Cecil McBee - Tulsa Black

Improvisation and muscianship - cerebral nourishment. Really its just more grooves. Cecil McBee is perhaps my favourite bassist. He's behind many of Lonnie Liston Smith, Pharoah Sanders and Alice Coltrane's best bass riffs. In this self-composed cut from the 1974 album Mutima he's leading his own band. It's got that Strata East sound with soul and funk high on the agenda and a strong chorus.

Cecil McBee - Tulsa Black

David Shire - Taking of Pelham 123

The main title theme to this great 1974 New York Walther Matthau (!) crime flick. The plot (at the risk of putting you off) is very similar to Speed, but the effect is so completely different. Not least when it comes to the music. It's just so, for the want of a better word, dramatic. It's composed by David Shire who did a whole host of movie scores (including, in a very different vein, Saturday Night Fever). Shire, according to allmovie.com, married Francis Ford Coppola's sister, Talia (who played Stallone's girlfriend in Rocky).

David Shire - Taking of Pelham 123