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Terry was a backroom boy, studio bod and songwriter back in the 60’s at Chicago’s Chess studios. Occasionally he would slip out the odd LP himself with a limited degree of success. In the late 80’s and early 90’s his work has been totally re-appraised and his old recordings for the Chess, Elektra and Erect companies have elevated him to cult status in the UK and Japan. Lucrative tours ensued and all his back-catalogue has sold extremely well via re-issues. So having secured a new deal with the innovative label ‘Talkin’ Loud’, he gets the chance to prove himself with new material. The question is can someone with so much retrospective appeal come up with the goods? I’m happy to say that this is an outstanding album with many great songs to be found within. He has retained his folky jazz soul style and yet it still sounds so fresh. ‘Keep Your Heart Right’ is my favourite take followed by ‘No More Blues’ and my jazz side smiles down on ‘Following Your Footprints’, If Terry Callier is new to you then stylistically he could be described as a cross between Bill Withers and Richie Havens with the soulful serenity of his fellow Chicagoans Donny Hathaway and Curtis Mayfield, yet there is plenty of himself in there, believe me. ORAN (JUICE) JONES : PLAYERS CALL - TOMMY BOY A few old samples and a few old ideas construct the overall feel of a lengthy spell in the wilderness. Taken at a cool pace throughout I’m sure this will find favour with the two step set but I found it all a bit smug and at times vocally quite thin. Best cut is ‘Cold Blooded’, based around Isaac Hayes old ‘Joy’ riff. Worst is his rehash of the Ohio Players’ tune ‘Sweet Sticky Thing’ WOMACK AND WOMACK : GREATEST HITS - SPECTRUM Not so much a greatest hits as everything they ever cut at Island Records. Yes, two of the big chart entries are here, ‘Teardrops’ and ‘Celebrate The World’ and one of my all time faves ‘Life Is Just A Ball Game’ which I believe was a minor chart hit for about five minutes. Their biggest hit, ‘Love Wars’ is only represented here in the form of a live recording which I assume is due to licensing complications. In fact 4 of the twelve selections are live takes which may or may not be to your liking. It was nice to hear ‘Missing Persons Bureau’ again and ponder the question ‘whatever happened to Womack and Womack?’ THE GAP BAND : GREATEST HITS - SPECTRUM The Wilson brothers from Oklahoma eased their way into the music scene back in 1979 with their strident disco instrumental ‘Baby Baba Boogie’ which gave no warning of their funkier leanings to come. Lead singer Charlie Wilson possesses a great voice and virtually every R n B wannabe imitated his style in the early 90’s. There are some well crafted ballads to be sought out amongst painfully dated funk like ‘Jammin’ or ‘You Dropped A Bomb On Me’. The rowboat anthem, ‘Oops Upside your Head’ is naturally here as is the solid gold classic and aptly named ‘Outstanding’ which is the album’s high point for me. Sorry to be such a trainspotter but I think ‘I’m Ready (If You’re Ready)’ would have made a nice choice and wasn’t ‘Big Fun’ a much bigger hit than most of what’s on show here? KOOL AND THE GANG : THE COLLECTION - SPECTRUM Obvious good value (at £10 or less) in the shape of this hits selection from Kool and the Gang. All tracks date from ’78 onwards with the exception of ‘Funky Stuff’ being the only track from their early seventies period. As you would expect classics like ‘Ladies Night’ and celebration are included along with decent boogie tunes like ‘Fresh’ and ‘Big Fun’. The rest is padded out with less good, but competent clones of the afore-mentioned tracks. Some may applaud the inclusion of ‘Cherish The Love’, as it was a sizeable 80’s smash, but I have always hated it personally. Two glaring omissions from this set ‘Ooh La La La (Let’s Go Dancing) which has been very influential in Euro Pop circles and even more surprising is the exclusion of ‘Too Hot’, which Coolio successfully covered recently and is also a heavily sampled track in the R n B world. Also missing is ‘Jones vs Jones’ and ‘Joanna’. All on the shelf for Volume 2 maybe?
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