Michael Franks - Sleeping Gypsy
I stumbled across a great find at the record store today, a 1977 album by Michael Franks called Sleeping Gypsy.
I grabbed it because the album art was intriguing (click the thumbnail for a larger version), if not a little ’70s hazy. The sleeve was more promising though — it features a collage of black and white images from the studio, which revealed that there was a healthy horns section. My curiosity was piqued thanks to the contrast between ’70s long-haired guitarists and piano players alongside what appeared to be a soul or R&B rhythm and horns section.
The verdict is good, though not quite what I expected. The music is smooth, yacht rock smooth, but there’s this seedy Brazilian underbelly to it, thanks to the percussion section and low end. At times the horns (David Sanborn on sax!) are a bit gratuitous, but the rest of the songs are fluid, featuring Franks’ signature ’70s croon (a sort of Steely Dan meets early James Taylor sound) and his remarkably witty lyrics. His previous effort, I’ve just learned, was called The Art of Tea and was a more straight-up singer songwriter type of gig, but there’s hardly an acoustic guitar to be found centerstage here, and that’s a great testament to the guy’s flexibility, I’d say.
The album is undoubtedly ’70s smooth jazz (well, jazz is actually a pretty giving term in this case), but I consider it a nifty little find in the dollar bin, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys digging up undiscovered classics from the ’70s.
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