Black Coffee is a 14-track wake up call. It’s a whip of fresh air kicking hard at the knees of all the sub-par, overproduced dreck that’s constantly radio showered upon the compliant masses. This is hard southern, bluesy soul reborn and delivered with unquestionable class and finesse.
The sweet horn and organ laden lament of “My Hands are Tied” is a grand lyrical and vocal treat. It lays bear the frustrations and dilemmas of a man whose wife has left him for young arm candy to hang in “some backwater town, acting so blasé”. The brilliance of Kooper’s producing skills is evident with the presentation of the guitar solo. You are totally set up for a nice melodic piano or sax to drift in and what you get instead is a blistering, attitude-laced blues lead (courtesy of Bob Doezema) that perfectly conveys the frustrated and hurting emotions of the storyteller. Stunning arrangements on the backing vocals put it over the top.
Driving the second track, “Am I Wrong”, is a swampy groove with beautiful complex acoustic playing and a gentle, inquisitive vocal part.
”How Am I Ever Gonna Get Over You” drops the tempo to a crawl and turns up the slow-burning soul to maximum. Kooper‘s controlled rasp vocal take on this is so perfect – I bet he momentarily surprised himself when he heard the play back. Daryl Lowery adds icing to the cake by delivering a tuneful in-the-pocket sax solo.
”Going Going Gone” deals with the “world's big ass joke“ of inevitable change with the flowing, reflective lyrics of a man who’s seen some hard curves. Tom Stein and Larry Finn give a textbook lesson in why they call it a rhythm section.
Every track on Black Coffee is rock solid. Other highlights include: “Get Ready”, a driving, Skynyrd-type romp with a subtle vocal nod to Ronnie Van Zant. “Green Onions (Live)” - far too many bands have used this song as a lackluster sound check or singer bathroom break; this version lovingly reclaims the intent and power with a hard, driving organ and solid grooves.
”Got My Ion You”, an uptempo track with a cool funky feel arrangement, snaky groove and some really wild staccato leads. ”Comin Back in A Cadillac (Live )”, this SWINGS: classic R & B with a soul clapping lesson from the band. Wish I were in the audience.
Al Kooper has made a bit of a frustrating masterpiece; how do you get this kind of record to market? I estimate reservedly this work would instantly appeal to approx 250,000 people in America alone… if they could only hear some tracks on the radio; it deserves to sell 10 times that. I’m not holding my breath for Clear Channel to help. If anything, this is gonna be a grass roots war where the internet is the weapon and the battlefield.
Black Coffee is one of those records that will sit in your current play stack for the better part of a year – it will never make it to the trade pile in those dubious moments of music downsizing. Expect to see it on some year-end best of lists.
The finest compliment I can give this record comes from an observation my wife made on the first night I tried to write the review; she looked over at me across the living room and said, “Do you realize you have been dancing for half an hour and have not made any notes?“ Yep…it just took me away.
Mr. Kooper, I salute you.
