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Short Takes

Short Takes image
Parent Issue
Day
3
Month
September
Year
1975
OCR Text

Short Takes

Roy Buchanan, Live Stock, Polydor PD 6048

Many think of him simply as The World's Greatest Guitar Bandito. If he's not, he's certainly the World's Hurtinest Guitarist but the problem remains, five albums after his "discovery," as how best to showcase his talent. Most of Tower of Power and vocalist Billy Sheffield set Roy off quite nicely on In The Beginning, his last effort. This live set, unfortunately, features a completely different and thoroughly gray band. Buchanan deserves better, if not the best.

Joe Cocker, Jamaica Say You Will, A&M SP 4529

Ol' drunken Joe's vital performance here gives the He to the frequent reports of his accelerating dissipation. Producer/arranger Jim Price refits Joe into a baroque setting that recalls the (occasionally) thrilling excesses of Mad Dogs and Englishman. And whether or not you did, indeed, consider that configuration excessive, Cocker's vocals consistently transcend both arrangement and the raw tune. Up-lifting.

The Meters, Fire On The Bayou, Warner Bros. MS 2228

These slick gents are the sound of New Orleans today as Fats Domino, Huey "Piano" Smith, Ernie K-Doe, Lee Dorsey, and others were in the past. Fire, their third or fourth album, is a little too pat but drummer Joseph Modeliste anchors what is, at the least, a great dancing band.

Richard Pryor, . . . is it something I said?, Warner Bros. MS 2227

"Comedian" Pryor describes in absolutely authentic, hence shocking/hilarious accents the whole (real) panorama of modern Black American life. His material (and, in a slightly different idiom, Gil Scott-Heron's) may yet stand with Mark Twain's, Ring Lardner's, Lenny Bruce's, or Langston Hughes'. You've got to hear all his albums (there are now three) at least once, whether you buy them or not.

Eddie Henderson, Sunburst, Blue Note BN-LA 464-G

Trumpeter Henderson has apparently decided that his former employer, Herbie Hancock, was right after all. . . He's gotten funky and warm, retained an edge of compositional adventurousness, and recruited lots of strong help from the likes of George Duke, Bennie Maupin, Julian Priester, Alphonso Johnson, Billy Hart, and Buster Williams.

-Bill Adler

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