The Isley Brothers used it, Parliament-Funkadelic used it anyway, and Stevie Wonder used it in his hit »Superstition«. The clavinet, created by the German instrument maker Hohner, had its peak time in the mid-70s. Now, multi-instrumentalist Patrice Rushen, whose »Forget Me Nots« served as a – hardly changed – basis for Will Smith’s big hit »Men In Black«, has taken it out of the cupboard, for a record full of references to this great time of soul and funk. The record is called »Perpetual Gateways« and was created by Ed Motta a 44-years-old singer and keyboarder and a musical heavy weight in every respect. With more than a dozen records, he is a superstar in his home country Brazil. Ed Motta, who is so very identified with finger snipping mainstream pop that his previous record was called »AOR«, is now more than ever turning to jazzy sounds. Therefore, the Brazilian musician has not only summoned the almost forgotten keyboarder Patrice Rushen to Los Angeles, but many other fantastic musicians, like Charles Owens (saxophone) and Hubert Laws (transverse flute), two of the great men of jazz born in 1939. Not to forget, there is also the wonderful and bossa-tried acoustic piano of Greg Phillingane (Toto, Michael Jackson). Those thinking that there are no more great soul-crooners in the 21st century will soon be proven wrong, in particular, by the second LP titled »Jazz Gate«, on which Ed Motta shows vocal skills nothing short of sensational. Since Donny Hathaway (the natural comparison, considering the high standards), hardly anyone has sounded like this. It’s a beautifully soft jazz-pop-soul like in the best Steely-Dan-days
Perpetual Gateways
