Chicken Fat is the debut album by American blues guitarist Mel Brown recorded in 1967 for the Impulse!

Impulse! Records

Impulse! Records was an American jazz record label, originally established in 1960 by producer Creed Taylor as a subsidiary of ABC-Paramount Records, based in New York City...

 label.

Reception

The Allmusic review by Sean Westergaard awarded the album 4 stars stating "Guitarist Mel Brown is hailed as "An Impulse! Discovery" on Chicken Fat, his debut for the label, and this album does feature a fantastic unique sound... Leave it to Impulse! to put a new spin on the guitar/organ sound. This is hot stuff".

Track listing

All compositions by Mel Brown except as indicated

1. "Chicken Fat" - 4:16
2. "Greasy Spoon" (Mel Brown, Herb Ellis
   Herb Ellis
   Mitchell Herbert "Herb" Ellis was an American jazz guitarist. Perhaps best known for his 1950s membership in the trio of pianist Oscar Peterson, Ellis was also a staple of west-coast studio recording sessions, and was described by critic Scott Yanow as "an excellent bop-based guitarist with a...
   
   , Paul Humphrey
   Paul Humphrey
   Paul Nelson Humphrey is an American jazz and funk/R+B drummer.He worked as a session drummer in the 1960s for jazz artists such as Wes Montgomery, Les McCann, Kai Winding, Charles Mingus, Lee Konitz, Blue Mitchell and Gene Ammons.As a bandleader, he recorded under the name Paul Humphrey and the...
   
   ) - 5:53
3. "Home James" - 6:34
4. "Slalom" (Jules Chaikin) - 2:31
5. "Hobo Flats" (Oliver Nelson
   Oliver Nelson
   Oliver Edward Nelson was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, arranger and composer.-Early life and career:...
   
   ) - 2:18
6. "Shanty" (Brown, Arthur Wright) - 4:40
7. "Sad But True" (Ellis) - 5:01
8. "I'm Goin' to Jackson" (Ellis) - 4:24
9. "Blues for Big Bob" - 4:25
   • Recorded in Hollywood, California on May 31, 1967 (tracks 1-3, 7 & 8) and June 1, 1967 (tracks 4-6 & 9)

Personnel

• Mel Brown
  Mel Brown
  Mel Brown was an American-born blues guitarist.Brown was nominated for a Juno Award in both 2001 and 2002.Brown, a long-time smoker, died aged 69, on March 20, 2009, in Kitchener, Ontario, of complications from emphysema....
  
   - guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  
• Herb Ellis
  Herb Ellis
  Mitchell Herbert "Herb" Ellis was an American jazz guitarist. Perhaps best known for his 1950s membership in the trio of pianist Oscar Peterson, Ellis was also a staple of west-coast studio recording sessions, and was described by critic Scott Yanow as "an excellent bop-based guitarist with a...
  
   (tracks 1-3, 7 & 8), Arthur Wright (tracks 4-6 & 9) - guitar
• Gerald Wiggins
  Gerald Wiggins
  Gerald Wiggins was a jazz pianist and organist. He studied classical, but switched to jazz in his teens. He began as a professional playing accompaniment to Stepin Fetchit. He worked with Louis Armstrong and Benny Carter. In the 1940s he moved to Los Angeles where he played music for television...
  
   - organ
  Electronic organ
  An electronic organ is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally, it was designed to imitate the sound of pipe organs, theatre organs, band sounds, or orchestral sounds....
  
   (tracks 1, 3-7 & 9)
• Ronald Brown - bass
  Double bass
  The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
  
  
• Paul Humphrey
  Paul Humphrey
  Paul Nelson Humphrey is an American jazz and funk/R+B drummer.He worked as a session drummer in the 1960s for jazz artists such as Wes Montgomery, Les McCann, Kai Winding, Charles Mingus, Lee Konitz, Blue Mitchell and Gene Ammons.As a bandleader, he recorded under the name Paul Humphrey and the...
  
   - drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
   (tracks 1-4, 7 & 8)
• Oliver Nelson
  Oliver Nelson
  Oliver Edward Nelson was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, arranger and composer.-Early life and career:...
  
   - arranger
  Arrangement
  The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
  
  (tracks 4-6 & 9)