Fred Wesley & The Horny Horns — A Blow for Me, a Toot To You
A Blow for Me, a Toot To You was the first album from this Parliament-Funkadelic spin-off group. Released in the late 70’s, the six-track album served up a very horn-heavy funk/ jazz/soul sound- with, of course, the normal P-Funk vibes and wackness running through it. Here from Ace Records is a recent(ish) CD reissue of the album.
Fred Wesley & The Horny Horns seemingly formed around 1977. It was led up by trombonist Fred Wesley. Who was joined by Maceo Parker on saxophone, with Rick Gardner and Richard "Kush" Griffith on trumpets. They released three albums in all- A Blow for Me, a Toot to You (1977), Say Blow By Blow Backwards (1979), and The Final Blow (1994), which compiled together unreleased material.
The reissue finds the CD presented in a see-through jewel case. It features a sixteen-page inlay booklet, which gives a nice selection of new write-ups, original album art, vinyl labels, and band pictures.
We kick off with just over nine minutes of “Up For The Down Stroke”- it blends jiving piano keys, a strutting guitar, and a blend of mainly soulful female chorus layering. This off-course is added to swaying, vamping, and grooving horn work. It’s a nice opener, which gets effectively jammed out later on.
There’s “When In Doubt: Vamp” here, we find a decidedly sassy mix of funk bass, chiming piano notes, and huge swoons of vamping/ swinging horn work- all topped off with soul female & male vocals. There’s a rather musical/ grand quality to both the vocal layering and elegant piano darts here.
Later on, we have the instrumental “Four Play” with its tight funk bass struts, high hat hit rhythm & joint horn jiving lines. Along the tracks, nearly eight minutes, we get some nice trumpet and piano interlockings, funk bass swinging/ guitar roaring breakdowns, etc.
A Blow for Me, a Toot to You is a decent enough swinging & grooving ride of an album, and if you like your funk very horn-based, you'll be in heaven. Though at times the similar musical palette of a lot of the tracks, and some repeated vocal chants do get slightly trying. But if your P-Funk lover/ collector, it’s a must.