The Mark Lewis Trio – Funky Street
The Mark Lewis Trio
Listen/Download – The Mark Lewis Trio – Funky Street MP3
Greetings all.
Here’s a wild one for you.
As an inveterate digger/collector, with big ears (literally and figuratively) and an insatiable curiosity, I’m always picking up weird stuff in the hope that I might have happened upon hiden treasure.
Unfortunately, most of the time, it’s not treasure, but garbage.
However, once in a blue moon, I turn up something groovy, like today’s selection.
I’ve had this record for so long, that I can’t remember exactly where I picked it up, other than it was out “in the wild” somewhere, and that it was cheap.
Back in the day – moreso in the 60s/70s than now – the hotel lounges of the world were staffed with entertainment, ranging from solo piano/singers (like my Pop, way back when) all the way up to full sized show bands, with horn sections, back up singers and the whole megillah.
The Mark Lewis Trio appear to have fallen somewhere in the middle, with an organ/sax/drums/vocals line up, playing a wide variety of pop/soul material.
As these kinds of records go, the song selection is fairly hip/young, though the delivery is decidedly middle of the road, except – of course – for their version of Arthur Conley’s 1968 ‘Funky Street’.
Now, looking at the picture of the group from the album cover, you’d never expect to hear anything remotely soulful (or even energetic) yet against all odds, the Mark Lewis Trio delivers.
The overall effect is somewhere in the neighborhood of “soulful garage band”, but they hit the tune with gusto, and the sax/organ/drums interplay is pretty tasty.
It’s not the heaviest thing ever, but when you take the look of the group, and the rest of the album, and do the math, it’s a lot cooler than you’d expect.
I hope you dig it, and I’ll be back on Friday.
Keep the faith
Larry
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Themocracy