BARIGOZZI GROUP – Woman's Colours

Description

Giancarlo Barigozzi (b. 1930 – d. 2008) was an Italian music maestro from the field of jazz and related music. The album at hand to review here is a 1974 effort of his band named BARRIGOZZI GROUP that takes a more pop oriented direction with elements of funk added. Especially those funk tunes have a hotter than hell expression and bring to mind muscle car rides through the hills of San Francisco while grooving along to the haunting lead harmonies created by flutes, lead guitar and brass section. You could easily think of any cool US gangster movie from those times and either see moving pictures of Clint Eastwood or Michael Douglas chasing criminals before your inner eye. The overall mood ranges from relaxed to rather simmering and peppy, just properly fitting as a soundtrack for old action movies. A rather colorful effort that will drive freaks of 1970s Jazzrock and funk music wild. The interaction between all musicians is incredibly tight and vibrant. The sound is warm and rich. Just as I would demand it from such a record. The strongest point are the lead melodies as I mentioned before. They come as cool and often sleazy as the old funk stuff from the glory days was but have been laid upon the utterly groovy substruction in a very memorable way. What this band has created with „Woman’s colors“ is a collection of outstanding hit tunes and there is a curve of tension that goes up and down like a roller coaster, sometimes even within one and the same song. A joyful action movie for your mind with some really cool hero figures. Originals of this killer record go for 350 Euros in good condition so this reissue makes sense for all who dig this stuff. This record is entirely instrumental but I tell you, there is no lack of singing here for the lead instruments take over that duty quite tastefully. Some freaky fuzzed out lead guitars put the icing on the funky cake for me. You can’t go much better in the field of funk. If you don’t get moved and inspired to burn like a volcano, you must be deaf or dead. Awesome!