Melvin Jackson - Funky Skull mp3 album

very original jazz album, which mixes experimental music with very accessible funky rhythms, just like Melvin Jackson's boss, the sadly very underrated Eddie Harris. Both are ignored by many, maybe because those who like experimental jazz do not want it to be accessible to the crowd, and those who like funky stuff often limit themselves to the most commercially successful stuff. Anyway, what is this ? Melvin Jackson was Harris' bass player, and here he plays acoustic bass but ... amplified and distorted by "Maestro G21 filter box, Boomerang, Echo-Plex, Ampeg amplifier". Some AACM musicians are there for experimental credibility: Lester Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell, Wadada Leo Smith ... and Phil Upchurch plays the guitar on "Funky Skull" and "Cold Duck Time". 3 tracks are Eddie Harris compositions. The amplification creates Vocoder-like and spacey sounds which I only heard in Harris albums before. Melvin Jackson succeeds completely to make a futuristic sounding album with an "old" instrument, his taller than himself acoustic bass. Brilliant !

I had seen this record on ebay a few times and it always looked interesting.The cost was always out of my price range .Anyhow heres the deal . This record is very very unique,it jams all the way through.The first listen i didn't quite get it .Melvin Jackson uses this super funky voice box machine that makes funny sounds .While at the beginning its jammy and funky ,after getting through midway through the record ,thats when things change . It becomes very psychedelic ,instruments are played in a circular pattern which repeats ,then echoes over and over with laughing .The last song on each side of the record are made specifically for people who are stoned or tripping . I was stoned and i listened to these 2 songs 3 times .They are so hard to describe ,it is quite unique .When hearing the songs in a stoned state ,i completely understood what the artist was going for with this record .It truly is a hidden gemm .It takes a few listens to get the abstract approach he was going for with this album.I highly reccommed this for people who like abstract jazz ,or jazz funk .You surely won't have anything that resembles this in your collection. These guys were obviosly smoked out or tripping when making this ,its a combination of floating tones ,echoes ,voices ,and a different approach .I was truly amazed. The funklab