Charles Kynard - Your Mama Don't Dance - 1973

I actually have this record in storage somewhere, but with no turntable I can't digitise it just yet. I mention this 'cause this posting is taken from some .flac files I found (here, here, and here). Obviously .flac files are intended to help with audio quality, but these are nonetheless quite noisy... hi-res dirt in the grooves I suppose. Still, this was such a formative album for me, I had to put it up. For now I'm posting 320 kbps AAC files. If/when I get a new turntable I'll try and post a cleaner version.

My dad bought this at a car-boot sale at the old folks home where my grandpa lived out his last years. I think he paid 50p for it, what a bargain that was! This was the first place I heard the delectable grooves of 'The World Is A Ghetto', 'Summer Breeze' and the mightily funkalistic 'I Got So Much Trouble On My Mind'. This all instrumental album starts and finishes with Stevie Wonder covers: first up a great version of 'Superstition', with Kynard taking the melody on his fat and greasy Hammond, and closing with a nice reading of 'You've Got It Bad Girl'.

Recorded in 1973 for Bob Shad's Mainstream label, the cast for the album is a dream ticket who's-who of funky cats: as well as Kynard himself, there's bass-meister Chuck Rainey, who I grew to know and love through his work with Steely Dan (check his nifty bass solo here on 'So Much Trouble'), guitarist Arthur Adams (wicked throughout, you gotta love his volume knob-twiddlin' solo on 'Superstition'!), and groove assassins Paul Humphreys and Ray Pounds on kit. Dunno which of the two drummers played on which tunes, but the slinky grooves of 'Mama Jive' and 'Zambezi' are pure rhythmic pleasure, and I love the buzz rolls at the end of 'Summer Breeze'. There's some fulsome horn charts too, courtesy of Richard Fritz, which lean towards soundtrack/big band vibes in places, with unison figures, stabs, punches and the like, kind of karate horns if you will.

Tracklisting: Superstition / The World Is A Ghetto / Momma Jive / I Got So Much Trouble On My Mind / Your Mama Don't Dance / Zambezi / Summer Breeze / You've Got It Bad Girl

I should mention the tremendously groovy Shad Shack blog at this point, curated by the ever resourceful 'cheeba'... what a great site! I love the trend for these discog style blogs. There are others too, so be sure to check these: Impulse, Flying Dutchman, CTI/Kudu, Strata East, MPS, and Muse. There are possibly some others out there as well, if you think I'd be interested, leave me a message in the comments section. The blogosphere is where it's at!

I'd like to say how much love and respect I have for the people whose passion for music leads them to spend so much time and energy sharing it with us all. Of course - and as a musician I've really got to say this - if you really love the artists, then buy their product where and when you can.