Low Ride
| Low Ride | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||
| Studio album by Earl Klugh | ||||
| Released | 1983 | |||
| Recorded | January 1982 - March 1982 | |||
| Genre | Crossover jazz, Instrumental Pop | |||
| Label | Capitol | |||
| Producer | Earl Klugh | |||
| Earl Klugh chronology | ||||
|
||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |
  link
|
| The Pittsburgh Press | link |
Low Ride is the 9th studio album by Earl Klugh released in 1983. The album features Klugh's signature sound of blending "heavy, rhythm-and-blues-oriented background with the feathery sound of Klugh". Conductor and arranger David Matthews joins Klugh on the orchestrated song "Christina".
All the tracks on Low Ride were written by Earl Klugh and recorded in February and May 1982 at A&M Studios in Los Angeles and Media Sound in New York. The album was produced by Earl Klugh and Roland Wilson. Engineers included Tom Jung, Dave Palmer, Jim Cassell and Andy Hoffman. Dave Palmer assisted Earl Klugh and Roland Wilson with final mixing and track listing. Mastering was undertaken by Bob Ludwig at Masterdisk, New York.
The album was released by Capitol Records in the US and UK (although the UK pressing was promoted by EMI Records with Capitol retaining the label in the UK). In the UK, the album's catalogue number was: EST 12253.
Low Ride is an album packed with an impressive list of jazz musicians of the day. Earl Klugh himself plays acoustic guitar, keyboards and dabbles with rhythm arrangements. He is joined by:
There were connections with other artists all over this album. Most of the album's personnel were extremely well known. Ronnie Foster and Greg Phillinganes had worked with George Benson (Foster appeared on Benson's award-winning Breezin' (1976) LP as well as Benson's In Flight (1977) and Living Inside Your Love (1979)). Greg Phillinganes also appears on Living Inside Your Love with Earl Klugh amongst others - Earl wrote the title track. Paulinho Da Costa was a popular musician that worked with many artists whilst carving out a very interesting solo career, notably releasing the critically acclaimed club classic Deja Vu. Earl Klugh had honed much of his craft from George Benson. Benson himself did not appear on the Low Ride project due to the fact that he was recording his own album which was released at the same time as Low Ride, entitled In Your Eyes.
Charles Meeks played bass on the album's lead track Back In Central Park and then appears only on Christina, and If You're Still In Love With Me (which also features James Bradley, Jr. on drums). Denzil Miller, known affectionately as "Broadway" Miller at the time, plays the solo electric piano on the title track. Lucio Harper appears for one track namely "Just Like Yesterday" which got a lot of airplay on radio in the US and UK though was never released as a single in the UK.
"Back in Central Park" is a departure from much of the other tracks in that it has an underlining "live" party feel to the recording. Featuring the chatter and vocals of Frank Floyd, Merle Miller and Dana Kral, the lead album track was released as a single in the US and UK just ahead of the album's release by Capitol. The single, available in both 7" and 12" formats in the UK scaled the top 10 of the UK Jazz Funk and Soul charts and performed well in the UK Jazz Fusion Forty Chart.
...
Wikipedia