Dr.
Lonnie Smith
's
Mama Wailer
is one of the quintessential sides issued by
Creed Taylor
CTI/Kudu
imprint. Out of print for decades on LP, in 2003 it became available again in Japan as a beautifully remastered CD -- as part of
King
's ambitious reissue project of all things
Kudu
. Uncharacteristically,
Smith
played clavinet as well as organ on this set, and arranged all but one track. The rest of the band was comprised of
Billy Cobham
,
Ron Carter
Chuck Rainey
Grover Washington, Jr.
Airto
Jimmy Ponder
George Davis
, and others. There are only four cuts on
, the title and
"Hola Muneca"
were written by
, the others are covers of
pop
tunes from the era:
Carole King
"I Feel the Earth Move,"
and
Sly Stone
"Stand"
-- the latter takes up all of Side Two.
's keyboard playing -- particularly on the clavinet, is dirty, greasy, and way-gone funky. He rides
Latin
grooves on
"Hola Muneca,"
and his B3 collides with the basses and
Cobham
's dancing, inverted backbeat groove. This is what
Latin soul
is all about when it meets
jazz
. The
improvisations
are in the pocket, but, at the same time, off the page. Here is where
boogaloo
hard bop
meet headlong. On the
tune,
soul-jazz
reigns supreme as the B3 administers groove therapy to the rhythm challenge. Elsewhere, as on
"Stand,"
(arranged by
Washington
),
's overdubbed B3s create a wondrously complex harmonic melody as the band moves in behind the beat. A few minutes in (it's almost 20 minutes in length), the ensemble picks up the tempo, and falls into the groove pocket from which all things are possible improvisationally. Two-and-a-half minutes into the tune, the jam unfolds, a
deep funky grit that streams and sweats call-and-response lines from one player to the next. For anyone who's ever had reservations about
's ability to cut loose as an improviser, they need only to give this track a listen and then apologize to his ghost. As guitars weave in and around the slinky, deep-groove basslines,
trade fours, and then
Ponder
turns his guitar into an overdrive machine to match
line for line, interweaving and intercutting before the whole mutha lifts off at eight-minutes-thirty-seconds and into a
James Brown and His Famous Flames
riot of soulful funky badness that nonetheless allows for
to solo outside on the edges of an over-amped rhythm section. Whew! ~ Thom Jurek