Sylvester And The Hot Band – Bazaar 1973

 Bazaar is partially cut from the same cloth, containing the same genre-and-gender-bending, but it lacks the far-reaching historical scope of Sylvester's debut, sounding entirely of the now of 1973. Partially this is due to Hot Band bassist Kerry Hatch serving as producer and songwriter, helping to push the record toward fuzzy, glamtastic guitars and modern funk, a move that may have been a necessary commercial consideration at the time. Despite all this stylish accoutrement, there's not really a way to make Sylvester seem conventional: he commands and commandeers, twisting everything back toward the fantastic cabaret revue of his debut -- not enough to get it there, but enough to keep this from being anything but ordinary.