Consumer Guide Album

Booker T. & the MG's: Greatest Hits [Stax, 1970]
Because the sound of the organ invites textured vagueness as surely as that of the vibraphone does tinkly fluff, there are better ways to hear such themes as "Eleanor Rigby" and "Something" (both hits for another group, by the way) than on Booker's Hammond B-3. But when the improvs begin, we're back in riffland, where such spare, exemplary soul melodies as "Hip Hug Her" and "Time Is Tight" were born--and where Mr. T. can get back to fleshing out (and heating up) the disciplined cross-rhythms of his Memphis Group. A−