Customer Reviews

Come Back Charleston Blue

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Brought to him by ace saxophonist King Curtis, Jerry Wexler sat down to listen to a demo tape of "The Ghetto" by Donny Hathaway. A stunned Wexler promptly signed the young 23-year old to the magical Atlantic label with the sense of having `found something special - maybe even genius'. Hathaway quickly made good on that taped promise and produced a string of stunning soul albums in the early Seventies - "Everything Is Everything" (his debut in 1970), "Donny Hathaway" (his self-titled 2nd album in 1971) and the masterpiece that is "Extension Of A Man" in 1973. And then sandwiched between his fantastic "Live" set of March 1972 and his first duet soul album "Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway" in April 1972 came the soundtrack to "Come Back Charleston Blue" - a slightly out-of-synch-and-character outing that only partially works.

Originally released in April 1972 on Atco in the USA, this October 2007 expanded remaster by Rhino, finally makes available that soundtrack rarity after 25 years in obscurity. Produced and supervised by Quincy Jones, the original 11-track single album (broken into 21 'bits') is topped up with two bonus tracks - versions of "Little Ghetto Boy" - an alternate studio take and a live version. Long-time in-house remastering supremo Bill Inglot has done a bang-up job with the tapes as usual; the sound is gorgeous and far better than the cramped vinyl ever was.

Unfortunately, that's where the good news ends. Even as a rabid fan, I would have to admit that this album is not great by any stretch of the imagination - the runt of Hathaway's vinyl litter.
The album is - of course - a victim of the times in which it was made. Just 5 months earlier in December 1971, Isaac Hayes and his funky soundtrack to "Shaft" had been a global smash and ushered in the phenomenon of Blaxsploitation. Suddenly every soundtrack went `funky/soulful' crazy. That's ok, says you, but this soundtrack revolved more around old-world jazz and suffers badly for it. There are an awful lot of duffer Charleston boogie-woogie jazz pieces on here that are truly awful - and what's good - short funky passages peppered with an actual song every now and then - is very sporadic and inconsistent. There are also a lot of half-minute snippets on the album (the nature of a soundtrack) that are `interesting' but hardly essential.

Comparisons can be made to Marvin Gaye's excellent "Trouble Man" soundtrack - a solid favourite among fans - soulful and funky - with killer instrumental passages. I would say that "Come Back Charleston Blue" meets about half of those expectations. Highlights though include, "Harlem Dawn" (his first vocals on the LP) and "Little Ghetto Boy" the first proper song on the album. "Hearse To The Graveyard" is a fantastic instrumental to grace any funky CD-R you care to compile. "Bossa Nova" sounds like it came off an easy listening compilation made up by nondescript session men - half fun, half dire. "Tim's High" fares better, strings and soul with some great pleading `mercy' vocals - superb but maddeningly short at 1:30. The following track is probably the best funky instrumental on there - "Furniture Truck" sounds like Mission Impossible meets James Brown.
The two previously unreleased bonuses are superb - first is a new studio take on "Little Ghetto Boy" probably the album's best number. It's close to being as beautiful as the final take. The `live" version is soulful, funky and magnificent - the audience reacting to his `new song' with enthusiasm.

The MGM movie itself is long forgotten - and the liner notes admit to this - crap best left to posterity.

Those expecting the magnificent soul of his 3 stunning Atlantic albums should look elsewhere. What's really needed are DELUXE EDITIONS of his best studio works including a 2CD version of the awesome "Live" set from 1972 - like Rhino did with Aretha's expanded "Live At Fillmore West" 2-disc set. But as it stands, "Come Back Charleston Blue" is a flawed but worthy addition to his cannon of work and if it's belated reissue introduces his music to a new generation of soul lovers, then that's cool.

Aged only 33 and racked with depression he hadn't been able to handle for years, Hathaway took his own life in January 1979 in New York and robbed the Soul music community of a huge talent - someone of the musical and social stature of say Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Bobby Womack, Sam Cooke and Curtis Mayfield. Donny Hathaway is like Marvin, greatly missed and much loved to this day.

To sum up, "Come Back Charleston Blue" is an only-ok album with some great bits on it. However, if you're like me, and you see his name on the cover, you get the shivers and have to own it! Good in places, but seriously underwhelming in others, the uninitiated should try a snippet listen on iTunes first before purchase. Then try 'Everything Is Everything' or 'Extension Of A Man'. God! How I envy you hearing those gems for the first time!

PS: This release is part of Rhino's CLASSIC SOUL ALBUM - REMASTERED & EXPANDED Series.
Most titles are first time onto CD and are rare soul LPs from the Warner/Atlantic vaults.
Some other titles in the series are:

1. Ace Spectrum - "Inner Spectrum" (see separate review)
2. Blue Magic - "Blue Magic" (see separate review)
3. Leroy Hutson - "Paradise"(see separate review)
4. Ronn Matlock - "Love City" (see separate review)
5. Gwen McCrae - "Gwen McCrae"
6. Gwen McCrae - "On My Way"
7. Prince Phillip Mitchell - "Top Of The Line" (see separate review)
8. Prince Philip Mitchell - "Make It Good" (see separate review)
9. The Voices Of East Harlem -"Right On Be Free" (see separate review)

I like this CD. I'm a big Donny Hathaway fan so I feel it was necessary for me to have this CD in my own collection. It's different from what we know of his work but I still would recommend it to those that our huge fans of this brilliant talent. Gone too soon! RIP Donny!

Do you believe in a higher power? Well, it's funny you should ask me, because yeah, I do

Let me give you an example. Recently I was listening to the funky theme from the 1970s sitcom Maude, and while going to buy that, I also found this, and the Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway album.

Donny Hathaway is the link here, but when I got these three pieces, I'd no idea of that. We can debate if there is a higher power that rules the galaxies and stars and if it all came from apes and big bang or Adams rib, before it all got messed up when that Eve chick fed him that freekin' apple, but in the universe of music, no question: there is a higher power.

Wanna talk about another higher power? How about Quincy Jones, who has done more film soundtracks than theories of higher powers I can count. In Cold Blood, In The Heat Of The Night, The Pawnbroker. Jones, with Lalo Schifrin and Jerry Goldsmith and a few others were the go to guys if you wanted music with your movie.

What I thought was interesting about this, buying, was this was made around 1973, probably after Jones needed to score films to eat. Or buy another sixty room house.

So Jones must have done Come Back Charleston Blue by choice. This soundtrack is not as pure jazz and blues as his 1960s film work. You don't get the bite you would on, say, In Cold Blood. Music had to a much further degree been infiltrated by rock and funk. The Hathaway tracks are great, and Jones takes a more rounded and subtle approach to some of this music.

So you don't get the same attack on each track as you may have in the 1960s, but when the great Q rears his horns and his swing on the material here, the magic comes, and you're knee deep into what makes Q Q. Even a second of this makes any album, including this, worth getting--like they tell you in all the twelve step groups: sometimes you just have to let go and trust your (Q)higher power.

I've been waiting for this thing for too many years! Now if only i could find a DVD of the movie (one of my personal all time faves)

think of this soundtrack as a nice whitman sampler of jazz and soul - flashes of brilliance from the one and only donny hathaway. although not a must have for the casual listener, it gives real music lovers an insight into hathaway the master arranger and musician - the precursor to his masterpiece "extension of a man". the sound is remastered so well that you can hear hathaway's nice keyboard artistry throughout the arrangements. i am curious to know how much quincy jones contributed. the more swinging bigband cuts have the nice quincy jazz touches. reading in his biography how close he was to count basie fuels my speculation of jones' influence in this project even more. in all of jones soundtracks, the credits in the liner notes often read like a who's who of the jazz world so this soundtrack was indeed an amazing collaboration. the musical themes are smartly interwoven throughout leading to the final payoff - the duet between hathaway and margie joseph singing the title song. i am familiar with a couple of joseph's hits - knockout and christmas gift - but i've never heard her sound better. she is awesome on this. i must check out her other recordings. it's a shame she and hathaway didn't do more together. not to mention the greater tragedy that such an original & compelling artist as hathaway left us so soon. this cd release is one more tribute to his lasting legacy. the craft of music making so beautifully heard in this soundtrack is sorely missing in today's music scene.

I expected more from Donny Hatthaway. However, to me this CD was not a reflection of the geniusness of a man who've created some memorable music. It was jazz and some old Scott Joplin type stuff that to me was a bit disappointing.

I was truly surprised at how nice this CD really is. I love Donny's voice and I could listen to him everyday and night. Ragtime music has never been a favorite of mine but this CD take me back into every scene. I looked for the movie for years and now that I have the sound track I will have to order the DVD. Thanks for a wonderful CD.

You could never have underestimated the musical genius that once was Donny Hathaway. He was a rising star (known mostly for his duets with Roberta Flack) but this recording proved what his capabilites were. Under guidance from Quincy "The Dude" Jones, this was his first and extremely rare opportunity for a movie score that was overlooked in his resume. Although the movie itself was overlooked as well, this soundtrack makes for what music once was (instead of the manufactured sounds of today). I do recommend this for the Ol' Skoolers in any of us or us all. "Little Ghetto Boy" is highly recommended, as well as the alternate and live takes, available for the first time, as they did not appear on the original LP. Hathaway died from depression via suicide by leaping to his death from a window in the Essex Hotel in New York on January 13, 1979. (Atco / Atlantic / Rhino)

To those familiar with Dr. Dre's The Chronic (i.e. Lil' Ghetto Boy, Rat-a-tat-tat), may recognize this whole soundtrack that was long out-of-print until now on CD. This is Donny Hathaway at his real best of putting a touch outta this score which is amazing under the supervision of Quincy Jones. Great orchestration, touchable singing, and good sound from a live orchestra led by Donny. Note this is his first and only score he ever done for a film. Same goes for Marvin Gaye's Trouble Man and Barry White's Together Brothers. Go get it if you don't own it.

Real Music Never Dies!!!!

Though most people will get this soundtrack based on the singing of Donny Hathaway, I could personaly care less. Don't get me wrong, I loved his singing but I was a fan of Quincy Jones back in the days when he was producing TV scores and albums like "I Dig Dancers" with the classic "G'won Train". And the not to be forgotten arrangements for Count Basie's big band.
My only regret is that the tracks Come Back Basie and Basie were not longer.