In the
'60s, you didn't have to live in the Deep South to have a Southern R&B
sound. Aretha Franklin lived in Detroit, but many of her '60s recordings
favored the rawness and toughness of Southern soul over the sleeker, more
pop-influenced soul that was coming out of Detroit as well as Chicago and
Philadelphia. And even though the Ohio Players were from Dayton, many of their
early recordings sound like they could have been recorded in Memphis. Produced
by Johnny Brantley in New York, Observations in Time is full of songs that
would have been perfect for a Sam & Dave or Rufus Thomas session; there is
no shortage of Southern-style grit on "Street Party," "The Man
That I Am" or the single "Here Today and Gone Tomorrow" (which
was a minor hit). However, some of these 1968 recordings hint at the type of
jazz-influenced experiments that the Players would provide at Westbound in the
early '70s. The jazz influence is strong on imaginative versions of the
standards "Over the Rainbow" and "Summertime," and
"Cold Cold World" is the sort of jazz/blues item that one would have
expected from Lou Rawls, Jimmy Witherspoon, or Bobby "Blue" Bland in
the '60s. So even though the Players offer a lot of Southern-minded R&B on
Observations in Time (which was their only album for Capitol), they aren't
afraid to branch out and try some other things.
Alex Henderson. AllMusic.com
