1972 The Bobby Hamilton Quintet Unlimited “Dream Queen” on Alafia

This record is just dying to fake you out. The cover comes across as a hard-banging funk grail, which it totally is not. Neither is it a former Motown backup singer trying to make it big with her one-off obscurity of Beatles covers. Plus the Quintet/Unlimited in the title makes it seem like a hybrid of Miles/Barry White. Also incorrect. So, any random listener would be forgiven for being surprised that it’s actually a Rhodes-driven soul jazz workout with a heavy vibes background (Brother Fundi) in the Billy Wooten realm, plus congas and slick horn arrangements that feature the flugelhorn of Mike Spengler, who blew with the Isleys a bit, and Abrahm Brown on tenor, who sounds a lot like Junior Cook. Credit is given to Susan Blake for art/design, so I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that’s her on the cover, although Sue’s gaze to me is neither dreamy nor royal. She looks pissed. She looks like you forgot her birthday, or is maybe just sad at the state of a world in which Bobby Hamilton was not a household name like Brother Jack McDuff. Hamilton went on to form Anubis, which only released one single before disbanding, which is a shame, because it’s some killer soul funk mini wax. In the end, “Dream Queen” is a totally chill soul groover not scared to get a little bit out at times and start channeling Ra, but mostly is PRIME music for tooling around town with the top down. Top action!