Diana Brown & Barrie K. Sharpe: The Black, The White, The Yellow and the Brown (And Don't Forget The Red Man), 1992

ffrr/Acid Jazz CD (UK), 1992

1. Masterplan (ropeman mix)
2. Colours (Black, White, Yellow, Brown, Red)
3. Eating Me Alive (Part 1)
4. No Turning
5. Hear My Prayer
6. Don't Cross the Tracks
7. Love or Nothing (Onceller Mix)
8. Tell It Like It Is
9. Sunworshipppers (Part 1 & Part 2)
10. Free

bonus:
The Masterplan CD Single (ffrr CD, UK 1990)
1. The Master Plan (7-inch)
2. Yes It's You (from 1987)
3. The Master Plan (ext. version)

Album credits: Diana Brown, lead voc; Barrie K. Sharpe, voc, perc
Robin Goodfellow, bs, keys, gtr; Sir Michael Talbot, org, fender rhodes, synth; Colin Robinson, gtr; Bryan Powell, Tracey Ackerman, Deborah Ann Dyer, Kathleen Pearson Thomas, Mint Juleps, Linda Muriel, bg voc; Steve White, drums; Crispin Taylor, drums; James Taylor, fender rhodes, hammond organ; Crispin Robinson, perc; others incl horns

"No chains around your neck
But are you really free
When there's brothers and sisters
Still suffering from mindless brutality
Our bellies our full
But our hearts are still hungry."
--from original liner notes

Here's another slice of youthful acid jazz nostalgia from early 1990s Britain. Let me say off the bat that if you're only here for far-out freaky jazz you should probably skip this one. This is, loosely, an ambitious anti-racist concept album of funky grooves that really suggested at the time, to my American ears, that something profound had just happened across the ocean and that the music of the next British invasion would no longer be limited to white guys playing rock and roll.

Combining samples and live playing, the album has a naivete and exuberance that is at times infectious and at other times, frankly, a little ponderous and overblown. It tags acid jazz, northern soul, hip-hop, and shuffle-beat clubby pop music, built around the theme of racial unity and justice. Some of the songs are really catchy and hook-filled, some a little rote and uninspired. There's a somewhat annoying conceit of Mr. Sharpe, I presume, moaning between songs along with poetic recitations that're one of those concept-album devices they probably should have thought better of.

But I love this kinda stuff. I'm not sure if it was the end of the era of Reagan and Thatcher or what, but club music and acid jazz was suddenly, in the beginning of the 1990s, full of all these optimistic "we shall overcome" peace and justice message songs. That they were also filled with jazzy reference points was also unbelievably cool to me at the time. I heard the "Master Plan" single on one of those ffrr records compilations back in the day. While its title is a bit of sideways reference to the great "The Creator Has a Masterplan," unlike the very similar group from the same period Galliano, Brown & Sharpe don't actually work in any actual jazz covers to their album. The album itself seems to have been a bit of an afterthought to that single itself, coming out a couple years after "Master Plan" had been a hit. I've included as a bonus here the CD single of that song, whose 7-minute version is the definitely hit-worthy version. Also from that CD single is what must have been one of their first songs, "Yes It's You," recorded in 1987 and successfully channelling a Motown/1960s soul vibe. The tune "Don't Cross Tracks" contains a lyric that's cracks me up every time I play this record: "hot pants means trouble."

I don't recall this album going very far: there was no American release, and putting out an album two years after your hit single is probably not a great marketing technique. It doesn't stand out as a major landmark of acid jazz--it's a little unfocused for that--but it's definitely worth revisiting now. It was certainly among the groundbreaking albums for the nu-soul/jazz groove scene that remains vibrant today. Anybody know what happened to Brown and Sharpe? "Positive thinking!"

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