Howard, David Foster, Michael McDonald, Don Grusin, Nathan East, Jeff Porcaro, Jerry Hey, and Stevie Wonder.

The good news: the album is produced by Tommy LiPuma.
The bad news: after Love Life, the A&M label dropped Russell; this was Russell's only release on the Warner Bros. label and WB did almost nothing to promote Two Eyes.
The best news: it's a dang good album.

Detailed liner notes from the 2002 reissue by David Nathan.

Press of the time:

• High Fidelity: "Brenda Russell's voice is so fine...that it's a crime her songwriting isn't better." [note: I'm guessing the reviewer was having a bad day when he wrote this review as he later refers to Jeff Porcaro's playing as "inimitably boring."]
• Billboard: "[Russell] finds crossover connections strengthened under producer LiPuma"

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: Two singles were released from the album, I Want Love To Find Me and the title track. Neither charted, although they should have and either single would have been equally at home on the Hot 100, R&B, or Adult Contemporary charts. Dirk told me the highlight of the album was the tribute to Al Jarreau, simply titled Jarreau. It's plenty good for sure, but my favorite track is Hello People, co-written by Michael McDonald. I recognized track 2, It's Something, from Leslie Smith's recommended 1982 album, Heartache. I'll See You Again isn't the greatest, but it features a harmonica solo from Stevie Wonder, so it's a keeper. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the album closer, Look Down Young Soldier.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: see above

Previously revisited for the blog:
Get Here (1988)
Love Life (1981)

Johnny Mathis - The Island (1989)

Note: the CD I listened to was 2020 CD release

This album was recorded in August 1989, but not released at that time. The compact disc I purchased is the first standalone-CD release of this album, but not its first time on CD. The album made its debut on CD in 2017 as Disc #55 in the mammoth 68(!) CD box set titled The Voice Of Romance: The Columbia Original Album Collection (MSRP $499.98, currently reselling for at least twice that price).

I was gifted a Mathis promo CD sampler and it contained the title track from this album. I wrote the following: "I wouldn't mind hearing more tracks from that album." Produced by Sergio Mendes, this album is full of a soft rock blend that lies somewhere between música popular brasileira and WestCoast/Adult Oriented Rock. More on the release from these 2 posts:

• Johnny Mathis’ Brazil-Themed “The Island” Arrives From Second Disc Records, Real Gone Music
• The Island

Anyway, I bought this copy back in November 2021 and I really want to like the thing, but I just don't think the right material was chosen to suit Mathis's immediately recognizable voice. While listening, I can't help but wonder what Al Jarreau or Joe Pizzulo would have done with a few of these songs. Another problem with the album is a lack of variety; I'd like an upbeat tune every now and then to offset all the slow-to-midtempo romantic material. To be brutally honest, some of this stuff is downright boring. So maybe the album wasn't released back in '89 for good reason?

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: I'm already familiar with other versions of three songs on the disc, so of course I compare these to the first I heard. The tracks that work better than others are Who's In Love Here (co-written by Brenda Russell) and Wanting More. And I'll ignore the unintended irony of that title for now.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
The Music of Johnny Mathis: Your Personal Sampler (1993)

State Cows - High And Dry (2022)

European import

I like State Cows. That said, all their stuff is in exactly the same vein. However, I happen to like that vein, so here we are. Speaking of the same vein, I’ll now engage in some tasteful plagiarism from a previous CDP post about the band.

Here's a little bit about the Swedish duo, taken from their website:

STATE COWS is one of very few modern yacht rock / westcoast / AOR bands that creates new original music. This project started out as a Steely Dan tribute called THE SECOND ARRANGEMENT. They soon transformed the Steely Dan tribute into the band STATE COWS and started writing an album of brand new yacht rock songs. Smooth guitar lines, half-time shuffles, funky bass lines, slick harmonies, real Fender Rhodes, tight horn sections and some California sunshine ... it's all in there!

So, yeah, it's derivative, but so very good and very smooth. Goes down easy. If you tire of the limited and questionable playlist on the yacht rock channel on SiriusXM, but still want a little Doobie Bounce in your life, this is just what the doctor ordered. The duo leans into the "yacht rock" nomenclature and musical vocabulary while creating neo-yacht music for the dad rock (or granddad rock) crowd. My only complaint is the sound is often over-produced, particularly in the odd treatment of the backing vocals.

I encourage you to sample some their stuff over at bandcamp: statecows.bandcamp.com.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: The best cuts on this one are Caught In A Landslide, Emily, Tears Of Isolation, Hold On, and When You Smile.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None, but the sound sure takes me back to the '80s real quick.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Closed Doors And Open Shores (2025)

Erik Tagg - Rendez-Vous (1977)

Note: the CD I listened to was the Music On CD reissue (The Netherlands, 2024) with 4 bonus tracks.

I first discovered Eric Tagg in the early 1980s through his stellar vocals on Lee Ritenour's 'Rit' album, but was completely oblivious to his earlier solo albums for many years. This cluelessness was mainly because Tagg, a US native, was living and working in the Netherlands at the time and his albums weren't released in the US. (It also explains why he changed the spelling of his first name.) I've since found a couple of them, but I'm always on the lookout for other early Tagg CDs.

Here's the only US press I was able to find regarding this album. Up, up, and away...

In any case, this album is typical late-70s blue-eyed soul/jazz-pop/sophisticated Adult Oriented Rock. Production is lush but restrained with lots of warm Fender Rhodes, silky backing vocals, tasteful horn charts, and mellow grooves. All this good stuff supporting Tagg's airy tenor that can sound soulful and is always in complete control, almost as if this guy is incapable of over singing. The album was produced by Hans Vermeulen of the Dutch band Rainbow Train and you can hear a bit of a slightly European feel when compared to US soft rock of the time. (See also Lava). There's also several points where you can tell Tagg spent a lot of time taking in the ballads on Songs In The Key Of Life. Then again, who wasn't listening to that album back in 1977? 

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Not originally released in the US

Tracks: All songs written by Tagg. My top picks on today's listen are Got To Be Lovin' You, Fancy Meeting You, Marja's Tune, and Mutual Feeling; but it all goes down easy. As do the...

Bonus tracks: Living Off The Love is the best of the four bonus tracks, but I also dig The Love I Gave and Who Are You. These four lean more to the Westcoast/AOR sound but also more to CCM (or were they still calling it "God Rock" back in '77?)

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Tagg/McNulty Band - At The Legendary Popsicle Toes Club In Dallas TX 1986 (2018)

Mamas Gun - DIG! (2026)

UK import

I'm a fan of singer/composer/producer/retro-guru Andy Platts and here he's gifted us another collection of neo-soul originals that somehow immediately takes me back to my primary school days. Platts even persuaded Brian Jackson to perform on the title track. Both lyrically and musically, there's a bit more gospel influence on this album than the group's previous releases and that doesn't bother me a bit (just the opposite, actually). Just sit back and let the smooth '70s sounds wash over you. Cool music for warm weather.

Online reviews:

• willwork4funk.com: "In turbulent times, Mamas Gun’s music certainly connects and is a welcome balm for the soul. Uplifting, questing, nourishing and golden, DIG! is a pure delight to experience and without a doubt their most accomplished album to date."
• soulandjazzandfunk.com (4/5): "Dip in anywhere across this 11 tracker and you’ll enjoy quality blue-eyed soul – with the emphasis on that last word.
• shatterthestandards.com: ★★★★☆

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: No skips.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None, but I've got a strong suspicion this album will soundtrack a good chunk of my Summer 2026.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Cure The Jones (2022)
Golden Days (2018)

Pages (1978)

Japanese import

After discovering the self-titled 1981 Pages album, I dove into their back catalog, starting with this self-titled 1978 Pages album. It's not the greatest debut album, but there are a couple of smooth West Coast/Adult Oriented Rock cuts to be found. The guys in Pages - specifically Richard Page and Steve George - had been session vocalists and back-up musicians for a number of artists, including Andy Gibb. So they had no problems finding some familiar names to help out with this album, to wit: Randy & Michael Brecker, Philip Bailey, Victor Feldman, Lani Groves, and Dave Grusin. More filler than killer with choruses better than verses, but the band improved with each successive album.

Press of the time:

• Billboard: "smooth, efficient and musically well-oiled"
• Record World: "a very potent debut album"

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: The song that initially grabbed me and hasn't let go yet is It's Alright. After a 30 second string introduction, the piano and vocal enter. The verse has a beautiful melody over a simple, stepwise bass pattern, but the song really kicks in with the gorgeous chorus sung by a female voice. Then, as if it wasn't good enough already, we're treated to a sweet saxophone solo from Michael Brecker, who keeps playing for the remainder of the track. The only single released from the album was track 6, If I Saw You Again; it failed to chart, even on the Adult Contemporary chart and I struggle to understand why. The album ends with a decent ballad, I Get It From You, which Herb Alpert later covered on his Magic Man album. As you could probably guess, Richard Page has a much nicer singing voice than Herb Alpert. Other good parts are the choruses of Let It Go, Listen For The Love, and Room At The Top.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
Pages (1981)