Record of the Day: Various Artists, “Home Cookin'”

Various artists
“Home Cookin'” (Cd Blue Note 5381012-2)

Now we have to resign ourselves, the holidays are over and summer has practically disappeared; to avoid unpleasant bouts of depression you can recharge your batteries with this energetic compilation made by the French Blue Note that brings together seventy-five minutes of powerful grooves extracted from the catalog of the sister company Emi. There are several anthologies in the series but this is definitely the best.

Hammond organs that warm up the atmosphere, driving voices that evoke Gospel atmospheres, guitars and basses that push relentlessly together with finally human drummers (fortunately drum machines didn’t exist back then) who hurl bouncy and relentless rhythms into your sound system: obviously with this type of album, the more you turn up the volume, the more fun it gets.
Names like Stanley Turrentine, Cannonball Adderley, Richard “Groove” Holmes and Gene Harris sit alongside Buddy Rich
and Bobby Hutcherson, but this is not an orthodox jazz album at all since all the musicians involved look straight in the direction of soul, spicing up with their jazz wisdom songs destined for the jukebox and radio market.

If Richard Holmes makes his intentions clear right away with
“Groovin’ for Mr. G” and Lonnie Smith performs on a real tour
de force organ in “Move Your Hand” the other guests on the album certainly don’t want to be outdone; here is the old drum wizard Buddy Rich grappling with “And the Beat Goes” on Sonny and Cher,
while Cannonball Adderley’s unmistakable sax lights the fuse with the slow-funk pace of Joe Zawinul’s “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy”, guitarist Charlie Hunter adds fusion colors to Bob Marley’s “Lively up Yourself” and even the usually placid Gene Harris adds energy to his usual piano style on “Zulu” and “Listen Here”.

It’s a pleasure to rediscover hidden gems like “It’s Your Thing” by the Jazz Crusaders, with Joe Sample’s keyboards in full evidence, and the fabulous “Back in Stride” by Maze, one of the funkiest (and most unfairly underrated) bands in the history of black music.
The anthology guarantees massive doses of good humor and is also perfect for listening in the car or jogging in the park with your MP3 player.

Carlo Boccadoro, composer and conductor, was born in Macerata in 1963. He lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with soloists and orchestras in different parts of the world. He is the author of numerous books on musical subjects.

This text is taken from “Lunario della musica: Un disco per ogni giorno dell’anno” published by Einaudi, courtesy of the author and the publisher.