Rufus and Chaka Khan: Stompin’ at the Savoy Live

Rufus and Chaka Khan – Stompin’ at the Savoy Live 

Robinsongs 

Double CD available here

Out now 

Funk masters Rufus and their powerhouse vocalist Chaka Khan part ways at the top of their games with one of the greatest live albums ever recorded. 

By 1982 the decade long partnership of legendary funk outfit Rufus and their powerhouse mezzo soprano vocalist Chaka Khan had ended, but they reunited for three nights at New York’s Savoy Theatre to record one of the greatest live albums ever put down on tape.

Everyone who loves funk and soul knows former Black Panther Chaka Khan is the undoubted queen of seventies funk as the band scored four US R & B number one albums. Bizarrely this life affirming record only reached the R & B top five. When Stompin’ At The Savoy Live was released in 1983 it was still the age of vinyl so the first three sides are from the live shows, and the fourth was new stuff they’d recorded to fill up the grooves.

Those new cuts include Ain’t Nobody and as that distinctive synth riff kicks in on the band’s keyboardist David ‘Hawk’ Wolinski’s composition the hair on your arms will automatically rise as her glorious vocal weaves and flies all over the still insanely catchy melody. Ain’t Nobody was a top 10 hit in the UK winning the band their second Grammy, and only the pop/soul perfection of Only Say A Little Prayer trumps this funky masterpiece.

Chaka means Woman of Fire, and that there’s no doubt that singing live brings that out as she smashes into You Got The Love, and you get a sense straight off just how tight and funky Rufus are. This is a meeting of minds and talent as the classic 70s funk Once You Get Started kicks the party off continuing the deep groove they have quickly rediscovered.

Chaka dominates the classy backing vocals on Dance Wit Me as Bobby Watson’s bass acts as a lead instrument, but it’s not all in your face funk as they take it down a notch for the classy ballad Sweet Thing. Tony Maiden offers a top class guitar solo on Stop On By as Ernie Watts wails on sax.

Chaka co-wrote the bittersweet Pack’d My Bags lamenting the end of a relationship that she notes to the crowd ‘means a lot to me’ before totally reworking Marvin Gaye’s Ain’t That Peculiar into an awesome funk stomp. If you’re going to end an artistic relationship then this is exactly the way to do it on your own terms and playing as well as ever.

Stompin’ is packaged with the eleventh and final Rufus album, Seal In Red, and as good as it is sonically there is a gaping hole where Chaka Khan’s vocals should be. The other vocalists do their best but all they do is serve as a stark reminder of what is missing. Despite no Chaka most bands would kill to produce a record this solid at the end of a long career, although Take It To the Top and You’re Really Out Of Line are marred by vocals run through a vocoder. Bizarrely this terrible production trick was in vogue with musicians at that time.

When I Get Over You is a great mid-tempo ballad with some bluesy guitar, You Turn Me All Around gets closest to the Chaka sound and Blinded By The Boogie has a lovely sax break that was almost obligatory on 80s R & B records. Seal In Red is nowhere near their best record, but is a typically impeccably produced record full of the all elements like big keys, slap bass and rock-solid drumming that made Rufus great.

Sometimes a band’s limitations get found out on a live record but on Stompin’ At The Savoy Live it’s a team of undeniably talented and tight musicians who redefined funk saying farewell in the best possible way as one of the all-time great vocalists kicks up a storm of power and emotion.

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Words by Paul Clarke, you can see his author profile here.