Eddie Brigati
and
Gene Cornish
both left
the Rascals
by 1971. The remaining members -- chief songwriter, vocalist, and keyboardist
Felix Cavaliere
and drummer
Dino Danelli
-- kept the name and left
Atco
for
Columbia
. Before disbanding permanently in 1972, they released two albums for the label -- 1971's
Peaceful World
and 1972's
The Island of Real
-- that have been unjustifiably discounted and forgotten for years. In 2008 Great Britain's terrific reissue outfit
BGO
placed these discs together in a double-CD package (
was a double album). What's remarkable about both these recordings is how far ahead of their time they were.
Cavaliere
had become deeply interested in the writings and teachings of the great Sufi master musician
Hazrat Inayat Khan
, who -- through his own tradition -- looked at music holistically, as an integral part of earthly and spiritual life. He also came under the sway of the emerging sounds of
jazz
,
gospel
, and the emerging uptown
funk
soul
of the period.
is a sprawling yet very focused collection of songs. With
Danelli
on drums and
Ralph MacDonald
on percussion, he filled out the rest of the band with the cream of the New York studio scene: saxophonists
Joe Farrell
Pepper Adams
, and
Ernie Wilkins
; bassists
Gerald Jemmott
Chuck Rainey
; guitarists
Link Chamberlain
Buzz Feiten
; trumpeters
Ernie Royal
Joe Newman
; trombonist
Garnett Brown
; flutist
Hubert Laws
; and backing vocalists
Ann Sutton
Cynthia Webb
. In other words, he put together a smoking studio band. The remarkable aspect of this gorgeous record is that it sounds vintage but not dated. The production is clean, the funk is in the cut, and the communication between musicians in the charts is tight. The LP's last side is taken up by the title cut, a 21-minute complete bliss-out of a spiritual jazz jam. But there are some excellent gospel and sophisticated soul tunes as well -- check out
"Mother Nature Land,"
"Bit of Heaven,"
the funky Rhodes in
"Sky Trane,"
and the rave-up soul-rocker
"Love Letter."
The ballad
"Little Dove"
includes stunning harp work by
Alice Coltrane
!
was released just before the band split.
brought back many of the same players, though the core was himself,
Feiten
, with the great
Robert Popwell
on bass. This is a less overtly ambitious offering, but its sunny optimism, warm vibes, and reliance on the emerging urban spiritual soul coming from Los Angeles, the rhythmic toughness of Chicago, and stretched vocal harmonies from Philadelphia make it a quiet stunner. Some of
's best songs are here, including the opener,
"Lucky Day,"
which reprises
' earlier blue-eyed soul sound -- albeit with a Fender Rhodes instead of a B-3. The ARP synthesizer makes an appearance on the rocker
"Saga of New York,"
with a killer soprano solo by
Farrell
and great guitar work by
. Side two opens with the uptempo soul jam
"The Hummin' Song"
and contains a great alto solo by
David Sanborn
with support by
the Woodstock Horns
. The title track is a feel-good Caribbean-cum-funk number that fuses a gospel chorus on the melody with terrific backing vocals by
Molly Holt
Sutton
, with a killer flute solo by
Laws
and conga break by
MacDonald
. There is also a tough, driving, gospel-oriented funk duet with
on
"Time Will Tell."
Ultimately, if two albums ever deserved reconsideration, it's these. Commercially, the end may not have been pretty for
, but these albums hold together as well or better than anything in their catalog and vindicate them with their timeless appeal. ~ Thom Jurek