This Peter Green-led edition of the Mac
isn't just an important transition between their initial blues-based
incarnation and the mega-pop band they became, it's also their most
vital, exciting version. The addition of Danny Kirwan as second guitarist and songwriter foreshadows not only the soft-rock terrain of "Bare Trees" and "Kiln House" with Christine Perfect-McVie, but also predicts Rumours. That only pertains to roughly half of the also excellent material here, though; the rest is quintessential Green.
The immortal "Oh Well," with its hard-edged, thickly layered guitars
and chamber-like sections, is perhaps the band's most enduring
progressive composition. "Rattlesnake Shake" is another familiar number,
a down-and-dirty, even-paced funk, with clean, wall-of-sound guitars.
Choogling drums and Green's fiery improvisations power "Searching for Madge," perhaps Mac's
most inspired work save "Green Manalishi," and leads into an unlikely
symphonic interlude and the similar, lighter boogie "Fighting for
Madge." A hot Afro-Cuban rhythm with beautiful guitars from Kirwan and Green on "Coming Your Way" not only defines the Mac's sound, but the rock aesthetic of the day. Of the songs with Kirwan's
stamp on them, "Closing My Eyes" is a mysterious waltz love song;
haunting guitars approach surf music on the instrumental "My Dream";
while "Although the Sun Is Shining" is the ultimate pre-Rumours number someone should revisit. Blues roots still crop up on the spatial, loose, Hendrix-tinged
"Underway," the folky blues tale of a lesbian affair on "Like Crying,"
and the final outcry of the ever-poignant "Show Biz Blues," with Green moaning "do you really give a damn for me?" Then Play On is a reminder of how pervasive and powerful Green's influence was on Mac's
originality and individual stance beyond his involvement. Still highly
recommended and a must-buy after all these years, it remains their
magnum opus.
Personnel: Mick Fleetwood (drums) Peter Green (guitar, vocals) Danny Kirwan (guitar, vocals) John McVie (bass) Jeremy Spencer (guitar, vocals) + Big Walter Horton (harmonica)
Tracklist: 01. Coming Your Way (Kirwan) 3.47 02. Closing My Eyes (Green) 4.50 03. Showbiz blues (Green) 3.50 04. My Dream (Kirwan) 3.30 05. Underway (Green) 2.51 06. Oh Well (Green) 8.56 07. Although The Sun Is Shining (Kirwan) 2.31 08. Rattlesnake Shake (Green) 3.32 09. Searching For Madge (McVie) 6.56 10. Fighting For Madge (Fleetwood) 2.45 11. When You Say (Kirwan) 4.22 12. Like Crying Like Dying (Kirwan) 2.21 13. Before The Beginning (Green) 3.28
When the first two "Interpretations" albums by the Stan Getz quintet
proved so successful, the next step obviously was to follow the pattern
and this — as you must have gathered by now — was indeed done. What gave
the first two "Interpretations" their standout quality, most critics
agreed, was the unity of the five musicians as well as the topflight
musicianship of all concerned. There is especially solid rapporti
between the two featured soloists —Stan Getz, tenor saxophone, and Bob
Brookmeyer, trombone. and one of the reasons for this could be the year
which Brookmeyer spent with the Getz unit in 1953. This was a highly
profitable year for both in terms of musical growth. ("The only way you
learn," Getz once said, "is by playing with the best — so that there's
always two challenges; first, your own inner challenge and then the
fecling of being spurred by men who swing in your own outfit.") Getz, of
course, has long been regarded as one of the foremost tenor men in
modero jazz, a suspicion which first took hold strongly when he (with
Zoot Sims, Serge Chaloff and Herbie Steward) provlded Woody Herman with
the "Four Brothers" round. It was Getz whose solo gave much meaning to
Herman's recording of the Ralph Burns composition, "Early Autumn". Since
then he has been occupied largely with leading his own group, in most
cases a quintet.
Bob Brookmeyer, who incidentally studied piano at Kansas City
Conservatory, is one of the few and also just about the finest valve
trombonists around today. He has played with such groups as Gerry
Mulligan's and Terry Gibbs' as well as tours (as a pianist) with Tex
Beneke, Ray McKinley and Louis Prima. A man of extraordinarily wide
range of expression, Brookmeyer has an equally good reputation as an
arranger and composer. (One of Brookmeyer's selections, "Oh, Sane
Snavely" is included in this album.) Pianist Johnny Williams, out of
Windsor, Vt., has been a member of the Getz unit in addition to playing
with Charlie Barnet's band. An Army Air Forces veteran of World War II,
drummer Frank Isola has also played with the Mulligan and Getz groups in
the past, while the quintets bassist, Teddy Kotick, has largely
confined his work to the East, including appearances with the great alto
sax artist, Charlie "Bird" Parker.
For no calculated reason, the selections on the A side are taken from
three separate eran.— "The Varsity Drag", to begin with, is a tune
associateti with the ebullient 1920s; Duke Ellington's "lt Don't Mean a
Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing" is, of course, from the Swing Era—the
1930s. "Give Me the Simple Life" was popular in the mid-1940s, shortly
alter the end of the war when the simple lite was every ex-GI's happy
hope. The B side includes an evergreen standard, "I´ll Remember April"
along with the aforementioned Brookmeyer original.
Los Angeles CA, July 30, 1953 and November 4, 1954
Personnel: Stan Getz, tenor saxophone; Bob Brookmeyer, valve trombone; John Williams, piano; Bill Anthony or Teddy Kotick, bass; Frank Isola, drums
Tracklist: 01. It Don´t Mean A Thing (If It Ain´t Got That Swing) (Ellington) 6.22 02. The Varsity Drag (Henderson) 7.01 03. Give Me The Simple Life (Ruby/Bloom) 5.59 04. I´ll Remember April (DePaul) 11.01 05. Oh, Shane Snavely (Brookmeyer) 6.16
Thierry Lang (born 1956) is a Swiss composer and jazz pianist.
He teaches piano and composition at the University of Lausanne and University of Bern in Switzerland. He has recorded jazz music discs with Blue Note Records, among others.
In 2008 Lang was awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa from the European University.
In 2003 recorded 25 tracks of original compositions, working on serveral days in three seperate sessions at the Radio Suisse Romandce Studios in Switzerland.
These tracks will comprise three seperate albums, the first of which is Reflections Volume 1.
I will upload the other two albums a little bit later this month to give you an impression of his work.
Thierry Lang is without any doubts one of the finest European jazz musicians of our time. His style is very gentle and full of emotions
Personnel: Heiri Känzig (bass) Thierry Lang (piano) Peter Schmidlin (drums) Tracklist: 01. Le Sablier (Lang) 5.48 02. Three Lines (Lang) 4.50 03. Wounds (Lang) 5.00 04. Private Garden (Lang) 5.57 05. Waiting For A Wave (Lang) 5.25 06. Moon Princess (Lang) 6.21 07. Your Notes (Lang) 4.58 08. Nostalgie (Lang) 6.08
For those Nick Lowe fans who enjoyed Rockpile, here’s Nick Lowe with
Ry Cooder, John Hiatt and Jim Keltner - a supergroup collectively known
as Little Village.
One of the musical highlights of the ’80s was John Hiatt’s Bring The
Family, the 1987 album which, sort of, reintroduced the veteran
singer-songwriter to a new generation of fans. It was also an exciting
album because of its lineup.
For the hit song, Thing Called Love, Hiatt
said: "I had everything when we went to record it, but Nick Lowe came up
with that riff - ba dir di dir dit - which is the icing on the cake. As
soon as he started playing that on the bass, Ry started playing it on
the guitar, and he was laughing, ‘Oh, that’s great.’ And that was pretty
much the arrangement.”
The easy way the individual members clicked was what led to Little
Village in 1992 but the group’s one and only album did not take off
though the classic guitar rock sound certainly hasn’t dated. [One can
also guess that the "supergroup” format meant that the focus and the
pressure wasn’t directed solely at any one person, certainly each member
very much a star in his own right.]
With all the reunions these days, one wonders if Little Village would ever consider going on the road again.
Recorded live at the Fox Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, CA; April 7, 1992. Excellent FM broadcast
Personnel: Ry Cooder (guitar, vocals)
John Hiatt (guitar, vocals)
Jim Keltner (drums)
Nick Lowe (bass, vocals)
Tracklist: 01. Solar Sex Panel (Cooder/Hiatt/Keltner/Lowe) 7.48 02. The Action (Cooder/Hiatt/Keltner/Lowe) 4.04 03. Fool Who Knows (Cooder/Hiatt/Keltner/Lowe) 3.57 04. Do You Want My Job (Cooder/Hiatt/Keltner/Lowe) 6.08 05. She Runs Hot (Cooder/Hiatt/Keltner/Lowe) 4.56 06. Don’t Think About Her When You’re Trying To Drive (Cooder/Hiatt/Keltner/Lowe) 5.14 07. Memphis In The Meantime (Hiatt) 5.54 08. Crying In My Sleep (Yancey/Lowe) 5.00 09. Big Love (Cooder/Hiatt/Keltner/Lowe) 8.52 10. Little Sister (Pomus/Shuman)3.38 11. Half A Boy And Half A Man (Lowe) 3.45 12. Thing Called Love (Hiatt) 5.41 13. Lipstick Sunset (Hiatt) 5.48
Capitol, which had already released ten Beach Boys
albums in three years, was bugging the group for product that it could
release in time for the 1965 Christmas season. To buy time while Brian Wilson began conceiving the Pet Sounds
masterpiece, the group issued a set of covers, mostly of the '50s rock
and R&B they had listened to as schoolboys.
Packaged as if it had
been recorded at an actual party, it was in fact recorded in the studio,
with friends and romantic partners adding sounds and vocals to create
an informal atmosphere. With the exception of a bass guitar, all the
instruments were acoustic; the acoustic guitar-and-bongo arrangements,
in fact, give this a hootenanny campfire feel. In recent years, this
album has gone up a few notches in critical esteem, praised for its
loose, casual feel and insight into the group's influences.
Realistically, though, its present-day appeal lies mostly with dedicated
fans of the group, as fun and engaging as it is.
Others will find the
material shopworn in places, and the presentation too corny. It does
have the massive hit "Barbara Ann," which actually features Dean Torrence (of Jan & Dean)
on much of the lead vocals; other highlights include "Mountain of
Love," an unexpected version of "The Times They Are a-Changin'," and three Beatles covers.
Personnel: Al Jardine (guitar, vocals) Bruce Johnstone (bass, keyboards, vocals) Mike Love (vocals) Carl Wilson (guitar, vocals) Dennis Wilson (drums)
Tracklist: 01. Hully Gully (Goldsmith/Smith) 2.22 02. I Should Have Known Better (Lennon/McCartney) 2.23 03. Tell My Why (Lennon/McCartney) 1.39 04. Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow (Frazier/J.Harris/S.Harris/White/T.Wilson/Wilson Jr.) 2.12 05. Mountain Of Love (Dorman) 2.47 06. You´ve Got To Hide Your Love Away (Lennon/McCartney) 2.47 07. Davoted To You (Bryant) 1.19 08. Alley Oop (Frazier) 2.53 09. There´s No Other (Like My Baby) 3.02 10. Medley: I Get Around/Little Deuce Cup (Christian/Wilson) 3.31 11. The Times They Are A-Changin´ (Dylan) 2.13 12. Barbara Ann (Fassert) 2.53
Charlie Parker's
digital discography is peppered with collections using the words "April
in Paris" as part of the title. Released in 2000, Blue Night's budget
edition contains only about 45 minutes of music extracted from Bird's
Verve catalog, the body of works that map much of his progress during
the last few years of his short life. The 12 recordings that make up
this little taste were made under the supervision of Norman Granz between November 30, 1949 and March 31, 1954 and feature such brilliant improvisers as Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Red Rodney, Max Roach, and Roy Haynes. Charles Parker is also backed by orchestras operating under the leadership of Joe Lippman, Jimmy Carroll, and Gil Evans. While literally dozens of better Charlie Parker
samplers are available, if you have bumped into a copy of Blue Night's
April in Paris you should probably snap it up so as to have ready access
to a pediatric dose of Bird on Verve. (by arwulf arwulf)
The genius of Bird and strings is hard to describe – an edgey aproach
that really goes far past most other "jazz with strings" projects, not a
ballad-driven one, but a tensely strained one that brings out some of
Parker's best soloing, almost in a moody soundtrack-type way. The
tracks are a lot freer and less bop-driven than some of Bird's normal
work, and it's incredible to hear him soloing with such complexity –
even more proof of the genius he clearly exhibited in relation to his
contemporaries. (by dusty groove)
Personnel: Frank Brieff (viola) Eddie Brown (oboe) Maurice Brown (cello) Ray Brown (bass) Sam Caplan (violin) Stan Freeman (piano) Bronislaw Gimpel (violin) Max Hollander (violin) Howard Kay violin) Harry Melnikoff (violin) Charlie Parker (saxophone) Bernie Leighton (piano) Milton Lomask (violin) Frank Miller (cello) Mitch Miller (oboe) Verley Mills (harp) Sam Rand (violin) Myor Rosen (harp) Buddy Rich (drums) Joseph Singer (french horn) Zelly Smirnoff (violin) Isadore Zir (viola) Arranged & conducted by Jimmy Carroll &Joe Lipman
Tracklist: 01. April In Paris (Duke/Harburg) 3.09 02. Summertime (Gershwin) 2.49 03. If I Should Lose You (Rainger/Robin) 2.49 04. I Didn´t Know What Time It Was (Hart/Rodgers) 3.15 05. Everything Happens To Me (Adair/Carmichael/Dennis/Mercer) 3.10 06. Just Friends (Klenner/Lewis) 3.32 07. They Can´t Take That Away From Me (Gershwin) 3.21 08. Out Of Nowhere (Green/Heyman) 3.08 09. East Of The Sun (And West Of The Moon) (Bowman) 3.42 10. Easy To Love (Porter) 3.31 11. I´m In The Mood For Love (Fields/McHugh) 3.35 12. I´ll Remember April (DePaul/Johnston/Raye) 3.06 + 13. Dancing In The Dark (Dietz/Schwartz) 3.13 14. Laura (Mercer/Raksin) 2.59 15. Autumn In New York (Duke) 3.31 16. Stella By Starlight (Washington/Young) 2.57
At the very peak of
the British Invasion, few bands were as universally embraced as Herman's
Hermits. Cheeky, cute, and capable of pumping out a piece of pure pop
bliss now and again, they represented the clever, commercial phase of
the movement.
While The Beatles were experimenting with new sounds and
structures and The Rolling Stones were perfecting their blues-based cock
rock, Peter Noone and the boys rode a wave of sunny sentiment that
would equally illuminate such other ancillary acts as Freddy and the
Dreamers, Peter and Gordon, and Chad and Jeremy. As with many music
phenomenons, movies were seen as a quick way to lay claim to more
international attention. After all, the Fab Four more or less invented
the idea with A Hard Day's Night (don't tell that to UK idol Cliff Richards, though).
After a couple of cameos and a surreal space race comedy (Hang On), one of their most famous songs was used as the basis for a buoyant British class comedy. At the time, Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter must have played like a subversive slice of Manchester madness. Today, it's a curio cast in an equally confusing light.
And this is the soundtrack ... beat goes easy listening !
Personnel: Karl Green (bass, vocals) Keith Hopwood (guitar, vocals) Derek Leckenby (guitar, vocals) Peter Noone (vocals) Barry Whitwam (drums) Tracklist: 01. It´s Nice To Be Out InThe Morning (Gouldman) 2.26 02. Holiday Inn (Stephens) 2.22 03. Ooh, She´s Done It Again (Gouldman) 2.16 04. There´s A Kind Of Hush (All Over The World) (Reed/Stephens) 2.34 05. Lemon And Lime (Gouldman) 2.44 06. The Most Beautiful Thing In My Life (Young) 1.54 07. Daisy Chain, Pt. 1 (Green/Hopwood/Leckenby/Noone) 2.50 08. Daisy Chain, Pt. 2 (Green/Hopwood/Leckenby/Noone) 1.58 09. The World Is For The Young (Gouldman) 2.44 10. Mr.s Brown You´ve Got A Lovely Daughter (Peacock) 2.48 11. Regardez-Moi (Young) 3.21 12. Years May Come, Years May Go (Fishman/Popp) 3.38 13. Smile Please (King/Most/Noone) 2.42 14. Bet Yer Life I Do (Brown/wilson) 2.37 15. Searching For The Southern Sun (Green/Hopwood/Leckenby) 2.41 16. Lady Barbara (Bigazzi/Wilson) 3.43 17. Don´t Just Stand There (King/Most/Noone/Spiro) 3.43 18. Big Man (Belland/Larson) 2.20 19. Wings Of Love (Campbell/Spyropoulos) 3.18 20. Mum And Dad (Callander) 2.01
Time was when the majority of records of late
medieval and renaissance music were made up of social music and above
all dances; it was almost an inevitable stage in the creation of a taste
for the music of the period that it was initially represented by an
essentially unrepresentative aspect of its soundworld, almost as if the
eighteenth century had been portrayed with Mozart's German Dances to the
fore but without the opera and the piano concerto. Now all that has
changed as more and more of the major works are recorded, but there is
still a place for sensitively-performed selections of the lighter
repertories, and the present record is an attractive example.
The inspiration for the selection itself is Respighi's three popular
orchestral suites called Ancient Airs and Dances, and Paul O'Dette has
carried out an interesting piece of detective work in tracking down
Respighi's sources (the composer himself disguised them) to the
transcriptions of the pioneering Italian musicologist Oscar Chilesotti.
One of the most attractive features of the performances themselves is
their varied timbre; O'Dette himself plays both the eight- and
ten-course lute, archlute and even (on the final track) a baroque
guitar, and Nigel North adds a bass lute to Besard's Bransles de
village. The readings of these instrumental pieces are neatly tailored
and graciously shaped whilst still retaining that flexibility of rhythm
and tactus that are the hallmark of the style. Then, in addition, there
is Rogers Covey-Crump's gentle rendering of Boësset's Divine Amaryllis,
and above all his quietly elegiac account of six airs de cour by
Jean-Baptiste Besard. The lightness of his tone is well suited to the
mood of these pieces, and the carefully-considered improvised
embellishment is a nice and appropriate touch. Finally, both violin and
viol make a brief appearance in a single track, Laura soave based on the
famous Ball del Granduca from the 1589 Florentine intermedi, one of the
most exploited bass patterns of its time.
All in all this is a delightful record, sensitively recorded to capture all the immediacy of these simple, domestic pieces. (by Gramophone, June 1988)
Personnel: Rogers Covey-Crump (vocals) Paul O´Dette (lute, guitar) John Holloway (violin) Nigel North (bass lute) Christel Thielmann (bass Viola da gamba)
Tracklist: 01. Ballo detto il Conte Orlando (Molinaro) 2.21 02. Saltarello del predetto ballo (Molinaro) 1.44 03. Polymnia (Galilei) 1.22 04. Chilesotti Lutebook: Volte (Anonymous) 1.59 05. Chilesotti Lutebook: Villanella (Anonymou) 1.41 06. Chilesotti Lutebook: Italiana (Anonymous) 1.12 07. Chilesotti Lutebook: Passo mezzo bonissimo (Anonymous) 2.35 08. Barriera (Caroso) 1.17 09. Laura Soave (Caroso) 5.22 10. Branles de Village (Besard) 3.26 11. Chilesotti Lutebook: Campanae Parisienses (Anonymous) 1.19 12. Airs de cour: Divine Amaryllis (Boësset) 2.55 13. Il liuto: Bergamasca (Gianoncelli ) 0.46 14. La Cesarina (Garsi) 0.46 15. Airs de Cour: C'est malheur (Besard) 3.03 16. Airs de Cour: Beaux yeux (Besard) 2.35 17. Airs de Cour: La voila la nacelle d'amour (Besard) 1.53 18. Airs de Cour: Quelle Divinité (Besard) 4.36 19. Airs de Cour: Si c'est pour mon pucellage (Besard ) 2.02 20. Chilesotti Lutebook: Spagnoletta (Anonymous) 1.59 21. Capricci armonici sopra la chitarra spagnola: Passacaglia (Roncalli) 3.53 22. Tasteggiata (Gianoncelli) 0.47 23. Airs de Cour: Adieu bergère (Guédron) 1.37
Guitarist, singer, and songwriter Susan Tedeschi is part of the new generation of blues musicians looking for ways to keep the form exciting, vital, and evolving. Tedeschi's
live shows are by no means straight-ahead urban blues. Instead, she
freely mixes classic R&B, blues ,and her own gospel and
blues-flavored originals into her sets. She's a young, sassy blues
belter with musical sensibilities that belie her years.
Tedeschi
began singing when she was four and already active in local choir and
theater in Norwell, a southern suburb of Boston. At 13, she began
singing with local bands and continued her music studies at Berklee,
honing her guitar skills and also joining the Reverence Gospel Ensemble.
She started the first incarnation of her blues band upon graduating in
1991.
The Susan Tedeschi Band's second album, Just Won't Burn, was released on the Boston-based Tone-Cool Records in early 1998. This wonderful radio-show was made to promote this album; it´s a beautiful possbility to discover this lady of the Blues.
Personnel: Norm DeMoura (bass) Tim Gearan (slide-guitar) Tom Hambridge (drums, background vocals) Susan Tedeschi (guitar, vocals) Tom West (keyboards)
Tracklist: 01. Introduction 0.44 02. Rock Me Right (Hambridge) 4.56 03. You Need To Be With Me (Tedeschi) 4.44 04. Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean (Lance/Singleton/Wallace) 7.50 05. Friar's Point (Hambridge/Tedeschi) 5.15 06. Little By Little (Wells) 6.43 07. Just Won't Burn (Tedeschi) 7.43 08. Angel From Montgomery (Prine) 5.25 09. It Hurts So Bad (Hambridge) 5.54 10. Outro0.59
1981 was the year Redgum went full time as the band members gave up their day jobs to pursue the band. It was also the year that their 3rd Lp was recorded and released.
I remember hearing about this during an interview on 4zzz, the album was just released it was a promotional thing and they played the single "100 years on".
I still love the song, a modern take on "Waltzing Matilda"it takes s to the heart of John Schumann's songwriting genius, his ability to tell a yarn. This is my favorite Redgum album, its the songs that do it and sure theres a bit on clumsy left rhetoric, but I can forgive it, the brilliance in some songs more than makes up.The sound is less folk like, introducing things like synthesizers, yet not sounding commercial.
The epic "Where you gonna run to now" exposes Schumann's fears for the future and a strong environmental stance that was unheard of at the time
And "The Federal Two Ring Circus" is and very funny take on our political system, but "Your OS Trip" seems a little too bitter.
The truly greatest track however is the Schumann penned "The Last Frontier." Here he captures a young man pilgrimage to the heart of Australia.
Personnel:
Michael Atkinson (guitars, keyboards, vocals) Trevor Courtney (drums, percussion) David Flett (bass)
John Schumann (vocals, guitar)
Chris Timms (vocals, violin)
Verity Truman (vocals, flute, tin whistle, saxophone)
+
Mark Gillespie (guitar on 09)
Tracklist: 01. 100 Years On (Schuhmann) 3.51 02. Lear Jets Over Kulgera (Atkinson) 3.26 03. Caught In The Act (Atkinson/Courtney/Flett/Schumann/Timms/Truman) 2.29 04. Yarralumla Wine (Atkinson) 2.31 05. Where Ya Gonna Run To (Schuhmann) 4.06 06. Brown Rice And Kerosene (Atkinson) 2.23 07. The Federal Two-Ring Circus (Atkinson) 3.43 08. Your O.S Trip (Atkinson) 4.47 09. The Last Frontier (Schuhmann) 4.43 10. Paramatta Gaol 1843(Atkinson/Truman) 4.06 + 11. I Was Only 19 (A Walk In The Light Green) (bonus track; radio broadcast) (Schumann) 5.54