Sunday, January 25, 2015

CD Reissue of the Month - "Lalo Schifrin: No One Home"

CD Reissue of the Month
Lalo Schifrin: "No One Home" (Tabu/Ultra-Vybe Inc.) 

Reissue Supervisor: Tsuyoshi Hayashi
A&R: Masahiro Maeda (Ultra-Vybe)
Executive Producer: Mamoru Ko (Ultra-Vybe)
Remastered by Toshiyuki Abe

Produced, Arranged & Conducted by Lalo Schifrin
Associate Producer: Schuyler "Sky" Traughber
Recorded @ A&M Studios and Wally Heider Recording (Los Angeles, CA)
Mixed & Mastered @ Wally Heider Recording
Recording & Mixing Engineers: Jimmy Hite & Richard Bogart
Mastering Engineer: Phil Cross
Visual Coordination: Tony Lane
Illustration: Schuyler Traughber

Featuring: Lalo Schifrin, Ronnie Foster, Ian Underwood & Patrice Rushen (keyboards), Byron Miller & Ed Watkins (electric bass), Leon 'Ndugu' Chancler & Alex Acuña (drums), Paulinho da Costa (percussion, congas, timbales), Wah Wah Watson (electric guitar & voice bag), Tim May, Paul Jackson & Johnny Graham (guitars), Oscar Brashear (trumpet), Jerome Richardson & Kim Richmond (woodwinds), Sylvia Smith, Lynn Davis, Virginia Ayers, Sandy Graham, Ron Hicklin, Eddie Lehann, John Bahler & Debbie Hall (vocals)
Strings Concertmaster: Israel Baker
Orchestra Coordinator: Ben Barrett

"No One Home" -- the follow-up to "Gypsies" -- was Lalo Schifrin's second and last album for the Tabu label. Released in 1979, it was a disco-oriented project spiced with funk grooves, jazzy harmonies and some beautiful pop melodies like Minnie Riperton's "Oh Darlin'...Life Goes On" (great synth and vocal riffs) and specially Lalo's own ballad "Memory of Love," graced with a short but very elegant acoustic piano solo.

But the album centerpiece is really the title track, on which guitarist Wah Wah Watson steals the show using the 'voice bag' over a funky Rhodes groovitation. This expanded Japanese CD reissue includes four bonus tracks: single and instrumental versions of "No One Home" plus two tunes -- "Moonlight Gypsies" and the mellow "Prophecy of Love" -- from the "Gypsies" album recorded in 1978 and already issued on CD some months ago in Europe.

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