Melvin Van Peebles' Don't Play Us Cheap was originally intended as his follow-up film to Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. Although that film was completed, it could not find a distributor, and
Van Peebles ended up staging it on Broadway. This is the original cast recording of that production, the music entirely composed by
Van Peebles himself. A much more lighthearted endeavor than
Sweet Sweetback's,
Don't Play Us Cheap's music centers around gospel, its cast including bass singer George McCurn (who was in
the Pilgrim Travelers), Joshie Jo Armstead (an ex-
Ikette who wrote soul songs with
Nick Ashford and
Valerie Simpson), and famed actress Esther Rolle. It's good-natured, varied, unexceptional contemporary gospel mixed with Broadway, light jazz, and soul, some of the brief tracks serving mostly to move the performance along, rather than standing up as musical pieces noteworthy on their own merit. Originally a double LP, it's been reissued as one disc of the two-CD release The Melvin Van Peebles Collection, which also includes the film soundtrack of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. ~ Richie Unterberger