Steve Cropper, One Good Turn ****

''Something to dream on'' Saturday morning listen, best time of the week: Here's the Colonel, guitar deity Steve Cropper – you've heard him on 'Green Onions,' 'Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay' and 'Soul Man' – on 'One Good Turn' from new album Fire …

Published: 24 Apr 2021. Updated: 3 years.

''Something to dream on'' Saturday morning listen, best time of the week: Here's the Colonel, guitar deity Steve Cropper – you've heard him on 'Green Onions,' 'Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay' and 'Soul Man' – on 'One Good Turn' from new album Fire It Up. The vast majority of the tracks stand up to the ultimate test (forget chin-stroking scrutiny although there's time for that): frequent, sustained, play. Put it this way you could be frittering away precious time needlessly if you don't beat a trail directly to this horns and Hammond-soaked source. Beefy vocals are by Roger C Reale. Nioshi Jackson is on drums, among the personnel. You'll be listening for the genius Cropper guitar sound, the breaks, and digging the riffing horns, these touches that magnify to mean more than any of us will ever begin to know.

Out on Mascot/Provogue

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Alfa Mist, Bring Backs *****

There have been at least four 5-star jazz albums this year (eg Promises, Deepening the River, Hanamichi, All Knavery and Collusion). That's unusual. Bring Backs makes it five. Overall the shape of the album feels varied and there are multiple …

Published: 24 Apr 2021. Updated: 3 years.

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There have been at least four 5-star jazz albums this year (eg Promises, Deepening the River, Hanamichi, All Knavery and Collusion). That's unusual. Bring Backs makes it five. Overall the shape of the album feels varied and there are multiple points of entry and tracks hang together within a universe that Alfa Mist has created. There is a lot more to Bring Backs than On My Ones. OK, plus points: the guitar elements on 'Teki'; the actual recorded sound of the album is a creation in itself and suits the ''internet sound'' age of the past decade better than most; Kaya Thomas-Dyke's vocal on 'People' is excellent; the overt nod to London on 'Mind the Gap' and Barking in particular plus the way grime is fed unglossily in via rapper Lex Amor is unforced and not overdone; 'Run Outs' grows on you through its melancholia; really from this point on Alfa Mist comes into his own usually in a Rhodesy space; then there is the poetry and sadness of 'Last Card (Bumper Cars)'; 'Coasting' is good for its more in-the-pocket jazz club feel; the chamber approach of 'Once a Year' and then the vibey social realism of 'Organic Rust' are other factors worth lingering long over. On Anti-