Condition: Used
Mel Brown - Chicken Fat
Label: Impulse! – A9152
Format: Vinyl, LP, Stereo
Record: VG+ VG++
Has Insert
Laminated Cover: slight ringwera, cornerwear, edgewear
Country: Canada
Released: 1967
Genre: Funk / Soul, Jazz
Style: Soul-Jazz, Soul
Tracklist
A1 Chicken Fat 4:11
A2 Greasy Spoon 5:52
A3 Home James 6:31
A4 Anacrusis
B1 Hobo Flats
B2 Shanty 4:40
B3 Sad But True
B4 I'm Goin' To Jackson
B5 Slalom 4:26
Credits
Arranged By – Herb Ellis (tracks: A2, B3, B4)
Bass [Electric] – Ronald Brown
Drums – Paul Humphrey
Engineer – Eddie Brackett
Guitar – Arthur Wright (tracks: A4 to B2), Herb Ellis (tracks: A1 to A3), Mel Brown
Organ – Gerald Wiggins (tracks: A1, A3 to B5)
Producer – Bob Thiele
Notes
Recorded in Hollywood, California on 31 May & 1 June, 1967
Manufactured by Sparton of Canada. Impulse!
Mississippi-born, West Coast-based guitarist Mel Brown flexed his slinky fingers with blues god T-Bone Walker before going out on his own for this seriously funky 1967 session. The hot studio band here also includes versatile L.A. pianist Gerald Wiggins and none other than six-string legend Herb Ellis, who dishes up fiery exchanges with Brown on the backbone-slipping "Greasy Spoon" and the Down-South, down-home title cut. In addition to handling arrangements on the date, composer supreme Oliver Nelson ("Stolen Moments") contributed two tunes; the tricky, frenetic "Anacrusis" and the wah-wah-covered "Hobo Flats." But it's the blues that form the rich and juicy marrow of Brown's soulful style, and Chicken Fat's pair of late-night, down-tempo workouts--the sultry original "Home James" and the Ellis-composed "I'm Goin' to Jackson"--will have you licking your lips with deep delight. Guitar chops meet pork chops on this gorgeous LP, one that's sure to water the mouths of not only jazz and blues fans but of anyone who can't get enough of that good ol' raw, funky, Booker T.-style soul. Pass the sauce!
Chicken Fat is basically a blues record, but Mel Brown's guitar playing lifts the album far above the ordanary. He is the polar opposite of, say, Wes Montgomery or Joe Pass. He is more akin to Zappa's axe work. His solos start out fast and hard and never relent. There are lots of loose, janglely runs and compressed little 16th notes Mel uses to get from point A to B. Everything is very detailed, and layered, but it is the type of detail that emerges in those little spontainous sounds between the music. Lots of rich texture in the guitar playing you'll slowly discover.
On one track, Mel uses a wha-wha peddle to great effect. This was 1967, and while a lot of more adventurous jazz people-say, Charles Lloyd- were putting rock inflections into their work, soul jazz was still a purist game. But Brown took a plunge that really pays off.
|
Shopping Cart
