As a guitarist, Dennis Coffey was a member of the storied Funk Brothers’ studio band and the architect of the million-selling instrumental groove monster “Scorpio,” while as a producer his credits include the initial LPs by Sixto Rodriguez of Searching for Sugar Man fame; the recent emergence of a 1968 live set spotlights Coffey’s talents as part of a trio perched at the intersection of soul, funk, jazz, and rock. Housed in a swank cover featuring artwork by Simpsons/ Futurama animator Bill Morrison, Resonance Records’ 180gm pressing of Hot Coffey in the D: Burnin’ At Morey Baker’s Showplace Lounge is currently available, and on January 13 it’s joined by digipak CD and digital options.
The vast studio-based brilliance that helps to shape the musical prestige of the 1960s is by now well established. Alongside the Wrecking Crew, the Nashville A-Team, and the assorted members of the Stax and FAME studio bands, the group of Detroit musicians known as the Funk Brothers stands tall, their talent lent largely (but not entirely) to the immortal product of Barry Gordy’s Motown enterprise.
Dennis Coffey was part of that band, and his work with producer Norman Whitfield on a slew of Temptations recordings, including the classic hits “Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World Is Today),” “I Can’t Get Next to You,” “Just My Imagination (Running Away from Me),” and “Psychedelic Shack” are enough to secure the guitarist’s place in the narrative of Motown and in the story of Detroit’s musical heyday overall.
However, Coffey’s input is integral to numerous other gems, both as part of the Funk Brothers and as a free agent for other Detroit labels; amongst the highlights are The Volumes’ “Monkey Hop,” The Reflections’ “Just Like Romeo and Juliet,” Darrell Banks’ “Open the Door to Your Heart,” Al Kent’s “You’ve Got to Pay the Price,” The Parliaments’ “(I Wanna) Testify,” Edwin Starr’s “S.O.S. (Stop Her on Sight)” and “War,” The Spinners’ “It’s a Shame,” and Marvin Gaye’s “That’s the Way Love Is.”
Additionally, there were scores of live gigs, but depending on the circumstances those could get tiresome. As detailed by Coffey in this set’s copious liners, he joined the trio documented here, which features Lyman Woodard on organ and Melvin Davis on drums, due to the increasingly unappealing night-in night-out nature of Top 40 cover bands. Having replaced his friend Don Davis in Woodard’s lineup, they first came together at the Frolic Club (with Melvin Davis quickly filling George McGregor’s spot), but soon thereafter acquired a residency at Morey Baker’s lounge.
Both venues provided an audience receptive to listening rather than simply dancing, and upon soaking up Hot Coffey in the D’s seven tracks it’s easy to hear why. Their style is a study in acumen and focus as they intermingle innovation and restraint, and across the set the trio exemplify the stylistic openness that is also crucial to the ’60s ascension to the top of the 20th century musical heap.
Assisting in fortifying the decade’s rep: Ray Charles cut a pair of C&W-influenced albums, a string of folkies plugged in, garage bands and hard rockers adapted R&B and soul tunes, the blues was borrowed from and in a few cases outright pilfered, and proto-punkers took inspiration from free jazz. That type of hybridization can be immediately heard here, as “Fuzz,” one of the album’s two original compositions, finds Coffey applying the song’s titular quality in a manner akin to his contribution to Motown’s psychedelic soul singles.
The tactic is a little bolder yet still shrewdly delivered, so it’s likely to entice Nuggets fans while doing nothing to alienate the LP’s core audience. To elaborate, those with a love for funky instrumental platters will not be disappointed, and neither will those with a predilection for soul-jazz; the organ-guitar-drums lineup here will surely trigger interest from the style’s prime adherents, and as the trio employs a handful of methods familiar from the era’s Blue Note and Prestige catalogs, they won’t be disappointed.
For starters, like many soul-jazzers of the time they tackle contempo pop tunes without hesitation, significantly altering Jimmy Webb’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” and following it with Burt Bacharach’s “The Look of Love,” though the ’67 reading of the latter song by Dusty Springfield simultaneously strengthens the trio’s Soul-R&B bona fides. What’s most impressive is the avoidance of pop-jazz insubstantiality as Woodard and Coffey reliably eschew overplaying.
Likewise, Davis is energetic but never too busy as he offsets the more amiable and upbeat tendencies of “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.” Slowing matters down (with finely executed dynamic shifts) and spreading out to nearly 12 minutes, “The Look of Love” unwinds like Hot Coffey in the D’s standout, with Woodard working himself into a splendid lather mid-way through. But then comes a reading of the Herbie Hancock standard “Maiden Voyage” to underscore the group’s extensive capabilities.
As was a common tactic in modern jazz, they use Jimmy Webb’s pop writing as a springboard for a succession of creative flights, but with Hancock they remain close to the original as their instrumental make-up and individualism keep things distinctive. The disc’s second original “The Big D” follows, it’s succinct hunk of up-tempo organ and wah pedal-infused psych-R&B followed by a treatment of “Casanova (Your Playing Days Are Over)” as recorded by Ruby Andrews in ’67 (with probable studio support from Coffey).
The song’s a definite crowd-pleaser, but it and closer “Wade in the Water” (a trad spiritual swiped from the hit version by their soul-jazz cohorts The Ramsey Lewis Trio) emphasizes an agreeable sense of scale and lack of premeditation, aspects ultimately making this belated live outing such a pleasure. Hot Coffey in the D is yet another brick in the Motor City’s exquisite musical architecture, its booklet loaded with valuable reminiscences (including the trio’s show with the MC5), but the most essential element in its success is the broad, vibrant approach of Lyman Woodard, Melvin Davis, and Dennis Coffey.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
