Gangsters The Gangsters

Vinyl LP pressing. Archive collection of previously unreleased early 70s Portland funk. Includes 12-page 12" × 12? oral history of the band with some great cutouts, photos and local advertisements from the neighborhood. This collection of instrumentals is a crystal clear glimpse into a forgotten period of Portland's music history. Fostered by the Albina Art Center, a hangout spot for creatively-inclined black youth, The Gangsters were led by trumpeter Thara Memory, who wrote and arranged all of their material, and produced the sessions heard on this vinyl-only release. After gigging around the city for a few years, the group-who were almost all in their late teens-laid down some tracks at Ripcord Studios, but they disbanded soon thereafter and the tapes sat in a closet, unheard for over 40 years. Rescued from obscurity, the tracks on this album have all the punch and hip-swinging joy of fellow jazz/funk artists like The Crusaders, Weather Report and Pleasure. But with Thara Memory leading the charge, the music has a rich complexity, best exemplified by the nine-minute "Suite for Funk Band," which runs through a series of movements that touch on Latin grooves and post-bop before culminating in an almost-psychedelic breakdown capped off by a devastating guitar solo.