Reachin’ cover

Reachin’

Released

Perhaps the only deep cut left off of Nate Patrin’s otherwise exhaustive guide to the Mizell Brothers, Roger Glenn’s 1976 album Reachin’ is often an outlier. In skimming the cream of the brothers’ awesome ’70s run, other Mizell compilations often wind up excluding Glenn as well. But as session flautist and vibraphonist for Donald Byrd’s Street Lady and Johnny Hammond’s Gears, Glenn was an integral cog of the Mizell’s sound, flying high across their charts on those classics (that might even be him in the plane on the cover of Places and Spaces, as Glenn was a licensed pilot).

From the murmuration of blackbirds on the cover to Glenn in a cockpit on the back cover, flight is a theme, even if the grooves root down. Featuring a stripped-down sound, with Larry Mizell’s ARP work at the fore, Glenn leans heavily into hectic Latin rhythms (“Rio”), vaseline-lensed R&B (“Gloria”), and slinky Blaxploitation grooves (“Kick”), nudging the Mizells’ template just a bit further out than on their better-known productions. Closer “Rezo Chango” strips it all back to a Cuban drum circle chant. But this would prove to be Glenn’s lone album, a lovely solo flight.

Andy Beta

Suggestions
Blowout cover

Blowout

John Carroll Kirby
The Master cover

The Master

Chico Hamilton
Jazz Is Dead 6: Gary Bartz cover

Jazz Is Dead 6: Gary Bartz

Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Adrian Younge, Gary Bartz
Vini Reilly cover

Vini Reilly

The Durutti Column
Fancy Free cover

Fancy Free

Donald Byrd
Magical Shepherd cover

Magical Shepherd

Miroslav Vitous
Dolphin cover

Dolphin

Gigi Masin, Greg Foat
To Know Without Knowing cover

To Know Without Knowing

Mulatu Astatke, Black Jesus Experience
DonatoDeodato cover

DonatoDeodato

João Donato, Eumir Deodato