+ from tarika blue to erykah badu.
+ inspired by a post in a facebook group as to who played a certain instrument on a song, we decided to provide a bit more insight, especially since it has to do with jazz.
the history of tarika blue, led by new york session player phil clendeninn, was a lyrical, highly melodic fusion/jazz-funk outfit that had a small following (mostly on the east coast) in the '70s. clendininn’s combo wasn't as well known as lonnie liston smith & the cosmic echoes but there are definite parallels between the two. like the cosmic echoes, tarika blue favored a very spiritual, mystical approach that owed something to acoustic post-bop as well as soul, funk, pop & rock. tarika blue shared the cosmic echoes' appreciation of modal post-bop heavyweights like john coltrane, mccoy tyner, pharoah sanders, charles lloyd & yusef lateef.
in fact, smith & clandeninn are both pianist/keyboardists who were influenced by tyner’s playing. clandeninn wasn't a jazz purist any more than lonnie liston smith & his cosmic echoes were; both of them used electric instruments & were well aware of what was going on in the r&b as well as the rock worlds.
tarika blue & the cosmic echoes both provided accessible instrumentals as well as vocal offerings; but while smith often featured his brother donald smith, clandeninn preferred to use female vocalists.
clandeninn who is a a native new yorker, formed tarika blue around 1973, when he was a student at syracuse university in upstate new york. at the time he was doing a lot of commuting to & from the big apple. he, bassist barry coleman & drummer kevin atkins were the core of the group & other musicians who played with tarika blue included marvin blackman (tenor sax), justo almario (soprano sax), james mason (electric guitar) & japanese immigrant ryo kawasaki (electric guitar).
the band's various female singers included tequila (who had worked with drummer toby williams’ lifetime), lisa fisher, irene datcher & dolores smith. it was in 1974 that clendeninn met hank o’neal, president of the independent, new york-based chiaroscuro records.
oneal’s company is best known for hard bop & swing, but he made an exception in tarika blue’s case & ended up co-producing their self-titled debut album in 1976 as well as their second album, the blue path in 1977. while tarika blue’s first lp was totally instrumental, the Blue Path featured irene datcher & dolores smith on vocals.
it should be noted that around 1974 & 1975, clendeninn was also a member of a disco/soul/funk outfit called the big apple band, whose other members included guitarist nile rodgers & the late bassist bernard edwards. in case you didn’t know that a few years later, rodgers & edwards founded the seminal disco-funk powerhouse chic & became superstar producer/songwriters.
tarika blue never recorded a third album; but their recordings continued to interest people long after their breakup. in 2001, the legendary hip hop producer james dewitt ‘j-dilla’ yancey sampled ‘dreamflower’ from tarika blue in his production for urban contemporary/soul superstar erykah badu. the sample was used for her smash hit ‘didn't cha know’.
‘dreamflower’ has also been sampled by the underwolves, a british jungle/drum'n'bass/electronica act.
in 2002, chiaroscuro reissued both of tarika blue’s '70s lps on a self-titled cd, which came out on the company's downtown sound label, which can be found on apple music.
+ tarika blue.