Etta James • The Right Time
 here’s nothing like
the sheer power of Etta James. She once said that her gale-force voice was the result of
an abusive choir director who pounded her chest with his fist to make sure she sang
"with her gut." Years of exploitation, trauma and drug addiction resulted in an
emotional depth to her delivery that could make even the toughest people weep.
That stunning passion and utter mastery of her craft are on full display with Pure Pleasure’s reissue of James’s 1992 The Right Time. James returned to Muscle Shoals Studio in Alabama to make this album, the same place she recorded the 1967 hit "Tell Mama." James was supported by a who’s-who of R&B studio musicians, including keyboardist Clayton Ivey, guitarist Steve Cropper, horn arranger Hank Crawford and organist Lucky Peterson. The sessions were given a particular lift by the bedrock backbeat of drummer Steve Ferrone of the Average White Band and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. One of the album’s best tracks, Al Green’s "Love and Happiness," has the same sultry vibe of the original, but James’s inflections and Ferrone’s rollicking style lend a grit and funk to the proceedings that raise the heat to a whole new level. It’s followed by the slow-dance, make-up number "Evening of Love," replete with a backup chorus and horn section straight out of the Ray Charles playbook. Other standout cuts are the wicked putdown riff "Wet Match" and Wilson Pickett’s "Ninety-Nine and a Half." The Right Time was produced by studio legend Jerry Wexler, and this leads me to why this album is a bit of a sonic disappointment. Far be it from me to question Wexler’s chops, but even the liner notes hint that his hand was heavy on this production, so much so that James is said to have bristled at times. The result is an album that sounds a bit like it’s meant for a middle-of-the-road R&B station. It’s no accident that James sings a duet with Wexler’s friend Steve Winwood to end side one. The sonics suffer from the synthesized snap and metallic sheen so typical of many early-'90s pop productions. The album was intended to reinvigorate James’s career, so it’s no surprise that there would be an effort to make her sound more radio-friendly. None of this should detract from the fine job Pure Pleasure has done with this reissue. Remastered from the original tapes by Ray Staff of Air Mastering in London and pressed at Pallas in Germany, this is the version of the album to own. The original CD is a paint-peeling travesty that robs the music’s bass energy and compresses the soundstage. Staff’s remastering has unearthed the bottom end and opened up the recording’s dynamics so the music can breathe again. It’s worth remembering that Etta James launched her
career with the 1960 masterpiece At Last and that The Right Time was an
attempt to showcase a 54-year-old singer whose fame had faded a bit but whose career was
far from over. She would continue to record Grammy-winning albums right up until her death
in 2012. While this isn’t the best recording Etta James ever made, fans finally have
a version that allows all of her one-of-a-kind magic to come shining through. |
