Afrique- Soul Makossa

This is an interesting album on Mainstream MRL 394 from 1973 (I notice the Mainstream label had some interesting stuff going on in the 70s) and not one I would expect to find in a dollar bin... When I first saw this the thing that popped into my head was "Oh, another generic cover trying to capitalize on Soul Makossa" which I knew had been a pretty big hit in the early 70s.. I guess by a guy named Manu Dibango... but then when I flipped it around I saw the roster of musicians and two names jumped out at me : Charles Kynard on the organ and Chuck Rainey on bass.. Add to that five percussionists including Chino Valdes (latin percussion is always good). Anyways looks like its an album made by a bunch of great New York city session musicians... Its a pretty funky record (even some wah wah guitar) with titles such as "Let Me Do My Thing", "Hot Mud", "House of Rising Funk" and "Hot Doggin'" sort of the follow up type of record to the great soul jazz Blue Note/Prestige sessions of the late 60s very early 70s... I live off this stuff... I read Chuck Rainey was essentially the bass player on all of Steely Dan's records so that tells you something while Kynard played with my favorite guitarist Grant Green on "The Soul Brotherhood" so that tells you something about the quality of the musicians... I'd probably give this 3/4 stars as some of the tunes are surprisingly placid but its worth checking out...$1