Monday, January 4, 2010

CD of the Day - "CTI All Stars: Live in New York 1975"

CD of the Day
CTI All Stars: "Live in New York" (1975)

A 2-CD set recorded live in August, 1975 @ the Schaefer Music Festival in Central Park, New York City, NY
Produced by Creed Taylor
Supervised by Peter Paul
Music Director: Tony Sarafino
Executive Producer: Vic Chirumbolo
Publicity Manager: Didier Deutsch

Featuring: Grover Washington, Jr., Joe Farrell, Hank Crawford, Hubert Laws, George Benson, Bob James, George Benson, Ron Carter & Idris Muhammad.
It's important to register that Idris performs superbly throughout the concert, as also does Ron Carter in all tracks, using an electric bass in many of them, creating impressive funky grooves.

Highlights: Joe Farrell playing tenor sax on a heavy-bossa take of John Scott's movie theme "Outback" (he had done the famous studio version playing flute!), the completely unexpected duo number of George Benson & Ron Carter paying tribute to Wes Montgomery through Lalo Schifrin's "Down Here on the Ground," Bob James' synth solo on Ralph MacDonald/Bill Salter's crowd pleaser "Mr. Magic" and his enchanting Fender Rhodes playing on a veeeery laid-back version of Gene McDaniels' "Feel Like Making Love," Hubert Laws' disco medley with 4 of the 6 songs from his "The Chicago Theme" LP and, last but not least, Grover playing his ass off in all his appearances.

More details available on Doug Payne's fabulous website about CTI Records:
http://www.dougpayne.com/ctiui.htm
http://www.dougpayne.com/ctid7576.htm#live75

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