Del Richardson - Pieces Of A Jigsaw (1973) Vinyl Rip

A quite unique melting pot of Soul, Jazz, Folk, Rock and in places Funk make this album hard to slot comfortably into a particular genre but one word that does spring to mind is when trying to describe it is - 'beautiful'.
There's not much to tell about Del Richardson that isn't already written somewhere on the internet. The original vinyl album is highly in demand and it is a very hard record to turn up, it was only released in the U.K. The fact that the L.P. is pretty tricky to categorise caused a marketing nightmare at the time and therefore probably didn't shift too many units on release.
As mentioned above, the styles of music vary from track to track but the album retains a great consistency in sound and feel with well thought out track sequencing, making this an easy and engaging listen from beginning to end. Side one kicks off with the funkiest cut on the album "Do What You Can" Which has a very similar vibe to Tower Of Power's trademark Jazz-Funk sound or even vintage Average White Band. Other highlights come in the shape of Jazz-Folk tinged cuts "Gypsy Girl", "Jigsaw", "Good Morning World", "Mama Jane" and "A Song For Two". All possess an ethereal beauty that touches the soul and are so warming to the ear. The package comes complete with 'icing on the cake' - sleeve artwork deigned by revered illustrator Roger Dean who produced a heap of classic album covers from the late '60s through to the late '90s. Strangely the actual labels on the record credit the artist as Dell (instead of Del) Richardson and the album title as "Pieces Of THE Jigsaw". The labels are standard company design so It can only assumed that someone at M.C.A. supplied the wrong details to either Roger Dean for the sleeve, or the person working at the pressing plant for the labels. Which one is correct is not known!Emerson