Admittedly, I’m not much of a flute fan. Perhaps I was scarred by seeing Ian Anderson, one leg in the air, both legs in tights, wailing away on some ponderous prog-tastic Jethro Tull tune. Or maybe it was a crush rejected by that flautist that I had a crush on in 6th grade. In any event, when I spied this album in the $.99 bin at AKA Music last week, it wasn’t Herbie Mann‘s reputation or vibe that made me pick it up – rather, it was that it was made in 1969, with the Muscle Shoals rhythm section, produced by legendary Atlantic Records staff ace Tom Dowd, and featured versions of some of my favorite soul tunes like “Chain of Fools” and “Hold On, I’m Coming.” Plus, in the photo on the back cover of the band jamming in the studio, Herbie Mann is rockin’ the flute SHIRTLESS!! Either it was HOT in the studio, the msuic was HOT, or both. I hoped for both, and I think I was right – it’s a great $.99 find!

Later on I learned that Herbie Mann had scored over 25 Top 200 albums, dabbled in the Bossa Nova / Brazilian craze early, did an album with Duane Allman, started his own label, cut reggae sides, and survived some cheesy late ’70s disco-jazz, only to succumb to prostate cancer at 73 in 2003. And he apparently often posed without his shirt – as on this album cover from ’71 clearly illustrates.

Today we’ll groove on a great version of “Hold On, I’m Coming” from Memphis Underground – hopefully Herbie and Isaac are jamming on this one somewhere today…

Rockin’ some Flute from a live TV appearance!