Search - Donny Hathaway :: Come Back Charleston Blue

Something You "Don't" Expect From The Beautiful Donny Hathaw

Mark Barry at Reckless Records, Lon | UK | 11/27/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Brought to him by ace saxophonist King Curtis, Jerry Wexler sat down to listen to a demo tape of "The Ghetto" by Donny Hathaway. A stunned Wexler promptly signed the young 23-year old to the magical Atlantic label with the sense of having `found something special - maybe even genius'. Hathaway quickly made good on that taped promise and produced a string of stunning soul albums in the early Seventies - "Everything Is Everything" (his debut in 1970), "Donny Hathaway" (his self-titled 2nd album in 1971) and the masterpiece that is "Extension Of A Man" in 1973. And then sandwiched between his fantastic "Live" set of March 1972 and his first duet soul album "Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway" in April 1972 came the soundtrack to "Come Back Charleston Blue" - a slightly out-of-synch-and-character outing that only partially works.



Originally released in April 1972 on Atco in the USA, this October 2007 expanded remaster by Rhino, finally makes available that soundtrack rarity after 25 years in obscurity. Produced and supervised by Quincy Jones, the original 11-track single album (broken into 21 'bits') is topped up with two bonus tracks - versions of "Little Ghetto Boy" - an alternate studio take and a live version. Long-time in-house remastering supremo Bill Inglot has done a bang-up job with the tapes as usual; the sound is gorgeous and far better than the cramped vinyl ever was.



Unfortunately, that's where the good news ends. Even as a rabid fan, I would have to admit that this album is not great by any stretch of the imagination - the runt of Hathaway's vinyl litter.

The album is - of course - a victim of the times in which it was made. Just 5 months earlier in December 1971, Isaac Hayes and his funky soundtrack to "Shaft" had been a global smash and ushered in the phenomenon of Blaxsploitation. Suddenly every soundtrack went `funky/soulful' crazy. That's ok, says you, but this soundtrack revolved more around old-world jazz and suffers badly for it. There are an awful lot of duffer Charleston boogie-woogie jazz pieces on here that are truly awful - and what's good - short funky passages peppered with an actual song every now and then - is very sporadic and inconsistent. There are also a lot of half-minute snippets on the album (the nature of a soundtrack) that are `interesting' but hardly essential.



Comparisons can be made to Marvin Gaye's excellent "Trouble Man" soundtrack - a solid favourite among fans - soulful and funky - with killer instrumental passages. I would say that "Come Back Charleston Blue" meets about half of those expectations. Highlights though include, "Harlem Dawn" (his first vocals on the LP) and "Little Ghetto Boy" the first proper song on the album. "Hearse To The Graveyard" is a fantastic instrumental to grace any funky CD-R you care to compile. "Bossa Nova" sounds like it came off an easy listening compilation made up by nondescript session men - half fun, half dire. "Tim's High" fares better, strings and soul with some great pleading `mercy' vocals - superb but maddeningly short at 1:30. The following track is probably the best funky instrumental on there - "Furniture Truck" sounds like Mission Impossible meets James Brown.

The two previously unreleased bonuses are superb - first is a new studio take on "Little Ghetto Boy" probably the album's best number. It's close to being as beautiful as the final take. The `live" version is soulful, funky and magnificent - the audience reacting to his `new song' with enthusiasm.



The MGM movie itself is long forgotten - and the liner notes admit to this - crap best left to posterity.



Those expecting the magnificent soul of his 3 stunning Atlantic albums should look elsewhere. What's really needed are DELUXE EDITIONS of his best studio works including a 2CD version of the awesome "Live" set from 1972 - like Rhino did with Aretha's expanded "Live At Fillmore West" 2-disc set. But as it stands, "Come Back Charleston Blue" is a flawed but worthy addition to his cannon of work and if it's belated reissue introduces his music to a new generation of soul lovers, then that's cool.



Aged only 33 and racked with depression he hadn't been able to handle for years, Hathaway took his own life in January 1979 in New York and robbed the Soul music community of a huge talent - someone of the musical and social stature of say Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Bobby Womack, Sam Cooke and Curtis Mayfield. Donny Hathaway is like Marvin, greatly missed and much loved to this day.



To sum up, "Come Back Charleston Blue" is an only-ok album with some great bits on it. However, if you're like me, and you see his name on the cover, you get the shivers and have to own it! Good in places, but seriously underwhelming in others, the uninitiated should try a snippet listen on iTunes first before purchase. Then try 'Everything Is Everything' or 'Extension Of A Man'. God! How I envy you hearing those gems for the first time!



PS: This release is part of Rhino's CLASSIC SOUL ALBUM - REMASTERED & EXPANDED Series.

Most titles are first time onto CD and are rare soul LPs from the Warner/Atlantic vaults.

Some other titles in the series are:



1. Ace Spectrum - "Inner Spectrum" (see separate review)

2. Blue Magic - "Blue Magic" (see separate review)

3. Leroy Hutson - "Paradise"(see separate review)

4. Ronn Matlock - "Love City" (see separate review)

5. Gwen McCrae - "Gwen McCrae"

6. Gwen McCrae - "On My Way"

7. Prince Phillip Mitchell - "Top Of The Line" (see separate review)

8. Prince Philip Mitchell - "Make It Good" (see separate review)

9. The Voices Of East Harlem -"Right On Be Free" (see separate review)"

Hathaway Fan

Michele Hill | Providence RI | 04/28/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I like this CD. I'm a big Donny Hathaway fan so I feel it was necessary for me to have this CD in my own collection. It's different from what we know of his work but I still would recommend it to those that our huge fans of this brilliant talent. Gone too soon! RIP Donny!"

A beautiful reminder of hathaway's rich legacy

man man | american south | 12/19/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"think of this soundtrack as a nice whitman sampler of jazz and soul - flashes of brilliance from the one and only donny hathaway. although not a must have for the casual listener, it gives real music lovers an insight into hathaway the master arranger and musician - the precursor to his masterpiece "extension of a man". the sound is remastered so well that you can hear hathaway's nice keyboard artistry throughout the arrangements. i am curious to know how much quincy jones contributed. the more swinging bigband cuts have the nice quincy jazz touches. reading in his biography how close he was to count basie fuels my speculation of jones' influence in this project even more. in all of jones soundtracks, the credits in the liner notes often read like a who's who of the jazz world so this soundtrack was indeed an amazing collaboration. the musical themes are smartly interwoven throughout leading to the final payoff - the duet between hathaway and margie joseph singing the title song. i am familiar with a couple of joseph's hits - knockout and christmas gift - but i've never heard her sound better. she is awesome on this. i must check out her other recordings. it's a shame she and hathaway didn't do more together. not to mention the greater tragedy that such an original & compelling artist as hathaway left us so soon. this cd release is one more tribute to his lasting legacy. the craft of music making so beautifully heard in this soundtrack is sorely missing in today's music scene."