snobb
South Carolina-born Philadelphian sax player Odean Pope, still in his late teens, replaced John Coltrane in Jimmy Smith's band. He played with James Brown, Marvin Gaye, and Stevie Wonder and joined Max Roach's band.
"Almost Like Me" is Pope's debut as a leader, recorded in Germany and released on the German avant-garde jazz label Moers Music. Very much in the moment's fashion, Pope leads a bare-naked sax-drums-bass trio, playing brutal free funk. The rhythm section is extremely groovy and muscular and includes an explosive electric bassist, Gerald Veasley, and drummer Cornell Rochester (who will replace Ronald Shannon Jackson in James Blood Ulmer's Music Revelation Ensemble in the next decade).
All compositions are Pope's originals, his soulful sax soloing adds a lot of soul to quite mechanistic and strictly framed rhythmic constructions. Like some other free-funk artists' recordings, the album's music combines burning danceable rhythms with melodic "sameness", usual for the genre. The musicianship is still of the highest level though.
It's interesting to notice that all of the album's music is based on repetitive constructions, characteristic more of the next decade's M-Base than early free-funk. In many moments, "Almost Like Me", sounds very much like Steve Coleman's works from the 90s.
Not a masterpiece, this album offers some attractive experiences to everyone interested in free-funk and M-Base quality examples.