Tidal Waves, in cooperation with Numero Group, have reissued Black Jazz recording artist and talismanic guitarist Calvin Keys’ 1984 album Full Court Press. It is a heavyweight 180g pressing contained within a thick carboard sleeve encased in an obi strip and a resealable plastic sleeve. The small details are always appreciated: top marks for presentation.
Keys is a legend among Jazz and Fusion fans as one of the finest exponents of modern Jazz guitar alongside the likes of George Benson and O’Donnell Levy, an outstanding player who racked up appearances with Ray Charles, Ahmad Jamal, Pharoah Sanders and Joe Henderson. Well regarded too for his myriad session and tour work as a supporting musician, alongside the high-quality catalogue of releases under his own name, Keys managed to carve out a long and fruitful career as a working musician and as a standalone artist, recording two seminal Black Jazz albums, Shawn Neeq and Proceed With Caution, which would cement his station and distinguish his pedigree among collectors and Jazz aficionados. Keys’ playing style is muscular and lean, his unique phrasing and all-encompassing style of guitar playing—both rich in melody and rhythmically dexterous—possesses a genuine depth, an unlikely axeman who lets his instrument do the talking rather than his personality, as is often the way with guitarists. Smooth in places, robust and unrelenting at times, overall displaying a total mastery of his instrument, stringing together lush chord progressions, intricate harmonies and solo sections—often at the same time—dialoguing (or monologuing) with himself in instances. He certainly conducts the music from behind his guitar, almost as though the musicians around him are picking up their cues from his playing, acquiescing to his patterns and modes. Beyond doubt is the fact that Keys is a skilled operator with an excellent taste in notes.
The set starts with You Are All I Need, a unique take on the Dexter Wansel composition featuring a “sparkling” vocal cameo from Ms Maxayne Lewis matched up with a supple duet from Keys on guitar, vocal harmonies imbibing hints of Philadelphia Soul tinged with a lo-fi Gospel aesthetic, a track that sounds both spiritual and funky. Bus Scene is one of the highlights of the album, a gorgeous and laid-back composition, punctuated by rimshot and blanketed with the warm, electric radiance of Fender Rhodes keys, which match up superbly with Keys’ riffing and chord phrasing. A joyous track which peaks into an excitable samba rub—emulating the hustle and bustle of metropolitan travel—featuring an understated keys solo from Lew Matthews as the rhythm section delves into South American modes of playing, all the while underscored by tight, rapid-fire fingerpicking from Keys. Another notable track is Love In Your Eyes, a track that wouldn’t sound too out of place on an Arista GRP release with thudding and popping slap basslines a la Marcus Miller—provided by Wayne Henderson and Bobby Lyle’s number one pick bass guitarist Donny Beck of B&G Rhythm—and a catchy melodic drive, with Keys’ clambering guitar riffs lifting the music all the way up to the air. Nimble, danceable and sonically mature, a vintage Calvin Keys track.
For an album recorded and released in 1984, it has little to no equivalents, nor is it a body of music that seeks to conform to any contemporary musical trend. It’s concepts and melodies ring pure and unadulterated, Keys enlisting an impressive arsenal of weather-beaten, working road dogs and tested session musicians to achieve this end. Keys’ persistent dynamism up and down the fretboard certainly fall well on modern ears, a highly recommended—albeit rather unusual—slab of Jazz Fusion and one of our top picks for RSD 22′.
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Check out the tracks HERE
