Search - Eugene Mcdaniels :: Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse

A solid mind trip !

Eddie Landsberg | Tokyo, Japan | 07/04/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I first became familiar with this album when a cut called LOVIN' MAN appeared on one of my favorite funky/jazz soul compilations, the FREE SOUL series from here in Japan. The track reminded me a lot of something like Gil Scott Heron might have done with a bit of LES McCANN and Oscar Brown Jr. thrown in... Jazzy, a bit funky, and yes... hiply subversive...
Mixing message with some purdy darn funky tracks, it was produced by Joel Dorn and the first name that comes to mind when reading the liner notes is Alphonse Mouzon who set the standard for Jazz/Soul "crossover" groove music... Harry Whitaker's groovy Rhodes playing ain't nothing to sneeze at either... in fact the entire ensemble is right on the money - - yet with all that great music, its McDaniel's wild lyric writing done in a cool (at times almost Bob Dylanesque manner) that makes this session a highly under-rated masterpiece... - - HEADLESS HEROES has everything you'd expect of a funky Jazz crossover album of its type - - yet goes a step beyond what you'd expect... yes, it is tight, fresh and incredibly original... the production quality and music go hand in hand... at the same time, you never know exactly where each tune is going to take, but once you let go, you always wind up in a wonderful place... This is "acid Jazz" long before the term was invented... though its hard to pinpoint the genre of this album (early '70s Jazz/Funk crossover ?), the best way to put it is like this.... its too darn good ! ! ! (Incidentally, I really dig Gary King's bass playing on The Parasite !)"

Funk masterpiece!

Nikolaus Dolp | Austria | 11/25/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is an amazing piece of music. If you haven't heard that, you haven't heard one of the funkiest, dirtiest and orginal music. Recorded in the early 70s, it has a great note of social criticism.

The musicians recorded here are amazing, the backbone of the extreme funk in here comes from drum wizard Alphonse Mouzon, who was just 23 years old when doing this recording. It may be one the best funk drumming recordings of all time.

"Headless Heroes of the Apovalypse" is a masterpiece and it's highly underrated.

You need to get it!"

Original acid jazz

Narizdura La Carretera | El Lay, USA | 07/01/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Have to agree with the cat who wrote " This is "acid Jazz" long before the term was invented", this along with a ton of others from this era including Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, etc.To the other cat who said Eugene's not as edgy as he used to be, in reference to this album, hey dude it came out in 1971. It's a reissue. Where you been?Alphonse Mouzon was one funky drummer, I wonder what happened to him?"