The Isley Brothers 3+3 1973

In 1971 younger brothers Ernie and Marvin and brother-in-law Chris Jasper began recording with the trio of older brothers. This 1973 release is the first time that the group officially expanded to six members. It is also their breakout that ushered in a decade of top ten record releases.

It kicks off with That Lady, Ronald's voice and a funky arrangement make for a great single. James Taylor's Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight is the first of several seemingly odd cover choices. Of course Ronald nails it over Ernie's acoustic guitar. The fast-paced If You Were There sounds like Stevie Wonder, clavinet and all. The brother's harmonies light up You Walk Your Way. And then the Stevie Wonder funk is applied to the Doobie Brothers' Listen To The Music, with wah wah guitar and more clavinet. It sounds crazy wrong, but they pull it off again. That's one perfect album side. It used to be a thing.

What It Comes Down To features Chris Jasper's piano and a hot guitar solo. Then Johnathan Edwards' Sunshine (Go Away Today) (it's funky) and Seals and Crofts' Summer Breeze (saved by an outro guitar solo) are adapted quite well to Isley style. The pretty, mid-tempo ballad The Highways Of My Life closes out a solid record. The secret weapons are the infusion of youth with the new members, and Ronald Isley's voice that should be listed among only the finest. 

It deserved to be the biggest break of their career, and they kept good records coming for quite some time after this one. 

Ernest Ranglin Below The Bassline 1996

Maybe you're a jazz fan. Maybe you're a reggae fan. Maybe you're both. I was not aware that Jazz-Reggae fusion was a genre. 

Ernest Ranglin is a guitarist from Jamaica. He was an early innovator developing the rhythmic guitar style associated with ska in the 1960s. He has played on a ton of ska and reggae records, but he has also played on a ton of jazz records, often with Jamaican jazz pianist Monty Alexander. Alexander is with him on this one, as is drummer Idris Muhammed, bassist Ira Coleman, and keyboardist Gary Mayone.

Ranglin's guitar is the star of the show, but it is a very talented group. Ranglin and Alexander have a special chemistry. The record serves up eleven instrumentals, each one with laid back reggae rhythm and solid solos from Ranglin and Alexander. It is casual cocktail music but it also holds up to repeated attentive listening.

You should give it a listen. I will warn you though that Ranglin has a lot of records to his name and at least nine more with Alexander. If half of them as good as this one, it may be a while before you're done with exploring Ernest Ranglin. I know it's going to be an issue for me.

Hat tip to Sal at Burning Wood.

Tim Shelton Jackson Browne Revisited 2015

Tim Shelton is a bluegrass singer/guitarist that played with Newfound Road throughout the oughts and more recently with The Tim Shelton Syndicate (and a 25th anniversary reformed Newfound Road). He's got a fine, exceptionally expressive, country voice. 

In 2015 Shelton made this Jackson Browne tribute. It's not bluegrass. It's not even country most of the time. It's a loving tribute to Jackson Browne, and while I can't track down who plays what on the record, it's clearly made with what sounds like a classic Southern California band not unlike Browne's bands. There's pedal steel guitar to echo David Lindley, great harmonies, and both the pianist and the organist are a stand-outs. 

The songs are not rearranged significantly. They are mostly true to the originals in tenor and tempo. So why is this record worth hearing, since these songs are all available on Jackson Browne records already? The best answer is that Tim Shelton is a great singer, and he clearly admires these songs. He actually sings these songs better than Jackson Browne. That yearning thing that is so common in Browne's songs comes through loud and clear in Shelton's voice. The backing band is a talented bunch, and the minor changes to the arrangements all seem to work really well.

Song selection is just fine, except he does Take It Easy. It's a perfectly fine version, but who really wants to hear that song again. Actually, the lead guitar break is very good, and different from the original. While early material is featured, there's songs from most of Browne's career. I didn't need to be reminded how fine Browne's songs are, but I none the less really enjoyed these versions, and especially Shelton's singing, which is terrific. Recommended.

Brian Auger Get Auger-nized! The Mod Years 2004

Brian Auger is a British organ player that has focused much of his career on jazz and jazz/rock with the Trinity and later with the Oblivion Express. His sixties sides with the Trinity were marketed to the pop/rock audience as well. He and the Trinity had a working relationship with Julie Driscoll (later Tippetts) that would seem unique even by the anything goes sixties standard. Between 1965-1970, Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and the Trinity made a series of singles and two LPs (Open 1967 and Streetnoise 1969). During the same time, Auger and the Trinity made two records without Driscoll (Definitely What 1968 and Befour 1970). This very fine compilation on 2 vinyl records was the first half of the two-CD set Get Auger-nized The Anthology (The Mod Years and The Jazz Years) and includes tracks from those four records as well as singles. The second CD (The Jazz Years), not being discussed here, was from his work with both The Trinity (three tracks) and Brian Auger's Oblivion Express post 1970.

The tracks with the Trinity include Mose Allison's Fool Killer, Booker T and the MG's Green Onions and Red Beans and Rice, Lennon and McCartney's A Day In The Life, Wes Montgomery's Bumpin' On Sunset, and five Auger originals. The Trinity were a talented group, and Auger's B3 organ is always front and center. 

With Driscoll, they play another set of interesting covers including Otis Redding's Tramp, Donovan's Season of the Witch, Danko and Dylan's This Wheel's On Fire, the Doors Light My Fire, Richie Havens' Indian Rope Man and Flesh Failures (Let The Sunshine In) from Hair. There are several other nice choices and Auger originals as well as the Auger/Driscoll composition A Kind Of Love In, a rocking frenzy of a song. Driscoll is a unique talent, and the cover songs are all transformed by Auger's organ and Driscoll's idiosyncratic voice and delivery.

The Trinity's organ-led jazz/rock is solid stuff, but for me the draw of this compilation is the work featuring Julie Driscoll. Driscoll has a powerful voice and a decidedly different approach that is unlike almost any other female singer. She makes bold choices that usually work, and in the organ trio setting she cuts loose. After this work in the sixties, she made two almost pop solo records, but since then she has made a career of avant-garde and free jazz vocalizing, frequently with her husband, jazz piano player Keith Tippett, but also with other collaborators. 

In 1978 Auger and Tippetts (nee Driscoll) made Encore, a great reunion that improves on their work in the sixties. It is essential listening in my book. Streetnoise is an excellent double LP to find used, and I can think of nothing that sounds quite like it. The good news is that all of this is available for streaming. There is a baffling array of compilations of both Auger and Driscoll's work, many of them covering the same material. Go ahead, Get Auger-nized!