The mission of The Department of Afro-American Research Arts and Culture to identify the global significance of the creative contributions pioneered by an international diaspora of Blackness
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Sunday, May 25, 2008

Gordon Parks - Shaft's Big Score (1972)




1. Blowin´ Your Mind (Vocal : O.C. Smith)
2. The Other Side
3. Smart Money
4. First Meeting
5. Asby-Kelly Man
6. Don´t Misunderstand (Vocal : O.C. Smith)
7. Move On In (Vocal : O.C. Smith)
8. Symphony For Shafted Souls

Thanks Simon666

Screenarchives.com
Hayes’s two singles released in 1972 related to M-G-M productions:
“Theme From The Men” (a TV theme) and “Type Thang” (used in Shaft’s
Big Score!). The second Shaft film, Shaft’s Big Score! (1972), was
scored by the director of the first two installments, Gordon Parks,
when Hayes was unavailable. Parks was a multitalented musician, poet,
author and photographer, in addition to filmmaker, who had scored his
directorial debut, 1969’s The Learning Tree, and was technically
assisted on his film scores (as was Hayes on Shaft) by Tom McIntosh.
The Shaft’s Big Score! soundtrack called upon an earlier, Duke
Ellington-style of sophisticated jazz compared to Hayes’s Memphis-style
R&B, with a bravura climactic chase (“Symphony for Shafted Souls”)
that has long made the soundtrack LP a treasured collectible. The
complete soundtrack is presented here.

'Shaft's Big Score' - Gordon Parks (1972) from the Shaft Anthology: His Big Score and More! (1971-1974)

01 Blowin´ Your Mind (Vocal : O.C. Smith)
02 The Other Side
03 Smart Money
04 The Search;Sad Circles
05 Asby-Kelly Man
06 First Meeting
07 Don´t Misunderstand (Vocal : O.C. Smith)
08 Fight Scene
09 Ike's Place
10 Move On It (Vocal : O.C. Smith)
11 8M1; 8M2
12 Funeral Home
13 Don´t Misunderstand (Instrumental)
14 9M3
15 Symphony For Shafted Souls (The Big Chase) Take Off / Dance of the Cars / Water Ballet (Part I) / Water Ballet (Part II) / Call and Response / The Last Amen.
16 End Title
17 Don´t Misunderstand (Demo)
18 Type Thang (Instrumental)

Composer - Gordon Parks
Producer - Tom McIntosh
Engineer - Aaron Rochin
Conducted by Dick Hazard (great name!)
Orchestrations by Dick Hazard, Tom McIntosh, Jimmy Jones, Dale Oehler.
Trumpet - Freddie Hubbard
Guitar - Joe Pass
Alto Sax - Marshal Royal
Vocals - O.C. Smith
Except Type Thang: By The Isaac Hayes Movement, Produced by Isaac Hayes.

Funkback's comment
For Your listening pleasure I would warmly recommend the soundtrack
from the 3CD set that collects the MGM masters. Truly mind-blowing stuff.
It includes the vocal version of Isaac Hayes Type Thang that's featured
in the dancing sequence in the movie. I've found the instrumental
version in The Isaac Hayes instrumentals collection issued on Stax.

Link to movie review:Gordon Parks - Shaft's Big Score (1972)

Sunday, May 4, 2008

J.J. Johnson - Man & Boy (1971)




1. Theme From "Man And Boy" - "Better Days" (sung by Bill Withers)
2. Slo-Mo
3. Emancipation Procrastination
4. Pull, Jubal, Pull
5. Mand And Boy (Main Title From Picture)
6. Theme From "Man And Boy" - "Better Days"
7. Country Soul
8. Rosita
9. Trekkin'
10. Hard Times. Mister (Lee Christmas Theme)
11. Man And Boy (End Title)

Blaxploitation.com
This soundtrack is one of several early 70s albums containing music 'composed and arranged by J.J. Johnson' with 'musical supervision by Quincy Jones'. A strong album from a Western film starring Bill Cosby, this LP features a great theme from Bill Withers and some good breakbeat funk cuts. 'Pull, Jubal, pull' features some fine funk drumming and harmonica.

Grant Green - The Final Comedown (1972)

1. Past, Present And Future
2. The Final Comedown
3. Father's Lament
4. Fountain Scene
5. Soul Food - African Shop
6. Slight Fear And Terror
7. Afro Party
8. Luanna's Theme
9. Battle Scene
10. Traveling To Get To Doc
11. One Second After Death


Blaxploitation.com
The jazz label Blue Note issued this one and only soundtrack from Grant Green in 1972 to accompany an obscure blaxploitation movie. The soundtrack sees Green obviously out of place trying to solo over the top of genre blaxploitation funk. One of the lesser known blaxploitation LPs, not easy to find, but worth considering for "The Battle".

Friday, May 2, 2008

Sun Ra - Space Is The Place (1974)





1. Space Is The Place
2. Images
3. Discipline
4. Sea Of Sounds
5. Rocket Number Nine

Amazon.com
Space Is The Place opens with its title track, a twenty-minute freeform freak-jazz-psychedelic-soul-funk meltdown, a thundering acid-bop meltdown full of squirming melodies, dramatically repurposed instruments, head-splittingly chaotic vocals, solos that seem to spin off in multiple directions at once, and layers of percussion that'll make you dance and have a seizure at the same time. It sounds primitive and futuristic and progressive and playful and high-minded and juvenile and logical and psychotic all at once, and it's a masterpiece. And that's just the first song on the album.

Flip the record over, and you've got four more gems. "Images" is the sound of post-bop teetering on the edge of free jazz. Led by Sun Ra's oceanic piano, the song swerves from a gorgeous theme into regions of near atonality before spiraling back into beauty again, with the kind of high-minded grace reserved for geniuses. "Discipline" is a rolling, apocalyptic drone, and "Sea Of Sounds" is sheer scorched earth freeform noise. "Rocket Number Nine" is willfully cheesy, utterly irresistible space-age jazz pop.

Classic freak jazz. Get it.