CTI Jazz - It's The Seventies Out There

A whole new round of CTI reissues are about to hit record stores nationwide including this compilation album; CTI The Masters Collection Volume 2: The Soul Jazz Legacy.

There are cuts from 16 CTI artists including two by Stanley Turrentine. The first thing to discuss in this review is that this is not “soul jazz”, but “pop jazz”. If you pick this album up looking for the “soul jazz” of a Bobby Timmons or Ramsey Lewis you’ll be very disappointed. But if you’re into Seventies heavily stylized grooves or today’s acid jazz you’ll be in heaven.

My first impulse upon getting this two-disc set was to pay an old cousin Freddie Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jones Jr. (yep, that's his real name) childhood home a visit.

He had an old truck camper he kept out in the yard by the family’s double wide. He ran an electric wire out to it to power a cheap K-mart stereo (he kept the expensive Pioneer rack system in his bedroom) and we used to hang out listening to Black Sabbath and Kiss records.

The camper was tricked out with lava lamps, shag carpet, and a whole cabinet full of his father’s girlie magazines we’d retrieved from the trash. I whiled awhile many a day smoking cigarettes with Freddie talking about all of the girls we knew and what we might do to them if we ever got them into the camper. I mainly just wanted some Seventies ambience while I listened to The Soul Jazz Legacy, but I came to my senses on the way over to the camper. This music should transcend the times it was recorded, otherwise what good is it? Plus, I bet Freddie’s camper is suffering from a severe case of dry rot by now.

Disc one:

Ray Baretto: “Pastime Paradise” – The Stevie Wonder song that Coolio appropriated for “Gangsta” Paradise” and then he got ticked off when Weird Al Yankovic did a parody; shame on him. This version features some hot guitar licks and nice sax work and really epitomizes the CTI "pop jazz" approach.

Esther Phillips: “Disposable Society” – Funky song and you can hear the scorn in Esther’s voice. This song holds up well and is still right on with its take on our culture of consumption.

Fuse One: “Double Steal” – Too many synthesizers, although I’m sure that’s the point. It sounds like game show or news magazine music. This is just rubbish threatening to turn into disco at any second. Real instruments seem like intruders.

Stanley Turrentine: “Storm” – Latin flavored intro, this is more jazz than pop with rough chunks of blues thrown in. Yet the song is still breezy.

Article Author: Wally Bangs

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