Neal Creque: "Contrast!"

I was saving the biggest find of the past few weeks for last.  This is the only one of these that I had to shell out a little bit of extra cash for, but it was still well within my price range, and this is not an album you come across too often.  Released on the tiny Cobblestone subsidiary of the Buddah label, this is an exquisite “re-discovery” (what up Wax Poetics?).  Neal Creque was a soul-jazz luminary of the late ‘60’s and ‘70’s, recording extensively with Grant Green, and writing and arranging many of Cuban conguero Mongo Santamaria’s funkiest efforts.  This album of his is all over the map stylistically, from solo piano tunes to Latin-funk fusion, and it encapsulates a number of varied moods within its relatively short playing time.  Not easy to acquire, but if it were, it wouldn’t be nearly as delectable, now would it?