Bobbi Humphrey – You Make Me Feel So Good (1975) (recorded August 5, 1975)

Fonce and Larry Mizell co-wrote and arranged this smooth jam for the Fancy Dancer LP, their third collaboration with Humphrey and her final Blue Note album.

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From August 5-7, 1975, flautist Bobbi Humphrey was at The Sound Factory in Los Angeles, recording her superb jazz-funk LP Fancy Dancer for Blue Note Records. It was her fifth studio album, her final release on Blue Note, and the last of her three classic collaborations with the Mizell Brothers.

Starting with her third studio album Blacks And Blues (1973), Humphrey teamed with songwriter/producers Fonce and Larry Mizell on a trio of critically acclaimed and commercially successful jazz-funk LP’s on Blue Note. Satin Doll (1974) came next, featuring the sublime opening cut “New York Times” (which was recorded at the Sound Factory on August 5, 1974), and Fancy Dancer completed the trio.

All three were produced or co-produced by Larry, with Fonce appearing on trumpet, clavinet and vocals. Larry wrote most of the albums’ songs, with Fonce co-writing several on Fancy Dancer. The brothers co-arranged the albums, assisted on Blacks And Blues and Satin Doll by their frequent collaborator Freddie Perren. Fonce and Perren made up half of The Corporation, Motown’s anonymous songwriting and production team set up by Berry Gordy to prevent them from becoming stars in their own right, as had happened with legendary Motown producers Holland-Dozier-Holland.

Saxophonist and former Motown recording engineer Chuck Davis co-produced all three records with Larry and contributed vocals to them, wrote or co-wrote some tracks on Satin Doll and Fancy Dancer, and played keyboards on Fancy Dancer.

Fonce and Larry co-wrote and arranged the smooth jam “You Make Me Feel So Good,” which was one of the album’s first tracks to be recorded on August 5, 1975.

Also recorded that day was the album’s stellar title track, which was written and arranged by keyboardist Jerry Peters. Besides Larry on keyboards and Fonce on trumpet and clavinet, the LP’s all-star personnel included Harvey Mason on drums, Chuck Rainey on bass, Dorothy Ashby on harp, Julian Priester on trombone, legendary songwriter/producer Skip Scarborough on keyboards (who would go on to produce Humphrey’s next album Tailor Made for Epic Records) and Curtis Mayfield’s longtime guitarist Craig McMullen.

“The people were digging it,” said Larry Mizell years later in the liner notes to the Fancy Dancer CD reissue. “A lot of critics would put a label of 'jazz' on our music and then say, 'This is not jazz,' when it wasn't jazz in the first place. It was instrumental funk.”

#jazz #funk #BlueNote #MizellBrothers #BobbiHumphrey