A Black Man's Soul

Album Review

When he was out on tour in 1969 with his regular gig, the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, Ike Turner found the time to cut the instrumental album A Black Man's Soul. Whenever he had some spare time he would drag the band into a local studio and lay down tracks, resulting in these 12 funky soul jams that sound like they were lifted from the soundtrack to a blaxploitation film. The band is tight and laid-back at once, with horns at the forefront most of the time. Turner came up with some fine grooves like "Thinking Black," "Getting Nasty" (with Billy Preston on piano), "Scotty Souling," "Nuttin' Up," and the monumental "Funky Mule." However, the record lacks Turner's usual fire and flair and ultimately is too polite and slick to be very memorable ("Funky Mule" aside). [The 2004 reissue on Funky Delicacies adds an instrumental version of "Chain of Fools" plus three tracks with Tina on vocals. The addition of her vocals provides the fire that the rest of the album lacks; of course she tears it up, but the band sounds tougher too, especially on their moody cover of "Drifting Blues."]