Karl Denson plays jazz with Andy Bey and the Greyboy AllStars house-band, entirely funky
Written: Mar 23 '07
Product Rating:
Pros: Great solos, excellent song writing, and grooves for days.
Cons: not a blessed thing.
The Bottom Line: Have a merry time finding this one, a hard sell on Ebay. The grooves are Meters and Steely Danish, the jazz is hard core, Andy Bey shines.
deaser26's Full Review: The D Stands For Diesel by Karl Denson
The Greyboy All Stars are Coming Back now
Just last summer the buzz started, and they started touring again. Karl and the fellas put the band back together and started hitting the road. They are even now still on the road, having been touring or in the studio for almost a year. Their new album is going to be out in a couple of weeks. And so Karl’s work from 1995 while interesting, might not seem as relevant as what is coming. That is so not the case.
The D Stands for Diesel is another of those hard to find CDs, it was mostly cut for DJs so the vinyl isn’t that hard to find. But the CDs on the other hand I’ve seen go for as much as 100 dollars. So when I found one on Ebay for 13 the other day, plus over priced shipping of course, I snatched it up. This is really from the glory days of the Greyboy All Stars, from a creative perspective as well as the team. This has Robert Walter on keys, who has gone on to do many solo albums with his “heavy organ” sound. As well as Michael Andrews and Elgin Park (pre Donny Darko soundtrack work), on guitar and grooves. Chris Stillwell (pre Starsky and Hutch soundtrack), and Zak Najor on drums – essentially the entire Greyboy Records house band came and added their feelings to this groovin’ record.
1 – Louis and Co. Sometime in the course of this song Karl goes through many of the standard sax player convolutions. He takes his horn into the upper register and squeals, he ghosts his fingers over the keys creating a harmonic muffled humming sound, he plays incredibly fast scales and patterns, he growls, he grunts, he squeaks, he plays some of King Curtis licks, does a little Bird here and there and manages to make it truly sound like his own. And somewhere along the way, Robert Walter manages to play a funky keyboard solo, without benefit of the harmonic pitches and physicality of the sax. And then there is the groove itself, which Zak Najor and Chris Stilwell manage to keep incredibly funky.
2 – Bougainvillea One of the two songs featuring Andy Bey, and his voice is in top form, deeply funky. Bey was a featured artist in Horace Silver’s band for years and worked with countless east coast jazz groups from Chick Corea to his own bands. Karl bringing him onto the record is nice touch from the jazz perspective. Bey has a powerful voice, and doesn’t rely on scatting, but sings directly and improvises his lyrics as he goes.
3 – The Grind A tender melody played with harmonies from saxes and trombone. The chords are simple but light, and then the flute solo at the end is enormous. Karl flexes out on the flute in an even more powerful way than on the sax.
4 – Sunday School Robert Walters makes what can only be described as a happy contribution. There is real joy in the players, and as the music flows from one soloist to another, the chords are not angry or dark, just a lot of good feelings. It does put one in mind of the Greyboy All Stars song Happy Friends, which has the same “feel good” qualities.
5 – Russian Quaalude Karl features himself on flute over the top of a Steely Dan feel. It is another Robert Walter song, and the melody jumps back and forth like the horn parts in a Tower of Power selection. Think of I Got The News with flute playing the lead and trading with the very tasty piano chops.
6 – Jam Sandwich Have you ever had a Jam Sandwich? It’s where you take two pieces of bread and jam them together….it is a funny thing to name a tune after this product of poverty stricken grocery lists. This is by far the funkiest song on the roster, with Karl blaring out on tenor. I need MORE COWBELL!! One of the really nice features of this song is the cowbell in place of hi hat, and the horn section playing the groove together in sections. Karl is hard-core in the funk on this tune.
7 – The Grind: Reprise Another version of the Grind with the groove a little slower and more full of a rolling bass melody. The horn section is on full alert. It is just a little taste of the melody again and then it is gone.
8 – Steamed Water A faster song with the ideas trading between the Fender Rhodes and the tenor sax, the groove is luscious, but the speed with which the initial melody goes is stunning. Then the chorus leads to an extended solo from Karl on Tenor. Karl expands the flow of the band by moving freely between the chorus and the soloing, to include lots of sound effects from the throat of the horn.
9 – Tune-Up A final gift from Andy Bey, his other featured song – with a Bill Withers feel to the groove. The words flow from Andy as he considers getting close to beauty and diversity, not a unique theme brother. But the horns and band take over soon enough and we are given the gift of jazz.
And In The End
This is a stellar album from Karl, with the addition of the other players, it could very well have been an album from the Greyboy All Stars, but that is what the band became. This is clearly not a record for discos or dance halls, it is a jazz album.
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