Fred Wesley & the J.B.'s Band - Doing it to Death (1973)

"In spite of James Brown's 1974 hit "The Payback" and his future canonization in rap, 1973's Doing It to Death was, as the title now suggests, the sound of James Brown obsessing the almighty funk into commercial irrelevance. His tight circle of musicians was still creating a brand of R&B as distinct as it was influential. (You can hear it in the music of artists as disparate as Nigeria's Fela and Germany's Can.) But on his home turf, James was already competing with post-Superfly wah-wah pedal hoppers and the pre-disco Philly sound. So it's not surprising that he soaked up loose change from his pre-sold followers with cut-'n-press JB's albums like this one on his indie label, People.

Though composed by bandleader Fred Wesley and a bigger hit than any single released by James under his own name that year, the talky 10-minute title cut is still pure Godfather. And the unexpectedly solid album constructed around it is every bit a classically Jamesian combination of loose lip and tight ship. The boss man's mug is missing from the sleeve, but if there's any doubt who's in charge, just listen to the way he introduces the bass solo on "More Peas," relinquishing the groove only after giving the band notice that "if he lose the funk we gotta chunk him out."

The theme song, "You Can Have Watergate Just Gimme Some Bucks and I'll Be Straight," is ironic given James' re-election endorsement of the vulnerable funky president. JB had hoped to pressure Nixon for a Martin Luther King holiday ("You can't change a house from the outside," he'd told hecklers at the Apollo). By '73, he just wanted his 40 acres. Instead, he got a call from the IRS and belated thanks "for inventing modern music" some 23 years later". Peter S. Scholtes

"An incredible album -- a landmark piece of funk that nobody should be without, funk fan or not! The album is the second to feature James Brown's famous backing combo of the early 70s -- and unlike their first one, which was really more of a collection of singles, this album has the group playing hard, long, and loud, in the free funk improvisational mode that was James' real contribution to the music at the time. The tracks are all long, with James at the forefront, egging the band on with shouts and comments -- but also letting them open up large instrumentally, playing in a mode that's as much jazz as it is funky soul. The whole thing's peppered with some nice shorter seques between tracks -- but the long cuts are the winners, and are some of the best funk ever recorded" Dusty Groove America

1 - Introduction to the J.B.'s (0:23)

2 - Doing it to Death - Parts 1 & 2 (9:49)
3 - You Can Have Watergate Just Gimme Some Bucks and I'll Be Straight (0:14)
4 - More Peas (8:16)
5 - La Di Da La Di Day (5:32)
6 - You Can Have Watergate Just Gimme Some Bucks and I'll Be Straight (0:14)
7 - Sucker (8:00)
8 - You Can Have Watergate Just Gimme Some Bucks and I'll Be Straight (6:22)

James Brown - lead vocal

Fred Wesley - trombone

Darryl "Hasaan" Jamison - trumpet

Jerone "Jasaan" Sanford - trumpet

Ike Oakley - trumpet

St. Clair Pinckney - tenor saxophone

Eldee Williams - tenor saxophone

John "Jabo" Starks - drums
Jimmy Nolen - guitar

Hearlon "Cheese" Martin - guitar

Fred Thomas - bass
Maceo Parker - alto saxophone

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Les Double Six - Les Double Six (1962)

1. Tickle Toe (Le racket et les balles) [Lester Young]
2. Early Autumn (Finalement l'automne est arrivé) [R. Burns & W. Herman]
3. Sweets (Les quatre de l'opéra) [Bill Russo]
4. Naima (Naima) [John Coltrane]
5. Westwood Walk (Histoire de baryton) [Gerry Mulligan]
6. A Night in Tunisia (Le tapis volant) [F. Paparelli & D. Gillespie]
7. A Ballad (Une ballade) [Gerry Mulligan]
8. Scrapple from the Apple (A batons rompus) [Charlie Parker]
9. Boplicity (La légende du troubador) [Cleo Henry]
10. Moanin' (La complainte du bagnard) [Bobby Timmons]
11. Fascinating Rhythm (Le pas qui plaira) [Gershwin]
12. Walkin' (Un tour au bois) [Richard Carpenter] previously unreleased track

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Les Double Six - Meet Quincy Jones (1960)

"Sometimes considered to be the French incarnation of groups like the Hi-Lo's or Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, Les Double Six took a much jazzier approach to vocalese arrangements and performance than any similar band. They had a successful but short career, partly because of Perrin's health problems, leaving us with no more than four recordings. Using their voices like instruments, they were exceptional improvisors and one of the most innovative vocal ensembles of the era. In this record, Mimi Perrin leads the sextet through brilliant interpretations of Quincy Jones compositions for the Basie Band or his own orchestra, adding her humorous lyrics to the band's rich harmonies and quick phrasing".

1. For Lena and Lennie (En flânant dans Paris)
2. Rat Race (La course au rat)
3. Stockholm Sweetnin' (Un coin merveilleux)
4. Boo's Bloos (Au temps des Indiens)
5. Doodlin' (Tout en dodelinant)
6. Meet Benny Bailey (Au bout du fil)
7. Evening in Paris (Il y a fort longtemps)
8. Count'em (T'as foutu l'camp)

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Frank Sinatra - Songs for Swingin' Lovers (1956)

"Here is an album that means to deny the rock & roll that was then changing America and succeeds. The songs were standards, most ten or twenty years old, and Sinatra and arranger Nelson Riddle were bent on jazzy, hip sophistication. 'I've Got You Under My Skin' still stands as a Sinatra high point." Rolling Stone

"You could forget that the guy ever had a good day. After Billie Holiday, nobody in American music has ever done more to slake our taste for romantic masochism than Frank Sinatra.

[F]or me, the album's masterpiece is 'I Thought About You.' A little-known song by Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Mercer, it's the sort of standard you might expect from Edward Hopper had he been a songwriter instead of a painter. The singer, separated from the woman he loves, is on a night train, peeking out the shade at the moonlit little towns that slide by his window. Each sight, recounted in language as spare as a line drawing, nonetheless takes on the richness of a painted canvas. It's the ordinary transformed into a nighttime dreamscape, lighting a low steady flame in the singer who longs to belong somewhere -- in the arms of the woman he is leaving behind, or in one of the houses whose lit windows he can see from the train." Charles Taylor, Salon.com

1. You Make Me Feel So Young

2. It Happened In Monterey

3. You're Getting To Be A Habit With Me

4. You Brought A New Kind Of Love To Me

5. Too Marvelous For Words

6. Old Devil Moon

7. Pennies From Heaven

8. Love Is Here To Stay

9. I've Got You Under My Skin

10. I Thought About You

11. We'll Be Together Again

12. Makin' Whoopee

13. Swingin' Down The Lane

14. Anything Goes

15. How About You?

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