Forty years after the Valentine Brothers released the acerbic “Money’s Too Tight (to Mention)”, lead vocalist Billy Valentine relaunches both his solo career and a legendary long-dormant record label with this set of social-commentary covers. Recorded in the shadow of both the pandemic and George Floyd’s murder, Valentine’s seductive high tenor, honed by decades as a top LA session singer, makes each lyric count. Works by Prince and Curtis Mayfield are in the mix and young jazz star guests underline the music’s contemporary edge.
Titled Billy Valentine and the Universal Truth, the album’s jazz-meets-soul approach is established from the off with alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins introducing Mayfield’s “We the People Who Are Darker Than Blue”. As sax curls soulfully over lean Larry Goldings’ Fender Rhodes, sparse drums establish a funereal pace and breathy low sax cues soaring vocals.
Later, Joel Ross adds blues-etched vibes on Eddie Kendricks’s “My People . . . Hold On”, and Stevie Wonder’s “You Haven’t Done Nothing” is enhanced by Goldings’ on-the-money acoustic piano. Theo Croker adds smoky trumpet atmospherics to Prince’s “Sign o’ the Times”, and a definitive reading of Pharaoh Sanders and Leon Thomas’s “The Creator Has a Master Plan” smoulders at just above ballad tempo over the sensuous precision of Linda May Han Oh’s bass.
Two tracks in, the fine-tuned rhythm section pulsates under Gil Scott-Heron’s “Home Is Where the Hatred Is”, originally released on Bob Thiele’s Flying Dutchman label in 1971 — the late producer launched Scott-Heron’s recording career, but is best known for his Impulse! sessions with John Coltrane. Thiele’s son, Bob Jr, a long-term Valentine collaborator, now heads the rebooted label which has co-produced this album. Soft vocal harmonies and stinging Jeff Parker lead guitar confirm production values remain lucid, lean and clear.
The album ends with Valentine and his rhythm section delivering gospel power on “Wade in the Water” and bittersweet edge on War’s “The World is a Ghetto”. Throughout, Valentine’s emotional range and vibrant diction ensure hard-hitting lyrics remain pointed today.
★★★★☆
‘Billy Valentine and the Universal Truth’ is released by Flying Dutchman/Acid Jazz; Billy Valentine and the Universal Truth are playing at The Forge, London from April 7-8
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