The Jimmy Castor Bunch – Space Age / Dracula Pt. II [1975; Atlantic]

Bubbly synth and spangly guitar mark the A-side of this single, with Jimmy Castor singing about possibilities of the future. Some firm grooves and rhythmic twists join well with the goofy nature of the lyrics, with the whole thing lighting on an upbeat vibe. The B-side plays up a creepy bass riff, with electric organ backing, while the synth brings some tingling garnishes between the funkier vocalized sections. Quite a fun pair, with more work put into developing the atmospheres than might be expected for such short songs.

The Jackson 5 – Dancing Machine / Get It Together [1975; Motown]

Pulling both of its songs from the band’s 1973 album Get It Together, this single opens with that LP’s closing track, “Dancing Machine”, a finely-crafted piece of disco funk. Pumping along on a firm percussion line, augmented with horns and bass, the group’s vocals sweep and slide, though the single version is unfortunately about a minute shorter than the LP cut. The album’s opening title track is pushed to the B-side, but while it doesn’t hit the same highs of energy, it still turns out a solid groove, with the instruments upstaging the singers. Quite a nice slice from the era.

Carmen McRae & The Kenny-Clarke Francy Boland Big Band – November Girl [1975; Black Lion Records]

One in a string of Carmen McCrae’s collaborations, this album joins the soulful jazz singer with one of the numerous incarnations of the big band headed by pianist Francy Boland and drummer Kenny Clarke, giving the joint sessions successful operations in moods of joy, sorrow, and mixtures of the two. Despite the size of the big band (sixteen members in all, with five on saxophones alone), the songs are kept neat and precise in their performance, with practically no improvisational tangents to be heard, and exacting deployment of supporting or underscoring lines.

The album’s stand-out track may be “Dear Death”, which finds McRae imploring death to take her to join her departed lover, with the wind instruments wrapping carefully around her longing delivery. However, all of the songs are high quality in both structuring and emoting, though a couple are so short as to seem almost out of place. Fine jazz and a great combo, but unfortunately, the eight songs together add up to less than half an hour’s worth of material.

Here’s the cover art used for the Italian reissue.