Nard

I am 57 yrs. of ago, so when I pick music I already know it's Great music.

His very best music for his debut I love this cd.

I reviewed two Tom Browne CDs from the early 80s recently and one of the people who worked on both albums was keyboardist Bernard Wright. A child prodigy from Jamaica, Queens, who'd been playing with jazz ensembles since the age of 8, Wright was touring with legendary drummer Lenny White by the age of 13 and started playing with fellow Jamaican Tom Browne in 1979. Wright was just 17 years old when this groundbreaking album was recorded in 1980. Producers Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen must have been so impressed with his talent that they decided to produce his debut album themselves. They subsequently signed him to GRP records in 1981, when this album was released. Wright plays a variety of keyboards here, including acoustic & electric piano, Rhodes electric piano, Yamaha CP-80 electric piano, OBX synthesizer and clavinet. The maturity in his playing is self-evident but then so also is the youthfulness in his music. Just check out some of the titles: Bread Sandwiches; Just Chillin' Out; Haboglabotribin'. I remember reading somewhere that this was a young man who, at the time, loved clubbing and was more into the music of people like Kool & The Gang than he was of Herbie Hancock (although Hancock himself was enjoying a very commercially successful flirtation with club music around this time). While he definitely wanted to do jazz, he also wanted to make the kind of music that his peers and fellow clubbers could get into. So while what we get in the end is not as sophisticated a sound as what Tom Browne offered, for instance, it is certainly a lot more fun. The emphasis is definitely more on the 'funk' element of jazz-funk. "Haboglabotribin'" was huge on the jazz-funk scene back in the day and even though the album was never released here, it was one of those tunes that made the transition into that most revered of categories among UK soul heads: It became a rare groove tune. In fact the tune is on one of my many rare groove compilation CDs alongside tunes like Chocolate Milk's "Action Speaks Louder Than Words", Weldon Irvine's "I Love You" and Don Blackman's classic gem, "Holding You, Loving You". My favourite tunes on here include: the opener, "Master Rocker", written by Wright, Ronny Miller & Weldon Irvine; "Haboglabotribin'", written by Don Blackman; "Just Chillin' Out", with music written by Marcus Miller and lyrics by Wright, Al "Wink" Flythe & Barry "Sunjon" Johnson and "Bread Sandwiches" (the reason why I bought the CD in the first place), written by Wright, Denzel "Wink" Miller Jr & Steve Teele. But also notable are "Music Is The Key", written by Weldon Irvine & Tommy Smith, with touching if not accomplished lead vocals by Wright himself and background vocals by Patti Austin & Luther Vandross, no less; "Spinnin'", written by Al "Wink" Flythe, which, as my good friend Derek has pointed out below, was later sampled by Skee-Lo for his 1995 hit "I Wish" (as a vertically challenged man myself, that song has always had a particular resonance) and the Miles Davis tune "Solar", which is the only tune on the album with any real jazz pretensions. Wright shows his chops with a style that's complicated and demanding on the listener (he's more definitely Brad Mehldau than Lyle Mays) but I agree with Derek: The tune is completely out of place on this set. Wright put out a few other albums after this one and the working partnership with Marcus Miller that seemed to work so well here (Miller also arranged some of the tunes) went on. He also continued to work with Lenny White, including on "Blow" a 1982 album by Bobby M that I have on cassette but can't seem to find on CD anywhere for love or money. At any rate, this is definitely the album to get. It'll be a collector's item one day - if it isn't one already.

This is one awesome CD. I just got it yesterday and I have listened to it several times. The production is tight and all the artist are on point. In my opinion this album was before its time.

Bernard Wright is a great artists, The one song that stands out is "Chillin Out". I Grew up mixing this song in the 80's It's a must have for funk seekers

I was extremely happy to find this CD. I bought it as a gift for my brother because we are on a mission to replace our vinyl. Truly a great album, though not B. Wright's best work (in my humble opinion). "Who Do You Love?" still reigns supreme. If you are feeling nostalgic, this is definitely a great listen. Still searching for the 12" with the various versions of "Who Do You Love?" Wright's genius is proved by the number of artists that have sampled his work.

This 1981 Masterpiece was way ahead of it's time. I was 11 years old and my big brother had it and I got my hands on it in the basement and it was over. That year was the last year of the most creative rare music of our time. Killer tracks like 'Bread Sandwhiches' & 'Master Rocker'... I was on this before hip hop crate diggers was tryin to sample it. The entire album is hot and the track selection was perfect. This is what I call the true GRP era. As a prodigy, alot of cats liked 'Nard for the funk hip hop feel however, it goes way beyond that. Just as the dude (who can also be heard on Tom Browne's Funkin' for Jamaica) said on Chillin Out "Lets jump into hyperspace" and on this album Bernard Wright did just that. I kept on playing to get that killer jazz with dave grusin, marcus miller and others who played on it. The 'Firebolt Hustle, 'Spinnin and the crazy mellow 'Music Is The Key' made the whole album an entire classic. Funny thing is that a few years later, I pulled it out of my man's father collection and told his dad that he need to revisit the project and listen to the whole thing. A few weeks later, my boy said his father would not stop playing that album ever since I turned him back on to it. It's one of my top five favorite joints.

I don't know much about this cat. Judging from the info in the liner notes, he was supposed to be a child musical prodigy or maybe the Alicia Keys of his day (based on the fact that he was a teenage musician that made serious music much like Alicia Keys). However for some strange reason, this album didn't perform all that well in terms of sales. Perhaps it could've been that this album came in much too late in the game( you gotta think this was 1981 when Prince, Rick James, Michael Jackson, and Luther Vandross was taking R&B into new directions). It's too bad popular responses to this were weak because this is one of the best R&B albums of that year. This album is mostly semi- instrumental funk music with some minimal singing or talking in the background. There's a couple of actual songs with hooks in the mix, but for the most part, this CD was designed to show off the piano prowess of Benard Wright. On the Piano, he's no Herbie Hancock or George Duke but he shows off some amazing chops for someone his age. It's also noteworthy to say that even though the album's production sounds very big budget and professional, the grooves are deep enough to cut through glossy studiocraft. In fact, the professonal sounding production enhances the power of these grooves and transcends them from sounding flat or underproduced. Antoher potent slice of stank (funk) courtesy of "Nard". Buy this CD and party hard you freaks!! P.S. His take on Miles Davis Solar is cool.