Two recent releases from Craft Recordings‘ esteemed Jazz Dispensary imprint — and their “Top Shelf” archive series — both share a certain mid-1970s, smooth soul-jazz sensibility. Both albums are well produced and boast exemplary new lacquers cut by Kevin Gray of Cohearant Audio. Both albums are pressed on 180-gram vinyl at one of the top manufacturing facilities, RTI.
Each album sleeve is made from sturdy cardboard in the classic “tip-on” style popular in the 1950s and ’60s. The records are housed in audiophile-grade, plastic-lined inner sleeves for added protection. Most importantly, both sound excellent—pressed on dead-quiet, perfectly centered vinyl.
People & Love, Johnny Lytle
An under-the-radar artist for some, vibraphonist and percussionist Johnny Lytle has developed a loyal following for his soulful 1970s jazz recordings. His 1973 Milestone Records release People & Love returns to print for the first time in 50 years as a high-quality audiophile reissue.
People & Love is a pleasant understated listen, bookended by radio-ready soul-jazz takes on soul classics “Where Is The Love?” — then a hit for Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway — and “People Make The World Go ‘Round,” a Top 25 charter for The Stylistics in 1972 (#6 soul). People & Love is a calm, chill spin. Soulful and sultry, its a grower (if you will), revealing new layers (and earworms!) with each listen.
Original copies of People & Love are somewhat hard to find these days. I know that I have never seen an original anywhere in all these years I’ve been crate digging! Only four copies were on Discogs at the time of this writing in no better than VG+ condition selling for as much as $80. So clearly, a good reissue was in order. This is mighty nice indeed, and much cheaper!
Johnny Lytle’s People & Love is available for $22.47 at Amazon
City Life, The Blackbyrds
The Blackbyrds were protégés (students, literally) of the great trumpet maestro and educator Donald Byrd. Their 1975 third release, City Life was a big hit back in the day, peaking at #1 on the US Jazz charts (#3 R’nB, #16 Top Pop!). This album has seemingly always been around on store shelves (used and new) so I was somewhat surprised to see it getting the deluxe audiophile treatment for a premium reissue. This is not an especially rare album as you do still see fairly clean copies of City Life showing up in “the wilds” (as collectors often say).
But there-in lies the rub: a newer younger generation of vinyl enthusiasts typically prefer buying new LPs over used. And now for about $35, they can easily get a fresh copy of this very enjoyable funky pop soul-jazz release by The Blackbyrds in a form that is arguably going to sound better than the original editions.
Remember, the mid-1970s was the time of the so-called Middle East oil crisis in America (oil is a key ingredient to making vinyl) so LP pressings around this period in general were often noisy as labels struggled to get product out while cutting corners to stretch supplies (I even remember hearing rumors about labels recycling vinyl at that time).
If you are a fan of horn based funky jazz-infused pop soul, City Life is a good starting place for exploring the music of The Blackbyrds. And this new version sounds arguably better than ever.
City Life is available for $34.99 at Amazon.
Mark Smotroff is a deep music enthusiast / collector who has also worked in entertainment oriented marketing communications for decades supporting the likes of DTS, Sega and many others. He reviews vinyl for Analog Planet and has written for Audiophile Review, Sound+Vision, Mix, EQ, etc. You can learn more about him at LinkedIn.
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