Flabbergasted Vibes

Brother To Brother - Let Your Mind Be Free (1976) 24-bit

noreply@blogger.com (Flabbergast) — Mon, 20 May 2013 01:05:00 +0000

Brother To Brother
Let Your Mind Be Free
Turbo Records (TU-7015)

A1 Let Your Mind Be Free 3:28
A2 Visions 6:52
A3 Chance With You     4:46
A4 Phattenin'     3:28
B1 Groovy Day   2:54
B2 Take My Love   6:07
B3 Leavin' Me   6:17
B4 Joni   3:15

Ripping process
Vinyl; Pro-Ject RM-5SE turntable (with Sumiko Blue Point 2 cartridge, Speedbox power supply); Creek Audio OBH-15; M-Audio Audiophile 192 Soundcard ; Adobe Audition at 32-bit float 96khz; Click Repair light settings, sometimes turned off; individual clicks and pops taken out with Adobe Audition 3.0 - dithered and resampled using iZotope RX Advanced (for 16-bit). Tags done with Foobar 2000 and Tag and Rename.

   Bass Guitar – Jonathan Williams
   Congas, Voice, Other [Special Thanks] – Craig Derry
   Drums – Clarence Oliver
   Orchestrated By – Sammy Lowe
   Producer, Arranged By, Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Bass, Clavinet, Organ, Voice – Billy Jones
   Producer, Piano, Synthesizer [Moog, Arp], Clavinet – Bernadette Randle
   Voice – Billy Brown, Joan Abbott, Linda Parker, Tommy Keith, Walter Morris

   Design , album artwork – Dudley Thomas
   Engineer – Allan Tucker, Richie Corsello
   Other [Special Thanks] – "Shag" Taylor, Al Goodman, Barry Diament, Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Robinson

Recorded and mastered at Platinum Recording Studios, Englewood, New Jersey. All songs published by Gambi Music, Inc. (BMI)

A Division of All Platinum Record Group
Platinum Record Co. 1976

Doc Tucker
Yes, Billy Jones!!
[Etched “shout-outs” runout area A]

Bernadette Says Hi, Too
Tucker
[Etched “shout-outs” runout area B]

Imagine yourself walking into a decent-sized club in 1976 to catch a Kool and The Gang show only to find out that the bus carrying the horn section was broken down on the highway a hundred miles away. The band perseveres and puts on a great show anyway. That imaginary scenario is a little bit like what my first time listening to this record. But it's an unfair characterization, because Brother To Brother does have their own sound, and could really write some great tunes. The lack of a horn section gives lots of room for the other instruments. In particular this is an analog keyboard-lovers wet dream. The band had two keyboard players (both of whom double on other instruments in this largely studio-based project), and there are lovely textures of Fender Rhodes coupled with clavinet, Hammond organ, and even a dreamy Moog and Arp instrumental track. The band is tight and lean but never showy, and there are a few long tracks that really stretch out, like the languid Latin-Soul of "Visions" and the fired-up funk of "Leavin' Me" which was apparently released as one of the singles.

Why did these guys never make it big, or at least bigger? Well I don't know much about them. The group was based around multi-instrumentalists Billy Jones and Bernadette Randle. Their only big hit was a cover of Gil Scott-Heron's "The Bottle", which ended up on their debut album. Their albums were released on the Turbo imprint which was part of the Platinum family of labels founded by Sylvia Robinson, who also gets a co-writing credit on the only ballad here, "Take My Love." Platinum (sometimes known as "All Platinum") eventually folded but Robinson reemerged with the famous and seminal Sugar Hill Records. In 1976, the music world was flooded with funk, making these guys just a couple more fish in a big ocean. I can testify that I have a lot of records with a few great tunes on them but a lot of filler, yet this album doesn't have any turkeys. "Chance With You" should have been a hit song, and "Leavin' Me" is a monster although its length would probably keep it off the radio. And it gets better with repeated listens. The only ballad on the album, "Take My Love," has a really nice vibe but could have used a bridge section to break up its six-minute length. I think that's a pretty minor quibble, though, especially given the obligatory inclusion of questionable ballads on funk albums by this point. The cluster of inverted chords in the progression gives this is a nice midwestern-soul-jazz inflection. I dig it. The only other quibble is with the mastering of the LP: there doesn't seem to be any. I know that here in the digital realm we tend to bitch and moan about digital CD remastering. Well in this case we're brought back to the original point of LP mastering in the first place - to give the tracks more consistency as a whole and give it all that little extra shimmer and magic. The tracks are all recorded and mixed really well. In fact I really like the production choices. But some of the tunes fail to "jump out" at you like they deserve. The obvious concession for a shot at a crossover single, the Sly & the Patridge Family Stone-styled "Groovy Day" (the only song with horns, by the way), is the quietest song on the record, volume-wise. And the difference between the quietest tune and the loudest tune on each album side is HUGE. These mixes could have benefited from being run through a good tube limiter, or at least some adjustments of overall track levels and a little EQ to give the mixes some 'air' in the top end. Oddly enough, a young Barry Diament gets a `thank you` on the album jacket, and he has an engineering credit on their next album. Did he stop by the studio and give them some pointers? Help set up their studio? Because this was all recorded, mixed, and mastered in-house from the looks of it.

The song with the heaviest "vibe" on the whole album is undoubtedly the Latin opium dream of "Visions," which must be why I chose to play it on my podcast a while back. I've come to just love this whole album. A lot of variety on here. The last two songs have some incredible bass guitar tones, with just the right amount of over-driven amplifier, and the instrumental "Joni" features fuzzy guitar runs and a weird disco-prog-rock arrangement.

In a few weeks or months or whenever, I'll share their next LP too. Enjoy!
A couple of YouTube samples below

Flabbergasted Freeform Radio Hour #4 for May, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Flabbergast) — Sun, 12 May 2013 18:30:00 +0000

Flabbergasted Freeform Radio Hour No.4 - May, 2013

Tracklist to be posted in a week or so after people have had a chance to be surprised. I like surprises. Hence no setlist until later.

Also, feel free to donate at Flattr or Paypal. I don't like soliciting for donations but it occurred to me that a Premium account at Soundcloud would enable hosting a few of these podcasts together and simultaneously. Right now I am limited to 2 hours on a basic account, which means it's necessary to delete each installment before sharing the next. But, you can also get the previous installments on the dedicated page here in case you missed them.

abraços, abrazos, besos, beijos, y xoxo -F.

direct downloads -
in 320

in FLAC

Michael White - Spirit Dance / Pneuma (1972)

noreply@blogger.com (Flabbergast) — Fri, 10 May 2013 17:03:00 +0000

Michael White

SPIRIT DANCE
Impulse! – AS-9215 1972

A1 Spirit Dance
A2 The Tenth Pyramid
A3 John Coltrane Was Here
A4 Ballad For Mother Frankie White
B1 Samba
B2 Unlocking The Twelfth House
B3 Praise Innocence

Bass – Ray Drummond
   Percussion, Flute [Bamboo], Vocals – Baba Omson
Piano – Ed Kelly
Producer, Photography – Ed Michel
Violin, Vocals – Michael White
Vocals – Makeda , Wanika King

Engineers – Ken Hopkins, Rick Stanley
   Mixed By – Baker Bigsby
   Artwork and Photography – Philip Melnick

PNEUMA
Impulse! AS-9221

Pneuma (Part 1) 5:16
Pneuma (Part 2) 4:57
Pneuma (Part 3) 4:11
Pneuma (Part 4) 4:13
Pneuma (Part 5) 1:52
Ebony Plaza 9:18
Journey Of The Black Star 2:53
The Blessing Song 6:25

Bass – Ray Drummond
Engineer – Baker Bigsby
Percussion – Kenneth Nash
Piano – Edwin Kelly
Producer – Ed Michel
Violin – Michael White (2)
Vocals – D. Jean Skinner, Faye Kelly, Joyce Walker, Leola Sharp

If you are a person for whom jazz violin is an acquired taste, then the notion of "free jazz violin" will probably send you running or at least reaching for the earplugs. I confess that I am personally still grappling with the finer nuances of Leroy Jenkins and occasionally undergo a self-imposed "music appreciation course" at my house featuring his recordings. So you could say I appreciate the fact that Michael White's music is not nearly as abrasive as Jenkins and in fact often crosses over into the downright accessible and melodic. White has a lengthy resume that includes sideman gigs with people as diverse as John Handy and Sun Ra, but it was his electric proto-jazz-rock band The Fourth Way that led me to seek out these two albums. Well neither "Spirit Dance" or "Pneuma" sound anything like The Fourth Way but if I felt any disappointment at that discovery, it didn't last long. These are both excellent records.

Initially the listener is likely to be struck by what the records lack as opposed to what they offer - the absence of any horns whatsoever, as well as a traditional trap drum kit. The versatile percussionists (Baba Omsun for "Spirit Dance," Ken Nash for "Pneuma") manage to let you hardly miss the drums, and as for lack of reed or brass instruments.. well you'll just have to deal with it, because the tonal palette is a bit thin in the upper register at times. The upside is that when he lost the horn charts, White gained not only a unique sound but also the flexibility that makes his avant-garde and free jazz flourishes more focused. Considering the technical designation of the piano as a percussion instrument, Michael White is often the only voice here that isn't in the rhythm section, which liberates him to switch between riffing on melodies and freaking out at will. The stuff stays grounded, though - there are quite a few shortish compositions with audible roots in blues and gospel, and the group often leans more towards modal jazz than free jazz. Note the very brief use of an overdubbed violin at the end of the first track "Spirit Dance" here, too. The turgid tabla of The Tenth Pyramid reminds me of the few months that I took tabla lessons - is this in tintal? - but it only lasts for four minutes so if sloppy faux-Indian jazz annoys you then at least your suffering will be brief. "John Coltrane Was Here," besides having a great smile-inducing title for a tribute to the late deity, is a lovely modal piece with the almost requisite quotations from 'A Love Supreme.' It satisfies your nagging curiosity about what a violin-jazz invocation of Coltrane's spiritual vision would sound like. Now that you know, you can finally sleep at night. Again there is judicious use of overdubbing - is this cheating? I'm not keeping score so I'll let it slide. Another interesting piece here is the unimaginatively titled "Samba," which may leave you scratching your head until you hear the congas and the electric bass guitar whose notes accent the downbeat where the surdo drum would be. The abstract sandbox of "Unlocking The Twelth House" is a great closer for the album. Unfortunately it doesn't actually end the record, but since I usually just skip over the last track, that's my story and I'm sticking to it - this is a great way to end the record.   However if atonal wordless vocals sung by children are your thing, by all means crank up "Praise Innocence." After all you may have been hoping to annoy your neighbors with this album, and up until now you may have not succeeded. This ought to do it.

I usually don't listen to the two records included on this disc back to back, in order to "maximize their efficacy" or something like that. While "Spirit Dance" manages to keep things fun, "Pneuma" actually ranks a bit higher for me. It may be a bit more sombre but it also seems more fully-realized, like he went into the studio with a more single-minded approach to make a statement, as opposed to recording a collection of pieces. The original first side of the LP is comprised entirely of the "Pneuma" suite. For a spiritual jazz homage to the breath of life, it actually boasts a pretty traditional jazz arrangement, with each instrument getting equal time to lead the group after the primordial swells and slow, sustained crescendos of the opening. First White's violin, then the bass (acoustic this time, which is a welcome choice), then piano, and finally percussion before wrapping the whole thing up. It's pretty brilliant and if you are only going to listen to one "side" of this two-on-one release, I would pick this one. The second half of "Pneuma" is just as impressive, with the additional textures of vocal arrangements on "Journey of the Black Star" and "The Blessing Song." The latter is just downright catchy and merits a place on a compilation of that ill-defined 'genre' referred to as "spiritual jazz." It's a beautiful and sweet resolution to the little musical journey Mr. White takes us on, which is one where his intensity is balanced by warmth that is often missing from these styles of jazz. Solid stuff. And check out The Fourth Way if you don't know them.

Paulinho da Costa - Agora (1977)

noreply@blogger.com (Flabbergast) — Wed, 01 May 2013 15:40:00 +0000

Paulinho da Costa
AGORA
Released 1977 on Pablo (2310-785)
OJC Reissue 1991

A1         Simbora     8:44
A2         Terra     4:23
A3         Toledo Bagel     5:50
B1         Berimbau Variations     3:50
B2         Belisco     6:54
B3         Ritmo Number One 8:27

Digitally remastered by Phil De Lancie (1991, Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, California).

Recorded at Kendun Studios, Burbank, California (August 6 through 16, 1976). Includes liner notes by David Griffin and Paulinho Da Costa.

Recording information: Kendun Studios, Burbank, CA (08/06/1976-08/16/1976).
Arrangers: Erich Bulling; Claudio Slon ; Paulinho Da Costa; Steve Huffsteter .

Personnel:
Paulinho da Costa (vocals, whistling, berimbau, tamboura, ocarina, congas, bongos, cuica, guiro, pandeiro, reco-reco, shaker, surdo, triangle, wood block, percussion, waterphone);
Octavio Bailly, Jr. (vocals, bass);
Claudio Slon (vocals, synthesizer, drums, water drum, timabales, percussion);
Larry Williams (saxophone, flute);
Steve Huffsteter,
Gene Goe (trumpet, flugelhorn);
Mike Julian, Frank Rosolino (trombone);
Greg Phillinganes (acoustic and electric pianos); Lee Ritenour (guitar).

--------------------

Nothing mind-blowing here but this is a solid record from a guy with a lot more album credits than he has records as a bandleader. Having played with Brazilian greats like Elza Soares and Martinha da Vila, by this time Paulinho da Costa was well entrenched in the slick LA jazz studio-musician scene. That slickness threatens to over saturate this entry on the Pablo label but Paulinho's energy on percussion manages to pull it back from the brink more often than not. The opening "S'imbora" may not hook you immediately with its crystalline jazz-funk fusion but by the end of it you would be hard-pressed not to admit they are cooking something savory. "Terra" is one of two percussion-centric cuts here, this one consisting of a dinner-party Santeria or Candomblé groove; the other, "Ritmo Number One" is a samba freakout and easily the most energetic thing on the album. "Toledo Bagel" lets Paulinho prove his mettle as a salsero. "Berimbau Variations" is more than what its title implies. It opens up with an otherworldly swell of notes and features an interesting flute riff in a pretty tightly-composed piece clocking in a three and a half minutes. The band here are all more than capable but somewhat lifeless and restrained for the material, perhaps due to their California studio habitus they just can't manage to break out. Keys player Greg Phillinganes (who has some sweet credits with Roy Ayers, Syreeta, Harvey Mason and others) gets some good runs on the electric piano but doesn't really cut it playing salsa on the acoustic piano. Larry Williams (Seawind, Shiela E., Michael Jackson) has a nice solo on "Belisco" but elsewhere his playing tends towards nondescript. Steve Huffsteter (Willie Bobo, Shorty Rogers, Moacir Santos and many more) is under-utilized here in my opinion although he gets to employ his arranging skills to great effect on "Belisco." Lee Ritanour is still Lee Ritanour. Drummer Cláudio Slon is a fine drummer and also played with Paulinho in Sergio Mendes' Brasil '77 group, so it is kind of surprising that they don't sound more 'in the pocket' here. I think the issue is the mix: Cláudio's drum kit is tucked away under the other instruments, foregrounding Paulinho - it is his session, after all - but I think if they had pushed him forward a few decibels it would have given the tracks more impact.

All in all this is a strong record. His Pablo release "Muito Bem!" with Joe Pass gets a "pass" from me in spite of seeming like it might be a promising record. His second record as a bandleader, "Happy People" (not to be confused with the Brazilian-themed Cannonball Adderley album) is also pretty good.

Richie Havens - Stonehenge (1970)

noreply@blogger.com (Flabbergast) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 20:08:00 +0000

Richie Havens
STONEHENGE
Released 1970, Stormy Forest

    Open Your Eyes     2:48
    Minstrel     3:28
    It Could Be The First Day     2:15
    Ring Around The Moon     2:05
    Baby Blue     4:50
    There's A Hole In The Future     1:59
    I Started A Joke     2:51
    Prayer     2:54
    Tiny Little Blues     1:57
    Shouldn't All The World Be Dancing     7:58

    Richie Havens - guitar, autoharp, sitar, koto, vocals
    Warren Bernhardt - organ
    Daniel Ben Zebulon - drums, conga
    Monte Dunn - guitar
    Donny Gerrard - bass
    Ken Lauber - piano
    Bill Lavorgna - drums
    Eric Oxendine - bass
    Bill Shepherd Singers - string arrangements
    Paul "Dino" Williams - guitar

"To all the temples built by man of stone and other transient material: I wish to live to see them all crumble into truth and piles of light!
    And to the temple where divinity resides, even with all your newcomers: How quiet!
    To divinity: (the socio-physio-spiritus-harmonious-concludus) It is a pleasure to know you!

     And least and last, to the body, the substance, the hull, the distinguished main portion, the vessel of molecular pilots and passengers, and its power receiving, transmitting, perceiving, transcending equipment: The truth temple, I've seen your face, the earth and its inhabitants, a magnanimous collection. Concentrate on your heartbeats, regulate your breathing even so that flowers may live.
- Richard P. Havens "

On Monday April 22, Richie Havens passed away. I saw Richie play a few times in small clubs and was lucky enough to have talked with him briefly one such occasion. He was always approachable and interested in talking to his fans after a performance. Here was this man who was a living legend of his generation, with an instantly recognizable style and always-evocative musical presence, and he seemed genuinely just grateful that people came to hear him sing. In a way it seemed this fact was all that mattered – that people were still listening.

Note that I did not say "grateful that people still came to hear him sing" because this had nothing to do with his age – he was well into his 60s the last time I saw him perform – or out of some pop-singer’s vanity to feel relevant. It mattered that people were still listening because he still believed in the urgency of his message as much as he did when he started out. His message and his music had not changed much in a half century of recording and performing, and he put them both across to us in a voice that never wavered. He had a wise voice, ageless and now quite literally eternal. You can listen to his singing on "Mixed Bag" (1967) and follow it with "Wishing Well" (2002) and be forgiven for thinking they were recorded around the same time.

He will forever be associated with the opening scenes of the Woodstock film that captured him improvising the tune "Freedom" at the end of a nearly three-hour set, killing time for the rock bands to get their gear to the stage. And he continued to represent the best utopian qualities of that historic moment soon to be overshadowed by the excesses of the era. As most of his contemporaries succumbed to various combinations of self-destruction, greed, madness or mediocrity, he continued waging peace for the rest of his career. He became the most refreshing of anachronisms. A person who believed - really believed - that music could change the world one person at a time. A figure who seemed incapable of cynicism in his music or his life. Hell, he could even make promotional work for the cotton industry sound noble.

You can't go wrong with any of Richie's first ten or so albums, and Stonehenge is lodged right in between two of my favorites - the double album "1983" and "Alarm Clock." The latter LP was his highest charting success, largely on the heals of an inspired version of 'Hear Comes The Sun.' While Richie was a fantastic songwriter he sort of became known for his covers of other peoples' hits and giving them his personal stamp. Usually songs associated with sixties counterculture folk/rock icons like Donovan, The Beatles, and Dylan. Here he tackles "It's All Over Now Baby Blue," a song so good it is probably impossible to do a bad version of it, and the Bee Gee's "I Started A Joke," which also happens to be one of my favorite tunes (as I mentioned when blogging about Ronnie Von's Portuguese adaptation of it over here). The album opens with a tune by gospel artist Leon Lumkins, "Open Our Eyes," also recorded by Funkadelic and which would become the title track of an Earth, Wind and Fire album a few years later. Havens version is better than both and more moving, as well as truer to the original. It's a lovely prayer to begin a recording.

I won't give a song-by-song account because if you have never sat down and listened to it then you should just enjoy your own subjective impressions. "Minstrel From Gaul" is a recognized classic and a song he never stopped playing live. He shifts from the tender "It Could Be The First Day" to the angular "Ring Around The Moon" seamlessly. The song "Prayer" brings us back to gospel territory and reminds us of Richie's roots singing in vocal groups and doo-wop. It's a Havens composition and the last one on the album to feature real vocals; it also seems that Richie may have overdubbed all the harmonies himself, if the album jacket credits are trustworthy. The instrumentation throughout the LP is changed up constantly, presenting new textures, and the arrangements are all excellent. Also, unlike his first couple of LPs - and I mention this only because I was just listening to them yesterday and today - this one was recorded and mixed really well, which helps things a lot. The record kind of tapers off a little towards the end with the rather disposable instrumental "Tiny Little Blues" (dobro fans will be pleased by an unexpected appearance from David Bromberg) followed immediately by an eight-minute freakout jam (lyricless but with some spoken word) that closes the proceedings. It is tempting to think they needed to fill ten more minutes and had no more songs left, but Havens often managed to insert something experimental or vaguely improvisatory into his early records. And this intense finale, "Shouldn't All The World Be Dancing" is shot through with Havens ecological, spiritual, and anti-war sentiments. It is a surprisingly dissonant way to close a record, perhaps the musical rendering of his call in the liner notes to see "all the temples built by man... crumble into truth and piles of light." Richie Havens didn't live to see that vision come to fruition here on Spaceship Earth. But he did leave us a huge body of work through his searching.

Listen to a little piece of it today.

Also: MORE AUTOHARP!

I could post a YouTube clip to something off this album but why not share the original recording of that Lumkins tune:

Flabbergasted Freeform Radio Hour No.3 - April 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Flabbergast) — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 16:19:00 +0000

Finally, another episode of the world-famous podcast!

or, for convenient download to your music player of choice
in 320 kbs (1 file set)

MIRROR 1
MIRROR 2
MIRROR 3

--------------------------------------------------------------

in FLAC (1 file set)

MIRROR 1

MIRROR 2

Hope you enjoy this one. I might as well mention, I put my purist audiophile pretensions aside (they are outside my budget anyway) and so should you, podcasts are meant to be listened to `on the go`, driving, running, working, dancing naked in your house or however you like. Created with a fancy German microphone, some nice preamps, but also using compression which is a good tool if you know how to use it. With so many different songs with different production values and aesthetics, it is kind of necessary to do some compression and limiting to make the listening experience less jarring (and less reaching for your volume knob or button). Plus it gives it that little boost of radio faux-excitement that is one of the psychoacoustic benefits of compressing a mix. I may not have a vintage Fairchild compressor to stay with the vibe of this set, but it works. Also if you have a Fairchild compressor you don't need any longer, feel free to send it to me. I will even pay for the shipping!

Check out the other podcasts, if you missed them, where they live

Playlist:

New Birth – Granddaddy
Betty Wright – Clean Up Woman
Carlos Dafe – Bem Querer
Roque da Plá - Cantos Negros
Marines - No laço do carimbô
Mighty Sparrow – Witchdoctor
Vieira e Seu Conjunto – Melô do bode
Ed Lincoln – Miss Balanço
Cal Tjader – Solar Heat
Brother To Brother - Visions
(break)
Azar Lawrence – Forces of Nature
Riot – Just Beyond
Jimmy and Vella – Do You Really Know How I Feel
Soul Children – It Hurts Me To My Heart
Baby Huey – Hard Times
Wolfmoon – People Get Ready
J.B.Carvalho – Jesus Cristo
Sister Rosetta Tharpe – Let It Shine
Tim Maia – Paz
(break)
Roberto Carlos – Ninguem Tirar Voce de Mim
Orchestra Harlow - Lo Que Dice Usted
Baracho e Seus Cirandeiros - Despedida

Background music during the read-backs came from the Gil Melle soundtrack for The Andromeda Strain and a record by Welsh prog band Man called "2 oz of Plastic With A Hole In The Middle"

Dominguinhos - Programa MPB Especial, February 8, 1974 (Repost)

noreply@blogger.com (Flabbergast) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 17:29:00 +0000

DOMINGUINHOS
"A música brasileira deste século por seus autores e intérpretes"
SESC São Paulo / JCB Produções Artisticas

Recorded for the Programa MPB Especial on February 8, 1974, directed by Fernando Faro

Dominguinhos - sanfona de oito baixos
José Braz dos Santos - zabumba
Domingos P. Neres - triângulo

-----------------------------------------

This is a repost from 2010. Dominguinhos' health has been failing for some time now. Send him some good vibes and give a listen to this amazing interview-performance. March, 2013 - F.

Some years ago the SESC organization of São Paulo released a number of boxsets of interviews and music with musicians and composers. This disc is from the second boxset (the discs themselves are not numbered or in any way chronological). Only a fraction of the stuff filmed for this series has found its way onto DVD, such as Nara Leão, Cartola (very recently), or Elis Regina. If you've seen those then you know the format -- a little bit of playing, a little bit of talking, some more playing, very relaxed. In fact one curious production technique is that you never (or at least I haven't yet) hear the actual questions being posed to the artists. This used to really annoy me. Now I see it as some of form of editorial self-erasure, an attempt to efface the interviewer's subjective presence and keep the focus on the artists. In that sense the technique is mildly admirable. But there are still times when I knew what the hell they had been asking about..

But in this case, Dominguinhos, who is as relaxed and good-natured in an interview as you might expect from his music, tells us a little about growing up in Garanhuns, Pernambuco, his father being a small farmer (pequeno agricultor, not "small" like Azulão) who also worked as a tuner of sanfonas de 8 baixos (eight-button accordions) and playing in the feiras where so much business gets conducted in the interior. He tells of meeting as a young boy with the master Luiz Gonazaga, who would become his mentor and protector throughout this life.

We then get something of a musical travelogue of his life, with him playing some of the different types of music he played to get by when living in Rio - samba, música romantica, boleros, show tunes. Songs by Tom Jobim, Johnny Alf, Jack Lawrence. We even get a short snipped of chansón with "La vie em Rose" immortalized by Edith Piaf. It's not as if Domiguinhos is alone in knowing this repertoire as it was more or less required of working musicians, but as he demonstrates in this casual setting it is not hard to imagine that his emotive capacity to connect with whatever material he plays is at least part of how he grew to be such a sought-after session player, apart from his association with Gonzagão. This TV program was filmed as Dominguinhos was 'hot stuff' with the post-tropicalia scene, having both recorded on my ex-girlfriend's album "India" (1973) and also touring in her live presentation of it. I may be partial because I am still in love with Gal Costa after all these years in spite of her breaking my heart, but I really think the India tour performance should see a legit DVD release (there is a bootleg pimping itself out over at YouTube...), because I would rather go blind from stroking myself than from squinting my eyes at a blurry image *while* stroking myself, damnit. Anyway, if the only thing Dominguinhos ever did in his entire career was to play on that album, he would still deserve top props from me. But he was also working on Gilberto Gil's 'Refavela' album which would yield one of the most beautiful songs either man would write, "Lamento Sertanejo (Forró de Dominguinhos." But he opens the show with his most famous and instantly-recognizable song "Eu só quero um Xodó," which is a staple in the forró song book now, both pé de serra and electric... I had always thought it was co-written with Gilberto Gil because of its appearance on the latter's "Cidade de Salvador" album (underrated and rather hard to track down, unfortunately), and because the melody seems so obviously GIL to me.. But it's not, its Dominguinhos and Anastácia. There is however, the Gil/Dominginhos collaboration "Abri a porta" later on, and the fantastic song written with Chico Buarque "Tantas Palavras." There is even a song he co-authored with his nine year-old daughter Liv titled "Vários caminhos." And it's amazing.

I think this box has something like 13 discs in it and a book which transcribes all the interviews and has some commentary by the likes of Tarik de Souza and Sergio Cabral who worked on the SESC project. They are all pretty consistently good but this one is really special and definitely my personal favorite. It's recorded with the sparseness and simplicity that really brings out the best in Dominguinhos without the frills of (over)production, and to hear him play some of these tunes *entirely* by himself (by which I mean, with the zabumba and triangle players sitting them out in the corner) is a privilege, like having him come by to your house and play for you on your veranda on a crisp autumn evening. Some of the other volumes in the SESC boxes seem to be made from second or third generation back-up tapes or transferred off the video reels, whereas this one has incredibly detailed and warm sound. And, of course, he has some anecdotes peppered between the songs that prove how any good sanfoneiro is also a good storyteller. He ends the show appropriately enough with an homage to his mentor, Luiz Gonzaga, and shows us why is truly the only one worthy of being Gonzaga's successor and 'filho postiço'.

in 320 kbs em pee tré

in FLAC LOSSLESS AUDIO

Swamp Dogg - Rat On! (1971)

noreply@blogger.com (Flabbergast) — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 00:43:00 +0000

-------------------

Swamp Dogg
Rat On!
Original release 1971 Elektra (EKS-74089)
Reissue 2013, Alive Naturalsound Records (0142-2)

    Do You Believe     2:50
    Predicament #2     3:07
    Remember I Said Tomorrow     2:41
    Creeping Away     2:51
    Got To Get A Message To You     4:08
    God Bless America     3:34
    I Kissed Your Face     3:51
    That Ain't My Wife     3:15
    She Even Woke Me Up To Say Goodbye     3:05
    Do Our Thing Together     4:07

Baritone Saxophone, Clarinet, Tenor Saxophone – Sonny Royal
Bass, Percussion – Robert Popwell
Drums – Jasper Guarino
Flugelhorn, Trumpet – Mike Stough, Stacy Goss
Guitar, Backing Vocals – Jesse Carr
Producer, and arranged by Jerry Williams, Jr
Piano, Vocals, Performer [Everything Else Of Any Importance] – Jerry Williams, Jr

Engineer – David Johnson
Photography By [Back Cover] – Siegfried Halus
Photography By [Cover] – Willis Hogans, Jr.*

Recorded At – Quinvy Recording Studio, Muscle Shoals, Alabama
Remastered (very well) by Dave Cooley at Elysian Masters

I don't see what the big deal is about the album cover. Apparently it frequently makes the top of 'worst album covers' lists, but I can think of far worse. In fact I think it's a thing of beauty, down to the awful pun (for the non-native English speakers, the title is a pun on how the phrase "right on" might sound pronounced in a black US southern drawl). It could reasonably be argued that such a silly cover does a disservice to the high quality of music inside. But it is definitely eye-catching, and leaves you with handful of pertinent questions -- what? why? who? and again WHY? - none of which will really be answered after listening.

You see, Swamp Dogg is the artistic monicker of one Jerry Williams, who had been writing and intermittently recording as Little Jerry since the 1950s with little fanfare. I had no idea there was something of a Swamp Dogg revival going on at the same time that I had been searching for clean copies of the original vinyl for his first few releases. I scored the third album, "Cuffed, Collared, and Tagged"and had planned to share it here, but even though it was sealed New-Old-Stock vinyl it had a really obnoxious defect where the entire second side has sounds like someone crunching a potato chip with every rotation of the album. So I was damned delighted to find out that his first three albums (at least) are being reissued. And listen up closely when I say this, because you know I don't say it often about reissues - The remastering of this record is REALLY NICE, a nice warm analog glow that keeps all the dynamics. Bravo.

As with all revivals of between-the-cracks music there are apparently articles springing up in places like Mojo magazine. Now I have nothing against Mojo, they have some excellent writers working there, I just don't have time for them. I don't mean that dismissively but *literally* - for now and for the foreseeable near future I just do not have the luxury to read music journalism, no matter how engaging. It's all I can do to catch up on the stacks of LPs collecting dust here and occasionally shoot off a blog post when I can rub one out.

So while I am sure there are some cool articles out there and that they help fill in the back story of this fascinating, mercurial artist - who is still around and wrote the notes for these reissues - I prefer to focus on just what I am hearing. And when my eyes passed some press blurbs and quickly glossed over, seeing comparisons to everyone from Sly Stone to Frank Zappa, or calling him "psychedelic soul," I decided I would just ignore all of that for the time being, digest the music and write about why I find it so intriguing. Because while phrases like "psychedelic soul" make for good journalistic shorthand (and probably help sell a few units to a niche market), it doesn't tell us much. Listen, Baby Huey was psychedelic soul. Swamp Dogg was just, well, Swamp Dogg.

The convenient and - I hope - more useful analogy that comes to my mind is Eugene McDaniels. Both had backgrounds in straight-up traditional soul music (obviously Gene Daniels had much more success at it). It is not difficult to understand how with bizarre album titles like "Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse" or "Total Destruction Of Your Mind," potential audiences would be at turns put off or alienated, contemporaneous critics would fail to take them seriously or notice them all, and their creative work would occupy those in-between-spaces where so much unmarketable music dwells. Both of them donned iconoclastic masks for their own records where they could comfortably let loose their creativity with seemingly no concern for generating hummable hits, while both men were also perfectly capable of operating as professionals. McDaniels was writing successful songs for Roberta Flack around the same time he was making his own unique records; Swamp Dogg produced Z.Z. Hill, Arthur Conley, Doris Duke, Irma Thomas, and wrote a hit song for Johnny Paycheck with his friend Gary "U.S." Bonds.

Swamp Dogg / Jerry Williams is, when you get down to it, just good deep southern soul music. A lot of fun and with a lot more going on than meets the ear. A balanced mix of mid-tempo groovers and ballads that are sometimes disarmingly poignant. I've seen his stuff tagged as 'country soul' and that is a great descriptor, reflecting not only the stuff he heard on the radio growing up but also that the color line was first crossed in recording studios before the civil rights era even got moving, and that the decade of the sixties saw so much productive intermingling between those too genres. His eclecticism, his off-kilter, sardonic sense of humor, and his occasional raunchiness - Cuffed, Collared and Tagged has a track that consists almost entirely of an orgasm (simulated, I hope) over a riotous funk groove, and then of course there are these infamous album covers. He was able to be both "out there" and "earthy" at the same time. Maybe this is what the British mean when they say someone is "a bit bent." You can take a song like "Predicament #2" and laugh it off as a humorous anecdote about infidelity, but it is also kind of deep, almost a philosophical reflection on the constraints of monogamy and a person's ability to love more than one person simultaneously. At least, that would have been a convenient way to describe it to his partner(s) at the time. It's like a less maudlin David Crosby's "Triad" for soul music. And of course the typically male double standard rears it's head when we come around to "That Ain't My Wife," but I'm not overly concerned with philosophical consistency here. The bus-riding protagonist of "Creeping Away" is also a loveable tramp, when he tells us "I got my bread in North Carolina, and my butter in Tennessee." Safado.

From sexual to racial politics to American imperialist war-making, the record was probably too all over the place for most casual fans of soul and too "identifiably black" for crossover success in what had become an increasingly polarized and segregated music industry in post-riots, early 70s America. "Remember I Said Tomorrow" is just plain brilliant, and just as relevant now as it ever was.

Tomorrow we're gonna pass a law that'll make everything all right
With equal opportunity for everybody, whether they're black or they're white
Tomorrow we're going to bring the boys home, the end of the war is on its way
Tomorrow you'll even have freedom of speech, just be careful of the things you say
Didn't I promise your forefathers they'll be an end to pain and sorrow
Well then shake off those fears and wipe away those tears
And remember that I said tomorrow.

(In fact I think this song could have been played at Barack Obama's second inauguration ceremony.)

Swamp Dogg could also lay on some heavy emotional vibes. "I Kissed Your Face" is an irresistibly pretty and poetic soul ballad with delicate sax runs from Sonny Royal, proving that Williams could "play it straight" with the best of them. Which brings me to his impeccable choice in handpicking cover tunes, which I think is in some ways a key to Swamp Dogg's musical weltanschauung. Much like the old phrase "he/she is a musician's musician," well these tunes are "a songwriter's songs," ones that somebody personally familiar with the craft can appreciate in their totality. The Bee Gee's "Got To Get A Message To You," sung from the point of view of a death row prisoner in his final hours, lopes along in a stately, elegiac build-up decorated by lush harmonies (overdubbed by Dogg himself, as far as I can tell). Then there is an entry from the catalog of that genius of Nashville, Mickey Newbury, with "She Even Woke Me Up To Say Goodbye." This is the real deal, people. You probably didn't expect this from a man riding a giant rat on the album's cover, but he embodies these down-on-your-luck narratives with genuine pathos. To be able to look in these dark places and evoke a feeling without relying on sentimentality or other gimmicks is the essence of the best soul and country music, which must be why he sounds completely at home in these songs. That gentle darkness continued in his next record, which starts with the amazing John Prine song "Sam Stone" and ends with "Don't It Make You Want To Go Home" by Joe South. Dude sure knew how to pick 'em.

I mention all of these before getting around to the massive "God Bless America For What" because they help understand where he's coming from. A superficial encounter with this song, still years away from the end of Vietnam, probably would have inflamed the passions of many who heard only an anthem for anti-patriotism. It's a small wonder that he didn't end up like Gene McDaniels with Spiro Agnew tapping his telephone; once again, the giant rat rodeo on the front cover might have persuaded the authorities there was nothing up the sleeve to be taken seriously. But they would have been wrong, all of them. The lyrics are defiant and angry but also simple and frankly compassionate - a little over halfway through the tune, the band grooves on a slow vamp as Dogg goes into a spoken passage urging us not to say anything at all in response or rebuttal, but to stop and think about it a little, let it sink in, do some soul searching about where we've been and where we're going. Ain't nothing unpatriotic about that. At the end of the day, Swamp Dogg's America is a place I wouldn't mind living in.

Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker - The Carnegie Hall Concert Vol. 1 (1975)

noreply@blogger.com (Flabbergast) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 15:39:00 +0000

Gerry Mulligan & Chet Baker
The Carnegie Hall Concert - Volume 1
CTI Records 1975 (6054 S1)

A1         Line For Lyons     8:17
A2         (Song) For An Unfinished Woman     8:53
B1         My Funny Valentine        8:38
B2         Song For Strayhorn    9:35

    Recorded At – Carnegie Hall
    Distributed By – Motown Record Corporation
    Design – Bob Ciano
    Liner Notes – Doug Ramsey
    Producer – Creed Taylor
    Remix – Rudy Van Gelder
    Photography – Carl Roodman

    Bass – Ron Carter (tracks: A1 to B2)
    Drums – Harvey Mason (tracks: A1 to B2)
    Electric Piano – Bob James (tracks: A1, A2, B2)
    Engineer – Dave Hewitt, John Venable
    Guitar – John Scofield (tracks: A1 to B1)
    Percussion – Dave Samuels (tracks: A2 to B2)
    Piano – Bob James (tracks: B1)
    Saxophone – Gerry Mulligan (tracks: A1 to B2)
    Trumpet – Chet Baker (tracks: A1, B1)
    Vibraphone – Dave Samuels (tracks: A1, A2)
    Written-By – Gerry Mulligan (tracks: A1, A2, B2), Rodgers & Hart (tracks: B1)

Vinyl -> Pro-Ject RM-5SE turntable (with Sumiko Blue Point 2 cartridge, Speedbox power supply, cork ringmat); Creek Audio OBH-15; M-Audio Audiophile 2496 Soundcard ; Adobe Audition at 32-bit float 96khz; Click Repair light settings; individual clicks and pops taken out with Adobe Audition 3.0 - dithered and resampled using iZotope RX Advanced (for 16-bit). Tags done with Foobar 2000 and Tag and Rename.

Two of the giants of West Coast jazz were brought together again for the high profile concert documented here. While ostensibly given equal billing on the marquee, this is really Mulligan's show, who wrote all the material here except for My Funny Valentine and whose playing is top-notch throughout. Gerry Mulligan went through a career comeback of sorts in the early 70s, putting out fantastic records like Age of Steam, while Chet Baker on the other hand, well... was pretty into smack at this point. He is barely even there on most of this record. He plays well enough I guess, when he plays at all, but mostly he's just phoning it in.   Mulligan more than picks up the slack, however, and these guys in the CTI stable are no slouches. While the band still has the shimmering gloss common to all CTI material, it is refreshing to hear these guys outside of the funk-lite context of majority of those records and know they can play "straight" bop and cool jazz when needed. Harvey Mason plays with a subtlety I didn't think he had in him, while Bob James lays down the velvet carpet of electric piano texture you would expect from him. John Scofield's performance depends on what you think of John Scofield: he's never done much for me personally but his presence here is innocuous. This 'new' batch of West Coast session vets may not lend the same immediacy to Mulligan and Baker that they had in their Pacific Jazz heyday, but it's a satisfying listen nonetheless. Oddly enough after years and years of owning this LP, I only recently picked up Volume 2 at a local shop, dirt cheap. It needs to be cleaned and hasn't even been listened to yet, so I'm not sure if it is in good enough shape to justify a blog post. But stumbling on it reminded me that I did this needledrop last year, at least.

in 320kbs

FLAC 16/44.1

in 24 bit / 96khz FLAC

Ronnie Von - A Misteriosa Luta Do Reino de Parasempre Contra O Império de Nuncamais (1969)

noreply@blogger.com (Flabbergast) — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 19:19:00 +0000

Ronnie Von
"A Misteriosa Luta Do Reino de Parasempre Contra O Império de Nuncamais"
Original release Polydor (Brasil) LPNG 44.037, 1969
This reissue 2006 Discos Mariposa, Argentina

1- De como meu herói Flash Gordon irá levar-me de volta a Alfa do Centauro, meu verdadeiro lar
2- Dindí
3- Pare de sonhar com estrelas distantes
4- Onde foi "Morning Girl"
5- My cherie amour
6- Atlântida "Atlantis"
7- Por quem sonha Ana Maria?
8- Mares de areia
9- Regina e o mar
10- Foi bom
11- Rose Ann
12- Comecei uma brincadeira "I started a joke"

BONUS TRACKS
13. Meu Bem
14. O Pequeno Príncipe
15. Meu Mundo Parou
16. Paraíso

---------
Here's some more pós-jovem guarda psychedelia (or is it psychejovem guardelia-iê-iê?) from former teen-idol and past and present TV star and show host Ronnie Von! Pretty heady stuff for such a heart-throb: the title translates as "The Mysterious Struggle of the Kingdom of Forever Against the Empire of Nevermore." And this record was made before that North American whats-her-name made absurdly long and silly album titles trendy! Of his three psych albums from the late 60s-early-70s, this only narrowly loses out to the third one as my favorite. Mostly because it has one too many 'cover songs' of contemporary hits on it. In particular, the rather odd choice of My Cherie Amor just doesn't fit. A Brazilian-Portuguese version of Donovan's "Atantlis" is a campy highlight though, and his version of Jobim's "Dindi" is just plain great. I like his version of The Bee Gee's "I Started A Joke" even if I prefer the original. It's got a very fuzzy guitar and everyone is accenting the down stroke (even the piano player!), giving the tune an unexpected headiness (or is it heaviness?) and it makes a good closer for the album. (Everything after that track consists of bonus cuts).

This record is best when it's at its most psychedelic, which also happens to include most of the tunes co-written by Ronnie. The opening cut is great, so is "Pare de sonhar com as estrelas distantes", features a sound collage bridge very much inspired by the Fab Four. Von first got his start in music by way of a friendship with a group called The Brazilian Beatles and appeared on their TV show in 1965 singing "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away," so it is only natural that his sound followed the instincts of their idols. Although this kind of stuff was vociforously attacted by the reactionaries of the day as being an agent of imperialism and a "mass culture" threat, Von's music isn't nearly as derivative as all that. He doesn't attempt to ape Beatle-esque harmonies, and the approach to arrangements has its fair share of blue-eyed soul (or is it green-eyed soul?) and is just as inspired by contemporaneous Roberto Carlos. In other words, he might have been heavily inspired by The Beatles - along with, um, pretty much everyone else recording pop music in 1969 - but there was far more derivative stuff being produced by pop and psych-pop contemporaries in the anglophone world. There is quite a bit of originality here, and if I were to complain it would be that the record doesn't have enough of Von's own compositions. He fixes that on his next record, however.

The track "Rose Ann" manages to squeeze English, Portuguese, and French into the same tune, briefly breaking down into an accordion-driven bit of chanson. There's some very nice vibraphone on this too.    Ronnie was really gifted at doing spoken parts in between his sung vocals. I would like to hear him read an entire audio-book. What great works of literature should we suggest to his agent? Please leave your suggests in the comment suggestion. Meanwhile, "You're love will be, like summer to me."

One of favorite tunes on the album is "Regina e o Mar," which has a perfect blend of a groovy bass line and rhythm guitar, loose drums, creative string arrangements, Ronnie's soulful vocal, and just the right amount of tape delay. This tune is followed by an unexpected and equally groovy tune penned by Benedito da Paula, which adds horns to the previous winning combination. No tape delay, though. Oh well, it's good to be sparing with it anyway.

Tagged at the end are some bonus tracks, including yet another cover (The Beatles' "Girl"), which if the liner notes here are correct he managed to record without crediting them, and Ronnie's signature hit tune, "O Pequeno Principe". "Girl" / "Meu Bem" has a pretty wicked tremolo-surf guitar part.

This release on Mariposa Records (Argentina) is a needle-drop, and not a particularly good one, but it gets the job done. Since my birthday is coming up soon, feel free to send me original vinyl copies as a gift. Thanks!

Oh and I almost forgot - the bilingual booklet is a wonderful example of what happens when you use Google Translate to convert Brazilian Portuguese to English. Fun!!

in 320

in FLAC

George Harrison - Wonderwall Music (1968) & Electronic Sound (1969)

noreply@blogger.com (Flabbergast) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 04:08:00 +0000

If it's obligatory to have a favorite Beatle, mine has always been George Harrison. Today he would have been 70 years old. He is the only one out of the Fab Four who I still listen to with any regularity. If you have never sat down and listened to the All Things Must Pass album, go out and find an original copy of it (*not* the butchered remaster/remixed version he put out a year or two before he passed away. I've owned a few pressings so trust me on avoiding that one..). And then do yourself an additional favor and seek out the demo recordings of these tunes pre-Wall of Sound, previously circulated on bootlegs (Acetates and Alternates and Beware of ABKCO to name a couple), some of which received an official release last year as "Early Tracks Vol.1" I prefer the track choices and sequencing on Acetates andAlternates in case you're wondering.    Particularly on the demos cut with just acoustic or electric guitar and voice, it's screamingly obvious how much Harrison was chafing at the bit in the two-songs-per-record cage where he was kept in the Biggest Band Ever.

Before that epic album was even in the works, however, George had two 'solo' albums away from his band. He was the first of them to do so, and the Wonderwall album was the first release by Apple Records. It is a largely instrumental soundtrack to a film I've never seen, and on which George doesn't take any instrumental credit (although I suspect he must have played something on it at some point) but rather writing, arranging and producing credits. Dominated by droning pieces steeped in Indian instrumentation and a large handful of musicians from the subcontinent, this record is probably responsible for my interest in Indian classical and folk music.    It definitely proves to any doubters that his interests pushed beyond 'Within You, Without You'. These textures blend with manipulated tape experiments and sound collage, with zithers and trumpets and Mellotrons and strange wind instruments wafting in and out of its short tracks, all presented here without gaps as one continuous experience. But there are also a few choice forays back into psychedelic rock territory. The saturated Ski-ing' is the best candidate for featuring an uncredited Eric Clapton, and the gliding 'Party Seacombe' sounds like an alternate version of "Flying" from the Magical Mystery Tour record.

The following year's ELECTRONIC SOUND album is one of the stranger things ever released by a Beatle, a bit of musique concrète made on an early Moog analog synthesizer with some overdubbing. It's nothing mind blowing but worth a listen and having it in the stack with your other G.Harrison records.

I have vinyl copies of both of these, although if I remember correctly I am pretty sure my Electronic Sound is a much later reissue. Rather than rip my own copy of Wonderwall, which is buried somewhere in stacks of LPs, I took the liberty of sharing an excellent job done by one Son-of-Albion, who has done a bunch of great needledrops over the years. There was also a legit CD release of this (and plenty of bootleg CD in the 80s and early 90s, I owned one for a time that sounded sketchy indeed). I've included the liner notes from that along with everything else here.

Well, whatever bardo or astral plane you're currently on, George, you are missed. Happy 70th in absentia.

WONDERWALL MUSIC
Apple Records 1968 - SAPCOR 1

A1         Microbes     3:39
A2         Red Lady Too     1:58
A3         Tabla And Pakavaj     1:04
A4         In The Park     4:05
A5         Drilling A Home     3:08
A6         Guru Vandana     1:02
A7         Greasy Legs     1:27
A8         Ski-ing     1:37
A9         Gat Kirwani     1:15
A10     Dream Scene     5:33
B1         Party Seacombe     4:20
B2         Love Scene     4:15
B3         Crying     1:12
B4         Cowboy Music     1:22
B5         Fantasy Sequins     1:43
B6         On The Bed     1:03
B7         Glass Box     2:15
B8         Wonderwall To Be Here     1:23
B9         Singing Om

in 320

Mirror 1
or MIRROR 2

in FLAC 16-bit

in FLAC 24-bit

    Artwork – Alan Aldridge, Bob Gill, John Kelly
    Bass – Philip Rogers
    Drums – Roy Dyke
    Flugelhorn – John Barham
    Flute – S.R. Kenkari
    Guitar, Steel Guitar – Colin Manley
    Harmonica – Tommy Reilly
    Harmonium – Rij Ram Desad
    Pakavaj – Mahapurush Misra
    Shanhais – Hanuman Jadev, Sharad Jadev
    Tabla-tarang – Rij Ram Desad
    Thar-shanhai – Viniak Vora
    Photography By – Astrid Kemp
    Piano – John Barham
    Piano [Jangle], Organ – Edward Antony Ashton
    Santoor – Shiv Kumar Shermar
    Sarod – Ashish Kahn
    Sitar – Indril Bhattacharya, Shambu-Das
    Sitar [Bass] – Chandra Shakher
    Tabla – Mahapurush Misra

Producer, Arranged By, Written-By – George Harrison

---------------------

Electronic Sound
1969, Zapple 02

01.    "Under the Mersey Wall" – 18:41
        Recorded in Esher, England, in February 1969 with the assistance of Rupert and Jostick, the Siamese Twins
02.    "No Time or Space" – 25:10
        Recorded in California in November 1968 with the assistance of Bernie Krause

in 320 kbs

or ALTERNATE MIRROR here

in FLAC

Flabbergasted Freeform Podcast #2

noreply@blogger.com (Flabbergast) — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 04:56:00 +0000

The second installment is here.

in 320 kbs MIRROR 1 //// MIRROR 2

in FLAC MIRROR 1 /// MIRROR 2

PLAYLIST - Flabbergasted Freeform #2

1. Noriel Vilela – Só o ôme
2. The Whispers – Headlights
3. B.T. Express – Shout It Out
4. Maria Bethania – Marinhéiro só – Roda de Samba – Yê Me-lê
5. Los Zafiros – Mírame Fijo
6. Fuego de Cumbia – Na Cadência do Samba
7. Nana Caymmi - Passarela
8. The Heptones – Sea of Love
9. Ken Booth – Ain’t No Sunshine
10. Esther Philips – Use Me
11. Afrique – When I’m Kissin My Love
12. Creative Source – Who Is He And What Is He To You
13. Rotary Connection – The Burning Of The Midnight Lamp
14. LaBelle – There’s Something In The Air / The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
15. Horace Silver – Won’t You Open Up Your Senses
16. Harold McKinney – In The Moog
17. Cabana - A Paz do Coração
18. Pablo Lubadika Portos – Madalena
19. Joey Pastrano – Let’s Ball
20. Cliften Chenier – Party Time
21. Ronnie Von – Dindi
22. Ohio Players – Far East Mississippi / Who’d She Coo

Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - The Freedom Rider (1961)

noreply@blogger.com (Flabbergast) — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 19:55:00 +0000

Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers
The Freedom Rider
1961 Blue Note (BST 84156)

1         Tell It Like It Is
2         The Freedom Rider
3         El Toro
4        Petty Larceny
5         Blue Lace

    Bass – Jymie Merritt
    Drums – Art Blakey
    Piano – Bobby Timmons
    Tenor saxophone – Wayne Shorter
    Trumpet – Lee Morgan

   Cover Design – Reid Miles
    Engineer – Rudy Van Gelder
    Liner Notes – Nat Hentoff
    Photography – Francis Wolff
    Producer – Alfred Lion

Recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey; February 18 (track B2) and May 27, 1961 (tracks A1-B1, B3).

-----
Ripping details

--------

Vinyl ; Pro-Ject RM-5SE turntabl, Sumiko Blue Point 2 cartridge, Speedbox power supply; Creek Audio OBH-15; M-Audio Audiophile 192 Soundcard ; Adobe Audition at 32-bit float 192khz; Click Repair light settings, sometimes turned off; individual clicks and pops taken out with Adobe Audition 3.0 - resampled (and dithered for 16-bit) using iZotope RX Advanced. Tags done with Foobar 2000 and Tag and Rename.

foobar2000 1.2.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2013-02-02 14:42:29

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Analyzed: Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers / The Freedom Rider
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DR         Peak         RMS     Duration Track
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR12      -2.04 dB   -17.13 dB      7:55 01-Tell It Like It Is
DR16      -1.04 dB   -20.89 dB      7:29 02-The Freedom Rider
DR12      -1.05 dB   -15.81 dB      6:21 03-El Toro
DR11      -2.00 dB   -17.64 dB      6:16 04-Petty Larceny
DR12      -1.62 dB   -17.37 dB      6:00 05-Blue Lace
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of tracks: 5
Official DR value: DR13

Samplerate:        96000 Hz
Channels:          2
Bits per sample:   24
Bitrate:           3117 kbps
Codec:             FLAC
================================================================================

JUST FOR THE SAKE OF COMPARISON - The Japanese Toshiba RVG pressing dynamic range is as follows:
foobar2000 1.2.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2013-02-02 14:43:38

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Analyzed: Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers / The Freedom Rider
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DR         Peak         RMS     Duration Track
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR10      -0.18 dB   -12.31 dB      7:55 01-Tell It Like It Is
DR16      -0.18 dB   -18.15 dB      7:27 02-The Freedom Rider
DR11      -0.18 dB   -14.21 dB      6:21 03-El Toro
DR11      -0.18 dB   -13.58 dB      6:15 04-Petty Larceny
DR10      -0.18 dB   -12.86 dB      5:59 05-Blue Lace
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of tracks: 5
Official DR value: DR12

Samplerate:        44100 Hz
Channels:          2
Bits per sample:   16
Bitrate:           804 kbps
Codec:             FLAC
================================================================================

Well I had originally planned to post this on Martin Luther King Day (Jan 21) but like pretty much everything else in my life, I was late with it. This is actually a vinyl rip that I worked on for months, in spare free moments, so urgency hasn't exactly been a word I would associate with it.

This is the Jazz Messengers at their most soulful and swinging, with a young Lee Morgan and Wayne Shorter reminding us of why they are now legends. Aside from the drum solo, which is pretty listenable as far as drum solos go - it's Blakey, after all - they composed everything here and every tune is top notch. "Tell It Like It Is" and "Petty Larceny" (great title) are classic, deep soul jazz. The last tune, Morgan's "Blue Lace," is breathtaking. It makes me want to get up and do a little hard-bop waltz around the room. The close intervals between Morgan and Shorter give an illusion like there are a lot more horn players in the room. Bobby Timmons' dances lightly across the piano on his solo. The whole thing is a fine example of what Hentoff is talking about in his liner notes regarding Blakey's spirit of youthfulness, also bolstered by his choice to always surround himself with younger musicians in the Messengers. If you suffer from depression or seasonal-affect disorder, I highly recommended listening to "Blue Lace" three times a day or as needed. Side effects may include euphoria and unexpected goatee cultivation.

I have yet to find a copy of this that includes a lyric sheet for the title track, unfortunately.

So, I am not going to make claims about anything sounding "better" than anything else, but for those of us unhappy with Rudy Van Gelder's remastering of his own work, this vinyl rip is a viable alternative to the (Japan-only) reissue. I have not heard the original Blue Note CD pressing, presumably if it is a Michael Cuscuna job than it must be a lot more satisfying than the recent RVG.

I'm no jazz scholar, so this is all you'll get from me in terms of a write-up. Nat Hentoff's original notes are good, as always, so go read those.

Various Artists - Bossa Nova: Sua História, Sua Gente (1975)

noreply@blogger.com (Flabbergast) — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 00:18:00 +0000

Bossa Nova Sua Historia Sua Gente
Philips / Polygram
Original release 1975
CD reissue, unknown date

DISC 1

01 - Sofrer é da Vida - Mario Reis
02 - Você - Dick Farney e Norma Bengel
03 - Nós e o Mar - Doris Monteiro
04 - Só Danço Samba - Donato e Seu Trio
05 - Mocinho Bonito - Billy Blanco
06 - Samba do Avião - Cariocas
07 - Rio - Lucio Alves
08 - As Praias Desertas - Elizete Cardoso
09 - Último Canto - Agostinho dos Santos
10 - Influência do Jazz - Leny Andrade
11 - Minha Saudade - Tamba Trio
12 - Por Toda Minha Vida - Lenita Bruno
13 - Tristeza de Nós Dois - Luiz Eca
14 - Tem Mais Samba - Quarteto em Cy
15 - Boranda - Edu Lobo & Tamba Trio
16 - Berimbau - Baden Powell
17 - The Girl From Ipanema - Astrud Gilberto
18 - Carta ao Tom 74 - Vinícius e Toquinho

DISC 2

01 - Samba da Pergunta - João Gilberto
02 - Samba de Verão - Roberto Menescal e Seu Conjunto
03 - Demais - Maysa
04 - Folha de Papel - Sergio Ricardo
05 - Chora Tua Tristeza - Conj Oscar Castro Neves
06 - Ao Amigo Tom - Claudette Soares
07 - Você e Eu - Sylvia Telles
08 - Coisa Mais Linda - Carlos Lyra
09 - Ela é Carioca - Sergio Mendes e Bossa Trio
10 - Maria Bonita - Nara Leão
11 - Upa Neguinho - Lennie Dale
12 - Que Maravilha - Zimbo Trio
13 - De Palavra em Palavra - Mpb4
14 - Chuva - Os Gatos
15 - Tema do Boneca de Palha - Rosinha de Valença
16 - Olha Maria - Chico Buarque
17 - So Tinha de Ser com Você - Elis & Tom
18 - Ana Luiza - Tom Jobim

There are a lot of bossa nova compilations out there, and a lot of them are pretty shitty. This one is a good enough listen, though not nearly as Earth-shaking as some of the reviews I've seen on the internet might indicate. In fact, T. "Strokin"Jurek must have a different record than the one I have - not only does it not feature any tracks by Jorge Ben as he claims (rather, it has a medley of Ben songs performed by Zimbo Trio, however, which is a big difference), but it also does NOT contain "credits and complete song details" in any way. What my copy has is an essay-style account of bossa nova with information on key composers, artists, producers and arrangers. Not song credits. Maybe Jurek has a different edition, or maybe he doesn't read or speak Portuguese? If so he should probably stop being paid to write reviews of anthological Brazilian releases. What Jurek also seems ignorant of is that astute fans of this music don't gripe about compilations like this because they are fond of "nit picking." Usually they are motivated for a love of music that exceeds the profit motive of the companies that put it out. A case in point can usually be found in any compilation claiming to represent an entire musical movement, such as this one. Even in the 1960s, the Brazilian recording industry was consolidated in very few hands, with each label being pretty equally possessive of its own artists and covetous of its neighbors. As you will see, that has resulted in some misleading attempts to anthologize.

This collection was originally released as a triple-LP box with an oversized booklet. I own both the vinyl and CD and for once we are at least lucky to have a CD booklet that replicates the info in the original vinyl down to the letter. Unfortunately that info is still kind of vague on the sort of info fans want, such as the provenance of the tracks - the dates, the records they came from, who may have played on them - in fact just the sort of info that Jurek claims comes with this set but does not. It's my feeling this is a pretty deliberate choice. Philips didn't even exist as a discrete record label during the heydey of bossa nova, but rather took over what had been CBD (Companhia Brasileira dos Discos) and eventually acquired the Elenco label and their catalog in the early 70s. So this compilation is missing all kinds of crucial stuff released by the EMI-Odeon and RGE labels, for example. To make things more confusing, some of the artists associated with those labels appear here on selections recorded after they had signed contracts with Philips (João Gilberto, Chico Buarque, Zimbo Trio). They are great songs, but these artists' canonical contributions to bossa nova are found on their first few records, and not the ones recorded for Phillips.

What this compilation does do really well is fill in gaps in the fan's knowledge of artists either within bossa nova or who were seminal and influential on its formation (even if some of them - like Dick Farney - are once again featured in post-1970 contexts). A lot of material, however, isn't actually bossa nova but samba canção, a genre that provided a lot of the roots, repertoire, and inspiration for bossa nova but which is distinct enough that its progenitors were initially scandalized by the deviations in rhythms and intervals that the kids brought to the block. Although it's not clear how much is intentional and how much is a product of the contractual shenanigans on who has rights to what songs, this record ends up being a cool compilation that manages to avoid repeating the cliched representations of bossa nova (with the exception fo Girl From Ipanema), even at the expense of omitting most of its key compositions and recordings. Extra points for including tracks from Os Cariocas, Carlos Lyra, Agostinho dos Santos, US expatriat Lennie Dale, Silvia Telles, and Billy Blanco.

Xangô da Mangueira - Rei do Partido Alto (1972)

noreply@blogger.com (Flabbergast) — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 22:18:00 +0000

Xangô da Mangueira
O Rei do Partido Alto
Released 1972 on Copacabana (CLP 11701)
Reissue 2011 Discos Cobacabana-EMI

1. Moro na Roça
2. Quando vim de Minas
3. Se o Pagode é Partido
4. Cheguei no Samba
5.Que Samba é Esse
6. Se Tudo Correr Bem
7. Pequenininho
8. Recordação de um Batuqueiro
9. Quem não te Conhece é que te Compra (Tiro no Escuro)
10. Arigó
11. Diretor de Harmonia
12. Olha o partido

Que samba esse que acabou de chegar?
É partido-alto, mas é pra quem sabe improvisar

A great record by one of the under-heralded sambistas, Xangô da Mangueira aka Olivéirio Ferreira. Every track is a winner, and this has been one of the most-played samba records in my stash since I got it, often getting played twice in a row which is something I NEVER do. A friend of Paulo da Portela, he passed through the samba schools of Portela, Lira do Amor (now defunct) and Mangueira. This record has probably the biggest concentration of Xangô's better-known compositions that he recorded in one place. Well-known because they have been recorded by the likes of Clara Nunes, Martinho da Vila, Elza Soares, Beth Carvalho, Roberto Ribeiro and others since the 1970s heyday of "samba de raiz." The record lopes along in an old-school pagode, roda de samba vibe and is one of the best partido-alto records you're likely to hear.

Xangô cultivated a style that was, in his own words, “bem sacudido, bem jongo,” that is to say laying down a good solid groove: animated, danceable, strongly rooted in the batucada. The first voice you hear on the record doesn't actually belong to him, but to Jorge Zagaia, his singing partner on three of the partido alto tunes here: Mora Na Roça, Pequenininho, and Diretor de Harmonio, which Zagaia also wrote in homage of his friend. Scholars and even sambistas don't have a clear-cut definition of the subgenre in any way that can be condensed into a paragraph, but all agree that it has a long pedigree, going back to the Bantu-language presence in Brazil and the sambas de umbigada, jongo, and the lundu, existing in some form or another as a distinguishable dance and music when samba first urbanized in the early twentieth century. The name itself connotes an "elite" of samba, something you have to be damn good to even attempt, so you had best be prepared before you enter into the roda de samba. It's key distinctive traits were improvised verses with a repeated group chorus or refrain, a refrãozinho really, sung in direct response and typically changing to accommodate the theme elaborated by the lead singer. Sometimes you have more than one singer taking the lead, which along with the element of improvisation places partido-alto in a continuum with northeastern traditions like the repentistas or emboladores.

There were set compositions in the style in the 1930s from the likes of Noel Rosa, Donga and Pixinguinha. According to some of its best practitioners, partido-alto had changed considerably by the 1970s, with Aniceto of Império Serrano saying "what we're all singing today is a lesser thing (samba menor) and we are just calling it partido alto." His traditionalism was probably a bit overstated for effect - on the best of the 1970s examples, you can still get the sense of spontaneity and call-and-response. But there is no doubt that the limitations of the record business, and even the medium of electronic sound reproduction itself, give us only a small taste of what went on in those old rodas de samba. To paraphrase Aniceto again: partido-alto had a set time to start, but no set time to end. It could go on and on without a break until eventually the energy runs out.. Then someone will start it up again with a different melody and theme. You get a good sense of this watching the tragically brief Hirzman documentary "Partido Alto", which has finally received a restoration (so I can finally ditch my copy transferred from an old VHS tape). In fact listening to Candeia hold court in the first part of that short film is probably the best class on partido-alto you could wish for, notwithstanding his cara brabo. Interested people would also do well to listen Candeia's albums that have a couple extended cuts of partido-alto, and perhaps most especially the first record made by the group Partido em 5 (which also featured Candeia).

A good number of the tunes on Rei do Partido-Alto all begin with a similar cavaquinho riff, and it doesn't take much imagination to hear how, with a little variation in rhythm, most of these songs could have been strung together and most likely were at one point. But while there may be some artifice in squeezing that experience into a three-minute composition, you won't hear any complaints from me about gems like "Diretor de Harmonia." Xangô was in fact the director of harmony for the Mangueira samba school, a role of no small consequence: the first office-holder of Diretor de Harmonia was none other than Cartola.

Although written by Zagaia it works as autobiography and a bit of braggadocio (Eu sou o samba em pessoa) . Other songs here take the same approach, with concise declarative lines placing the singer inside the universe of samba: "Já cantei muito samba / Já foi batuqueiro / E na roda de samba / Foi diretor de pandeiro" (in Recordação de Batuqeiro). There are so many great verses scattered around the album that evoke a lifetime seduced by samba, its physicality while lived out daily at every opportunity: "Se o pagode é partido/ Ela conta comigo/ Eu vou lá/ Eu vou em casa buscar meu pandeiro/ Eu sou partideiro/ Não posso faltar." And later, "Senhora dona da casa / me dê licença pra entrar / Fui em casa buscar meu pandeiro / Sou partideiro / não posso faltar." Remembering hanging out with Donga and João da Baiana. Or going out for a night of samba with a girl on your arm and a desire to "show these guys what I'm made of"

Sem meu tamborim não fico
Sem minha cabrocha não vou
Quero mostrar a esses caras
Quero mostrar quem eu sou
(from Cheguei no samba)

This is the convivência of samba that Xangô da Mangueira so capably communicates; the sort of false-cognate in English "conviviality" doesn't really get to it, because its not just about a festive atmosphere but about the intimacy of social relations and familiarity of people, many of whom earn their livelihood at jobs they don't care much to talk about, because what they really for is this, the nightlife of music and poetry and friendship that characterized these scenes. Xangô was a retired security guard by this point; Candeia had been a policeman, a job which left him in a wheelchair for life; Nelson Cavaquinho had been in the Policia Militar, apparently not a very good policeman either, prone to losing himself in local bars during his shifts and losing track of the battalion's horses. When you hear sambistas recount their lives, they may tell stories about the different jobs they've held but you rarely get the sense that they identified with them much - their identity was constituted in the botequim and the roda-de-samba, in the hours of leisure when their creative energy was allowed free play.

Probably the biggest 'hit' here is "Quando Vim de Minas," which became immortalized by Clara Nunes. Xangô was a native carioca but Clara was, of course, from Minas Gerais so the song is almost an anthem for her. An unforgettable melody and refrain, and lyrics that invoke images of the slaves put to work in diamond and gold mines who smuggled out gold dust under their fingernails or in religious statues. It's the kind of ambiguity that give samba and other kinds of popular music an edge of critique and subversion.

Xangô da Mangueira returned to performing and recording for a while before he passed away a few years ago at the age of 85. He recorded a CD that was sold through a website set up by someone in his circle, maybe his family. And we are lucky enough to have a 'depoimento' in the form of an interview-performance (ala MPB Especial format) that was filmed at the Múseo do Estado in the neighborhood of Catete, Rio. This is a cool place, by the way, if you ever have the chance to visit it; It also has a movie theater showing Brazilian and international independent films. (One of the things I really like about Rio is the number of independent movie theatres, all of them located conveniently close to Metro stations. Something a lot of cities in Brazil sorely lack -- Recife, hello?) I've linked to the hour-long film HERE. It's not exactly riveting stuff but worth a look if you are enjoying this record. Xangô's voice is considerably more rouca or hoarse, and he has to teach his backing musicians a few numbers on the spot. He tells some good stories, about how he gained his nickname, dispelling the appearance of him being some formidable pai-de-santo by relating how he received the name while working in a textile factory and there was a day when a guy was just giving out nicknames to anyone who didn't have them. He talks about his first tentative experiences singing samba on the last train leaving the downtown area, where all the sambistas typically met up to commute back to their homes in the periphery or in the morros, when each person would take turns singing. He talks about sambas roots in improvisation, and in marginality; of working and socializing around Rua de Santana and Praça Onze. And of advice he got when he first assumed an official position in a samba school: "There are two things about samba: education and humility," a value placed on knowing your art form, of a kind of sophisticated worldliness, coupled with the respect for the different roles in a samba school and the people who fill them, the pastores and the musicians, without which carnival would be impossible. Well it seems Mr. Ferreira had plenty of these things. He also recalls that when he went to meet the directorate of Mangueira the first time, they gave him a "test" in improvising, to show if he was up to their standards. He then assumed the job of Diretor de Harmonia and later on became one of their "intérpretes" or lead singers.

I hope you enjoy this addictive record. I think I listened to it at least four times just while writing this blog post.

in 320 kbs

MIRROR 1 // MIRROR 2 ///

in FLAC

MIRROR 1 // MIRROR 2

Flabbergasted Freeform Podcast No.1, 30-12-12

noreply@blogger.com (Flabbergast) — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 00:57:00 +0000

Well it's the end of the year and I figure that's a great time to try something different. I've had blog readers ask me to do podcasts several times, but it took a dear friend's birthday and some holiday free time before I could finally get around to it. With any luck it will be a semi-regular feature of the blog; let's even say I am making a resolution about it.

As I explain during the podcast, I won't be posting a track list here right away. Podcasts are still not really a substitute for live radio broadcasts done from actual radio stations, but at least I can maintain some element of surprise by refusing to provide a 'spoiler' list of songs before you hear them. I dutifully read back the tracks during the set breaks, so there is no reason to get upset.

Maybe in a week or so, after people have had time to give this a listen, I'll post the tracks with some more detailed info on them. For now just enjoy the podcast. You can either stream it from here or download it using the links provided.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

in VBR
/// MIRROR 2

in 320 kbs

in FLAC

Xango da Mangueira –Cheguei no samba from O Rei do Partido Alto (1972 Copacabana)

Duke Pearson – Canto de Ossana from “I Don’t Care Who Knows It” (1969, Blue Note)

Pinduca – Vamos Farrear from Carimbó e Sirimbó Vol 2 (1973, AMC / Beverly)

African Music Machine – The Dapp from Black Water Gold (2000, Soul Power Records)

Ike & Tina Turner – No More Doggin’ from A Black Man’s Soul (1969 / 2003 Funky Delicacies )

Rufus Thomas – 60 Minute Man from the album “Do The Funky Chicken” (1969, Stax)

Novos Baianos – Linguagem do Alunte (1974, Continental)

Gilla – Girl From Ipanema from Help! Help! (1977 Hansa International / Ariola)

Masekela – Night in Tunisia from I Am Not Afraid (1974, Blue Thumb)

Solano e Seu Conjunto – Lambada do Laércio from Volume 2 (1985)

note: I read the wrong title out during the break, looking at the wrong side of the LP!

Donna Summer – I Can’t Sleep At Night from Bad Girls (1979, Casablanca)

The Awakening – Slinky from Mirage (1973, Black Jazz)

Candeia – Eu Vivo Isolado do Mundo/ Amor nao e brinceado from Axê (1978, Atlantic)

Beth Carvalho – Escasseia from Na Fonte (1981 RCA )

Rosco Mitchell Art Ensemble – Carefree (Take One) from Congliptuous (1968, 2009 Nessa Records)

Terry Callier – Bowlin’ Green from I Just Can’t Help Myself (1973, Cadet Records)

Fontella Bass – Who You Gonna Blame from Free (1972, Paula Records)

Fred Anderson – The Prayer from Dark Day (1979 Message Records, reissue on Atavistic / Unheard Music Series , 2001)

Jorge Ben – Bicho de Mata from É Tempo de Música Popular Moderno (1964 CBD/Philips)

Esther Phillips – Fools Rush In from For All We Know (1976 Kudu Records, 2007 King Records Japan - amazing sound on this)

Lia de Itamaracá - Ciranda de Ritmos (2008)

noreply@blogger.com (Flabbergast) — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 18:20:00 +0000

Lia de Itamaracá
'Ciranda de Ritmos'
Released 2008 - Independent
with support of Petrobrás
and the Ministry of Culture

1. Dança do povo (3:15)
2. Quem me deu foi Lia / Moça namoradeira (5:32)
3. A vizihna (3:41)
4. Morena de Pernambuco (3:26)
5. Coco limoeiro / Baralho (4:32)
6. Mamae oxum (2:37)
7. Verde mar de navigar (4:25)
8. Ciranda feiticeira / Ciranda nova / Santa Teresa (6:13)
9. Balança moreno cirandeiro / Marinheiro samba (5:41)
10. Coco meu barco velou / O passarinho (6:26)
11. Cirandando pela praia (3:37)
12. Essa ciranda é minha (3:01)
13. Recife (3:31)
14. Moreno Dengoso (2:53)

Lia da Itamaracá is a legend. So much so that some people think she is, literally, a figure of myth and folklore and not an actual person. She has songs named in her honor from the likes of Paulinho da Viola and the ciranda singer Baracho in the 1970s, but she has recorded very little. In fact her first album, recorded for the label Tapecar in the late 70s, brought her absolutely no money whatsoever - she was paid with 20 copies of the LP - and she wouldn't record again more than twenty years. Through performing at an influential hipster music festival in Recife, she began enchanting a wider public and was lured into recording again. Her second album, Eu Sou Lia (2000, Ciranda Records) is excellent, probably better than that first effort. It is also already very out of print. That album contains a version of her famous song, "Quem me deu foi Lia" that also appears here. It was written by Baracho, who also recorded barely at all but did reasonably well for himself when ciranda underwent a surge of interest in the 1970s, and whose daughters currently sing backup vocals with Lia. That song begins with the beautiful melody and lyrics of:

Eu estava na beira da praia
Ouvindo as pancadas das ondas do mar
Esse ciranda quem me deu foi Lia
Quem mora na Ilha de Itamaracá

I was on the shore
Listening to the crash of the ocean's waves
It was Lia who gave me this ciranda,
Who lives on the island of Itamaracá

This record is more diverse stylistically than her first two efforts. The humorous song "A vizinha" about a nosey busy-body neighbor, puts me very much in the mind of Clementina de Jesus's album with Pixinguinha - it is a "maxixe" (a precursor of samba and relative of choro) rather than a ciranda, and a "public domain" tune about which I am ignorant. There are other traditional tunes here that are wonderful, like Mamãe Oxum and Balança moreno cirandeiro/Marinheiro samba (whose melody you might recognize as one that Caetano Veloso lifted to put in a song he gave to, yes, Clementina de Jesus...). There is also a tune written by famous frevo composer Capiba, "Verde mar de navigar", here performed in the style of maracatu nação for which Recife is famous (the lyrics make reference to Maracatu Elefante, the oldest maracatu in the city that still functions).. There are two tracks on this album in the style samba de coco', also strongly associated with Pernambuco -- "Coco limoeiro / baralho" and "Coco meu barco velou / o passarinho.' The majority of the original tunes on this album come from Lia's saxophone player, Bezerra do Sax. At the time of this album he had played with her for 40 years and was 91 years old.

The island of Itamaracá is also a real place, and its beauty is legendary. That legend may have passed into history somewhat, as increased development and tourism have left the beaches not quite as pristine and picturesque as they once were. But it still has its stretches of breathtaking beauty if you are patient enough to seek them out. If you do ever have a chance to visit this town of roughly 18,000 people, ask around for the Centro Cultural Estrela de Lia, which has live music on Fridays and Saturdays. Lia has also received the title of "Patrimônio Vivo" from the state of Pernambuco, which in recognition for her contribution to the cultural patrimony of the region provides her with a yearly financial stipend. This program (one of many well-meaning programs launched by the Ministry of Culture under Gilberto Gil's tenure) is a little odd but mostly a good thing. At least it's giving some recognition to someone who has practiced her art for decades and is only recently receiving the attention and renumeration that she deserves.

Lia also starred in a short film called 'Recife Frio' by talented director Kleber Mendonça Filho which won a bunch of awards but not nearly as many awards as his newest film, O Som ao Redor which is getting a ton of great press all over the world. "Recife Frio" is a comic faux-documentary about the effects of drastic climate change on that tropical capitol brought about by a fallen meteorite that plunges the equatorial regions into frigid temperatures. But there's no reason to worry about that with this album, which will warm your evenings in any latitude.

in 320 kbs
MIRROR 1 // MIRROR 2
MIRROR 3 (fastest)
--------------------
in FLAC

Rudy Ray Moore - This Ain't No White Christmas (1971/1996)

noreply@blogger.com (Flabbergast) — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 16:20:00 +0000

Rudy Ray Moore
This Ain't No White Christmas
Original release 1971 Norton Records / Reissue 1996 Right Stuff

1   Merry Christmas Baby 5:54
2   Lip On 9:54
3   Night Before Christmas (Pt. 1) 3:07
4   Health Dept. 4:26
5   Night Before Christmas (Pt. 2) 3:33
6   Eatin' Pussy 6:28
7   Black Cat 4:16
8   St. Peter 3:43

-------------------

Essential listening for the whole family while gathered around the Christmas tree!

I don't usually like to post records that aren't in my collection but I couldn't resist this. It's a 1990s reissue of Rudy Ray Moore aka Dolomite's triple-x Christmas record from 1971. Unfortunately they saw fit to include "extra material" like new music on some tracks (Lip On, Black Cat), generic hotel-quality R&B that I could do without. If anyone with the original LP can educate me, I'm curious to know whether they took the vocal track or stand-up routines from the original LP and put new music under it, or whatever the deal might be.

Luckily they kept the original 70s soundtrack for the best stuff here - Night Before Christmas, Eatin' Pussy, and St. Peter. In fact it sounds like they were all taken a reasonably worn copy of the vinyl.

Well it may not be a perfect reissue but can you really get took upset and serious over a Rudy Ray Moore record? No FLAC or 320 this time either.

Enjoy it and remember to play it for your kids and/or grandparents.

MIRROR ONE // MIRROR TWO

MIRROR THREE

Shirley Scott - Blue Seven (1961)

noreply@blogger.com (Flabbergast) — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 20:08:00 +0000

Shirley Scott
BLUE SEVEN
with Oliver Nelson and Joe Newman
1961 Prestige PR 7376
OJC Reissue OJCCD 1050-2, 2001

1. Blue Seven
2. How Sweet
3. Don't Worry 'Bout It Baby, Here I Am
4. Nancy (With The Laughing Face)
5. Wagon Wheels
6. Give Me The Simple Life

Recorded at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey on August 22, 1961.

Joe Newman (tp) Oliver Nelson (ts) Shirley Scott (org) George Tucker (b) Roy Brooks (d)

So I was listening to one of James Brown's early instrumental records from the 60s a few days ago, and it left me wanting to listen to somebody who could actually play the organ. I ended up reaching for this record, a mellow little number from Shirley Scott. Usually she played with a leaner ensemble, and this has a nice, fleshed-out sound to it with warm trumpet and sax work from Joe Newman and Oliver Nelson. Newman's long muted trumpet solo on Wagon Wheels is an excellent companion on a rainy day like I am having today. The title track, a Sonny Rollins tune, sets the relaxed blues tone for the rest of the set. I like Roy Brooks but on this session his touch seems a little indelicate at times: even his hi-hat somehow sounds "heavy" and plodding, even on the ballad Nancy (With The Laughing Face). On this tune Shirley's organ sounds so wonderful I feel like I am sitting right next to it watching the tubes glow; it's redundant to compliment Van Gelder on his recording prowess, but there it is.

A short and sweet blog post for a short and sweet album.

in 320 kbs
MIRROR 1 /// MIRROR 2

in FLAC

Olodum - Egito Madagaskar & Do Deserto Do Saara Ao Nordeste Brasileiro (1995)

noreply@blogger.com (Flabbergast) — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 17:31:00 +0000

Egito Madagáscar (1987)

Madagaskar Olodum

Salvador Não Inerte - Ladeira Do Pelô

Olodum Florente Na Natureza

Raça Negra

Um Povo Comum Pensar

Arco-Íris De Madagaskar

Reggae Dos Faraós

Faraó Divindade Do Egito

Encantada Nação

Vinheta Cuba-Brasil

------------------

Do Deserto Do Saara Ao Nordeste Brasileiro (1989)

Revolta Olodum

Envolvente Olodum

Olodum Resistência

Oásis, Olodum

Cabra Da Peste

Pout-Pourri: Nkosi Sikelel I - Africa, Poema Da Liberdade, Aiyndeô

Poster Nagô

Olodum O Alicerce Negro

Olodum Ologbom

Unindo Uma Miscigenação

Oh Luar Do Sertão

I haven’t had time lately to devote to this blog, but today is Black Consciousness Day in Brazil, Dia da Conciência Negra, so I thought I would at least post something. What I really wanted to post was Candeia’s masterpiece album Axê, but that record deserves a better right-up than I can give it at the moment.

Olodum fits the bill quite nicely anyway. They are as much a cultural activist group and NGO as they are a musical ensemble, and these days they have become a staple of Salvador’s carnival celebrations to the point where things just wouldn’t be the same if they were not out there doing their thing. They own a building in the old slave-trading district turned tourist trap, the Pelorinho, where anyone can watch them rehearse in the months leading up to carnival. Before receiving all kinds of state funding to build up the tourist infrastructure, the Pelorinho was basically a slum, and also the neighborhood these guys called home. As the place has changed, Olodum has done it's share to try to make sure the people who actually live there aren't forgotten.

To the outsider it might seem strange why a country that “imported” more African slaves than any other country would need to have a specific day or week to commemorate Black consciousness; or perhaps it should be blindingly obvious just for that reason. Brazil has long had a problem with one of the worst types of racial prejudice or preconceito – the kind that denies that there is any racial prejudice in society. It is still not uncommon to find Brazilians saying that the country does not have a ‘race problem’, but a class problem, as if the two were not bound up inextricably. But there is a reason why sociologists and political scientists have often put Brazil, South Africa, and the United States into a comparative triangulation: they are societies with deeply-rooted racism whose process of nation building was dependent on not just inequality, but in seeing black people as less than human. In Brazil this brutal reality has been able to hide behind the myth of a racial utopia through miscegenation, where the mixing of Europeans, indigenous peoples, and Africans supposedly produced a color-blind society of benevolent masters and grateful slaves. I am simplifying the argument for the sake of ridicule here, but trust me when I say that the concept deserves it: the notion of ‘racial utopia’ has served to stave off racial parity and social equality because it stops the conversation before it even starts, making the concrete realities off-limits from discussion by denying their existence or at least their root causes, and masking the unequal power relations between that foundational triad of Portuguese-Indian-African.

Mountains worth of books have been written on this subject so I don’t intend to belabor the point or be pedantic. But a little background is necessary to appreciate why Olodum is important, especially for when they first came into existence in the early 1980s during the first movements toward redemocratization in Brazil. It is not hard to imagine that in a “racial utopia,” movements centered around the articulation of a distinctly black identity were considered a de facto militant threat by the conservative elites that backed the military regime, and activists were subjected to surveillance and harassment not unlike, say, the Black Panthers in the United States. To have a group like Olodum out there in the public sphere doing community work, making records, and becoming a sensation both in Brazil and internationally means a lot of things for a lot of people. On the two records presented on this CD – their first album and their third album (don’t ask me about the chronological oddity, perhaps the second LP didn’t fit on the disc?) – their Pan-African social consciousness is in heavy evidence. Songs referencing the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt, the Nagô and Yoruba people of West Africa, an imprisoned Nelson Mandela and the ANC, and solidarity between the struggles of people of color in Brazil and Cuba are some of the subjects touched upon. The latter instrumental song (Vinhetta Cuba-Brasil) is one of the more interesting pieces here thanks to its horn arrangement. I'm going to come out and say that, honestly, I rarely find myself listening to the debut Olodum record from start to finish: I find ten tracks be a bit excessive and very repetitious. In a big way, the "Olodum experience" doesn't translate all that well to the recorded medium, as you just can't capture the power of a few hundred drummers in a recording studio and I don't care how fancy your sound system is, it's not the same as feeling it in your gut when standing a few yards away from all the sound and fury. The second album on this disc fares better in this regard, with fuller production and more varied arrangements and melodies to keep things interesting. It's title, which translates as "From the Sahara Desert to the Northeast of Brazil," finds Olodum drawing parallels between the arid sertão of their home state and region with the African desert, completely with references to the bandit-hero Lampião and the King of Baião, Luiz Gonzaga.

in 320 kbs MIRROR 1 //// MIRROR 2

in FLAC

Re-ups Part 5 - Nov 10

noreply@blogger.com (Flabbergast) — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 18:21:00 +0000

I promise there are some new posts coming soon. But for now here are a handful of old broken posts that have been fixed. Enjoy!

Double Feature: Blacula vs Roky Erickson

noreply@blogger.com (Flabbergast) — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 17:38:00 +0000

Although it may not be celebrated on every continent, today is Halloween, All Saint's Eve, Samhain - typically, my favorite holiday. This year I don't really have the time or means to celebrate it properly, like the party we threw at the abandoned Den of Iniquity years ago. The house was abandoned at the time and currently stands in the same place, all boarded up and still waiting to be knocked down. Hopefully there are at least some homeless folks getting shelter from the cold there and I hope they don't burn the place down. At least, not by accident.

So by way of a low-key celebration I've been listening to these albums since last weekend, when I probably should have posted them. Yesterday's post was kind of somber so here is something a bit lighter.

It's a DOUBLE-FEATURE of HORROR!

BLACULA OST (1972)
Music Composed and Conducted by Gene Page

A1         Blacula (The Stalkwalk)
A2         Heavy Changes    Vocals – 21st Century Ltd., The
A3         Run, Tina, Run!
A4         There He Is Again Vocals – The Hues Corporation
A5         Movin'
A6         Main Chance    Vocals – 21st Century Ltd., The
B1         Good To The Last Drop
B2         Blacula Strikes!
B3         What The World Knows    Vocals – Hues Corporation, The
B4         I'm Gonna Catch You      Vocals – Hues Corporation, The
B5         The Call
B6         Firebombs
B7         Finding Love, Losing Love
B8         Wakeeli (Swahili Farewell)

Blacula is deadlier than Dracula. Need I say more?    The rest of Gene Page's resumé reads pretty mainstream, and he would never record another oddity like this. The writing and arranging on this are top-notch, especially for such an absurd film, but that was pretty much the pattern in blaxploitation, so...

in 320

in FLAC

Roky Erickson And The Aliens / The Evil One
1980 / 1981

01 - Two Headed Dog [Red Temple Prayer]

02 - I Think Of Demons

03 - Creature With The Atom Brain.

04 - The Wind And More

05 - Don't Shake Me Lucifer

06 - Bloody Hammer

07 - Stand For The Fire Demon

08 - Click Your Fingers Applauding The Play

09 - If You Have Ghosts

10 - I Walked With A Zombie.

11 - Night Of The Vampire

12 - It's A Cold Night For Alligators.

13 - Mine Mine Mind

14 - Sputnik

15 - What Faces

Roky's psychiatric problems have resulted in him being one of the most exploited as well as the most misunderstood recording artists of our time. For a bona fide cult figure who has inspired countless songwriters and bands, he's reaped very little benefit from it, with lots of vultures siphoning off money and tying up his publishing rights in litigation. Which is all the more reason to 'steal' his music and pirate the fuck out of it, because for the most part he hasn't seen a penny. This CD was a good example, cobbling together the two records produced from the infamous sessions with Stu Cook (former CCR drummer) a prolific amount of top-shelf songs from his post-Elevators period. The sound here is pretty muddy but not terrible. Apparently the original first album has been reissued by Cherry Red/Mojo and hopefully they are getting some money to his brother Sumner (his ward). You could also go out and buy the double-disc anthology on Shout Factory! (I Have Always Been Here Before), who assured me personally that they actually paying him. 'Bout time.

in 320

in FLAC

Roky Erickson And The Explosives
Casting The Runes

Bootleg released 1987 in France. Live performance recorded sometime between 1979 - 81. Probably a radio broadcast. Anybody know for sure?? In any case, I've heard it said that if the Aliens sessions had been produced by somebody like fellow-Texan Doug Sahm, the vibe would have been captured much better. And a live recording from this period lends weight to that argument.

I guess the inclusion of this record makes this officially a TRIPLE FEATURE, but who's counting.

1		The Wind And More
2		Night Of The Vampire
3		Mine Mine Mind
4		For You
5		You're Gonna Miss Me
6		I Walked With A Zombie
7		I Love How You Love Me
8		Don't Shake Me Lucifer
9		Bloody Hammer
10		Stand For The Fire Demon

Bass, Backing Vocals – Walter Collie
    Drums, Backing Vocals – Fred Arc
    Guitar, Backing Vocals – Cam King
    Vocals, Guitar – Roky Erickson

in 320 kbs

in FLAC

Terry Callier - Occasional Rain (1972)

noreply@blogger.com (Flabbergast) — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 00:29:00 +0000

Terry Callier
Occasional Rain
Cadet Records, 1972
This reissue, 2008 Verve (B0011107)

1. Segue No. 1 - Go Ahead On
2. Ordinary Joe
3. Golden Circle
4. Segue No. 5 - Go Head On
5. Trance On Sedgewick Street
6. Do You Finally Need A Friend
7. Segue No. 4 - Go Head On
8. Sweet Edie. D
9. Occasional Rain
10. Segue No. 2 - Go Head On
11. Blues For Marcus
12. Lean On Me
13. Last Segue - Go Head On

    Bass – Sydney Simms
    Contralto Vocals – Shirley Wahls
    Drums – Robert Crowder
    Engineer – Gary Starr
    Guitar – Terry Callier
    Harpsichord, Organ, Producer – Charles Stepney
    Piano – Leonard Pirani
    Soprano Vocals – Kitty Haywood, Minnie Riperton

Recorded at: Ter-Mar Recording Studios, Chicago, Illinois.

This Sunday past I heard from a friend that Terry Callier had passed away at his home in Chicago. I don't know why or how when some performer's leave us, they leave behind a bigger sense of loss than others. Maybe it's because with Terry there was always the feeling that he still had a lot more to say, and maybe the assumption that he would just keep on saying it at his own leisurely pace. The news is too sudden for me to digest fully.

Whenever a person hears a Terry Callier record, they ask themselves how it is that they had never heard him before that moment. Of course there are plenty of artists who never got their due during their lifetime, but it is hard to fathom how Terry's early records could have been eclipsed by so much pedestrian music of lesser quality at the time. At least his story had happier ending, with his work finding recognition many years later and drawing him out of musical retirement to make a handful of satisfying records. Not to diminish his second flowering, but his albums on the Cadet label will always be the ones many of us cherish the most. There just hasn't been anything quite like them before or since.

Although I have tended to favor "What Color Is Love", probably because 'Dancing Girl' was the first of his songs I ever heard, the album Occasional Rain (which preceded it, but only slightly) is really every bit it's equal, and set the tone for the rest of his career. How could any artist put out two records of this astounding caliber in the same year? This one has almost a concept-record feel to it due to the songs being strung together by acoustic guitar/vocal segments of folk blues ("Go Head On") that recall Terry's coffee-house days (captured on the album "The New Folk Sound...") His voice still has the heavy vibrato, a common enough trait among folk singers of the 60s, but the similarilty pretty much begins and ends there.   The Cadet recordings show the flowering of Callier's participation in Jerry Butler's songwriting workshop in Chicago.   The song "Do You Finally Need A Friend" actually debuted the previous year on the fantastic "Jerry Butler Sings Assorted Songs With The Aid of Assorted Friends and Relatives" (Mercury ST-61320) on which he also appears uncredited along with Curtis Mayfield. Butler also has a writing credit on "What Color Is Love" and workshop members Larry Wade and Charles Jones contribute to that album as well as this one.

Looking at those album credits I got to thinking that we should just be grateful we had Terry Callier walking amongst us mere mortals for as long as we did. Jumping out off the page were two names of his colleagues who left us far, far too young. Keyboardist, producer and arranger Charles Stepney, who would later work with Earth Wind & Fire on their most interesting records and was also a founding member of The Rotary Connection, died in his 30's from a heart attack. And then there is fellow Rotary alumnus Minnie Riperton, who I had never really noticed in the credits until Sunday, and who sings beautifully as always in Stepney's choral arrangements. She died in her 30's from breast cancer. Another Rotary Connection member, Shirley Wahls, also sings on the record. Phil Upchurch, one of Cadet's ubiquitous session players, is absent from this session but would play on Terry's two following efforts with great results.

Stepney deserves massive amounts of credit for the power of this album and Terry's other Cadet recordings. And he has received that credit, especially from Terry himself. If you need convincing, you can check out earlier versions of some of these songs on the collection "First Light." Those versions are impressive because they show the intensity of Callier's songwriting and highlight (by virtue of his absence) just how much Stepney helped him realize his musical vision. "Occasional Rain" is the most 'produced' of his three Cadet albums, but that isn't a negative in this case because these are artists on the same wavelength.   (Contrast this with the desultory rerecordings of some of these songs on the Electra release "Turn You To Love.") The psychedelic baroque-pop of Ordinary Joe probably has Stepney's "producer's stamp" most clearly on it, opening the record with strong stylistic overtones of Rotary Connection and mixed as if it could be a huge hit.   But this was no ordinary song, and too extraordinary and unclassifiable for mass consumption even in an era of relative experimentation in popular music. Groovy harpsichord and some churchy organ; that infectiously catchy melody - how could this song NOT be huge in a fair world? Maybe it was the brilliant lyrics and vocal delivery that swings from soul, to scat singing, to a blues shout. It was just too real for the radio. As a lyricist-poet Callier had a special talent for oscillating between earthy grit, tender nuance, and cosmic musings, sometimes all in the same song. The intimacy of "Golden Circle," the darker burned-out realism of "Trance On Sedgewick Avenue" - Terry could make ordinary moments into something transcendent, then turn around and translate the abstract and spiritual into familiar, achingly human terms in the next tune.    And it is no hyperbole to call him a genuine poet. You could try just reading the words to "Occasional Rain" to a room full of people and hear their cadence, see how they work as compositions even separated from the music:

There was rain today
And crystal blue was hidden by a cloudy gray
A sudden shower come to chase the sun away
Occasional rain
Damn the weatherman
He seems to work against me any way he can
And he’s been dealing tear-drops since the world began
And occasional pain

And blue you, don’t believe I’m talking to you
The light is shining through you- still you will not see
Blue you- think I’m trying to undo you
When I only want to seek the Truth
And speak true

I can’t tell you when
But someday soon we’ll see the sun re-born again
And there’ll be light without as well as light within
And occasional rain

Fucking brilliant, isn't it?

The record closes with the majestic "Lean On Me" that is arranged like a series of crescendos leading to one massive climax. It is kind of ironic that this record was released the same year as Bill Wither's massive hit of the same title and of similar sentiments.

Speaking of which, the irony did not escape me of listening to this record over and over while the entire northeastern seaboard of the US was being drenched by a hurricane. It also struck me how listening to Terry Callier is like being sheltered from the storms of the world. His work had a certain warmth in common with other writers from the frigidly cold metropolis of Chicago, placed at the crossroads of Memphis and Detroit, New York and L.A., always a few steps removed the hype and the drama, and always carrying himself with grace.

More info in comments

Re-ups Pt. 4 - Oct 23

noreply@blogger.com (Flabbergast) — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 13:47:00 +0000

More Re-ups for the people

Jimmy McGriff - Countdown (1983)

noreply@blogger.com (Flabbergast) — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 16:04:00 +0000

Jimmy McGriff
"Countdown"
1983, Milestone (M-9116)

1. I'm Walkin' (Domino and Bartholomew)
2. Holly (Jimmy Mcgriff)
3. Down For The Count (Frank Foster)
4. Blow Your Horn (Benny Green)
5. Since I Fell For You (Buddy Johnson)
6. Shiny Stockings (Frank Foster)

Clifford Adams, Jr - trombone
Marshall Keys - alto sax
Arnold Sterling - alto and tenor sax
Jimmy McGriff - organ
Melvin Sparks - guitar
Vance James - drums

Produced by Bob Porter
Engineer - Rudy Van Gelder
Recorded on April 27 and 28, 1983

Vinyl ; Pro-Ject RM-5SE turntable (with Sumiko Blue Point 2 cartridge, Speedbox power supply); Creek Audio OBH-15; M-Audio Audiophile 192 Soundcard ; Adobe Audition at 32-bit float 192khz; Click Repair light settings; individual clicks and pops taken out with Adobe Audition 3.0 - resampled (and dithered for 16-bit) using iZotope RX Advanced. Tags done with Foobar 2000 and Tag and Rename.
---------

Organ combos are often a whipping-boy for jazz purists. Seated behind an instrument with limited emotional range, organists were perhaps in the forefront of artists who extended the jazz tradition of dipping into the "great tradition of popular song" of Cole Porter or Gershwin and looking to the contemporary hit parade to produce jazzed up versions of Carol King, Burt Bacharach, Ray Charles or funkier fare like Sly Stone and Motown, earning the ire of critics who lambasting this 'pandering' to commercial trends. By the nineteen-seventies the funky soul-jazz record was so ubiquitous that it seemed like a handful or artists were able to crank them out quicker than hotcakes from a griddle and with about as much variety. Even if I personally love most of this stuff, I acknowledge that, as one of my friends Stumpy McFinn (a pseudonym) put it regarding his own feelings for these records, "A little goes a long way."

So as the golden age of soul-jazz and jazz-funk faded away, where did it leave some of the people who made a healthy livelihood from it and left us some great records like "The Worm," "Electric Funk," and "Groove Grease"? With a recording date of 1983, I braced myself for lower expectations when I picked up this record cheap as dirt, and instead found myself liking it quite a bit. Relieved not to find McGriff trading in his Hammond for a Fairlight synth or strutting around the stage with a "keytar," he instead retrenches his roots more than he'd done since his days on Sue Records. The repertoire is anything but contemporary, leading off with a New Orleans stroll by way of Fats Domino's hit "I'm Walkin'", whose vamp outro might be the funkiest thing on the record. The album embraces a big band sound with small group arrangements, written in a way to create aural illusions that, as McGriff said to the Newark Star-Ledger reporter whose story comprises the liner notes, uses "close harmonies and voicings to make you hear some things that aren't really there." Two selections are Frank Foster tunes from the songbook of the Count Basie Orchestra, "Down For the Count" and "Shiny Stockings," and the slow blues "Since I Fell For You" has me wanting to burst out into the lyrics --

You made me leave my happy home
You took my love, and now you're gone
Since I fell for you

The sideman on this date all hold their own but the potential show stealers are guitarist Melvin Sparks and trombonist Clifford Adams (member of Kool & The Gang and a presence on some of my favorite soul-jazz efforts from the likes of Charles Earland and Lonnie Liston Smith). Adams gets to trade riffs with saxophonists Marhsall Keys and Arnold Sterling on "Blow Your Horn," the most driving tune here which also happens to have been written by legendary trombonist Bennie Green. Drummer Vance James is a no-frills player who holds down the shuffles and the swing with aplomb; he also played on records by frequent McGriff collaborator Hank Crawford during the 80s and 90s. The sound on this record is wonderfully full-bodied, with Rudy Van Gelder behind the board, and "production" limited to a splash of reverb on the horns. There may be no surprises or blinding flights of inspiration on this album, but there are no gimmicks either. A solid low-key listen for a lazy Sunday like today.

in 320

in FLAC 16/44.1 khz or 24/96 khz