Credits:

James Taylor Quartet

Description:

Released in 1995, In the Hand of the Inevitable is the most curious of all of the James Taylor Quartet’s recordings. After helping to usher in the acid jazz movement on recordings like 1987’s Money Spyder, with its spy/noir-ish soundtrack feel equally influenced by Lalo Schifrin and the Ventures, and the masterpiece that is the band’s 1989 effort, Get Organized (their first to employ vocals — in a truly soulful jazz scat style), they moved to the center, becoming more a house music soundtrack act with diva-like vocals (sometimes male-centric as well with Noel McCoy watering down the earlier gains they’d made musically). In the Hand of the Inevitable, issued stateside by Hollywood’s Acid Jazz imprint, is a transition album. In its native U.K., this set is regarded as a classic meld of the band’s earlier style and the more soul and house approach of the immediately preceding albums, Supe