Steppin'

by Rick Anderson Steppin' is the companion album to Naturally, which was also recorded for the High Note label under celebrated producer Sonia Pottinger just a year earlier. Marcia Griffiths delivers a program consisting primarily of love songs, including "Why There Is No Love" (based, strangely enough, on the chord progression to "People Get Ready") and Bob Marley's "I'm Hurting Inside." But the album's focal point is the title track, a stirring repatriation theme that stands out as both the only political number and the strongest singalong tune. "Give and You Get" is curiously Beatlesque; "It's Impossible" updates a rocksteady classic. The Revolutionaries provide solid professional backing but know better than to try to upstage Griffiths, who is at her finest on this album.