Live On Wax: Les McCann, 1972

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May 162011
 
 

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

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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.

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 Posted by -G. at 9:45 am  Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Live On Wax: Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson, 1976

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Feb 182010
 
 

17th Street
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Must Be Something
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The Bottle
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Album: It’s Your World (1976)

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The year was 1976. America was reveling in its bicentennial celebration. I was five, and don’t remember a thing. But my pop culture-filtered nostalgia imagines 1976 as the precipice between free love optimism and cocaine-fueled excess.

It’s Your World — a (mostly) live double-LP credited to Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson — was recorded just a couple of days before the July 4th holiday. While America at large was patting itself on the back, Gil was giving voice to those Americans who felt the country wasn’t living up to the Declaration of Independence’s key phrase, “All men are created equal.”

Gil Scott-Heron is so closely associated with his politics that it’s easy to forget the musicality apparent in his songs. Though Gil penned many of his own tunes, Brian Jackson contributed many of the duo’s finest compositions, and was the primary keys player.

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 Posted by -G. at 12:03 am  Tagged with: , , , , ,

LP Classics: D’Angelo, Voodoo

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May 122009
 
voodoo  

Playa Playa
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Devil’s Pie
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One Mo’Gin
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Untitled (How Does It Feel)
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Album: Voodoo (2000)

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Where did you go, D’Angelo? The gossip says you had/have a drug problem, your MySpace blog chalks it up to you being “a deliberate guy,” and the pictures are disheartening, check the before and after:

beckdangelo_main
With Beck, about a decade ago
 		street29_d_angelo_200
2005 mugshot

After the monumental achievement that was 2000′s Voodoo, we’ve heard next to nothing from you. I hazily remember you getting arrested a few years ago with some weed and powder, but musically it’s been pretty sparse: choruses on unmemorable hip hop throwaways, one stellar track ("Water Get No Enemy" from a 2002 Fela tribute album), and a handful of other crap that was a waste of your blessings.

I’ll stop ranting atcha, D, but I gotta admit — it feels good to vent.

Despite my bitterness, I still haven’t soured on Voodoo. Others may have dropped more hits, but there are only a handful who put out a long-player that was coherent and listenable from start to finish.

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 Posted by -G. at 9:27 pm  Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Live On Wax: Frank Sinatra, 1966

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Apr 132009
 
sinatra-at-the-sands  

You Make Me Feel So Young
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All Of Me (Instrumental)
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Angel Eyes
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Album: Sinatra At The Sands (1966)

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It’s been awhile since I’ve spotlighted my collection of recorded live albums, so I’ve dug up a killer LP from the legendary Frank Sinatra. As if that wasn’t enough of a draw, he’s accompanied by Count Basie and his orchestra, with songs arranged and conducted by Quincy Jones. Wow, that’s a lot of talent in one room.

Recorded in early 1966 at Las Vegas’s Sands Hotel (Sinatra had an ownership stake in the Sands until Howard Hughes bought it a year later), this was Sinatra’s first live album. Sinatra, Basie, and Jones had previously collaborated on the studio album, It Might As Well Be Swing, which produced the huge hit, “Fly Me To The Moon.

As you can imagine, Sinatra in Vegas was a huge event, and the packed crowd is ecstatic. As expressed by Stan Cornyn in the liner notes for Sinatra At The Sands, “Two thousand knees with nowhere to go.”

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 Posted by -G. at 9:18 pm  Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,

LP Classics: Minutemen, Double Nickels On The Dime

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Mar 262009
 
double-nickels  

Viet Nam
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Cohesion
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The Glory Of Man
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Jesus And Tequila
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Album: Double Nickels On The Dime (1984)

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How to define punk rock? Is it the sound (electric guitars, hard drums, screaming vocals)? The lyrics (anti-establishment)? The attitude (do-it-yourself, be different)? In a lot of ways, the rise of punk was later mirrored by the explosion of hip hop — it’s as much a cultural movement as a musical one.

Growing up, I can’t say that I was heavy into music that would be neatly categorized as punk, but the punk ethos inspired the bands that I loved (e.g. Talking Heads, R.E.M., The Cure). When I heard Minutemen’s Double Nickels On The Dime towards the end of my high school years, it really opened my mind to how liberating punk rock — and, for that matter, music of any genre — could be. My appreciation of this record has only grown in the two decades since I first heard it.

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 Posted by -G. at 9:51 pm  Tagged with: , , , , , ,
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