Tarika Blue The Blue Path

This essential release is pressed on heavyweight vinyl. The reord is also housed in original glued prints on thick 700 gram cardboard packed to additional protective PVC outer sleeve.

By 1975, jazz funk fusion was massively popular, varied and rapidly evolving. But for every chart topping and arena filling act, there were hundreds of regional and local bands that - if they were lucky - managed to record a single or two, or even an album. They never sold large numbers, or made it rich but they did produce some seriously top drawer music that, over the years, has grown in stature and myth. Tarika Blue is in that category and “The Blue Path” was their declaration of intent.

Tarika Blue was formed in 1973 by Phil Clendenin while he was a student at Syracuse University. Clendenin was a sometime keyboard session player and studio engineer who surrounded himself with rising players and talent to create a formidable unit centred around the core line-up of Clendenin, drummer Kevin Atkins and bassist Barry Coleman. This triumvirate rhythm section was augmented by various passing members that included sax player Marvin Blackman (who also worked with Rashied Ali) as well as some stellar guitarists who would go on the assume cult status on the jazz/funk scene: Ryo Kawasaki and James Mason (Clendenin would go on to engineer Mason’s ‘Rhythm of Life’ album featuring that all-time rare groove calssic ‘Sweet Power, Your Embrace’). Also worth noting is that fact that sometime around 74-75, Clendenin was also a member of another act called the Big Apple Band, featuring a bassist Nile Rodgers and guitarist Bernard Edwards…

In 1974 Tarika Blue were signed to New York jazz label, Chiaroscuro Records, founded by producer Hank O’Neal. Their first album, “The Blue Path” was all instrumental of soaring jazz funk, a finely crafted weapon in the armory of any self-respecting DJ or collector of jazz and funk. As an opening side of an album, Side A of ‘The Blue Path’ doesn’t have a weak moment: the pacing, arrangement and length of the tracks work just right; the finely considered balance of funk with jazz illustrate why it is no wonder the album became a DJ favourite and a highly sought after prize among jazz/funk aficionados.

Side B continues to maintain the quality at 24 carat purity. The playing on the breezy and gleeful ‘Downtown Sound’ is a showcase for the saxophone of Marvin Blackman but there’s enough to satisfy jazz guitar fans and devotees of funky synth and keys.

‘The Blue Path’ is regarded as one of the best jazz funk albums and it’s not hard to hear why. The bravura and muscular dexterity found in the best jazz artists, balanced with the groove and funk of the finest gritty bands from across the tracks, this album is a stone cold killer from the opening note to the closing fade out.