Pharoah Sanders - Astral Travelling

I know its hard, but please forgive the ridiculous album cover. No matter the situation this track has the power to soothe me. It’s simply stunning. Every component works perfectly. Cecil McBee’s understated bass gives the tune structure and movement. Pharoah Sanders keeps himself restrained to blow some of the most beautiful and joyous saxophone you’re ever likely to hear. Lonnie Liston Smith trills on his electric piano to great effect. All of them, plus friends, add wonderful percussion elements including distinctive bird-like sound effects. Lonnie Liston wrote this, but this version on Pharoah’s Thembi album is superior in fluency and movement to the one he recorded on his own Astral Travelling record. I first heard this tune on a mix tape made for me by someone working at the Notting Hill Music and Video Exchange back in '97. At the time I was excited because I recognised it as the source for samples on Photek’s Rings Around Saturn. But it soon excited me far more in its own right. Enjoy.

Pharoah Sanders - Astral Travelling (from Thembi, 1970)
Lonnie Liston Smith - Astral Travelling (from Astral Travelling, 1973)
Photek - Rings Around Saturn (Peshay Decoder Mix)

Teddy Pendergrass - You Can't Hide From Yourself

Don't dismiss this as cheesy. Free yourself from the fascist shackles of that received wisdom 'taste'. Enjoy this wonderful '77 Teddy Pendergrass track - penned by Philly legends Gamble & Huff. That opening. That bassline. Those horns. It's an infectious, rightous, riotous funk. And I'm not being ironic. Heaven forbid. At the risk of invalidating everything I've just said though - take a look at these two pictures - and consider the fact that Teddy used to have 'ladies only' concert nights. In '82 the poor bastard had a car accident and was left paralysed from the waist down. That didn't stop him calling his next album Love Language including a track called 'Hot Love'. What balls.

Teddy Pendergrass - You Can't Hide From Yourself

Roy Davis Jr - Michael

While I'm not a member of the God squad, it has to be said that religion has inspired some great music. Roy Davis Jr has a thing for it with song titles including Heavenly Father, Melodies from Heaven, Got 2 Get 2 Heaven and Join His Kingdom. He's especially fond of his archangels:
Gabriel (featuring Peven Everett on vocals) was a massive hit in the mid 90s - you couldn't walk into any high street shop in the UK at the time without hearing it.
Michael, a bit less brooding, is soulful house and sweet sweet music.
Where's Raphael?

Roy Davis Jr - Michael
Roy Davis Jr featuring Peven Everett - Gabriel (Live Garage Mix)

Innerzone Orchestra - Basic Math

Carl Craig's jazz offshoot the innerzone orchestra came out with this piece in their programmed album from 1999. The album is truly pre-millenial, mixing up natural fluid intrumentation and programming wizardry with an ear for a riff and a groove. There's hip hop, house, techno, jazz, soul all effortlessly orchestrated by Craig. This track opens with a good 2 minutes of ethereal percussion (from Francisco Mora Catlett) and shimmering electric piano (from Craig Taborn), before the bass rolls in and the groove really starts. Over four minutes in and some amplified violin shakes things up. Arguably the track never 'goes' anywhere, but sometimes you shouldn't want to do anything so prosaic as to go somewhere. This is meandering, some might say noodling, at its most listenable and perfectly executed.

Innerzone Orchestra - Basic Math

Betty Davis

Betty Davis. A woman with an appetite. Married for a year to Miles Davis, her influence is credited with changing Miles's musical direction in the late 60s and bringing us Bitches Brew. On their divorce Miles said she was "too young and wild" for him. He also suspected her of an affair with Jimi Hendrix. The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People) called her a disgrace to her race for her suggestive lyrics.

Shoo-B-Doop and Cop Him, from They Say I'm Different (1974) is a great slow-burning funk soul chugger. Nice sounds, nice pace, nice backing vocals, nice dress. "when my goose gets loose she's gonna know I'll still be gettin' it on". Anti Love Song, from her self-titled first album in 1973 has the funkiest opening with Larry Graham's (Sly and the Family Stone veteran) bass giving a firm statement of intent.

Betty Davis - Shoo-B-Doop and Cop Him
Betty Davis - Anti Love Song

Buari

Some great driving hard-dancing funk from Ghana. Don't know much about it at all, but it appears that Buari released one album in 1975, and this first track, Karam Bani, opens it to real effect. The second track here is slower and makes me want to whoop like Mick Jagger before singing "and I miss you".

Buari - Karam Bani
Buari - Then Yebetheyet
The Rolling Stones - Miss You

Jacob's Optical Stairway - Harsh Realities

A nice piece from Jacob's Optical Stairway, AKA Mark Mac and Dego from 4 Hero. Released in 1995, this is a mid-point between the bonkers rave of their early 90s years, and the lushly (possibly over) produced Two Pages album later in the decade. It's split into two parts. It opens with a gently swinging bit of percussion and bass, some piano and swirling pads later joined by some heavily vocoded vocals. It's space-jazz Detroit-fusion interpreted in a London style. Half way through they accelerate the breakbeats, throw in a few helium grunts, and bounce around with some sub-bass to stir things up a bit. Nice tune. Shame about the album cover.

Jacob's Optical Stairway - Harsh Realities