“When people talk about soul music, they only talk about gospel and r&b coming together. That’s accurate about a lot of soul, but if you are going to talk about mine, you have to remember the jazz in it. That’s what made my music so different and allowed it to change and grow.” — James Brown
On this 1969 recording, Soul Brother #1 makes no secret of his love of jazz — and his own phenomenal gifts as an improviser. In collaboration with Louie Bellson, one of jazz’s most impressive drummers and one of its most expressive arrangers, Oliver Nelson, Brown tears through jazz standards and gives his own hits a new twist.
