Got Soul 1960-1973 - Curtis Mayfield & Jerry Butler/Impressions

Advantages: Great tracks by a great artist played by great musicians.
Disadvantages: None.

...Curtis mayfield has to be one of soul's greats. he has a sensitivity that can be felt in his timing and of course his lyrics. The Ronnie Scotts album is a great one for hearing this because of the quality of the musicians Mayfield has gathered and the superb tightness of the band. He plays a nember of Curtis classics (from songs from Superfly, Move on Up etc)but its great to hear the talent of the live musicians taking them to new hights. The purcussion in the track Superfly is nothing short of superb and Lobrian Scott's base playing is an inspiration. Plus, most unusually for a live album, the audience actually manage to clap in time and sing in tune! Testimony to the magical atmosphere that must have been created that night.... Read review

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Advantages: Good, solid music
Disadvantages: Wears its influences on its sleeve

..., but it is not until we reach You Masculine You and What Else Could It Be? That realisation dawns. Wagner has embraced Curtis Mayfield. Lambchop have introduced Country and Folk music to Soul and it not only works, but produces songs of such delicacy and longing that one doesn’t even have the time to wonder why no-one committed such acts with trumpet and pedal steel before. While Wagner lyrics have been as difficult as Lambchop’s abrasive eclecticism, Nixon mellows both with a series of unambiguous love songs. What Else Could It Be?, The Distance From Her to There and The Book I Haven’t Read form a trilogy of pure feeling leading to the albums brilliant and dark climax in The Petrified Florist and The Butcher Boy. Lamchop have made the final artistic leap from being brilliant and difficult to being just plain brilliant. Now they’re just difficult... Read review

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Advantages: Strong tracks - lots of sax - timeless
Disadvantages: One weak track in my opinion

...As a teenager all my friends were either into New Kids and Take That or at the other end of the spectrum Rave and Dance anthems. I was the lone teen who didn’t get enough pocket money to buy my own music and was quite happy listening to all my parents 60’s LP’s. Now and again though someone would come along and demand that I save all my pocket money, dinner money and go car washing for weeks to enable me to purchase a cassette of their music. Not many got this honour - in fact, until this man came along Michael Jackson was the lone hero gracing my walls. Enter the gravel voiced, saxophone playing, long haired skinny malinky that is Curtis Stigers. The first single that I remember hearing on the radio was I Wonder Why. To say I was blown away was the understatement of the century, after a month of hard saving I was finally... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful