Talk about let the music do the talking, even in this tastefully curated tribute collection to Charles Stepney the man himself is nowhere to be seen, at least in a visual sense. Even his words are scarce, the new Ace Records sets extensive liner notes highlighting that the producer only had one interview, a two-page spread in Downbeat, published and by 1976 he was dead at the age of forty-five due to a heart attack. Apparently on that day he had spoken to Earth Wind And Fire’s Maurice White about a song they had written in tribute to Stepney called ‘Spirit’ but all the same, this hardly equates to the kind of accolades the architect of the sounds heard across these twenty tracks should have enjoyed and deserved to receive. It is clear that as an eloquent arranger and a producer with a natural, musicians feel for what a song needed to fire up its heart and soul, he was level with Quincey Jones or George Martin. But as the accompanying text frustratedly notes, Stepney was not a rock architect who died too young at the peak of his powers and, for reasons that will probably never be fully understood, engine room craftsmen in the soul, funk and jazz-fusion fields did not get the kind of multi-page Mojo and Rolling Stone appreciations that their, often far less musically talented, heavy blues-rock or prog rock contemporaries enjoyed.  

There have also been a lack of compilations of this type in Stepney’s honour over the years, even this has been in the pipeline for ten years and required some determined unblocking along the way to bring it to fruition. The end product does justify the effort and perseverance though, and it does, even with a roll call of artists that gather up iconic names in blues, rock ‘n’ roll, jazz, gospel and soul, highlight a signature Stepney sound. All these tracks are blessed with lush, orchestral arrangements that are both advanced in their technical range and simultaneously devoid of any classical formal pose or pretension. In essence, they are packed with soul and most pull off the clever trick, that only few can truly master, of seeming devastatingly simple whilst possessing a deep, subtle complexity. There is also a timelessness which is creditable because, we are exclusively operating in the late part of the sixties and first half of the seventies and the latter, in particular, can possess a sound easily age identified. But these Stepney productions, many of which were hot finds for crate diggers in the nineties and beyond, sound completely at home in the contemporary picture. This will be in part down to their frequent use as samples from artists as disparate as Gang Starr and A Tribe Called Quest right up to DJ Shadow, The Roots and The Boards Of Canada; but it might also be true to say that the best recordings always do wear an agelessness about them.

Charles Stepney enjoyed his biggest success with Maurice White’s Kalimba Productions alongside other studio creations that became big hits, especially Deniece Williams number one ‘Free.’ Still, there is so much more and here we get to sample albums he participated in which maybe, in their time, were not regarded as overachieving but have since gone on to become cult collectors’ classics. 1968’s Cadet Concept album ‘Electric Mud’ by Muddy Waters was a record idea of Marshall Chess’s to take the blues legend out of his comfort zone and be someone else a while, for no other reason than it could be a gas. Whilst there are some who might believe Muddy was badly represented on this one-off, there is nothing about that smirking man in robes and sandals in a photo from the cover shoot that is not entering the spirit of the project. And the music, especially the cover of the Rolling Stones ‘Let’s Spend The Night Together’ that features here, is as raw, dirty, and downright sexy as any you will find, even by the writers themselves. The similar project from the same period that they tempted Howlin’ Wolf into, from which the artists disinterest really was beyond doubt, did not hit quite the same mark. The re-worked ‘Smokestack Lightning’ included here, whilst having nothing wrong with the seedy, nighttime production, does not come close to the originals thunderous tremors but it does stand as firm evidence of Stepney’s vivid inventive mind.

Also in 1968, although released in 1969, Stepney worked with jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis on an instant response to the Beatles newly released ‘The White Album.’ Literally in the space of a month, they put together ‘Mother Nature’s Son’ from which ‘Dear Prudence’ is the opening track on ‘Eternal Journey.’ It is a great place to begin because the slow build of the arrangement gives us listeners an instant display of the myriad colours available to Charles’ pallet. Texture, groove, dramatic rise and fall before glorious sunburst resolution, it is all here in an action-packed piano jazz instrumental. Soul classics from the period that stand out are Minnie Ripprton’s ‘Les Fleur,’ a piece of music that appears in the cultural audio landscape so regularly now it almost feels like a modern piece. The same can almost be said of Marlena Shaw’s ‘California Soul’ from her 1969 ‘The Spice Of Life’ album on Cadet. Re-set in this context, you do have to sit back and appreciate what a vital role the strings and orchestra play in this production, so much more than decorative backing, with that opening rousing riff they are basically a lead instrument. And then there are the symphonic psychedelics of The Rotary Connection, the interracial collective Marshall Chess had Stepney’s magic touch specifically in mind for. Just listen to their ‘Teach Me How To Fly’ soul fans, this is how it should be done. Not just soul, not merely harmonious vocalising, or symphonic production but music, you play this and it is so undeniable in its punch and power that you have to say that this is how you do music. And furthermore, this is how you do a respectful audio tribute to an immense talent for whom such a testimony has been long overdue.

Danny Neill

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