The Mighty Burner

The underrated brilliance of Philly's Charles Earland

The other day I was listening to A Tribe Called Quest’s Midnight Marauders, and on the third track in, on “Award Tour",” after hearing this song for like a hundred dozen times, I noticed there’s this sneaky little repetitive melody that comes in under the sample of Weldon Irvine’s “We Gettin’ Down,”. While the sample of Irvine’s electric piano playing drives a good portion of the Quest song, it’s this sampled guitar lick that caught my attention for the very first time.

Which brings me to the source of that sample, a song from jazz organist Charles Earland’s 1972 album, Intensity.

The sample is from an absolutely demonic soul-jazz cover of Chicago’s “Lowdown.” While the sample on “Award Tour” features a small snippet of the guitar playing from the song, Earland’s Hammond B-3 playing powers the album version of the song through to it’s incredible horn fueled climax. It’s astounding. And oh yeah, drummer Billy Cobham should not be overlooked on this track.

Born in Philly, Charles Earland originally played tenor sax (with Jimmy McGriff) in the mid-Sixties, until he switched to organ during his stint with McGriff’s trio. Earland formed his own band, and in 1968, Lou Donaldson saw Earland performing in a club in Harlem, and invited him to join his band. Earland played on three of Donaldson’s and most popular albums: Say It Loud (1968), Hot Dog (1969), and Everything I Play Is Funky (1970).

After his time with Donaldson, in 1969, Earland was signed by Prestige Records, and released his first album, Black Talk! The band he put together for the recording was stellar, and featured Melvin Sparks on guitar and Idris Muhammed on drums (who played with Earland on the Donaldson recordings). The album absolutely swings, and to this day remains a classic in the soul-jazz canon. Here’s his cover of The Spiral Staircase’s “More Today Than Yesterday.”

Another highlight from Black Talk! is “The Mighty Burner,’ a song that would earn him his nickname (and not to be confused with legendary WDAS radio DJ Sonny Hopson, the other “Mighty Burner.”) (PS Editor’s Note: Thanks to my pal Mr. C, who knows the history on this: "The Mighty Burner” was written for Hopson by Earland. And Earland was featured on a live album that Hopson recorded.)

Earland’s simmering, soulful style of Hammond B-3 playing is often overlooked, and underrated, in the B-3 world. He released dozens of incredible records throughout his career, and sadly passed away in 1999 at the age of 58 from heart failure.

Below, have a listen to some of Earland’s many classics.

(this one features a young Grover Washington, Jr