Blaxploitation: Volume Two - The Sequel

It is probably true that the excellent first volume of this four-volume series hoovered up most of the main contenders to be the neighbourhood's main pusherman - such as Shaft, Superfly, Woman Of The Ghetto, Home Is Where The Hatred Is etc, this follow-up was more on the funky soul side than the gritty soundtrack one. While that is not a totally correct statement to make, it certainly holds a bit of water. There is less of the dealer and more of the soul deliverer at play here. 

Let's look at the material on offer - in the funky soul corner comes The Temptations with their twelve minute plus epic Papa Was A Rolling Stone, Isaac Hayes' lengthy almost rock freakout Do Your Thing, Bill Withers' Use Me, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes' ecologically aware and conscious Wake Up Everybody, Quincy Jones' funky interpretation of Stevie Wonder's Superstition and Curtis Mayfield's Little Child Running Wild.

Coming from a jazzy perspective was the glorious saxophone of Maceo Parker's Children's World, Herbie Hancock's elongated jazz fusion on Chameleon, Joe Quarterman & Free Soul's addictive So Much Trouble In The World, more great sax with Gary Bartz NTU Troop's Celestial World and Grover Washington's sublime interpretation of The Temptations' Masterpiece.

From the down 'n' dirty urban funk side of town we have Grover Washington Jr.'s version of Marvin Gaye's Trouble Man, James Brown's The Boss (where he tells us of the cost he has paid to be the boss), Curtis Mayfield's Freddie's Dead, Leroy Hutson's The Ghetto '74, From A Whisper To A Scream by Esther Phillips, Marlena Shaw's fabulously funky Liberation Conversation and 24 Carat Black by the group of the same name. 

From the dancefloors of the time we are blessed with War's Low Rider and Marvin Gaye's totally infectious groover Got To Give It Up. Try keeping still to that one. 

Defying such categorisation is Sly & The Family Stone's short but completely lush Family Affair. 

While this is not as obviously Blax as some of its predecessor, it shares with that album a considerable variety and indeed, it still sweats and drips with the earthy feel of the early-mid seventies in urban USA from its every pore. 

Highly recommended. I can't get enough of it. Or any of the CDs in this series, for that matter. Incidentally, they don't appear to be available via streaming services so the only way of getting them is via second hand CDs (often prohibitively expensive) or else cherry picking the tracks via your chosen streaming service and making a playlist.