I gave an overview of the career of saxaphonist/flautist Harold Vick when posting "Don't Look Back" a few weeks ago, which led me to track down the album before that one. Vick hadn't put out an album in five years before releasing "The Power of Feeling" in 1973 under the pseudonym "Sir Edward".
The album came out on Bernard Purdie's short-lived Encounter Records in 1973 - see the base of this post for an (almost complete) label discography.
"The Power of Feeling" seems to have been recorded somewhere between the first and second Compost albums, and can perhaps be seen as an attempt to further some of the commercial ambitions and sonic qualities of Jack DeJohnette's project, albeit more in the "composed" vein of the burgeoning CTI style of accessible jazz-related music than the party funk represented on the Compost albums (particularly the first one, on which Vick seems to be just jamming along).
The following year would see Vick return to more "jazz-rooted" soul-jazz projects like Shirley Scott's "One for Me" and Larry Willis' "Inner Crisis", which would in turn lead to the more intimate and acoustic Vick album "Don't Look Back", but for now he wasn't going to let go of his wah-wah pedal.
SO WHO IS "SIR EDWARD" ?
cover detail from "Commitment" album, 1966/74 While there's still conjecture in some online sources as to whether this actually was Harold Vick, the back cover (above) of Vick's "Commitment" release from 1974 confirms that it's him. I'm still unclear as to why Vick released this under a pseudonym, as it's clearly his own production and arrangements. The inner sleeve contains photos of all band members bar Vick, who's in silhouette on the cover.
THE ALBUM
The opening track "Keep on Moving On" (see preview at top of post) is denser than the version on the Shirley Scott album, with multi-tracked reeds replacing the call-and-answer of organ and sax in the other version, and guitarist George Davis supplying the requisite Wah-Wah Watsonesque "wakka-wakka".
George Davis
As always, Davis is a strong asset, whether switching into Grant Green-style soul jazz and then psych-funk on tracks like Vick's "Stocking Cap" or fronting on flute for an extended version of "People Make The World Go Round". Although his guitar work can be heard on some early 70s Dizzy Gillespie albums and Lonnie Smith's "Mama Wailer" , this appears to be his first flute date since Joe Zawinul's 1970 self-titled album. (More on Davis at the base of the Mike Longo post).
Joe Bonner
The other strong presence here is keyboardist Joe Bonner, fresh off a series of Pharoah Sanders' albums - "Black Unity", "Live at the East" and "Village Of The Pharoahs". This appears to be his first rhodes recording, but he switches to electric with aplomb, instantly understanding the different dynamics and referencing Hancock-like patterns in his solo work.
Bonner switches to acoustic piano for what is probably my favourite track, "Peace, K.D.", a dedication to trumpeter Kenny Dorham, who had died in December of 1972. It's a beautiful modal piece that starts out like a "Prince Of Peace" Sanders-style song - if Leon Thomas were to suddenly begin yodelling it wouldn't feel at all out of place. Starting with some textured and panned piano string scrapes, Vick and Davis build melancholy flute harmonies over Bonner's colour swathes, while Vick contributes some of his most sensitive playing here with a soprano sax overdub.
Harold Vick himself is a mixed bag on this album. His best work comes when he's on raw sax or flute and fully in control of his dynamics - few reed players can get such sensitive detail in their phrasing. However, on tracks like "Rocky Mount Willie" he often sets up the main melodies through electric wah-wah sax, and he's not fully at ease with integrating wah-wah rhythms and frequency shifts in his patterns - there's no subtlety to his footwork as he pushes the pedal all the way, every time, on evenly-spaced sixteenth notes or triplets.
Nevertheless, the difficulties of incorporating extra limbs as a musician are not to be under-estimated. Can I tell a funny story?
Eight years ago I was working for a few days in a New York studio, and the producer asked me to play the drumkit so he could check the mics. Although I play keys, guitar and percussion, if you get me to play anything with my feet as well, it falls apart after a few bars. The engineer was on the phone while we were checking, then afterwards he told me that the drummer from the "David Letterman Show" had been on the phone, and had asked "who the f#@k is that on the drums?"
Anyways back to the album - while there's some great stuff here, there are some fairly unimaginative readings of "Where Is The Love" and "Betcha by Golly Wow", in which Vick sticks much too closely to the original melodic/harmonic structures, despite some good solo work from Davis on the former and Bonner on the latter.
Jumma Santos
Vick brought percussionist Jumma Santos from the Compost sessions. Santos, who contributes a variety of instruments here, had also recently worked on albums by Roy Ayers, Larry Young, Marion Brown and Noah Howard. He'd started the decade with two heavy credits : playing percussion on Miles Davis' "Bitches Brew" and appearing with Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock.
Omar Clay
Vick had worked with the other percussionist Omar Clay on Joe Chambers' "The Almoravid" in 1971 and Johnny Hammond's "Wild Horses Rock Steady" in 1972. Clay had also played on albums by Gene Harris and Marlena Shaw the year before.
David Lee
This is turning into a yearbook parade, hey? Drummer David Lee is the head of the school's chess club - no that's not true - he had worked with George Davis on both the "Zawinul" album and Dizzy Gillespie's "The Real Thing", as well as appearing on albums by Sonny Rollins and Lonnie Liston Smith.
Wilbur Bascomb Jr.
Busy bassist Wilbur Bascomb Jr. had just made an album called "Black Grass Music" with his band Bad Bascomb, and a renowned funk 45 called "Just a Groove in G" which was famously sampled in DJ Shadow's "The Number Song" from "Entroducing".
Bascomb had also recently played on Roy Ayers' "Change Up The Groove", Ellerine Harding's "Ellerine", Marlena Shaw's "From the depths of my soul", Lightning Rod's "Hustler's Convention", and Ronnie Foster's "Sweet Revival".
Victor Gaskin
Finally, bassist Victor Gaskin made his name on a series of Cannonball Adderley albums, such as "74 Miles Away", and had worked recently on Hal Galper's "Guerilla Band", Barry Miles' "White Heat" and Oliver Nelson's "Swiss Suite".
Technical note : This is not the best quality piece of vinyl I've ever come across - it's mostly OK, but there's some slight distortion on the flute in a few sections of "People Make The World go Round" which I couldn't clear up.
Anyway I hope you enjoy this one, comments would be appreciated. Check further down for details, and Encounter Records and Harold Vick discographies.
TRACKLIST
Tracks are ordered differently on the covers and on the vinyl/labels.
I've put them in the vinyl/labels order.
01 'Keep On Moving On' - 4:28 - (Harold Vick - not credited here)
02 'Where Is The Love' - 4:04 - (Bill Salter / Ralph McDonald)
03 'People Make The World Go Around' - 6:28 - (Thomas Bell / Linda Creed)
04 'Stocking Cap' - 5:47 - (Sir Edward)
05 'Rocky Mount Willie' - 4:26 - (Sir Edward)
06 'Betcha By Golly Wow' - 6:15 - (Thomas Bell / Linda Creed)
07 'Peace, K.D.' (dedication to the late Kenny Dorham) - 8:22 - (Sir Edward)
MUSICIANS
Sir Edward (Harold Vick) - tenor, soprano and alto saxaphones; electric sax with wah-wah; flute.
Joe Bonner - fender rhodes (1-6); piano (7)
George Davis - guitar (1-7); flute (3,7)
Wilbur Bascomb Jr. - bass (4,7)
Victor Gaskin - bass (1-3, 5-6) David Lee - drums
Jumma Santos - bongoes (2); conga (1,3,5); percussion (7)
Omar Clay - marimba (3); vibes (1,4); percussion (5); tambourine (6)
PRODUCTION DETAILS
Recorded at Venture Sound Studios, Somerville, New Jersey.
Recorded at Studio 914
Produced and arranged by Sir Edward
Executive Producer - Lloyd Price Engineer and remix - Edward Stasium
Assistant - Dave Domanich
Engineers - Lewis Lahav and Larry Alexander
Mastering Engineer - Dave Crawford
Mastering at Generation Sound
Mixing Engineer - Tony May
Photographs by Chuck Stewart
Design by Steve Malinchoc for L&S Graphics
Thanks to George Kerr for his help and inspiration.
There's music in the sighting of a reed; There's music in the gushing of a rill; There's music in all things, if man had ears Their earth is but an echo of the spheres. - Byron, Don Juan, XV
ENCOUNTER RECORDS DISCOGRAPHY
Label run by Bernard Purdie, all releases 1973.
EN 3001 Sands Of Time - "Profile" - donated by Vpex
EN 3002 East Coast - "East Coast" also at Never Enough Rhodes EN 3003 Frank Owens - "Brown N Serve" - donated by Vpex
EN 3004 Sir Edward - "The Power Of Feeling" at the base of this post.
HAROLD VICK -DISCOGRAPHY
1963 "Steppin' Out" at Ile Oxumaré
1964 rejected Blue Note sessions May 27th
1966 "Straight Up" at Call It Anything
1966 "The Caribbean Suite" at Orgy in Rhythm 1967 "Commitment" (released 1974) also at Never Enough Rhodes
1967 "Watch What Happens" also at Never Enough Rhodes
1973 "Power of Feeling" (Vicks as "Sir Edward") at base of this post
1974 "Don't Look Back" also at Never Enough Rhodes 1977 "After The Dance" at My Jazz World
HAROLD VICK - SIDEMAN DISCOGRAPHY
The epic sideman discography, with links, can now be found at the "Don't Look Back" post.
POST CREDITS
Vinyl rip n' scans by Simon666
Apart from the albums in the discographies, album links within the post go to :
Orgy in Rhythm, My Jazz World, Ile Oxumaré, Funky Disposition, My Favourite Sound, Oufar Khan, Happy as a Fat rat in a Cheese Factory, The Heat Warps, Pharoah’s Dance, Flying Dutchman, Beeq, The Shad Shack, Baby Grandpa, Everything is on the One, All For the CTI, Nothing Is v 2.0, 4 Brothers Beats, This Is Tomorrow, Jazz & Beyond, Musical Schizophrenia, Blaxploitation Jive, blog–o-blog, TC's Old and New Music, and Here Only Good Music for All.
Please thank and support these bloggers and those in the discographies if you click through and download.
