SONIC REDUCER / CARL HANNI

Steve Cropper, Pop Staples, Albert King are Jammed Together.

By Carl Hanni

Here's another good one from the never-ending list of worthy records that never really got their due.

Jammed Together is a Stax Records all-star throw-down loaded with with heavy hitters; a loose, relaxed mutual appreciation society of giants enjoying each other's chops. This practically lost burner from 1969 fronts three of Stax's hottest pickers (Steve Cropper, Albert King and Pop Staples) with an air-tight backing band and a shifting line-up of A-list in-house producers. Various combinations of Al Bell, Issac Hayes, Al Jackson, David Porter, Booker T Jones, Terry Manning, Homer Banks and others all take turns group producing, a guaranteed head-turner for discerning crate diggers and analog devotees looking for a warm, vinyl fix.

Three vocal numbers - one each from the three principals - are trumped by seven instrumentals, where the real sparks fly. Albert King, for one, seldom sounded better. His unbelievably agile, sweet but stinging leads propel "Big Bird," "Trashy Dog" "Opus De Soul," "Homer's Theme" and "Knock On Wood" into soul-blues nirvana. Steve Cropper is, of course, as steady as they come, tastefully blasting away on the same tracks and putting a real fire under King's mighty feet. But Pop Staples and his patented tremolo and vibrato-laden guitar may be the unexpected ringer and perfect foil for these other two giants; his laid-back, shimmering style has just the spongy flex that these tracks need to achieve maximum lift-off.

None of this would be nearly as essential if their rhythm section wasn't as ready to rock and soul as they were, but the unnamed players split the difference between rocking soul and rocking blues, and Jammed Together comes down on the soul side of the equation. They may be unnamed but they sure sound familiar; anyone want to bet that's Al Jackson Jr. and Duck Dunn, brother MG's, on at least some if not all of the tracks?

There's real joy and a sense of playfulness in these warm, dynamic grooves, produced by a fraternity of players and producers with a rich shared history and absolutely nothing to prove. Jammed Together beats the super-star-jam curse hands down and really doesn't care if you know about it or not. And there-in lies much of the appeal: Jammed Together is simultaneously humble and thrown together, and supremely well crafted and full of bravado. Kind of like Stax Records itself.

You can leave comments below or e-mail them to me directly at modmedia@theriver.com. 

Carl Hanni is a music writer, music publicist, disc jockey and vinyl archivist living in Tucson, AZ. He  hosts the vinyl-only Scratchy Record Show every Tuesday night at the Red Room in downtown Tucson, and spins records wherever and whenever he can. He believes that in a better (all analog) world all records would be released on vinyl, but takes good music from wherever he finds it--even on CD. His feature piece on legendary bass player/record producer Harvey Brooks was recently published in Goldmine.