The enduring influence of Roy Ayers looms large in this British artist's gorgeous jazz/hip-hop melds. Upright bass plunks and barroom piano take us back to early bop, but find themselves looped into modern hip-hop shapes. Ripping funk licks and analog crackles top off the inviting mix.
Harvey Lindo - Kid Gloves (A Modaji Longplayer)
Harvey Lindo's "Kid Gloves - A Modaji Long Player" is about fresh and uplifting as jazz infected hip-hop and midtempo soul can get. I just feel better everytime I listen to it. Which isn't to say it's all sunshine and fluffy clouds. The lyrics aim straight and hit hard, but the musical and beat delivery is so smooth you'll barely see them coming. In many ways it reflects Harvey Lindo's own hope for so much more to come from this release. With mouths to feed and bills to pay, he's constructed these 12 tracks carefully, and you can feel the love he's put behind every break and pad.
My life in music started out at an early age, dancing (or gimping) around my brother's bedroom to the sounds of Roy Ayers, EWF, Salsoul, Pleasure, I-Level, Tom Tom Club, Material,Bob James and a whole host of funk, boogie and seventies r'n'b, with the occasional rock interlude. Then came the Hip Hop and Electro madness with jaunts to Uxbridge tube station with the crew to do the Electric Boogaloo to earn money for linoleum, fat laces, Sergio Tacchini tracksuits with Pierre Cardin rollnecks (yes, those were the vogue those days!) and, most important of all, records.