VA - Mo' Mod Jazz (1998)

This, the second of Kent's Mod Jazz compilations, documents those points during the 1960s (and sometimes the early '70s, or the late '50s) when jazz, blues, and soul music intersected, sometimes throwing in pinches of pop, soundtrack themes, and Latin beats. Here, that doesn't mean that the artists included define themselves as genre-blenders. What is really meant, for the most part, is that blues and soul musicians get a little jazzy (B.B. King on "Bad Luck Soul," Little Johnny Taylor on "You Win, I Lose," Junior Wells on "(I Got a) Stomach Ache," Lightnin' Hopkins on "Got to Move Your Baby," and Booker T. & the MG's on "Soul Jam"); or jazz musicians getts a little bluesy (Mongo Santamaria on "Get the Money," Johnny Griffin on "Wade in the Water"); or jazz musicians trying for an off-the-wall hit (Johnny Gilliam's snazzy cover of the "Mission Impossible" theme, Freddie McCoy's vibraphone cover of the "Spiderman" theme, singer Mark Murphy's Latin lounge lizard cover of Horace Silver's "Senor Blues"). There is of course some classic organ soul-jazz by Richard "Groove" Holmes, Willis Jackson, and others, and some cats who are genuine jazz-blues hybrids, like Mose Allison, whose cover of "Eyesight to the Blind" (included here) was the model for the Who's version in Tommy. There's also some Latin-flavored boogaloo by Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers, and the Brown Brothers of Soul. All that doesn't add up to a release that's easy to categorize, but it does equal one that's easy to dance to. If 1960s jazz of that sort is what one likes, then this, like its companion volumes, is one of the best places to find it.~Mo' Mod Jazz Review by Richie Unterberger