★★★★★
Fans of live bootlegs are well aware of the quality imbued within those pre-FM broadcast captures of the Ultrasonic Studios concert series for the influential Long Island rock station WLIR. And now, one of the hottest performances to emerge from those storied sessions in Hempstead, N.Y., is seeing a proper commercial release with this scorching two-disc set from the mighty Tower Of Power during their on-air appearance on May 14, 1974...
- www.relix.com
2014-04-08
★★★★★
This chronologically sequenced pack captures San Francisco's long-running R&B aggregation at the apex of their commercial fortunes in the early-to-mid-70s, during an extremely fertile stint at Warner Bros. Bump City was their inaugural release for the Looney Tune label back in 1971: a solid platter of staccato funk and sweet soul ballads fronted by singer Rick Stevens, whose tenure with the band was cut short when he was jailed for murder...
- recordcollectormag.com
2013-04-26
★★★★★
What is hip? Still is and always will be Tower of Power, the horn section that blows smoke and puts you in the hip trip. The group's brand-new CD does that and more. The vocals are hot, with almost everyone in the band taking his turn at singing. New lead singer Tom Bowes puts on a soulful performance; Steve The Funk Doctor and Emilio Castillio got enough funk to make you sweat in an ice cube factory...
- www.offbeat.com
2010-11-02
★★★★★
Track Listing: You Met Your Match; I Thank You; Loveland; It Takes Two; Me & Mrs. Jones; Star Time (Tribute to James Brown Personnel: Emilio Castillo: second tenor sax; Stephen "Doc" Kupka: baritone sax; Francis Rocco Prestia: bass; David Garibaldi: drums; Larry Braggs: lead vocals; Roger Smith: keyboards; Tom E...
- www.allaboutjazz.com
2010-08-20
★★★★★
Reaching into the band's own tape vaults, Tower of Power went back to the nightclub - some dump in Boston - it played a couple of weeks before the band released its classic third album in 1973. Featuring perhaps the finest lineup the band ever fielded, these two discs contain the entire evening's entertainment - the early show on one disc and the late show on the second - superbly brought to the digital domain by the band's influential drummer Dave Garibaldi...
- www.sfgate.com
2009-11-06
★★★★★
No matter whose top forty Lenny Williams makes, this isn't a soul, funk, or r&b band--the arrangements are simply too complex. It's more a stripped-down (no trombones except for guest shots) big band in the era of Doc Severinsen. Compare to any Basie edition and you will hear written charts that sound spontaneous, not to mention estimable soloists and Basie himself. And compare to a more mortal aggregation and you'll still hear riffs somebody could write song around--but not these guys.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-17
★★★★★
San Fran white boys replicate black style, with black singer to assure authentication? Where have we heard this before? I grant that they're really from Oakland, and that the style is a modern if dubious one--brassy Dave Crawford funk. But that doesn't help the songs, or the charts. And it doesn't turn Rick Stevens into Charlie Allen. Or Linda Tillery. Or Sly Stone. Or Freddie Stone.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
What softened me up was the novelty effects on baritone sax, but I've always been a sucker for songs about the energy crisis and "victimless crime" anyway, and they do all right with affairs of the heart for once--even borrow a silly one from Johnny Guitar Watson. Renewed, maybe--urban I assume.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
Come off it, guys. You really lucked out with Lenny Williams and you know it--when he swoops up that way he makes it sound as if Aretha herself ought to cover "This Time It's Real," which isn't likely. So get all those horns out of his face. I know there are five of you, but why not just make fancy with the Pointer Sisters and leave Lenny be? You said it yourselves, or rather, Lenny did: "Sometimes hipness is what it ain't."
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
Loading...
