THE SECOND ALBUM - Puzzle

YEAR: 1974

LABEL: Motown

TRACK LISTING: You Took Me Wrong, Mary Mary, State of Mind, Everybody Wants To Be Somebody, Haiku, My Love, Now That You Love Me, Concept of Her, N.Y.C.

IMPRESSIONS: I know next to nothing about this album but it's another one of those records I was listening to since I was a little kid. This was my dad's album and another case of one we only listened to one side of: side two this time. It is a heavily jazz-infused soul record. There are a couple Puzzle songs on youtube and somebody quite rightly described Puzzle's sound as "Motown's answer to Chicago"; it does have that same early Chicago sound with the heavy use of brass and the jazz sound. Of course, this album has never EVER been issued on cd and it's not about to be anytime soon.

MY FAVOURITE TRACKS: State of Mind, My Love, Now That You Love Me, Concept of Her, N.Y.C.

FACT SHEET: This is Puzzle's second album, natch. Puzzle was a group created by singer John Valenti (aka John LaVigni) who had a solo hit "Anything You Want"with Motown in 1976 which peaked at #37 on the Billboard charts. The sound of Puzzle has been described as funk/soul-jazz fusion. The band consists of John LaVigni (vocals, drums), Anthony Siciliano (bass), Bobby Villalobos (lead guitar), Ralf Richert (trumpet, rhythm guitar), Joseph Spinazola (piano, organ), Larry Klimas (saxophone, flute) and Bob Williams (trumpet, wind chimes). Strings were arranged by Bobby Scott. The album was produced by Bob Cullen.