Urban Renewal by Tower Of Power (CD, Sep-1993, Warner Archives)

You gotta love Tower of Power---especially from the 70's! And if you didn't before this album with renewed life thanks to CD, you WILL!
This is from their freshest days; they never fail to deliver high energy, intricate, and dance-able funk with the horn band approach. The title track is in keeping with their societal commentary bent from the original gas-price crisis days (We were bemoaning gas being around 50 cents a gallon!)
David Bartlett replaces Dave Garibaldi on drums---and the project STILL cooks with all the other recorded original guys in the horn section, the guitarist and keyboard player. Rocco Prestia lights it up on bass as does Lenny Pickett ( currently of the Saturday Night band fame) on sax. I just love the writing from these years: clever verbal hooks in the songs, the warmth of harmonies in the ballads and the sass in the funkables: My favorite tracks have been ( for 30+ years) "Only So Much Oil..." and "Maybe It'll Rub Off", the humorous "It's Not the Crime" and the ballads "Willing to Learn" and "I Won't Leave Unless You Want me To". "Willing to Learn" is still performed in their stage shows, I understand.
Their records from these years are real studies in horn band, fully integrated groove---too much fun and musicianship to miss!