Les McCann – Vibrations Funkin' Around With Something Old, Something New – Pony Canyon PCCY-30068

This is Les’ fourth album since his first stroke in 1995, and the first since then with his own band. Amazingly, it’s one of his best ever. He’s now using some kind of keyboard, the sustain powers of which mean that his slower fingering doesn’t sound awkward. As ever, his character shines through everything he does. There’s a lot of his old material in this: “Compared to What” - as relevant as in 1966; the President’s still got his war. But there is new stuff. “Passion World”, a Wayne Shorter tune with words by Gene McDaniels (who wrote “Compared to what”) is very interesting, as is “It’s you” a song Les wrote with Jon Hendricks.

The band is wonderful, particularly Keith Anderson, a young Turrentine-influenced tenor player, who has been with Les since 1991. Donald Dean, and Stan Gilbert who first worked with Les in the sixties, swing as hard as ever.

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US$30 – deletion date 3 March 2005 - AM