Steve Arrington - Dancin' In The Key Of Life

Steve Arrington was a legend where I grew up. His period with Slave was widely considered to be their best work, and Slave were, like, deep-cut superheroes of the soul/funk scene. Arrington has a voice like no-one else. And whilst his previous two Hall Of Fame albums had been perhaps a bit left-field for most, the excitement around the arrival of this album, in 1985, was palpable.

The album’s three bangers, Feel So Real, Dancin’ In The Key Of Life and Turn Up The Love sounded MASSIVE on a club soundsystem. In fact they sound MASSIVE in my kitchen this morning.

Feel So Real has a trumpet solo by Freddie Hubbard, no less, and Paulinho Da Costa lays a patina of beautiful tippy-tappy percussion across the whole album.

Lyrics frequently verge into the sneaky gospel and are generally uplifting, although Willie Mae is the bleak story of the death of a child.

On the 12th July 1985, Steve Arrington played the Hammersmith Odeon (thanks again RaysGigs). I was there. I was disappointed. He played the album, jammed with the band for a bit then fucked off home. I had a letter published in Blues & Soul magazine whingeing about it, which I feel a bit embarrassed about now. But this was like, I dunno, Elvis coming over and playing just his Moody Blue album (yeah, I know he died soon after it was released, but you get my point.)

I’m very glad to see Arrington has experienced something of a revival in recent years, with Thundercat, particularly, featuring him. His voice is still incredible.

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