Hubert Eaves: "Esoteric Funk"

Well well well.  Probably the record from this post that’s been on my want-list the longest, and a nearly impossible one to find, as it was originally released only in Japan, and after that only in very small numbers in the U.S.  I’ve talked about Hubert Eaves in previous posts, and if you’re any kind of ‘70’s funk and soul aficionado you know who he is anyway, so I needn’t get into his credentials.  Let’s just say this album knows what it’s doing, and with sidemen like Reggie Lucas, Howard King and Mtume, you can’t really go wrong anyway.  Eaves, however, is the unquestionable leader of this situation, utilizing a barrage of keyboards on each track, yet sounding more subtle than a lot of the overblown synth-wankers of the mid- to late-‘70’s.  Tracks like “Painfull Pleasure” and “Flead Dancing” are fusion-y but club-friendly; you could play this shit for jazz heads and they’d dig it, but you could also mix it into a DJ set and people would be dancin’ in no time.  The other cuts on this set are of a more contemplative nature, the kind of spacious electric jazz that is practically designed for lazy afternoon introspection and meditation.  This LP is to my knowledge the only solo record released under Eaves’ name in his ‘70’s jazz-funk prime, and so to fans of his work with Gary Bartz, or even his later electro-boogie-funk productions for D-Train, this is worth investigating.