Well, 100 or so posts into this diary and (pause for breath) I've done something I thought I'd never do. It might be a brief sojourn, or it might prove to be something a little more long-lasting, and for the most part I still find it hard to sort the virtuousity from the wankery, but perhaps all of a sudden it's finally clicked into place.
Mad as it may seem, Jimmy's started to listen to some jazz.
Now this recent, almost tumultuous turn of events was all triggered by my picking up of a copy of Kind Of Blue at a Cat Protection League charity shop last week. It's an original UK CBS 60s mono press, so I took it home, cleaned it up and listened to it about 4 times on the spin until all the dust, crap and surface noise had gone away, and sonically it's absolutely fantastic. And perhaps for the record-collecting, high-fidelity neophyte that I am this is probably going to be the easiest way for me to get into the genre, as the production/soundstage/instrument separation (call it what you will) is unlike anything I've ever heard, and to these (slightly hairy) ears are far superior than the Sony Legacy repress I picked up for a fiver a couple of years back.
Aside from Kind Of Blue and a copy of On The Corner my 1000+ collection of LPs only includes 4 albums which could even be remotely considered 'jazz', or 'fusion' at the least: Headhunters by Herbie Hancock, Blacks and Blues by Bobbi Humphrey, Getz/Gilberto (another charity shop find for a quid) and Harakka Bialoipokku by Pekka Pohjola, the latter one I purely bought for the track which DJ Shadow sampled for "Midnight In A Perfect World". Oddly enough, it's my favourite of the bunch. But since spending the best part of an afternoon with some cleaning fluid, a cloth, a micro-fibre brush and Miles ringing in my ears after my bargain-bucket bit of crate digging the wax in my ears seems to have finally been loosened and whilst I'm by no means raving about the genre to the extent I do with dub, indie-pop et al I've suddenly (in the space of a week) become a lot more open to 'jazz' as a genre.
Now I've listened to the obvious (A Love Supreme, the Miles albums mentioned above, and Bitches' Brew which when I first heard it I thought was a pile of shite. I still do, as it goes), and am not looking for people to throw me Mingus, Ornette Coleman, Theo Monk, Sun Ra, Kamasi Washington recs and all that jazz. I'm looking for those LPs that have slipped through the net; the wilfully obscure, perhaps the jazzier side of jazz-funk-fusion or the more spiritual style of stuff. If you can help, I'm all ears, but one album at a time please rather than a long fucking list which will take forever for me to delve through, let alone download the pictures of when I'm stuck in the sticks on a lunch break.
To give you some pointers, this album is currently making my ears tingle (and it isn't even on BEA, which means I've either mined a strand of jazz that no-one's come across before or everyone else thinks is shite):
Now I know sweet FA about this record. In fact when I first heard it (it's just been reissued and the write-up sounded interesting) it reminded me of the music they used to play in the background to 'Pages From Ceefax' at 4am in the morning (Brits of a certain age will know exactly what I mean). However, I had it on whilst sitting in a car wash yesterday morning and it flowed through my ears and drifted into my soul. I can't explain why I like it - it sounds funky, yet it's clearly a jazz record. The vox are on point, reminded me of the early 80s UK neosoul movement crossed with Sesame Street. It's all terribly exciting, and I bet would sound cracking (NOT crackling) on plastic.
edit: Woody Shaw and Roy Brooks might not be the right rec. These are better they're well known, but I didn't see that you had it on a chart, so hope you enjoy one of them.
edit: Woody Shaw and Roy Brooks might not be the right rec. These are better they're well known, but I didn't see that you had it on a chart, so hope you enjoy one of them.
Can't really slip Gil into the jazz pile, but he's got some tracks that fit the bill. Either way, brilliant record. Hoping you dig this one Jimmy, thinking it might be up your
Quote:
I'm looking for those LPs that have slipped through the net; the wilfully obscure, perhaps the jazzier side of jazz-funk-fusion or the more spiritual style of stuff
Perhaps not obscure, but a fav of mine (as well as Norman, who I took the rec from a couple years back). More on the funk/soul side of jazz, with a punk attitude, Attica Blues is a brilliant album with stellar production. Archie Shepp is unquestionably an underappreciated master. He's got some other great releases, but this should always be considered up there with the best of all time. I'm really hoping you like it (that is if you haven't already heard it and perhaps hate it )
Spot on Hayden - this is exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for. Nice one. Will have a proper listen (5 minutes in and sounding promising so far) and write up my thoughts for you all to laugh at...
Well fuck the jazz. True, since I last posted I have actually acquired a couple of jazz LPs but Sketches Of Spain has gone straight in my 'for sale' bin and whilst I quite like A Love Supreme now (Luke will be chuffed) I'm not in any rush to track it down. Hopefully it'll turn up in a charity shop for a quid next to some SingalongaMax and Mrs. Mills LPs.
So back to my comfort zone I go...
I first heard The Orielles at a gig I DJed back in August. The gig was on a boat moored somewhere in Bristol, and around 3 years ago they released a flexi EP on my cousin's record label which I thought was pretty nifty. Now they've signed to Heavenly Records and are about to drop their debut LP which will appeal to old indie kids like myself and anyone who has a penchant for an effects board consisting of a pitchshifter, a phaser and a chorus pedal.
Sound? Classic indie-pop of the eighties variety mixed with a hint of 60s psyche. Think Strawberry Switchblade bopping around in a custard bowl with a pissed-up and over-jolly early-period Lush covered in 100s and 1000s after digesting far too many sherbert dip-dabs. And then getting members of Delta 5, ESG and Girls At Our Best! to join in whilst a Shaun Ryderless Happy Mondays look on. Yeah, you get the idea. Probably the best thing to come out of Halifax since Howard from the Building Society and John Grant (not the musician, but the former Centre Forward for the mighty Aldershot Town).
Great stuff - although annoying their magnum opus (to date) "Sugar Tastes Like Salt" ain't on the album, which is guff.
LittleM will like. LadyG will like. Cellar and Norm too (probs). And some others. Not that I know who - I'm so out of step with BEA right now as it currently has all the ambiance of the corner of some old man's boozer where the majority of contributors are happy wearing slippers. Fuck that, I'm off for a boogie in my day-glo sneakers.
I still can't work out why more people, especially those who have a predilection for 'reggae', haven't cottoned onto the magnificence of Johnny Osbourne's Truths & Rights. It's a perfect record, which now it looks like someone's taken the trouble to upload a massive stack of Studio One LPs to Bandcamp hopefully more people will check out.
I still can't work out why more people, especially those who have a predilection for 'reggae', haven't cottoned onto the magnificence of Johnny Osbourne's Truths & Rights. It's a perfect record, which now it looks like someone's taken the trouble to upload a massive stack of Studio One LPs to Bandcamp hopefully more people will check out.
There's yet more snow forecast for London this weekend, which could prove to be a real shitter as I'm planning one of my mega-record buying trips to Notting Hill, Soho and Camden and don't want the blasted weather to curtail my plans. So I popped onto Sounds Of The Universe's website to see if making the trip to Broadwick Street would be worth a Tube-hop and stumbled upon this LP, which is a re-release of some obscure-as-fuck singer-songwriter album that came out of Canada (admittedly in limited numbers) in 1970. Looks interesting. Give it a listen. It's blowing my mind.
It all starts rather beautifully with opener "Color Of Anyhow", which is as close to what I imagine a duet between Joni Mitchell and Jimmie Spheeris would sound like if some studio wiz had merged their voices together. The flute instantly makes you think of the latter's Isle Of View, which is never a bad thing. "Ghost House" could pass off as a Red House Painters track circa Down Colourful Hill were it not for the vocals, which are effortlessly beautiful as if Beverly's auditioning for a part as a singer in a French adaptation of a Hammer Horror film before it goes all Shirley-Bassey-playing-piccolo. Whilst "Swords Of Gold" sounds to me like something of a mis-step (and the album's only low point, equivalent to Bev recording the track after listening to a Mrs. Miller LP), the folky/Joni-esque numbers give the album some semblance of continuity, especially given tracks like "Songs Of Beads" and "Cumberland Passing". This does however belie both some of the beautiful arrangements throughout, as well as the most random minute-and-a-half of Joanna-Newsom-meets-Captain-Beefheart that is the penultimate track "My Old Rag" (got to be heard to be believed)...
However all of this is just a build-up to a belter of a closing track. In its 9+ minutes "Erzilli" goes from a moody, reflective Linda Perhacs/Karen Beth-esque folky paean where Bev bangs on about dancing on weather anomalies (clouds, rainbows and the like) to a haunting ethno-spiritual that can only be described as a jarring jazz-flute reworking of Nina Simone's "Sinnerman" with Richie Havens playing guitar on a cosmic rocking chair, and then back again. It is absolutely fucking amazing - Lord knows why it's laid undiscovered/unappreciated for the best part of 50 years.
Made before he transitioned to a man, Glenn (as he is now) is still active and has lent his talents to both classical ensembles and Sesame Street. But that voice, man. Totally sublime. Highly recommended to dear like-(open)minded souls (pa, Hayden, dbz and Norm obvs.) and maybe the singer-songwriter set too (Tilly, Mercury - think you'll probably find something here to cherish). _________________ 'Reggae' & t'ing Folk 'n Stuff SHAMELESS RECORD DEALER PLUG
RSD this year was a fuckin' joke. Out of all the dross (of which there was a lot) there were only 4 records I had any interest in:
- Something by Sigur Ros which probably sold out a minute after the shops opened
- A repress of the Vaselines' Dum Dum, which makes no sense to own 'cos I've already got all the tracks on some compy
- A repress of Creation Rebel's Dub From Creation, which I already have an original of, and:
Which is simply sublime. Think of John Fahey debunking to the Worcestershire countryside after spending time jamming with some dudes in Andalucia, then by chance meeting the half-sister of Jacqui McShee and Maddy Prior in an Evesham inn during an open mic set and you've kind of got the gist. Acoustic guitar and vocals, although with a number of instrumentals, it's Brit-folk to soothe the hardest of hearts, albeit with a guitar tone which recalls both American Primitivism and traditional Iberian flamenco, especially evident on the album's absolute standout "Sarah Collins":
The instrumentals would warm many a 40 or 50-something's soul in Britain, as they're eerily reminiscent of the junctions that they used to have between educational schools programming in the 70s and 80s, minus the ubiquitous flute:
Reflecting on it, it's clear to me that my love of Brit Folk stems back to my time as a 7-8-9 year old where the teacher in my junior school would wheel the big old TV in front of the class and let it play (probably whilst nursing a hangover or disappearing out the room to roger the caretaker or something). Every time I hear some of these little snippets of perfection I'm instantly reminded of simpler, more carefree times, and my absolute favourite - a harpsichord melody called "Chateaux" - is perhaps the most perfect and emotive minute of music I've ever heard:
True, some of these library tracks (look 'em up on YouTube) are throwaway, workman-like jazz-funk lift-music-by-numbers, but when they were more rooted in traditional European musical structures they had (and still have) the power to transport you back to - well, wherever your mind wanted to take you, really.
There's a compilation of a whole bunch of these junction tracks on this rather superb compilation, which along with the even more stellar Fuzzy Felt Folk compy on Trunk allow your ears to take a journey into a time machine back to an age where we only had 3 TV channels. _________________ 'Reggae' & t'ing Folk 'n Stuff SHAMELESS RECORD DEALER PLUG
Last edited by Jimmy Dread on 05/26/2018 10:54; edited 1 time in total
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