Les McCann, Layers (COLOR)

SOLD OUT
1LP - GET ON DOWN
1973 => 2025

PRESSED ON RED SMOKE COLORED VINYL

TRACKLIST

Songs From Boston

A1. Sometimes I Cry

A2. Let's Gather

A3. Anticipation

A4. The Dunbar High School Marching Band
A5 . Soaring (At Dawn) Part 1

Songs From My Childhood

B1. The Harlem Buck Strut Dance
B2. Interlude

B3. Before I Rest

B4. Let's Play (Til Mom Calls)

B5. It Never Stopped In My Home Town
B6. Soaring (At Sunset) Part 2


DESCRIPTION
Starting in the late 60s, jazz music started to take an interesting, and very soulful turn. Influenced by the funk of the day – from James Brown to Sly & The Family Stone – the art form, generally not considered a funky musical genre, started to stretch out and fit into the times. It was a fertile era, and to reciprocate, funk, soul and groovy rock fans started to discover accomplished, open-minded jazz artists like
Les McCann, whose tunes made sense to their ears, even if bebop hadn’t grabbed them.
This incredible album – long a favorite of forward-thinking hip-hop producers and DJs – washes over listeners from the first chords of the incredible album opener, “Sometimes I Cry,” led by McCann’s array of analog synthesizers and backed by an excellent rhythm section (Donald Dean on drums; Ralph McDonald on percussion and Jimmy Rowser on bass).
Truth be told, highlights are hard to pick out, but fans never go long without returning to the fuzzed-out funk of “The Harlem Buck Strut Dance,” “Let’s Play (Til Mom Calls)” and “It Never Stopped In My Home- town.” These keyboard-drenched grooves sat alongside record stacks brimming with Stevie Wonder, Funkadelic, Marvin Gaye’s 70s soul and, of course, Miles Davis’ space funk
experiments of the era (like Bitches Brew).