Customer Reviews

Pressure Sensitive

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Tremendous recording, been listening to it since 1981! Always there is just a classic tune, fantastic! I got sucked in by this great album and bought some other Ronnie albums, but they are very weak by comparison (they sound like Bob James).

If you're not a total purist and dont mind hearing the beginnings of the CD101 trend, this is the best of the bunch. Laws absolutely is wonderful on Always there.

Buy it, you'll be happy you did.

Buy it for the original version of Tidal wave alone (the basis for the unforgettable hook in Black Moon's "Who Got Da Props?" Funky source of some great rare grooves.

I was first introduced to Ronnie a while ago, and soon fell in love with this album. If you want some upbeat, groovin' songs, check out this album. If you want some slow, smooth songs, check it out too. This is an album you can put on, and listen to layed back, or listen to while your are stompin' your feet and clapping your hands together! Get this album now!

"~When Ron Laws recorded this, he already had worked The track "Always There" is still played on many of the jazz/smooth jazz stations. Henderson's composition, "Why Do You Laugh At Me" is a Fish-fry lounge jam if ever I heard one, and like evvything else from Texas, it is done Texas Spicy and done Texas Big...all this, much more, and, I'm sure it doesn't hurt to be from a musical family....

This was Ronnie Laws' debut album and, unfortunately for the rest of us, is far better than the commercial drivel he made after this. PRESSURE SENSITIVE is pure music and includes one of my all-time favorite cuts, Tidal Wave. The CD has just the right combination of funk and jazz and Laws shows a sensitive side to his music on more than one cut. Everyone that I know who likes jazz and has heard this CD likes it immensely.

I was in Austin , Texas back in the late 70's when I first heard this LP.
"Always There" is still one of the most powerful sax songs ever recorded.
Buy this CD for a good time !

This is an oldie but goodie... So full of energy! The artist just takes you away and "blows" you away.

This Amazon order came in on time for Christmas! It was a great gift and they really enjoyed receiving this item!

It wasn't even four years following his membership in EWF for their Last Days & Time that Ronnie Laws and Roland Bautista embarked on their own respective careers. Both of them are showcased on this album-Ronnie's first solo date and also a musical reunion of two EWF alumni in a sense. It's a mid 70's Blue Note jazz funk session by the same people (such as Crusader's Joe Sample and Wilton Felder) who bought us all those classics from Donald Byrd around this time. Besides Joe and Wilton,this album is produced by another Crusader Wayne Henderson-about to embark on a hugely production/recording career of his own. So much burgeoning creative talent was overflowing during this session that it would'nt have taken much for this album to become merely a footnote in jazz history. Only it didn't end there at all.

Now true to form when it comes to mid 70's jazz-funk,there's going to be a clavinet and usually a floutist involved. Ronnie does play flute after all similarly to his older brother Hubert. But primarily If the genre came close to having a cliche' that might be it. But it's all in the hands of those playing that counts. One feature still important today is the oft used Arp 2600 synthesizer on this album. It's really part of what brings the hefty,melodic rhythmic funk assault of "Always There" to it's boil. So many artists have made softball covers of the song it's sometimes hard to remember why it's so revered in the first place. Roland composed the driving "Momma",similar to the type of high octane funk jamming he and Ronnie participated in during their time with EWF. The similar toned clavinet and guitar meld together beautifully here.

A cover of "Tell Me Something Good" here adds a low electronic fire to the more rugged original,giving it a tone closer to how song composer Stevie Wonder might've done it on his own recordings. On "Nothing To Lose" and 'Mis Mary's Place' Ronnie get's deep into the groove itself,the latter with a bluesy melody and electric sax solo,whereas the slower songs "Never Be The Same" and "Why Do You Laugh At Me" bring out his rich tone on sax-harder than Grover Washington but softer than say..Wayne Shorter for example-somewhere right about in the middle. There's no better example of this than "Tidal Wave",one of those jazzier ends of this type of funk with plenty of hi hats,bass lines and electric piano fills to wrap his sax solos around-kind of a soulful quilt of sound. Ronnie's music would soon gain more vocals than this largely instrumental debut would maintain throughout (the vocals that are here are far more collective in nature). I would refer to this in the "sweet as funk can be" category. But it has so much of a bite in some places all one can do is keep their ears open and get right in the groove with everyone else on this album.

Whenever this album is reviewed, no one EVER mentions the best cut on it -- WHY DO YOU LAUGH AT ME. Out of all the music in the entire world, THIS is my favorite song!!

I fell in love with and have been playing this song since I was in college. I play the sax solo on lead guitar note-for-note!! (My wife thinks I'm psychotic playing this song as much as I do)

This song was written by Wayne Henderson of the Crusader who Ronnie grew up with in Houston. To my ears, it seems to be a heart-wrenching, soul-touching song about a guy that is trying his best to work on a relationship with this woman who's "not havin' it". He professes his love for her and she seems to constantly overlook just what she has in him when all along, she wants the attention of another guy that does'nt know she exists!. Towards the end, he begs for her to stay -- but alas, to no avail.
Our Hero is wise to whats going on. He seems to tell her: "When he is cheating on you (and he WILL)and is abusing you emotionally and physically, don't bother trying to look me up"!

At the end, he is leaving his emotions right there with her but vows to "go on" -- walking up the road with tears in his eyes and his sax right near his heart.

Folks, when the time comes, this song WILL be played at my funeral! (seriously!!)

--Lo--