Houston Person - 75/Get Outa My Way! '2018

Tracks list

Tracklist
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01. I Like to Live The Love
02. What It Is
03. Shotgun
04. Mayola
05. Gold In My Ear
06. 500 Gin Rummy
07. Funky Sunday Afternoon
08. A Touch of Bad Stuff
09. All In Love Is Fair
10. Hell Fight My Battles
11. Disco Sax
12. Soul Samba
13. Aint Nothin But a Funky Song
14. My Way
15. For the Love Of You
16. Forever In Love
17. Spread It
18. How Vicious


Houston Person followed Bob Porter from Prestige to Westbound but before the
tenor saxophonist could cut his first record for his new label Porter left
Westbound, leaving Person on his own to produce 75. Originally titled 74 - a
title also given to a bunch of other Westbound jazz albums - 75 was cut with an
anonymous bunch of Detroit session musicians and it could be argued that the
album itself is somewhat anonymous, finding the saxophonist aiming straight for
the R&B charts. Always a full-bodied, groove-oriented player, this straight-up
soul isnt much of a stretch for Person but the rhythms are frequently funkier
than in the past and the surface is certainly slicker, sounding so clean its
almost possible to see your reflection in it. Often, the album is better when it
doubles down on this gauche sound, such as the discotheque spangle of 500 Gin
Rummy, cop-show funk of A Touch of Bad Stuff, or satin seduction of All in Love
Is Fair. These are the tracks that show how stiff the cover of Shotgun is, and
while theyre certainly not for purists, they provide a good time capsule of the
smooth but funky sounds of 1975. Person didnt straighten out his soul-jazz on
Get Outa My Way!, something that the very name of its opening cut makes plain.
Called Disco Sax, its a bit of a Van McCoy hustle, complete with anonymous
backup singers insisting that we should listen to the disco sax, and it sets the
tone for a record that happily rides every mid-70s trend they could find.
Usually, this means some variation on disco - even with its fuzz-toned Isley
guitars, Aint Nothin But a Funky Song leans more toward the dancefloor than a
funk workout - but theres also a fair amount of exceptionally smooth romantic
material that functions as the cool flip side of the disco workouts that take up
the rest of the record. Although these period threads do have their charms, Get
Outa My Way! can get quite silly - with its not quite herky-jerky rhythms and
cooing background vocals, Spread It is the pinnacle of goofiness -- which is why
its ultimately not quite as satisfying a groove album as its Westbound
companion, but anybody with a yen for exceptionally polished funky soul-jazz of
the mid-70s should find it worth a spin.

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