Search - Grover Washington Jr :: Feels So Good

Feels so good

Okai A. Boateng | Woodbridge, Va, USA | 05/26/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"this is classic Grover! I rate this album as one of the best Grover's, vis -a-vis, Mr. Magic. It takes me back to the younger days!"

Classic GWJ!

Olukayode Balogun | Leeds, England | 07/07/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I paid (what I hope was a respectful) tribute to GWJ when I reviewed his Aria album a few weeks ago. I simply cannot praise the man enough. I'd gladly review all of his albums if only I could find the time. I just had to review this classic barnstormer from 1975 though, after just getting the CD after owning it on vinyl for years.



The album opens with the funky "The Sea Lion" with GWJ on tenor. The moody "Moonstreams" follows with the man on soprano and with some great guitar licks from Eric Gale. The tune got a modern workout when DMX sampled it for his song Slippin' on his 1998 album Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood. Then it's back to funky for the tenor driven "Knucklehead" and then on to my favourite tune of all, the title tune, also tenor driven (with another cute solo from Gale and one of those songs, like "Masterpiece" and "Black Frost" where GWJ just seems to blow on forever), before the album closes with "Hydra", another funky tune the intro to which I'm pretty sure has been used on another popular hip-hop tune; I just can't recall which one.



The album is produced by Creed Taylor, and arranged by Bob James with his trademark horn sections which here, included Randy Brecker and Jon Faddis. James also plays piano, electric piano and synthesizer. Also featuring is Eric Gale on guitar, bass is played by Louis Johnson (on "It Feels So Good" and "Hydra") and Gary King (on "Knucklehead", "Moonstreams" and "The Sea Lion"), drums are by Steve Gadd ("The Sea Lion" and "Moonstreams"), Jimmy Madison ("Knucklehead") and Kenneth 'Spider Webb' Rice ("It Feels So Good" and "Hydra"). Ralph McDonald plays percussion.



Bob James provides one composition, "The Sea Lion". "It Feels So Good" is written by Ralph McDonald and William Salter and all the other tunes are written by GWJ himself. Shockingly, the CD provides no information regarding the personnel that played on the album. It doesn't even show who produced it. I'm only able to share this information here because I wrote this review before I passed my old LP (which is still as good as new, by the way) on to a friend who's currently into collecting classic vinyl.



Shame on you, Motown!

"