Soul Burning

Paul Kelly: Come Lay Some Lovin' On Me and Don't Burn Me
From: Don't Burn Me [Warner Brothers, 1973]

The trail of artists destroyed by cack handed marketing and promotion is a depressing one indeed. So common was this in the sixties and seventies that Artists-robbed-of-global-success practically has it's own category in my record collection.

Still, rather than once again harping on with pointless righteous anger about the shitty hand life can deal you let's celebrate the music instead.

Paul Kelly comes from the sweet soul stable of male vocalists, delivering a number of grown man soul albums in the early seventies. Wrongly dismissed as an Al Green imitator at the time, his albums actually offer an exceptionally high standard of soul music.

Don't Burn Me, his 1973 album, is a classic example of the Paul Kelly sound, showcasing Kelly's gorgeous vocal range. Come Lay Some Lovin' On Me is the kind of track that wouldn't seem out of place on an Hi album from the same period with it's subtle use of strings, organ and horn blasts.
Don't Burn Me again features the high quality production of brass and strings with Kelly delivering the kind of seemingly effortless vocals that never stop amazing me.

Kelly is still working in the music business and actually released a new album a couple of years back I'm yet to hear. You can actually read a pretty interesting article with him here (though you may want to reformat it first to avoid retinal damage).

Moody Mood Moosic

P A Dahan & Mat Camison: Rhythmiques 8
From the album: Rhythmiques [Telemusic, 1973]
P A Dahan & S Pezin: Slim Bertha
From the album: Neo-Rhyhmiques [Telemusic, 1976]
Tony Rubio: Dead Slow
From the album: Rhythmes [Telemusic, 1973]


Right, I got a few little library nuggets for you, three tunes culled from the Telemusic stable, two of which were written by key members of tacky euro disco stars 'Voyage!' 'Pierre-Alain Dahan' and 'Mat Camison'. The third song is by the mysterious 'Tony Rubio', a bass guitarist it would seem. My suspicion on the Rubio front is that this is yet another library pseudonym as I aint seen his name credited anywhere else, an judging by the scat vocals featured on one tune I got a hunch it may be 'Guy Pederson' a regular library session bass player (sampled by the likes of Kid Koala I'll have you know ;) ), if anyone knows any better please let me know.

Now on to the music and we start with, 'Rhythmiques no 8' from the lp (wait for it) 'Rhythmiques' , imaginative title I know but don't let that put you off as fortunately the track holds more depth to it, well its moody sounding anyway.

In contrast to the last track this one's name has a bit more to it 'Slim Bertha' don't know why but I think that's a class name for song, who is Bertha? Why was she slim?? Who knows, I think the name has something to do with the guy who plays drums on the album 'Slim Pezin' class name eh? No relation to the Mathers I hope. Oh and this ones moody sounding too, with bonus sax and church bell!

Last up the 'Tony Rubio' tune 'Dead Slow' to finish up this moody mood moosic session. If you liked the last two tunes you're going to like this one too, from the elusive Rhythmes lp, have a listen.

Lost Jazz Pt. II: Carnegie & The Library

Nutty - Thelonius Monk
Epistrophy - Thelonius Monk
both from Thelonius Monk Quartet with John Coltrane @ Carnegie Hall on Blue Note (2005).

Following up the post about Mingus's recently re-released live performance, today we have some samples from my 2005 album of the year. In 1957 John Coltrane was on a brief hiatus (not an entirely pleasant separation) from Miles Davis. He spent most of the year playing in Thelonius Monk's quartet at the Five Spot in Manhattan. Late in that year (November 29th) the quartet played in a charity fund raising concert at Carnegie Hall (also on the bill is Sonny Rollins, Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie, Billy Holiday, and Chet Baker - what? Wasn't Duke Ellington available?). There are many discussions of how great the Monk quartet (Shadow Wilson on drums and either Wilbur Ware or Ahmed Abdul-Malik on bass) became with Coltrane that year, but there is scant recorded evidence. A few studio tracks were produced, which are fine indeed, and the atrociously recorded date at the Five Spot most likely from the following year. This recording was unknown and discovered in 2005 deep in the Library of Congress when they were trying to catalogue and convert to digital the Voice of America recordings they had accumulated.

Two randomly chosen tracks from the center of the album convey the start to finish perfection of this live recording. Even without the remarkable backstory this album would stand as one of the most important recordings from these two giants of jazz. Coltrane was in the midst of a humongous growth as a player and beginning the seeds of his composition work, and certainly the argument can be made that Monk was a great influence in that growth. Monk and Coltrane play together beautifully in large part because of how different they are on the surface. Monk has his heavy fingered, pounding style of play right up against Coltrane's fluid scales. Additionally, as mentioned before Coltrane was one of the jazz players whose growth was very audibly evident throughout his recording career whereas Monk seems to have been born with his full catalogue of tunes, brilliance, and eccentricities.

Get this album, it is a five star essential work.

Four for friday

okey doke got a few little gems to see you folk through the weekend, aint got long until the weekend starts over here in the UK, so I'll be brief.

First off is a killer piece of french jerk from the master jaques dutronc entitled le responsable offa one of the many 45s he cut, a lot of which are well worth checking out, perfect stuff to start the weekend off.

Next up is the track 'speakin my mind' by the one hit wonder taiconderoga, this is off the only single they released which aint easy to come by, it also got released on a beacon records sampler around the same time but surprise surprise this is also bloody hard to pick up now too. Thankfully master record digger Mr gareth goddard aka cherrystones stuck it on a compilation amongst many other great musical obscurities called 'cherrystone rocks' go get yourself a copy you wont be dissapointed, trust me.

Third on my list is a band I know little about, all I got is this 45 by them 'she was naked' where flowery pop-psych meets some intense fuzzy prog! mad stuff. The band are called supersister I know they have released a few lp's but alas I aint heard em, anyone out there know more?

Lastly some captain beefheart from one of his earlier lp's 'safe as milk' the tune is 'yellow brick road' first heard the song on an old buddah sampler lp an its been a fave of mine for a while now hope you dig it

Lost Jazz Pt. 1: Mingus @ UCLA: If @ 1st You Don't Succeed...

The Arts of Tatum and Freddy Webster - Charles Mingus
Once Upon A Time, There Was A Holding Corporation Called Old America - Charles Mingus
both from the album Music Written For Monterey 1965 Not Heard...Played In Its Entirety At UCLA September 25, 1965 on Sue Mingus Music (2006).

First of a few posts about some jazz recordings that are out on CD now (readily available) after being legendary and/or forgotten for years.

First up is a live "workshop" recording from my favorite musician of all time, Charles Mingus. Working with a 6-piece horn section (multiple trumpets, alto, French horn, and even a tuba and flugelhorn (on occasion)) and the drummer Mingus called his "own heartbeat" Dannie Richmond, Mingus composes, directs, scolds, switches between piano and bass (bowed and fingered) as well as being his own hype-man. For those unfamiliar with Mingus's "workshop" type of concerts/recordings they were meant to give an audidence a chance to see what the creative and "behind the scenes" aspect of group development of songs can be like. For that reason songs are started and stopped due to errors, Mingus chastizes his sidemen and tries various ways to openly direct the band in new directions. While all the false beginnings and banter with the crowd can be distracting if you're just looking for tunes, it really opens up the adventurous audience who maybe can't afford the money or time to get out to concerts (and plus it is now preserved for those of us in the present and future via recording).

The backstory on this album is pretty interesting also and I direct you here for the more full version of the story. Long story short, Mingus wrote these works to be performed "workshop" style at the 1965 Monterrey Jazz Festival only he was left with less than half-an-hour to perform when the schedule was set. Instead a week later the material was performed at UCLA and recorded in its entirety. Mingus then self-released the album as a double LP via his record club. Probably only a few hundred copies were pressed and eventually the master reels were destroyed...but now it is back as a double CD and considering the situation the sound quality is quite good, with good range and excellent balance for all the players.

And the tracks up today? These aren't the usual highly rhythmic, big sound stuff I tend to post to Ear Fuzz most of the time. This is rather adventurous in rhythm, tone, and harmony, and just incredibly deep and moving stuff. Really I'm talking about the whole album here but in specific "The Arts of Tatum and Freddy Webster" is a fun and lively tribute to the legendary pianist and trumpeter. And the magnificently titled "Once Upon A Time, There Was A Holding Company Called Old America" gets this final version after a couple of false starts earlier in the show. "Once Upon A Time..." eventually became the more well-known and similarly well-titled "The Shoes of the Fisherman's Wife Are Some Jive-Ass Slippers." "Once..." syncopates the backing rhythm way beyond the normal and let's the various horn solos jump all around approximately a rather drunken walk kind of feel. Back with another lost gem soon...

Cast In A Purple Image

Purple Image: Living In The Ghetto and We Got To Pull Together
From: Purple Image [Map City, 1970]

Off to France with work tomorrow for a couple of days so thought I'd slip in a quick post before I trip the light fantastic in Paris.

I'm on a constant look out for that funked out, guitar fuzz heavy, late sixties/early seventies rock music sound. Think Jimi, think Funkadelic. It's actually been a fairly fruitless search a lot of the time though it did help me uncover the work of Black Merda a while back.

Purple Image are in a similar sort of vein to Merda's work with their blend of psych rock and funk capturing a vibrant time in rock music. Strangely limited to this single release before disbanding and disappearing the group featured ex Tradewinds members Pete Anders and Vincent Poncia and delivered an uneven but at times exhilarating selection of music.

Living In The Ghetto kicks off the album at full throttle with a hard as they come riff over thumping drums and a fuzzed out sound as the band hit the listener with everything in their arsenal.

We Got to Pull Together shows the softer sound of the band with melodic harmonies and delicate playing. It's a shame that the group never did get to record a sophomore album as tracks like this suggest that they could have carved out a field in a similar vein to the Chambers Brothers with the mixture of heavy guitar and soul tunes.

Extra special mention has to go to that front cover as well. Superb artwork.

The Loving Sisters And Their Sons

The Loving Sisters: Joy, Cosmic Consciousness, save the world
From the album: The Sisters & Their Sons [1974, ABC Records]

Lets go to church!! While there are still a few hours left to the day of rest, heck with music this good I'd join a convent, please do not be seated for some soulful, funky gospel.

According to the liner notes on the back of this record it states The Loving Sisters were one of the nations biggest gospel groups of the time, maybe but I aint never heard of them but then again I know nothing about gospel. However I wish I did an hopefully I eventually will.

The first cut 'Joy' is a tune that will sooth and relieve burdens from the weariest of shoulders. I absolutely love the vocals on this record, these sisters and their son's sure know how to sing with soul.

The second cut is an up beat, psychedelic, religious, funker it definitely lives up to it's name 'cosmic consciousness' check the lyrics.

Finally the last cut is back to the slower tempo with a message that is still poignant to the world today me thinks, let every heart drip!

Normal Services Is Resumed, Now With Extra Fuzz

Ben & The Platano Group: Arte Pino Pasta
From: Paris Soul [Dare-Dare, 1971]

Five Stairsteps: We Must Be In Love
From: 7" [Curtom, 1969]

Joe Mcphee: Shakey Jake
From: Nation Time [CJR, 1971]

Lyn Christopher: Take Me With You
From: Lyn Christopher [Paramount, 1973]

So, apologies for disappearing for the last couple of days, these things happen you know, nothing like going on holiday and coming back to find you're forgotten to renew the site ownership.

However, let's not waste time talking about what's been and gone and instead get back to celebrating the hear and now.

As we enter the third year of Ear Fuzz it seems time for another shake up and that's why we're looking to you, yes you, to help keep this site the magnificent bastard that it is today.

We're looking for ladies and gentlemen who would be interested in writing for the site and joining the Fuzz family. By now you should have some idea of the kind of music we talk about on this site from hip hop to soul to funk to jazz to blues to library to psych to electronica and beyond so if you're interested in contributing to the site drop a line here and we'll go from there.

Just in case you need reminding of what we do, and because you've been deprived off new music for a minute, here are a few choice cuts of classic material.

Ben & The Platano Group's Arte Pino Pasta, taken from their 1971 album Paris Soul, is European funkiness of the highest order - an orchestration desperately in need of a high speed, gas guzzling car chase to accompany it's relentless rhythms, horn crescendos and dirty guitar.

I've stated before my love for the Five Stairsteps work and We Must Be In Love is a bonafide classic. Curtis Mayfield's touch is all over this from the rousing horns to the bongo drums to the sweet soul harmonies. It's tracks like this that prove just how great this group were at their peak, rivalling the best of any male vocal group out there, including the Jackson 5.

Next up we have 13 and a half minutes of heavy drums, great organ work and all round genius of Joe Mcphee's Shakey Jake off his 1970 album Nation Time. Drop this in the right club, at the right time, with the bass way up high, and pandemonium will ensue.

Lyn Christopher's Take Me With You off her 1973 Self Titled album, is one of those songs that makes the whole digging process worthwhile. While the rest of the album is reasonable, Carly Simon lite, folky music, Lyn hits the listener with this brooding, sexed up genius of a track. Pure perfection.

Piano vs Organ: Songs For My Father

Song For My Father - Horace Silver
from the album Song For My Father on Blue Note (1964)

Song For My Father - Richard "Groove" Holmes
from the album Soul Message on Prestige (1965).

I love jazz and have been loving it for a while now (about as long as one my age can), but still despite a real penchant for hoarding music there are some definitive classic albums that I have only recent discovered for myself. Horace Silver's Song For My Father is one of these new/old treats for me. Silver is a great composer and this album is top to bottom wonderful even if it isn't as cohesive as some of his other albums. The title song is probably familiar to anyone who hasn't been in a radio, television, movie, and internet free cave for the last 20 years. Dually inspired by Horace's father's Portuguese heritage and a trip to Brazil that introduced he (Horace) to the traditional bossa nova sound, "Song For My Father" is bouncey beauty and elegance all over. Silver's piano solo trips around the tune like a dream, and the horn section (Joe Henderson on tenor sax and Carmell Jones on trumpet) give a huge, joyful feel to the track. The rhythm section won't knock anyone's socks off, but they keep everything in the pocket to allow the solo-ists ample room for freedom.

I love covers, but sometimes you wonder why anyone would cover particular songs. Yet just a year after it originally came out organist Richard "Groove" Holmes covered "Song For My Father" in a trio setting (with drums and guitar). "Song" strikes me as so unique a track and with a really personal dedication, but I guess folks cover "Naima" all the time too. Holmes does manage a very different feel with his version as the bossa influence for Silver ends up coming out of the organ lines sounding more like boogaloo (which seems to be blowing up again to samplers and retro reissue folks). I think it is interesting that (especially early on) organists in jazz tended to work alongside guitarists, which in this case leaves "Song" sounding a little flat. The lack of brass in particular hurts this cover. Still on the jazz organ scene, Holmes could really move and his speedy technique is on display here. One of the few organists who didn't convert over from piano, Holmes was involved in the mid-60s wave of jazzmen (and jazzwomen) who left behind the R&B oriented use of the organ and pushed it to the front as a leader for more soulful and intricate work.

As an added note both of these tracks are from the wide-ranging Rudy Van Gelder remastering series.