Track Listing

1. Tell Me What To Do
2. Los Conquistadores Chocolates
3. Lost On 23rd Street
4. Fantasy
5. Shifting Gears
6. Can't We Smile
7. Old Devil Moon
8. Countdown
9. Walk In Sunshine
10. Ghetto Samba
11. Cosmic Voyager
12. My Ship
13. Forever Taurus

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8471 in Music
• Released on: 1992-10-26
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Customer Reviews

Jazz fusion at its best...
'Gears' has to be one of the all time funk/fusion classics. Cool without being too laidback and funky without being too up tempo, Johnny 'Hammond' Smith's talent shines through in every track. Having said that though, the writing credits go to Larry and Fonce Mizell who deserve every bit as much praise as Hammond, especially seeing as 'Gears' also produced by them. All the tracks are superb, but 'Los Conquistadores Chocolates' and 'Shifting Gears' are without comparison.
However, the fun(k) does not stop there. Not only do you get 'Gears' on this CD, another Hammond effort, 'Forever Taurus' is thrown in too. Not quite as funky as its predecessor (it was never really going to be) 'Forever Taurus' is still a damn good listen - Hammond is again on top form, this time combining his beloved organ with synthezisers and electric pianos, with the band as tight as ever. The standouts this time include the hypnotic opener 'Old Devil Moon', the effortlessly cool 'Walk In Sunshine and the futuristic 'Cosmic Voyager'. You will wish you had bought this sooner...

The Mizell brothers at their most Sky High
Great value this. Two LPs on one CD, teaming up Johnny Hammond's Larry & Fonce Mizell-produced "Gears" from 1975 with his subsequent "Forever Taurus" album produced by Wade & Ralph Marcus.

The Mizell brothers wrote and produced a string of ground breaking LPs in the early 1970s that took the kind of multi-layered orchestral soul music typified by Isaac Hayes and Barry White, fused it with a jazz sensibility and raised it to a completely new level. I've found that you can't go far wrong with any of their work from this period but along with "Places and Spaces" by trumpeter Donald Byrd (also from 1975), "Gears" probably saw the Mizells at their creative zenith. The music is full of lightness and free space and, for me, always evokes the sensation of flying - as alluded to in the name of their production company, Sky High Productions Inc. Lost and buried in the era of Philly soul, disco, glam pop and prog rock, this was the left-field, avant-garde dance music of its day. There is still a small but dedicated band of enthusiasts out there but the music has oddly never received the critical acclaim it deserves.

"Gears" blends the trademark Mizell sound - a yin/yang balance of spaced-out disco music soaring high over complex, funky rhythms - with Hammond's driving piano and B3 organ. Singling out an individual track is difficult because they are all great but "Fantasy" is sailing so close to absolute musical perfection that it just does stand out. It opens with a chunky bass riff and stabs of rhythm guitar, rapidly augmented by Hammond's driving piano. As the pace quickens, waves of solo instruments appear in the mix - notably the flute and a strange bluesy violin sound. Towards the end, Hammond exchanges piano for the B3 organ and rides the rhythm to its close. I first heard this song about twenty years ago - I was stunned by it then and it has never lost its potency.

Whilst I have singled out "Fantasy" as the star of the show, many people feel equally passionate about "Los Conquistadores Chocolates". It has a similar spacey (europhic?) mood but with a faster tempo and is probably even more spaced-out. However, the strange minute long introduction before the rhythm kicks in was a mistake in my book!
"Shifting Gears" is much funkier. Of Bobbi Humphrey's "Blacks & Blues" (another almost flawless Mizell production), one Amazon reviewer described the sound as "pimpish" and this song also fits that bill, brimming as it is with potent hip hop breakbeats. You can probably deduce from the title what happens during the song and there are indeed several `gear' or tempo changes, suggesting the sensations aroused by controlling the speed of a fast car. "Tell Me What to Do" has a similar sound but this time with a jerky, stop-start rhythm. Again, both songs have the same, spaced-out Sky High feel.

"Gears" is such a great album that "Forever Taurus" inevitably suffers in comparison. It lacks the same peerless consistency and often veers into the fatal `cheesiness' that nails so many otherwise potentially great jazz-funk records. Despite this criticism, there are some superb tracks, particularly the heavily Mizell-influenced "Cosmic Voyage". And seeing as you can pick up this CD for the same price as "Gears" on its own, you can't really argue can you?

Forever Tuarus, Forever Johnny Hammond
Two fabulous classics on one CD, it simply doesn't get any better than this. If you're familiar with the track "Shifting Gears", then you will like the entire CD, no doubt. Also a must have for all the DJs and beat diggers out there, 'cause this material is essential. A sure buy.