Give It What U Got

n his Atlantic Records debut, producer, bandleader, and guitarist Hiram Bullock comes ripping out of the gate with a prime bit of '80s jazz-rock, "Down the Pipe" with Ricky Peterson on synthesizers, drummer Charlie Drayton, and the Brecker brothers in the horn section; this tune is a screamer. Bullock just tears open the sonic side with his guitar, allowing Randy Brecker to ground the thing with a funky, funky, funky horn chart. The crazy contrast is the big, fat R&B tone of the track that proceeds from it: "Too Hip 2 B Needy." Bullock fancies himself a singer, but like most of these heavy studio cats, his voice isn't all that great but it will suffice. With Will Lee's bassline fronting the entire tune, and a three-piece horn section (with Lew Soloff on trumpet), it's big, celebratory funk that throws off the fusion sensibility of the opener. Al Jarreau guests on an ultra-smooth jazz reading of Sam Cooke's "You Send Me." Jarreau may be a fine vocalist, but he obviously doesn't get what at what is so amazing about that song, allowing his sense of jazz phrasing to completely cover over the motion in the tune. It's so breezy it almost isn't there. The title cut, which is really played only by Bullock and Ricky Peterson, is all production. Guitars are multi-tracked and compressed to death; it's all whomp, no stomp. The show-stealer is the instrumental reading of Steely Dan's "Pretzel Logic." Bullock, Lee, Drayton, Peterson, and a couple of finger snapping pals lay it in the cut and offer what a transcendent jazz-rock tune this song really is. Give It What U Got is a decent if not entirely memorable introduction to Bullock's brand of popular jazz-rock and funk, but it would be five more years before he got to prove what he could really do in a studio with Way Kool. ~ Thom Jurek|