Soul Jazz: An Oxymoron?
Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 08/24/2002
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Yes, unless you're Hank Crawford. His sweetness of tone, his impeccable taste, his consummate artistry, transforms this somewhat tawdry jazz sub-genre into something approaching genius.Approaching genius, not achieving it. This music, despite its obvious huge initial appeal, doesn't wear all that well. Frankly, it sounds dated, in a way that, say, Freddie Hubbard's similar time-frame CTI session, Red Clay, doesn't.Which is not to say this is a BAD record; au countraire, it's quite lovely, for what it is. It's just that soul-jazz, for my taste, has an intrinsic cloying factor that can't entirely be overcome.But what the hey. This is some kind of pinnacle for what it is. Doesn't that deserve at least a small celebration? I'd say so."