CHICKEN SCRATCH

The Pazant Brothers were one ofthe greatest combos on the early 70's New York scene. The group was the brainchild of Eddie and Al Pazant, who had been gigging around in between Eddie’s stints in the horn section of the Lionel Hampton Band. Eventually they caught the ear of producer/writer Ed Bland who drafted them in to the studio at GWP Productions and Records Group where he was an in-house producer.

The Pazant Brothers backed many of Ed’s productions, but they also started to put out 45's and LP's under their own name, and over the next couple of years they made four singles (including the MP3 below, under the name of the Chilli Peppers) and a couple of tracks on various artists samplers, as well as some legendary sides for the RCA and Vigor labels. With horn-heavy funky grooves, the Pazants earned their reputation as one of the hottest things going at the time -- snapping on the beat with a tightness learned from their old boss Pucho, but also a willingness to explore brassier grooves in a style that seems to be influenced from the New Orleans and Texas scenes of the late 60s. Producer/arranger Edward Bland had a good hand in much of this work -- giving the tracks a gritty, nitty, Perception/Today kind of groove.

At the end of those two years, GWP was winding down and the band and Bland went their separate ways. Below is a nasty New Orleans-inspired swamp-funk groove called "Chicken Scratch", uniquely punctuated by some dramatic strings. A very funky affair.