"IT'S NEW TO ME" WEEK (OCTOBER 20-26, 2013)
Considering this is a fairly recent addition to my collection, it is odd that I don't remember what prompted me to order this CD. And I probably wouldn't have listened to this album much if I had purchased before I turned 30. I guess none of that matters now. This album is 38 minutes of tight, groundbreaking instrumental soul-jazz-funk in the same vein as Herbie Hancock's Headhunters. "I called it rock-jazz at the time," Irvine says. "I would write a bassline that James Brown would be comfortable with, and have an R&B drum pattern going with that bassline. I would then borrow a melody from my jazz experience and put it together."
Irvine is the composer and keyboard player here, but he was a bit of a polymath. He also was poet, playwright and, later, a rapper under the name Master Wel. Sadly, he died by suicide in 2002 at the age of 58, but his legacy continues in the hip-hop world where his work continues to be heavily sampled. This album was unavailable on CD until 2012.
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| Billboard, April 19, 1975, p. 62 |
Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart.
Tracks: Your introduction to Weldon Irvine should be We Gettin' Down. Maybe its inclusion on the excellent compilation album Digger's Delight will grab a few more fans. Other good tracks include the suggestive Pogo Stick and The Power And The Glory. The most experimental piece is Blast Off, but I don't even skip that.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None.
Know his music from its sampled use in hip-hop.
ReplyDeleteDug out Digger's Delight to hear that song of his.
Too bad his music is not on Spotify.