Maximum Rhythm and Blues
Showing posts with label New Jersey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Jersey. Show all posts

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Shakespeare and The Last Empire - My Old Jams Still Slam (1989)


Jeff the Intern here, slaving well into the night with little or no pay, all to help Real Folk Blog in its goal of identifying and promoting music that not only slams, but still slams.  This one was easy.  

All hyperbole aside, these old jams still slam.   

At the risk of marking out like some hip-hop noob,  records like this are what hip-hop should be about.  The rhymes are tight, the samples are lively, grooves utterly danceable. Shakespeare is our Master of Ceremonies, and it is a title he wears around his waist like a championship belt.  Like the bard before him, Shakespeare makes sure that his s*** slams.  It slams, slammed, and continues to slam.  It is slamming.

Check out the crew on the fourth track, or track five when Shakespeare has sex with that female police officer, or the third song when Shakespeare tells us to hang in there and stay in school.  Or just listen to the title track, the first song on the album, and find out what cereal Shakespeare eats in the morning.  Really, the whole thing is worth a spin or two, because it's fun; and honestly, you don't have anything better to do.

But for now, your humble intern, whose nerves are half-fried from coffee, stress, and lack of documented income, must move on to the next job demanded by the higher-ups on the http://realfolkblog.blogspot.com team.

Knowledge, Education, Fame, and Girls.  Jeff the Intern, out.


Thursday, December 6, 2012

Linda Jones - Your Precious Love (1972)


You know that feeling, when you sing so hard you think you're gonna puke?  No?  Well, Linda Jones knows a thing or two about that feeling.  This record is a showcase of one of the most impressive and criminally overlooked vocalists in soul history.  Released posthumously in 1972 after her tragic death at 27 due to complications with diabetes, Your Precious Love is a dynamite album.

The music behind the voice ain't nothin' to sniff at either.  Syrupy sweet backing vocals drip soul over organs, strings, and a sharp lead guitar.  But oh, those vocals.  The songs aren't so much sung as they are attacked.  Destroyed, vandalized, and ripped to shreds.  It's incredible, and a testament to Linda Jones that songs recorded forty years ago can still have such a raw, visceral, and immediate quality.

Highlights include the title track, Not on the Outside, and Behold.  Disclaimer.  Singing along my cause you to cough up a lung.


Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus (1956)



The saxophone colossus!  One of the legendary tenor saxophonists from the bebop/hard bop era.  He played with Miles Davis, he played with John Coltrane, he played with Red Garland, Shelly Manne, Babs Gonzales, Bud Powell, Art Blakey, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Max Roach, Dizzy Gillespie, all the greats.  He served jail time, fought off a vicious heroine addiction, and still produces great work to this day.  Awarded the rare crown from the Penguin guide to jazz, this 1956 album may be his all time best.