Strokin’
1. First Love
2. Every Day
3. Strokin’
4. I Wanted It Too
5. Virginia Sunday
6. Jesus Children of America
7. Take The “A “ Train
Richard Tee - Keyboards, vocals
Eric Gale – Guitar
Steve Gadd – Drums
Chuck Rainey - Bass
Ralph MacDonald – Percussion
Hugh McCracken – Harmonica
Michael Brecker – Tenor sax
Tom Scott – Lyricon, tenor sax
Randy Brecker, Michael Brecker, Jon Faddis, Seldon Powell, Barry Rogers – Horns
David Nadien (concertmaster), Jonathan Abramowitz, Al Brown, Max Cahn, Selwalt Clarke, Harry Cykman, Paul Gershman, Jesse Levy,
Guy Lumia, Kermit Moore, Max Polikoff, Stan Pollock, Gudun Schaumann, Richard Sortomme - Strings
Bill Eaton, Frank Floyd, Ken Williams, Zachary Sanders – Background vocals
Natural Ingredients
1. What A Woman Really Means
2. Now
3. The Nuts Off Of The Screw
4. Tell It Like It Is
5. Us
6. Back Door Man
7. Spinning Song
Richard Tee - Keyboards, vocals
Eric Gale – Guitar, bass
Matthew Bragg - Bass
Steve Gadd – Drums
Hugh McCracken – Harmonica
Ralph MacDonald – Percussion
Tom Scott – Sax
Jon Faddis, Randy Brecker, Tom Scott, Barry Rogers, Seldon Powell - Horns
Lani Groves , Ullanda McCullough, Valerie Simpson – Background vocals
David Nadien (concertmaster), Jonathan Abramowitz, Al Brown. Sewalt Clarke, Harry Cykman, Barry Finclair, Richard Locker, Charles McCracken, Kermit Moore,
Jan Mullen, John Pintavalle, Joseph Rubuhka, Herbert Sorkin – Strings.
The recording industry would hardly be able to survive
without that body of mainly anonymous players known as session musicians.
They are the professionals who can turn their hands to anything and
often provide much of the music that we hear on record.
Richard Tee is such a session musician, although he has also recorded albums under his own name and in his group called Stuff. Yet he also appeared on
recordings by such artists as Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Houston Person and George Benson. This left-handed pianist was able to play almost anything,
although his special talent was to introduce a touch of gospel into his improvisations.
This welcome CD contains Richard’s first two solo albums: Strokin’ from 1979 and Natural Ingredients from 1980. The overall style is
jazz-funk, which is given extra character by contributions from such experienced players as Eric Gale, Steve Gadd and the Brecker Brothers. Moody tracks
like Every Day echo Richard Tee’s apprenticeship at Motown Studios, while the title-track has the gospel flavour of Richard’s piano.
But I mainly cherish this album for its unusual version of Take the “A” Train, which opens with a rhapsodic piano introduction that gives no hint
of what is to come. Suddenly the rhythm bursts into a forceful gospel beat whose effect is heightened by the frequent breaks. Duke Ellington’s signature
tune has never sounded like this before – and it is a stroke of genius.
Natural Ingredients
sadly fails to contain any such transcendent moments but largely maintains the funky style of the preceding album. The music is fine for shaking your booty
around or just savouring the skill of the musicians but it isn’t really much better than many such funk albums, although Tee’s keyboard solos are
impressive. But the CD is worth buying for Take The “A” Train alone.
Tony Augarde
www.augardebooks.co.uk
CD Reviews
Robinsongs CDMRED 592
