This highly rated collector's item is given a welcome, and therefore affordable, new lease of life on CD. Though originally released on Strata East, a label known for its spiritual post-Trane slant, this is a largely funky set that has a slight flavour of early Gil Scott-Heron (who also had work issued by Strata). Leader-organist-vocalist Woodard, a Detroit musician who played with progressive Motown outfits such as The Undisputed Truth, had a knack for danceable, strutting rhythms, many of which took the 1960s soul jazz lexicon in a harder, grittier JB-ish direction, though the latin inflections are very strong in places. Supplementing the standard organ-drums-guitar set up with horns and percussion, Woodard was able to create a fiendishly catchy repertoire that was given an additional twist of excitement by his use of a wavering wurlitzer electric piano and various analogue synthesizers, trippy and tripped out to a mighty good ‘cheeba’ effect. Back in the 1980s this was all a premium ‘rare groove’.