MELODIYA ENSEMBLE: EASTERN GROOVES

Melodiya Ensemble: Why Am I Treated So Bad? (Melodiya, 1973) Soviet jazz album. Melodiya was the state-run music label in the USSR and the Melodiya Ensemble was made up of musicians taken from across the Soviet empire in that era. Apparently, Cold War tensions weren’t so great to stop these folks from recording any number of Western tunes, including “Aquarius” and this, a cover of the Staple Singers (though I feel like the band was likely more under the sway of the James Brown version...

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