Crate Digger’s Gold: Tom Browne – Browne Sugar

I found this gem while waiting my turn at the Electric Fetus on Record Store Day. This is lite-jazz before it got too lite.  Browne is a trumpeter with production by Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen. 

There is a fine line between slick and slop.  This rides the slick side.  This is tasteful slow groove jazz funk.  In the right samplers hands there are some righteous beats here.  Despite the lite jazz genre Browne plays a powerful horn. His tone is magnificent.  I love the slow groove of this album – this is after midnight, two sheets to the wind music.

The bass is amazing.  Marcus Miller knows how to groove in the most subtle way.  Miller’s funk is so low-key, but so grooving. It is no surprise that a couple of years later Miles Davis would grab him.

This was Tom Browne’s debut. Within a year he would have a major R&B hit with “Funkin’ for Jamaica (N.Y.).”  Listen to this album and you can hear the hit coming.