Apart from knowing "Killing Me Softly" backwards and forwards, my first exposure to Roberta Flack was her album where she shared credits with Donny Hathaway, whom she had met while attending Howard University. That album with its obscure black cover sported enough funky keyboard to remain in my mind. And even though, I've seen that album in every dollar bin in the free world, I've never picked it up. And I still haven't.

But last weekend, First Take found its way onto my record player. The billing of Les McCann as the presenter of the disc was probably the main reason I picked it up, but in addition to his name, Ron Carter functions as the anchor here lending his jazzy bass chops to this 1969 debut.

Outwardly, the yellow cover sporting Flack sitting behind a piano with her afro at the beginning stages of becoming enormous gives the album an air of jazziness that isn't necessarily representative of the music held within those tiny grooves. And again, with the inclusion of Les McCann's name, it would be seriously reasonable to assume that the disc would bare some funked up jazz related work.

It does kinda.

But the hit that propelled this release and Flack to stardom, "The First Time I Saw Your Face," was featured in a Clint Eastwood flick two years after First Take's release. It still sent the album back into the charts and helped to solidify Flack's career. Unfortunately, though, that track is simply sappy clap track - as is the vast majority of this album. The mostly light fare here subverts the funky cover as well as the pretty incredible first cut from Flack's first disc.

"Compared to What" begins the disc with a low down rolling bass line being supported by some sparse, but funky drumming. The initial emptiness of the track isn't given too much a chance to ride to its natural conclusion, but as Flack's piano line drops in ever slow lightly, her voice begins explaining the problems that she perceives.

Each punctuation provided by a supplemental horn section enlivens the already bouncy funk track. And as the song moves to its natural climax, Flack begins to sound more and more like Nina Simone. As she spits out the line "Try to make it real" over and over again and the piano vamp is subverted by her powerful voice, it seems as if the torch has been passed to a new generation.

Of course, at the same time that this being recorded Aretha Franklin was amidst her domination of the soul genre. And while Flack would go on to record a few more enormous hits, this lead off track is probably as sample ready as anything from the rest of her catalog. The break at the head of the track should provide ample backing for any aspiring rapper. Of course, Flack's aim wasn't to do this, but that's why digging up some old, dusty record is still rewarding.

First Take isn't the most obscure disc represented here under the auspices of Breaks, but "Compared to What" might be a strong as everything else.