Joy – “A musical come-together,” is a musical from 1970. It had a respectable 208 performances in New York, having already had a run in San Francisco. And this is the original cast recording.
Oscar Brown’s score for a hip play that he wrote (one of his many plays!) – performed by him, Sivuca, and Jean Pace. Despite the “show” quality of the material, this actually stands simply as a great Oscar Brown Jr. LP, and the production is nice and intimate, and sounds just like an ordinary studio album. Sivuca’s great, and his breathy voice and playing really open up Oscar Brown with some great Brazilian touches. And as usual, the writing’s great, especially on tracks like “Brown Baby”, “Mother Africa’s Day”, “Funky World”, and the great version of “Afro Blue”, featuring Oscar’s classic lyrics. Also features a wonderful version of Johnny Alf’s “Sky & Sea” – done by Sivuca with an incredible lilting groove! (by dustygroove)
It reminds me a lot of the famous Stax album “Ghetto: Misfortune’s Wealth” by 24 Carot Black. Funky, soulful, all around very well done soundtrack.
Personnel:
James Benjamin (bass)
Oscar Brown Jr.(vocals)
Everaldo Ferreira (drums)
Jean Pace (vocals)
Sivuca (vocals)
Norman Shobey (vocals, congas)
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a bunch of unknown studio musicians
Tracklist:
01. Time (Brown Jr.) 2.56
02. What Is A Friend (Brown Jr./Henrique/Sivuca/Shobey) 2.48
03. Funny Feelin’ (Brown Jr./Henrique/Pace) 3.50
04. Under The Sun (Brown Jr./Pace) 2.29
05. Wimmen’s Ways ((Brown Jr) 10.55
06. Brown Baby (Brown Jr./Pace) 4.04
07. Mother Africa’s Day (Brown Jr./Sivuca) 3:18
08. A New Generation (Brown Jr./Pace) 2.58
09. Sky And Sea (Alt) 4.55
10. If I Only Had (Pace) 3.20
11. Nothing But A Fool (Reis/Barbosa) 3.05
12. Much As I Love You (Brown Jr./Sivuca/Shobey) 3.31
13. Afro Blue (Pace) 3.07
14. Funky World (Brown Jr) 8.42
ManyFantasticColors 