BN-LA-098-G

Ronnie Foster - Sweet Revival

Released - 1973

Recording and Session Information

Generation Sound Studios, NYC, December 14 & 15, 1972
Garnett Brown, trombone; Seldon Powell, tenor sax; Ronnie Foster, organ; Ernie Hayes, electric piano; David Spinozza, John Tropea, electric guitar; Wilbur Bascomb Jr., electric bass; Bernard Purdie, drums; unknown, percussion; unidentified horns, strings and female vocal group, Horace Ott, arranger, conductor.

11433 Sweet Revival
11434 (tk.9) Lisa's Love
11435 Backstabber
11436 It's Just Gotta Be This Way
11437 (tk.1) Alone Again (Naturally)
11438 Where Is The Love
11439 Me And Mrs. Jones
11440 (tk.10) Some Neck
11441 Superwoman
11900 (tk.1) Inot (as Enot)

Track Listing

Side One
Title	Author	Recording Date
Sweet Revival	Joe Sample	December 14, 15 1972
Lisa's Love	Ronnie Foster	December 14, 15 1972
Back Stabbers	Leon Huff, Gene McFadden, John Whitehead	December 14, 15 1972
Me and Mrs. Jones	Kenny Gamble, Cary Gilbert, Huff	December 14, 15 1972
Alone Again (Naturally)	Gilbert O'Sullivan	December 14, 15 1972
Side Two
Where Is the Love	Ralph MacDonald, William Salter	December 14, 15 1972
Some Neck	Ronnie Foster	December 14, 15 1972
It's Just Gotta Be That Way	Wayne Henderson	December 14, 15 1972
Superwoman	Stevie Wonder	December 14, 15 1972
Inot	Ronnie Foster	December 14, 15 1972

Liner Notes

Let me begin by saying that this is not greatest Jazz album you've ever heard. I couldn't write words that would convince you that you've heard something that isn't on this record as so many writers try to do. But let me point out that in purchasing this album I don't believe that you have made a mistake. While this is commercial album that could have just as easily been titled "Ronnie Foster plays the Top-40 " hits of the Seventies with Horns, Strings end Voices," even Jimmy Smith has done essentially the same thing. This album represents the second chapter in the unfolding career of a very promising young player. Ten years from now, when he is a genuine star, his early albums will be in great demand and your friends, who passed this one up, will be sorry.

Let us now go back to the beginning. Ronnie Foster was born May 13, 1950 in Buffalo, New York. He was first exposed to the piano and while he learned to play the Classics, he didn't play "classicly." When he went to his first jam session as a teen-ager he was promised there would be both a piano and on organ. The piano turned out to be figment of the imagination. "It took them half an hour to get me up there, then they couldn't get me off." an organists. Ronnie listened to Jimmy Smith at first, but it was only after hearing Larry Young that the possibilities the organ presents became apparent to him.

Another Buffalo organist, Joe Madison helped him out ("Joe has a distinctive sound but it hasn't happened for him yet"). Later Ronnie would rent a studio with an organ for sixty cents an hour until he became such a fixture there that sometimes he wouldn't get charged.

Ronnie has already worked with Grant Green, Stanley Turrentine, George Benson, Young-Holt Unlimited and Billy Wooten. He leads his own group "Energy II" and be appearing at the Montreaux Jazz Festival this year. He came to the of attention of Blue Note impresario Dr. George Butler, through his work on Grant Green's album "Alive" Blue Note BST 84360). Ronnie's first album "Two Headed Freap BST 84382) was a delightful oasis of Funk-soul Organ albums that glut the market almost daily.

The sidemen on this date include Bernard Purdie on drums. The "L'il old hitmaker," whose career ranges from a number of "top-40" hits to Leon Thomas recordings seems to be on just about every third album to out of New York. David Spinoza, one of two guitarists on the album, has graced recordings ranging from the Johnny Hodges, Leon Thomas, Oliver Nelson collaboration to recent Buddy Rich albums. The other guitarist is John Tropea who first came to my attention as the soloist on Eumir Deodato's "Prelude," the LP that spawned the smash "Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001)." Wilbur Bascomb Jr, heard here on Fender Bass was most recently heard on the album by Alphonse Mouzon (Blue Note BN-LA-059-F). It would be hard to top this group in any way and to avoid falling into the usual cliches about how cohesive they sound, I'll move on.

The title tune, "Sweet Revival" a composition of Joe Sample of The Crusaders. Joe, in recent years, has emerged as one of the finest composers in Jazz. The tune was first recorded by the Crusaders but the Trombone solo here is by Garnett Brown and the Tenor Sax is Seldon Powell. "Lisa's Love," "Some Neck" and "Inot," (pronounced "E-not") all show Ronnie Foster as a composer, while showing three different sides of the man as a player. The conception and execution of these tunes seems to coma from a mind that much further advanced than the 22 years it had developed at the time of this recording.

In the future there be more from this fertile mind. He is buying a Synthesizer and additionally has an idea in the back of his head to try something with two organists. "I'd love to hear McCoy Tyner on an organ sometime." Between his first album, his playing here and the myriad of ideas in his head, Ronnie Foster can't help but become the organist that all other organists will be listening to in the future; thus making your investment in "Sweet Revival..." long term, but very wise one.

serenity.
Harry Abraham
WHAM Rochester NY
Editor-DIFFERENT DRUMMER