Johnny Lytle
★★★★
People & Love
CRAFT RECORDINGS. LP
Soul-jazz vibes player’s cult 1973 album.
From Springfield, Ohio, Lytle (1932-1995) divided his time as a youngster between learning to box and playing the drums. Although he became a successful pugilist, in the late ’50s he concentrated on music, playing drums for Ray Charles and Jimmy Witherspoon before switching to the vibraphone. Once described by Lionel Hampton as “the greatest vibes player in the world” because of his lightning-fast melodic runs, Lytle had 15 albums to his name before releasing People & Love in 1973. Long out of print, the album finds Lytle combining three progressive original numbers with jazzy covers of recent soul hits: the Donny Hathaway-Roberta Flack gem Where Is The Love? and a wild deconstruction of The Stylistics’ People Make The World Go Round. Lytle offers a dizzying display of virtuosity on the tense and funky Tawhid while Libra offers a dreamy spiritual vibe.