Two Headed Freap

How hot was the playing of 20 year-old keyboardist Ronnie Foster? So hot that seemingly right as he stepped off the Cliché Lounge stage (captured on Grant Green’s Alive album from 1970), he was signed to Blue Note, all dues paid, a sideman no more. His debut Two Headed Freap makes good on that promise, a soul-jazz smoker that’s deliriously funky throughout. His organ evokes the manic energy of Wilson Pickett on “Don’t Knock My Love” and other covers (Al Green, Gamble & Huff) all quickly come to a boil. A landmark in what would later be called “acid jazz,” it doesn’t hurt that the simmering groove of “Mystic Brew” was revitalized for a new generation when A Tribe Called Quest flipped it for “Electric Relaxation.”