Deodato 2 (CTI 6029) (1973)

Eumir Deodato gets his fair share of kudos (“All-time classic funk jazz masterpiece…no home should be without this album!” according to the fine people at Sounds of the Universe) and opprobrium (Rolling Stone called his work “striding, chichi elevator music”). Guess what? They’re both right. Bearing no trace of his Brazilian roots, the Creed Taylor-produced Deodato 2‘s lengthy broiling rhythms are regularly broken up by horn blasts of light melody, all intricately played with the speed and indulgence of a prog rocker. “Super Strut” hits this mark most satisfyingly, while Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue” is not the blaspheme it appears on paper. Guitarist John Tropea is given especially free reign.

As if the inclusion of “Nights In White Satin” wasn’t enough of a signifier of jazz’s pop audience courtship, the note offering a “same-size reproduction of the cover [of that hunky Deodato], without type, is available for $1.50” from Creed Taylor is. It’s like a freakin’ Bobby Goldsboro album!

I got this (and the ARS record) at two different Ohio Thrift Store shops at opposite ends of Columbus when I spent a long laugh-filled afternoon last week driving around with good friends Jovan and Phillip. We must have hit about 5 stores. While these two Lps represent the sum total of the haul that day, it was, of course, time very well spent.