Curtis Mayfield – Super Fly [1972; Buddah Records, Curtom]

With the soundtrack to Super Fly, Curtis Mayfield and his band direct their soul music with uncommon focus, telling a story that diverges at points from that of the film (e.g., the amount of care given to Freddie, of “Freddie’s Dead”). Riding along with unhurried pacing, the music hits a persistently impressive balance between busy action and cool relaxation, both in the energy of the songs and the work from the performers. Mayfield’s vocals are at once sorrowful and teasing, and the few instrumental pieces step up to fill the absence of his singing with fervency, keeping the album’s flow going steady. Despite the generally calm presentation, there’s a lot to dig into over the course of the nine songs, with the most chorus-driven ones seeded carefully through the run to maximize memorability.

Here’s the alternate cover art.

And the cover art from a German reissue.

Weather Report – I Sing the Body Electric [1972; CBS, CBS/Sony, Columbia]

On their second studio album (though the entire second half is pulled from a concert in Japan), Weather Report play a flexible amalgam of jazz styles, moving from passages of bop to smooth interludes, cool counter-points, and splashes of world and folk, verging on free jazz at times, but keeping it firmly grounded with clear melodies throughout the runs. Embellishments come in the form of tone play, mutable fills, and stuttered reprises, and while the assortment of instruments regularly run off into protracted tangents, the performers do an impressive job of keeping the music just on the edge of splintering into dissonance before they bring it back under control.

The live material of the album’s B-side gets considerably more lively than the studio renditions, and shows a side of the band with humor and joy to their playing. Though the audience is largely silent, there’s a clear sense of the band trying not just to perform for them, but to be somewhat provocative, no small feat in jazz when Ornette Coleman and Sun Ra had already put out most of their landmark releases. But the band comes off very well, and their balancing of the intense portions with laid-back grooves is handled with fine form. A well-rounded album, and while the turns at a given style may only come in pieces, there’s quite a bit here to appreciate for any type of jazz fan outside of Dixieland.

Les McCann – Talk to the People [1972; Atlantic]

Merging funky jazz with heart-felt soul, the songs of this album split their time between letting Les McCann lead with his powerfully emotive vocals, and letting the band take over for some high-style (and higher energy) instrumental pieces. In the vocal tracks, the band provides a gentle atmosphere, showing its members’ strengths through soft inflections, tonal control, and atmospheric richness, while those same qualities are brought out in higher levels, and with more playfulness, for the instrumental works. The album ends up feeling more like a collection of studio cuts than something put together around a few core ideas, but it’s still some strong work and beautiful playing, and the soft flow of the music blurs the separation of the songs to help it hold together more than firmer direction would have.

Oregon – Music of Another Present Era [1972; Vanguard]

On their first album, the fusion jazz group Oregon keeps things gentle, with the assorted strings, percussion, and wind instruments winding through a range of world music styles. Largely absent of vocals, the compositions manage their sizable ensembles well, and the passing-off of melodies and beat-lines through the group is done with disarming deftness. The songs also move fairly quickly for their style, averaging about three minutes and change for the fourteen tracks, aided by the focused song-writing to keep the music free of repetitive bloat. While none of the tracks lend themselves to humming, the hooks do have a tendency to lie in memory and unexpectedly resurface. A nice debut, if a bit light in its form, with an impressive base of technique laid for further expansion.

Here’s the cover art used on some reissues.