This remastered two-fer combines guitarist
Mel Brown's second Impulse release from 1968, The Wizard, with
Blues for We released the following year. The Wizard is a straight-ahead soul-jazz date picking up where
Chicken Fat left off with a few originals alongside funky renditions of “Ode to Billie Joe” and
Pee Wee Crayton’s R&B hit of the late '40s “Blues After Hours.”
Blues for We relies more on an interesting selection of cover versions ranging from “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” and “Son of a Preacher Man” to the bubblegum staple by
the 1910 Fruitgum Company “Indian Giver” and
Acker Bilk’s “Stranger on the Shore,” which was the theme of a BBC television drama.
Brown’s guitar work on both sessions is fluid and greasy, as are the funky drum licks, but occasionally, the arrangements drift into superior background music. New liner notes are absent, but the original packaging -- front and back cover art and liner notes -- remain intact. ~ Al Campbell