Time and Place (Digitally Remastered)

Album review

Lee Moses' 1971 LP on Maple Records called Time and Place has long been the Holy Grail for R&B and soul collectors, and one listen to this Atlanta musician's scratchy and funky guitar playing and his raspy and throat shedding deep soul singing style should be enough to convince anyone that he was indeed a great lost soul treasure. Moses, who died unsung in Atlanta in 1997, recorded a handful of singles for the Musicor, Dynamo and Gates imprints in the late '60s and early '70s as well as that sole LP, and Castle Music has finally put all of it together in what is essentially a complete recorded works package. It's easy to hear what all the fuss is about. This guy was the real deal, playing and singing with an uncommon passion and tracks here like the powerfully emotional "I'm Sad About It," the funky and name-checking tour de force "Got That Will," and the stunning ballad "My Adorable One" (there are two versions of this song included here, and both are gems) should have been huge radio hits in a fair and equitable world. Also impressive are the instrumental versions of "Reach Out I'll Be There" and "Day Tripper" which were originally released as a doubled-sided single by Musicor in 1967, both cuts exhibiting an engagingly ragged and soulful exuberance that still sounds fresh and vital forty-odd years later and show Moses to be a finely nuanced and undeniably funky guitarist. But it is Moses' searing vocals that will garner most of the attention, which is as it should be. Taken as a whole, this edition of Time and Place sounds like a secular gospel meeting with Moses' singing passing for a fired-up preacher's impassioned sermon as he shouts, growls and purrs through the ins and outs and the ups and downs of love as convincingly as any soul singer one can name. That Moses never had so much as a regional hit seems criminal and his death in 1997 in complete obscurity is an incalculable tragedy. Big thanks go out to Castle Music for bringing these remarkable lost treasures of Lee Moses back into the world. [Time and Place was also released with bonus tracks.]
© Steve Leggett /TiVo