Some Of My Favorite Lightnin' Hopkins

 

I first heard Lightnin' late one night in 1961, listening to my transistor radio that was under my pillow (so my parents wouldn't be able to hear it), on either WWRL a.k.a. "The Big RL" or WLIB, both stations' target audience, was African Americans in New York City.  The late night DJs were hipper than hip, funny and spoke in "Jive".  The station's formats were then current R&B, Soul, Blues and sometimes a little Jazz.  This was where I first heard B.B., Muddy, John Lee, Elmore, Wolf and many, many more Blues Artists.

What first struck me about Lightnin' was that his lyrics were fun; not as macho, one-dimensional and misogynistic as with many other blues guys.  The first time I heard "Katie May", with the line, "You know she walks just like she got oil wells in her backyard", the double entendre was not lost on my 14-year-old self, it literally made me laugh out loud, and wake my mother up, who yelled, "GO TO SLEEP, ALREADY!".  I also liked his style of guitar playing that's simultaneously loose, and yet somehow tight... AND with a guitar that's always in tune (which is not always the case, with others)!

During his lifetime, Lightnin' recorded 200 singles and 85 albums on over twenty different labels.  Due to such things as, while under contract to the Aladdin label, he cut records for the Goldstar label with the same songs. Things like that make collecting Lightnin' Hopkins records a complex problematic, and a daunting task to unravel.  I've encountered similar difficulties with John Lee Hooker.

Here are some of my favorites from Lightnin' Hopkins, all three have wonderful performances, and excellent audio.

'Lightnin' (The Blues Of Lightnin' Hopkins)'

Recorded for Prestige's Bluesville subsidiary in 1960,  'Lightnin' (The Blues Of Lightnin' Hopkins) is among the most rewarding acoustic dates Lightnin' delivered in the early '60s. It's a little like being in a small club with Lightnin' as he shares his experiences, insights and humor with you.

The session has an informal, relaxed quality with bassist Leonard Gaskin and drummer Belton Evans, both of whom play in an understated fashion and do their part to make this intimate setting successful. They also do a remarkable job of navigating Lightnin's irregular bar patterns and abrupt song endings.

You'd think the best place to record "Texas Blues", would be, well, in Texas.  But you'd be wrong, this was recorded in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on November 9, 1960, by (you guessed it) Rudy Van Gelder.

This was the first Lightnin' Hopkins I ever bought.

The freeload is a 24 bit/192khz vinyl rip of the Analogue Productions reissue from 2023 on180gram vinyl.

'Goin' Away'

On June 4, 1963, Lightnin' returned to Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, with bassist Leonard Gaskin and drummer Herbie Lovelle, in tow.

Musicians today spend lots of money, and months of their time to try and produce something this profound.  And yet Lightnin' went into the studio, sat down and knocked it out in three hours on a Tuesday evening....live with no overdubs (or Auto-Tune).  Once again, the sensitive support of bassist Leonard Gaskin and drummer Herbie Lovelle, are not befuddled by Lightnins' distinctive sense of "country time", unlike more than a few studio musicians, who came before and after.

The freeload is The freeload is a 24 bit/192khz vinyl rip of the Analogue Productions reissue from 2022 on180gram vinyl.

Broken Hearted Blues

These are the 1950–52 recordings done for the "Sittin In With" and "Jax" labels, that were both owned by Bobby Shad (Bobby worked with, Charlie Parker, Janis Joplin, Shelly Manne, Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Haynes, Blue Mitchell and Ted Nugent [of all people], to name just a few). The song selection is strong, and the audio is phenomenal. The freeload is a copy of the SACD. For the freeloads, tell us about a bad storm (hurricane/tornado/tsunami/snow etc.) you've experienced.

Kris Kristofferson - June 22, 1936 - September 28, 2024

 

Rest In Peace

The Austin Sessions
https://workupload.com/file/kBGZKbahxck

Two Classics Of "Country Rock"

There are many albums I play back to back, they’re usually by the same artist, but sometimes by artists of the same subgenre, as is the case with today's freeloads, by The Marshall Tucker Band, and The Ozark Mountain Daredevils.



In 1973 both bands released their debut self-titled albums.  Back then, when I bought a new album, I would make a cassette tape of it on my beloved Nakamichi 1000 Tri-Tracer, which was the first truly Hi-Fi cassette deck, leaving me with pristine albums.  I used to use 90-minute cassettes, since most albums in 1973 were under 45 minutes, I could put a full album on each side.  So I had The Marshall Tucker Band on one side, and The Ozark Mountain Daredevils on the other side.  I guess I got used to hearing them together, by flipping the tape (auto-reverse was a few years away).



While both bands sound nothing like each other, they do have a similar vibe to them.  Both albums were categorized as "Country Rock" but that doesn’t tell the whole story as there are many influences at play other than country music.  If these two albums were released today, they would more than likely be classified as "Americana".


'The Marshall Tucker Band'
There was no member of the band named Marshall Tucker, they named themselves after a piano tuner.  The songs "Take the Highway" and "Can't You See" were FM radio staples from the album.

'The Ozark Mountain Daredevils'
Many people only know the band from their biggest hit, 1975's "Jackie Blue", a song that sounds nothing like the band's usual sound.  The FM staples from this 1973 album were "If You Wanna Get To Heaven" and "Chicken Train"




For the freeload, what are some of your favorite subgenres of music?

'The Complete Billie Holiday On Verve, 1945-1959'

In her recording career, Billie recorded for four labels, and with every label we saw and heard a different incarnation of Billie.  Myself, I can't think of another so prominent singer who went through so many changes.

On the Columbia recordings Billie was young, spirited, startlingly original and enjoyed hit after hit with often unremarkable material she made remarkable, as only she could.

On the Commodore recordings, Billie became a singer of torch songs and dramatic ballads.  At this point, she had become a glamorous and sophisticated "supper club" star, as well as a more polished and mature artist.

On the Decca recordings, label owner Milt Gabler (whom she worked with at Commodore) told her he wanted to try her as a pop singer.  The Decca recordings are drenched in strings by the brilliant Gordon Jenkins, who adored Billie as an artist and as a person.  Given the topnotch material, she proved a captivating, luxurious stylist worthy of her international fame she achieved and so deserved.

Then came the subject of today's post, Billie's Verve recordings.  Billie's voice was deeper, rougher, harder, her style had turned into a bag of affectations, her stylings were totally predictable and by all rights her recordings should have been unimportant.  Not so.  She had become a world-weary, wise actress in song, and virtually everything she recorded for Norman Granz was compelling. 

When I first listened to song after song in this collection I realized, having never heard the music in order in its entirety, I had missed a point.   I think Billie was simply incapable of being uninteresting.  There isn't a record here that isn't just fascinating.  By the time we get to the final album, on M-G-M, when she was literally on her last legs, the wonder is the album is so hypnotic (and at the time of its release was a big deal).

Billie's life did not turn out the way it should have, it should have ended healthy and wealthy.  But at the very least, she ended up celebrated and loved.  The records can't show her beauty, elegance, terrific taste in fashion, beautiful grooming and hypnotic presence as a performer, but this is music you can listen to over and over, year after year and still discover something new.

'The Complete Billie Holiday On Verve, 1945-1959' is one of my favorite boxed sets. It has wonderful sonics, and one of the best booklets I have ever seen, it's a 220-page book featuring recording information, interviews and rare photographs (it's included in the freeload in .pdf format)

CD1:

• Jazz at the Philharmonic concerts 1945-47
• 1952 Los Angeles Studio Sessions

CD2:

• 1952 Los Angeles & New York Studio Sessions
• 1954 Jazz Club USA Concert - Germany

CD3:

• 1954 Jazz Club USA concert (conclusion)
• 1954 Los Angeles & New York Studio Sessions
• 1955 New York Studio Sessions

CD4:

• 1955 Rehearsal at Artie Shapiro's Home

CD5:

• 1955 Los Angeles Studio Sessions

CD6:

• 1955 Los Angeles Studio Sessions (conclusion)
• 1956 Rehearsal at the Duffys' Home

CD7:

• 1956 New York & Los Angeles Studio Sessions

CD8:

• 1956 Carnegie Hall Concert
• 1957 Los Angeles Studio Sessions

CD9:

• 1957 Los Angeles Studio Sessions

CD10:

• 1957 Newport Jazz Festival
• 1958 Seven Ages of Jazz Concert
• 1959 New York Studio Sessions with Ray Ellis

The "Sidemen"
Alto saxophones: Willie Smith, Benny Carter
Tenor saxophones: Illinois Jacquet, Wardell Gray, Charlie Ventura, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Flip Phillips
Trumpets: Howard McGee, Buck Clayton, Charlie Shavers, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Roy Eldridge
Trombone: Trummy Young
Vibraphone: Red Norvo
Pianos: Milt Raskin, Ken Kersey, Oscar Peterson, Sonny Clark, Billy Taylor, Jimmy Rowles, Wynton Kelly, Tony Scott, Mal Waldron
Acoustic guitar: Freddie Green
Electric guitars: Tiny Grimes, Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis
Basses: Charles Mingus, Curly Russell, Al McKibbon, Ray Brown, Red Mitchell, Milt Hinton, Joe Benjamin
Drums: David Coleman, J.C. Heard, Alvin Stoller, Ed Shaughnessy, Cozy Cole, Jo Jones

For the freeload tell us what day is your favorite holiday.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - 'Déjà Vu' (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)

 

This past Saturday, I was in an Uber cab with my daughter heading from New York Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia Cancer Center in Upper Manhattan to my home to my home in Lower Manhattan.  Even though, I was ripped on painkillers, my neck was hurting (they told me I might experience some "minor discomfort", which is a little like putting someone in front of a Tsunami, and telling them, "You might experience a little moisture"). Anyway, we were stopped at a red traffic light, and I had Déjà Vu, and then again at the next light and once again at the following light.  When I told my daughter of my déjà vu, she thought it was funny, and in a soft voice started singing:
"We have all been here before...We have all been here before".
(she was raised on Hippie music, Jazz and Blues)

So, here's Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's 'Déjà Vu' (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition), which is a 1 LP/4 CD boxed set.

CD 1 is the original album, CD 2 are demos, CD 3 outtakes, and CD 4 is alternate takes.

The freeloads are as follows:
Link 1 will be the original album in a 24-bit/192 kHz format, which sounds really sweet.

Link 2 will be the 4 CDs in standard CD 16-bit, 44.1kHz format, which also sound pretty darn good.

For the freeload, tell us what your favorite song on 'Déjà Vu' is.

Quick Update

My procedure went well, I'm home and taking things easy.

Thanks once again for all your kind words, all were very touching and heartwarming.

Music tomorrow.

Update

 Thanks to all for your well-wishes, I am truly touched by your kind words.



Also, please put our friend 'Me n the Reeds', in your thoughts, who had surgery yesterday, and will have another next week.



Here’s "The Skinny":

Yesterday was a day from hell, what my father used to call, "No trip to the ice cream parlor". That said, without going into details, there was good news.



On Friday, I’m having a partial thyroidectomy, and spending the night at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia Cancer Center. On Saturday, I will be discharged cancer free.



I’ll post an update, Sunday or Monday.



You Guys, are the best!

Announcement

My last Cancer screening detected
an early stage post 9/11 cancer.

'Cuz Babs Sez, That's Why', will be
on a short term hiatus.

Karen Dalton - 'In My Own Time' (50th Anniversary Edition)

Bob Dylan said of Karen Dalton:

"My favorite singer…was Karen Dalton. Karen had a voice like Billie Holiday and played guitar like Jimmy Reed…I sang with her a couple of times."

Karen Dalton emerged from the 1960s Greenwich Village folk scene, a contemporary of the Holy Modal Rounders, Peter Walker, Tim Hardin, Fred Neil, and most famously Bob Dylan, whose enthusiastic recollection of performing with Dalton, and specifically the beauty of her singing, has helped to solidify her posthumous legacy.

Left to right: Karen Dalton, Suze Rotolo, Teri Thal, Bob Dylan & Dave Van Ronk in Greenwich Village, circa 1960/61.

Compared by Bob Dylan to Billie Holiday, Karen preferred to cite Bessie Smith as a more formative influence. In truth, the two observations are complementary. To elaborate, Fred Neil is reported to have said of Dalton: "She sure can sing the shit out of the blues."  While there’s a similarity in sound between Billie and Karen, you'd ever mistake one for the other.  To my ears, Karen hits the Bessie side of the pairing smack-dab in the bullseye, but Karen also possesses a level of sophistication in her delivery that is in the tradition of Billie.  That said, 'In My Own Time' is neither a blues nor jazz record.



Karen was effectively shunned by the folk music establishment in the 1960s.  Stories vary as to why, but the main thread seems to go something like this: she was a wild-child in an industry that, particularly before Dylan, was looking for straight, tidy Ozzie and Harriet types like Joan Baez or the Weavers. 


Karen was uncomfortable and notoriously stormy and controlling in the studio.  She wanted things her way, and seemingly, all suggestions of compromise or collaboration were tossed out as a result.  Subsequently, Karen herself was labeled "difficult to work with" and pretty much booted out by the industry.

Bob Dylan, Dalton, and Fred Neil at the "Cafe Wha?" in 1961

'In My Own Time', is as a true masterpiece by one of music's most mysterious, enigmatic, and enduringly influential artists.  Karen’s above-mentioned discomfort with the studio process isn’t a bit perceptible.

There’s a broad range of material throughout the record, including transformative dives into the soul music with takes of Percy Sledge’s "When a Man Loves a Woman" and Marvin Gaye’s "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You), which wipes the floor with James Taylor’s version, plus a swing to the C&W side of the street in a centerpiece reading of “Take Me,” by George Jones and Tammy Wynette.  There are also three stellar cuts that reinforce Dalton’s aptitude in fronting a full band of studio aces as they flourish in a blues and C&W-tinged rock mode: Paul Butterfield’s "In My Own Dream", Richard Manuel’s "In a Station," and Joe Tate’s "One Night of Love", which is my favorite track, that thrives on the subtle idiosyncrasies that might have once hindered Dalton’s commercial possibilities, but today lends her work an enduring freshness.  For the 50th Anniversary Edition release, the bonus material is either different takes or live versions of tracks from the album.

This is an absolute gem of an album.



Karen shed her mortal coil in 1993.  Given her musical anonymity, it's not surprising that a haze surrounds Dalton’s death.  The story was often that she died homeless on the streets of New York in a heroin and alcohol daze.  While Karen did have a penchant for opiates and alcohol, she died of HIV related illness, in Woodstock, NY, at the home of guitarist Peter Walker, where her son, Lee was taking care of her.

For the freeload, what groups or artists do you feel should have or had more popularity than they achieved?

Alice Coltrane - 'Journey In Satchidananda'

 

In May 1967, John Coltrane ordered a custom-made Lyon and Healy concert harp, as a surprise for his wife Alice.  Sadly, John didn't live to see it delivered, as he died of liver cancer at the age of 40 on July 17, 1967.

Alice's harp, restored to peak-performance condition by Lyon and Healy in 2024

A few months into her grieving process, the concert harp arrived at her doorstep, and Alice took it as a message from beyond.  She dedicated herself to the harp and to deepening her spiritual practice.

'Journey In Satchidananda' was Alice's fourth solo album, and most likely her best-known work.  Some of the tunes here were recorded live at the Village Gate while the rest were recorded at her home studio in Dix Hills in New York, and all of them were released in 1971.  Alice is joined by saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, Cecil McBee and Charlie Haden on bass, Tulsi on tamboura, Vishnu Wood on oud, Majid Shabazz on bells and tambourine, and Rashid Ali on drums.

'Journey in Satchidananda' is a fusion of modal jazz; it's earthy, bluesy, steeped in musical mantra, utterly captivating, and yet surprisingly accessible throughout, it's one of the most remarkable records of the era.  John's Coltrane's influence looms large over this music, and Alice wouldn't have had it any other way.

Alice was ahead of her time, one of the first to move outside the mainstream, and certainly one of the first female, Black American jazz musicians to record her own music in her own studio, and to release music on her own terms.

The freeload is a 24-Bit 176.4kHz vinyl rip from my pristine copy of the 2023 reissue from the Impulse - Acoustic Sounds Series.

For the freeload, tell us about a journey you are planning to make, or a favorite past journey.

September 11, 2001

September 11, 2001, was twenty-three years ago, but I can remember, as if it were yesterday. 

I was walking from my building in Tribeca to my workplace in Manhattan’s financial district, the sky was as blue as could be, and the air was dry and crisp.  It was a perfect September day, gone was August’s heat and humidity. "This is a picture-perfect day!" I thought to myself, while Duke Ellington’s album 'Afro-Bossa' played on my MP3 player, and I quickened my pace.  When I reached my place of work at One Chase Manhattan Plaza, I paused for a minute, to look at Jean Dubuffet’s 40-foot sculpture titled, "Group of Four Trees" (It’s still there), went in the building and took the elevator to my office on the 57th floor.



Most mornings at work, started with my assistant Diane and I, drinking very strong coffee, gossiping, laughing, talking office politics followed by more coffee.  We heard a commotion down the hall, and I said to Diane, "The Traders started getting wired early today."  Diane laughed and said, "Yeah, those sociopathic coke heads!" we both laughed, and continued talking.  We were interrupted by John, the mailroom guy, who stuck his head into my office and said, "The World Trade Center is on fire!"  We jumped up, and went to the west side of the floor, where there was a spectacular view of the twin towers, that was just fifteen-hundred or so feet away.  I could see fire and black smoke that was emanating from the far side of the building, so I couldn’t see what had actually happened.  One of my co-workers said, "They’re saying a plane hit One World Trade Center!" At the time, I thought it was a small plane, and had no idea we were in the middle of a terrorist attack.



After watching the scene for a few minutes, Diane and I went back to work, as we had a meeting in half an hour, and we needed to have our pre-meeting meeting.  Ours was a world of quantitative analysis, with its mathematical models, statistics, and risk management.  In the financial world we are known as "Quants" and I was the Global Director Of Quantitative Research.  Now and then, I wondered how a Hippie like me, who my husband described as, "Looks like Barbie, smokes like Marley" ever got there.  But nevertheless, there I was.  Actually, this was a dream job for me due to my love of pure mathematics.



While Diane and I were preparing and planning for the meeting, we heard an almighty BOOM!  The whole building shook, and the lights went down and then back up.  We went back to the West-facing window, I looked out the window and saw all this metal and paper flying around like a surreal snow globe.  The lights went dark again, as we walked back to my office, where I changed into my sneakers, grabbed my shoulder bag and cellphone, and headed for the stairwell with Diane and John the mailroom guy in tow.



In the stairwell, people were filing down the stairs in two rows, fire-drill style.  Some were in shock; some were crying.  When we reached the first floor, we walked out an emergency exit, where I looked up, and saw paper was flying everywhere.  When I looked up even higher, I saw a fireball coming out of One World Trade Center.  A Policeman was pointing and yelling, "Walk east away from the towers!"  John, the mailroom guy, told the officer, "My girlfriend is in One World Trade Center!" then screamed her name, "REBECCA!" and ran towards the twin towers, this was the last time I ever saw John.  I turned to see how Diane was, she was crying, and said to me, "People are jumping out of windows!" I grabbed her arm and pulled her in the direction the policeman was pointing to, and screaming at us, "C’mon ladies, get the hell out of here!"



In the air was a smell of hot metal, burnt plastic, burnt fuel, and concrete dust (that smell lasted into early December 2001). A man, walking towards us, said, "One of the towers just collapsed!" A few minutes later the dust cleared, you could see the light again, but that light didn't last.  When the second tower came down later, the same thing happened again.



Even though I know the streets of the Financial District like the back of my hand, I was completely lost.  With the noise, dust and smells, I couldn’t think straight.  I kept looking for the twin towers, to use as a "North Star", but they were no longer there, and my brain had difficulty processing this.  I pulled Diane, who had now completely shutdown, to which I was pretty sure was north, and back to my home in Tribeca.  I just wanted to get home.



As we walked, we came across an abandoned bagel cart, which had soft drinks in a bin that was attached to the front of it.  All that was in the bin were bottles of iced-tea.  I grabbed a bottle, rinsed out my mouth, washed my ash and dust covered face with the iced-tea, and drank some.  I grabbed another bottle and gave it to Diane, who did the same.  With my eyes no longer burning as bad, I looked at my cell phone, which had no service.  Further, up the block we saw a pay phone, that had several people waiting to make a call.  While we were waiting to make a call, a man walked up to the pay phone, shoved a woman who was making a call out of his way, knocking her over, he then hung up the phone, and made a call.  I decided we should keep walking.



The further North we walked, the less dust was in the air, I could see better now and realized I was only a few blocks from home.  A walk that usually took twenty-five minutes took just over two hours.


Years later, we learned that the Bush administration had deceived us about air safety.  In 2006, an EPA scientist named Cate Jenkins said that agency officials had lied about air quality and that they knew the dust contained asbestos and disturbingly high levels of metal toxins.  New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman admitted, "We didn’t want to scare people working in the financial district" [Thank you so much - Ed.]



Jerry, my husband, was the love of my life and my traveling companion on this long, strange trip called life.  In 2010, he was diagnosed with a post-9/11 cancer, as were (and still are) first responders and many people living south of Canal Street in Manhattan.  Jerry passed in 2012, at the age of sixty-four.


Last week, I went through my annual screenings...

Billie Holiday - 'Lady Sings the Blues'

 

As DownBeat writer Nat Hentoff said of Billie Holiday:

"The experience of listening to her is unanalyzable – either you feel it or you don’t."

'Lady Sings The Blues' is living proof of that notion.

Recorded over two separate sessions in Los Angeles in September 1954 and over two days in June 1956 in New York City, this is an album that as close to a musical autobiography as you can get.

To my ears, the Los Angeles sessions offer a fresher sounding Billie, but that in no way minimizes the quality of the songs recorded in New York City, which produced unparalleled versions of "No Good Man," "Some Other Spring," and "Good Morning Heartache" and "Lady Sings the Blues".

When it was originally released on the Clef records label, DownBeat magazine give it a glowing review and 5 stars.  In their review of the 78 rpm release of "Love Me Or Leave Me" coupled with "I Thought About You" DownBeat said:

"What counts is the penetratingly personal presence of Lady Day"

And that just about says it all.

The Los Angeles sessions were recorded on September 3, 1954, at Capitol Studios. They feature: Harry "Sweets" Edison on trumpet, Willie Smith on alto saxophone, Bobby Tucker on piano, Barney Kessel on guitar, Red Callender on bass and Chico Hamilton on drums.  The musicians create a musical bed that Billie seems to drape herself across.

The later New York sessions at Fine Sound Studios recorded June 6 & 7 1956 at Fine Sound Studios, NYC there is a complete change of musicians that features the brilliant Wynton Kelly on piano along with Charlie Shavers on trumpet, Tony Scott on clarinet (who also wrote the arrangements), Paul Quinichette on tenor saxophone,  Kenny Burrell on guitar, Aaron Bell on bass and Lenny McBrowne on drums.

Lady Sings the Blues was Billie Holiday’s last album for producer Norman Granz’ Clef Records & Verve Records, and released late in 1956 in conjunction with her autobiography of the same name.

These autumnal sides bear the frayed vocal moments that brought so much depth to Billie's late career. The album ranks with her best material, especially the cuts from the June 1956 date.

Today's freeload is a 24bit/192kHz vinyl rip of a super sweet sounding Japanese mono reissue, from 1981. It sounds better than the available CDs.

For the freeload, tell us about albums that, to your ears, are perfect.

Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention - 'Whisky a Go Go, 1968'

 

Frank Zappa needs no introduction, you know who he was, and he knew who you are.

In 1968, an ad from Frank Zappa in the L.A. Free Press read:

"The Mothers of Invention cordially invite you to join them on Tuesday, July 23, 1968, when they will be taking over the Whisky a Go Go for 5 full hours of unprecedented merriment, which will be secretly recorded for an upcoming record album. Dress optional. Starting sometime in the evening. R.S.V.D.T."

That album ultimately ended up remaining mostly unheard, until now.

The music, while rooted in a bizarre mashup of fusion jazz (before that was even a thing), '50s doo-wop, bluesy R&B, and fairground sounds on acid, is liberally sprinkled with rock, hippie burlesque and zany, vulgarian and satirical showbiz antics.  Yet, it is both still far ahead of its time and often an enjoyable mix of shredding guitar rock and long, improvisational instrumentals and even free jazz.  There's also a touch of heavy rock of the era, with an Allman Brothers Band and Rolling Stones feel in spots.

The evening's entertainment also included the debut of Zappa proteges the GTO's (featuring Pamela Des Barres), Alice Cooper, and Kim Fowley. The main band is a classic Mothers lineup. The nine-piece group includes future Little Feat bassist Roy Estrada, Don Preston on keyboards, Ian Underwood on sax, Bunk Gardner on sax and flute, Motorhead Sherwood on baritone sax and percussion, percussionist Ray Collins, and Art Tripp and Jimmy Carl Black on drums and percussion. Vocals are primarily shared by Collins and Estrada.

While there are many favorites from the Mothers of Invention catalog included here, such as "America Drinks and Goes Home," "Status Back Baby," "Plastic People," and "Brown Shoes Don’t Make Out," just to name a few, there are many obscurities, improvisations, and what might appear to many to be unfinished songs. Such tracks are different takes of a song like one would hear in a recording session, which is what the evening of music was initially intended to be. There are borrowed doo-wop lyrics and even a cover of "My Boyfriend’s Back."

'Whisky a Go Go, 1968' was produced by Ahmet Zappa and Joe Travers, that compiles everything The Mothers of Invention played across their three sets that night.  It was newly remixed in 2023 from hi-res 24-bit/96kHz digital transfers of the original 1” 8-track analog tapes by Craig Parker Adams at Winslow CT Studios, and released on June 21st, 2024.

This show happened in a space and time that will never come again, so buckle up, kids, close your eyes, let your imagination soar, and let your freak flag fly, while you listen to a very cool show from my favorite misanthrope.

For the freeload, start a preposterous rumor about Frank.

Quincy Jones

 

These days, Quincy Jones, or "Q", is better known as an industry mogul and power broker than a producer/arranger/performer.  In the 60s, he became the first African American in the Hollywood "Boy's Club", and he hasn't looked back.  With an empire encompassing publishing, television and films, he doesn't have much time for music anymore.  At ninety-one years old, Q is still active, and as he said at his ninetieth birthday celebration, "The word retirement isn't in my vocabulary".

Q got his start as a jazz arranger and trumpeter, working on such classics as 'The Genius Of Ray Charles' and Frank Sinatra's version of "Fly Me To The Moon," in addition to albums as a leader.  Moving into pop in the 60s, he produced Lesley Gore's grating/unforgettable "It's My Party" among others.  As the years went by, his own albums became less jazz and more pop, while his own performing and songwriting contributions diminished.  By the 1980s, he confined himself to behind the glass in the control room. He's been nominated for seventy-six Grammys and has won twenty-six times.

Q's credentials are unmatched: He produced the biggest-selling album in the world, Michael Jackson’s "Thriller", and one of the largest selling singles, "We Are the World".  He has worked with Peggy Lee, George Benson, Dinah Washington, Paul Simon, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Donna Summer, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, Lionel Hampton, and Leslie Gore, among many, many others. 

Q's written thirty-four film scores including,  'The Pawnbroker', 'In the Heat of the Night', 'In Cold Blood', 'Mackenna’s Gold', 'The Italian Job', 'Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice', 'Cactus Flower', 'John and Mary', 'The Out-of-Towners', 'They Call Me Mister Tibbs!', 'The Anderson Tapes', 'The Hot Rock', 'The New Centurions', 'The Getaway', 'Roots: The Saga of an American Family', 'The Wiz', 'The Color Purple' and produced the soundtrack for the 2024 film 'Lola'.  He's also written the theme music for the television shows 'Sanford and Son', 'Ironside', and 'The Cosby Show'. 

Quincy Jones has defied the boundary lines for music genres because he sees it as a whole.

Today's freeload is two of my favorite Quincy albums, 'This Is How I Feel About Jazz' and 'Walking in Space'.

'This Is How I Feel About Jazz' was originally on the Paramount label, which became part of ABC, whose jazz catalog became part of the famed Impulse record label in the early 60s under Creed Taylor and Bob Thiele.

The 'This Is How I Feel About Jazz' sessions were overseen by Creed Taylor at Beltone Studios, NYC Sept. 1956.  The musician's roster is the First Call list of the New York monsters of the time: Phil Woods, Zoot Sims, Lucky Thompson, Art Farmer, Milt Jackson, Charles Mingus, most of Q's fellow Basie crew like Ernie Royal, Joe Wilder and Jimmy Cleveland, Jerome Richardson, Hank Jones, Paul Chambers, Charli Persip, Herbie Mann, and Dr. Billy Taylor.

Also on this release are tracks from Q's 'Go West, Man!', recorded in L.A. in from February 1957. For this one Q gathered West Coast heavyweights: Pepper Adams, Benny Carter, Walter Benton, Buddy Collette, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Herb Geller, Lou Levy, Mel Lewis, Shelly Manne, Charlie Mariano, Red Mitchell, Art Pepper, Bill Perkins, Jack Sheldon,  and Leroy Vinnegar, with impressive results.

In 1969, Quincy Jones was thirty-six when he recorded 'Walking in Space'.  After scoring twelve films in five years he wanted to go back into the studio, where there would be no film monitors to watch and images to play along with, to record a jazz album with some of his favorite musicians.  Producer Creed Taylor also thought it was a good idea and signed him to his label, CTI.

'Walking in Space' was a return to the idea of arranging and conducting a band, much the way Jones started in music by writing arrangements for the big bands of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Tommy Dorsey.

In typical Q fashion, he attracted some of the best musicians to appear on his comeback jazz album.  They included trombonist J.J. Johnson, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, flautists Roland Kirk and Hubert Laws, Bob James on electric piano, Toots Thielemans on harmonica and guitar, Ray Brown on bass, drummer Grady Tate, and Eric Gale on electric guitar.  The album was recorded and engineered by Rudy Van Gelder at his studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

The musical tone for the album was rock and rhythm and blues played on electric instruments and incorporated into the context of a big band. It was a strange musical mix that worked.  Q's trademark arrangements of brass and reeds are as always innovative and exceedingly polished.

The musical centerpiece of the album is Q’s arrangement of "Killer Joe".  It was written by Benny Golson, his former bandmate in the Dizzy Gillespie orchestra. The song features delicious solos by Hubert Laws on flute and Freddie Hubbard on trumpet but, because of the way the song is mixed, the driving force behind it is Ray Brown’s thumping bass.

'Walking in Space' received two Grammy Awards.

For the freeload, what are some of your favorite movie soundtracks?

Champion Jack Dupree - 'Blues from the Gutter'

 

Champion Jack Dupree, actually was a champion lightweight boxer, but better known as a heavyweight blues pianist.

'Blues from the Gutter' was Jack Dupree's debut album, released in 1958 on the Atlantic Records label.

The album has at least three songs that the lyrics would have been considered controversial in 1958. "T.B. Blues" covered the topic of dying from the disease of tuberculosis.  Musically, the song has a perfect blend of piano, lead guitar, and alto sax. "Can't Kick the Habit" and "Junker's Blues" were written about drug addiction and the life of a junker or junkie.  Writing about drug addiction in 1958 (William S. Burroughs, not withstanding) was ahead of its time, it just wasn't mainstream to talk about it.  Dupree added two excellent songs about love life "gone south" called "Evil Woman" and "Bad Blood".

Champion Jack Dupree was a top-notch Blues pianist, arguably equal in skill to the great Otis Spann and Eddie Boyd.  The album also has Pete Brown's alto sax in the mix, as well as the understated, but distinct lead guitar work of Ennis Lowery.

The depth of feeling in Champion Jack's voice is exceptional, but what makes this album for me is how the different instruments weave together and blend throughout the melodies of the songs.  The combination of piano, drums, bass, guitar, and alto sax works well with Dupree's songs on this album.

If 'Blues from the Gutter' isn't in your Blues collection, then you don't have a Blues collection.  Seriously.

The album has excellent sonics and separation for a 1958 vintage Blues album, with the vocals and instruments crisp and clear.  The freeload is a 24 bit / 96 kHz vinyl rip from my collection.

For the freeload, who's your favorite living or dead fighter (e.g., boxer, wrestler, martial artist etc. etc.).