Les McCann (born September 23, 1935, Lexington, Kentucky) is a soul jazz piano player and vocalist whose biggest successes came as a crossover artist into R&B and soul. In 1969, Atlantic Records released Swiss Movement, a recording of McCann with regular collaborator and saxophonist Eddie Harris and guest trumpeter Benny Bailey at that year’s Montreux Jazz Festival. The album contained the song “Compared To What,” and both the album and the single were huge Billboard pop chart successes. “Compared To What” featured political criticism of the Vietnam War. The song was not actually written by McCann; fellow Atlantic composer/artist Eugene McDaniels (A Hundred Pounds of Clay) wrote it years earlier. “Compared To What” was initially recorded and released by soul vocalist Roberta Flack. Her version appeared as the opening track on her debut recording, First Take (1969).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_McCann
To hear the sounds of Les McCann clink on the link below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRONbnyNpu8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p-1QJq_xhc&feature=related
Posted by Grace Peirce on September 28, 2010 at 6:23 am
Hello! I stumbled on your Website while searching for Eugene McDaniels — I am his Web admin and we have recently been updating his site with new youtube videos. There is one of him talking about Les McCann and Compared to What that you might be interested in. And there is more to come. John Legend and Questlove’s band The Roots just came out with a new album, with a great version of Compared to What on it. Give a listen! Watch the vids, and let us know what you think!
Thanks for your blog!
Grace