If seeing the cover photo of this album doesn't make you want to listen to it, obsess over it and consider it one of the coolest things in your collection - you just might not be human.
Eddie Gale standing hooded with shades, his trumpet in hand, with a canine ready to rip your skull off. His backing musicians for the record, similarly hooded, with different instruments, expressionless facades on their face. They have attained a higher power through music and their look is forcing you to follow suit. Powerful.
During the late 60's, every important jazz musician tried their hand at the spiritual jazz movement that Coltrane spawned and mastered. While this resulted in some of the most exciting and invigorating jazz music that exists today, it also caused a plethora of great musicians to release lackluster work just for the sake of being "experimental."
Prior to 1968, Eddie Gale was known as a backing musician of various forms of Sun Ra's Arkestra, as well as playing on Cecil Taylor's Blue Note debut. These are big names and by the time that Gale was set to release his debut under his own name - the recording was entirely funded by Blue Note co-founder Francis Wolff, who believed that what Gale was accomplishing with this record was something that could truly shape what jazz is perceived to be and where it can go.
And with good reason. Despite the fact that Eddie Gale's Ghetto Music remained one of the most obscure Blue Note releases for years and has since been remastered on an entirely different label, the album continues to stick out amongst a catalogue of some of the best music the world has ever seen.
The deeply moving album opens with "The Rain" beginning with acoustic guitar and Eddie's sister Joann singing in a style that doesn't seem far removed from Fairport Convention. At 40 seconds, the rest of the 17-member ensemble reveals themselves, a jazz beat pushed along by the two basses and two drummers, the 11 member chorus preaching the gospel. The song alternates between these pastoral folk passages and the louder ensemble moments, with Eddie's trumpet soloing in between. Soon Eddie and his sister find themselves in a duet, his trumpet much louder than her voice. The track builds and builds, repeating "Stop the rain...Stop the rain." When listening, it is hard to think of a more powerful opening track through any genre of music. The next 4 tracks continue the wave of blending gospel and jazz and a little funk, create mass amounts of cacophony that never quite sound like "noise." Gale retains the ability to reign his ensemble inward at the proper time, continuously create musical passages that layer themselves to the point of bursting, before stopping and allowing breath. The chorus keeps things interesting throughout the 40-minute duration, making themselves apparent and noticeable, but never the center of attention, which rightly belongs to the amazing instrumental work.
Eddie Gale's Ghetto Music is one of the best spiritual / protest jazz albums that exists. A snapshot of life in 1968 and one that can still ring true as a snapshot of life in 2010. Powerful music.
Two legendary albums by perhaps the most underrated would-be soul superstar I know. Powerful, powerful stuff. Darrell Banks Is Here came out in 1967 on Atco and Here To Stay came out in 1969 (again, the best year in pop music) on Volt.
This is great midwest, stax-style soul music. The ballads kill, the rev-ups kill harder. Think a bit more gruff Otis. Great shit, awesome summer lounging music.
These are his only two albums, as Banks was shot to death by a police officer in 1970. Listening to these albums makes you wonder what could've been if he survived a bit longer. My feeling is that he would've wound up listed with the all-time great soul singers of the era.
The story goes something like this: Terry Reid was still a teenage guitar player making waves in England. Proposed to be one of the next big things at the end of the 60s. By 18 or 19, Jimmy Page approaches him with an opportunity to sing for "The New Yardbirds." Reid declines, possibly for personal reasons or possibly because he was the opening act on a Stones tour. Reid tells Page he should pursue drummer John Bonham and vocalist Robert Plant. The New Yardbirds become Led Zeppelin, Terry Reid stays a solo act. Later in the 70s, Reid is approached to be the new vocalist for Deep Purple, declines and that title goes to Ian Gillian.
Is Reid the ultimate failed opportunist? Possibly. But at the end of the 60s, and into the 70s, the young Terry Reid put out some pretty excellent rock n roll.
The funny thing is the direct reference point to Terry Reid is probably Robert Plant. Especially his first two albums, and especially when the music turns a bit more to the folk-side of things. Otherwise, he has a high voice but not near the shrieking of Plant. Solid proto-hard rock. All albums are good, none are all-time greats, but the self-titled just misses. Make sure to watch the Youtube performance from 1971 (Glatsonbary Fayre DVD) that is one of the most badass performances there is.
Bang, Bang You're Terry Reid (1968) First album proper. Some excellent guitar playing, but a number of throwaway cuts. Still sort of establishing his sound. Download Here
Terry Reid (1969) Almost certainly his best album. Good material, awesome jamming, great mixture of the harder sound and the folky stuff. Really solid. Download Here
River (1973) A looser affair. Definitely sounds like a rock album from 1973. A little more blues influence, a little tropical rhythm here and there. Also a really good album. Not quite as raw as the s/t, but at 7 tracks it's a solid listen and good for these hot summer months. Download Here
Great summertime pop music. Incredibly catchy songs. I haven't listened to this collection in awhile, but a few years ago I used to listen to a lot. Definitely a product of it's time, but some of the absolute best guitar/folk/sunshine pop of its kind.
New Jersey's Critters have earned a reputation as a bubblegum pop group, but they really had a lot more going for them than that. For starters, founding members Jim Ryan and Don Ciccone were both gifted songwriters, singers, and arrangers, and if they had a sort of soft, sunshine approach to things, well, they did it as well as anyone. This anthology collects their Kapp recordings (which essentially means their one album for Kama Sutra and a handful of singles and B-sides) from 1965 to 1967, and it shows a versatile band that was much more than a sort of precursor toBread. Their first single, a folk-rock cover of Jackie DeShannon's "Children and Flowers," leads things off here, and yes, it's sappy, but wonderfully so, and once you accept the lyrics, it emerges as a bit of a lost treasure. The next two tracks are also striking, the Beatlesque "He'll Make You Cry" and the equally impressive "Little Girl," both of which could have -- and should have -- been AM radio hits. "Mr. Dieingly Sad," a group original that out-associates the Association, is another highlight, and the set closes with a surprisingly bright, joyous, and breezy version of the Motown classic "Dancing in the Street." Leaving Kama Sutra at the end of 1967, the band recorded a second album on the Project 3 label before calling it quits. The Critters, like Chicago's Cryan' Shames, might have gone on to bigger and better things if the military draft, label snafus, and public perception hadn't short-circuited the creative life span of the group. As it is, they'll make you smile on a rainy day. There's something really valuable in that. - Steve Legget, AMG
As with lots of my classical posts, I will type up a portion of the liner notes, because they describe the music better than I can. I like this a lot. That's about as good as I get.
Concerto No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra Schnittke' s Concerto No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra (1957, revised 1963) is rich in ideas and explores a wide range of emotions. Great inventiveness is shown in the treatment of the solo instrument, but the composer's attention is centered not on the virtuoso aspect but on violin cantilena. The wealth and unique beauty of its melodies are among the most attractive qualities of the concerto.
The principal subject of the first movement (in sonata form) begins with a flowing melody from the solo violin. The unusually complicated melodic outlines of the principal theme in combination with the complex rhythmic pattern suggest concentrated searchings, painful deliberation. The initial motives from this theme become interwoven with almost all the themes in the other movements, playing røle of leading motives. The subsidiary subject of the first movement, with a characteristic augmented second, also acquires an important place in the dramatic development.
The second movement is a rushing scherzo based on the alternation and development of three themes, all of which are related to one other. They are unified by a poignant nervous rhythm, angular melodic contours and "sharp" bowing. The concerto's leading motive is easily distinguished in the melody of the first theme.
The third movement opens with a tranquil and songful themes, also containing the leading motive. The middle section, wholly based on thematic material from the first movement, comes as a startling contrast to the calm and lucid song. After the statement of an agitated - yet flowing - theme by the solo instrument (this theme is close to the subsidiary theme for the first movement), contrapuntal development begins in the orchestra. This episode, where the evenly-paced counter-subject recalls the outlines of the leading motive, leads to a tensely dramatic climax.
The leading motive undergoes transformation in the resolute and resilient principal subject on the fourth movement (in sonata form); its melodic outlines become simpler and more definite, its rhythm clear-cut and precise. The Finale's playful and whimsical second theme resembles the subsidiary theme of the first movement. The closeness of the two themes becomes still more apparent when, after the statement of this second theme, the subsidiary subject from the first movement itself makes and appearance. A brief development section is followed by a recapitulation and an extended concluding section which presents, one after another, the two themes from the first movement and the themes of the Finale in reverse order.
The concerto was first performed over the air on 26th November 1963 by Mark Lubotsky and the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Gennady Rozhdestvensky. -M. Yakubov
In autumn 1956, while still a student at the Moscow Conservatory, I began this violin concerto. I called it my Opus 1 - the last opus number I have hitherto assigned. The concerto was not reworked until 1963, and then to an apparent continuation with the quite different Violin Sonata No. 1 - but everything written until then was wrong, and has remained so.
Above all, I see a desperate striving to find myself in the work of this concerto. This quest as very rarely successful, indeed only on occasions - the unison theme at the beginning, the climax in the third movement, the final coda. It was a sound world of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov, overshadowed by Shostakovich and adorned with the orchestral conventions of the day. But there was also a tiny breath of everything that was to come later, and for this reason it should remain, with all the faults of a first violin concerto... -Alfred Schnittke
Concerto No. 2 for Violin and Chamber Orchestra The solo violin begins with a broad rhythmically expressive cadenza in which a central function, akin to that of a pedal point, is assigned to the note G.
At the sound of a bell a string cluster joins in, and immediately afterwards brief sound structures from the wind, piano or percussion interrupt the separate solo violin episodes. The solo violin starts a new espressivo, and like shadows the accompanying violins follow (with different bowing techniques); gradually they resolve themselves towards ever stronger independence. The thickening string sonority is ordered and driven on y impulses from the percussion (bongos and tom-tom). Then, however, the strings, which had been splayed out into total dodecaphony, unite with the soloist for a unison passage overlaid by the percussion. A double bass solo (against piano glissandi and comments from the percussion) leads to a long improvisation from all the accompanying instruments. This is followed by a very delicate sequence of non vibrato chords from the strings, with which the virtuosic soloist joins in. A further improvisatorial section from the orchestra is followed by a surprising change of scene: a brief solo cadenza introduces an episode rather like a slow foxtrot, played by the soloist accompanies by piano and percussion.
Once more the solo violin reaches the fundamental note G; as if in a reprise we hear the wind entries from the opening. A bell marks the soloist's last interlude, followed by a percussion intermezzo; then string clusters lead to the final phase of the piece. In steady rhythm, the solo instrument reaches out from his "note of departure" to fixed intervals. From individual glissando and pizzicato comments from the strings there gradually proceeds an orchestral climax of which the timpani take over the soloist's hammering motif. After this outburts, the soloist continues this motivic work - which is inexorable with its motoric drive - until, above gentle clusters from the strings and wind, the ostinato note G slips away into its opposite pole, F sharp, which had been expected throughout the piece. -Jurgen Kochel
The Concerto No. 2 for Violin and Chamber Orchestra was written in 1966 at the behest of Mark Lubotsky, who also gave the first performanec on the occasion of the Jyvaskyla Festival in Finaland that year, conducted by Friedrich Cerha.
The concept which lies behind the work comes from a certain drama of tone colours: the soloist and the strings are treated in a linear, thematic manner whilst the wind and percussion are aggressively punctual and aleatoric. The double bass has the special role of a caricatured "anti-soloist". The sequence of several contrasting episodes shows clear signs of traditional formal structures: solo cadenza at the outset, exposition of the two sound spheres, Adagio episode, development climax, recapitulation, coda-finale.
A chromatic twelve-tone row serves as the thematic foundation, but there is nevertheless a center of melodic gravity, the constantly returning note G, which sometimes leads to an illusion of tonality, especially at the beginning and the end of the work. -Alfred Schnittke.
I might catch some flack for this, but whatever. It was a pretty nice day today and I wanted to listen to The Mamas and Papas. Sure they can be considered cheesy or uncool or whatever, but their first 4 albums are all great. I'll stand behind that statement for sure. Great vocals, great song selection, etc. Just have some fun, guys.
If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears (1966) Their only bonafide "classic" album. Features the hits "Monday Monday" and "California Dreamin" but is a great vocal pop album regardless. You'll know the songs before you hear them and be able to sing along by your second spin. Download Here
The Mamas & The Paps (1966) This has their rendition of "Dancing in the Street" as well as one of their absolute best songs "I Saw Her Again" which could be an early Beatles classic. More of the same, great 60s pop with a slightly more garage sound. Download Here
Deliver (1967) This one sounds like an album that would've come out in 1967. Features some pretty fun covers and expands their sound slightly to incorporate a little more psychedelic influence. Another great one, maybe my favorite. Download Here The Papas & The Mamas (1968) This was the last album during their first run. Definitely more experimental and sounds like a complete album. Slightly darker (though still very much pop), more sophisticated feel to the record, but features more great vocals as always. Download Here
A few weeks ago I got on this huge Temptations kick and was listening to all Temptations related things for like 2 weeks. In the process, I happened to upload every David Ruffin album to hipinion, and though that was a while ago, I figured I might as well just post them here too, enjoy the man.
Apparently I'm missing "Doin' His Thing" which I can't find any info on anywhere anyway. I'm also missing "So Soon We Change" which was his first record on Warner Bros. (Gentleman Ruffin being his second). And I don't have the record he put out with Eddie Kendricks. I do however have the record put out with his brother, Jimmy, which I will likely post in the next day or so.
Awesome Swedish heavy psychedelic music from perhaps the best year in rock history. I'm not gonna relay the history of the band or anything, but just describe what it sounds like. Basically this band is the antecedent of the sound that the currently "popular" Dungen imitates, which is even more evidenced by the fact that the album was remastered/re-released a few years ago on Dungen's label Subliminal Sounds.
If none of this makes sense to you, think of this: Long-haired blond dudes, attacking you with long guitar solos, few words that make any sense to you, alternating between heavy and soft, but not doing anything too technical (this isn't no god damn prog record). However, one song is just over 16 minutes, and the other over 19, and these are in the middle of the album. What's interesting is that while the length of these tracks may seem overkill (I feel this sometimes), the album doesn't really "drag" on. The tracks are that length to establish the feeling, and they do it pretty damn well.
It's not the most inventive record ever, but it's definitely a solid psychedelic record and one that was once a lost treasure but has now seen the light of day in many circles. Enjoy it.
So I'm taking this class this semester about the history of Rock N Roll. You know, the same one that all the stoner kids and liberal arts students like me have to take so we can just talk about Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull. Playing, but I needed some extra credits, so I figured why not. It's proved to be pretty damn worthless so far (pre rock n' roll though, so bonus points), but it has definitely inspired me to pull out some old blues records the last few days and here are two of the best.
To me, there is no way that Muddy Waters' early Chess recordings are not the most direct link to that classic rock n roll sound. These two records compile some of those early recordings (I think like 1947-1962?) And it's just great. You know Muddy obviously, the guitar, the band, the AAB verses. It's that classics Chicago blues sound, a true American sound if there ever was one. It's pretty essential to listen to this stuff every now and then and just remember how great the original electric sound is.
Mississippi Records is a store on said street in Portland. Very cool shop, but the coolest part about the owners is the label they run. Reissuing compilations of rare music and unheralded albums, the label was really taken off in the last years putting out super limited runs that get sold out almost immediately. Over at hipinion, I've (with the help of a few) uploaded most of their catalogue, and while I feel bad for bootlegging a cool label, oh well. Here's a few of their records.
Last Kind Words (1926-1953) Great compilation of old blues from some familiar names, but mostly those unfamiliar. Download Here
Lipa Kodi Ya City Council Possibly my favorite compilation on the label (though actually probably not), this is a great collection of African highlife music mostly. Great for a sunny day. Download Here
George Coleman - Bongo Joe Some records you can't attach a label to. This is one of those records. Originally released in '69 (best year in music if you didn't know), this album is some sort of demented blues records played almost solely on steel drums. Screams, shouts, croaks, whistles, whatever. Blow your mind. Download Here
Composed in 1951, recorded in 1959 and released in 1962 for the Seattle-based World's Fair, Man In Space With Sounds is about as kitschy a record as one can find. A true product of it's time, Mineo here composes early electronic gems that bring to mind the romantic "Lost In Space" and "Space Mountain" era space music. It's a lot of fun, but unless you are putting on some sort of space themed event or party, the music doesn't have a ton of replay value. (Or maybe you're into old sci-fi comics or something). This is the Subliminal Sounds re-release so the first 12 tracks are the songs with spoken word introductions and the second 12 are the same songs without the vocals.
"Attilio Mineo is one of those obscure artists who created music so far ahead of its time that we are still trying to catch up to it today. What we have today, in 1999, is music that is reminiscent of science fiction soundtracks from "Forbidden Planet" and "The Day the Earth Stood Still" to "Terminator 2" and "The Fifth Element." But the music also resembles some of the earliest tape-loop experiments by people like Stockhausen, where traditional musical elements were combined with samples and sound effects. Mineo manages to blends orchestral scores with sound effects so that there is almost no distinction between them. The strings and horns are as "alien" as the alarm sounds and the theromyne wails. What really makes this music contemporary with 1999, however, is the thing that probably killed its commercial appeal in the 1960s--the narrator. At the start of each track, a narrator offers a brief comment, designed to guide the visitor through the fair. From a modern perspective, however, the narrator merely adds another weird element to music that is already weirder than most anything I've ever heard. Again, this is a gem: a found piece of electronic art that deserves recognition."
Very few artists will I call undisputed geniuses. Musicians whose contributions to the world at large so greatly influence what we heard after their prominence and what we hear today.
Miles Davis is an undisputed genius.
Much like Dylan in his body of work, Davis is perhaps the most celebrated artist in jazz and also one of the most reviled. Aren't all geniuses?
Whereas contemporaries like Sun Ra, Coltrane and Ornette were about the future, pushing the boundaries of jazz to the outer most extremities, what makes Miles truly unique is that though he is always on the cutting edge of whatever jazz movement is about to happen, he is alway a product of the now. Each album he cuts is a look into the sound that is happening and usually executed better than anyone else could even imagine.
In his immense catalog, In A Silent Way has probably become my favorite recording of his that I have heard (and there is a whole lot I haven't heard). Foreseeing the coming fusion movement, In A Silent Way is an album of unfettered perfection and one of the finest jazz albums these ears have ever heard. As a preface, the lineup is amazing. Playing with Miles we have Wayne Shorter, three of the absolute best keyboardists ever in Joe Zawinaul, Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock and maybe most importantly, the recording debut of John McLaughlin. Here's a review from RYM
Shh. Listen. Calm, Peaceful, Elegant, Graceful. Those are the perfect words to describe the amazing music Miles' packs into just 38 minutes on In a Silent Way, his second greatest album and most accessible gateway to his fusion genius.
The music that graces IASW is perfect, an amazing fact considering the way it's structured. The first side, a single 18+ minute track entitle 'Shh/Peaceful,' consists of vamps and solos. No melody is ever present. All that is played is an unbeatable groove in which Miles and his sidemen-who I'll get to in a minute-solo delicately over.
The same is true for side two, but only half of it. Once again, one side yields one track, except this track is actually a three piece medley with one piece acting as bookends. 'In a Silent Way' opens, 'It's About that Time' follows, and 'In a Silent Way' closes. The title track is so simple, yet so beautiful. Just each musician taking turns playing the melody line, with each one joining at the end. Simple, but oh so lovely. 'It's About that Time' is essentially the same set-up as 'Shh/Peaceful,' featuring more great soloing and what may be the most infectious groove known to man. The whole album is so simple on the surface, but so amazingly complex below it any fan of any music can appreciate it.
The musicians Miles works with are incredible, as is the format they inhabite. The band is Miles on trumpet, John McLaughlin on guitar, Wayne Shorter with his debut on Soprano Sax, Herbie Hancock & Chick Corea on electric piano, Joe Zawinul on organ, Dave Holland on bass, and Tony Williams on drums. You read that correct. In a Silent Way features THREE piano players. The sound of that makes all the music I wrote about sound idiotic, but trust me, it's not! What seems to be muddled, messy music is actually organized, pronounced, and defined. The three keys work effortlessly around eachother, with Hancock and Corea brilliantly trading off runs while Zawinul juts in and out. They really create the back drop over the rock steady rythm of Williams and Holland that makes the music so awesome.
The soloing is stunning. Miles never sounded better. His phrasing is lyrical as ever, his tone beautiful, and his dynamics are incredible. McLaughlin is just as good. In his first recording EVER, he follows both the path of Zawinul and is his own soloist. He juts in and out, and finally gets his own opportunity to solo away, experiencing a serenity never heard on his Mahavishnu Orchestra recordings. Wayne Shorter is every bit as good. Though his main ax is tenor, he is still quite good on Soprano, and his lines are lyrical, precise, and oh so soothing. The delicate soloing on In a Silent Way only further accent it's calm nature.
It really is amazing. How such an unorthodox line-up and such a sketchy plan can produce such beautiful music is simply a testament to Miles Davis the visionary. Every second of this music screams genius at the top of it's lungs, and every precious note played displays perfection. This album is silent. And silence is the sound of brilliance.
Actually titled "Guitar Vol. 4" the album is subtitled "The Great San Bernadino Birthday Party" and features the 19-minute song of the same name as the leadoff track.
This is probably the most experimental release of Fahey's early years on Takoma, and gives a good indication where he would expand his sound in the years that followed. The title track is epic in every sense of the word, sounding like the soundtrack to an old west silent film that we've never seen. His guitar picking going between incredibly thought out raga's and moving to very simplistic modern classical sounding pieces, the song retains the romantic feeling of the city and area of California from long ago.
From here, the rest of the record gets much more experimental.
"Knott's Berry Farm Molly" employs the use of crazy tape loops that Fahey created with a standard mobile tape recorder. He tunes his guitar to an usual sound, starts picking and then suddenly starts using the backward loops, giving the track an entirely different feeling. The track goes back and forth between the two, and is a bit uneven, and not smooth in execution, but it pretty interesting regardless.
His take on "Will The Circle be Unbroken" one of the more famous traditional folk songs sounds unlike any version of the song at the time. The recording sounds like it was done in an open room with really cheap equipment. A field recording in a graveyard almost. The track is dominated by an organ played by Flea (not RHCP), and though it is far out itself, the organ line is the only way to tell this is the song the title states.
"Guitar Excursions into The Unknown" is wonderful. It's harsh, terribly tuned guitar, but glorious picking. It really sets up what is known as that whole "free folk" movement out of Finland that has been really popular in the last years. Again sounds like a field recording or on terribly warped tapes, it truly is a track that sounds like it is recorded for the "unknown"
on "900 Miles" we get a beautiful track, but one in which the guitar is not at the forefront. Again Fahey puts himself in the background, framing the track around Nancy McLean's flute playing.
Other than the tile track, "Sail Away Ladies" is probably the best track on the entire collection. Featuring Al Wilson of Canned Heat on veena, the middle eastern feel to the track changes the course of old America, but is really beautiful on it's own merits.
"O Come, Oh Come Emanuel" is another traditional and goes back to the old Fahey style. Clean guitar picking, a perfect way to close out the record.
Fahey later went on to regard the record as one of the worst in his discography, but many critics of him, myself included, feel it belongs among his very best work. A retrospect on the genius that had been producing music for a decade and it also lays a blueprint for where he was about to go with his music.
So in light of me being home on the coast, the first days of spring and the sun shining, I decided to upload The Trashmen's only full length album, "Surfin' Bird".
The album is named after their hit single that shares the name, which is one of the most raucous, over the top rock n roll anthems ever recorded. The album is just awesome surf rock through and through. Rev up your hot rod, put in your long board, hang out with the other hip cats and throw away your cares. Not all the songs on the album are as heavy as Surfin Bird, but it's a nice beach record and a lot of fun throughout. Enjoy.
