Cochise
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North Carolina
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Get Yourself Together
(w/Rahsaan Roland Kirk)
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Album: Live At Montreux
Released in 1973

I’ve always dug Les McCann, and when I found this Live At Montreux double LP in a local record store ($5, near mint), I knew it would be quality.

The Montreux Jazz Festival is Switzerland’s prestigious annual event on stunning Lake Geneva. In recent years, Montreux has drifted a bit off brand; for its 44th season, jazz greats such as Coolio, Arcade Fire, and Ricky Martin are on the programme. (To be fair, actual jazz greats such as George Benson, Diana Krall, and Herbie Hancock are also on the bill.)

Les McCann’s Live At Montreux was recorded during an earlier, purer incarnation of the festival, in 1972. Les was already a legend at Montreux — and Switzerland in general — because he had released a hit live album from the festival, 1969′s Swiss Movement.

For his second recording from Montreux, Les brought along bassist Jimmy Rowser, drummer Donald Dean, and percussionist Buck Clarke. Like many jazz artists of the time, Les experimented with electric, amplified instruments and Live At Montreux is a showcase for the many colors and textures of the recently-invented clavinet keyboard.

“Cochise” kicks off the set at breakneck pace. (The title inexplicably refers to an Apache chief from the 19th century.) On this track, the clavinet occasionally sounds blown out and distorted, which may or may not be a by-product of the recording process.

On the first movement of “North Carolina,” the clavinet has more of a bubbly sound, which is probably its most familiar mode (think Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition”). About halfway into the track, Les reconfigures the clavinet to a more elegant, brighter setting, and it sounds like an entirely different instrument.

For an encore, Les selected the epic “Get Yourself Together”. Can’t say I love his vocals, but thankfully Les’s singing is only a small part of his repertoire. Later in the track, fellow Montreux performer Rahsaan Roland Kirk jumped onstage and contributed a sax solo, showing off his unusual technique of breathing without losing his tone. (Today I learned this is called “circular breathing.”)

Les last performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1998, though he has toured sporadically in the U.S. and Japan as recently as 2009.

Use Me
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For My Friend
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Let Us Love
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Album: Live At Carnegie Hall (1973)

In the latest offering from my collection of “live” albums, I selected a double LP from the great Bill Withers. Everyone seems to have a soft spot for Bill. He’s indefatigably earnest, yet I believe if “Lean On Me” was released in 2009, it would be as big of a hit as it was in 1972.

Live At Carnegie Hall was recorded in the fall of that year, and Bill was at the height of his talents. You can feel the love from the crowd, and I couldn’t think of a classier venue for Bill’s honeyed voice, unabashed positivity, and laid-back groove. True heads will be pleased to hear that Bill’s touring band was The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band who, a few years prior, had a big hit of their own, “Express Yourself” (sampled in a huge N.W.A. song of the same title).

Leading off the LP is a track that was burning up the airwaves at the time he performed it, the classic “Use Me.” Bill slows down the groove a bit, but cranks up the intensity of his vocals. Lyrically, I think of Bill as a romantic, bohemian sort but in this song, he gets raw. Basically, it’s all about how this woman treats him like shit, but he puts up with it because the sex is on. You can hear everyone getting down, and Bill and The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band indulges them with a spirited reprise.

As “Lean On Me” will attest, Bill is one of the few R&B singers evolved enough to explore male-male friendships. In the bluesy work-in-progress (the first and second verses are the same), “For My Friend,” Bill and his buddy have said some “nasty things” to each other and unless one of them bites the bullet and apologizes, their friendship may be over. To my knowledge, this track was only released in this live version — a minor gem.

The final selection is “Let Us Love,” a plea from Bill to be show love to each other everyday, rather than just on Christmas or Easter. How nice.

Summer In The City
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Manteca
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“Sanford & Son” Theme
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Chump Change
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Album: You’ve Got It Bad Girl (1973)

To mark the one month anniversary of Ye Olde Blog, I’ve got a new feature that I hope you will enjoy: LP Classics, a tribute to the best records in my collection. The rules: each selection must have a few 4- and 5-star classics, and it can’t be a compilation or live album.

I’d be hard-pressed to come up with a more auspicious debut for this feature than the LP I selected: Quincy Jones’s You’ve Got It Bad Girl. Released in 1973, it’s rarely mentioned among Q’s triumphs, but I’ve played and enjoyed this record countless times. I found it at a San Francisco sidewalk sale for $2, a deal that still makes me smile some 15 years later.

As you can see from the tags I assigned to this post, Quincy showcases his eclectic tastes on this LP. A few tracks originate from movies or TV shows, others are creative interpretations of other artists’ songs, and the liner notes detail several legendary session players providing support throughout the album.

The track that leads off the LP is also among Quincy’s most revered: a cover of “Summer In The City,” which takes The Lovin’ Spoonful’s 60′s anthem to euphoric and jazzy new heights. It won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Arrangement, but is probably best known for it’s opening loop, sampled in The Pharcyde’s magnum opus, “Passing Me By.” Various bits of the song have been sampled in lots of other tracks as well. Jones’s version is a mystical brew consisting of trippy grooves, sultry solos, and soaring vocals (provided by Valerie Simpson, of Ashford & Simpson).

“Manteca” is an aggressive update of a Dizzy Gillespie track from the 1940s. I love the tone shifts between the ridiculously tight horn section and Jerome Richardson’s breezy sax passages. I always feel so sophisticated when I hear Bob James’s jumpy electric piano solo. I kinda wish Q didn’t let the track’s propulsive energy spiral into chaos towards the last couple of minutes of the track, but this is still a total jam.

The final two selections are both themes to TV shows. Everyone knows and loves the “‘Sanford & Son’ Theme,” (aka “The Streetbeater”); how Quincy Jones manages to compose a perfect musical counterpart to the junkyard in which the show is set is beyond my comprehension. Sorry for the skips, but I’ve played this cut down to the bone!

Less known (and thus, slightly less pleasurable) is the theme to two different Bill Cosby shows, 1972′s The New Bill Cosby Show and a game show from 1974, Now You See It; neither made it past their first season, but their theme song endures. Little know fact: Q co-wrote the track with Cosby — Bill is one talented dude.