{"id":460,"date":"2011-03-04T10:31:36","date_gmt":"2011-03-04T15:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=460"},"modified":"2011-03-04T10:31:36","modified_gmt":"2011-03-04T15:31:36","slug":"album-review-dennis-coffey-dennis-coffey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2011\/03\/04\/album-review-dennis-coffey-dennis-coffey\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Dennis Coffey – Dennis Coffey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rock lead guitar chops. Tight, economical, in-your-face arranging skills. Funk sensibility. And licks that the top hip-hop artists turn to again and again. What\u2019s that? Dennis Coffey<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In the early 70s Coffey was a mainstay in the Detroit music scene. While he could \u2013 in his own way — drive as hard as the more well-known Motor City rock names (Kramer<\/strong>, Nugent<\/strong>, Cooper<\/strong>, Osterberg<\/strong>) the guitarist\u2019s chosen genre was funk. In fact Coffey was one of the legendary \u201cFunk Brothers<\/strong>\u201d (he\u2019s in that Standing of the Shadows of Motown<\/em> film). With a blistering yet lean guitar attack, Coffey brought a lot of energy to other artists\u2019 records as a sideman. That\u2019s him on The Temptations\u2019<\/strong> \u201cBall of Confusion.\u201d Edwin Starr<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cWar,\u201d that\u2019s Coffey too. He played on Funkadelic<\/strong> records, sides by Gladys Knight<\/strong>, The Four Tops<\/strong>\u2026hell, he was even on Ringo Starr<\/strong>\u2019s Goodnight Vienna<\/em> album.<\/p>\n

Beginning in 1968 he started making his own records. First on a small label called Maverick, then on not-quite-as-small Sussex Records. With collaborator and producer Mike Theodore<\/strong>, Coffey cut four of the finest instro-funk records of the genre. He was rewarded for his efforts with the million-seller \u201cScorpio,\u201d an oft-sampled track. His web site lists at least fourteen artists who\u2019ve lifted from that single track; the list includes Public Enemy, Queen Latifah, LL Cool J, Moby<\/strong> and many other well-known names.<\/p>\n

Point is, the guy\u2019s got an impressive r\u00e9sum\u00e9. After his string of successful records on Sussex, he moved in a marginally less-satisfying direction, making more disco-oriented records on Westbound (the label home to P-Funk<\/strong>), and later moved in a smooth jazz direction.<\/p>\n

Forget all of that, though, because in 2011 he\u2019s back to his old tricks with a self-titled album. Actually, that\u2019s not quite accurate: Dennis Coffey<\/em> ups the ante of the guitarist\u2019s late 60s\/early 70s albums. The record serves up super-high-energy original instrumental tracks, and adds remakes of some of the finest sides upon which Coffey originally appeared. A carefully-chosen list of guest vocalists step out front to tackle the lyrics.<\/p>\n

The stinging, repetitive lick of \u201c7th<\/sup> Heaven” sets the tone for the disc. This swaggering instrumental number, with beefy horn charts and aggressive percussion, funks it up like the best thing you\u2019ve ever heard from Earth, Wind and Fire<\/strong>. But that rock sensibility propels the song forward. Coffey tears up the fretboard on this track that would be perfect for a modern-day blaxploitation film. Coffey\u2019s arrangement sense is mightily tasteful: his songs aren\u2019t mere guitar excursions. He often (and effectively) cedes the spotlight to the other players. A tasty bass solo is one of the many highlights of \u201c7th<\/sup> Heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coffey played on Wilson Pickett<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Knock My Love,\u201d and his remake (featuring Orgone<\/strong>\u2019s Fanny Franklin<\/strong> on vocals) sounds like a great lost number from an unaired Soul Train<\/em> episode, yet there\u2019s something modern about the track. Throughout the album, Coffey manages to stay true to the classic funk vibe without creating something that\u2019s simply nostalgia.<\/p>\n

Mayer Hawthorne<\/strong><\/a> lends his smooth, romantic lead vocal talents to \u201cAll Your Goodies Are gone,\u201d a tune originally cut by the Parliaments<\/strong>. Dig the backing vocals. For a barn-burning remake of Funkadelic\u2019s \u201cI Bet You\u201d \u2013 possibly the strongest cut on an album with zero filler — Coffey enlists two singers: Dirtbombs<\/strong>\u2019 Mick Collins<\/strong> and Rachel Nagy<\/strong> from The Detroit Cobras<\/strong>. Coffey\u2019s searing solo and spaceship effects are icing on top of a heavy soul groove.<\/p>\n

The collaborations continue, peppered across a disc fully of four-on-the-floor instrumental numbers with evocative titles like \u201cPlutonius\u201d (with atmospheric vocal arrangement and yet another stinger from Coffey), \u201cSpace Traveller\u201d (Coffey in Stevie Wonder<\/strong>land) and the thrilling wah-wah-fest \u201cKnockabout.\u201d Kings Go Forth<\/strong> back up Coffey on the heavy funkster \u201cMiss Millie.\u201d That track features a Hammond solo that shows the distance between Detroit and Memphis is, well, not very far. Somebody needs to make a movie just so these tunes can get onscreen; they\u2019re that good.<\/p>\n

Another contender for best track on Dennis Coffey<\/em> is \u201cSomebody\u2019s Been Sleeping.\u201d With its nursery rhyme-meets-modern-soul lyric, this cut \u2013 originally done by 100 Proof Aged in Soul<\/strong> (with Coffey, of course) is a prime example of 21st<\/sup> century northern soul. The<\/strong> Bellrays<\/strong>\u2019 Lisa Kekaula<\/strong> turns in an impressive vocal on the track. Coffey\u2019s arrangement skills here are breathtaking, adding critical dynamics to the track.<\/p>\n

Paolo Nutini<\/strong> shows that he\u2019s possessed of more range (and soul) than his solo releases would suggest on \u201cOnly Good for Conversation.\u201d With a heavy distorted guitar riff worthy of the best 70s heavy metal, the song still keeps its funk. The disc wraps up with a freaky instrumental reprise of \u201cDon\u2019t Knock My Love\u201d that evokes mental images of Coffey\u2019s spaceship leaving the planet for some intergalactic funk.<\/p>\n

But Coffey\u2019s still right here on Earth. With some high profile dates at the 2011 SXSW and a tour to follow, the 71 year old axeman shows no signs of slowing down. And for those interested in his rare and long out-of-print Sussex work, a perfectly-timed compilation called Absolutely the Best of Dennis Coffey<\/em> just hit the shelves. The self-titled album won\u2019t be out until late April, but I\u2019m already wearing out my advance copy; it\u2019s no exaggeration to say that I\u2019ve played it fifty-plus times already. Dennis Coffey<\/em> is a must-have.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rock lead guitar chops. Tight, economical, in-your-face arranging skills. Funk sensibility. And licks that the top hip-hop artists turn to again and again. What\u2019s that? Dennis Coffey. In the early […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}