THE HARLEM RIVER DRIVE USED TO BE A HIGHWAY; CONCRETE SOLID, UNCHANGING. ITS FUNCTION WAS TO SKIRT HARLEM, AN AREA NO ONE WANTED TO REALLY SEE FOR VERY LONG. MOVE FAST ENOUGH AND YOU COULDN'T HEAR THE HUNGRY BABY CRYING. DRIVE FAST ENOUGH AND YOU WOULDN'T HAVE TO SEE THE JUNKIES' PAINFUL FACES. THAT . . . WAS THE FIRST HARLEM RIVER DRIVE.
Fact check - This is not your Bobbi Humphrey's Harlem River Drive. This was a super group (released in 1970 on Roulette) - latin and black cats who created a nasty combination of salsa, funk, soul, jazz, and fusion - Iverson style crossover.. When you mix styles, you create art. This album in many ways opened the possibilities of the music "merge"...see War or see any of the fusion groups that mixed styles successfully. It started here.
Eddie Palmieri is lead and producer. Continuing the direction he'd started 1969, he put together a band of Latin, black and white musicians to synthesize salsa, rock and R&B. The players include Charlie Palmieri on organ, Andy Gonzalez on bass, Jimmy Norman on vocals, Cornell Dupree and Bernard Purdie on guitar and drums, and Felipe Luciano on poetry.
Tracklist
Harlem River Drive (Theme Song)
If (We Had Peace Today)
Idle Hands
Broken Home
Seeds of Life
Idle Hands moves me. "Do you have the will? Do you have the guts, now - to see a dream fulfilled?" That's a Langston Hughes moment. Eddie Palmieri and the sounds of the Barrio. Still resonates today.
Idle Hands
Love this album, good post.
ReplyDeleteThe architect of the Drive and the majority of the roads and bridges was Robert Moses- The guy was an evil genius. The evil part set back Black people for several generations.
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