After reviewing Val Watson's 2004 effort it naturally led to my appraisal of this juicy collection of soulful tid-bits overseen and produced by the super-talented Gerald McAauley. This 10-tracker is a real must and should you not own it then make amends now by heading over to Amazon and securing a copy at a ridiculously inexpensive price. This 1999 album saw us out of the last century with some of the classiest and droolsome cuts that you could have wished for. A few cuts were already familiar, having been released on respective artist albums, but it was, for one, gratifying to have them all in one basket. As far as I was concerned at the time - as now - it was the 'unreleased' tracks that were of greater interest. The first of these was due to be on Larry Springfield's debut Motown album in 1993, but that project was apparently shelved. His strong vocals were paired on "Can We Do That?" with the knee-trembling Chanté Moore for this sexy, erotic jam of the highest order. I was so pleased to hear Chanté perform a song like this - as it would have been literally hotfoot from her "Precious" album and comes before she was forced to make music for teenagers by MCA."Checkin" was already available on Bobby Lyle's 1997 "The Power Of Touch" album, and this bassy jazz-rap is as cool as a cucumber, Dred Scott being responsible for a spoken word, poetic approach. Classy material so don't skip it. Fans of Brenda Russell may have missed the scintillating ballad from Rub Mullins' 1997 CD, "Dance For The New World" set - so here it is in all it's glory. Marcus Johnson's 1998 cut "Won't You Let Me Love You" is also featured - vocalist Tate Moss sounding great on this jazzy piano-led ballad, and the sorely missed Carl Anderson is included with "Nocturnal Mood", which was the Guv'nor cut from the "L.A. Jazz Syndicate Vol. 2" compilation. This is a haunting track without doubt and I believe the last solo work that this great talent laid down. The show-stopper was George Benson's "Pages". This has since, as you may have been aware, been included on the excellent "Love Pages" compilation by the Café Soul All-Stars (see Y2K reviews.) I assume this was destined to be included on his "Standing Together" album, but appeared here for the first time. Even now, a decade later this song send me somewhere special - the drunken guitar lick is ever so fleeting but does things for this daft old scribe! A great track, a great compilation and dirt cheap to boot!
Barry Towler
The Vibe Scribe
The Vibe Scribe
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