Grover Washington, Jr. (tenor sax) and
Bernard Purdie (drums) are the key accompanists on a set of pretty funky early-'70s soul-jazz. The covers of fairly straight pop numbers ("Georgia on My Mind,"
the Jackson 5's "I'll Be There") are kind of undistinguished. Better are the originals "No Way" and "Holdin' Back" (by
Jones) and "Sunshine Alley" (by organist
Butch Cornell), which have a more convincing groove. "No Way" is the toughest, with funk guitar lines betraying some influence from
James Brown; "Holdin' Back" sounds a bit like a jazzy instrumental treatment of the kind of songs
Marvin Gaye used to record in his early Motown days. This has been combined with his subsequent album, 1971's What It Is, on the single-disc CD reissue
Legends of Acid Jazz: Boogaloo Joe Jones, Vol. 2. ~ Richie Unterberger