EL MAHBOOB

Category: Jazz

  • Kool & the Gang: Middle Years 74-78

    These are the years of Kool & the Gang you may not know as well. They’re just as monumental in shaping Black dance music, hip hop and sampling history as the early or peak years.

    Between the release of funk anthems culminating in the gold-certified Wild and Peaceful album and the start of a chart-topping, mainstream run with the platinum-certified Ladies’ Night, the band created some of their most refined, eclectic and inventive self-produced music. Sometimes they innovated; often, they borrowed from their contemporaries or leaned heavily on referencing earlier work, and they began to struggle for traction. Some critics didn’t get it. Throughout, the band’s work remained expertly crafted, soulful, joyous and stanky, with a positive spiritual message, all without a lead singer.

    While not easily defined as a style period, the middle years are fully evidenced in the six albums represented here. The band’s sound is saturated with influences, presenting new variations on other styles already in the air, then resolving back to their core jazz and funk roots. Virtually all of the music is driven by Robert “Kool” Bell’s bass, Ronald Bell’s (Khalis Bayyan’s) arrangements, tenor sax and spacy synths, George Brown’s solid, often-sampled drumming, and those signature horns.

    Everybody’s Dancin’ (excerpt) | Everybody’s Dancin’ (1978)
    L-O-V-E | Open Sesame (1976)
    Mighty Mighty High | The Force (1977)
    Universal Sound | Love & Understanding (1976)
    Ride the Rhythm | Spirit of the Boogie (1975)
    I Like Music | Everybody’s Dancin’
    Ancestral Ceremony | Spirit of the Boogie
    Gift of Love | Open Sesame
    Just Be True | The Force
    All Night Long | Open Sesame
    Summer Madness | Light of Worlds (1974)
    Here After | Light of Worlds
    Free | The Force
    Sunshine | Open Sesame
    Peace to the Universe | Everybody’s Dancin’
    Love & Understanding (extended version) | Kool & the Gang Spin Their Top Hits (1978)
    Spirit of the Boogie | Spirit of the Boogie

    All albums released on De-Lite Records

    Kool & the Gang: Middle Years 74-78

    Compiled 2021-22
    Lightly mixed tempos and keys, retaining original long fades
    August 2025

    Ibrahim El Mahboob

  • Way Back When

    I began compiling the songs for this mixtape at the beginning of 2020, letting the playlist shift and grow over three tumultuous years. This is my “ultimate” mixtape; one that covers the formative decade of my childhood that began a half century ago (concentrating on the early 80s), and focuses on Black legends in the genres of R&B, jazz-funk, disco and boogie during the final period of analog recording. This is music that finds me most at home in my body, with familiar and positive lyrical themes. It’s a Black yacht rock movie dream.

    As with previous mixtapes, there is melodic and harmonic mixing as well as beat matching and a smooth tempo curve. I worked to create an occasionally seamless conversational flow from song to song, and was surprised that led me to include well-known anthems alongside my usual “rare groove” selections. The result is a more unified mood and less eclectic set. No effects have been used, and where possible, songs are segued naturally with little or no crossfading.

    PART I
    Barry White | Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up (1973)
    DeBarge | I Like It (1982)
    Wally Badarou | Preachin’ (1980)
    Gene Dunlap Featuring The Ridgeways | It’s Just the Way I Feel (1981)
    George Duke | Corine (1979)
    Syreeta | I Don’t Know (1977)
    Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson | Alien (Hold on to Your Dreams) (1980)
    Tania Maria | Come with Me (1983)
    Minnie Riperton | Adventures in Paradise (1975)
    Anita Baker | Do You Believe Me (1983)
    D Train | Children of the World (1983)
    Jeffrey Osborne | Ain’t Nothing’ Missin’ (1982)
    Herbie Hancock | Magic Number (featuring Sylvester) (1981)

    PART II
    The Jones Girls | Nights over Egypt (1981)
    Odyssey | Love’s Alright (1982)
    Billy Ocean | Everlasting Love (1981)
    Patrice Rushen | Get Off (You Fascinate Me) (1984)
    Brenda Russell | Way Back When (1979)
    Chaka Khan | I’m Every Woman (1978)
    Aretha Franklin | Jump to It (1982)
    Luther Vandross | I Wanted Your Love (1983)
    Bernard Wright | Move Your Body (1983)
    Dazzle | All (1979)
    Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly | Love Is the Key (1983)
    The Emotions | Here You Come Again (1981)
    Sylvia St. James | So I Say to You (1980)

    Ibrahim El Mahboob
    January 2023

  • Best of 2019

    Layale Chaker & Sarafand Inner Rhyme

    Flying Lotus Flamagra

    Shafiq Husayn The Loop

    Kaytranada Bubba

    Anne-Sophie Mutter / John Williams Across the Stars

    Anderson .Paak Ventura

    Caroline Shaw / Attacca Quartet Orange

    Solange When I Get Home

    James Tenney Changes: 64 Studies for 6 Harps

    Dwight Trible Mothership

    Honourable mention: Marvin Gaye You’re the Man

  • Best of 2018

    Brandon Coleman Resistance

    Tigran Hamasyan For Gyumri

    Zaki Ibrahim The Secret Life of Planets

    The Internet Hive Mind

    JACK Quartet Everything That Rises (John Luther Adams)

    Kuniko Drumming (Steve Reich)

    Kukuruz Quartet Julius Eastman Piano Interpretations

    Kendrick Lamar/Various Artists Black Panther: The Album

    Kelly Moran Ultraviolet

    Georgia Anne Muldrow Overload

    Steve Reich/International Contemporary Ensemble/Colin Currie Group Pulse/Quartet

    Esperanza Spalding 12 Little Spells

    Kali Uchis Isolation

    Kamasi Washington Heaven and Earth

    Tierra Whack Whack World

    Aretha Franklin The Atlantic Singles Collection 1967-1970

  • Otherwhere

    British responses to Black diasporic music, and other sounds from formative walks in SSM and Toronto, via a recollection of refrains, harmonic worlds visited and the journeys between

    Omar | You’ve Got to Move
    Working Week | Inner City Blues
    The Brand New Heavies | Dream On Dreamer
    Colourbox | Philip Glass
    Young Disciples | Get Yourself Together
    Massive Attack | Daydreaming
    Level 42 | Coup d’etat
    Soul II Soul | Fairplay
    Mica Paris | Contribution ft. Rakim
    Ronny Jordan | See the New ft. IG Culture
    Jamiroquai | Blow Your Mind
    Matt Bianco | Half a Minute
    Prefab Sprout | Enchanted
    Sade | Hang on to Your Love
    Incognito | Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing
    Caron Wheeler | Kama Yo
    Swing Out Sister | Twilight World
    Loose Ends | Hangin’ on a String (Contemplating)

    Otherwhere: UK 84-94

    Ibrahim El Mahboob
    March 2018

  • 5 Questions to Eunbi Kim (pianist, entrepreneur)

    My interview for I Care if You Listen.

  • Best of 2017

    Alarm Will Sound with Meet the Composer Splitting Adams (Cantaloupe)

    Sarah Cahill with Regina Myers and Samuel Adams Eighty Trips Around the Sun: Music by and for Terry Riley (Irritable Hedgehog)

    Ars Nova Copenhagen First Drop (Cantaloupe)

    Julius Eastman The Zürich Concert (New World)

    ÌFÉ IIII+IIII (Discos Ifá)

    Kelly Moran Bloodroot (Telegraph Harp)

    Sampha Process (Young Turks)

    Tyshawn Sorey Verisimilitude (Pi)

    Moses Sumney Aromanticism (Jagjaguwar)

    SZA Ctrl (Top Dawg/RCA)

    Thundercat Drunk (Brainfeeder)

    John Williams Close Encounters of the Third Kind · 40th Anniversary Remastered Edition (La-La Land)

    Music by Linda Catlin Smith, Martin Arnold, Isaiah Ceccarelli, Chiyoko Szlavnics, Marc Sabat Canadian Composer Series (Another Timbre)

    Various Artists Spiritual Jazz 7: Islam (Jazzman)

  • Best of 2016

    Childish Gambino “Awaken, My Love!” (Glassnote)

    Vicky Chow A O R T A (New Amsterdam)

    King We Are King (King Creative)

    Laura Mvula The Dreaming Room (Sony · RCA)

    Holly Roadfeldt The Preludes Project (Ravello)

    Solange A Seat at the Table (Saint · Columbia)

    Esperanza Spalding Emily’s D+Evolution (Concord)

    reissues · remasters · restorations · box sets

    Wally Badarou Back to Scales To-Night (Barclay · Expansion)

    The Emotions Blessed: The Emotions Anthology 1969-1985 (BBR)

    Philip Glass The Complete Sony Recordings (Sony)

    Bernard Herrmann Twisted Nerve (Stylotone)

    John Williams Jurassic Park · The Lost World: Jurassic Park (La-La Land)

    Various Artists Doing It in Lagos: Boogie, Pop & Disco in 1980s Nigeria (Soundway)

    Various Artists Star Trek: 50th Anniversary Collection (La-La Land)

  • Best of 2015

    Some great new discoveries and otherwise the usual company in abundance.

    John Adams Absolute Jest · Grand Pianola Music San Francisco Symphony · Michael Tilson Thomas · John Adams (SFS Media)

    Bang on a Can All Stars Field Recordings (Cantaloupe)

    eighth blackbird Filament (Cedille)

    Mahan Esfahani Time Present and Time Past (Archiv)

    Morton Feldman · Erik Satie · John Cage Rothko Chapel [Gnossiennes, In a Landscape, etc.] Kim Kashkashian · Sarah Rothenberg · Steven Schick · Houston Chamber Choir · Robert Simpson (ECM)

    Floating Points Elaenia (Luaka Bop/Pluto)

    Kendrick Lamar To Pimp a Butterfly (Top Dawg · Aftermath · Interscope)

    Steve Martland Band Martland (NMC)

    Steve Reich Music for 18 Musicians Ensemble Signal · Third Coast Percussion · Brad Lubman (Harmonia Mundi)

    Max Richter Sleep (Deutsche Grammophon)

    Linda Catlin Smith Thought and Desire Eve Egoyan (Earwitness Editions)

    Stephen Sondheim Liaisons: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano Anthony de Mare (ECM)

    Ann Southam Glass Houses for Marimba Taktus (Centrediscs)

    Tennyson Like What EP (self-released)

    Kamasi Washington The Epic (Brainfeeder)

    John Williams Star Wars: The Force Awakens Gustavo Dudamel · William Ross · John Williams (Walt Disney)

    reissues · remasters

    Bernard Herrmann Obsession Special Archival Edition (Music Box)

    The Spinners Spinners (BBR)

    John Williams A.I. Artificial Intelligence Expanded Archival Collection (La-La Land)

    John Williams Jaws and Jaws 2 (Intrada)

    John Williams, Herman Stein, Hans J. Salter, Joseph Mullendore, Alexander Courage, Cyril J. Mockridge, Gerald Fried, Leith Stevens, Robert Drasnin, Fred Steiner and others Lost in Space 50th Anniversary Soundtrack Collection (La-La Land)

  • Best of 2014

    John Adams, The Gospel According to the Other Mary – Los Angeles Philharmonic, LA Master Chorale, Gustavo Dudamel

    John Luther Adams, Become Ocean – Seattle Symphony, Ludovic Morlot

    D’Angelo and The Vanguard, Black Messiah

    Morton Feldman, String Quartet No. 1 – FLUX Quartet

    Flying Lotus, You’re Dead!

    Philip Glass, The Complete Piano Etudes – Maki Namekawa

    Meredith Monk, Piano Songs – Ursula Oppens, Bruce Brubaker

    Laura Mvula, With Metropole Orkest Conducted by Jules Buckley at Abbey Road Studios

    Steve Reich, Radio Rewrite – Jonny Greenwood, Vicky Chow, Alarm Will Sound, Alan Pierson

    Ann Southam, Glass Houses Vol. 2 – Christina Petrowska Quilico

    tuku, moonday sessions:the black

    reissues

    Herbie Hancock, The Complete Columbia Album Collection 1972-1988 (rel. late 2013)

    Odyssey, Happy Together (Expanded Edition)

    Sly Stone & various artists, I’m Just Like You: Sly’s Stone Flower 1969-1970