Time Is Tight
Almost an accidental ensemble, Booker T. & the MGs came together for a functional reason--to play as the house band for Memphis's Stax Records. But organist Booker T. Jones and guitarist Steve Cropper found alchemy, transforming rhythm-section riffing into an art, slicing through air where listeners expected vocals and doing so with tremendous success on their first single, "Green Onions," which was later featured on theAmerican Graffitisoundtrack. This three-CD set captures the quartet's core in plentiful doses, leading off with their 1961 first salvo and cruising through numerous attempts at remaking the soulful classic. But in tinkering with the "Green Onions" formula, the band found dozens of instrumental variations, much like later, all-instrumental genre straddlers likeMedeski Martin & Wood. They also found countless hours of work, backing some of Memphis soul's most revered artists (thinkOtis ReddingandWilson Pickett) and defining a backbone sound of organ and guitar layered over the increasingly vital rhythms of bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn and original drummer Al Jackson. They played expansive minor-key soul, as "Ode to Billie Joe" and many other tunes here attest, and later in the 1960s went on to churn out charting hits and great albums alike. The second CD in this set captures some great moments, especially the segments fromMcLemore Avenue, the quartet's all-instrumental tune-for-tune riposte toAbbey Road. Later in the set you getAlbert Kingon vocals for a gritty "Born Under a Bad Sign" and thenBoz ScaggsandNeil Youngfronting the quartet (with Steve Potts or Jim Keltner drumming in place of the long-ago murdered Jackson). This collection will leave you wanting more.--Andrew Bartlett