CD Reviews

Isaac Hayes

ULTIMATE ISAAC HAYES: CAN YOU DIG IT? | Concord

By JONATHAN PERRY | January 18, 2006

4.0 Stars

Although he’s most closely identified as the proto-rapping bad-ass voice behind the iconic 1971 Shaft soundtrack (and the voice of Chef on South Park), Hayes is an R&B titan whose role in shaping modern soul stretches back nearly as long as the music itself. Larger than life (he wasn’t nicknamed “Black Moses” for nothing), with outsized string and brass arrangements to Isaac Hayes - Ultimate Isaac Hayes: Can You Dig It?

Isaac Hayes - Ultimate Isaac Hayes: Can You Dig It?

match his stature, Hayes parlayed his initial background role as a songwriter/producer for Memphis’s seminal Stax/Volt label into a hit-making run as one of the imprint’s most successful crossover artists. This expansive two-disc set collects 32 tracks cherry-picked mostly from the Stax recordings Hayes made between 1969 and ’75 and presents them in all their hot-buttered, occasionally overblown glory (the love-ballad testimonial “I Stand Accused” clocks in at nearly 12 minutes). All of the R&B essentials — Hayes’s re-imagined cover of Bacharach & David’s “Walk On By”; the urban streetscape portrait “Soulsville”; and, of course, “Theme from Shaft” — are here, and showcase a performer equally at home with lush bedroom ballads, blaxploitation funk, and deep gospel. Ultimate also includes a non-essential but enjoyably nostalgic bonus DVD of three live performances from Wattstax, the 1972 concert/community fundraiser featuring an Afro’d and mutton-chopped Rev. Jesse Jackson emceeing. Tossed in for good measure is an animated South Park video for the tune “Chocolate Salty Balls,” with Hayes serving up his special double-entendre recipe as Chef.

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