The Shadow Does It.

Artist: Gary Bartz
Title: The Shadow Do
Label: Prestige
Year: 1975
Format: Vinyl LP (Original)

Review
The Shadow Do…definitely my favorite LP by Baltimore’s own, Gary Bartz. Sad that this album gets very little recognition by most, however, I’m bringing it to the attention of my readers!!! This album is great for a number of reasons, (1) the Mizell Brothers produced the album, (2) one of my favorite groups sampled one of my favorite tracks on this album, (3) Bartz brought a style of his own to the sound of the saxophone, in my opinion, he steps away from what is known as traditional, playing out these abstract melodies from time to time during this LP, (4) a spacey feel is created here through his music, this is the music of dreams, (5) and last but not least, Bartz doesn’t write much with his lyrics, but he writes very WELL…creativity shines bright when listening to tracks like “Love Tones”, where Bartz explains his love for playing his sax.

I really hope you all enjoy the sound clips (provided below), this is kind of like one of those lost and forgotten albums that needs to be heard for sure! Enjoy.

Gentle Smiles

• Play

Love Tones

• Play

Winding Roads

• Play

Notable
Produced by the Mizell Brothers

Design
The art for this album cover is pretty nice! Simple…but nice. I love the thought bubble coming from Bartz, it really creates a sweet little juxtaposition against the grainy, sort of earth-toned washed out background. The art being enclosed within the black box was a Prestige Record Co. standard at the time, all artists during this period had the same typeface, and widely-kerned lock up. I guess to show some sort of uniform…anyway, another thing ya gotta love is the afro here, it’s maaaaaaaaaaaajor! LOL!

posted by: Darien of flwrpt