Theme From Shaft
Arranged By – John Gibbs
Written-By – Hayes
University of the West Indies in Jamaica where he earned his
undergraduate and graduate degrees and formed The Jamaica All Stars
Steel Band. This was the start of a dual career in science and music
that eventually took him to the United States.
He moved to Philadelphia in the mid-70s and met Philly arranger/producer
Louis A. deLise, with whom he collaborated to create a new steel pan
music, welding Trinidadian steel music to Philly soul. He researched and
advocated a new style of steel pan music, describing the steel pan as
an ‘omnivibraphone’ in his 1978 book The Unit Steel Band, in which he combined his scientific and musical backgrounds to illuminate the physics of the steel pan.
Gibbs’ innate musicality comes to the fore on Steel Funk, where
he compiles several years of experience with deLise into an appealing
Trini-Philly groove union, with the five steel pan players of the
Unlimited Sound of Steel Orchestra working in sync with a 30-piece
studio orchestra of brass, strings and rhythm. The songs range from
Calypso to film theme to pop standard, covers and originals, but Steel Funk
is not a chintzy pastiche, it’s a glorious unity. We offer this
re-release as ‘the 2014 version’, newly remastered, with improved sound
quality, a different track order and new cover art drawn by Yoshihiro
Tsuyama/2Yang.
