San Diego's Own "Price of Dope", Crusader grooves, funk the Meters would be proud of.
Written: Feb 02 '06 (Updated Jul 20 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great Solos, nice retro sound, wonderful song writing - nice hidden track
Cons: Maybe a whisker short at nine songs I could have gone for another few tunes.
The Bottom Line: Amazingly funky grooves - San Diego has a true gift in the Price of Dope, they have resurrected a sound and feel that the Crusaders abandoned.
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| deaser26's Full Review: The Price of Dope - The Price of Dope Movies |
The Price is not bad at all BOB!!!
The first really fun part about the Price of Dope is that: A – You are going to end up with some dope, or B – You are going to end up with some dope grooves or C – they copied their logo from The Price is Right, which frankly just made me happy. When I have a day off of work, my wife and I inevitably watch the Price and cheer for the crazy ladies from Altadena and Lorba Linda, the navy boys from Long Beach and the tender tourists from Oklahoma.
And so when I went to their web site and found the PIR logo staring me in the face, it occurred to me that A – they would have copyright troubles if their music ever blew up, and B – they were on the right foot for my buck.
My buddy DJ Danny Massure gave me a copy of their disc as he is a former San Diego boy and these guys are a San Diego band. So you know they’ve been enjoying the sun and the Cali-groove. The band was really founded by Drummer Jeff Kelley and bassist Chris Schinelli. There has been a revolving door of guitarists, sax men, and sometimes keyboard players – but in each strain of this band there has been the nucleus. The biggest problem this band had over the years is coming up in the same town as the Greyboy All Stars and the B-Side Players. Both of these two bands have ruled since pee-wee league and neither one quite captures the same deep fried funk as Dope.
There were some extras and guests on this 1998 CD; Harold Todd (Lenny Kravitz), Robert Walters (Greyboy Allstars), and Skip Howlett (Cal Tjader, Herbie Hancock)
And Dave Carano keys.
The Tunes Themselves
1 – Smoove – The sax player on this one is doing a lot of Brecker and Sanborn licks, but his timing is right on, his sound is a little too smooth for my taste, but the melody line is clever enough to qualify. The lead is played by sax and electric guitar in unison, which is a sound I am particularly fond of – Koinonia used to do that a lot with Dean Parks and Justo Almario. This one cooks, frankly.
2 – All God’s Children – This track took me back to the early Crusaders (or Jazz Crusaders as they would have been then), because of the sax/trombone melodies. The keyboards are a really tasty soul exploration. The keyboard player is no Joe Sample, but he is playing with an awful lot of soul. And then comes a flute player, doing a sometimes humorous solo with some nice referral licks to the old Jackson 5, kind of sweet, and deeply soulful. Then we come back in with those horn harmonies and the melody could just as easily have been kleptoed from Cannonball. The sax solo is tasty.
3 – David and Goliath Here we join the Crusaders groove later on, like mid seventies as the sax player has a little Wah-Wah effect on his horn. The guitar and keys are laying a tasty layer underneath and this one features our keyboard guy on a nice Rhodes solo. The sound is in some ways reminiscent of the Ticklejunk All Stars and some of their recent grooves. The wah-wah on the guitar is there as well, and a chorus sound giving us some nice low octaves on the sax. Those early tone dividers were and are a lot of fun. This groove is very danceable and funky like the Meters.
4 – Taxxi This one is a little more abstract and reminds me a bit of the Flying Dutchman jam Spontaneous Combustion, again with the Tone Divided tenor sounding like early Tom Scott. The organ is really funky sounding on this cut and the early seventies funk vibe is solid as a rock. The organ sound is right off of Sugarloaf’s Green Eyed Lady. And then the horns come back in over the top of that incredibly funky wah-wah seventies guitar.
5 – Arabian Nights The groove here is still seventies, but the sound is a lot closer to the John Klemmer grooves, sans the Echoplex. And then a gorgeous, scuse me STUNNING guitar solo ensues complete with Frampton Comes Alive WAH! This is really tasty stuff. The chords are blues based and the improvisation is original. As you can well imagine, there is a feaux-sitar effect in the middle. The raga scale that the soloists use is nice as well. For those of you unaware it is Sa Ri Ga Mi Pa Dha Ne, NOT Do Re Mi. Do the raga players say Mi a name I call myself? probably not.
6 – 69th & El Cajon Well it may or may not come as a surprise to you that the City of San Diego has a Water Pump Vault at this address, yes indeed. And while this one isn’t all diverse like their last one, it is a lot closer to Nawlins than it is to the less than mean streets of San Diego. The Crusaders groove is back and I am digging it the most. The melody is syncopated and interesting.
7 – Schneider This one is another direct steal from the sixties crusaders with sax and trombone playing the melody together. And then as the song wears on Cheme turns on his Octavoice Tone Divider once again and hands us some very funky soloing with the section sound. The end is a really tasty digression of the chords, leading back to the original melody with sax and trombone playing the outro. The sax turns on both Chorus and Wah to finish up.
8 – Super Hero The melody is simple, repeat and repeat and the chorus is not really a whole lot more complex than that. The rhythm section are the stars of this tender groove though. Kelley and Schinelli really shine in both dynamics and in their approach to the rock solidness of the groove. The guitar plays another nice solo.
9 – Road Runner This one is a runner, a quicker beat to be certain, with the sax and trombone leading the way. The flute plays on the tippy top of the head as well. There is some nice percussion work keeping the melody afloat. The bone player does a healthy job of soloing on this song. And it is followed closely on the heels of the alto player who rocks it next.
10 – Ten Minutes of Blankness before the hidden track Yes, here we have the great nothing. Interestingly enough, I was programming while writing this and so didn’t really notice that the music had stopped until I realized I was starting to have a convulsion from aural deprivation. And when I went into DTs from the quiet, well I just had to find out the deal. Then I meditated on my wheat coloured cubicle walls (or are they putty or oatmeal colored), and I was okay.
11 – Chipmunk (recorded live at the G Lounge) HIDDEN TRACK Nice flute and keyboard introduction with a strong feel and them Cheme comes in with the Klemmer sounding tenor. The melody is played together then by flute and sax – Harold Todd guesting on flute no doubt. The drum and bass are again Seawind solid on this one with a very interesting break and fill. This sounds a lot like some of Seawind’s instrumental jams from Calvary Chapel or the Baked Potato. Cheme’s tenor solo is free and easy, it lays in well. This is a lot more of a straight ahead jazz sound than the studio tracks. The flute solo is okay, a little screechy at the very highest points in the register, but the groove is there and the licks are interesting. And then we are back to Kelley and Schinelli leading the way, laying down the ground work and the road. This is a solid and interesting choice for an ending number. Written it says in the end by Chris Schinelli.
And In The End
These gentlemens have truly found the key to a very funky style. There are a lot of the Crusaders and Meters in their ideas – but they are still pretty fresh. Because the Crusaders stopped sounding like this in about 1978 or so and then they started trying to sound like Spyro Gyra or somebody. Standing Tall was the last hint we had of the original Texas beat with Stix Hooper and Pops Popwell.
So if the Price of Dope can recapture the sound that was magic, then so be it – it seems to me like the Crusaders abandon that sound a long, long time ago, when I can still remember.
Recommended:
Yes
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deaser26
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...jazz was never meant to be a museum piece, under glass... Miles Davis
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