Tower of Power -
Tower of Power
Posted: December 28th, 2008
Date: 1973
Release: Warner Brothers
Cover Art: view / download
Buy the Album
For many years, I was haunted by a sound. I instinctively knew what it was, how it felt in my heart, but I had no idea what musician or band had created it and I never seemed to stumble across it, on oldies radio or otherwise. It was a melancholy, slightly kitschy yet soulful sound, rooted deep in the corners of my oldest memories from my Seventies childhood. It was the sound of Seventies street soul; big afros, good vibes, summer nights and making out on the first date. I never thought I’d hear that sweet, sentimental groove again, but it’s all there on Tower of Power’s self-titled 1973 release.
One of the strongest albums by the sprawling, multi-ethnic jazz-funk band, Tower of Power features several butt-shaking, roof-raising boogie-funk workouts, but it’s the slow-groove ballads that define the sound I’d long searched for. When I hear “Will I Ever Find A Love?,” “Clever Girl,” “Both Sorry Over Nothin’,” and the exquisite “So Very Hard to Go,” I float away into a Seventies soul bliss. There is something so completely charming and endearing about these songs, a vague wistfulness only heightened by their relative obscurity and lack of iconic status.
Unlike the classic soul sounds of Aretha and the Jackson 5, these tunes haven’t sold Pepsi or appeared on countless soundtracks. Instead, they rise from a hazy, lazy, dusty-vinyl ether, crackling from the car radio on the way to get a soft-serve cone on a July night, or from a clock-radio AM station as we reach first base on a bean bag chair. It’s just that sound. And the super-tight funk jams — “Soul Vaccination,” “Get Yo’ Feet Back On the Ground,” and “What Is Hip?” — round out what could only be considered a very tasty time capsule of unassuming Seventies soul. Track for track, confident and romantic, Tower of Power is timeless.
Players:
- Lenny Williams – lead vocals
- Chester Thompson – organ, vocals
- Bruce Conte – guitar, vocals
- Francis Rocco Prestia – bass
- Brent Byars – conga drums, bongos
- David Garibaldi – drums
- Lenny Pickett – tenor saxophone, flute, clarinet, vocals
- Emilio Castillo – tenor saxophone, vocals
- Stephen Kupka – baritone saxophone, oboe, vocals
- Mic Gillette – trumpet, trombone,
- baritone horn, flugelhorn, vocals
- Greg Adams – trumpet, flugelhorn, vocals
Tracks:
- What Is Hip?
- Clever Girl
- This Time It’s Real
- Will I Ever Find A Love?
- Get Yo’ Feet Back On the Ground
- So Very Hard to Go
- Soul Vaccination
- Both Sorry Over Nothin’
- Clean Slate
- Just Another Day
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- ADD:
FredHarris -
Already released here on Strokeland is Tony Adamo’s cool rendition of “THIS TIME IT’S REAL”, another great classic Tower of Power tune. This smooth, funky arrangement by Jerry Stucker, covered by Strokeland Records artist Tony Adamo, was written by Tower of Power co-founders, Stephen ‘Doc’ Kupka and Emilio Castillo. Mic Gillette, who has arranged and recorded on six Adamo/Stucker songs, wrote a funk show-time arrangement for this new cover and laid down the brass. Tom E. Politizer of TOP was brought in for the lead solo, and Doc Kupka, the Funky Doctor himself, anchored the horn section.www.strokeland.com
August 31st, 2010 at 8:46 pmFredHarris -
‘Doc’ Kupka gets hip to Tony Adamo’s “What is Hip”
“I love Tony’s version of “What Is Hip?”. He evokes the beatnik-bongo days of my youth and gives a whole new slant to a hard-charging funk tune. Congrats to both Tony Adamo and Jerry Stucker!” Stephen ‘Doc’ Kupka, Tower of Power co-founder
December 3rd, 2010 at 9:13 pmhttp://www.strokeland.com
http://www.myspace.com/tomyrocadamo
FredHarris -
Tony Adamo’s exuberant jazzy take on Tower of Power’s funk classic(What is Hip)
Adamo and his producer/guitarist Jerry Stucker take Tower of Power’s classic funk number and give it a more sinewy vibe, elasticizing the vocals and the bass, while crackling up the song’s more timpanic elements. This exuberantly self-assured remake recalls the Acid Jazz insouciance of the early 90s while harkening back to the Big Band era and the Vegas-y stylings of suave masters of self-confidence such as Tom Jones and Al Jarreau. Adamo has a brash self-assuredness and a sense of showmanship that’s neither unearned nor in your face. You can almost picture him taking a drag from an unfiltered or sipping from a martini in between some of his spoken-word lines. And the arrangements are crisp, solid and spicy–punctuating Adamo’s vocals and his been-there sung-that attitude.
http://www.strokeland.com
http://www.myspace.com/tonyrocadamo
Devon Jackson
Magazine Editor – Freelance Music Journalist
Devon Jackson has written about music and film for a variety of publications–from Entertainment Weekly and The Village Voice to Rolling Stone and Details. He is also the author of Conspiranoia! and currently the editor of Santa Fean magazine
January 2nd, 2011 at 7:30 pm