Released in 1979,
Say Blow by Blow Backwards is the second of two albums that Fred Wesley and the Horny Horns (which employed
Maceo Parker on tenor and alto sax) recorded for Atlantic in the late 1970s.
Wesley produced this album with
George Clinton and
Bootsy Collins and it comes as no surprise that "We Came to Funk Ya" and shadowy "Half a Man" are straight-up p-funk. But some of the time
Say Blow by Blow Backwards doesn't sound all that much like a
Parliament or
Funkadelic project.
Wesley's appreciation of jazz comes through on the instrumentals "Mr. Melody Man," "Just Like You," and "Circular Motion." These tracks aren't straightahead jazz -- something that
Wesley and Parker are both quite capable of playing -- but they do offer a pleasant, if unremarkable, blend of R&B, jazz, and pop. Like
the Horny Horns' first album, A Blow for Me, A Toot for You, this set is uneven, and unlike
Parliament's The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein or
Funkadelic's Maggot Brain, it isn't an album that's thrilling all the way through. Nonetheless,
Say Blow by Blow Backwards has more ups than downs and is worth searching for if you fancy yourself a serious p-funk collector. ~ Alex Henderson