I have never dedicated myself to playing an instrument, yet many of my close friends have always been musicians. I learned that musicians get to communicate to each other via the instruments that they play. I could never convey the sounds in my head via an F flt or a G sharp (or whatever the terminology is) or through a complex jazz chord. I did however, harvest and dedicate myself to exposing obscure music. So, record collecting, aka digging, became the way in which I could communicate to my musician friends. I had a running dialog with some of my musician friends, one in particular was my close childhood friend Bart Davenport. At the time he was shaping his newest musical voyage 'The Supernaturals" (which became "The Kinetics") and was eager to hear what I had to say. What I had to communicate to him was the likes of Eugene McDaniels, Ellen McIlwiane, American Gypsy, and Lyman Woodard. These, and many others were treasures and discoveries that I cherished. But, I cherished and enjoyed even further seeing the Kinetics play their cover of Lyman Woodards' "Creative Musicians". Seeing that band, and hearing tones and echoes of Shuggie Otis and Mark Murphy was a sign that I could truly communicate vibes and feelings to musician friends.How I came about Lyman Woodard was through a local Oakland record store. Rick Ballards Imports aka The Groove Yard was less than a block from my house. No more than a sobering stumble and only enough time to losely gather and tame 'partied too hard' and 'last nite rock star' hair. I think often I was rubbing crust from my sleepy eyes right into the record bins. But, I saw alot in that little shop. Japanese cats searching for 'out' jazz, deejays hunting for 'breaks' and local kids looking for 'funk'. Man, seriously... A LOT of great records passed through there. Rick had a staple of tasty stuff that he exclusively distributed. I pulled goodie after goodie from that spot. Sealed copies of Shamek Farrah and many others on Strata-East, countless records on the "Black Jazz" label, Hal Singer, Smoke on MPS, and a few sealed copies of this gem of a rare groove lp. Lyman Woodard has since been re-released by the wax poetics folks. Big ups, and thanks to them for putting out this Lp and Lyman's other two Lp's "Dedicacion" and "Don't Stop the Groove". Support Groove Yard, Lyman Woodard, Wax Poetics, and last but never the least, my homie Bart Davenport.
This song while short and quite lacking in recording quality has always been, in my mind, nothing short of pure genius. n-joy!
Lyman Woodard - Creative Musicians
