by Stephen Thomas Erlewine Soul Symphony, for most intents and purposes, is a Gene Harris solo album, even though it's credited to the Three Sounds. Two of the trio's founding members, drummer Bill Dowdy and bassist Andrew Simpkins, had left the group by the time this session was recorded in September 1969. Instead of starting a solo career, Harris hired bassist Henry Franklin and drummer Carl Burnette as replacements, and embarked on his most ambitious project to date. As the title of Soul Symphony suggests, the album is a song cicle about soul and urban life. At their core, the Three Sounds sound funkier than ever before, and that's funky according to the contemporary late '60s definition, since the elastic beats suggest the influence of Sly Stone and James Brown. But those funky rhythms are drowned out by an overbearing orchestra and bizarrely schlocky vocal arrangements. Evidently, the strings and chorus were added because the record was a "symphony," but their presence makes all of the proceedings sound awkward and not at all like the Three Sounds. After listening to this record, it's no surprise that Harris folded the trio after this session to pursue a solo career.