In 1974 Tarika Blue were signed to New York jazz label, Chiaroscuro Records, founded by producer Hank O’Neal. Their first album, ‘The Blue Path’ was all instrumental of soaring jazz funk, a finely crafted weapon in the armoury of any self-respecting DJ or collector of jazz and funk. The opening track, ‘Blue Neptune’, has always reminded me of the sound of a rainforest at the dawn chorus (not that I have experienced one, sadly); the forest slowly awakening as the sun rises and splinters of light enter the dank gloom beneath the jungle canopy. The bubbling bass and splashes of percussion play and bounce like a stream gurgling and percolating through rocks and the interlayers and textures of horns and keyboards echo the calls and screams of the birds and other denizens that share their arboreal habitat. Tarika Blue’s keen ear and feel for dynamics within a track is shown clearly on ‘Sunshower’; from opening on a tight bossa, then to a head nodding beat, the track suddenly injects nitro into the tempo and the band get cooking. There is some excellent guitar from Japanese jazz icon Ryo Kawasaki and the band motor along delivering some heavyweight jazz funk before cooling out with a final change down in gear. Playing at speed yet keeping it tight and fluid really can test many musicians. On ‘Revelation’, Tarika Blue deliver a jazz dance killer with a dervish like horn line, exultant guitar solo and colouration from Phil Clendenin’s dripping electric piano, all backed with a driving bass and red-hot drumming holding it together nicely.