Criminally overlooked by academics, critics and purists who refuse to listening to anything outside of conventional jazz vernacular,
Andy Bey's delivery on Experience and Judgment goes beyond anything he previously committed to tape, revealing a spiritual side that's punched up and supported by a jazz-funk ensemble. The album's opener "Celestial Blues" finds
Bey delivering lines that wouldn't be out of place on
Bill Withers records from this era, and the remainder of the album sounds similar to the works of such contemporaries as
Roy Ayers and
Gil Scott-Heron. It's soul soothing music that's been played with great reverence by the rare soul and funk community for years and rightly so, as
Bey captures the essence of the soul world brilliantly, and fuses it into something that is uniquely his own. ~ Rob Theakston