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Melting Pot

Booker T. Jones & the M.G.'s are captured in seemingly sombre mood on the cover of their 1970 album Melting Pot. Reputedly, by the time this this record was made, both Jones and guitarist Steve Cropper were becoming estranged from Stax records - their musical home for most of the '60s - in the wake of a change of management there. The photo need not, of course, have had any relation to those tensions, but it does help illustrate that all was not well behind the scenes.

Happily for the listener, however, it is in no way an "off" or awkward-sounding record: quite the opposite. Made in New York, rather than their native Memphis, the band are on top form throughout. Most of their previous albums had given the impression of being hastily-assembled sets, heavy on the cover-versions, but on this one, all the tracks are original compositions. The very best comes first, in the shape of the 8:15-long title-track, an outstanding groove with Al Jackson, Jr.'s drums its beating heart. In parts of 'Back Home' and 'Fuquawi', Jones contributes piano parts, as well as playing his customary Hammond B-3. 

After an all-instrumental side A, there's a suprise in 'Kinda Easy Like', the opener on side B, when vocals kick in - not from the band themselves, but in the form of wordless harmonies by "The Pepper Singers". They are heard again in 'LA Jazz Song', an airy number where one really does get the sense that we're not in Memphis any more. The closing track ('Sunny Monday') begins with a delicate intro combining acoustic guitar, piano & skittering cymbals, before picking up momentum to bring things to a suitably pleasing conclusion. I love this record, which I was lucky enough to acquire for only a few pounds around this time last year.

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