Fever

Ronnie Laws | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 13, 1993)
• Original Release Date: 1976
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Blue Note Records
• ASIN: B000005HE9
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,680 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Jazz-funk at its finest..., February 3, 2005

By 

Kirk A. Abernathy "redhead keyboardist" (Phila., Pa) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fever (Audio CD)

This is a great record-nice to see it on cd. It has some funky moments (Lets Keep It Together & title track) as well as some beautiful ballads (Stay Still..and Karmen, a song written for his mother). Although I think Friends & Strangers and Flame are a little stronger, there's enough quality material here (that isn't on the greatest hits) to warrant having it. Especially if you're a fan of this style and era of music. There's nothing quite like it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brillant release from an iconic artist of the era!, October 30, 2003

By 

Douglas C. Pryor "dougcash" (Sacramento, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fever (Audio CD)

To be 16 when this scorching funk / fusion piece of genious hit the streets was definitely something to behold.The trifecta of Freinds & Strangers, Fever and Flame forever surplanted Ronnie Laws in the hearts and minds of us who were fortunate enough to come through that very exciting era.

5.0 out of 5 stars Sophmore Set For Mr.Laws On Another Groove, November 24, 2011

By 

Andre S. Grindle "Andre' Grindle" (Brewer Maine) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fever (Audio CD)

Being the younger brother of another jazz legend probably had about the effect one expect on Ronnie Laws. He was after all a member of a growing and very musical family looking to carve out a name for himself. Starting in EWF before releasing his largely hard funk oriented debut Pressure Sensitive Ronnie was in a position to put one one killer second album. Many artists,instrumentalists in particular can sometimes fall all to easily into a "sophomore slump" syndrome of trying to recycle ideas and being somewhat creatively conservative. In this case it would seem Ronnie Laws just went with the flow and let the creative juices wiggle and wobble wherever they chose to. On the other hand the level of control and musical discipline both Ronnie and producer Wayne Henderson seemed to share showed up all over this set.

Brimming with spacious and ambitions arrangements as well as grooves,this album distinguishes itself from what came before in many ways due to energy level and crispness sound. "Let's Keep It Together",'Strugglin'" and the dancefloor minded Crusaders like funk of "All This Time" really showcase this slickness to a great degree. But it's a clean studio sort of slickness,not a heavy production gloss-make no mistake on that. On the title song (yes,a Peggy Lee remake) the funk is very high octane as it on "Captain Midnight". On "Stay (And Let Me Love You)","Karmen" and the Charles Stepney like "Night Breeze" he works his way through cinematic slow groove swells that,as with the other cuts mentioned have that dripping,echoed electric guitar sound that sounds so excellent and dreamy in this sort of jazz funk.

The closing "From Ronnie With Love" is an altogether different matter. With this heavy rhythmic assault,mildly psychedelic jazz funk sound and Ronnie's surprisingly wailing and atonal sax solo it's probably the most atypical and avant garde piece of music the man ever recorded. Not to mention his most obviously jazzy. Following this album Ronnie would gradually alter his sound and turn far more to the sophistifunk side of music as the 70's drew to a close. It was quite far away from the heavy jazz-funk of this and his debut album-full of instrumental drive and creativity. No matter how you cut it all of Ronnie Laws music in the 70's showed a considerable and healthy level of creative growth. And this album,along with his quality debut showcased him at the absolute funkiest level of that growth process.