Melvin Jackson “Funky Skull”

Melvin Jackson

“Funky Skull”
( LP Limelight Records, 1968 )
Catalog # LS 86071

Tracklisting:
A1 Funky Skull Parts 1 & 2 (4:53)
A2 Ma, She’s Makin’ Eyes At Me (0:51)
A3 Bold And Black (7:12)
A4 Dance Of The Dervish (6:39)
A5 Everybody Loves My Baby (2:20)
B1 Cold Duck Time Parts 1 & 2 (5:03)
B2 Say What (4:49)
B3 Funky Doo (4:53)
B4 Silver Cycles (9:26)

Personnel & Credits:
Bass [Acoustic String], Effects – Melvin Jackson
Drums – Billy Hart (tracks: A2 to A5, B2 to B4)
Piano, Organ, Effects – Jodie Christian (tracks: A2 to A5, B2 to B4)
Producer – Robin McBride
Saxophone [Alto], Flute – Roscoe Mitchell (tracks: A2 to A5, B2 to B4)
Saxophone [Tenor], Flute – Byron Bowie (tracks: A2 to A5, B2 to B4)
Trombone – Steve Galloway (tracks: A2 to A5, B2 to B4)
Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Leo Smith (tracks: A2 to A5, B2 to B4) , Lester Bowie (tracks: A2 to A5, B2 to B4)
Vocals – Sound Of Feeling, The (tracks: A2 to A5, B2 to B4)

Review:
One of our favorite albums of all times and a legendary testament to the greatness of the Chicago music scene in the late 60s! Melvin Jackson was the bassist in Eddie Harris’ very successful group of the time and his playing on Eddie’s trippy and funky records for Atlantic is one of the factors that made them so great. Here, he’s working with an acoustic bass, amplified with electronics like a Varitone sax — and this strange-sounding instrument is set up in a hip group that mixes Cadet funky studio players (Phil Upchurch, Morris Jennings, Jody Christian) with some of the brighter young players of the AACM (Roscoe Mitchell, Lester Bowie, and Leo Smith.) Jackson’s bass is looped through all sorts of crazy effects, and the result is this amazing blend of avant garde playing and groovy rhythms that is beyond compare! The album includes great reworkings of two Eddie Harris funk tracks “Bold and Black” and “Cold Duck Time” plus monster originals like “Funky Doo”, “Say What”, “Dance Of The Dervish”, and “Funky Skull (parts 1 & 2)”
By Dusty Groove America.

*Also on Oufar Khan Blog.

By Celo