Sly & The Family Stone
Fresh

April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King is assassinated. James Brown appears on TV at the behest of the White House to calm the rebellion of African American citizens, who took to the streets to cry out their pain, in New York, Los Angeles, and a hundred other cities in the United States. The following evening, Brown sang in Boston where riots, fires, and looting were not subsiding.

Sly Stone, in his own small way, hostile to all forms of racism and segregation, had done something, seeing that in the Family there was racial and sexual integration. That band, based in California, included both white and black members, males and females together. It was an effective example, at that time, both for the hippies of Haight Ashbury and the kids from the ghetto. A small cultural revolution, which also included the collective sound that the group was able to express.

Second only to James Brown in importance, Sly And The Family Stone were a connecting and evolving figure in Black Music, having united what had remained separate until then: Soul and Rock.

From Texas, Sylvester “Sly” Stewart, after a few sparse recordings with his brother Freddie, made a name for himself in California as a DJ with an original eclectic proposal and as a producer. He was among the promoters of Grace Slick’s Great Society. In 1967, he forms the Family, of which he would be the composer and leader.

The sound setup was rowdy, bubbling, sulfurous, with instruments at the forefront and voices chasing each other collegially, amidst fragmented vocal harmonies, somewhat lascivious or, at the limit, histrionic, in an exciting babel.

The novelty had been to remove the hegemony of the elegant and smooth line imposed by Stax and Motown, contaminating the Apollonian logic of Soul with the overflowing, libertarian, and wild creativity of Rock (of which he also loved to recover the scenic and provocative aspects). Toward the universality of Funk. An electrifying, emotional sound, a mixture of Soul, Blues, R&B, Beat, Pop, Latin music, and, above all, Funk and Psychedelia.

Not syncretism of genres, but a fusion of sound, melting them with persistent and impulsive ways. A Psychedelic Funk that elusively passed from one atmosphere to another, from jazz to electronic arrangements, without affectation.

How can one not remember fabulous songs like “Dance to The Music” (which also took root in the animation world), “Everyday People” (covered by Aretha and Arrested Development), “I Want To Take You Higher” (the call and response at Woodstock) or “Family Affair” (one of the first, if not the first, track to use the Drum Machine). Or the most representative albums “Stand!” and “There's A Riot Going On”. Or the concerts, like at the Newport Jazz Festival in '69, with Led Zeppelin and James Brown, and then, in August, at Woodstock, where they got half a million people dancing in the mud. Miles admired them. Entering the recording studio for “On The Corners”, he will say he had James Brown and Sly Stone in mind. Sly will influence Curtis Mayfield and the Temptations (especially their producer Norman Whitfield). He will foreshadow George Clinton and Prince. His importance, today overlooked, is not small.

“Fresh” is the immediate successor to the epic and edgy “There's a Riot Going On”. That work was marked by a rebellious, subversive Blues soul; a disheartening portrait of urban Funk, amid the weight of the Vietnam drama and the alert for the separatist radicalization of the civil rights movement. That cry of pride was the frantic, bubbling, angry response to “What's Going On” by Marvin Gaye, released a few months earlier.

When Epic releases “Fresh”, we are in the blessed year of 1973.

The rhythm section has changed, as first Errico and then the fundamental bassist Graham (considered by many the inventor of slapping) left. Replacing them is drummer Andy Newmark and bassist Rusty Allen.

The musical dynamics are lighter, accommodating. Certainly less noisy and confusing than in the past. Usual concise, direct, essential yet catchy, flexible, ductile, ready, open melodies. Here, Sly stands on the edge between Pop and Funk. Although he presents himself more within the norms, this doesn't mean he is conventional.

He resumes, in a somewhat toned-down way, the sociological theme well focused on by its predecessor.

Among the tracks, never devoid of beauty, “If It Were Left Up To Me” stands out: with his sister Rosie leading the choruses, sensual and dazzling cadences. Her lyrical outbursts are stoutly counterpointed by him. A beautiful, muffled, but airy track. Captivating, with the unusual synthesis, in just two minutes, of feline softness and cherubic impulse.

“If You Want Me To Stay”, robust and knotted bass, Sly's warm voice and lascivious female vocals, at times placated; the striking piano of the attractive Rosie Stewart (with her striking blonde hair) distills clear, innocent notes, while the brass, in the background, oscillates with zigzagging quivers and brief apneas.

“Skin I'm In”, Jerry Martini's sax and Cynthia Robinson's trumpet in evidence: unsettling, clear, clean, incisive, and penetrating.

“Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be Will Be)” slow, absent-minded, sweet, even syrupy, with a slightly mischievous and coy chorus. A cover of Doris Day that she sang in Hitchcock's film, “The Man Who Knew Too Much.”

The album met with chart success (no. 7 on the USA chart, no. 1 on the R'n'B chart). But, after “Fresh”, the Family would be adrift; in '75 the last spasm, then sporadic returns and some collaborations, mostly swallowed by the very Funk that Sly had essentially invented.

Psychophysical problems, megalomania, pressures from the record company, pressures from the Black Panthers who wanted him among their spokespeople, drug problems, legal troubles, an extravagant lifestyle, all obviously undermined Sly's stability since the times of “Stand!” With “Fresh”, moving between Funk and Pop, he still proves capable of writing beautiful, non-trivial songs.

As with other artists, Sly's story, at a certain point, becomes that of a man who, due to his giant wings, can no longer take a step forward.