Consumer Guide Album

The Voices of East Harlem: Right On Be Free [Elektra, 1971]
Producer-manager Jerry Brandt has done a pretty good job of recording this untransportable troupe of twenty or so black adolescents. Except for an unnecessary "Proud Mary" and an embarrassing "Let It Be Me" (a/k/a "Let It Be Us"), it shouts and almost jumps, just like church, or a basketball tournament. Michael Jackson Award: Kevin Griffin on the 6:45-minute "Shaker Life." B-