Description
MP3, CD quality digital download/Spotify available from iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Apple Music etc.
Downloads not available direct from this website.
“All in all this music has something everyone will love”
(Rolling Stone)
1. Hole in Your Pocket
2. Fat Doggie
3. Give it Up
4. Three’s a Crowd *
5. Huevos Nuevos
6. The Cantatta Baratta
7. Suite for Renee
8. Many Moods *
9. Five Verses For
10. Don’t Ever Let Me Catch You
All compositions & arrangements by Gregory Alper
All tracks are first release on CD
Previously unreleased tracks *
Gregory Alper tenor & soprano sax, flute, electric piano
Rich Oppenheim alto sax
Ray Anderson trombone, vocals on track 1
Steve Gutman trumpet
Chuck Loeb guitar
Ernie Provencher bass
Al Scott bass on tracks 1 & 2
Richie Morales drums
Al Chalk percussion, vocals on track 3
Debbie Pointer, Olive Pointer & Jean Shaw backing vocals
Recording dates: August 1978
Recording venues: Blank Tapes Studios, New York City, USA
Engineer: Joe Arlotta
Producer: Dan Doyle
Co-producer: Mark Bingham
Remastering engineer: Ian Jones (Abbey Road Studios)
Liner notes: Charles Waring & Gregory Alper
Release date: November 2010
Total duration: 49 mins 32 secs
Recorded in 1978, ‘Fat Doggie’ is a genre-defying fusion of jazz, funk, disco, soul and Latin. Solid rhythm section, tight horns, great tunes – imagine Average White Band, Santana, James Brown, Albert Ayler, & Tower of Power all on one album! The Greg Alper Band featured the finest jazz players in New York, including Richie Morales (Spyro Gyra, Brecker Bros), Chuck Loeb (Bob James, Fourplay) & Ray Anderson (Best Trombonist: Down Beat magazine critics poll 1987-91). The disco infused funk opening cut Hole in Your Pocket, was a dance floor classic. The combustible Give it Up is a scorching tightly-syncopated funk workout that wouldn’t sound out of place on a vintage Tower of Power album. The mellower mid-paced Latin grooved bonus track Many Moods with exquisite horn parts, lit by celestial shimmering guitar accompaniment. The original release elicited positive press reviews including Rolling Stone which said “…all in all this music has something that everyone will love” as well as Billboard’s “Top Album Picks”. In recent years, the hard-to-find ‘Fat Doggie’ album has become something of a cult collectable with groove spotters, DJs and jazz-funk disciples the world over. Remastered at Abbey Road Studios using the original source tapes, ‘Fat Doggie’ has once again been unleashed from the kennel!
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Press Quotes
“…all in all the project has been brilliantly realised.. This slice of New York musical life is funky, pacy and raucous.”
(Musicweb-International)
“Despite being recorded in the late 70’s, this is solid Jazz-Funk which has aged gracefully and with dignity, sounding surprisingly modern and contemporary… the remastering is a complete success… An amazingly versatile Funk-Album remaster…Hats off to Gregory Alper though, who showed a lot of courage and delivered a high quality fusion disc.”
(Glarean Magazine, Germany)
“For starters we need to say that the music on ‘Fat Doggie’ is like no other. It’s jazz – sure, but it’s also infused with funk, pop, rock, soul and – in places – disco flavours… When it all comes together it works well – witness the two openers ‘Hole In Your Pocket’ and ‘Fat Doggie’ itself. The former runs on pacey disco beats and features a gruff vocal from Ray Anderson and some soaring brass…” (SoulandJazzandFunk)
“All in all this music has something everyone will love”
(Rolling Stone – original LP issue)
