Ben Sidran: "Puttin' In Time On Planet Earth"

I was wary of the whole idea of this cat for a while—some obscure rock/jazz keyboardist who sang like Mose Allison, used to hang out with Steve Miller, and had records that all the beat diggers wanted to sample.  Were people diggin’ it because it was good, or because it was obscure?  Well, I finally bit the bullet and snagged this one for pretty cheap, and it turned out to be the JAM.  Side 1 is a little more standard, with a jazz singer/laidback swing-type style, although it does open up with the massive fusion rock tune “Full Compass,” painfully brief at 30 seconds.  Yet side 2 of this album is where it’s at, with the dark, tribal groove of “Now I Live (And Now My Life Is Done)” and the funky piano rave-up title cut becoming totally unexpected pleasures, literally coming out of nowhere, and eventually creeping back into the ether from whence they came.  This joint is a bona fide hidden treasure, and it features the session talents of Phil Upchurch, Tony Williams, and even Clyde Stubblefield (!), James Brown’s funky drummer.  ‘Nuff said.