Help Me Make It Through the Night

Alto sax wiz Hank Crawford had already had a distinguished jazz career, including eleven albums for Atlantic, when he recorded this distinguished 1972 set of soul jazz and blues for the Kudu label. Tunes like the title track and “Ham” are chunky, jazz-for-dancers jams with one foot solidly in the R’n’B tradition, complete with chicken scratch guitars, call and response horns, and church organ lending a celebratory, almost New Orleans feel to them. But a big section in the middle of the album is given over to strolling, down-tempo bluesy numbers sweetened by widescreen orchestration that create a multi-layered soul jazz wall of sound, the opulence of the strings working in juxtaposition with Crawford’s expert bluesy licks, the funky rhythm section, and grinding Hammond organ. A big, brassy, bluesy album from Crawford.