Buried Treasure: Blue’s Moods

[Today: Blue Mitchell and the Hard Bop sound...]

Bebop shook up Jazz in the mid-40′s in the same way that Punk disrupted Rock in the mid-70′s. In response to the staid, predictable sound of Swing – think Glenn Miller and/or Benny Goodman – Bop was an electric take on Jazz that featured lightning fast solos and opened new vistas of musical possibility. Behind the musical genius and larger-than-life figures of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, Bop gained a foothold in the Jazz community, influencing a new generation of artists and forcing everyone else to sit up and take notice. Unlike Punk, Bop was a more technically complex strain of music, featuring double-time playing, asymmetrical phrasing, and intricate melodies. But like Punk, Bop was pooh-pooh’d by an older generation of musicians, even as it swept their brand of music into the dustbin of history.

This new direction was a shot in the arm for Jazz, but it wasn’t very danceable. In reaction to the Dizzying spectacle of Bebop, a faction of musicians created what (confusingly) became known as ‘Hard Bop’ – a more melodic form of Bop that incorporated elements of R&B, Blues, and Gospel. For example, most of the Blue Note albums of the late-50′s and 1960′s are Hard Bop. It was a style pioneered by Art Blakey and Horace Silver with their legendary group The Jazz Messengers, and when Blakey and Silver split in 1956, each started groups that apprenticed some of the most important Hard Bop players. These included trumpeter Richard ‘Blue’ Mitchell, who played with The Horace Silver Quintet from 1958 until 1964.

During that time Mitchell also recorded a number of excellent albums with his own ensembles, foremost among them Blue’s Moods from 1960. This is the only of Mitchell’s seven Riverside albums that features him as the exclusive horn, and it’s a doozy. Wynton Kelly (piano), Sam Jones (bass) and Roy Brooks (drums) are more than just accomplished sidemen – here they make music that would stand up on its own without Mitchell’s trumpet. But the moods alluded to in the album title are provided by Mitchell’s horn, whether he’s floating through a delicate melody (‘When I Fall In Love’), racing an offbeat tempo (‘Scrapple From The Apple’), or a little of both (‘I’ll Close My Eyes’). Blue’s Moods is an enjoyable, expansive listen, and a quintessential example of the Hard Bop sound.

Listen: I Wish I Knew

Listen: I’ll Close My Eyes

6 (more) Albums I Wish Were In Print On Vinyl

In honor of Black Friday, the shopping’est day of the year, I thought I’d compile my own list for Santa – another half dozen albums that I’d like to see in LP form soon…

The Black Crowes | The Southern Harmony & Musical Companion – Hard to believe that this album isn’t in print on vinyl, but the moral of the story is that very few records were pressed on LP between 1989 and 1994, so grab them when you see them.

Currently goes for: $50 – $100

Fred Eaglesmith | Lipstick, Lies & Gasoline – Eaglesmith’s music sounds like the American heartland, all twang and tales of people surviving on the fringe of society. In other words, exactly the kind of album I like dropping the needle on…

Currently goes for: n/a, although his Indiana Road LP goes for $75-$100

Amadou & Mariam | Dimanche A Bamako – The best World Music album of the last five years, Dimanche a Bamako clearly deserves enshrinement on wax. Loaded with sound effects and ambience courtesy of Manu Chao’s excellent production, one can only imagine how good this album would sound on vinyl…

Currently goes for: n/a

Dexter Gordon | Doin’ Allright – This one is a head-scratcher. Nearly every other Blue Note album has been reissued on vinyl over the last several years, except Doin’ Allright. It’s only one of the best albums by one of the most talented musicians to ever pick up a saxophone, so this oversight might just inspire my own letter-writing campaign.

Currently goes for: $100

Jorge Ben | Ben – Excellent Brazilian funk from the 70′s – another sound that I dearly love to drop the needle on. There aren’t many copies of this LP floating around, and those that do seem to reside in Sao Paolo, so good luck with that…

Currently goes for: $50-$75, plus expensive shipping from South America

Lee Hazlewood | Poet, Fool Or Bum – This album earned a famously dismissive one word review (“Bum.”) but time has been kind to Lee Hazlewood. His psychedelic cowboy act is a refreshing antidote to the typical country music formula, and ought to be more readily available in LP form.

Currently goes for: $30-$50

*****

Honorable mention…

Dave Alvin | King Of California
Marah | Kids In Philly
Johnny Cash | Personal File
The Coup | Genocide & Juice
The Soft Boys | Underwater Moonlight
Eric B & Rakim | Paid In Full

Ten (more) Things I’m Thankful For

It’s time once again to give thanks for a few of my favorite things:

1) The Who | Won’t Get Fooled Again – No single song better summed up my feelings throughout a turbulent political season…

Listen: Won’t Get Fooled Again

2) Miles Davis On Trumpet – The best ever, by a comfortable margin…

Listen: Generique

3) Fleet Foxes | Fleet Foxes – Handel’s Messiah + My Morning Jacket = One of the finest debuts in ages, and the best album of 2008.

Listen: Blue Ridge Mountains

4) Charlie Watts On Drums – Remember, he’s not our drummer, we’re his audience…

Listen: Midnight Rambler

5) Radio Birdman | The Essential Radio Birdman (1974-1978) – These Australians cut their hard-edged punk with surf guitar, but were hated in their home country. I love their music, and can’t get enough of it…

Listen: Aloha Steve & Danno

6) Flatt & Scruggs & Oscar – My favorite country trio…

Listen: Home Sweet Home

7) Bootlegs & Bootleggers – And I’m not talking about moonshine whiskey. Thanks to those who have stood in a crowded auditorium wearing a mic for the benefit of everyone who couldn’t be there…

Listen: Red House [from Royal Albert Hall, London 2/24/69]

8) Josh Ritter | Golden Age Of Radio – Some albums get better with repeated listens. This is one of them…

Listen: Roll On

9) Sam Cooke On Vocals – For providing an election day memory that will last a lifetime…

Listen: A Change Is Gonna Come

10) The P – I love my wife.

Listen: Everybody’s Talkin’

*****

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

*****

Doubleshot Tuesday: The Sting Soundtrack/ Second Helping

[Today: Ghosts of Thanksgivings past...]

Every year without fail when I was a kid, The Sting was on television on Thanksgiving Day. Don’t ask me why – I don’t remember the movie having any kind of holiday theme, or even being particularly evocative of the holiday spirit. But there it was on the tube, every year like clockwork. At some point along the way, it became a fond reminder of the holiday, and if I caught a snippet of it on TV I’d find myself transported to Piedmont St and the Thanksgivings of my youth. We didn’t have much money, but we were blessed with a large extended family full of people who liked to get together and celebrate. Plenty of those Thanksgiving evenings ended with our Uncles engaged in spirited, ramshackle jam sessions on whatever instruments could be unearthed. Of course, as a “kid” I was off wrestling or playing video games with my cousins, or sneaking sips of champagne when nobody was looking. Good old times…

The mid-1990′s found me freshly graduated from college and living on Nob Hill in San Francisco. I didn’t go home for Thanksgiving (December was and is my time for holiday traveling), and many years neither did my roommates. Pretty soon we were hosting Thanksgiving dinners for any and all friends (and friends-of-friends) who stayed in the Bay Area for the holiday. These grew into festive 12-20 person gatherings that always featured turkey and the trimmings, fine wine, football on the tube, a funny cigarette or ten, and plenty of good music. The albums usually flew fast and furious, but Second Helping is the LP that most reminds of those holidays, quite possibly because of its too appropriate name. It’s pretty amazing to have a day when you can get together with friends – and even some people you don’t know – and it feels exactly like family.

Listen: The Entertainer [Marvin Hamlisch]

Listen: The Ballad Of Curtis Loew [Lynyrd Skynyrd]

Masterpiece: The Segovia Collection

[Today: The original guitar maestro...]

“The guitar is a small orchestra. It is polyphonic. Every string is a different color, a different voice.” For Andres Segovia, that wasn’t just a nice sound bite, it was a musical philosophy. He almost single-handedly established the guitar as a classical instrument, and helped popularize it well beyond that genre. A self-taught guitar maestro who introduced many common playing techniques that were radical in his day, Segovia was more interested in finding the perfect sound than following musical convention. So he played Bach, strummed with his fingertips as well as his fingernails, and used nylon guitar strings – and pretty soon everyone else did too.

Born in Linares, Spain in 1893, Andres Segovia owned his first guitar at age 6, gave his first public performance at age 15, turned professional at age 16, and was an international figure of repute before his 20th birthday. By 1928, he had built a following large enough to sell out a series of concerts along the East Coast, including his triumphant US premiere, at Town Hall in New York City (“A New York audience has seldom been quicker or warmer with its approval” concluded the New York Times’ review of the event).

Segovia was repeatedly discouraged from trying to integrate the guitar into classical music, but he persisted, building a repertoire for the instrument through his own transcriptions of a variety of existing classical pieces. By the 1920′s his persistence and rising profile paid off when a number of classical musicians began writing specifically for the guitar. That the instrument was never again seen as exotic is tribute to Segovia’s iron will and singular genius.

He cut plenty of 78′s, but it wasn’t until the advent of Long Playing (LP) records in the late-1940′s that Segovia’s music was finally given the format it deserved. Here every note was distinct, every finger squeak audible (another innovation), the warmth of his playing waiting to fill a room like a crackling fire. But sloppy digitization of his music for compact disc in the 1980′s left a generation of guitar players to wonder if Segovia had been overrated. Thankfully, the 2002 4-disc set The Segovia Collection restores much-needed audio fidelity to a fine cross-section of his music, preserving his legend in all its colorful, polyphonic glory.

Segovia gave his last recital on April 4, 1987 in Miami, shortly after his 94th birthday. A few months later he died in Madrid, widely recognized as the father of modern classical guitar.

Listen: Eight Lessons For The Guitar – No 1 In A Major – Aguaduo

Listen: Eight Lessons For The Guitar – No 8 In E Minor – Aguaduo

Listen: Allemande from: Suite For Lute In E Minor BVW 996

The P Speaks: Songs That Reflect Late November

Somehow we’ve snuck 40 odd weeks into the year and Thanksgiving is upon us, again. dk and I were recently talking about “Thanksgiving Songs” – songs that are uniquely American, like this upcoming holiday. It’s hard to disassociate this holiday from childhood memories of this time of year, like getting up before dawn for the 8 hour drive (Ford Torino wagon, fake wood paneling) to our cousins’ house in Syracuse (where the giant wood console TV was always tuned to football) and post-feast dishwashing that required drill team precision.

Now that I’m approaching my 20th year in Northern California, Thanksgiving is a hike along the ridgeline, friendship and laughter, good pinot noir, tupperware fighting for space in the fridge, and a lovely four day break from the office. We have been blessed with friends who are excellent chefs and excellent hosts, so we rarely cook. (There was the infamous creamed onion and midnight turkey incident of 1992 at 21 Belcher Street, but we won’t go there now…) 

While I love Arlo and Alice’s Restaurant, there is other music that speaks to this time of year. Here are some candidates that might make you put a log on the fire and stare into the flames…

The Band | Twilight

Uncle Tupelo | Screen Door

Josh Ritter | Me & Jiggs

Fleet Foxes | Blue Ridge Mountains

Lucinda Williams | Big Red Sun Blues

Whiskeytown | Jacksonville Skyline

John Phillips | Malibu People

John Fahey | I Am The Resurrection

Allman Brothers | Blue Sky

M. Ward | Duet For Guitars #2

Yo La Tengo | Night Falls On Hoboken

Hank Williams | Settin’ The Woods On Fire

Dave Alvin | Dark Eyes

Fred Neil | I’ve Got A Secret (Didn’t We Shake Sugaree)

Neko Case | Fox Confessor Brings The Flood

Stevie Ray Vaughan | Little Wing

My Morning Jacket | Steam Engine

Johnny Cash | Breaking Bread

The Long Ryders | Ivory Tower

Joe Ely | Gallo Del Cielo

Flying Burrito Brothers | Wheels

Willie Nelson | Moonlight In Vermont

You Can Be An Author!

It sounds like utter spam, but it’s true. It’s National Write-A-Novel Month and the good people at 33 & 1/3 are putting that idea into action – they’re accepting book proposals until December 31st. If you don’t know about the 33 & 1/3 series, here’s the idea in a nutshell: pamphlet-sized, 100-120 page books, each focusing on a classic album, and each written by different authors in wildly varying styles. The 33 & 1/3 editors have cultivated an eclectic collection of writing styles that mirrors the breadth and adventure of a good record collection.

Notable titles in the series include Music From Big Pink, Forever Changes, Paul’s Boutique, Dusty In Memphis, Exile On Main St, Electric Ladyland, and many more. The series now exceeds 60 in number, and almost every title can be recommended to any serious music fan.

Anyway, I’m in!

At first I thought there was no way I could write a book proposal, but when I thought about it in blogging terms, it became much more realistic. The required 2000 word proposal + 500 word qualifier represents a week of blog posts here. It’ll take a couple of weeks of research and work, plus the requisite couple of weeks of polish – but put in those terms this doesn’t seem like such a Herculean task. Certainly well worth the opportunity to get my name on one of these great books.

Last time 33 & 1/3 accepted proposals (two years ago), they received 450 proposals, and handed out 20 contracts. You can do the math, but those don’t seem like such long odds to me.

Just for the heck of it, I’ve created a mock-up of what my book might possibly definitely look like:

[click for full-size image]

But this post isn’t about my book, it’s about your book.

If you could write a book about any album, what would it be, and why?

[I'm not even asking for a 2,500 word, multi-part proposal, just a comment...]

Guitar Gods – The Cover Art

Here’s the cover art for one of my latest mixes – a four disc box-set called Guitar Gods. A compilation like this invites furrowed brows, lists of corrections, and plenty of harrumphing from all corners. Strike up the chorus: “But what about ____________?” There were dozens more guitarists that ideally would have been included, but four discs seemed like enough, and the line had to be drawn somewhere.

World B. Furr (sometime commenter on this blog) was kind enough to collaborate on this mix with me, and help me figure out where to draw that line, and it was a clear case of two brains being better than one. We had a lot of back and forth about who to include and who to leave out, and inevitably there were compromises to be made.

From the liner notes to this mix, here’s a six-pack of guitarists who just missed the cut:

Ace Frehley – When I was a kid I thought every guitarist should sound like The Spaceman. But then somewhere along the way I grew up. Still, I have a strange desire to shout “ACE FREHLEY! SHOCK ME!!!” and put him in the mix. Didn’t happen… [dk]

Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman – Scott Ian of Anthrax once said that if he goes to Hell, there’s no doubt Slayer will playing on the loudspeaker. These two guys have spent the better part of the last 25 years kicking out some of the heaviest and most sinister riffs of all-time — never once losing the fire that first got things started. [Furr]

George Brigman – Brigman is a Guitar God for me because he represents the dreams of the everyman player. As a 17 year-old kid, Brigman self-released his debut album Jungle Rot in 1975 and then watched it disappear. Time has proven it a fuzzed out, lo-fi classic. [dk]

Mick Taylor – Although we ultimately chose ‘Satisfaction’ and the Brian Jones-era Rolling Stones, I feel it’s imperative to point out the genius of Mick Taylor. Few could argue that the Taylor years were the Stones finest, and that’s largely due to the “other” Mick. [Furr]

Peter Green – The driving force of the original, bluesy Fleetwood Mac, Green was one of the best guitarists of his generation. Unfortunately, he lost his sanity in a worm hole of drugs, and disappeared from the music scene for decades. But his is a brilliant, if truncated, body of work. [dk]

Alex Lifeson – There are a lot of excuses people will give for hating Rush. Alex Lifeson’s guitar work is never one of them. This guy is one of the greatest players ever and he’s one-third of the reason why I absolutely LOVE Rush. [Furr]

Without further ado…

[Here's the front cover...]

[Here's the inside front cover...]

[Here's the inside booklet cover...]

[Guitar pick photos courtesy of Umlaut!]

[Here's the guts of the inside booklet...]

[Here's the back inside...]

[Here's the back...]

[Here's the track listing...]

Disc 1ne
Chuck Berry * Johnny B. Goode
The Rolling Stones * Satisfaction [Keith Richards]
The White Stripes * Seven Nation Army [Jack White]
Link Wray * Rumble
Dick Dale & The Del-Tones * Let’s Go Trippin’
Cream * Sunshine Of Your Love [Eric Clapton]
Quicksilver Messenger Service * Mona [John Cipollina and Gary Duncan]
Merl Saunders, Jerry Garcia etc * Keepers (Live)
The Allman Brothers Band * In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed (Live) [Duane Allman]
The Faces * Around The Plynth [Ron Wood]
Santana * Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen [Carlos Santana]
The Who * Won’t Get Fooled Again [Pete Townshend]
ZZ Top * La Grange [Billy Gibbons]
U2 * Bullet The Blue Sky [The Edge]

Disc 2wo
John Fahey * St. Louis Blues
Robert Johnson * Sweet Home Chicago
Mississippi John Hurt * Frankie
Muddy Waters * Baby Please Don’t Go
Bo Diddley * Who Do You Love?
Howlin’ Wolf * Smokestack Lightnin’
Albert King * Born Under A Bad Sign
Otis Rush * I Can’t Quit You Baby
Freddie King * Key To The Highway
Buddy Guy * A Man and The Blues
Johnny Winter * Dallas
B.B. King * Everyday I Have The Blues
Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble * The Sky Is Crying
Albert Collins * Frosty
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band * East-West [Mike Bloomfield]
Roy Buchanan * Sweet Dreams

Disc 3hree
Nirvana * Come As You Are [Kurt Cobain]
Deep Purple * Smoke On The Water [Ritchie Blackmore]
Aerosmith * Sweet Emotion [Joe Perry]
Black Sabbath * Fairies Wear Boots [Tony Iommi]
Ted Nugent * Stranglehold
Spinal Tap * Sex Farm [Nigel Tufnel]
Sex Pistols * God Save The Queen [Steve Jones]
The Ramones * Judy Is A Punk [Johnny Ramone]
The Clash * Clampdown [Joe Strummer and Mick Jones]
Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers * One Track Mind
AC/DC * Highway To Hell [Angus Young]
Van Halen * Eruption [Eddie Van Halen]
Ozzy Osbourne * Flying High Again [Randy Rhoads]
Guns N’ Roses * Mr. Brownstone [Slash]
Judas Priest * You’ve Got Another Thing Coming [Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing]
Iron Maiden * The Trooper [Dave Murray and Adrian Smith]
Metallica * The Four Horsemen [Kirk Hammett]
Rage Against The Machine * Bombtrack [Tom Morello]

Disc 4our
Andrés Segovia * Suite Compostelana: I. Preludio
Buena Vista Social Club * Chan Chan [Ry Cooder]
Jeff Beck * Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers
Led Zeppelin * White Summer/Black Mountain Side [Jimmy Page]
The Jimi Hendrix Experience * Little Wing
John McLaughlin * Peace Piece
Funkadelic * Maggot Brain [Eddie Hazel]
Neil Young * Cortez The Killer
Pink Floyd * Comfortably Numb [David Gilmore]
Buckethead * Lone Sal Bug
Dire Straits * Ride Across The River [Mark Knopfler]
The Beatles * While My Guitar Gently Weeps [George Harrison]
Les Paul * Lover

*****

[I'll be extremely disappointed if there are less than two dozen fired up comments about how we screwed this up. This mix couldn't possibly cover off on everyone's personal list of Guitar Gods, so I look forward to hearing who you think we missed, and what we got wrong. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to slip into my flame retardant Kevlar suit...]

Doubleshot Tuesday: Songs Of Our Soil/Superfly

[Today: The gospel according to Johnny and Curtis...]

Johnny Cash sang about poor white people. Curtis Mayfield sang about poor black people. Both were deeply religious, both loved their country, and both were unafraid to speak directly to the overwhelming problems facing those on the other side of the tracks or down in the ghetto. Both were regularly upbeat and believed in the power of the human spirit to overcome obstacles. Both were identifiable by a simple first name. Both were musical titans who found themselves without recording contracts in the late 80′s. Both were rock solid morally and spiritually. Both grew up in musical households, and attended gospel churches in their youth. Both made music that was heavily influenced by their upbringing.

Johnny Cash: “My father was a man of love. He always loved me to death. He worked hard in the fields, but my father never hit me. Never. I don’t ever remember a really cross, unkind word from my father.”

Curtis Mayfield: “I used to sleep a lot in church, cos I was very young then, but I’m sure unconsciously I adopted a lot of my grandmother’s style of laying things down. She was a very strong image to me, a strong woman way before women’s liberation.”

Songs Of Our Soil is a loose concept album about the troubles of the American heartland, featuring flood victims, failing sharecroppers, aged Apaches, and a cemetery caretaker. Superfly is a loose concept album about inner-city violence, featuring drug pushers, pimps, junkies, and whores. Both albums take a nuanced view of human interaction, and build song-by-song cases that our lives are intertwined in ways we don’t fully understand, and when we cause suffering in others, we ultimately cause grief for ourselves.

Listen: The Man On The Hill [Johnny Cash]

Listen: Pusherman [Curtis Mayfield]

Magic Moment: Christopher Walken Dances

Christopher Walken channels his inner Fred Astaire on behalf of Fatboy Slim. This hilarious 2001 video for ‘Weapon Of Choice’ was shot in the Marriott Hotel in Los Angeles. The best part? Walken himself choreographed much of this high-stepping spectacle…