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Intensity’ isn’t the best album I’ve heard by Earland, but despite the fact that half the album’s tunes are pop covers, this is much better than his sometimes overtly commercial output. Side one consists of a Latin jazz lounge groove cover of Chicago’s ‘Happy I’m Goin Home’ and a swing big band cover of Carole King’s ‘Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow‘. Neither of these covers are corny at all, the big band cover is more Don Ellis and Thad Jones than Glen Miller. On both tunes the soloists, including B3 maestro Earland, have room to go off and the rhythm section, led by the great Billy Cobham, provides variations and energy surges that keeps things interesting.
Side two contains two Earland originals. ‘Cause I love Her’ brings back the Latin groove for a cut that has that Latin soul jazz rare groove ambience that acid jazz DJs will kill to get their hands on. The album closes with something totally different. ‘Morgan’ opens with an abstract melody made of quartal leaps, somewhat similar to ‘Freedom Jazz Dance’, which leads to a driving post-bop swing that gives the soloists plenty of room to go off in an almost free jazz manner.
This is a nice record by Charles, Billy and the rest. Some tunes may start off as mellow pop covers, but this is a real full-blooded jazz record and all the musicians get a chance to morph and shape these tunes to their liking.