Customer Reviews

Soul on Top

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

 

 

James Brown with a big, BIG band...OUCH!!!

We all know what a gifted performer the Godfather of Soul has been through the years. So, by listening to this CD (recorded in 1969 and long out of print), I've come to realize that Mr. Soul has a lot of jazz sensibilities in him.

Backed by the screaming Louis Bellson big band, James tears his way through a collection of standards, jazzed-up covers of his own hits, and two original tunes, "The Man in the Glass" (forgot the composer), and "I Need Your Key to Turn Me On," for which Mr. Drums (Bellson) wrote the words, music, and Brown's right-on monologue.

"September Song" is best performed the way Kurt Weill wrote it (as a plaintive ballad), but Brown tears this classic apart as only he can. Ditto "Your Cheatin' Heart." Brown's hits "It's a Man's, Man's World," "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "There Was a Time" (not part of the original LP - shame) get added horsepower from Bellson and company.

All in all, this project was a welcome surprise to these ears, thanks to the contributions of Mr. Soul, Mr. Drums, and the rock-solid big band charts of the sorely missed Oliver Nelson.

I don't get the other reviewers here. Is this album somehow superior becase it's ostensibly a jazz album rather than funk or R & B? Don't get me wrong, I'm a big jazz fan, but does the presence of a BIG BAND make James more acceptable as a "real musician?" Indeed, does a big band or having primarily jazz musicians make something "jazz?" I don't think so. This is a synthesis that doesn't always work, where JB sounds great DESPITE the weighty band backing him. At other times, there's a restraint that befits a big band setting, but doesn't show off "The Pride of Atlanta's supreme talent.

I like the album for the variety, and because I simply love James Brown. He could take "Happy Birthday" out of the banal and into the funkified. But please, let's watch how we label this music. By the way, this is NOT the first time that JB released "There was a Time." Check out Disk 1 (Volume 1) of JB's "The Foundations of Funk," it's right there. Other recommendations: "Love, Peace, and Power," his increible live recording that rivals his great "Apollo" work.

a release on c.d. that i was waiting for for years. a one time project james brown with big band orchestra. a fine album that shows the "other" more jazzy side of the godfather of soul.
mr. brown gives classic tunes his own j.b. twist and even brings in some of his own classics. master saxman maceo parker is there to. this c.d. version has extra tracks to the original and a beautiful picture of j.b. that was not on the original vinyl release. what can a say ?? a "must have" to my opinion.

ron roelofsen (www.greatest-jamesbrown-videotradinglist.com)

As Brown said to Leonard Feather, writer of this long-out-of-print 1969 album's original liner notes: "At heart, I've always been a jazz man." You have to hear James tearing it up backed by the Louis Bellson Orch. and arrangements by Oliver Nelson. Five unedited tracks are included, four of which are previously unissued, and the final song, "There Was A Time" co-written by James Brown and Bud Hobgood, has never been issued before at all. Through it all Brown shows that he's an unparalleled master of interpretation across all genres.

Ofcourse the historians and deep fans know that James Brown has blended both light and heavy jazz into many of his compositions. Surely, it was the *jazz*-based solo by Maceo Parker on "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" that really sold it. And Maceo was also on the scene four years later for this well-produced set with the Louis Bellson Orchestra.
James Brown's vocals on this set are unusually creative, although sometimes excessive. Strangely, the opening (three) numbers leave the listener unsatisfied - as if the songs are arranged in the wrong key, or the artist simply can't find his pitch. But by track five and "It's A Man's...World", then to the "lost" JB masterpiece (also found on another King album) "The Man In The Glass", that awkwardness is gone. "September Song" is an excellent jazz-funk; the wonderful, melancholy lyrics do not suffer in this approach, as a genius weaves both genres together.
Louis Bellson's nice downbeat "I Need Your Key (to Turn Me On)" has a terrific monologue from Brown - this is a winner.
The aforementioned "bag" is reprised with almost completely different instrumentation but it works - thanks in great part to Maceo Parker who returns not to play an extended solo but to engage in a kind of "call and response" with JB. This high-powered segment (released here for the first time) must have caught the engineer off guard because the mix isn't quite right, but more importantly, the listener is suddenly transported out of the studio and onto the stage of the Apollo.
[By the way, historians, do I correctly recall this track supporting James Brown on a Dick Clark Special in '73?].

I hate to break the news to JB, who was a jazz fan and fancied himself highly capable in that regard, but this recording is unlikely to convince many listeners that JB is in the same league as Old Blue, Tony, Mel, Nat, Joe Williams, Jimmy Rushing, Jon Hendricks or Kurt Elling. But it should confirm any suspicions that JB is a musician who feels the music itself as much as the adoration of his fans and, as a result, stands far taller as an artist than those with whom he is often compared--Wilson Pickett, Al Green, Marvin Gaye. With JB it's primarily about the music, the song, the lyric, and a stable persona that, no less than Sinatra's, is capable of making you believe every word that he sings.

Remarkably, on several of the songs James chooses not to reference the melody at all (because it's "jazz" or because he's not confident of it?). When he comes close (as on "What Kind of Fool Am I"), he reveals a pleasant enough tenor that makes you wish he'd play at least some of the tunes a bit more "straight," holding back on the music athleticism--the groans, grunts and tweeter-testing, ear-splitting assaults. No doubt the performance that will divide most listeners is "Your Cheating Heart." Anyone who is serious about their C&W music is likely to take permanent offense at Brown's torching of the tune; others will probably get a genuine kick out of it--how often does country music take on the volcanic energy of a Cecil Taylor or Albert Ayler free jazz explosion?

Unlike Al or Marvin, James doesn't strike me as "making love" to the microphone or employing it as a sexual surrogate while simultaneously admiring his image in the bedroom ceiling mirror/stage monitors. The guy starts and ends with the music--the lyrics, the arrangement, the beat--and the listener gets all the more wrapped up in what he's doing because of the knowledge that he (the listener) has a choice NOT to. (By contrast, a performer like Al Green can sound like he's seducing you into liking, above all, him and his seductive sermonizing, not the music itself.) If the listener requires a more convincing jazz connection, forget about big bands and singers in the Rushing, Eckstine, Joe Williams mold. Think instead of Coltrane's Quartet beginning with "A Love Supreme." Like Coltrane, James is on a spiritual quest, not a boogie exhibition. The music of "Soul on Top," like Coltrane's, takes you to transcendent heights: there's urgency and intensity, pain and rapture, and above all, plenty plenty soul.

3 1/2


Though fairly overwrought when seemingly channeling his own inner Joplin, the energetic arrangements more often than not let Brown's roar soar.

Big Band, Classic standards, and James Brown is a win-win situation. After listening to this CD, I found out what more than 50 years in the business can do. This a rare find and need more air-play to be appreciated. The don't make music like this anymore.