Retro Reviews: James Brown: Hot Pants

      I decided to launch a new series to imagine myself as a critic at the end of the 70s and start of the 80s, and to rectify certain reviews from Rolling Stone magazine and Creem. This not meant to be contrarian, but to offer a more balanced perspective. All the albums reviewed are indeed classic albums. 

James Brown – Hot Pants (1971)

****

Producer: James Brown

Musicians: James Brown, Bobby Byrd, Jerone “Jassan” Sanford, Russell Grimes, Jimmy Parker, St. Clair Pinckney, Fred Wesley, Hearlon “Cheese” Martin, Robert Coleman, Fred Thomas, Johnny Griggs, John “Jabo” Starks

Songs: Blues & Pants, Can’t Stand It, Escape-ism Pt 1. Escape-ism Pt 2, Hot Pants (She Got To Use What She Got To Get What She Wants)

Reviewed By Matthew Anthony Allair

    This album looks to be the first title for Polydor, and as a follow-up to the prior album Sho Is Funky Down Here, this seems a retool for more appeal, but the emphasis remains on groove - make no mistake about it. The prior album had elements of psychedelic blues soul, and this has switched back to a more soul and funk infusion.  That album had been an instrumental, but it also validated just how good and tight his current band is. Many of the players have changed and while he still has a circle of players he had in the last decade, he has a new roster that can live up to the past. Often the duel guitar of Coleman and Martin, and their interplay keeps it interesting, while Fred Thomas acts as the anchor. He has always used top tier Horn players, Jimmy Parter and Fred Wesley remain fine soloists, they aren’t trying to have the improvisational flare of jazz players – then again, they don’t need to. James and Bobby Byrd trade organ duties. Often there’s an informal feeling with James as the band leader.

    The opener “Blues and Pants” feels like a warmup. But with a very clever jazz flavored breakdown. The interplay of “Can’t Stand It” has James’s egging on the rhythm section into new heights with allowances for Fred Wesley to really stretch out. The groove of “Escape-ism Py 1” has a little of the sensibility of the instrumental album, but there’s a party feeling that is designed to egg on an audience. “Part 2” reminds me of the two part single of Ray Charles “What’d I Say” from over a decade before. The organ and horn solos stretch out the spirit of the moment; The relatability of his bandmates mirrors the relatability of the audience. 

    The success of “Hot Pants (She Got To Use What She Got To Get What She Wants}” isn’t much of a surprise, it has a steady groove with some inventive section breakdowns This is all designed to put on at a party, and get gusts up and about, and this archives this very well. Brown still understands his audience and makes of good point of satisfying them.