Rare Meat

Mel Brown's 1967 Chicken Fat on Impulse (and where else would it be) is a swell soundtrack album to a heist movie that never got made. Go-Go music for Cheetah swingers, blasting from convertibles cruising The Strip. Brown was a pretty wild guitarist, and ate up just about every influence, spitting it out in crazy bursts that are gone before you've had time to realise what he just did. He's a showboater with the chops to pull it off, and a joy to hear. Music to Frug to.

George Benson's Giblet Gravy, from '68, is a very different kettle of meat, getting left on the plate by tedious jazzbo purists even this early in his career. What they didn't understand was Benson was always a bigger star than the academic limitations of jazz could hold. Every album that veered away from what critics considered his roots (the arrogance!) throughout his career got a kicking. Like he cared. A superhumanly talented vocalist, instrumentalist, and a true star, every note he played and sang is in tune with what he wanted to do. Prime cuts.