"Now, Cos, he likes the JAZZZZZ, y'see? When the drummer goes 'rip bop slabbada doongk paah shank-a klook-a-mop,' and the BASS . . . is goin' 'buh-doom bup doom bop-a doong bop diddly-doom' and the TRUMP'T . . is like 'wuuAAAAAAHH' . . . So, he took these ol' tapes, y'see? And he gave them to a bunch a the young . . . PEOPLE . . . you know, with the pants down to here, and the hats on backwards, and the shoes on sideways, and he told them, 'MAKE . . . a new RECORD . . . outta these SONGS!' So they went into their studios, and the started framzin' with the knobs and frippin' with the slider things and they took this part of that song and that part of this song, y'see, and then they took the drummer goin' 'doon doon PANG chuck-a-log-a GUGGA-doon' and the keyboards goin' 'deet-deet-DEE-d'deet-d'deet' and pretty soon even ol' Cos couldn't recognize his songs anymore . . . but it was cool."
And hey, it is cool. Concord Records recently released two albums' worth of ultra-rare music recorded for Bill Cosby's 1969-1971 NBC variety show. Sort of. I mean, they've definitely released the two albums. It's just that one of them is full of jam sessions that grew out of the music for Cos' show, and the other is an ambitious remix/remake album featuring some of the underground's better-regarded musical soda jerks.
First, the old stuff: The Original Jam Sessions 1969 features 11 recordings of 8 Bill Cosby/Quincy Jones originals, plus the Edwin Hawkins classic "Oh Happy Day." All this music was recorded for the aforementioned variety show, but most of it has been sitting around unheard since about 1971 or so. The musicians are mostly LA-studio first-call types (with Milt Jackson's always-tasty vibes playing thrown in for good measure), and the sound is everything you'd expect from late-60s soul-jazz: Fender Rhodes, wocka-wocka guitar, pingy-sounding drums, and the absolute groove of death. Even if nobody on the entire album goes too far out with a solo, the overall vibe is just so cool, it'll have you writing movie screenplays just so you can find a use for the music. I'm not sure I really needed three versions of "Hikky-Burr" (the theme song for the show), but that's a small quibble.
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