Customer Reviews

Raw And Refined

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

 

 

Issac at his funky roots! Mostly instrumental but entirely cool!My favorites: Birth of Shaft - John Shaft Cool, timely with John Singelton's modern day version! I recommend watching Gordon Park's Shaft - DVD version with Issac working with the Bar-Kays & Gordon Parks in developing the cool tracks! Funkaicous - Tasty cool! Tahoe Spring - Southshore Cool, Performing at one of the South Shore showrooms with the Lake Tahoe as a backdrop! Funky Junky - WAH WAH Cool! Making Love at the Ocean - Black Moses Cool - What a voice - just oozes coolness! Southern Breeze - Memphis Cool. The 405 - driving with the top down looking cool in LA! One of the best instrumental albums of the 90's! Vibrant, hip, and supercool!

Besides possessing one of the great voices of the any age, Isaac Hayes is one helluva musician. Only his dynamic talent at arranging equals his passion on the keyboard. The disc is a welcome partnership with "Branded," also release in 1995. Highlights include "Birth of Shaft," Urban Nights," "Tahoe Spring," Making Love at the Ocean," "Southern Breeze," and the final track "The 405."

Hayes conveys a variety of moods and does them all expertly.

"Raw and Refined," is a very good CD. Although almost all instrumental, it still serves up a nice combo of soul, smooth jazz, funk and instrumental, starting out with the rousing soulful rock anthem "Birth of Shaft," continuing with a fusion of funk and smooth jazz in "Urban Nights." "Funkalicious," "Soul Fiddle," and "Funky Junky" also offer up a fun cross of funk, jazz, with a touch of soul that you'll want to listen to over and over. Two of the last three songs "Southern Breeze" and especially "405" are outstanding instrumentals that alone warrant buying the CD. Isaac Hayes stays true to his roots, but does a great job of blending in other styles that should please both his longtime fans and smooth jazz fans who don't mind in little funk in their latees. Excellent "road trip" CD.

Like the man himself, 'Raw and Refined' is at once tough, gritty, soulful and ever so smooth. I have alot of memories tied up with this album (purchased whilst living in America for a year in '96) and whenever I play this it calls back memories of late-night carousing, dalliances and excursions around the USA. Like Isaac Hayes' legendary album 'Shaft', this too serves as a good soundtrack for the more adventurous side of you. Interestingly, while the sturdy funk workouts here are prototype Isaac Hayes, he really excells on more breezier, laid-back jazz oriented material such as the delicious 'Tahoe Spring' or the 'Night Before'. 'Southern Breeze' and 'The 405' are also tremendously evocative pieces of work. 'Raw and Refined' eclipses anything of Hayes' 80's output and continues to show the flexibility and evolvement of this soul icon. Would love to hear more like this.

...get a earful of this funky southern fried product from Isaac & Movement. It is tasty enuff to serve with breakfast, lunch, or dinner.... Isaac lends his speaking voice to "You Make Me Live" and it sounds like he never left those good ol' days at Stax/Enterprise. A nice surprise for Isaac's jazz fans...

i LOVE this instrumental album. some of the tracks sound like outtakes from various albums. for instance "Funky Junky" sounds like it was recorded during the "Shaft" sessions. that's not a bad thing.a great combination overall.

this album begs the question:

is it old yet new...or is it "new" yet "old" :)

either way...I'M JAMMIN' YA'LL!

my faves(in no particular order):

soul fiddle
urban nights
you didn't know love was so good
memphis breeze
funky junky
funkalicious

To be honest, this album was not enjoyed at all. My favourite type of music is raw, driving funk. I know Issac isn't known for funk but he has had an influence on it and vice versa. I thought the songs on this album were weak. It made me realize just how much of a role his voice plays in his music. The song The Birth of Shaft had high expectations due to the name but ended up being a rock influenced song with a repeated annoying riff. None of these songs pulled the album up after that and the synth use caused some of the songs to border on cheese. I have since returned the CD and am no longer a blind lover of Hayes.