Jake Najor pulls together an all-star album
Scotty Moore is a name known by industry old-timers, music lovers, a selection of people with niche interests and specific reasons, and a woefully small portion of the general public.
He isn’t “unknown”, but the man who invented power chords never achieved the fame or recognition he arguably deserved, being overshadowed by the presence of the man at the front of the stage, the man whose career, in part, was built on Moore’s contributions: Elvis Presley.
So it goes. It is the nature of the entertainment industry, and music in particular, that immensely talented players are too often relegated to liner notes and music trivia. Debbie Harry has spent an entire career reminding people that she isn’t Blondie; she’s Debbie Harry, a member of the band Blondie.
It doesn’t always work out that way. No one thinks of Bruce Springsteen’s one-time saxophone player as “Bruce Springsteen’s one-time saxophone player”. Clarence Clemons is as recognizable a name as the the Boss himself, but this is a rare exception, not the rule.
Every so often, one of these giants upon whose shoulders the front man has stood makes an album, and when they do, it is a thing of beauty, a culmination of talent that has built fortunes for other people.
Jake Najor is one of the most highly-sought funk drummers in Southern California, likely one of the greatest in the country. His resume alone would triple the allotted wordcount of this feature. Suffice it to say he’s played with a lot of acts, some of the more instantly recognizable being Big Daddy Kane, De La Soul, Kurtis Blow, and Redman.
A couple of years ago, Najor released his debut solo album. Soon after that he was fronting his own band, The Moment of Truth. To call The Moment of Truth an all-star is ensemble is accurate, but terrifically inadequate. If Najor has a near-godlike status among West Coast recording artists (he does) it follows that the members of The Moment of Truth are his peers, which is to say it is one of the most mind-blowing pools of talent to be found anywhere.
In March of this year, Jake Najor and the Moment of Truth released In The Cut, a ten-track album that, if there is any justice (there may not be, the jury is still out on that one), ought to cement their place in history as one of the greatest funk bands of all time, the preternaturally talented children of all who preceded them.
Mixmaster Wolf’s vocals on the album’s lead single, “High Costa Living”, suggest that James Brown never went away; he simply went back in time and became Wolf. “Another Saturday” features the vocals of Jamie Allensworth but could easily be mistaken for Ziggy Marley. Coincidentally, the horn section is led by trumpeter and arranger Todd Simon, known for his work with the actual Ziggy Marley.
The horn section, by the way, is perfection, featuring the talents of Simon, James King, Sam Robles, Elizabeth Lea, and Andy Geib. Every one of those musicians carries a stack of credentials as impressive as Jake’s. In addition to Wolf and Allensworth, vocals are contributed by Matthew Burke and Najor himself. Nick Costa’s tasty guitar work is accentuated by the slinky keys of Tim Felten, both of which build a big house on the solid foundation of double duty bassists, Matt LaBarber and Matt Gorney.
Under it all is the masterful percussion of Najor, a man whose humility and “Sure man” attitude is the counterpoint to his sterling reputation and skill (I assume “Sure man” is Californian for “Aw, shucks”).
My only fear for the album is that it may be a “musician’s album”. I don’t mean that it is inaccessible to anyone, anywhere, but rather that some of the very best music ever recorded goes unheard and unappreciated outside of the industry itself.
I don’t know why precisely, but I suspect it’s that distribution networks, media outlets, and radio stations aren’t interested in anything but the lowest common denominator cookie-cutter stuff with predictable hooks and a guarantee of a fast buck on a minimal investment.
I truly hope not this isn’t the case, because this is an album that needs to be heard, a labor of love from the men and women who are the backbone of a genre. It’s superstar caliber music, and while Najor and company may deserve your support, it’s no less true that you deserve music like this in your life.
That album is available now through The Redwoods Music and all of the regular outlets including Amazon. Try it, buy it, love it, and give some much deserved props and recognition to the real movers and shakers of modern music.