Leo Nocentelli
★★★★ Another Side
LIGHT IN THE ATTIC. CD/DL/LP
Long-lost ’70s ‘folk’ album by legendary funk/ R&B guitarist.
REISSUES label Light In The Attic excels at digging up really fine obscurities, and this album is both. Not that Leo Nocentelli’s particularly obscure – he has a Lifetime Achievement Grammy, but for playing guitar with artists like The Meters, Otis Redding and The Temptations and writing songs sung by Bootsy Collins, The Neville Brothers and Etta James. Still, as the title says, there was once another side. He recorded these 10 songs more than 50 years ago between gigs and sessions at a time when mellow singer-songwriters ruled, opening with an acoustic Thinking Of The Day and closing with a very cool cover of Elton John’s then-new hit Your Song. There’s electric as well as acoustic guitar; blues (Riverfront) as much as folk rock (Tell Me Why, a touch CSN-y); and a soulful, mellow band that includes Allen Toussaint, James Black and The Meters’ rhythm. Thorough linernotes tell the whole story.