Jazz Dispensary is one of the specialty imprints of Craft Recordings that's dedicated to mining the riches of Concord Music's vast catalog of labels. Jazz Dispensary employs "sound sommeliers" to comb the archives, looking for the finest original sources there for less well-known masterpieces of funk, soul, jazz, fusion, and all the related genres they overlap and intersect. The Jazz Dispensary Top Shelf series chooses select rarities and deserving, but underappreciated albums of exceptional performance and sound quality, with the intent of bringing them to the attention of jazz lovers everywhere. The latest Top Shelf release features a pair of very rare albums from 1974 that includes Alpha (Truth Records), the lone album from The Round Robin Monopoly, along with pianist Patrice Rushen's debut record, Prelusion (Prestige Records). Both of these LPs have been out-of-print domestically for over 50 years, and have also never been available in any digital formats. Jazz aficionados of Seventies post-bop fusion and soulfully psychedelic-funk will welcome their renewed availability.
New lacquers for the series were cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio; both albums were remastered from the original master tapes in an all analog, AAA process, and the LPs were pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI. Both Jazz Dispensary Top Shelf albums were housed in near-perfect replicas of the original, tip-on outer jackets, with crisp album art sourced from Craft's vaults. The LPs arrive inserted into Craft-branded rice paper inner sleeves, which keeps them free from static build-up and paper dust accumulation, and helps guard against scratching. The extraordinary level of quality displayed by the pressings and packaging will add significantly to their desirability to collectors. The Round Robin Monopoly's Alpha is currently available, and can be ordered HERE, and Patrice Rushen's Prelusion is available for preorder HERE. Both albums can also be purchased in high definition digital audio, and will also be available for streaming on most online services. If any particular title ever appears to be sold out at Craft's web store, it very likely will still be available from multiple retailers online or at your local independent record store.
The Round Robin Monopoly, Alpha. 180 Gram Truth Records LP, $30.00 MSRP
Keyboardist and vocalist "Round" Robin Lloyd had a string of regional hits in the late Sixties in the greater Los Angeles area; his 1974 LP Alpha by The Round Robin Monopoly is the only album credited to his catalog, and very little is known about him following its release. Issued on the Stax imprint Truth Records, the release of Alpha was followed by a handful of 45 rpm singles from the album; shortly afterwards, Stax Records closed up shop and neither Lloyd nor The Round Robin Monopoly were ever heard from again. However, their song "Life Is Funky" has an irrepressible groove that's been sought out and sampled by a number of artists over the years, including The Chemical Brothers, LL Cool J, Ice-T, and Public Enemy. The Round Robin Monopoly consisted of Robin Lloyd on lead vocals and keyboards, guitarist Larry Greene, bassist Ray Brown, conguero Jimmy Lee Thomson (he worked afterwards with Issac Hayes), and drummer Ollie Lamey Shaft. The group also included a horn section that featured saxophonist Arnold Barry, trumpeter Leonard Sorvillo, and trombonist Rex White. Alpha was recorded and mixed at the Record Plant in LA; Randy Stewart executive produced the album for Truth Records.
Alpha plays like the soundtrack to a nearly forgotten Blaxpo, Seventies B-Movie action flick, the sort that Quentin Tarantino typically samples for many of his movies. Side one opens with "Alpha," which is essentially a fanfare of horns leading into the propulsive and driving "Average Man." Where Lloyd's vocal is spot-on in this paeon to Joe average, with piercing horns that punctuate the proceedings; it's followed by "I'd Rather Loan You Out," a slow-tempo ballad that's driven by Lloyd's appropriately soulful vocal. The undeniable highlight of the album is the aforementioned "Life Is Funky," where Lloyd screams the chorus refrain of "Life sho' is funky!", giving his best Sly Stone-style vocal workout amid a funked-up barrage of horns. The side closes with "Peace of Mind," where Lloyd offers a very personal manifesto for hopefulness in the coming years.
Side two kicks off with "Little People," a frenetically paced number where the horn section and Larry Greene's guitar play off each other throughout this anthem praising the little people; Greene really cuts loose with a funkified solo in the song's bridge. It's followed by "People Do Change," another horn driven ballad with more tasty licks from Greene's guitar; "Dreamers" is another medium-tempo Lloyd declaration of peace. It features a heavy bass and drum intro that's peppered with staccato horn bursts and Greene's wah-wah pedals, and a funkily acid-drenched guitar solo that takes the song to its conclusion. "Prayer of the Prisoner" features Lloyd's gospel-tinged spoken word vocal that preaches a message from the incarcerated to the ones they love on the outside, accompanied only by his piano. Alpha reaches its conclusion unsurprisingly with "Omega," a brief instrumental outro, that, considering the fairly short playing time of the record, could have run on for several minutes and might have given the album a more effective conclusion.
Patrice Rushen, Prelusion. 180 Gram Prestige LP, $30.00 MSRP
Pianist, singer, composer, and arranger Patrice Rushen may mostly be remembered for her Grammy nominated work in the R&B sector, but her roots are as a straight-ahead jazz player. After winning a high school talent competition, she got an offer to perform at the prestigious Monterey Jazz Festival, where she came to the attention of Prestige Records. They soon signed her to a multi-album contract, and booked sessions for her debut album, 1974's Prelusion. Which features some of the finest jazz performers of the Seventies including Joe Henderson on tenor sax, Oscar Brashear on trumpet, George Bohannon of trombone, Hadley Caliman on flute, Tony Dumas on bass, Kenneth Nash on percussion, and Leon "Ndugu" Chancler on drums. Patrice Rushen composed and arranged the albums' five originals, which cover the range from bluesy post-bob to jazz-inspired fusion. Prelusion was recorded at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California, and was produced by Reggie Andrews.
Patrice Rushen's arrangements really shine on Prelusion. Side one opens with "Shortie's Portion," where the horns state the main theme, then Rushen follows with an extended improvisation at the piano. She shows impressive chops at the keyboard for a twenty-year-old, and her turn is followed by wildly expressive solos from Joe Henderson's tenor sax and Oscar Brashear's trumpet. The tune circles back around to Rushen, who offers another lyrically impressive solo, as the horns take the tune to its conclusion. The side one closer, "7/73" is the album's lengthiest tune, and opens with Kenneth Nash's swirling percussion, then quickly moves into a kind of a Return to Forever-ish, fusiony groove. Rushen's now on Fender Rhodes, with appropriately expressive accompaniment from the horn section, especially Hadley Caliman's flute playing and George Bohannon's trombone. They combine to give the tune a very languid but exceptionally hip groove that seemingly lasts forever, and the track concludes as Rushen returns on piano, where she shows a range of technique far beyond her age.
"Haw-Right Now" opens side two, and it blazes forth with a nicely propulsive bass and drums groove that gives way to another perfect Fender Rhodes vamp from Patrice Rushen with constant accompaniment from the contingent of horns. As the track reaches stasis, Joe Henderson produces another spirited tenor solo, followed by an eloquent turn from Rushen that helps propel the tune to its horn-driven conclusion. It's followed by "Traverse," another sprawling post-bop number that highlights yet even more impressive work by Rushen at the piano, and gives bassist Tony Dumas a nice solo turn in the tune's center. As the tune circles back around, Rushen puts on a Chick-Corea-style clinic of Fender Rhodes goodness. Prelusion closes with "Puttered Bopcorn" (don't you just love the name of this tune!), that's unlike anything else on the album, with Patrice Rushen performing on various synths throughout the tune's heavily percussive duration, which is very mid-Seventies, Herbie Hancockian in nature.
Jazz Dispensary Top Shelf Reissues are Must-haves for Your Collection!
By clicking my name in the header, you can see the components in my dual audio systems. I used my all-analog setup to evaluate both Top Shelf 180 gram LP reissues of Alpha and Prelusion. The all-analog system features a pair of Vanguard Scout standmount compact monitor loudspeakers; they're in the same vein as classic British monitor designs like the LS3/5A, and run in tandem with a Caldera 10 subwoofer. That setup also incorporates the excellent PS Audio Stellar phono preamp, and everything is powered by my recently upgraded PrimaLuna EVO 300 tube integrated amplifier, which now features a matched quad of premium Sovtek 6550 power tubes and a matched pair of vintage NOS Brimar 12AU7 input tubes. LP playback was handled by my ProJect Classic EVO turntable that's mounted with an Ortofon Quintet Bronze MC cartridge. The new tube complement imbues the Vanguard loudspeakers with a lush but also powerful sound that hearkens back to analog glory days of yore, giving my listening sessions the kind of analog goodness one lives for!
The pair of Jazz Dispensary Top Shelf LPs were superb in every regard: the RTI pressings were perfectly flat, had beautifully glossy surfaces, and were completely silent during playback. For studio sessions dating from fifty years ago, both LPs featured surprisingly impressive sonics. While some might ultimately find the soulful psychedelic funk of Alpha to be more of a novelty, the group continually churned out surprisingly effective grooves that lifted it above the ordinary. Patrice Rushen's Prelusion is the lost classic I can't believe I've never heard, and will be in steady rotation here for a long while. I'm a huge fan of post-bop jazz and jazz fusion albums from the period, and Prelusion offers the kind of groove I can really get into! I'm astonished that my prior knowledge of Patrice Rushen's work was limited to her later, more R&B-oriented work. Having now heard Prelusion, I can't imagine this record not being in my collection!
Minty original pressings for either of these albums are scarce: Patrice Rushen's Prelusion was only pressed domestically during its 1974 year of release, and only one LP currently shows as available on Discogs for $400! The Round Robin Monopoly's Alpha is very slightly less rare (there are nine copies currently available). It also has never been repressed domestically since its original release, and VG+ copies available on Discogs start at $50 to upwards of $700 for NM copies. And neither of these albums has ever been released domestically on CD, so at the very least, listeners will have the option of picking up these superb LPs or finally having access to digital files. That alone makes the Jazz Dispensary Top Shelf series quite the bargain. These are perfectionist LPs in every respect, and I wouldn't hesitate to grab them while still available. While both Top Shelf reissues come very highly recommended, I found Patrice Rushen's Prelusion to be especially indispensable to my collection!
Craft Recordings
All images courtesy of Craft Recordings.
