San Francisco Treats (Part II)

Rotary Connection

For Wednesday, I am featuring three more albums that I purchased over this past weekend.  

1.  Rotary Connection Rotary Connection--Very interesting stuff by Rotary Connection.  At times psychedelic, soulful, with loads of strings, the album can be both brilliant and maddening at the same time.  Featuring Minnie Riperton, future soul great, Rotary Connection was released in 1967, and should be considered one of many essential releases from that time period. 

2.  David Axelrod David Axelrod Chronicles.  A compilation that includes the entirely of his 1974 release Heavy Axe, along with some tracks tacked onto the end from some of his production work.  I'm a big Axelrod fun, mainly from the period of Songs of Experience and Songs of Innocence, and this is the first time I really took a listen to the tracks off of Heavy Axe.  Funky stuff, and great production, as only Axelrod could do!

3.  Curtis Mayfield Back to the World.  Can't believe I finally picked this up, as it's been on my list for over a year, but it's so hard to find.  Recorded after Superfly, his 1974 release Back to the World is a wonderful listen.  It has that Mayfield soul and funk, but also I can sense a underlying influence of Bob Marley somehow, in both the structure of the songs and the lyrical content as well.