Available on vinyl for the first time since its original release 50 years ago, the downtempo-funk extravaganza People & Love is a crate-digger’s treasure chest, filled with soul-jazz grooves and mesmerizing vibraphone textures laid down by Johnny Lytle, who was touted as the greatest vibes player in the world by the big band legend Lionel Hampton.

The album was cut from the original analog tapes (AAA) by Kevin Gray, pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI, and comes packaged in a tip-on jacket.

Side A:
1. Where Is The Love?
2. Libra
3. Family

Side B:
4. Tawhid
5. People Make The World Go ’Round

I would hope by now that everybody knows that rock and soul music changed dramatically when psychedelics came on the scene! Much jazz, though, with the exception of Creed Taylor’s R&B fused KUDU label, continued on a straight ahead, traditional path, even dwindling from Big Bands to quartets or trios.

But this superb Johnny Lytle album People & Love, is full of shimmering surprises as he works away on his vibraphone, unleashing a whole smorgasbord of fantastical musical colors to come to the fore and capture the imagination.

All his followers knew he was a soul man from the word go, and thus People & Love finds him diving ever deeper into the soul-jazz groove. The results are successful, to say the least. The term soul-jazz commonly invokes visions of dripping Hammond’s and syrupy guitars, but by 1972, as aforementioned, things had changed a bit.

The kind of soul-jazz represented here is a hazy, swirling, and ultimately much deeper vibe than that heard on, say, the classic Blue Note and Prestige sessions usually associated with this tag.

For me personally, the stand out tracks include the luxuriant Libra, the heavily impassioned funky grooves that ebb and flow within Tawhid, and a track that was actually sampled in 1997 by alternative hip hop duo from Queens, New York Organized Konfusion, the affluently-sculpted Family.

In short, what we have here is a fantastically trippy collection of a quintet of high caliber material, which is highly recommended for listening directly along with at any time, or even as shimmering background music to have you smiling throughout your day to day tasks.

Official Purchase Link