Eddie Harris - Come on Down! (1970/2007)

The album title and the weird cover portrait of Eddie Harris with an orange substituting for his head refer to the recording locale -- Miami. The rationale might have been to give Miami the same down-home soul appeal that Muscle Shoals and Memphis were enjoying at the time. Certainly Harris got a romping soul/jazz/rock session out of the trip, a bit overloaded on the electric guitar side, but invigorating. Ira Sullivan joins the fracas now and then with some uninhibited trumpet, Donald "Duck" Dunn (from Booker T. & the MG's) is the anchor on bass, and supersessionman Cornell Dupree dominates the guitars. The centerpiece is a long, frantic, rowdy, R&B remake of "Live Right Now" where Harris seems to be jooglin' around on electric sax as part of the rhythm section, and "Fooltish" has a loose swaggering appeal. "Really" finds him soulfully crooning through his electric horn for the first time, and "Why Don't You Quit" builds inexorably to a majestic Echoplex extravaganza. Worth hunting for in the LP bins.