The early-70s was an interesting time for
jazz. With record sales waning, many of the music's top stars began incorporating a more marketable sound. Certainly,
rock had made its way into the
jazz idiom by this time, as had
R&B, and any number of international influences, so one never really knew what to expect from even the genre's most predictable names. This wasn't necessarily the case with vibist Johnny
Lytle. Everybody knew he was a
soul man from the word "go," and
People & Love finds him diving ever deeper into the
soul-jazz groove. The results are successful, to say the least. The term '
soul-jazz' commonly invokes visions of dripping Hammonds and syrupy guitars, but by 1972 things had changed a bit. The kind of
soul-jazz represented here is a hazy, swirling, and ultimately much deeper vibe than that heard on, say, the classic
Blue Note and
Prestige sessions usually associated with this tag. One might compare it with
Big John Patton's more
psychedelic dates, like
Accent on the Blues, for example, or
Bobby Hutcherson's
Patterns session, had it employed more
funk rhythms. Among the album's five tracks, especially rewarding are
"Libra" -- during which
Lytle plays a muted two/four lick over the rest of the band in a manner befitting a comparison to
dub reggae delay effects -- and the seriously dope
funk of
"Tawhid." The album's third track,
"Family," was sampled by
Organized Konfusion in 1997, and one gets the impression that just about every one of these cuts would make a fine
hip hop sample in some way, shape, or form. That said, any self-respecting
soul-jazz or
jazz-funk fan would likely pick this title up based on the fantastic back cover alone. Fortunately, unlike so many other promising jackets, the tunes found inside are just as strong. Recommended for fans of
downtempo jazz-funk. ~ Brandon Burke
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