Black Throated Green Warbler

Shaft is an album led by jazz drummer Bernard Purdie which was recorded for the Prestige label in 1971.^[1][2]

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[3]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[4]

Stewart Mason of Allmusic states, "these limp retreads, apparently aimed at a middle-of-the-road audience that was reaching for hipness but didn't want to be confronted with anything too out there, are utterly unnecessary. There are a handful of good tunes here; although it's unclear what the genial funk groove "Attica" has to do with the 1971 prison riot of the same name, it's got some hot tenor sax solos and a rollicking electric piano solo by composer Neal Creque. Similarly, the mellow and soulful "Summer Melody" has some exquisite electric piano and trumpet over its gentle conga-led groove. An album' s worth of variations on these two themes would have been a minor soul-jazz classic, but unfortunately, Bernard Purdie's overreaching ends up giving him the, um, Shaft".^[3]

Track listing

1. "Shaft" (Isaac Hayes) - 5:52
2. "Way Back Home" (Wilton Felder) - 5:30
3. "Attica" (Neal Creque) - 4:12
4. "Changes" (Buddy Miles) - 4:52
5. "Summer Melody" (Harold Ousley) - 6:35
6. "Butterfingers" (Willie Bridges) - 4:12

Personnel

• Bernard Purdie - drums
• Danny Moore, Gerry Thomas - trumpet
• Willie Bridges, Charlie Brown, Houston Person - tenor saxophone
• Neal Creque - electric piano
• Billy Nichols, Lloyd Davis - guitar
• Gordon Edwards - electric bass
• Norman Pride - congas

Production

• Bob Porter - producer
• Rudy Van Gelder - engineer

Sample use

• "Changes" has been sampled in "Block Rockin' Beats" by The Chemical Brothers, from their 1997 album Dig Your Own Hole,^[5] and in "Chiron" by Four Tet, from his first album Dialogue (1999).^[6]

References