Search - Pointer Sisters :: Steppin

Real BUMPIN' production !

Eddie Landsberg | Tokyo, Japan | 12/09/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This tightly produced album is the perfect mix of mid 70's Stevie Wonder style "contemporary Jazz/Soul" and Toussaint's trademark Crescent City pop R&B/funk (think LaBelle) and plenty of other slick/Jazzy and bumpin' influences (something sometimes called "Free Soul" here in Japan.) - - Betcha Got A Man, in fact was a grammy winner, and Going Down Easy was featured in the iconic urban/disco/party film "Car Wash"... These tracks are what you'd call "sanctified" as well as "Rufus + Chaka" slick - - in fact, Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Paul Jackson and Bill Summers among a few of the guests, even though the Pointer Sisters house band is more the adequate. -- Herbie fans in particular will particularly dig the Funky Headhunters meets disco like "Chainey Do" (post Bush era, maybe it should have been called Cheyney don't? - - oh well!) - - Though its Herbie's only appearance on the album, it has a "Tower of Power" meets "Soul Samba" ala Herbie type groove and intensity and builds to one of the trippiest "rhythm breaks" if not in the world, that YOU ever heard on a Pointer's Sisters album... (*dig the last 4 or so notes!)



The only reason I don't give it * * * * * is because as a hard core Jazz fan, the Jazz tunes (which include a Duke Ellington Medley and Save The Bones for Henry Jones) don't work for me... arrangements remind me of some PBS Great Performances/NFL Football half time game "tribute to..." type thing. On the other hand, a reviewer points out that their first two albums did go in an "Andrew Sisters" type direction, so maybe its not that the tracks themselves aren't good, but "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" type pop/swing doesn't quite mix with the raw edged funk... Whatever... this album BUMPS. Its been a mainstay in my collection for years and I hope you'll dig it too !"