Back in my college radio days, some local kids with handles like "Uncle Jam" prided themselves on having a "funk" show (whatever that means exactly) and they would play Eumir Deodato's rendition of "Also Sprach Zarathustra" constantly. Back then I just thought it was tacky.
Fast forward about five years or so, during my movie binge years. Thanks to Netflix, I was watching the classics like never before and a big part of that was sweeping through the director-crazy years of the 1970's. When I got to Hal Ashby's brilliant 1979 movie, Being There, I was a little daunted by the running time of 180 minutes. And then came this scene, early in the movie (give it a moment):
And at long last I finally got the whole Deodato thing! Let's hear it for context!
Since I couldn't get the song or the scene out of my head, I gave in and bought the album. When it arrived in, my bookstore colleagues who knew of Deodato warned me that the album is not all like "Also Sprach Zarathustra" and the middle tracks were particularly mellow. They weren't far off in the mark, so it's good advice for anyone thinking they'll hit the funk goldmine through this album. Fans of classical crossover will appreciate that not only was Richard Strauss given the Deodato treatment, but also Claude Debussy gets funkified in "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun". If the middle tracks have no appeal to you, then skip right to the end, to "September 13" which is another very funky track.
Even though this cuts fairly close to rock and pop on the jazz/fusion spectrum, it's fair to call it jazz nonetheless. Billy Cobham is a monster jazz drummer and if you look through the huge list of musicians Deodato assembled, you'll see Ron Carter on electric bass.
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