JOHNNY PATE — Shaft In Africa (review)

JOHNNY PATE — Shaft In Africa album cover Album · 1973 · Jazz Related Soundtracks Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
js
The first “Shaft” movie soundtrack, scored by Isaac Hayes, was one of the most popular and innovative soundtracks for its time. For the second Shaft movie, director Gordon Parks tried to make the soundtrack himself and didn’t fare nearly as well. For the third in the series, “Shaft in Africa”, the call went to Johnny Pate. Pate was a great choice, because like Hayes, Pate had the background in sophisticated orchestral arranging as well as a background performing street tough funky RnB. Its this combination of conga and wah-wah guitar driven rhythms topped with slick modern orchestrations that are the hallmark of the highly collectable 70s crime jazz soundtrack commonly referred to as “blaxploitation”.

This is a very well done soundtrack and all the classic blaxploitaion elements are here: African percussion, bold panoramic horn driven melodies, exotic tone colors and plenty of wah-wah guitars and clavinets for everyone. Pate’s approach is slightly more traditional than Hayes, his romantic numbers like “Aleme finds Shaft” sound more like classic movie soundtracks than modern RnB, but the upbeat numbers are not lacking in contemporary funk rhythms. One highlight is “El Jardin” on which a hard piano riff is topped with an exotic oboe melody backed by pizzacato strings, pure heaven for the exotica collector. Early hip-hop fans may recognize the piano riff as being the background for one of Queen Latifah’s first hits.

This album is highly recommended for collectors of crime jazz soundtracks, blaxploitation and exotica in general. If there is one major drawback to “Shaft in Africa”, it is the brevity of this release. The original LP is barely about 27 minutes long, and that’s with adding the movie’s big pop hit, “Are You Man Enough”, to both sides of the original LP. On a side note, fans of 70s soul and RnB may notice how strongly “Are You Man Enough” resembles the previously popular and politically oriented hit, “Backstabbers” by the O Jays.
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