1989 Weldon Irvine “Weldon & The Kats” on Nodlew Music.

Yeah, every Weldon release is worth its weight in gold and must be immediately acquired even if it means sacrificing food or the love of your family, although, all Weldon’s are necessary for different reasons, a fact that only highlights his probing intellect and melodic genius. In terms of this wax, let’s start with the MASSIVE lineup that just so happens to boast Lenny “Venusian Summer” White on drums, Marcus Miller on clavinet AND bass, Steve “Some Shapes To Come” Grossman on tenor, Bobby “Steely Dan Sideman” Broom on guitar, and Ed “The Fatback Band” Jackson on alto. 
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There’s 7 Irvine tunes (he supposedly wrote more than 500 overall) and a cover of “Mr. P.C.” To be fair, this one is sort of a grab bag of private outings with changing session personnel, since Irvine, Grossman, and White recorded the Coltrane cover in 1968, and most of the other stuff is from various 80’s dates. But hey, if you want consistency you’ve come to the wrong artist, and should probably invest in some ECM titles instead. The great thing about this record is that the warped-cerebellum cosmic funk we all know and love is put on hold for a bit, and there’s a lot of very earnest straight jazz, tons of electric piano, and plenty of sweet soul as well. It’s a rare and unusual side of Weldon, and we are lucky to have it in any iteration! Hell yes, top action.