Scratch - The Crusaders

Why did that album change your thoughts about music?

I was into the classic rock of the 60s and early 70s, along with the standards of jazz such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Dave Brubeck.  But hearing The (Jazz) Crusaders opened me up to a different type/tempo of music.  Their renditions of some “standards” of the time, like So Far Away, opened my eyes to what was possible.  Made me track down their early Jazz Crusaders stuff.

Wilton Felder’s sax solo on So Far Away is literally breath taking. 😊

 " Literally " ... the most mis-used word in the English language...

I’m guessing you’ve never heard that song.  He holds a note on the sax for a very long time.  Longer than I can hold my breath.. 😊

I specifically chose that word, and was expecting a comment or two from people unfamiliar with the song.

And I expected those familiar with the live version of So Far Away on that album would understand my use of the word.

your use of the word is incorrect...

@djtalsky, thanks for posting.  Mr. Felder was also a terrific bass player.  Here he is on the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back".  Literally, a great, great talent!

@onhwy61  That’s another favorite song of mine, never knew he played on it.  Thanks for the info!

I listened on youtube and liked it. This may sound strange but listening to it I could easily believe that they influenced Edgar Winter's White Trash. The music sounded so similar if you listen to the live ablum.

I can see that.  I’m a big fan of Edgar Winter, especially his first album, Entrance.  No “hits” on it, no airplay, but still very good.

When can I use literally?

You use literally to emphasize that what you are saying is true, even though it seems exaggerated or surprising. Putting on an opera is a tremendous enterprise involving literally hundreds of people. I literally crawled to the car.

@djtalsky is literally a very well educated person for using literally correctly.

Great to see Edgar Winter get some appreciation. Amazing talent!

Now, re “literallly”. I would describe its use differently. There is no claim to veracity when using the word. It is more a claim to accuracy, IOW, what you are saying by qualifying your statement as “literal” is that what you are saying is that it is an accurate representation of something else. Whether it is “true” or not is not relevant.

I think of literally in the context of its use here by the OP as being interchangeable with actually.

What does literally or figuratively mean?

For example, when someone says, “I am literally foaming at the mouth,” this literally means real foam is coming out of his or her mouth. Figuratively means in a metaphorical sense—that is, not in a real sense but in a way that is expressed through figures of speech.

Regarding Edgar Winter, I only know the part of his career when Dan Hartman was in his band.  The Edgar Winter Group was first rate, starting with Ronnie Montrose and then Rick Derringer on guitar, with Hartman on bass, guitar and vocals.  Hartman also wrote many of their hit singles.  Hartman later became a disco star and co-wrote James Brown "Living In America", Apollo Creed's them song in "Rocky IV".

Rock & Roll Hoochie Koo.  The performance starts at 0:41.

Wilton Felder is the bass player in what is one of the first disco hits. The Hues Corporation "Rock the Boat".  Jim Gordon is the drummer along with Larry Carlton and Joe Sample.  Good musicians make good music!

Funny that you mentioned Entrance by Edgar Winter. I was 14 when that came out and was listening to lots of different music on Detroit radio stations, but never heard anything quite like that! R&R/Jazz/Gospel combo really blew my mind and guided me to listen to more straight-ahead jazz. To this day I’ll spin Entrance every few months. A terrific record!

was taught how to listen to jazz in my freshman year of college, where my assigned roommate was a music major, young saxophonist - over our 8-9 months sharing the room, he started me with chuck mangione, george benson, bob james... eventually we got all the way into bird, trane, joe pass, oscar peterson, miles, dex, abbey lincoln and the rest, was a truly formative period in my becoming a lifelong jazz fan, supporting the art form etc...

the crusaders, scratch, southern comfort, chain reaction, southern knights, were a big part of that journey... larry carlton joining really injected a new energy into the group, but wilton felder and joe sample were consistently the leading voices and artistic anchors....

...many fond memories - will listen to some of this again tonight!  thanks for the prompt....🤗

Nice post. My journey with Crusaders started with unsung heroes and chain reaction in mid seventies. I added most of their albums over the years but bought an original mint US scratch vinyl just a couple weeks ago. Awesome music AND sound, especially for live! Crusaders just resonates with me as well as any band even so I'm caucasian.

I have the beat!

I also dicovered the Crusaders with the Chain Reaction LP.  Have a dozen or more of thier discs in my collection.  Particulary fond of the opening tract on Rural Renewal (2003, Eric Clapton on acoustic guitar).  Was just listening to Larry Carlton's Renegade Gentleman.  Been a fan of his since the days with The Crusaders.  Rendgade seems to finally shows that he can really tear it up, given the chance.  

Enjoying Scratch right now while I work.