(Lettuce Records) [Release date 03.12.25]
As we mentioned in earlier reviews U.S. jazz-funksters Lettuce are firmly rooted in the late-sixties/seventies when artists such as James Brown/Maceo Parker and Tower of Power held sway. With the popularity of disco in the late-seventies many erudite funksters crossed over, so we had the likes of Earth, Wind & Fire regularly raiding the charts.
As previously, this band are also close in spirit to The Meters who were pioneers of nascent funk/R&B, characterised by their 1969 hit ‘Cissy Strut’.
The interjection of a sharp twin-horn/brass section (Ryan ‘Zoid’ Zoidis, Eric ‘Benny’ Bloom) is a highlight as on opener ‘Grewt Up’ which reminds a little of the swing of Hugh Masekela’s ‘Grazing In The Grass’, although with suitably psychedelic guitar (Adam ‘Shmeeans’ Smirnoff). Smirnoff adds a bit more grit to ‘Gold Tooth’.
Tracks like ’7 Tribes’ and ‘Storm Coming’ are typical moody and hypnotic grooves whilst the two vocal tracks, featuring keyboard player Nigel Hall, are straight out of the soul crooner playbook of the late-seventies.
The overall impression for us lapsed and ageing funksters is that Lettuce have absorbed the best of earlier styles to fashion an authentic and reverential mix of their own.
To coin a phrase reflected in errant jazzer Herbie Hancock’s 1979 album – embracing the disco generation – “Feets, don’t fail me now”. Lettuce will make sure that doesn’t happen. ****
Review by David Randall
Album review (Unify, 2022)
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