{"id":6440,"date":"2022-09-02T15:39:03","date_gmt":"2022-09-02T15:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=6440"},"modified":"2022-12-22T05:11:51","modified_gmt":"2022-12-22T05:11:51","slug":"music-gabor-szabo-faces-1977","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=6440","title":{"rendered":"MUSiC: Gabor Szabo, Faces, 1977"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\u2018Tell it like it is, it ain\u2019t nothin\u2019 but The Biz, a little more, Gabor<\/em>!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been really diggin\u2019 Gabor Szabo recently. And it was when I was reading Doug Payne\u2019s excellent online biography of the Hungarian guitarist that I noticed something startling. Amongst the personnel credits for 1977\u2019s Faces<\/em>, was Marlon McLain, of Pleasure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love Pleasure! And I love Gabor! So I looked again, a bit harder, and, lo and behold, also credited: bassist Nathaniel Phillips, drummer Bruce Carter, and Wayne Henderson, of Crusaders fame. \u2018Twas Henderson who was acting as avuncular to Pleasure, discovering, signing and producing them. So in essence we have a Pleasure rhythm section (guitar, bass, drums) + Szabo! All produced – and with horns arranged by – Wayne Henderson. What\u2019s not to love!?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can see how some of the \u2018moldy [sic] figs\u2019 – those self appointed champions of jazz \u2018purity\u2019 (surely a massively mistaken and oxymoronic idea?) – might react against such a combo\u2019. Not me! Two artists I love combining forces? Bring it on!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, unsurprisingly, for me at any rate, I do indeed love the result. And this despite the inherent danger of disappointment when one\u2019s much loved stars align; will it work? I mean, they are quite different; Szabo the oddball jazzer, and Pleasure the funky soulful groove merchants. I guess it dosa have to be conceded this isn\u2019t<\/em> my favourite Szabo, nor the best of Pleasure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, to the music. It has a delicious mid to late \u201870s vibe, with echoes of everything from CTI to Steely Dan in the mix. And obviously a Crusaders\/Pleasure vibe. Szabo is, of course, Szabo, as always! But for the most part his sound sits, comfortably enough, atop the rather silky smooth even quite lush musical Henderson\/Pleasure style settings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I must admit I am a less less enthused with the smattering of female vocals, which are most evident at the outset. They\u2019re not awful, by a long shot. But I can see the moldy figs visibly rotting in reaction! The album opens with The Biz, in which the ladies croon \u2018It\u2019s a whiz, do The Biz\u2026 a little more, Gabor\u2019! Kinda corny, I guess? But actually, the music\u2019s great. And, in essence, the words are saying something I can totally get behind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Track six, Alicia (I have a niece named Alicia, so that\u2019s a nice resonance for me!), is incredibly Dan-esque in places, sounding very Deacon Blues-ish at times*. This is also one of two tracks that are repeated in slightly different form as \u2018bonus tracks\u2019 on some editions of this album. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps somewhat ironically, the most beautiful track on this album, Estate, is the most Szabo and the least Pleasure, very literally; it\u2019s either a solo piece, or just two guitars. Perhaps Szabo duetting with his frequent collaborator James Stewart?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not the best album in Szabo\u2019s catalogue, nor Henderson\u2019s or Pleasure\u2019s, but a solid meeting of some very talented musicians, that\u2019s still well worth having. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

* As a massive fan of steam-powered dildos, I find this to be no bad thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Tell it like it is, it ain\u2019t nothin\u2019 but The Biz, a little more, Gabor!\u2019 I\u2019ve been really diggin\u2019 Gabor Szabo recently. And it was when I was reading Doug Payne\u2019s excellent online biography of the Hungarian guitarist that I noticed something startling. Amongst the personnel credits for 1977\u2019s Faces, was Marlon McLain, of Pleasure. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “MUSiC: Gabor Szabo, Faces, 1977”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[138,89,70,134,188,137,130,133,77,10,58,139,104],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-1FS","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6440"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6440"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7564,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6440\/revisions\/7564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}