Charles Earland - Earland's Jam (Expanded Edition) (2012)

I first bought the remaster of "Street Themes" and LOVED it! Then, I went backwards and bought this one. There is a MAJOR difference between the two: "Jam" has one funky jam called "Animal," which would sit comfortably next to anything The Bar Kays, Mtume or Con Funk Shun were doing at the time with zippy computer generated basslines and synthy embellishments, but then, you get organ ONLY instrumental remakes of a few big 80's slushy Pop hits like "Guilty" by Barbra Streisand, "Never Knew Love Like This Before" by Stephanie Mills and "You Belong To Me" by Carly Simon, thus making the rest of the set uneven and leaving the listener puzzled. I know I WAS. LOL! Seems as if Columbia/CBS didn't quite know how to market this Jazz/Funk Legend the first time around and it got a little weird. I would consider "Jam" more of a Jazz album (for the times) a la Rodney Franklin's first couple of albums. If you really want Funk, I suggest sticking with "Street Themes." It's more consistently funky, synthy and doesn't have that Muzak organ popping up out of nowhere reminding one of those annoying, housewifey Smooth Jazz stations. Though I have BOTH, I gravitate more toward the latter ("Street Themes") and wish that "Animal" was included on that one too where it fits the Funk mold a lot better and would have rounded out an already PERFECT album! A confession: My very first Charles Earland album is "Street Themes." I had never heard of him and now I see he's a legedary organist, so it all makes sense to me how people aren't impressed with the lack of organ. Pardon my ignorance and I've got some Earlanding to do! Peace!