The Edge
Label: Capitol Jazz
Rated: NONE
WorkNameSort: Edge, The
The effect that David Axelrod had on jazz was profound and not entirely excellent. His solo material and production work at Capitol during the late ’60s and early ’70s for the likes of Lou Rawls and Cannonball Adderley was marked by luscious arrangements, limpid Afrocentricity and atmospheric soulfulness. And though jazz was, at the time, undergoing explosive changes, abandoning the straightforward forms of bebop and swing for the more adventurous sounds pioneered by John Coltrane and Miles Davis, Axelrod’s diaphanous funk took the thumping menace of Miles’ electric fusion in an elegant and utterly unthreatening direction. This compilation of 17 tracks (mostly Axelrod solo cuts) demonstrates why his work has been so prized by hip-hop producers – clear and pronounced rhythms and otherworldly sounds – but, sadly, when taken up by commercial-minded fuzak players during the ’70s, this urgent psychedelic beauty soon turned into nothing more than background music for Riunite commercials. Let’s hope that’s a fate that will be remedied by this excellent set.
This article appears in Aug 17-23, 2005.