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James Brown

James Brown image
Parent Issue
Day
1
Month
October
Year
1975
OCR Text

Everybody's Doin' The Hustle, Polydor, Hustle With Speed, People Records

20 years later and most everybody's come around to James Brown's point of view-the Godfather of Soul has never made anything but "disco music," and he and the J.B.'s continue to grind it out with awe-inspiring style about once every three months. There's nothing on his latest disc, destined to be a soul classic, indeed there's even a certain superficial rhythmic monotony, a sameness, from tune to tune. And there's no denying that James' miraculous voice is getting a little thin around the edges. But that's all right, because Papa's new brand new bag is still full of surprises, and there still isn't a band on the planet that's easier or more fun to dance to. Especially nice moments include a remake of "Bag" featuring altoist Maceo Parker at his bluest, and a J.B.-ized "Kansas City."

The J.B.'s elpees minus the maestro always have that huge space to fill. On "Hustle," it's filled nicely time and again by trombonist Fred Wesley. There's a real rowdy can't-wait-to-get-down feel here and just about any tune on the first side (except the title cut) will sustain your interest better than the latest by the Average White Band or MFSB, for example.

-- Bill Adler