Babs' Bootleg Bonanza #5

 

Babs' Bootleg Bonanza #5, features shows from J.J. Cale, The Rolling Stones and Van Morrison.

J.J. Cale from The Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis, MN; April 18, 1990

After Midnight
Riverboat Song
Mama Don't Allow
HumdingerHold on Baby
New Orleans
Lickin' Stick
Sweet Inspiration
Thirteen Days
Harlem Nocturne
Disadvantage
Hard Times
Movin' Blues
Magnolia
Call Me the Breeze
Cocaine

-- Encore

Money Talks
Crazy Mama
Ride Me High

Lineup
J.J. Cale — lead guitar
Tim Drummond — bass
Spooner Oldman — keyboards
James Cruse — drums
Steve Douglas — saxophone
Christine Lakeland — rhythm guitar
Jim Karstein — percussion

The Rolling Stones — Brussels Affair: Definitive Edition
Forest National, Brussels, Belgium
October 17, 1973
A classic among classics.

CD1:

Brown Sugar
Gimme Shelter
Happy
Tumbling Dice
Dancing With Mr. D.
Angie
You Can't Always Get What You Want
Midnight Rambler
Honky Tonk Women
All Down The Line
Rip This Joint
Jumping Jack Flash
Street Fighting Man
Starfucker

CD 2:

Brown Sugar
Happy
Gimme Shelter
Doo Doo Doo Heartbreaker
Street Fighting Man
Brown Sugar
Star Fucker
Dancing With Mr. D
Angie
Midnight Rambler
Gimme Shelter
Street Fighting Man
Bitch
100 Years Ago
weet Virginia
Silver Train

CD 2, track 1 - Rotterdam, October 14, 1973
CD 2, tracks 2-5, 8, 10 - London, September 9, 1973
CD 2, tracks 6-7, 9 - Newcastle, September 13, 1973
CD 2, tracks 11-12 - Munich, Germany, September 28, 1973 CD 2, tracks 13-16 - Vienna, Austria, September 1, 1973

Mick Jagger—Vocals,
Keith Richards—Guitar
Mick Taylor—Guitar
Bill Wyman—Bass
Charlie Watts—Drums
Billy Preston—Keyboards
Trevor Lawrence—Saxophone
Steve Madaio—French horn

Van Morrison – 'Dominion Man'

This is a 3CD set of Van's shows at Dominion Theatre in London, England, recorded between 1983 and 1985.

The audio varies from 1st generation audience tapes, and soundboard recordings.  If you're a fan, you'll love this.

CD1:

Medley: Baby Please Don't Go >
Gloria > Here Comes The Night >
Brown-Eyed Girl
The Way Young Lovers Do
Astral Weeks
I Will Be There
Jackie Wilson Said
Saint Dominic's Preview
It's All In The Game
Vanlose Stairway
Hard Nose The Highway
Help Me
Northern Muse (Solid Ground)
Haunts Of Ancient Peace
Madame George
Ballerina
Summertime In England

CD2:

Celtic Swing
Cleaning Windows
Dweller On The Threshold
She Gives Me Religion
Into The Mystic
Moondance
Wavelength
Full Force Gale
Bright Side of the Road
It's All In The Game > You Know What They're Writing About
Northern Muse (Solid Ground)
Beautiful Vision
Cleaning Windows
I Wanna Make Love To You
Help Me
Dweller on the Threshold
Haunts of Ancient Peace
She Gives Me Religion

CD3:

Vanlose Stairway
Summertime In England
Cyprus Avenue
Rave On John Donne > Rave On Part Two
Sweet Thing > When Heart Is Open
Ballerina
Send In The Clowns
And It Stoned Me
What Would I Do
Tupelo Honey
Benediction (Thank God For Self Love)
What'd I Say
Gloria

For the freeload, caption the below photograph.

Blind Lemon Jefferson

 

AI-generated portrait

"Blind" Lemon Jefferson (October 26, 1894–December 1929) was a blues singer and guitarist from Texas.  He was one of the most popular blues singers of the 1920s.  Blind Lemon Jefferson stands alone in a category of his own. 

Blind from birth, he wandered the streets of Wortham, Groesbeck, Marlin, and Kosse in Central Texas, playing his guitar and collecting contributions with his tin cup.  In 1912, he caught a train for Dallas, where he performed in the famous Deep Ellum district. He was discovered by a talent scout for Paramount Records and taken to Chicago in 1925.

His distinctive vocals and original, imaginative and inimitable guitar playing not only helped to define the ‘Texas Blues’ style with his influential single note runs, but also made him the first blues musician to enjoy major commercial success.  Jefferson's singing and self-accompaniment seemed only loosely connected, and he appeared to improvise his accompaniment. His irregular vocal style and his freely structured field holler rhythms made the tension between his guitar and his voice wildly unpredictable.

Between 1926 and his untimely death in 1929, Blind Lemon Jefferson was the largest-selling Blues singer in the United States.  His recording career lasted a mere four years, yet he managed to record nearly 100 sides in that time.

As his fame grew, so did the tales regarding his life, often personally involving the teller.  T-Bone Walker claimed that as a boy, he was employed by Jefferson to lead him around the streets of Dallas; he would have been of the appropriate age at the time.  A Paramount employee told biographer Orrin Keepnews that Jefferson was a "womanizing sloppy drunk".  On the other hand, Jefferson's neighbor in Chicago, boogie woogie pianist Romeo Nelson, remembered him as being "warm and cordial," but didn't remember him as being blind.  Victoria Spivey elliptically credits Jefferson as someone who "Could sure feel his way around!"  Most things I've read about Blind Lemon Jefferson are conjecture, contradictory, and basically legend.

The only known photograph of Blind Lemon Jefferson

Speaking of legends, Blind Lemon Jefferson died in Chicago in December 1929. The cause of death is unknown.  Some say that a jealous lover poisoned his coffee.  Others say, is that he died due to a heart attack after being disoriented during a snowstorm. There's also   a variation on the heart attack story that claims he froze to death.
Who knows?

Paramount Records paid for the return of his body to Texas by train, accompanied by pianist Will Ezell. Jefferson was buried at Wortham Negro Cemetery (now Wortham Black Cemetery).  Far from his grave being kept clean, it was unmarked until 1967, when a Texas Historical Marker was erected in the general area of his plot, the precise location being unknown.

By 1996, the cemetery and marker were in poor condition, but a new granite headstone was erected in 1997.  In 2007 the cemetery’s name was changed to Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery and keeping his wishes his grave site is being kept clean by a cemetery committee in Wortham Texas.

Today's freeloads are two of my favorites, with (relatively) good sonics.  Even the best ones sound like they were recorded while someone in the studio was frying bacon.

First up is the Yazoo records classic

Next is from Pristine Audio

This is the best sounding Blind Lemon Jefferson I've heard.  This was done by Pristine Audio founder, Andrew Rose, using the XR remastering he developed.

For the freeload, who are some of your favorite (musical and nonmusical) legendary characters?

 

Charlie Haden - The Montreal Tapes

 

In July 1989, the organizers of the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal (FIJM) extended a generous invitation to Charlie Haden to present a series of eight concerts featuring some of Charlie’s frequent collaborators.

How many other bass players would be considered for a week-long series of performances?

Some concerts were broadcasted live by Radio Canada, and made available to the Verve label for release on CD, and are today's freeload.

July 7 was reserved for the trio with Paul Bley and Paul Motian.  

The performances are all one could wish for.  Charlie is closely miked and generates a huge, detailed sound from his bass.  Drums and piano are carefully placed in the sound stage so that every nuance is captured.  FIJM uses major concert halls as venues, in addition to the many street bandstands in the city.  The concert's acoustics are responsible in part for the excellence of the performance.

Most numbers leave a lot of space for Charlie's intimate bass solos.  Paul Bley and Paul Motian have worked extensively with Charlie, so there are no awkward moments.  Everyone seems comfortable and uses the opportunity to stretch out and, of course, keep the spotlight shining on Charlie Haden, the honoree.

This show was recorded on the opening night of the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal.  While all the other evenings featured stellar musicians and wonderful collaborations, this one stands out because it features Charlie in a trio of players not usually associated with him. The drummer is Al Foster, who had just left Miles Davis’ band, and the late tenor giant Joe Henderson.  For the Verve release of this show, Charlie subtitled the set, "Tribute to Joe Henderson",

There are four extended tunes on the set, the shortest of which is the opener, a gorgeous, wide open rendering of Thelonious Monk's "'Round Midnight," on which Joe Henderson begins to display some of the same modal soloing traits he used on his Blue Note recordings 'Mode for Joe', and 'Inner Urge'.

As if this weren't enough, the trio ranges from the lyrically and harmonically sublime reinvention of Jerome Kern's "All the Things You Are," to a wildly adventurous free jazz ride on Charlie's tune "In the Moment".  This begins like a classic bop tune and then forgoes all changes and time signatures in favor of pure improvisation.  It also includes a 20-minute take on Charlie Parker's "Passport" to close the set.

This set is a testament to the inherent musical communication between three proficient musicians.  It also demonstrates their intensity and concentration, not mere going-through-the-motions.  This is one of the best live trio dates you'll ever hear.

On July 2,1989, Charlie Haden, Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell met to produce this remarkable concert.  This night was a kind of tribute to Ornette Coleman, with six of the eight tracks were written by him.  But more than this, this is a tribute to all the history of jazz.  "The Sphinx" for example, looks so much like a Charlie Parker tune. "Art Deco" is a very swinging melody by Don Cherry, it's seductive music that will give you a pleasant "earworm".  Ornette's "Lonely Woman" is played particularly well by this trio. "The Blessing" and "When Will The Blues Leave?" are among Ornette's best known compositions. "Law Years", another tune by Ornette, is one of my favorites.

This is not nostalgia from the Ornette Coleman's quartet of the early sixties, this is a second reading of a marvelous material, played with love.

I saw all eight of Charlie's shows at the 1998 Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, and all were excellent.  I also had the pleasure of being present at the rehearsals for Charlie's set with Paul Bley and Paul Motian, which took place in the loft below mine here in Manhattan.  At the time, I was leasing the loft to Paul Motian.

For the freeload, tell us about music festivals you have attended.

Announcement

 

"Life is what happens to us while
we are making other plans."

― Allen Saunders

I'll be back soon.

Announcement and Some Japanese Press Bruce Springsteen

'Cuz Babs Sez, That's Why',
will be on a short hiatus until April 23rd.

In the meantime, here's some Bruce Springsteen.  The freeloads are 1973-2002 Japanese Press Editions, made for the Japanese domestic market, and released in 2005.  They sound sweet.

Link 1
https://workupload.com/file/9dzWU6gGVc4

Link 2
https://workupload.com/file/AmnxDRtFSbj

Link 3
https://workupload.com/file/4wQufMtXnxE

Link 4

https://workupload.com/file/FGyc3TcvGfG

Link 5
https://workupload.com/file/reTWq22JhWK

Use the comments to talk among yourselves, post music links etc. etc.

 

Cow Cow Davenport - 'The Essential'

 

One day in the Spring of 1963, I went for my piano lesson with Mark "The Beatnik".  As I entered Mark's apartment, he was playing a fun sounding boogie-woogie type of thing.  When he finished, I asked him what he was playing, he told me it was Cow Cow Davenport's "The Cow Cow Boogie" and then said "Give it a try."  So I sat at the piano, looked at the sheet music, and tried to sight-read the deceptively simple song.  After a few minutes of flubbing, the furiously fast song, Mark showed me a dumbed-down version, that I could play, and little by little my left hand started to cooperated with my right.  After 45 minutes or so, I pretty much had "The Cow Cow Boogie" nailed (more or less).  When my lesson was over, Mark gave me the sheet music to borrow.

On my way home, I stopped by Denise "The Grease's" house.  Mrs. "Grease" (Denise's mother) gave us a cannoli and made some moka pot espresso.  Mrs. "Grease" saw my sheet music, and asked me to play some piano.  In the Denise's house, one of the sitting rooms had a beautiful alcove, with a top of the line Steinway baby grand piano in it.  The funny thing was that no one in Denise's family played the piano. 

In the sitting room, I put the sheet music on the piano, and told Denise's mother, "This is a boogie woogie song".  "Like the Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B?", asked Mrs. "Grease".  "No, like moulinyan music", said Denise, rolling her eyes (moulinyan or sometimes mulignan is a derogatory slang term for a black person in Sicilian dialect.  It's a corruption of melanzane, the Italian word for eggplant).  Mrs. "Grease" gave Denise a dirty look, and tilted her head towards the next room, where their housekeeper, Lanette (a lovely African American woman, who always called me, "Missy Babs"), was dusting.  [Many times in my life, I've wanted to strangle "The Grease". This was one of them - Ed].  So I played the song, and Mrs. "Grease" loved it, as did Lanette who, as we left the sitting room, gave me a smile and a nod of approval.

After that, almost every time I visited, Mrs. "Grease" asked me to play it, she'd always say, "That song tickles me to death."  Paradoxically, the last time I played it for her was at her funeral…such is life.

As an aside, the backstory to the Steinway baby grand is that "Mrs. Grease" told "Mr. Grease" that she was thinking about learning to play the piano, and a few days later the Steinway was delivered.

"Mrs. Grease" took a few lessons, and decided the piano wasn't for her.  The piano was black with a beautiful high gloss finish.  It had amazing keyboard action, and tone to die for.  At the time, I was playing an old spinet piano, that lived in our basement, so it was always a pleasure to play. 

When I told my parents about the baby grand Steinway, my father said, "You have to wonder what truck or showroom that piano fell off of?" 

I imagined Mr. "Grease", telling one of his crew, "Da wife needs a nice piano, make it happen".

Born in Anniston, Alabama in 1884, Chrales Edward Davenport , better known as Cow Cow Davenport was the son of a preacher who wanted him to follow in that profession.  Instead, after learning piano from his mother, a church organist, he chose the path of a musician.

At an early age, he joined Barhoot's Traveling Carnival as a medicine show musician, where his rag-time piano style was influenced by Bob Davis.  He moved into vaudeville with blues singer Dora Carr as "Davenport And Co.", and made his first recordings for the Gennett and Paramount labels in 1927.

He later worked with Vocalion Records as both performer and talent scout. In addition to recording under his own name (and as George Hamilton, the Georgia Grinder and Bat The Hummingbird) Cow Cow supported many other artists, forming a particularly successful collaboration with singer Ivy Smith.

In 1938 a cerebral hemorrhage left him deficient in his right hand.  He continued to perform as a singer, but a move to New York found him eventually washing dishes in the Onyx Club.  He was rescued by pianist Art Hodes, and recovered sufficiently to record again as a pianist for the Comet and Circle labels.

Cow Cow Davenport was one of the most distinctive and influential blues pianists of his era.  His walking bass lines combined with his ragtime influences helped to create the style known as Boogie Woogie, a phrase that Davenport claimed to have invented in 1924.  I suppose, Cow Cow had as good a claim as anyone, and better than most.

Cow Cow's business card

Cow Cow also claimed to have written the song "I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You" made famous by Louis Armstrong, saying he sold the tune to Sam Theard outright and received no royalties or composer credits. Who knows?

One thing we do know for certain is that Cow Cow Davenport was a phenomenal pianist.  His song, "Cow Cow Blues" was one of the earliest boogie woogie records ever released (if not the first), and proved popular enough to give Charles Davenport his nickname.  It quickly became commonplace for every blues and honky-tonk piano player to "rework" a version.  The Mississippi Delta player Louise Johnson did a nice one titled "On the Wall".  Later, Ray Charles reworked it as "Mess Around", which was also memorably recorded by Professor Longhair.

The term "Boogie Woogie" is often misused and misunderstood.  It is a bluesy style of piano playing that features a driving, "eight-to-the-bar" (eight beats per measure) bass line, and it would prove very popular and influential across the entire spectrum of American music in the coming decades.

The 'The Essential Cow Cow Davenport' is a really enjoyable overview of his work on 2CDs.

Charles "Cow Cow" Davenport is one of those seldom remembered names in the annals of early blues history, which really is a shame.

For the freeload, who are some of your favorite unsung heroes of music?

Grant Green - 'Blue Note 85 Reissues'

Here's two classics from Grant Green.

'Idle Moments' is generally considered as Grant Green’s finest work.  It truly is a Jazz masterpiece, recorded over two sessions on 4th November 1963 and 15th November 1963, at Rudy Van Gelder's studio, in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

The line-up is an interesting one.  Along with Grant's guitar are with Joe Henderson on tenor saxophone, Bobby Hutcherson on vibraphone, Duke Pearson on piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass, and Al Harewood on drums.

The fifteen-minute title track was originally intended to be an eight-minute cut, but Grant and subsequent soloists doubled the length of their contributions.  This slow, thoughtful tune has an almost cinematic quality.  Grant’s phrasing is unbelievably beautiful and reflective.  Duke Pearson’s piano work especially in the intro is delicate, Joe Henderson’s tenor is moody and soulful.  Subsequent takes aimed at reducing 'Idle Moments' length failed to capture the magic of the longer version.  As a result, two of the tracks ‘Jean de Flours’ and ‘Django’ had to be redone on 15th November as their original versions were now too long to fit the album.  'Jean De Fleurs is a breezy tune, with Grant’s guitar as elegant as usual.  'Django' written by John Lewis for the Milt Jackson Quintet has a march like beat.  Green and Henderson solo brilliantly again.  The last track ‘Nomad’, another Duke Pearson tune, is another elongated groove, it's just over 12 minutes, and flies along.

'Idle Moments' is a Jazz classic.

'Green Street' from 1961 was Grant Green's sophomore release for the Blue Note label, and was recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's studio, in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, for that Blue Note sound.

The album finds Grant in a trio setting with bassist Ben Tucker and drummer Dave Bailey, so the focus is almost entirely on the guitarist.

Grant comes up with consistently surprising and rewarding ideas, taking these songs on unexpected trips and creating music for the ages.  Few other guitarists of the time could have excelled in this setting on the level of Grant Green. 

'Green Street' is one of his most essential recordings.

Today's freeloads are remastered limited editions from Blue Note Japan, in the UHQCD format, from masterings that Kevin Gray did for the Tone Poet and BN Classic LP releases.  And they sound sweet!  If you freeloaded the previously posted Chick Corea and the Wayne Shorter 'Blue Note 85 Reissues', you know what I'm talking about.

For the freeload, if you had a late-night talk show, which musicians (dead or alive) would you choose to be in your house band?

Babs' Bootleg Bonanza #4 - Good Ol’ Grateful Dead Edition

Blanks & Postage Not Required!

Here are three shows, one each from the Pigpen, Keith & Donna and Brent Mydland eras.  All are very nice soundboards.

Morning Dew
Hard To Handle
Casey Jones
Mama Tried

Me And My Uncle
Cold Rain And Snow
Next Time You See Me
High Time
Good Lovin'
China Cat Sunflower >
I Know You Rider
Dark Star >
Cryptical Envelopment >
Drums >
The Other One >
Cryptical Envelopment >
Turn On Your Lovelight

Jerry Garcia—guitar, vocals
Bob Weir—guitar, vocals
Ron "Pigpen" McKernan—keyboards
Phil Lesh—bass, vocals
Bill Kreutzmann—drums
Mickey Hart—drums

1st Set

New Minglewood Blues
Ramble On Rose
El Paso
Deal
Cassidy
Peggy-O
Beat It On Down The Line
Brown Eyed Women
Estimated Prophet
Scarlet Begonias

2nd Set
Samson & Delilah
Row Jimmy
The Promised Land
Saint Stephen
The Other One
Stella Blue
Around And Around
U.S. Blues
Terrapin Station

Jerry Garcia—Guitar
Bob Weir—Guitar
Keith Godchaux—Keyboards
Phil Lesh—Bass
Bill Kreutzmann—Drums
Mickey Hart—Drums
Donna Jean Godchaux—Vocals

1st Set
Shakedown Street
New Minglewood Blues
Peggy-O
Jack Straw
Bird Song
Hell in a Bucket
Don't Ease Me In

2nd Set
Sugar Magnolia
Scarlet Begonias
Fire on the Mountain
Man Smart/Woman Smarter
drums
Spanish Jam
The Wheel
Throwin' Stones
Turn on Your Love Light

3rd Set
Gimme Some Lovin'
Uncle John's Band
Around and Around
Baby Blue

Jerry Garcia—Guitar
Bob Weir—Guitar
Brent Mydland—Keyboards
Phil Lesh—Bass
Bill Kreutzmann—Drums
Mickey Hart—Drums

For the freeload, caption the photo

John Lee Hooker - 'It Serve You Right To Suffer' (2025 Remaster)

 

I bought 'It Serve You Right To Suffer', on vinyl when it was released in 1966, and re-bought it on vinyl when I wore out the original, then on, cassette, 8-track (I think), CD and last week I bought it again.  I just couldn't resist the sticker…

'It Serve You Right To Suffer' it is the only album "Hook" made for the Impulse label.  It was actually was part of the short-lived Impulse folk music division, with the slogan adapted from their jazz promotion, "The new wave of folk is on Impulse!"

Producer Bob Thiele (left) booked Impulse Studios for just one day on November 23, 1965.  Given Impulse’s association with the jazz world, and producer Bob Thiele’s experience working with jazz icons like John Coltrane, it makes sense that rather than the typical blues band, he used New York-based jazz musicians.  So, along with "Hook's" guitar and vocals are, Milt Hinton on bass, David Francis on drums and Barry Galbraith on guitar.

Many bands had been thrown off by "Hook's" famously-irregular tempos, but here the backing musicians knew exactly how to work with him.  Far from the extravagance and adventurousness of the jazz solo, here they provide subtle and sympathetic backing to "Hook’s" powerful performance.

Make no mistake, this is not a Jazz/Blues album, this is classic "Hook": gritty, hypnotic, down and dirty.

Is there a better name for a blues album?

The 2025 Acoustic Sounds Series reissue takes full advantage of how well this album was recorded by Producer Bob Thiele and engineer Bob Arnold.  Matthew Lutthans' new remastering sounds super sweet.

For the freeload (a 24-bit/96kHz vinyl rip), what are some of your favorite album titles?