Herbie Mann - Reggae

HERBIE MANN
Reggae
1974
256+ VBR LAME mp3
Vinyl rip & scans from Atlantic SD 1655

Shortly after recording London Underground with Mick Taylor and Albert Lee, Mann had them join himself and the Tommy McCook band for a set of reggae interpretations covering pop and R&B hits of the day. One of those rare occasions when I agree with Mr. Yanow, although it's an enjoyable outing, mostly of interest only to Mann completists or reggae maniacs.

AMG Review
by Scott Yanow

Despite its title, most of the music on this album is not actually reggae but a mixture of jazz, R&B and pop. Flutist Herbie Mann, guitarists Mick Taylor and Albert Lee and keyboardist Pat Rebillot combine with the eight-piece Tommy McCook band to create some spirited and danceable (if a bit dated) music. Together they jam on The Beatles' "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," the traditional "Rivers of Babylon," Moe Koffman's old hit "Swingin' Shepherd Blues" and an 18-minute version of "My Girl." The results are fun if not all that substantial.

This one's been around blogland before thanks to You & Me On A Jamboree but in almost neolithic 80kb/22kHz quality, which makes a transistor AM radio with a half-inch speaker sound hi-fi in comparison. Probably why a more listenable copy was requested in the Herbie Mann discography post from a couple months back. You might notice there's no preview track this time. This is due not only to the length of the songs but also to the fact that PayPal botched my RS renewal and I'm having issues with both entities (although RS is being somewhat more helpful). That's also why there's no RS link at the end of the post for now - one will be added in the future when it all gets sorted.


Herbie Mann - Flute
Tommy McCook - Sax
Mick Taylor - Guitar
Pat Rebillot - Keyboards
Gladstone Anderson - Piano
Hux Brown - Guitar
Radcliffe Bryan - Guitar
Rod Bryan - Guitar
Bobby Ellis - Trumpet
Jackie Jackson - Bass
Albert Lee - Guitar
Michael Richard - Drums
Winston Wright - Organ


1 Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da
2 Rivers of Babylon
3 Swingin' Shepherd Blues
4 My Girl


This one was reissued by Wounded Bird in 2001 & Rhino in 2005 but the CD selling for upwards of $50 used or $80 new on Amazon and the cover version of My Girl is apparently not available as a digital download. Soundological thinks that's just bat shit crazy so grab it HERE or HERE while you can.