ROOSEVELT GRIER - SOUL CITY (US 1964)

Stunning bit of uptown soul cut by this lost soul singer who's better known to the world as a heavy duty football player for the LA Rams. The album's got a classic uptown feel, with lots of fragile arrangements, tight orchestrations, and deep haunting vocals from Rosie. Jack Nitzsche did the arrangements (in what was probably one of his only soul sessions), and Bobby Darin produced the whole thing (as, in the words of the liner notes, "an album for everyone who ever felt oppressed" -- nice one, Bobby). Forget about the gimmicky side of this, though, because the record's a great batch of soul in a classic tradition, with the cuts "In My Tenement", "Fool, Fool, Fool", "Soul City", "Uptown", and "Down So Long Plaat en hoes zijn super