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The Mizell Brothers at Blue Note Blue Note ****

During the 1970s, Larry and Fonce Mizell were the Neptunes of jazz-funk. Having individually worked as songwriters and producers on such records as The Jackson Five's I Want You Back and Donald Byrd's Black Byrd, the brothers joined forces and their Sky High tag was to appear on a string of Blue Note gems. Hip-hop cats seeking fat, funky samples were always fans of the Mizells and, on the basis of this long overdue retrospective of their time on the Blue Note payroll, it's easy to see why. This was dancefloor jazz before anyone ever coined the term "acid jazz". Groovy cuts (Rance Allen's Reason to Survive, Bobbi Humphrey's Blacks and Blues) ooze deep, soulful style and pizzazz, while Donald Byrd's (Fallin' Like) Dominoes is still as potent a tune now as when first unveiled on his Places and Spaces album. The pick of the bunch is the new Mizell remix of Byrd's Think Twice, where the space between the notes is as dramatic as everything else. www.themizellbrothers.com Jim Carroll