This album is just weird. The cover design and text make it seem like this was never intended to be a mass-marketed product—the low-budget vibe is extremely obvious. Yet the band here features some serious contenders, and really, each of these musicians deserves a bit of a back-story, so here goes…
a) Reggie Lucas on guitar. Lucas’ first foray into the spotlight was in the early to mid-‘70’s, as a rhythm guitarist in the funkiest incarnation of the Miles Davis band. Around this same time, he began getting involved in session work, performing on some important dates with Norman Connors, Carlos Garnett, Gary Bartz and others, finally releasing an obscure solo record in ’76. Shortly thereafter, Lucas began to significantly commercialize his sound, which led to his participation in late ‘70’s disco-funk albums like “Sharing.” His commercial tendencies would eventually take him even further, and make him a much wealthier man, when he produced and co-wrote for Madonna during her initial pop breakthrough.
b) Mtume on percussion. Mtume was also a member of the Miles Davis band with Lucas, a role he held while simultaneously recording Afro-centric jazz classics like “Land of the Blacks” and “Rebirth Cycle.” Mtume rolled deep with Reggie Lucas and Norman Connors as well, and each of these artists’ sounds grew more accessible as the rhythmic trends of the decade shifted. Mtume strayed far indeed from his initial afro-percussion roots, recording ‘80’s hits like “Juicy Fruit” in a style more informed by Prince than anything from the world of jazz.
c) Hubert Eaves (III, on some album credits) on keyboards. Hubert Eaves rounds out the Lucas-Mtume connection with Norman Connors et al, having contributed to most of the same projects as part of a rotating band that almost always had Mtume, Lucas and Eaves at its center. Eaves recorded one super-rare solo record titled “Esoteric Funk,” and for anybody out there who knows where to locate a copy, gimme a shout, for real. Eaves went on to become a central force in ‘80’s electro-funk group D Train, with Hubert laying down some tasty keys and productions for vocalist James “D Train” Williams. The duo achieved a relative amount of popular success for being a fairly low-budget affair, and the D Train albums are all well worth checking out for fans of the funk. Don’t sleep on dis shit!
d) Harry Whitaker on keyboards. And…we reach the end of my OCD analysis of some of the musicians involved in the Vitamin E project. Harry Whitaker occupies a more underground sort of space than anyone else featured on this record, with his biggest claim to fame being the Roy Ayers/hip-hop sample classic “We Live In Brooklyn, Baby,” which he wrote. Whitaker was also the mastermind behind the rarer-than-rare “Black Renaissance” album, which showcased the playing of obscure jazz visionaries like Woody Shaw, Azar Lawrence, Buster Williams and Whitaker himself.
…finally, back to Vitamin E. Tangential? Yes. Necessary? Also yes. As far as the “Sharing” album goes, everyone involved acquits themselves well here, including the vocalists (pictured on the back cover with their faces inside a pill bottle…Vitamin E…get it?...heh…). The record starts off a bit slowly, but when it lurches into full gear with uptempo floor-fillers like “Back Here Again” and “Kiss Away,” it reaches the pinnacle of its evolutionary state. Reggie Lucas rips out a filthy, screeching guitar solo towards the end of “Kiss Away,” letting the listener know that these cats weren’t messing around. Who knows why it works…the bizarre funk-soul one-off that somehow deserved more attention than it likely got in its own time, now listened to over 30 years later and illuminating a distant future.
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