David Crosby - 'If I Could Only Remember My Name'

 

David Crosby (or "Croz" to his friends and fans), who passed away in 2023 was seen as one of the most recognizable 60s rock survivors, a lifelong and steadfast believer in the ideals of the hippy movement (not unlike yours truly).  He was a singer, songwriter and guitarist who helped create two of the most influential and beloved American bands of the classic-rock era of the 1960s and ’70s – the Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.  He was inducted twice into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, as both a founding member of the Byrds and a founder of Crosby, Stills & Nash.

'If I Could Only Remember My Name' lives up to its title, offering up a gorgeous, hazy wash of blissed-out dreamy psychedelia. 

"I thought I met a man who said he knew a man who knew what was going on"

We’re so thick in Oaxacan Highland Gold smoke and psychedelics here that a Californian sunset is blending into a William Turner painting.  Not that's a bad thing.

This is David's first solo album, and an early outing of the so-called 'Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra' which was a mix of members from Jefferson Airplane, CSNY, and the Grateful Dead, and appeared on one another's records in the early 70s, most notably here and on Paul Kantner's 'Blows Against the Empire'. 

So just what is 'If I Could Only Remember My Name'?  Mellow, spaced-out spaghetti western?  Layered vocal pieces as a sort of psy-capella, equally paranoid and whimsical?  Or is it just a cowboy hippie lost on a two-chord-guitar drone with golden long-lost harmonies with some help from his friends: Graham Nash & Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Jerry Garcia, most of Jefferson Airplane, acoustic and electric guitar lines tingling in and out, voices washing up on the shore before disappearing?  Whatever it may be, it is beautiful and opaque, it is condensed psychedelic folk with an absolutely unique sound that wouldn’t be replicated by Croz or for that matter, anyone else.

David was the right person to helm such a star-studded cast of contributors, as he doesn't try to impose the conceptual order of a Paul Kantner led project, instead allowing the whole thing to float into an acid-soaked daze. 

David Crosby – vocals, guitars
Graham Nash – guitar, vocals
Jerry Garcia – electric guitar
Neil Young – guitars, vocals
Jorma Kaukonen – electric guitar
Laura Allan – autoharp, vocal
Gregg Rolie – piano
Phil Lesh – bass
Jack Casady – bass
Bill Kreutzmann – drums
Michael Shrieve – drums
Mickey Hart – drums
Joni Mitchell – vocals
David Freiberg – vocals
Paul Kantner – vocals
Grace Slick – vocals

Today's free load is a vinyl rip from my pristine copy of Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's 2022 release, a two 12 inch 45rpm set, and was limited to 4,000 copies.  You haven't heard 'If I Could Only Remember My Name', until you've heard this version.

For the freeload, tell us about something that was important (or semi-important), that you completely forgot about.

Jelly Roll Morton: The Complete Library of Congress Recordings

 

In the early history of jazz, no figure occupies a position as large as Ferdinand LaMothe, better known as Jelly Roll Morton.

The New Orleans native, who claimed to have invented jazz itself in 1902 [Yeah, right - Ed.], was a composer, pianist, vocalist, vocalist, pool shark, and was without doubt one of the key figures in the creation of jazz.  Jelly Roll made numerous recordings in the 1920s but fell into relative obscurity in the 1930s.

Fast-forward to the summer of 1938, Alan Lomax, the assistant in charge of the Library’s Archive of American Folk Song, recorded over nine hours of Jelly Roll’s singing, playing and boasting.

The sessions were born when BBC radio journalist Alistair Cooke advised Alan Lomax to seek out Jelly Roll at the Music Box, a small Washington, D.C., nightclub where he played piano, treated the audience with tales of his glory days and expressed his strong views on jazz history.

Alan visited the Music Box and chatted with Jelly Roll, who suggested the recording sessions as a way to cement his place in history as the inventor of jazz.  This suited Alan, who had his own purposes for the sessions: in his words, "To see how much folklore Jelly Roll had in him", and capture it for posterity.

In the Library of Congress' Coolidge Auditorium, Jelly Roll, played blues, ragtime, hymns, stomps and his own compositions at the auditoriums' grand piano, while Alan recorded every second of it all.  Jelly Roll incorporated the music in a series of swinging lectures on New Orleans music history and its influence on his style — everything from 19th-century opera to formal French dance music to the chants he sang as a "spyboy" or scout, for a Mardi Gras Indian krewe.  The recordings not only documented Morton’s playing and his stories, they were the first — and last — significant documentation of Jelly Roll as a singer.

Shortly after the sessions, Jelly Roll was stabbed by a Music Box patron and never fully recovered.  He left for New York and then Los Angeles, intending to restart his career, but died in 1941.  Alan Lomax used the interviews to write a 1950 biography, “Mister Jelly Roll,” which is still considered a classic of jazz literature.

Illustration by R. Crumb

'Jelly Roll Morton: The Complete Library of Congress Recordings', an 8CD set, were released as a piano-shaped box set by Rounder Records in 2005 and won Grammy Awards for best historical album and best liner notes.  Speaking of liner notes, I've included the 244-page liner notes that contains a complete transcription of all the recorded dialogue and lyrics, which are more than well worthwhile read.

Jelly Roll’s earthy and remarkably detailed stories (which he recounts with great dignity) of the atmosphere that surrounded the formation of jazz music are punctuated with his musical illustrations and stunning solo piano versions of his best-known compositions.

Jelly Roll was well acquainted with the sleazy underbelly of life, so there's some obscene language, crude depictions of commercial goings-on, the "Dandies", piano players, hookers, hustlers, musical legends, and the brutality and heartlessness of the era depicted in this oral history are vividly brought to life and riveting.

To me, listening to his voice and fragments of tunes and stories weaving in and out is like nothing else, and reminds me a little of Mark Twain, if of course, Mark could compose, sing, play masterful piano, and was a hep (you'll see what I mean).

This set is an essential testimony to the origins of America’s greatest cultural art form, and a perfect addition to any serious collection of jazz and roots music.

For the freeload, tell us what recordings you consider to be the most important of the 20th century.

Bob Weir - 'ACE: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition'

 

Bobby "trippin' ballz"

Bob Weir was just 19 years old at the time of the Dead’s founding in 1965, he was the band’s youngest member, and spent its earliest years as a support player, adding a strumming accompaniment to Jerry Garcia’s liquid lead guitar lines.  Over time, he grew into a sort of second frontman: affable and workmanlike, the guy onto which the audience could project themselves, his easy relatable nature was a natural foil to Jerry Garcia’s cosmic mystique.

'ACE' marks Weir’s transition from mere rhythm guitarist to a full-fledged composer and driving force of the band.  Despite its origins as a receptacle for Bob's surplus material, all of its songs but one (Walk in the Sunshine) became beloved staples of the Dead’s live sets.  ACE also marked the beginning of Weir’s long-running collaboration with lyricist John Perry Barlow and includes early standouts "Cassidy" and "Looks Like Rain." Technically this is a solo album, but the backing is by the Grateful Dead minus "Pig Pen" who at the time was battling primary biliary cirrhosis (an autoimmune disease of the liver).

'ACE: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition' is a 2CD set. 

CD1 is a remastered new mix of Bobby’s solo debut, and makes for a nice upgrade. 

CD2 is new versions Bobby recorded at Radio City Music Hall on April 3, 2022 (I saw this show), with his Wolf Bros band (Don Was on double bass, and Jay Lane on drums) playing through Ace in its entirety, augmented by a horn section called The Wolfpack (Brian Switzer on trumpet, Adam Theis on tenor trombone, Sheldon Brown on tenor and alto saxophone), and guest vocals from Americana stars Tyler Childers and Brittney Spencer.

To myself and fellow "Deadheads" live tapes are more essential than studio albums, an inversion of the traditional structure that governs other bands' canons.  Before this release, I hadn't listened to the studio versions in years.  Reacquainting myself with the album, on the surface, it fits in with other West Coast folk and country-rock of its time.  But Bob, the Dead’s cutoff of jean shorts ("Jorts") wearing regular Joe, is a much stranger composer than he initially seems.  Melodic lines, and sometimes entire song sections, jut out crookedly from their surroundings.  Complex rhythms disguise themselves as simple, and vice versa. It might take you several listens to discern which part of a given tune is supposed to be the chorus, if it has one at all.

'ACE' holds up as a rare chance to hear the Dead throwing down in the studio during its most creatively vital era.  Sitting between the band’s stripped-down acoustic work of 1970 and the increasingly jazzy and progressive albums of ’73 through ’75, it comes as close to capturing their classic early ’70s sound as any other non-live recording.  The arrangements are tightly wound, but no one stays too close to the center for long, finding outside spaces for improvisatory flair.

For the freeload, tell us about some of your favorite "solo albums".

Reverend Gary Davis - 'Demons & Angels'

Gary Davis was born on April 30, 1896, to John and Evelina Davis in Laurens County, South Carolina. He was raised on a farm in the Piedmont section of upstate South Carolina.


In the mid 1920s he married and traveled around South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennesse, playing in the streets and teaching guitar to make a living.  He settled in Durham, North Carolina around 1927 and became an ordained minister of the Free Baptist Connection Church in Washington, North Carolina in 1933.


In 1935, Reverend Gary Davis was discovered by J. B. Long, a North Carolina storekeeper, and made his first trip to New York City to record for the American Recording Company.  He recorded 15 sides for ARC between July 23 and July 26, 1935.


Reverend Gary Davis began recording again in 1945 and continued to record and perform for the rest of his life.  He also continued to teach guitar.  By this time he had stopped playing the blues, focusing instead on gospel and old time songs.  The only exceptions were "gospel blues" such as "Death Don't Have No Mercy".

When folk revivalists in the 1950s and early became fascinated with country-blues performers of the early 20th century, they didn’t have to go into “the sticks” to find Reverend Gary Davis.  Though he'd stopped recording, Reverend Gary Davis was an active street singer and preacher in the Harlem section of Manhattan since the 1940s.  Among folk revival guitar players of the time, Reverend Gary Davis, who was one of the innovators of the "Piedmont" style of finger-picking blues, was legendary.  One of the first to adopt it was Ramblin' Jack Elliott, whose cover of "Candyman" was a staple of his repertoire.  Dave Van Ronk studied with Davis and also covered many of his songs. Other aspiring folk guitarists and blues players swarmed to take lessons from him.  Bob Dylan, who covered "Candyman" and several others, met Reverend Gary Davis at the Indian Neck Folk Festival on May 6, 1961, and told Robert Shelton and Suze Rotolo that he wanted the Reverend Davis to officiate his and Suze's wedding.

The Reverend Gary Davis influenced Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, Wizz Jones, Jorma Kaukonen, Keb’ Mo’, Ollabelle, Resurrection Band, Stefan Grossman, Taj Mahal, Dave Bromberg, Ry Cooder, and Jorma Kaukonen, to name but a few.

 Todays freeload, 'Demons & Angels’ is a 3CD set, complied by Reverend Gary Davis’ student and respected guitarist in his own right, Stefan Grossman. 


CD1 - "Slippin' 'Til My Gal Comes In Partner: Columbia University, 1958-1959" features rare recordings made by Columbia University student John Gibbons in 1958 and 1959.







CD2 - "I Am The True Vine: At Home, 1964-1966" includes home recordings from the mid-1960s



CD3 "Twelve Gates To The City: In Concert, 1962-1966" shows off his stage charisma and command






This set also has a 36-page book (included in the freeload), with detailed transcriptions of Davis' lyrics, information concerning keys and his playing technique. It also has some pretty cool photographs.

In a recent post our friend, "D in California" recounted a story about losing his mp3 player, and finding it while cleaning his room.  So for the freeload, tell us about something you thought you had lost for good, but subsequently found.

Charles Mingus - 'Blues & Roots'

Simply put, Charles Mingus is one of the most important jazz composers & bassists in the history of jazz.

Despite his short life (he died aged 56) his career intersected some of the most important times in jazz history, spanning traditional jazz with Louis Armstrong and Bebop with Dizzy Gillespie through to the free jazz and Third Stream movements with which he was an integral part.

'Blues & Roots' came about after Atlantic records producer Nesuhi Ertegün suggested to Charles that he record an entire Blues album, since some critics had the opinion he wouldn’t swing enough and that Mingus was doing too intellectual, experimental music.

As Charles tells it:

“I was born swinging and clapped my hands in church as a little boy, but I’ve grown up and I like to do things other than just swing. But blues can do more than just swing. So I agreed.”

Charles recorded 'Blues & Roots' with his Jazz Workshop band with Booker Erwin on tenor saxophone, Jackie McLean on alto saxophone, John Handy on alto saxophone, Pepper Adams on baritone saxophone, Jimmy Knepper on trombone, Willie Dennis on trombone, Horace Parlan on piano, Mal Waldron on piano and Dannie Richmond on drums.

Today's freeload is a 24-Bit 176.4kHz vinyl rip of my pristine copy of the Analogue Production's two 12", 180g 45 rpm records, remastered release from 2023.

If you're a jazz fan, you more than likely have this album, but you probably don't have this version.  Delete the version you have, and replace it with this one. Seriously, this is the version you should have.

For the freeload, tell us what 45's you had, "back in the day".

Harry Nilsson - 'Son of Harryties'

Let's see, what can I say about Harry Nilsson? He's most underrated singer-songwriter of the post-war era.  His knowledge of the form and structure of almost every genre of popular music was encyclopedic. 

The range and intensity of his voice when he was at his peak defies belief: forget the snoozy bumble of Bing Crosby and the glitzy hype of Sinatra, Harry's voice was the most distinctive and versatile of his generation.  Harry could scat like Cab Calloway, yodel like a Tyrolean, and his whistling put the birds to shame.  He could write you a cuddly McCartney melody, a Burt Bacharach / Hal David cheesy-listen, an Irving Berlin string-fest and a punk rocker, before there was even punk.

Harry had a perverse sense of humor that was matched by a truly beautiful three-octave voice, harmonizing with itself over lush string arrangements, rock'n'roll, Country & Western, and anything else that suited his taste in music.

He was such an accomplished songwriter that you could listen to his enchanting melodies over and over before realizing he was singing about washing his schwanzschtücker after visiting a brothel in the song 'Bath', discovering a treasure map hidden in his girlfriend's varicose veins in 'Black Sails', and falling in love with a gorilla in 'It Had To Be You'.

Harry wrote music to fall in love to, get drunk to, make love to, get high to and get divorced to.

Today's freeload is  'Son of Harryties' an 11 CD collection from those fine folks over at "Purple Chick" which is a fan-created not for profit bootleg label.  (Some of you may have freeloaded Purple Chick's massive Buddy Holly collection, I posted on the good ol' Isle O'Foam©, a while back.)  The CDs are demos, and unreleased recordings.  If you're a fan of Harry's these recordings will delight you.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that Harry was a party animal of epic proportions.

So, for the freeload, tell us about people (living or dead), you'd like to party with.

'The Essential Otis Rush: The Classic Cobra Recordings 1956 -1958'

 

Otis Rush was born in Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1935.  He moved to Chicago in 1948 and soon began garnering attention in both that city’s legendary south and west side nightclubs.

Otis' (along with Magic Sam and Buddy Guy) guitar style has a slow-burning sound with long bent notes that typify the Chicago blues.

From 1956 to 1958, Otis made a series of 24 sides (including alternate takes) for Eli Tascano’s newly-established Cobra Record label in Chicago.

 'The Essential Otis Rush: The Classic Cobra Recordings 1956-1958' are an absolute must-have for even the most casual blues fan.  These recordings are considered by many blues fans (myself included) to be some of the most compelling examples of electric Chicago blues ever recorded.

The songwriting is pretty much split right down the middle, between Willie Dixon and Otis.  Willie Dixon, due to a dispute over royalties went over to Cobra from Chess Records, became the label's de facto producer, arranger and of course songwriter and bass player.  In 1958, Cobra Records went bankrupt, and Otis along with Willie ended up back at Chess Records.

The players Otis and brought in for these recordings read like a who’s who of Chicago blues.  They include both Little Walter Jacobs and Big Walter Horton on harmonica, Red Holloway and Harold Ashby on tenor sax, Little Brother Montgomery and Lafayette Leake on piano and Al Duncan and Odie Payne on drums as well as guitarist Wayne Bennet among others.  Ike Turner makes a powerful second guitar contribution to the classic "Double Trouble".

In the decades that followed, Rush would re-visit this material again and again on various labels, trying to capture the magic he found in his early years for the Cobra label.  These are also the songs that live audiences came to expect, and he obliged them throughout his career.

There is only one Otis Rush and if he only recorded the songs on 'The Classic Cobra Recordings 1956 -1958' he would still be regarded as one of the most important artists of the blues form. 

For the freeload (a sweet sounding 24-bit/48 kHz), if you were a "Professional Wrestler", what would your entrance theme song be?

Sonny Rollins - 'Way Out West'

 

 'Way Out West' was recorded for the Contemporary Records label in 1957, and is regarded as an all-time Sonny Rollins classic. 

At 26, Sonny, a New York native, was visiting California for the first time while on tour with drummer Max Roach.  Sonny's label Contemporary Records asked him to put together an album during his visit, the inspiration was obvious: the wide open spaces of Los Angeles and the Hollywood Westerns Sonny had grown up watching.

There’s certainly a literal level to the album’s Western theme: “I’m an Old Cowhand,” Johnny Mercer’s 1936 ode to city slickers, “Wagon Wheels,” and “Way Out West,” an original by Rollins, all offer some degree of country shuffle and even a few woodblock horse-hoof clip-clops courtesy of drummer Shelly Manne.  The cover, an instantly iconic study in subverting kitsch (Sonny had an explicit interest in the often overlooked history of black cowboys), shows him heeled with his horn instead of a Winchester.

'Way Out West' was recorded at Contemporary's studio in Los Angeles March 7, 1957, at 3 A.M., as bassist Ray Brown and drummer Shelly Manne had commitments for other studio dates and gigs.  This was one of the first, if not the first, jazz album to use a saxophone-bass-drums trio, and without the accompaniment of a piano or guitar, allowed for a more liberated approach to improvisation.  It also didn’t hurt that the rhythm section of Ray Brown and Shelly Manne, were two of the best in the history of Jazz.

Today's freeload is the 2003 Japanese release, remastered by Akira Taguchi using JVC's XRCD mastering process, and it sounds pretty great.

 For the freeload, what are some of your favorite movie and TV Westerns?

Rolling Stones - 'Handsome Girls - '78 Tour' & 'Some Girls Alternatives and Outtakes'

In the early 1970s, it seemed there was no band to challenge the Rolling Stones in their undisputed supreme reign of fame and staying power in the rock world.  But the music business is fickle, styles and trends change.  By the later 1970s, disco was in, and the Stones were out.  Punk rock was in, and the Stones were out.  The new trends and fashions moved away from the classic British rock super-bands like Led Zeppelin and the Who, and, as a result, a new generation of fans considered the Rolling Stones ancient, obsolete, aging dinosaurs, no longer dangerous and no longer relevant.

Disco music, dominated the record charts and radio airplay.  The Rolling Stones had not been on the AM radio singles charts and receiving airplay (FM radio, not withstanding) since “Fool to Cry” in April 1976.  Further still, the Stones did not play disco music, so disco fans considered their sound old and timeworn, and accordingly, they were left out of the then new dance scene.  Disco was the big thing in the nightclubs and nightlife, Punk rock was the new thing in the rock music scene, and both of these new trends were decidedly and absolutely against the Rolling Stones.

The Stones being pioneers of both raw rock music and the juvenile delinquent posturing that defines the true essence of the punk rockers; they were in fact the original punk rock band in the early 1960s.  They also knew a thing or two about making music you can dance to (most of their catalog), so in the true stride of legends, when the chips were down, they went into the studio and recorded a modern rock masterpiece that could not be ignored.

With the 1978 'Some Girls' album, they returned to their basic raw rock music roots and the Andrew Loog Oldham inspired bad boy image that made them figures of infamy and notoriety in the 1960s. 

The cover was designed by Peter Corriston with illustrations by Hubert Kretzschmar

The album 'Some Girls' melded the best influences of both disco and punk music, an absolute rock blockbuster that went straight to number one on both British and American charts.  The single "Miss You" went straight to number one on both British and American charts as well, overtaking many of the latest, most prominent disco singles in popularity and air-time.  Oh, and I forgot to mention Country music, the B-side of "Miss You" was "Far Away Eyes", which peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in 1978.  A hit Disco song and hit Country song on the same album, only the "Glimmer Twins" could pull that off.

'Some Girls' was a smash hit record that shook the rock world and reestablished the Rolling Stones as a powerhouse rock band and a musical force to be reckoned with.  It brought the Rolling Stones right back into the mainstream, they were back on top. 

'Some Girls' went beyond platinum and became the biggest selling record of their career up to that point, in 2024 it's their 4th best-selling non compilation album.

The album was issued on June 9, 1978, and, the following day, the Rolling Stones set out on a summer tour to promote it, a tour designed to create hysteria by way of exclusivity, a tour that would be very different from any they had ever done before.

The 1978 US tour was put together very quickly in light of the fact that Keef was facing a lengthy prison sentence in Toronto on heroin trafficking charges.  The Stones were in no shape to go on the road.  Mick Jagger was emaciated, rundown and burned out from the rock star lifestyle, specifically from his overuse of cocaine [it's a helluva drug - Ed.].  Keef was in much worse shape than Mick, and trying to kick his heroin habit with a wide range of pharmaceuticals, Jack Daniel's and coke (no, not cola).  On top of that, Ronnie, Bill and Charlie were all snorting coke and drinking copious amounts of alcohol as well, especially Ronnie. [It was 1978, after all. - Ed.]

"Y'all got cocaine eyes"

At the start of the tour, only twelve dates were actually booked.  On this tour, the Rolling Stones intended to go back to their roots, back to rock and roll basics, and back to the simplicity of club and theater shows as an alternative to the large sports arenas and huge football stadiums that they had been playing in since 1969.

I saw the June 14th show at The Capitol Theatre, in Passaic, New Jersey, and the June 19th show at The Palladium, in Manhattan (both venues were 3,000-seaters).  Both shows were interesting, as they weren't greatest hits shows, as the Stones played almost all the 'Some Girls' album.

It's kind of strange with the '78 tour that it's not often mentioned in Stones books, not mentioned in the 25x5 documentary and other Stones documentaries.  It's like a "lost tour".

The first of today's freeloads is 'Handsome Girls - '78 Tour', which is a four CD box set bootleg of The Rolling Stones from our friends at The Swingin' Pig label.  The first two CD's include the entire Forth Worth show (which is also in the King Biscuit archives).  CD's 3 and 4 have pretty much every song broadcast from the 1978 tour, plus a few soundboard recordings that never made it to air.

Next up is 'Some Girls Alternatives and Outtakes', which is a 2CD set.  CD1 is alternate versions of the released studio album, and CD2 is outtakes.  The outtakes on CD2 are the original outtakes, some with the original lyrics, as opposed to the ones that are on the 'Some Girls Deluxe Edition' that were reworked and overdubbed in August and September 2011.

For the freeload, tell us what you were doing in 1978.

Big Bill Broonzy - The Essential Blue Archive, Vol. 1: the Pre War Years & Vol. 2: the Post War Years

 

Big Bill Broonzy was a legendary American blues musician who left an indelible mark on upon the blues.  With his unique guitar playing style, powerful vocals, and dynamic stage presence, Bill became one of the most influential figures in the development of blues music.  Born in Mississippi in 1893, he navigated the ups and downs of a career that spanned several decades and witnessed the evolution of the blues from its rural roots to mainstream popularity.


In 1985, Big Bill Broonzy was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for his significant contributions to the field of music.

CD1 - 'The Essential Blue Archive, Vol. 1: the Pre War Years'

This is by no means the complete pre-war work of the great bluesman, but offers a fine overview with 20 cuts covering the period before World War II,  and offers a chance to see just how important and influential Broonzy really was. With "I Can't Be Satisfied" and "Saturday Night Rub" he was a seminal figure, but one whose range ran to more popular material, too, like "I Feel So Good." You might think Charley Patton and Robert Johnson were the heart of the blues, but based on the evidence here, Big Bill Broonzy can stake a very good claim.

CD2 - The Essential Blue Archive, Vol. 2: the Post War Years'

These 20 cuts from the 1940s and '50s offer a strong overview of the man who worked longer in blues than most of his contemporaries. He never lost his quality, even well into his career; just listen to "Five Feet Seven" and you'll understand how good he remained.  Bill's blues foreshadowed the advent of rock "Just Rocking" and a couple of other pieces make it apparent that Bill was one of the fathers of the then new genre.  Although he's thought of as a guitarist and singer, other instruments did appear on Big Bill's recordings, especially these later ones, such as "Where the Blues Began," which is piano-heavy, but works perfectly well. By this time, Bill was almost an elder statesman for the first generation of Delta blues players, and an international ambassador.  From this collection, it's easy to understand how central he was to the music.

For the freeload, tell us what you've recently been listening to?

Charles Lloyd - 'Forest Flower: Charles Lloyd At Monterey' / 'Soundtrack'

 

'Forest Flower: Charles Lloyd At Monterey' was recorded live at the Monterey Jazz Festival, on September 18, 1966.  Released in, 1967 it became (along with 'A Love Supreme' from '65) the Jazz soundtrack of the acid-dropping baby boomer Hippies, like myself.  Always accessible and stunning, the Charles Lloyd Quartet was recorded at the very height of its powers.  The title track, "Forest Flower," actually is split into two parts, "Sunrise" and "Sunset," which merge together seamlessly to form a single piece of impressive unity, with Charles Lloyd, Keith Jarrett, Cecil McBee, and Jack DeJonette playing beyond the point of empathy.  There is such sheer beauty and lyricism in the music that 57 years later it still gives me the goose bumps.  It is almost impossible to be unmoved by "Forest Flower—Sunset," particularly when Keith Jarrett reaches inside the piano to pound out extraordinary sounds.


Charles Lloyd and his band took center stage at The Monterey Jazz festival between The Jefferson Airplane and The Dave Brubeck Quartet.  At the time, Charles was largely unknown, so no-one really knew what to expect.  The performance showed almost telepathic powers of communication between the group.  They were as one, with strong solos and to-die-for melodicism.  After the set, officials were peeling the audience off the floor, walls and ceiling.  This performance stole and was the talk of the show.



The set exemplified just how versatile these musicians are and would soon become, this was an exceptionally young band.  Bassist Cecil McBee was the oldest at 31 years old and pianist Keith Jarrett was the youngest at 21 years old.  Band leader Charles Lloyd and drummer Jack DeJohnette were 28 and 24 years old, respectfully.

"Who's that behind those Foster Grants?"

These sidemen were simply too good to stay in one place for too long.  Miles Davis picked up on Lloyd's sound and energy, ultimately recruiting DeJohnette and Jarrett, and moving forward to launch the musical revolution known as 'Bitches Brew'.  However, before all of these radical changes, there was Charles, who deserves credit for dramatically expanding the audience for Jazz to include Hippies.  Lloyd built up a new market for jazz artists, inadvertently paving the way for the commercial success of fusion.

Charles Lloyd would solider on a few more years before starting an artistically underwhelming, but financially lucrative, role as a Beach Boys sideman for many years.  He would make his return to the jazz world with great fanfare in the early 1980s.


Forest Flower captures the spirit of the 60s without sounding the least bit dated. It was also one of the first jazz recordings to sell a million copies.


Charles Lloyd: Tenor Sax, Flute
Keith Jarrett: Piano
Cecil McBee: Bass 
Jack DeJohnette: Drums

Today's freeload is a 1994 reissue from the Rhino label, that combines 'Forest Flower: Charles Lloyd at Monterey' and 1969's 'Soundtrack' on one CD.

'Soundtrack' was recorded on November 15, 1968, at Town Hall, New York City, and has a similar vibe to 'Forest Flower: Charles Lloyd at Monterey'.

Charles Lloyd: Tenor Sax, Flute
Keith Jarrett: Piano
Ron McClure: Bass
Jack DeJohnette: Drums


For the free load, what are/were your favorite albums to listen to while on Psychedelics.