Soul Village

Walter Bishop Jr.’s jazz bona fides go back to the source, banging bebop piano at Minton’s and making dates with the likes of Charlie Parker, being an original member of Art Blakey’s Messengers (the Jazz would be added later), and backing a young Miles Davis. Then a drug rap, loss of his cabaret license, and the ever-shifting sands of jazz led him to cool out on the scene and take up teaching music theory instead. But in the ’70s, he made his way back to the recording studio. This tasty 1977 session might scan as an old hand trying to keep up with the kids, but offers up far more thrills than that. There’s a bright three-piece frontline, future fusion guitarist Steve Khan, Pat Metheny bassist Mark Egan, even a female conga player! All of the bop-inflected funk gets held together by Bishop’s indelible touch on the Fender Rhodes.