CALIFORNIA FLIGHT PROJECT Vinyl & CDs

Review: Jerry "J" Johnson's California Flight Project outfit were relatively unknown during the 1980s, and it took a series of self-released CDRs and a 2010 single on People's Potential Unlimited for the Bay Area act to finally hit the big time. This eponymous album on Norway's Preservation Records picks up the story, gathering together a slew of superb West Coast funk and soul gems recorded by the outfit between 1979 and '81. This is the first time most of them have been released on wax, and they're genuinely worth a listen. Check, for example, "Dance On It", where Johnson urges us all to dance over a laidback, synth-laden boogie groove, the rubbery slap bass and sparkling pianos of "Do You Feel My Love" and the proto-San Francisco synth funk of killer album opener "California Flight".