Gregory James Edition: "Prophets Of Soul"

A painfully brief and brilliant album from this one-off Chicago group.  According to the liner notes, they’d been gigging on the Chicago scene for years with various other bands before this was recorded, and they definitely sound like professionals on these songs, with an underlying penchant for the experimental.  The keyboard sounds are especially otherworldly; Gregory Bibb runs his farfisa, electric piano and acoustic piano through all kinds of bizarre processing so as to puzzle the listener into trying to figure out what kind of instrument it is that they’re actually hearing.  There’s also a million-dollar drum-break, flanged out in post-production, on the track “Changing Things,” as well as tasty, non-derivative covers of “Ain’t No Sunshine” and “Love And Happiness,” alongside righteous, driven originals like “Brother Marcus” and “Grandma Heavy.”  This is such a cool album because, even though the band itself is only a trio, they craft this expansive, psychedelic chamber-soul-jazz that sounds large and impactful while still maintaining the intimacy and tightness of a small-group studio recording.  Find this one.