Cornell Dupree's Teasin'

There are days that I really miss the thrill of the hunt.  The challenge at appearing at a record store, whether it be one previously unexplored or one that is comfortably familiar, and finding a long-sought treasure.  My record hunting days were at its height during the vinyl years, CDs diminished that role significantly (although late in the CD age I revived my skills hunting for obscurities in the $ .50 bins).  The emergence online sales of music through iTunes in particular, seems to have finally killed off this impulse. 

This has not, however, been a completely negative experience.  Occasionally, iTunes has afforded me the opportunity to sample obscure, but excellent music that would have never appeared in any of the local shops regardless of how new or old the music was.  An example of this occurred late last week as I was finally able to purchase a digital copy of Cornell Dupree's Teasin' album (originally released in 1974, but now re-released by Rhino).  The first discussion of this record I came across was in the original red-covered Rolling Stone Record Guide from 1978.

Teasin' was listed as a four-star record; excellent, but not essential.  My experience in buying albums over the year is the while five-star records are the essential recordings; oftentimes four-star records are more fun to listen to.  In this regard, Dupree's all-instrumental Teasin' does not disappoint.

The title track, for example, smokes as a Meter's style funk tune with just a slight bluesy edge.  The second track "Blue Nocturne" skip straight into a silky smoothy blues structure, starting out in a very standard manner, but adding wonderful organ with fights for space with the Dupree's guitar, eventually adding in a wonderful horn section.  "Jamaican Lady", despite its title, has only a difficult to hear hint of the third beat emphasis found in reggae music, and sound more like the MOR jazz fusion of the era (although it is expertly played).  Not a bad track, but perhaps the weakest cut on the record.  Fortunately, "Feel All Right", the next track, cooks as an upbeat blues; it is something one could imagine B. B. King playing on one of his late 1970s albums (and it has a killer saxophone solo).  The disco beat propelling "How Long Will It Last" amazingly sounds less dated that "Jamaican Lady", although horrible flashbacks to sitting and watching episodes of The Love Boat do persist.  We are back into slow smokey blues territory with "What Would I Do Without You"; once again Dupree's articulate guitar playing dominates.  "Okie Dokie Stops" simply rocks, and album closes with the "Plain Ol' Blues".  All-in-all a worthy album to add to your collection, and one I'm glad to have when I am in the mood.


On a scale of 1 to 10, Teasin' ranks a healthy 7.5. The VC movie and music rating system works like this (ranking from worst to best):


1: I wouldn't be caught dead with this album!!! 
2: You have this album (there must be some good reason, right)!?!
3: Why do you have this album?
4: Mediocre, but not bad album.
5: Average album.
6: Good album.
7: Excellent album.
8: Why don't you have this album?
9: You don't have this album (there must be some good reason, right)!?!
10: I wouldn't be caught dead without this album!!!