(Personally) Slept On Gems

Sorcery - Charles Lloyd Quartet
from the album Forest Flower at Monterey on Atlantic (1966).
Sombrero Sam - Charles Lloyd Quartet
from the album Soundtrack on Atlantic (1969).
Both albums were released as a single CD by Atlantic in 1994.

I had meant to post on this album ages ago and was reminded by floodwatch's very nice recent post on Bobby Hutcherson. Much like Mr. Watch's delay in finally getting ahold of Hutcherson's Montara, I've only recently tuned in to Charles Lloyd's Forest Flower at Monterey. This is relatively inexcusable considering the album's massive popularity (the rare platinum jazz album) and line-up (Lloyd on sax and flute, Keith Jarrett on piano, Jack DeJohnette on drums, and Cecil McBee on bass). I say relatively inexcusable because there is an excuse for avoiding this great album for so long. Namely, my college radio station (KTRU - Rice University Radio) had lots of Lloyd's 80s and 90s albums and they were quite terrible. Usually I look to keep the hate to minimum but really I could not get into those albums in the least.

Still at long last my prejudices were shoved aside when I was fortunate enough to get a copy of the album for free and I've been enjoying it ever since. Of course my love for Jarrett has been mentioned here before and remains unabated. In one of their first recordings together DeJohnette and Jarrett are already interchanging beautifully, and McBee hangs right with them the whole way. While the title track is sublime and the most well known, I chose the Jarrett composition "Sorcery" to feature. It is one of the two studio recordings from the album (the rest are live at the Monterey Jazz Festival) and is all sharp edges and inventive phrasing from Jarrett and Lloyd. I'm amazed at what crosses over to the mainstream from jazz, because while the opening refrain sounds like a new Charlie Brown score the extended interplay between Lloyd's flute and Jarrett's piano from 2-3 minutes is some really heady stuff. Having gone back to many of Lloyd's 60s albums with Jarrett since getting tuned in I have to say he's far more interesting on flute than sax. Please sir, I would like to hear jazz flute.

When Atlantic re-released the album on CD it was coupled with the later live album (at Town Hall in NYC) Soundtrack. Soundtrack features the same team except McBee is replaced by Ron McClure and again features a (not-featured here) rendition of the great "Forest Flower Suite." Example track for this album is the Lloyd composition "Sombrero Sam" which accurately portrays the entire album's strongly funky feel. Just listen to sharp crack of DeJohnette's drums on this track along with Jarrett's bluesy piano runs...I picture the Kashmere Stage Band kids growing into this stuff in college. The funky feel is exuded in the second half of the "Forest Flower" also so that my feet stomp and head nods everytime. I'll freely admit there is an immense pile of terrible music out there; but remember in music, as in life, prejudice closes off opportunities.

Soaring Dynamic Soul

The Dynamics: I Don't Want Nobody To Lead Me On and The Love That I Need
From: First Landing [Cotillion, 1969]

I was going to post up some heart pounding, pulse raising music for Friday today but, as it is, I'm actually in a decidedly mellow pre weekend mood so instead I offer up some gorgeous Detroit soul from The Dynamics. Not to be confused with the pre-Dramatics Dynamics (or the thirty other bands with variations on the name) the quartet released two stellar albums at the end of the sixties before fading away.

Their debut release, First Landing, is a great album ironically best known now for their medium hit Ice Cream Man which I personally find to be one of the weaker songs. I would instead direct your attention towards the album cuts that prove that, when they were in their stride, the group could produce a fine blend of groove, power and silky vocals.
I Don't Want Nobody To Lead Me On has that great mix of righteous emotion I love so dearly with great percussion work, fine melody, and an overlay of silk that softens the raw passion underneath.
The Love That I Need is a sweeter offering with a highly catchy harmonising chorus and subtle layers of depth that proves that these guys really could do the business.

Predictably, this album isn't available on CD and is therefore what can only be described as raer. Unfortunately there doesn't even seem to be a best of floating about. However, their decent second album is available on all good sites so one step at a time I guess.

Topical as ever I can confirm that Hacktone Records are releasing a remastered version on CD on May 1st which is truly awesome news. The label also seems to do a fair trade in Lewis Taylor records so additional thumbs up to the guys.

Call It Anything

Miles Davis, Isle of Wight, 1970 [from Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue]

I apologize for breaking tradition and posting a video, but this is just too good not to share. Youtube seems to have "liberated" the footage of Miles Davis' electric band's stellar performance at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival from the great Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue DVD. Highly recommended. The DVD also has additional live footage and some great interviews with Miles' old bandmates and with artists influenced by his music.

After the release of Bitches Brew, Miles began to court new audiences- mostly rock and pop audiences. Taking cuts in his appearance fees, he opened for bands like The Grateful Dead and Santana. He laid down this particular masterpiece during a rock festival, amidst sets by such acts as Supertramp, Chicago, Sly & The Family Stone, Emerson Lake & Palmer, The Doors and The Who. Being the only "jazz" outfit on the bill, this crew must have blown plenty of minds.

The lineup: Jack DeJohnette (drums), Dave Holland (bass), Airto Moriera (perc), Keith Jarrett (keys), Chick Corea (keys), Gary Bartz (sax), and of course Miles Davis.

They jump right in...


and go deeper...


deeper still...
Part 3

a different kind of blue.
Part 4

A Long-Awaited Vibing on Hutch

Bobby Hutcherson: Montara and Little Angel
From: Montara [Blue Note 1975]

Madlib: Montara
From: Shades of Blue [Blue Note 2003]

There was a post from Codec recently on the excellent Feed Me Good Tunes about certain albums "tracking you down" and subsequently taking possession of your daily existence. As I was reading it I immediately identified with his plight, since something similar has been happening to me recently. For him it was Cannibal Ox's The Cold Vein (a fine rescue); for me, Bobby Hutcherson's Montara started crashing on the couch in my living room a few weeks ago and hasn't left yet. As one of Blue Note's top sellers in the '70s, this record is hardly a rarity, but in terms of must-haves, it's really a no-brainer. Sadly, it has taken me years to realize this.

Montara and I met innocently enough on a day when I happened to have an extra $10 to spend at my local Newbury Comics store. There it was, staring out at me from the "Wicked Cheap" section, one of my notorious "back burner" picks: those records that you always have the intention of acquiring, but something else always seems to take precedence over it. I was dumbfounded when I arrived home and played it, feeling a sort of bittersweet regret, as if I so much time had been lost without it embracing my eardrums all these years.

I've always thought that if Hutcherson had chosen a more popular instrument with which to channel his talent, his impact on jazz would have been enormous. As it stands, the vibraphone has carried the curse of not being taken as seriously as, say, the tenor sax or piano. His closest contemporary would be Gary Burton, a giant in his own right, yet Hutcherson was more actively involved in the post-bop "new thing" of the mid-'60s, cutting his teeth on classic Blue Note sessions with Eric Dolphy, Andrew Hill, and Jackie McLean. He briefly swam in the waters of commercial fusion before taking a short detour into Latin jazz with Montara in 1975. This sort of thing had been done before, of course, but Hutcherson approached these rich, Cuban grooves and sophisticated charts as if he had been playing them for decades. It also didn't hurt that he enlisted players like Willie Bobo, Blue Mitchell, and the underrated Ernie Watts for the session.

The title track has me longing for late summer afternoons, a gorgeous, breezy ballad that is unhurried and casual, with a particularly lyrical statement from Hutcherson on marimba. Eddie Cano's gentle washes of electric piano blend in flawlessly with the persistent conga pattern, and the fades that bracket the track give a sense of it being locked in an infinite continuum, like it's been playing forever. (Madlib's reworking of this track from Blue Note's Shades of Blue is an interesting comparison, as he suppresses the song's Latin elements for a rough breakbeat and a vocal hook.) The simple but intelligently-crafted theme of Eddie Martinez's "Little Angel" is established by the horns before the leader rips into perhaps his best solo on the album, executing rapid-fire 32nd notes with precision.

I really can't recommend Montara highly enough, though I'm sure many readers here are already intimately familiar with this album. So in the spirit of Codec's post I ask: are there any "back burner" records - the ones that you had always meant to get your hands on - that took way too long to discover you?

Chubby and the Wolf

Chubby Checker: Goodbye Victoria and Stoned In The Bathroom
From: Chequered [Ariola, 1971]

Howlin' Wolf: Smokestack Lightning and Down in the Bottom
From: This Is Howlin' Wolf's New Album [Cadet Concept, 1969]


Wow! It's been awhile since I've posted something on here. I've been inundated with looking for a new job and moving into my girlfriend's apartment, so you can probably understand why I haven't been posting so regularly. I've had this post on the backburner for about a month now, and I want to bless your ears with two psychedelic fuzz guitar masterpieces recorded by Chubby Checker and Howlin' Wolf.


Chubby Checker became popular when his 60' s dance hit called "The Twist" caused a teenage dance craze that took the nation by storm. He went on to record several other dance-themed hits and had as many as 5 albums in the top 12 at once. Unfortunately, Chubby's hit-making career came to a grinding halt in 1965 when the public's taste veered into the more exciting music of the times such as psychedelic rock and folk.


However, Chubby decided to experiment with psychedelic rock and bluesy-soul with this rare gem released in 1971 entitled Chequered/New Revelation. These sessions were helmed by record company scam-artist Ed Chalpin(the same guy behind the bootleg Jimi Hendrix w/ Curtis Knight releases ) who first released them in Europe in 1971 and in a cutout-version in America. He was notorious for recording no-name studio bands playing the current hits and then he would quickly sell them to record companies in Europe and South America to stay ahead of the copyrighting laws.


Goodbye Victoria opens up with a slow lurking piano groove that is begging to be lifted by The Weathermen for their next hip-hop masterpiece. Then, Chubby's soulful vocals lift the song to greater heights and the piano and hammond organ chime in with the glorious gospel-inflected chorus of "Time Won't Forget You Victoria/Time Just Won't Let You Victoria/Goodbye Victoria/Everybody's Going to the Moon." After the chorus, the hammond organs sound off for a brief interlude and then segueway into the second verse of the song. There is an incredibly funky hammond organ breakdown after the second chorus that sounds like it's highly influenced by Jimmy Smith. What makes this track so unforgettable is that it has soul dripping from it's pores. You can feel the pain that Chubby was feeling in each and every heart-wrenching verse. My Mind Comes From a High Place features blistering guitar solos, funky drum breakdowns and soulful psychedelic vocals that remind you of the Band of Gypsys. On If the Sun Stops Shinin', Chubby comes out shining with a beautiful vocal that could be compared to Bill Withers on "Lean on Me". Stoned in the Bathroom starts out with a playful carnival organ and martial drums intro that leads into Chubby's hazy verse about being "Stoned in the bathroom/on a Sunday afternoon/Stoned in the bathroom/just sitting on the moon." Then, the bridge/chorus ignites the track with a fiery guitar/organ combo that goes for broke. Towards the end of the track, Chubby screams at the top of his lungs which seems to push the band into overdrive for the last thirty seconds of the song. Overall, this is an amazing record that is definitely worth looking for.


Side note:

Rumor has it that Chubby reluctantly agreed to record this album, and even to this day doesn't want to discuss the details of how it came to be. As far as I know, it never received an official release in the US, so it remains a rare psych-soul masterpiece that probably goes for some serious coin on E-Bay.


Howlin Wolf was persuaded to record This is Howlin' Wolf's New Album for Cadet Concept in 1969. This label also released Muddy Water's Electric Mud which has a similar electric rock-n-roll blues sound designed to pull in bigger audiences for both bluesmen. Wolf's opinion of this record was emblazoned on the cover in bold letters- This Is Howlin Wolf's New Album. he Doesn't Like It. He Didn't Like His Electric Guitar At First Either. The idea of creating this album came to Marshall Chess after he toured with the Rolling Stones and realized that they were making money off of the blues legends who influenced them. He brought in the same band that was used in the Electric Mud sessions: Pete Cosey and Phil Upchurch- guitars, Louis Satterfield on bass and Morris Jennings on drums to create the psychedelic blues-funk- rock-n-roll fusion that was becoming popular at the time.


The whole album is funky with chicken scratch wah-wah guitar and funky basslines that would make Bootsy Collins blush. The rhythm section is tight as a vice and Wolf's bluesy vocals work well with the funky backbeat and acidic guitars. On this version of Smokestack Lightning, a funky Yusef Lateef style flute complements Wolf's gruff vocals while the band switches up from a midtempo funky jam to a psychedelic hazy dream filled with wah-wah guitars. Down in the Bottom gets a groove going that reminds me of the Meters mixed with the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The rest of the album is just as funky and gritty as these two tracks, so keep an eye out for this one at your local record store. It is a definite must for fans of fuzz guitar blues psychedelia.

Uncovered Heart amidst Werner's Electric Mayhem

Uncovered Heart - Kenny Werner
Inaugural Balls - Kenny Werner
from the album Lawn Chair Society on Blue Note (2007).

Pianist/Composer Kenny Werner has a new album out this week entitled Lawn Chair Society, which is his first release for Blue Note. Werner assembled quite a band for this album with horns Dave Douglas and Chris Potter, Scott colley on bass, the great Brian Blade on drums, and production by Lenny Picket (of Tower of Power fame).

Overall the album didn't do much for me, but I was really floored by the track "Uncovered Heart." Originally written years ago following the birth of Werner's daughter Katheryn, the track was to be re-recorded for this album even before Katheryn's tragic passing in an automobile accident. Even without knowing the backstory (as I didn't when I first heard it) the emotional pull of this song is tremendously strong. Normally here at Ear Fuzz I usually favor more bombastic stuff, but this smooth song is mellow beauty through and through generating feelings of both hope and sadness at once. Blade's brush work adds superb texture to the melody that gets passed back and forth between the piano, horns, and even bass (nice solo near the midway point).

While Werner stated this to be his first album to heavily utilize "electronic" styles, the rest fo the album is some fair to good straight jazz work (Werner originals) with occasional electronic flourishes and three truely abysmal purely electronic tracks (thankfully they are at least short). I included "Inaugural Balls" as a good example of what the rest of the album is like with another strong performance by Blade and Werner and the legendary horn players rather under-utilized. Still, nothing else on the labum touches "Uncovered Heart" in either mood or quality.

Finally, maybe in keeping with the desire to add "computer music" to his jazz arsenal, the album art (see image above and at amazon link) is an enjoyable double homage to Rene Magritte and Window's Bliss Desktop.

In addition to album art that is a kindly homage to both Rene Magritte and the Windows "bliss" desktop,

Paint A Lady

Susan Christie: Paint A Lady and Yesterday, Where's My Mind?
From: Paint A Lady [Finders Keepers, 2006]

You may have picked up from my previous posts on Ruth Copeland and Lyn Christopher that I'm a 100% sucker for a certain type of female folk rock. Anything with strong female vocals over tough and moody guitars makes me do the equivalent of a mental swoon and Susan Christie's Paint A Lady is one of the strongest offerings I've come across yet.

A folk singer with more than a passing interest in the playfulness of psychedelia, Christie suffered the fate of many of the artists featured on the site in that she never received her proper dues. However, Christie went one step further than most, forgoing the usual pain of having her album slept on by instead seeing the record label never release her album at all. It was only due to a private press protected lovingly for years that the album was rediscovered and reissued recently by Finders Keepers.

So, onto the music. The title song itself, Paint A Lady, is a brilliantly laid back growler of a track, simmering with intent from the moment the music starts, lilting guitars hovering over some simple but great percussion. Similar in tone to Lyn Christopher's Take Me With You, this track glows with confidence and swagger from Christie as she paints a tale of the monotony of life. By the time the harmonies enter in the chorus I can't see how anyone wouldn't be sold on the brilliance evident here.

I was torn with the second track to feature here, between the Copeland's Medal like anger of For The Love Of A Soldier, the folky bliss of Rainy Day or the psychedelic wig out of Yesterday, Where's My Mind?. Well I dithered and Rainy Day is a truly beautiful track but I thought you'd be most interested in the wig out so here it is. The track takes it's time to get going, spending three minutes as Christie sets the scene of wandering the streets. However, the song builds and builds on it's initial momentum until we are left with Christie screaming at God over heavy percussion and guitars. Excellent stuff.

The album is now readily available from Finders Keepers and they've done a decent job on the reissue. It's rare that an album so long slept on is great from start to finish but I would highly, highly recommend picking this up.

Backini The Future

Company B-Boy - Backini
from Company B-Boy EP on Lumenessence (2003).
Istanbul - Backini
from Dreamer EP on Lumenessence (2003).
The Builder - Backini
from the album Re:creation on Lumenessence (2006).

Backini (aka Rob Quickenden) is one of the legion of early 00s bed room producers from the UK putting together layered beats for the instrumental heads. In 2003, he released a couple of EPs and an LP (Threads) that was one of my favorites of the year. I never really heard much more from him since, other an a remix that appeared of Skalpel that appeared on Ninja Tune. But in late 2006 he released his second album Re:creation.

If the above picture isn't enough to make it clear, Company B-Boy should ID Backini as a clearly cheeky fellow. Based on the hit WWII tune Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy by the Andrews Sisters, this track uses a nice bouncy backing beat. It is the accents that kill on this tracks: horn stabs, old poetry, scratch choruses, and a hot little guitar lick that is present all too briefly. Fans of the Avalanches should really dig this one.

"Istanbul" sobers up quite a bit, but still has that happy shuffling style of beat that pervades Threads. The track has a slight middle-eastern tinge as the name implies, and it a warm, mellow downtempo piece I've enjoyed on many a sunny day.

Re:creation has a much more heavily processed, less organic sound than Threads and suffers from that lack of warmth. Backini can still be quite fun and funny, but there is darker atmosphere to this album, even if it is a more cohesive whole than Threads. There is also a more decided indie rock flair (or anti-flair?) present. DJ Shadow, RJD2, now Backini...all these beat guys are branching that emo direction it seems. My favorite track off the new album is the hidden track "The Builder," which is fuzz funk work-out rather dissimilar to the rest of the album.