Steve Arrington's artistic and commercial zenith post-Slave -- with whom he had an outstanding four-album run and involvement with the spin-off group Aurra -- Dancin' in the Key of Life was also quite transitional. Having cut two LPs with his Hall of Fame, the funk legend was moved to Atlantic Records from its Cotillion subsidiary, matched with established producers Keg Johnson and Wilmer Raglin, and went all-the-way solo in name. He worked in Los Angeles with a crew including many session keyboardists and background ...
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Steve Arrington's artistic and commercial zenith post-Slave -- with whom he had an outstanding four-album run and involvement with the spin-off group Aurra -- Dancin' in the Key of Life was also quite transitional. Having cut two LPs with his Hall of Fame, the funk legend was moved to Atlantic Records from its Cotillion subsidiary, matched with established producers Keg Johnson and Wilmer Raglin, and went all-the-way solo in name. He worked in Los Angeles with a crew including many session keyboardists and background vocalists, guitarist George Johnson (of the Brothers Johnson), and first-call percussionist Paulinho Da Costa, whose nimble handiwork smartly intertwines with driving drum machines. Dancin' in the Key of Life doesn't induce as many satisfied grimaces as Steve Arrington's Hall of Fame I, yet its festive spirit and nonstop forward motion more than make up for the reduction of pure funk. The album's sense of communal joy can be attributed to Arrington's foregrounding of spirituality and desire to make widely embraced message music. Two shining examples are front-loaded: the rolling "Feel So Real," a song of thanks with a trumpet solo from Freddie Hubbard, and the feel-great title track (the finest unconcealed gospel crossover since Alicia Myers' "I Want to Thank You"). Both of those and four additional songs -- ranging thematically to the tragic narrative "Willie Mae" -- were written by Arrington with India Arrington, his then-new wife. The other selections were instead either written or co-written by Michael Terry; "She Just Don't Know," the better of the two, perhaps had too much in common with Stevie Wonder's "Go Home" to fare well as a single. Dancin' in the Key of Life sonically is as 1985 as In Square Circle and Alexander O'Neal, but as with those recordings, its highlights are imperishable. ~ Andy Kellman, Rovi
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