BRAINCHILD-HEALING OF THE LUNATIC OWL.
Brainchild-Healing Of The Lunatic Owl.
Label: Magic Box.
Format: LP with CD.
Progressive brass rock pioneers Brainchild were formed in Somerset in the late-sixties, and by the 1970 the septet had signed to A&M. This was perfect timing as the brass rock boom began in 1969 and continued until 1972. By then, Chicago, Blood, Sweat and Tears and The Electric Flag were amongst the highest profile brass rock bands stateside. However, it wasn’t just an American phenomenon.
In Britain, a number of brass rock bands were making waves. However, Brainchild were different to the rest as they combined progressive rock and brass rock. It was impressive sight and sound as the septet took the stage and like well oiled machine worked their way through their set. As they did, the audience realised that here was a band that was a cut above the competition.
Not many bands could seamlessly switch between time signatures and combine disparate musical genres like Brainchild. They took as a starting point progressive brass rock and incorporated elements of fusion, funk, psychedelia, pop, rock and blues. Their music was quite different to the majority of the bands playing live in 1970 and it was no wonder they had been signed by A&M and were en route to the studio to record their debut album Healing Of The Lunatic Owl which has just been reissued on vinyl by Magic Box with a CD.
Brainchild’s detonation was Wessex Sound Studios in West London, where they were about to record their debut album with producer Lennie Wright who had been a member of The Web.
Three of the members of the group had written the eight tracks they were about to record. Bill Edwards contributions were Autobiography and Two Bad Days, while Brian Wilshaw had penned Healing Of The Lunatic Owl, Hide From The Dawn and To “B”. Harvey Coles had also written three tracks, She’s Learning, A Time A Place and Sadness Of A Moment. These eight tracks were about to be recorded by Brainchild and would be their debut album Healing Of The Lunatic Owl.
The band’s lineup for the session included drummer Dave Muller, bassist and vocalist Harvey Coles, vocalist Bill Edwards who switched between electric and acoustic guitar plus organist and pianist Chris Jennings. Adding the brass rock sound were trumpeter Lloyd Williams, saxophonist and flautist Brian Wilshaw and trombonists Ian Goss and Pat Strachan. With Lennie Wright taking charge of production and Robin Thompson engineering the session Brainchild recorded their debut album. Unlike modern albums
With Healing Of The Lunatic Owl completed, A&M scheduled the release of Brainchild’s debut album for later in 1970. By then, the popularity of both progressive rock and brass rock were growing. Marketing executives at A&M must have thought that this was the perfect time to release an album of progressive rock brass rock. Sadly, that wasn’t the case when Healing Of The Lunatic Owl was released the album sunk without trace. It must have been hugely disappointing for a group as talented and versatile as Brainchild. Sadly, record buyers weren’t ready for their unique take on progressive brass rock. Maybe the album was ahead of its time?
Brainchild had incorporated elements of fusion, funk, psychedelia, blues, rock, poppy hooks and theatre into progressive brass rock during Healing Of The Lunatic Owl. Lead vocalist Bill Edwards is responsible for the poppy hooks and the slight theatrical sound. There’s a lounge influence on the title-track where Brainchild combine jazz, rock and seem to have been inspired by Chicago and Blood, Sweat and Tears. It’s one of the highlights of the album. So is the nine minute epic A Time A Place which is Brainchild’s finest moment.
Sometimes, the album heads in the direction of psych-prog and even Krautrock which was in its infancy in 1970. Later in the album dissonant horns on To B take the album in the direction of free jazz. However, the structure of the songs are unmistakably progressive rock and seamlessly Brainchild spring a surprise with unexpected changes in time signature. Add to that the psychedelic influence and Healing Of The Lunatic Owl was an album with the past, the present and the future.
Playing an important role is Harvey Coles’ elastic and probing bass which takes the album in the direction of progressive funk. The progressive funkateer forms a potent partnership with drummer Dave Muller in the rhythm section. Given their versatility they’re one of Brainchild’s secret weapons.
Then there’s the horn section that take progressive rock in a new direction. Brainchild may not have been the first progressive rock to add a horn section but how many combined a trumpet, two trombones and a saxophone? They take the this impressive sounding album to the next level.
Despite the undeniable quality of Healing Of The Lunatic Owl it is one of the many albums released in the early seventies that failed to find the audience it deserved. It was an ambitious and innovative album where Brainchild took progressive brass rock in a new direction. They were musical pioneers who rather than follow in the footsteps of others, decided to forge a new sound. Sadly, Healing Of The Lunatic Owl was ahead of its time and passed the record buying public by in 1970.
This was hugely disappointing for Brainchild who split-up not long after releasing their debut album. Sadly, by then the dream was over for Brainchild. Healing Of The Lunatic Owl was Brainchild’s one shot at the title and for this groundbreaking group and sadly, it was a case of what might have been?
Brainchild-Healing Of The Lunatic Owl.
IDRIS ACKAMOOR AND THE PYRAMIDS- SHAMAN!
Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids-Shaman!
Label: Strut.
Nowadays, not many groups are still together after forty-seven years. Many groups call time on their career after three or four albums citing “artistic differences” but are keen to reassure their fans that they’re “still friends” and that the band had “run its course.” This has happened to some of the and most successful and influential bands of the past fifty years. They may eventually consider making a comeback if there’s enough noughts on the cheque but often there’s no chance of that. The damage has been dome and friendships fractured.
Meanwhile, there are still a few bands founded in the seventies that have continued to make music through good times and bad. Some didn’t enjoy the success that their music deserved and it was only later that their music started find a wider audience. This includes cosmic spiritual jazz pioneers Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids who were founded in 1973 and recently, recently released their much-anticipated seventh album Shaman! It’s the latest chapter in a story that began in 1951.
Bruce Baker in was born in 1951, and grew up in Chicago, before moving to Ohio, where he studied at Antioch College, which was where he first encountered jazz pianist Cecil Taylor and became part of his Black Music Ensemble. Cecil Taylor also mentored Idris Ackamoor and watched as his young prodigy dawned the moniker Idris Ackamoor in the early seventies and embarked upon a pan-African adventure as the leader of the Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids.
The newly christened Idris Ackamoor was a flamboyant musical showman who with The Pyramids who combined music and theatre, and each night, dawned a pharaonic headdress before he took to the stage. What followed was a groundbreaking and genre-melting mixture of music from the cosmic jazz pioneers who played with a freedom and invention as they pushed musical boundaries to their limits.
Lalibela.
In 1973, Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids released their debut album Lalibela, on their own label Pyramid Records. By then, the members of Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids were still students at Antioch College when they wrote and recorded Lalibela, which was an ambitious and innovative concept album that documented Idris Ackamoor, Margaux Simmons, and Kimathi Asante’s nine-month African adventure. Lalibela was an innovative fusion of Afrobeat, free jazz, funk and soul which ebbed and flowed as it revealed its many secrets.
Lalibela included driving rhythms, ritualistic chants, energetic modal jams, meditative tone pieces and improvisations played using traditional African instruments which were augmented by woodwind and horns on an album that was way ahead of its time. Sadly, Lalibela passed critics and record buyers by and it was only much later that critics and record buyer realised the importance of the album.
King Of Kings.
Despite the commercial failure of their debut album Lalibela, Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids returned with their sophomore album King Of Kings in 1974. Just like its predecessor, it was an ambitious album and had been inspired by Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids’ love affair with Africa and African history. There’s also a spiritual quality to the music on King Of Kings, where chants are delivered in a call and response style and hypnotic horns join with traditional African instruments, woodwind and piano to create another groundbreaking album.
During King Of Kings, Iris Ackamoor and The Pyramids fuse Afrobeat, free jazz, funk, jazz-funk and soul as they push musical boundaries and create an ambitious and spiritual album. Sadly, history repeated itself and King Of Kings failed to find the audience it deserved.
While this must have been a disappointment for Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids, their label Pyramid Records neither had budget nor the PR expertise to promote the band’s albums and get them into shops. Instead, Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids relied on playing live to spread the word about their music, and introduce it to a new audience. As a result, Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids continued to tour widely in the mid-seventies, and by then, they had already toured Africa. However, by then, things were changing for Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids.
By the mid-seventies, Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids’ lineup was fluid, and new musicians were often recruited by the band. The other change was the instruments that Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids played. They had played African instruments on their first two albums, but by November 1975 when Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids began recording Birth/Speed/Merging, they were playing instruments from all over the world.
Birth/Speed/Merging.
Two years passed before Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids returned in 1976 with their third album Birth/Speed/Merging. It was recorded in November 1975, and side one featured the three-part, twenty-minute Birth/Speed/Merging suite, which was one of the most ambitious pieces of music from Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids had recorded.
On Birth/Speed/Merging there’s a celebratory, carnival sound as Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids combined the cosmic sounds and free jazz of Sun Ra with Afrobeat, funk, psychedelia and a much more progressive sound. Birth/Speed/Merging was an ambitious, innovative and genre-melting album where Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids played with freedom, fluidity and invention on a carefully crafted album. Sadly, when Birth/Speed/Merging was released the album failed to find the audience it so richly deserved.
In 1977, Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids split-up after releasing a trio of underrated and innovative albums that had passed critics and record buyers by. Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids were one of music’s best kept secrets and it looked as if it would stay that way.
Just like many other artists and groups before them, it took a while before the record buying public somewhat belatedly discovered Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids’ music. It took twenty years before a small but appreciative audience discovered the three albums that Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids had released between 1973 and 1976. Soon, Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids had a cult following, and there was a resurgence on interest in their music.
By then, Idris Ackamoor had released two solo albums 1998s Portrait and 2000s Centurian. This was followed in 2004 by Homage To Cuba in 2004, which was the debut album from the Idris Ackamoor Ensemble. However, the big question was would Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids reunite?
They would, but not until 2010, and soon, Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids were making up for lost time. By then, the group’s popularity was growing after the reissue of Lalibela, King Of Kings and Birth/Speed/Merging in 2009. With a new audience discovering Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids’ music, embarked upon their comeback tour.
Little did Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids realise that they would be spending much of the next couple of years on the road, as their popularity grew. With interest in Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids in growing, it was no surprise when they released their comeback album Otherworldly in 2012.
Otherworldly.
Otherworldly was released by Cultural Odyssey as part of the Living Legacy Project, and just like the triumvirate of albums Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids had released between 1973 and 1976 was a pioneering and experimental album. Elements of avant-garde, free jazz and space-age featured on Otherworldly which was released to plaudits and praise and was Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids’ first album in thirty-six years.
We Be All Africans.
Despite releasing their comeback album and continuing to tour, Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids didn’t release another album for four long years. However, Idris Ackamoor was still recording and releasing albums with two new musical projects. In 2014, the Idris Ackamoor Paris Quartet’s released their debut album The Periphery Of The Periphery and The Collective released Idrissa’s Dream. However, two years later, Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids were back with a new album.
This was We Be All Africans which was Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids’ fifth album, and their first album for Strut. We Be All Africans was released in May 2016 and was a quite different album from Otherworldly. It was a fusion of Afrobeat, free jazz and jazz-funk from the spiritual cosmic jazz pioneers, which was released to critical acclaim and set the bar high for the followup.
An Angel Fell.
Two years later, in May 2018 Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids returned with their much-anticipated sixth album An Angel Fell. The eight tracks on An Angel Fell were penned by bandleader Idris Ackamoor and were produced by Malcolm Catto of The Heliocentrics. However, it was a very different lineup of The Pyramids that accompanied Idris Ackamoor during the recording of An Angel Fell at Quatermass studios in London.
Just one member of The Pyramids returned for the recording of An Angel Fell. This was violinist Sandra Poindexter who made her debut on We Be All Africans. She was joined by a new lineup of The Pyramids. They spent just one week recorded An Angel Fell and were the perfect foil for Idris Ackamoor on this thought-provoking album.
Idris Ackamoor explains: “I wanted to use folklore, fantasy and drama as a warning bell…“The songs explore global themes that are important to me and to us all: the rise of catastrophic climate change and our lack of concern for our planet, loss of innocence and separation…but positive themes too, the healing power of music, collective action and the simple beauty of nature.” These songs are part of what’s one of the most eclectic albums of Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids’ long career.
Just like Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids’ previous albums, free jazz is at the heart of An Angel Fell. Especially the free jazz of two of its founding father’s Pharaoh Sanders and Sun Ra which seems to have influenced Idris Ackamoor as a saxophonist and bandleader. There’s also elements of Afro-Cuban, dub reggae, hip hop, psychedelia and rock on An Angel Fell, which ebbs and flows revealing everything from beautiful ballads to soul-baring vocals and intrepid free jazz workouts.
An Angel Fell finds the latest lineup of Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids rolling back the years on what was tthe most eclectic album of their forty-five year career. It features music that is beautiful, poignant, and ruminative, and Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids incorporating folklore, fantasy, drama and social comment on this thought-provoking album
Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids-Shaman!
Buoyed by the success of An Angel Fell, Idris Ackamoor began work on the followup which would eventually become Shaman! He decided that Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids’ seventh album would be very different to its predecessor.
Idris Ackamoor decided to move away from the political and social commentaries that featured on An Angel Fell. This time, the music would be much more personal and introspective: “I wanted to use this album to touch on some of the issues that we all face as individuals in the inner space of our souls and our conscience…The album unfolds over four Acts with personal musical statements about love and loss, mortality, the afterlife, family and salvation.”
These four acts feature nine tracks, and eight of them written were by Idris Ackamoor. Act I: Fire Rites Of Penance features Shaman! and Tango Of Love while Act II: A Glimpse Of Eternity included Eternity When Will I See You Again? Then Act III: Upon Whose Shoulders We Stand includes Salvation and Theme For Cecil while Act IV: 400 Years: The Clotilda includes Virgin, The Last Slave Ship and Dogon Mysteries which was written by Pyramids’ guitarist Bobby Cobb. He was part of another new lineup of The Pyramids when recording of Shaman! began.
Joining The Pyramids’ were drummer Gioele Pagliaccia, bassist Ruben Ramos Medina and percussionist Jack Yglesias. They were joined by guitarist Bobby Cobb, violinist and vocalist Sandra Poindexter who had played on An Angel Fell. Making a welcome return was one of the original members of The Pyramids flautist Dr. Margaux Simmons. Idris Ackamoor played synths, alto and tenor saxophone during the sessions at Quatermass Studio which was owned by producer Malcolm Catto who also mixed the album. When it was completed it was scheduled for release during the summer of 2020.
Just like previous albums, a central feature of Shaman! is Idris Ackamoor’s intricate compositions. He showcases his compositional skills on an album that features nine expansive and lengthy pieces where Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids fuse Afro-funk, free jazz and muscular funk with jazz, soul and even elements of Afrobeat, blues, dub, fusion, hip hop, jazz-funk, Latin and rock as they take the listener on a journey where they experience powerful, poignant, ruminative and thought-provoking music. It’s music that will toy with the listeners emotions and moods during a four act, nine song journey that lasts seventy-six captivating minutes and is a mixture of music and theatre.
Opening the album is Shaman! a twelve minute epic about a failed love affair. A chiming guitar, cooing, soulful harmonies and wistful flute accompany Idris Ackamoor’s hurt-filled soliloquy. There’s a great deal of soul-searching as he ruminates and reflects wondering what went wrong? Later, gypsy violins briefly combine with a sultry saxophone as the arrangement heads in the direction of jazz-funk, fusion, Afrobeat and free jazz. Angst and masculine vulnerability are there for all to see and hear during this soul-baring, genre-melting opus which sets the bar high for the rest of the album.
The second part of Act I: Fire Rites Of Penance is Tango Of Love. Initially, it’s very different from the opening track as it breezes and dances along before becoming dark, dramatic and ruminative as if love has gone wrong again.
On Eternity the band explore the subject of timeless existence. While the saxophone and flute play an important parts, it’s Sandra Poindexter’s violin that plays a starring role. It veers between emotive, haunting, beautiful and ruminative during this powerful and thought-provoking track.
Idris Ackamoor was inspired to write When Will I See You Again? after mass shootings in America. The lyrics deal with the subjects of mortality and the danger of being “in the wrong place at the wrong time.” It’s a powerful and poignant track especially the way Idris Ackamoor combines drama and emotion as he sings: “young and old die before their time a smile turns to grief…a mother’s gone a sister too a brother a father a dear friend who you saw one moment next one gone.” Since the onset of the Covid 19 virus the title and some of the lyrics to this powerful song have taken on new meaning and poignancy.
Then on Salvation Idris Ackamoor pays homage to his ancestors as he plays his tenor saxophone with power, passion and emotion. Initially, he’s accompanied by the flute but soon takes centrestage as he unleashes a powerful and impassioned performance. Later, and like all good bandleaders he lets others shine and violinist Sandra Poindexter gives a virtuoso performance and play a part in the sound and success of this poignant homage.
Theme For Cecil is Idris Ackamoor’s homage to the man who was musical mentor, Cecil Taylor. He met the pioneering free jazz pianist when he was studying at Antioch College and became part of his part of his Black Music Ensemble. There’s no doubt that Cecil Taylor has been a major influence on Idris Ackamoor and proof if any is needed is the angular Theme For Cecil a stunning tribute to a giant of free jazz. It features some of Idris Ackamoor’s finest saxophone playing and Dr. Margaux Simmons’ flute provides the perfect foil.
Virgin is best described as an anthem of forgiveness, and deals not just with new beginnings but also self healing. It’s also a musical journey that gradually reveals its secrets, subtleties and nuances. The arrangement is slightly dubby, jazz-tinged, percussive and mesmeric as it meanders along the tempo rising and becoming soulful and celebratory.
On The Last Slave Ship Idris Ackamoor remembers The Clotilda which was the last ship to transport slaves from Africa to America. This was in 1860 just 160 years ago. It’s tragic to think that people were bought and sold and transported halfway around the world to a foreign country faraway from their family and friends. This is a sobering reminder of a what was a shameful period in history.
Dogon Mysteries closes Shaman! and it’s a case of saving one of the best tracks until last. That’s apparent from the opening bars. What follows is a hypnotic, hook-laden track where blues and jazz combine seamlessly. It’s the perfect way to close the album.
Shaman! finds Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids have picking up where they left off on An Angel Fell. It’s another carefully crafted album of genre-melting music where the latest lineup of the band switch between and fuse Afro-funk, free jazz and muscular funk, jazz, soul and even elements of Afrobeat, blues, dub, fusion, hip hop, jazz-funk, Latin and rock. This they do seamlessly on what’s the seventh album of Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids’ career.
I
Just like previous albums, a central feature of Shaman! is Idris Ackamoor’s intricate compositions. He showcases his compositional skills on an album that features nine expansive and lengthy pieces where Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids fuse Afro-funk, free jazz and muscular funk with jazz, soul and even elements of Afrobeat, blues, dub, fusion, hip hop, jazz-funk, Latin and rock as they take the listener on a journey where they experience powerful, poignant, ruminative and thought-provoking music. It’s music that will toy with the listeners emotions and moods during a four act, nine song journey that lasts seventy-six captivating minutes and is a mixture of music and theatre.
Opening the album is Shaman! a twelve minute epic about a failed love affair. A chiming guitar, cooing, soulful harmonies and wistful flute accompany Idris Ackamoor’s hurt-filled soliloquy. There’s a great deal of soul-searching as he ruminates and reflects wondering what went wrong? Later, gypsy violins briefly combine with a sultry saxophone as the arrangement heads in the direction of jazz-funk, fusion, Afrobeat and free jazz. Angst and masculine vulnerability are there for all to see and hear during this soul-baring, genre-melting opus which sets the bar high for the rest of the album.
The second part of Act I: Fire Rites Of Penance is Tango Of Love. Initially, it’s very different from the opening track as it breezes and dances along before becoming dark, dramatic and ruminative as if love has gone wrong again.
On Eternity the band explore the subject of timeless existence. While the saxophone and flute play an important parts, it’s Sandra Poindexter’s violin that plays a starring role. It veers between emotive, haunting, beautiful and ruminative during this powerful and thought-provoking track.
Idris Ackamoor was inspired to write When Will I See You Again? after mass shootings in America. The lyrics deal with the subjects of mortality and the danger of being “in the wrong place at the wrong time.” It’s a powerful and poignant track especially the way Idris Ackamoor combines drama and emotion as he sings: “young and old die before their time a smile turns to grief…a mother’s gone a sister too a brother a father a dear friend who you saw one moment next one gone.” Since the onset of the Covid 19 virus the title and some of the lyrics to this powerful song have taken on new meaning and poignancy.
Then on Salvation Idris Ackamoor pays homage to his ancestors as he plays his tenor saxophone with power, passion and emotion. Initially, he’s accompanied by the flute but soon takes centrestage as he unleashes a powerful and impassioned performance. Later, and like all good bandleaders he lets others shine and violinist Sandra Poindexter gives a virtuoso performance and play a part in the sound and success of this poignant homage.
Theme For Cecil is Idris Ackamoor’s homage to the man who was musical mentor, Cecil Taylor. He met the pioneering free jazz pianist when he was studying at Antioch College and became part of his part of his Black Music Ensemble. There’s no doubt that Cecil Taylor has been a major influence on Idris Ackamoor and proof if any is needed is the angular Theme For Cecil a stunning tribute to a giant of free jazz. It features some of Idris Ackamoor’s finest saxophone playing and Dr. Margaux Simmons’ flute provides the perfect foil.
Virgin is best described as an anthem of forgiveness, and deals not just with new beginnings but also self healing. It’s also a musical journey that gradually reveals its secrets, subtleties and nuances. The arrangement is slightly dubby, jazz-tinged, percussive and mesmeric as it meanders along the tempo rising and becoming soulful and celebratory.
On The Last Slave Ship Idris Ackamoor remembers The Clotilda which was the last ship to transport slaves from Africa to America. This was in 1860 just 160 years ago.
It’s tragic to think that people were bought and sold and transported halfway around the world to a foreign country faraway from their family and friends. This is a sobering reminder of a what was a shameful period in history.
Dogon Mysteries closes Shaman! and it’s a case of saving one of the best tracks until last. That’s apparent from the opening bars. What follows is a hypnotic, hook-laden track where blues and jazz combine seamlessly. It’s the perfect way to close the album.
Shaman! finds Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids have picking up where they left off on An Angel Fell. It’s another carefully crafted album of genre-melting music where the latest lineup of the band switch between and fuse Afro-funk, free jazz and muscular funk, jazz, soul and even elements of Afrobeat, blues, dub, fusion, hip hop, jazz-funk, Latin and rock. This they do seamlessly on what’s the seventh album of Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids’ career.
It features four acts that deals with subjects that include: “love and loss, mortality, the afterlife, family and salvation.” They’re part of Shaman! a musical journey that affects the listener’s mood and emotions. That isn’t surprising as the music is powerful and poignant and sometimes is ruminative and encourages reflection. Other times it is beautiful, soulful and celebratory and offers hope for the future. However, Shaman! is also an album of cerebral and thought-provoking music and is an emotional roller coaster from the latest lineup of Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids who once again reach new heights with their latest opus.
Idris Ackamoor and The Pyramids-Shaman!
LUIZ CARLOS VINHAS-O SOM PSICODELICO DE L.C.V
Luiz Carlos Vinhas-O Som Psicodélico De L.C.V.
Label: Mad About Records.
Format: LP.
Within his native Brazil, Luiz Carlos Vinhas is remembered and regarded as one of the greatest pianists of the Bossa Nova movement. He was one of the genre’s founding fathers and was a founder member of Bossa Três in 1961. They became one of the most important groups of the Bossa Nova era and released eight albums between 1963 and 1966.
By 1968, Luiz Carlos Vinhas had embarked upon a solo career and released O Som Psicodélico De L.C.V.. This genre-melting cult classic has been released by the Mad About label and shows another side to Luiz Carlos Vinhas’ music.
Luiz Carlos Vinhas was born in Rio de Janeiro on May the ‘19th’ 1940. Growing up, he learnt to play the piano and by the time he was a teenager, he had already decided that he wanted to make a career out of music.
His career began when he was seventeen year old.The following year, 1958, a new musical genre was born in the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro, Bossa Nova. By then, Luiz Carlos Vinhas was already working as a session musician and was determined to be at the forefront of this new and exciting urban musical movement.
By 1961, Bossa Nova’s popularity had grown and Luiz Carlos Vinhas had been part of the new musical movement since the beginning. However, he wanted to be more than a session musicians and cofounded Bossa Três with drummer Edison Machado and double bassist Tião Neto. This was the first ever instrumental Bossa Nova group, and they would go on to write their names into Brazilian musical history.
In the early days, Bossa Três played mostly Luiz Carlos Vinhas’ compositions. He was the nascent group’s songwriter-in-chief when they played in the nightclubs of Beco das Garrafas, in Copacabana, where they accompanied dancers Joe Benett , Lennie Dale and Martha Botelho. However, it wasn’t long before Bossa Três got the chance to travel further afield.
With the dancers, they traveled to America after being invited to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show. By then, it was one of the most popular American television shows and they were about to play in front of a huge audience. This launched their career and the group decided to stay in America.
During the next few years, Bossa Três played in New York’s jazz clubs and recorded three albums. This included their finest American album Bossa Três 3. It was also the final album he group released in America.
Although Luiz Carlos Vinhas enjoyed his time in America, he missed Brazil and decided to head home in 1963. However, the other two members of the group stayed in America.
On his return home, Luiz Carlos Vinhas started looking for new band members. Eventually, he recruited drummer Ronie Mesquita and bassist Octavio Bailly Júnior for the new lineup of Bossa Três.
1964 was an important year for twenty-four year old Luiz Carlos Vinhas. He had signed to the Forma label and released his debut solo album Novas Estruturas. Nowadays, it’s regarded as a Bossa Nova classic and one of Luiz Carlos Vinhas’ finest releases.
The same year, 1964, he was a member of Meirelles E Os Copa 5 when they released their debut album O Som. This future classic was followed up by O Nôvo Som in 1965. It was one of the busiest years of Luiz Carlos Vinhas’ career.
By 1965, the new lineup of Bossa Três were dividing their time between playing live and recording new albums. They released three albums during 1965 and a further two during 1966. This includes Os Reis Do Rítmo in 1966 which is regarded as Bossa Três Mk II’s finest album and is anther Bossa Nova classic.
Later in 1966, Luiz Carlos Vinhas formed The Gemini 5 who soon, began work on their debut album. This was Gemini 5 which was released in Mexico in 1967 when the group toured the country. It was the latest chapter in the Luiz Carlos Vinhas story.
In 1968, Luiz Carlos Vinhas had signed to CBS and began work on his long-awaited sophomore album. By then, four years had passed since the release of his debut album Novas Estruturas. However, he was about to record a very different album and one that reflected the music of 1968.
By then, the psychedelic era was well underway and Luiz Carlos Vinhas had been influenced by this new genre of music. It would influence O Som Psicodélico De L.C.V.. However, the starting point for the album was his first musical love Bossa Nova. To this, Luiz Carlos Vinhas added elements of Afro-Brazilian, tropicalia, easy listening, jazz, pop and rock. This was all part of his plan to record an ambitious album befitting the new musical era.
For the album that eventually became O Som Psicodélico De L.C.V. he wrote Tanganica and cowrote Yê-Melê and Zizê Baiô with Chico Feitosa who features on the album. Luiz Carlos Vinhas also covered some familiar tracks including Horace Silver’s Song For My Father. It was joined by Chatanooga Choo-Choo and Can’t Take My Eyes Off You which were part of two suites on the album. In total, ten tracks were recorded by Luiz Carlos Vinhas for O Som Psicodélico De L.C.V. which was scheduled for release later in 1968.
Record buyers discovered an album that was quintessentially Brazilian. Luiz Carlos Vinhas combined Bossa Nova with elements of tropicalia and Afro-Brazilian with jazz, psychedelia, pop and rock. Sampling was used on O Som Psicodélico De L.C.V. which featured bursts of birdsong, animal sounds, vocal riffing and onomatopoeia. It was an ambitious and innovative album that sometimes, seemed ahead of its time.
O Som Psicodélico De L.C.V. was the perfect showcase for Luiz Carlos Vinhas’ skills. It featured the deft touch that had served him so well since he made his professional debut in 1957. During the album his playing was delicate and intricate as he takes the listener on a captivating journey.
Side One.
Joao Donato’s classic Amazonas opens the album and Luiz Carlos Vinhas forever the showman reinvents this familiar track. His fingers glide and sometimes dance across the keyboard his playing smooth and inventive as he joins forces with the horns, percussion and rhythm section to ensure that this uplifting and joyous slice of musical sunshine swings. It’s a similar case on Song For My Father where Luiz Carlos Vinhas pays homage to jazz legend Horace Silver.
Among the highlights of the album are Luiz Carlos Vinhas’ own compositions. This includes Tanganica where birdsong and animal sounds are combined with the guitar and horns. They combine with the vocals and play a leading role in sound and success of this soulful track. Then Yê-Melê is a homage to the water goddess Yoruba where blazing horns, percussion and piano drive the arrangement along. Later, drums pound, cymbals crash and a female vocalist adds umbandista chants which add a contrast to the urgency of this genre-melting track. Zizê Baiô then sashays along as braying horns punctuate this fusion of Bossa Nova, psychedelia and lo-fi sounds.
The tempo drops on Un Jour Christine as Luiz Carlos Vinhas is transformed into a balladeer. The arrangement is understated with a late-night jazz sound that occasionally becomes lysergic and features lo-fi sounds on what’s one of the most beautiful songs on the album.
Side Two.
Opening the second side is the first of three short suite. It opens with remakes of the jazz standards Chatanooga Choo-Choo and Don’t Be That Way and then closes with Wilson Simonal’s Tributo A Martin Luther King. Then Luiz Carlos Vinhas and his band work their way through Pourquoi, Arrasta A Sandália, Morena, Boca De Ouro and Rosa Morena. For nearly eight minutes the band and vocalists transport the listener to Rio De Janeiro as Bossa Nova, soulful vocals and high kicking horns combine. The third suite opens with celebratory sound of Birthday Morning before giving way to the easy listening classic Can’t Take My Eyes Off You which is given a makeover as Bossa Nova, soul and jazz combine seamlessly. It’s one of the highlights of side two.
Closing O Som Psicodélico De L.C.V. is O Dialogo which features Chico Feitosa on a track that includes elements of spoken word, vocal riffing and onomatopoeia. It’s without doubt one of the most innovative tracks on the album and shows that Luiz Carlos Vinhas was way ahead of his time.
When Luiz Carlos Vinhas released O Som Psicodélico De L.C.V. in 1968, this groundbreaking genre-melting album was nowhere near as successful as his debut Novas Estruturas. It may have been that the music was too adventurous and avant-garde for fans of Bossa Três and his debut album? For Luiz Carlos Vinhas this must have been hugely disappointing.
It was only much later that O Som Psicodélico De L.C.V. started to find an audience when it was rediscovered by collectors and crate-digging DJs. Belatedly, Luiz Carlos Vinhas’ oft-overlooked and vastly underrated sophomore album O Som Psicodélico De L.C.V. started to find an audience and fifty-two years after its release is receiving the plaudits and praise it so richly deserves.
Luiz Carlos Vinhas-O Som Psicodélico De L.C.V.
HELEN SHAPIRO-FACE THE MUSIC: THE COMPLETE SINGLES 1967-1984.
Helen Shapiro-Face The Music: The Complete Singles 1967-1984.
Label: Ace Records.
Format: CD.
By the time Helen Shapiro celebrated her twenty-first birthday in 1967 the London-born singer realise had already enjoyed the most successful period of her career. Her rise had been meteoric and was like the script to a Hollywood film.
Helen Shapiro was born in Bethnal Green Hospital in the East End of London on the ’28th’ of September 1948, and spent the early part of her childhood living in a council flat in Clapton, in the borough of Hackney. She attended Northwold Primary School which was where her musical career began.
By then, Helen Shapiro had discovered music and bought her first single. However, her parents were unable to afford their own record player and she had to borrow a neighbour’s player to hear her new single. This was just the start of Helen Shapiro’s love of music.
She began to play the banjo ukulele and sometimes, joined her brother Ron when he sang in the skiffle group at the local youth group. Even then, Helen Shapiro had a deep voice and her school friends started to call her “foghorn.” However, she would have the last laugh.
Aged ten, Helen Shapiro became joined Susie and the Hula Hoops’ lead vocalist. The group also included her cousin Susan Singer who would embark upon a career as a vocalist during the sixties and guitarist Mark Field who later, changed his name to Mark Bolan. This was the start of Helen Shapiro’s career.
Helen Shapiro enrolled at The Maurice Burman School of Modern Pop Singing, in Baker Street, London, which was the alma mater of Alma Coogan. One of Maurice Burman’s contacts was John Schroeder a songwriter and A&R executive at Columbia. He recorded a demo of Helen Shapiro singing Birth Of The Blues, and not long after this the thirteen year old was signed to Columbia.
By the time Helen Shapiro released her debut single Don’t Treat Me Like A Child in February 1961 she was fourteen. It reached number three in the UK, six in Ireland and topped the charts in New Zealand. The single launched Helen Shapiro’s career.
The followup was You Don’t Know which was released on the ‘29th’ June 1961 and reached number one in the UK and was certified gold. Elsewhere the single topped the charts in Ireland and New Zealand and was a top ten single in Denmark, Norway, France, Israel and Japan.
The day after her fifteenth birthday Walkin’ Back to Happiness was realised as single on the ‘29th’ of September 1961. The topped the UK chart gave Helen Shapiro her second gold disc. This was just part of the story. Walkin’ Back to Happiness reached number one in Ireland, New Zealand, Israel and South Africa and reached the top ten in Austria, Australia, France, Holland, Norway and Sweden. It was the biggest hit single of Helen Shapiro’s nascent career. She was enjoying success beyond her wildest dreams.
When Helen Shapiro released her fourth single Tell Me What He Said in early 1962 it “only” reached number two in the UK. This was her fourth consecutive top ten single. Elsewhere, it reached number one in India and gave her a top ten single in Ireland, Israel, New Zealand and Norway.
The followup Let’s Talk About Love stalled at twenty-three later in 1963. This was a disappointment for Helen Shapiro, who had made her acing debut.
By the spring of 1962 she had appeared as herself in the Billy Fury film Play It Cool and played the female lead in the British musical comedy It’s Trad, Dad! which featured performances by a variety of dixieland jazz bands and rock-and-roll singers. However, after her appearances in the two films Helen Shapiro decided to concentrate on her musical career.
Later in 1962, Helen Shapiro released her sixth single Little Miss Lonely which peaked at number eight in the UK charts. Little did she realise that this was the last top ten single of her career.
Despite that, there was still more success to come for Helen Shapiro when was voted Britain’s “Top Female Singer” before her sixteenth birthday. This was just the latest award to come her way during a two year period where she was one of the biggest names in British music.
In 1963, Helen Shapiro embarked upon a British tour and one of the groups that had been booked to support her were The Beatles. They had just enjoyed their first hit single and she witnessed firsthand the early outbreaks of Beatlemania. However, during the tour unbeknown to Helen Shapiro The Beatles also wrote a song for her.
This was Misery which was turned down by Norrie Paramor who was Helen Shapiro’s producer. She wasn’t told about the song never mind allowed to hear it Misery. It was only later that Helen Shapiro was told about his decision to turn down Misery. By then, it had featured on The Beatles’ debut album Please Please Me. For Helen Shapiro it was a case of what might have been as the song might have transformed her ailing fortunes.
None of the singles that Helen Shapiro released during 1963 troubled the top thirty in the UK. Queen For Tonight Reaches thirty-three, Woe Is Me thirty-five and Look Who It Is stalled at forty-seven. Worse was to come when No Trespassing failed to chart in the UK, although it topped the charts in Australia. This was a small crumb of comfort for the seventeen year old singer.
1964 was another disappointing year for Helen Shapiro with hit singles again proving elusive. None of her singles troubled the top thirty in the UK. Her most successful release was a cover of Fever which stalled at a lowly thirty-eight. This was a far cry from 1961 when Helen Shapiro had enjoyed two number ones and two other top ten singles. That must have seemed like a long time ago.
Things went from bad to worse in 1965 when none of the singles that Helen Shapiro released came close to troubling the charts. It was a similar case in 1966 and as 1967 dawned executives at Columbia were wondering if Helen Shapiro’s hit making days were behind her?
She would only release two more singles on Columbia. These singles and the B-Sides feature on a new Helen Shapiro compilation which has been released by Ace Records. It’s entitled Face The Music: The Complete Singles 1967-1984 and features twenty-five tracks including many that make their debut on CD.
By March 1967, John Schroeder who had discovered Helen Shapiro had left Columbia and so had her producer Norrie Paramor. He had been replaced by Norman Smith who produced the final two singles Helen Shapiro released for the label.
Her first single of 1967 was a cover of Billy Vera and Chip Taylor’s Make Me Belong To You which featured the Helen Shapiro composition The Way Of The World on the B-Side. It was recorded in 1966 and featured an impassioned and emotive vocal. It’s a stronger song and would’ve made a better single as Make Me Belong To You never troubled the charts.
It was a similar case when the cerebral sounding She Needs Company, a Paul Jones composition was released as a single with Stop and You Will Become Aware on the flip-side. Sadly, when the single was released on the ‘25th’ of August 1967 Helen Shapiro’s Columbia swansong failed to chart. However, the B-Side went on to become a favourite on the Northern Soul scene. By then, it was all change for Helen Shapiro.
After leaving Columbia, Helen Shapiro signed to Pye which was home to two of Petula Clark and Sandie Shaw. The label now had three of the top British female vocalists signed to the label.
Helen Shapiro’s debut for Pye was the ballad You’ll Get Me Loving You which was released in 1968 and featured the faux-Motown of Silly Boy (I Love You) on the B-Side. Both sides were written by Anthony King and John Schroeder who had penner her early hits and many of the songs she recorded at Pye. However, the single failed to trouble the charts and the search for a hit continued.
In 1969, the Latin-tinged Today Has Been Cancelled was released as a single and failed to chart in the UK. However, it was a commercial success in Australia where Helen Shapiro had enjoyed a string of hit singles. On the B-Side was vastly underrated and radio friendly Face The Music which was penned by Anthony King and John Schroeder.
They didn’t write the followup You’ve Guessed which was released as a single later in 1969. It failed to find an audience although the stomping B-Side Take Me for A While with its dancing strings was another of Helen Shapiro’s songs to become a favourite on the UK Northern Soul scene.
As 1970 dawned, eight years had passed since Helen Shapiro last enjoyed a hit single with Little Miss Lonely. Her time at Pye had been unsuccessful partly because the label weren’t promoting the singles as effectively as other releases. To make matters worse John Schroeder moved to Polydor. He had cowritten many of the songs she recorded and championed Helen Shapiro at Pye. Things weren’t looking good for her.
Especially when her first single of 1970 failed to chart. This was Take Down A Note Miss Smith with Couldn’t You See on the B-Side. The followup later in 1970 was Waiting On The Shores Of Nowhere which featured the hurt-filled ballad Glass Of Wine on the flip-side. It was the last single Helen Shapiro would release for Pye in the UK and is one of the hidden gems in her back-catalogue.
Just before Helen Shapiro was dropped by Pye, she released Das Ist Nicht Die Feine Englische Art on their German imprint. After that, the thirty year old singer left the label and her search for a hit continued.
Two years after leaving Pye, Helen Shapiro recorded The Prophet for the Phoenix label. When the single was released in 1972, Helen Shapiro used the moniker Ella Stone and Moss. However, the single failed to trouble the charts and doesn’t feature on the Face The Music: The Complete Singles 1967-1984 compilation .
By 1975, Helen Shapiro had signed to DJM and released the tender, heartfelt ballad You’re A Love Child as a single. On the B-Side was That’s The Reason I Love You where pop, rock and soul melt into one on what’s another hidden gem. Sadly, the single failed to find and audience and Helen Shapiro left DJM.
Later in 1975 she headlined Ronnie Scott’s jazz club as she continued to pursue a career as a jazz singer. It was a new chapter in her career.
In 1976 she returned to the studio with producer Bill Kimber and arranger Colin Frechter and recorded If You Feel He Cares and It Only Hurts When You Love. The songs were sold to the Magnet label who seeing the potential in them spent money on PR before releasing them using the Swing Thing moniker later in 1976. Sadly, for Helen Shapiro it was another disappointment when the single sunk without trace.
Despite that, she continued to work with Bill Kimber and Colin Frechter. They recorded the Russ Ballard’s Can’t Break The Habit for the next single. On the B-Side was the Ron and Helen Shapiro composition For All The Wrong Reasons on the B-Side. Despite its slick, uptempo and hook-laden sound the single failed to chart when released in 1977. That was despite being heavily promoted by Arista and being played on local and national radio. It was the one that got away for Helen Shapiro who had now gone fifteen years without a hit.
Helen Shapiro’s second single for Arista was a soulful cover of Every Little Bit Hurts with Touchin’ Wood on the flip-side. Sadly when the single was released in 1978 it failed to trouble the charts. This resulted in Helen Shapiro and Arista parting company.
The next single she released in the UK was on Oval which was co-owned by DJ and writer Charlie Gillett. He approached Helen Shapiro to make the album which eventually became Straight Up and Fly Right. Before this, they released a cover of Irving Berlin’s Let Yourself Go was released as a single with Funny on the B-Side. It showed another side to Helen Shapiro who by now had reinvented as a jazz singer.
Despite that, the following year, 1984, she returned to her pop roots with cover of Allen Toussaint’s Brickyard Blues. It was released with Just Another Weekend on the flip-side. This was the final pop single of Helen Shapiro’s career which began twenty-three years earlier in 1961.
Incredibly, the first two years of Helen Shapiro’s career proved to be the most successful. In the UK she enjoyed five top ten singles between 1961 and 1962 and two of these topped the charts. During this period, Helen Shapiro enjoyed hit singles as far afield as Australia, Europe, India, Israel, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa. Sadly, never again did she scale these heights and by 1967 her time at Columbia where the label she signed to six years earlier was almost at an end.
Face The Music: The Complete Singles 1967-1984 features the last two singles Helen Shapiro released for Columbia and documents her career as a solo artist right through until 1984. The compilation shows different sides to Helen Shapiro a talented singer who showcases her versatility during the twenty-five tracks Face The Music: The Complete Singles 1967-1984. It shows that there’s more to Helen Shapiro than Walkin’ Back to Happiness, much more.
Face The Music: The Complete Singles 1967-1984.
CULT CLASSIC: SIDIKU BUARI-DISCO SOCCER.
Cult Classic: Sidiku Buari-Disco Soccer.
There are very few people who manage to forge a career in both sport and music, but Ghanian born Sidiku Buari managed to do just this. He was a silver medallist in the 400 metres at the 1963 All-Africa Games held in Dakar, Senegal. Two years later, in 1965, Sidiku Buari was a member of the 4×400 relay team at the All-Africa Games in Brazzaville, when the Republic Of Congo won a bronze medal.
A year after his second appearance at the All-African Games, Sidiku Buari emigrated to America in 1966, and studied music at the New York School of Music. After that, Sidiku Buari studied interior design at the La Sale University in Chicago, Illinois. By then, Sidiku Buari’s musical career was underway, but his love of sport saw him playing baseball to a reasonable standard during his three decade stay in the United States. However, while Sidiku Buari was a talented and successful athlete he enjoyed more success as a musician.
Sidiku Buari was a prolific artist, arranger, composer and producer who during his long and illustrious career, released in excess of twenty-five albums.
He released his debut album Buari, on RCA in 1975. It featured legendary jazz drummer Bernard ‘Pretty’ Purdie who plays a starring role on this über rare fusion of Afrobeat, disco, funk and soul. This genre-melting album launched the career of this truly innovative artist who successfully fused African and Western music.
That was the case four years later in 1979, when Sidiku Buari released his sophomore album Disco Soccer. He was joined by an all-star cast when he recorded this future cult classic.
When Sidiku Buari was recording the eleven tracks that became Disco Soccer, he was joined by what was the creme de la creme of session musicians. This included two of the go-to horn players, The Brecker Brothers saxophonist Michael and trumpeter Randy. They were joined by trumpeter Jon Faddis, saxophonist George Young, trombonist Barry Rogers while Christine Snyder and Valerie West played French horn. The string section featured violinists Danny Reed , Lucy Corwin, Paul Scales, Bob Rozek and Stan Curtis plus cellist John Reed. Completing the lineup was percussionist Errol ‘Crusher’ Bennett. Together this multitalented band combined the music heard in Accra and New York in 1979.
Disco Soccer was released on Polydor later in 1979, and just like Sidiku Buari’s debut four years earlier, combined a myriad of disparate musical genres. The Ghanian bandleader and multi-instrumentalist backed by his all-star band, fused elements of Afrobeat, late-seventies disco, boogie, funk and soul. This was combined from the opening bars of Koko Si right through to the closing notes of Games We Used To Play. For forty-three majestic minutes the music veers between slick and sharp to soulful, funky and dancefloor friendly as Disco Soccer heads in the direction of traditional Ghanian music.
This is Ghanian music with a difference. Listen carefully and the sound of Southern Soul, and especially the Stax can be heard. There’s also a Motown influence on Disco Soccer as African and Western music combine to create irresistible genre-melting music.
It’s a captivating combination where one minute, the listener is enjoying what could be the soundtrack to an evening in Studio 54, in New York, before being transported to the Ghanian capital as they hear they other side to this cult classic, Disco Soccer.
Despite the quality of the music the album that wasn’t a huge success upon its release. It was only much later when it was rediscovered that the album started to be be heard by a wider and appreciative audience. They also discovered the album’s secret.
This was what Sidiku Buari called the Disco Soccer dance. It was: “a brand new dance-also called The Spirit Of Sports Dance. The most important part of this dance is the footwork of the steps. Just Remember, the “Soccer ball” is the drum beat of every disco beat, as well as this new dance-so, follow the drum beat and you will find it easy to dance. Hand swinging, head shaking, body moving, slightly kicking, jumping and stepping is a part of this dance.”
Given the irresistible, genre-melting music on Sidiku Buari’s sophomore album Disco Soccer, even those lacking in coordination will soon be moving and grooving and enjoying The Spirit Of Sports Dance, and recreating the spirit of 1979, when this oft-overlooked cult classic was originally released.
Cult Classic: Sidiku Buari-Disco Soccer.
KLAUS SCHULZE-THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOOG YEARS.
Klaus Schulze-The Dark Side Of The Moog Years.
By 1994, Berlin School pioneer Klaus Schulze was a veteran of German music and had been making music for twenty-five years. His recording career began back in October 1969, when Klaus Schulze played on Tangerine Dream’s debut album Electronic Meditation.
Eight months later, Electronic Meditation was released by Ohr Records, in June 1970. It was an ambitious album of groundbreaking and genre-melting music that would later be regarded as Berlin School classic. Despite this, Electronic Meditation initially failed to find an audience. For Tangerine Dream this was a huge disappointment. Despite this, rhe group continued albeit without Klaus Schulze.
He left Tangerine Dream to cofound Ash Ra Temple with Hartmut Enke and Manuel Göttsching. The new group recorded their debut album on 11th March 1971. Three months later and Ash Ra Temple was released by Ohr Records in June 1971. It was an innovative fusion of progressive rock and ambient music that later, would be regarded as a Krautrock classic. However, when Ash Ra Temple was released it failed commercially. This resulted in Klaus Schulze embarking upon a solo career.
Just over a year later, in August 1972, Klaus Schulze released his debut album Irrlicht. Although it was a groundbreaking album, Irrlicht failed to find the audience it deserved. Irrlicht was ahead of its time and nowadays regarded as a Berlin School classic. So is the followup Cyborg, which was released in October 1973.
It was a familiar story when Cyborg was released. It was another album that was way ahead of its time and record buyers failed to understand the music or recognise its importance. Nowadays, it’s regarded as an that helped shape and define the Berlin School of electronic music.
Although Klaus Schulze’s first two solo albums had failed to find an audience he continued to release pioneering music. Gradually, Klaus Schulze’s music began to find a much wider and appreciative audience. That was the case throughout the rest of the seventies, eighties and right up until the early nineties. By then, Klaus Schulze was one of the most prolific German artists.
That had been the case throughout Klaus Schulze’s career. He often released two and sometimes three albums in a year. Then there were a myriad of collaborations and the albums Klaus Schulze released under his Richard Wahnfried moniker. However, one of the most productive years of Klaus Schulze’s career was 1993.
During 1993, Klaus Schulze released the live album The Dome Event and Silver Edition, a ten disc box set. Surely, this meant that Klaus Schulze was one of the most prolific European recording artists?
Despite his prolificacy, Klaus Schulze wasn’t about to rest on his laurels as 1994 dawned. He was already working on two solo album, two live albums, the Richard Wahnfried album Trancelation and was about to release a new collaboration with Pete Namlook, Dark Side Of The Moog.
Little did Klaus Schulze realise that the Dark Side Of The Moog project he was working on would become a long running and successful series. Eleven volumes of the Dark Side Of The Moog series were released between 1994 and 2008.
Initially, Klaus Schulze was reluctant to collaborate with Peter Kuhlmann a.k.a. Pete Namlook when he first approached him about potentially working on a project. Back then, Klaus Schulze was constantly busy working on a variety of projects. He had embraced both digital technology and sampling and since then, had been putting the new technology to good use. This had resulted in albums like Beyond Recall; The Royal Festival Hall Recordings and The Dome Event. Digital technology and sampling had opened up a new world of opportunities for Klaus Schulze, and he was keen to utilise this on further projects.
Most likely this would be solo albums but could be a collaboration with another artist. It would have to be the right artists though. Klaus Schulze wasn’t sure that Pete Namlook was the right person for him to collaborate with.
That was despite Klaus Schulze being aware of Pete Namlook’s music and the Fax +49-69/450464 record label he founded in 1992. Pete Namlook regarded the label as a vehicle to release: his own recordings; his collaborations with other musicians and albums by like-minded musicians. Since its formation in 1992, Fax quickly established a reputation for releasing ambitious and inventive music. This included some of the music Pete Namlook had released.
Over the years, Pete Namlook released music using a myriad of aliases. This included Air, who would release the sophomore album Air II in 1994. It featured Travelling Without Moving which featured eleven trips. Pete Namlook took the album to let Klaus Schulze hear. When he heard the spacey sound of Travelling Without Moving, he was won over by Pete Namlook’s music. So much so, that Klaus Schulze suggested that he and Pete Namlook collaborate on a project. That project would become The Dark Side Of The Moog.
The Dark Side Of The Moog Volumes 1-4.
Part 1-Wish You Were There.
Now that the Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook had agreed to collaborate on a project, they began working on what would be the as yet unnamed project’s debut album.
In later years, as musical technology improved, the men would exchange ideas for tracks via email. However, for what would be their debut album the men headed to the studio in September 1993. The two me wrote and recorded a total of ten tracks where laus Schulze and Pete Namlook put the latest in musical technology to good use. The result was a captivating album from the two musical pioneers.
The ten tracks which veered between understated, atmospheric and dreamy to pulsating, anthemic and dance-floor friendly. To create these tracks, Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook had created elements of ambient, avant-garde, electronica and techno With the album complete, now Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook had to think of a name for their new musical vehicle.
After some thought, they came up with Dark Side Of The Moog. This wasn’t a homage to Pink Floyd. Instead, it was a reference to the man who invented an instrument that played an important part on Dark Side Of The Moog, Bob Moog. He had the Moog synths. However, Pink Floyd would provide some inspiration for Dark Side Of The Moog.
With the album complete, Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook began trying to think of a title for the ten tracks. The two men were struggling. It was a problem that Klaus Schulze had encountered before. This was solved when they hit on the idea of picking a Pink Floyd title and changing it to something that didn’t exist. So Pink Floyd’s classic album Wish You Were Here became Wish You Were There. This became a tradition after recording each volume of Dark Side Of The Moog.
The first instalment in the Dark Side Of The Moog series was released by the Fax label on 17th October 1994. It was a limited edition of just 1,000 CDs. So successful was the album, that it was reissued in 1995. By then, Volume 2 had been released.
Part 2-A Saucerful Of Ambience.
Just a month after recording the first volume in the Dark Side Of The Moog series, Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook returned to Sonic Studio in October 1993. They recorded twelve tracks that would become A Saucerful Of Ambience.
Just like Wish You Were There, the music on A Saucerful Of Ambience started off with an understated, atmospheric and ambient sound. Sometimes, there’s a lysergic sound to the spacious soundscapes. This is a result of ambient, avant-garde and electronica are being combined However, by A Saucerful of Ambience, Pt. 8 the mesmeric drumbeats have made an appearance and the music changes. Soon, it takes on a pumping, pulsating sound as techno makes an appearance on A Saucerful of Ambience, Pt. 9. This is only briefly. By A Saucerful of Ambience, Pt. 10 takes on a ruminative, pastoral and wistful sound, and this continues throughout the rest of A Saucerful Of Ambience.
A mere five months after the release of The Dark Side Of The Moog, The Dark Side Of The Moog II was released by Fax on 20th March 1995. Again, it was initially a limited edition of 1,000 CDs. However, four months later The Dark Side Of The Moog II would be released by the Ambient World label.
By then, the first instalment was a favourite among DJs who were playing chill out sets. This introduced Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook’s music to a wider audience, They would embrace The Dark Side Of The Moog II, which find its way into many a DJs’ box. So it was no surprise that a third volume in the The Dark Side Of The Moog was in the pipeline.
Part 3-Atom Heart Brother Part I-VI.
Following the success of the first two volumes of The Dark Side Of The Moog, Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook returned to Sonic Studio, in Frankfurt in 1995. They wrote and recorded six further soundscapes. Drawing inspiration from Pink Floyd’s Atom Heart Mother, they became Atom Heart Brother Part I-VI.
Later in 1995, the six tracks were released as The Dark Side Of The Moog III. Record buyers discovered that Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook had continued to reinvent their sound. While there were still elements of ambient, avant-garde and electronica, there was a move towards first abstract and then trance. This was a first. However, Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook were determined that their music would never become predictable. Instead, it was a case of expect the unexpected as the Dark Side Of The Moog series continued.
Part 4-Three Pipers At The Gates Of Dawn.
What very few people expected was that Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook would bring onboard a third musician to work on the Dark Side Of The Moog series. That was what they did.
The man in question was American bassist, songwriter and producer Bill Laswell. He was another prolific artist, who had worked on literally, hundreds of recordings with musicians from all over the globe. Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook were the latest musicians he was about work with.
Bringing onboard Bill Laswell resulted in a change in the way the album was made. This time, the recording sessions took place three studios in two countries. Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook recorded their parts at Klanglabor Frankfurt, Moldau Musik Studio, Hamburg. Meanwhile, Bill Laswell recorded his parts at Greenpoint Studio in Brooklyn. Gradually, the nine parts in the Three Pipers At The Gates Of Dawn suite.
While Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook usually wrote every part of a suite, this time around, they only wrote four tracks. Bill Laswell contributed 1.1-13, 1.5 and 1.8. However, as usual, Pete Namlook took charge of producing what was a quite different album.
The nine parts of the Three Pipers At The Gates Of Dawn suite was a fusion of ambient, electronica, modern classical and techno. Just like previous instalments in the series, the music continued to evolve. It was an album that DJs would embrace and that would stand the test of time.
As 1996 dawned, The Dark Side Of The Moog IV was released by Fax on 12th February 1996 as a limited edition. Soon, The Dark Side Of The Moog IV had sold out. Four months later, The Dark Side Of The Moog IV released on CD by Ambient World on 10th June 1996. It continued the success story that was The Dark Side Of The Moog.
This was somewhat ironic, given Klaus Schulze’s reluctance to collaborate with Pete Namlook. Two years later, their project was enjoying critical and commercial success. Part of the success of The Dark Side Of The Moog series was how the music continued to evolve. The result was music that’s stood the test of time and gives the listener a taste of what’s to come in The Dark Side Of The Moog series.
The Dark Side Of The Moog Volumes 5-9
Part 5-Psychedelic Brunch.
Following the success of the reissue of The Dark Side Of The Moog Volumes 1-4 box set, MIG released The Dark Side Of The Moog Volumes 5-8. It continued a story that began in 1994. However, work on the sixth instalment in The Dark Side Of The Moog began later in 1996.
Just like The Dark Side Of The Moog Volumes 5, the recording sessions took place three studios, Klanglabor Frankfurt, Moldau Musik Studio, Hamburg and Greenpoint Studio in Brooklyn. Gradually, the eight parts in the Psychedelic Brunch suite. Six of them were penned by Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook. The exceptions were 1.3 and 1.7 which were written by Bill Laswell. He continued to make an important contribution to Dark Side Of The Moog series. So did the man who had inspired the name.
Having introduced the album, Bob Moog’s spoken vocal featured on 1.2. He played his part on what was another eclectic album. Everything from ambient, abstract and avant-garde rubbed shoulders with elements of the Berlin School, electronica, modern classical. It was a captivating combination and one of the finest instalments in the series.
The Dark Side Of The Moog V was released by Fax on the 9th of December 1996. It was now a much-anticipated series, that was a favourite of chill out DJs and record buyers. This would continue to be the case throughout The Dark Side Of The Moog series.
Part 6-The Final DAT.
Buyoed by the continuing success of The Dark Side Of The Moog series, the three members of The Dark Side Of The Moog began work on the next instalment in the series.
By then, technology had progressed sufficiently that Klaus Schulze, Pete Namlook and Bill Laswell were able to email each other parts that of tracks that they had been working on. No longer did each member of The Dark Side Of The Moog have to be in the same studio. They didn’t even have to be in the same country. Instead, the three members of The Dark Side Of The Moog used the same three studios as before.
Recording took place at Klanglabor Frankfurt, Moldau Musik Studio, Hamburg and Greenpoint Studio in Brooklyn. That was where The Final DAT was recorded. It was a six part genre-melting suite, Bill Laswell wrote Part I and Part IV. Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook wrote the rest of The Dark Side Of The Moog VI. As usual, it was produced by and was ready for release in autumn 1997.
On The Dark Side Of The Moog VI, elements of abstract ambient and avant-garde were combined Berlin School, electronica and trance. It was a captivating, imaginative and cinematic and genre-melting album. The music was understated, beautiful, ethereal and mesmeric as it took the listener on a musical journey. Just like previous volumes in the series, the music had a timeless quality. The three members of The Dark Side Of The Moog had surpassed their previous efforts.
It was no surprise that when the The Dark Side Of The Moog VI was released by Fax as a limited edition of 2,000 on the 29th of September 1997, that the album sold out. DJs and record buyers went in search of what was one of the most sought after releases. Incredibly, considering the success of the album and indeed the series, The Dark Side Of The Moog VI wasn’t rereleased until 2003. By then, three further instalments The Dark Side Of The Moog would’ve been released.
Part 7-Obscured By Klaus.
The first of this trio of releases was The Dark Side Of The Moog VII. It was a fifty minute, seven part suite entitled Obscured By Klaus. This time though, Bill Laswell wrote just Part 3 of the suite and recorded his parts in New York during the first half of 1998.
Meanwhile, Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook recorded their part at Klanglabor in Frankfurt, Moldau Musik Studio, Hamburg and at Traben-Trarbach. During the recording sessions, the three members of The Dark Side Of The Moog emailed each other their parts. Gradually, the album came together and eventually, Obscured By Klaus was ready for release.
Obscured By Klaus was much more like the first three albums in The Dark Side Of The Moog series. Much of the album had an ambient sound, with the music veering between dreamy, ethereal and ruminative and understated. Later, the tempo increases as a pulsating bass synth plays a leading role as ambient and electronica meet techno. Soon, though, the ambient sound returns as The Dark Side Of The Moog revisit and reinvent their earlier elegiac sound. There’s even elements of modern classical music to what was The Dark Side Of The Moog’s finest hours.
The Dark Side Of The Moog VII was released on 23rd November 1998 by Fax. This time, Fax had released an extra 1,000 copies of the album making it a limited edition of 3,000. Still though, supply outstripped demand as DJs and record buyers sought copies of The Dark Side Of The Moog VII, which was Bill Laswell’s swan-song.
After recording four volumes in The Dark Side Of The Moog series, Bill Laswell decided to concentrate his efforts on other musical projects. This meant that The Dark Side Of The Moog returned to a due on The Dark Side Of The Moog VIII.
Part 8-Careful With The AKS, Peter.
After releasing four albums as a trio, The Dark Side Of The Moog returned to a duo for the The Dark Side Of The Moog VIII. It featured an eight part suite Careful With The AKS, Peter. This was a very different recording.
Unlike the previous Dark Side Of The Moog albums, the eight part suite Careful With The AKS, Peter wasn’t recorded in the studio. Instead, it was recorded live at the 23rd Jazz Festival Hamburg on 23rd April 1999. After the recording, Pete Namlook who had produced The Dark Side Of The Moog series, edited some parts of the recording. Only then was The Dark Side Of The Moog VII ready for release.
Later in 1999, Fax released The Dark Side Of The Moog VIII. It featured a performance that lasted nearly seventy-seven minutes. During that performance, The Dark Side Of The Moog switched between and combined elements of ambient with electronica and experimental with dub and drum ’n’ bass. The Dark Side Of The Moog VIII was an ambitious album. Especially since it had been recorded live. Despite using a myriad of complex equipment that could be temperamental when used live it was an almost flawless album and The Dark Side Of The Moog VIII was a success critically and commercially.
After eight volumes of The Dark Side Of The Moog series, it was still going strong. Partly, that was because Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook constantly sought to reinvent their music. This was something they would continue to do during future volumes in the series.
The Dark Side Of The Moog Volumes 9-11.
Part 9-Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Mother.
Three years passed before Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook returned with the ninth instalment in the The Dark Side Of The Moog series. This was the longest gap between albums. However, The Dark Side Of The Moog returned in 2002, with Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Mother, a six part suite.
It had been written and recorded at Pete Namlook’s Klanglabor Hödeshof studio during early 2002. Later that year, The Dark Side Of The Moog IX was released by Fax on 10th May 2002. Again, the album was a limited edition of 3,000. Just like previous albums, it was a popular album amongst DJs and record buyers.
They were won over by The Dark Side Of The Moog IX’s genre-melting sound. Elements of ambient music and avant-garde were combined with electronica and experimental music. The music ebbs and flows as subtleties and surprises unfold. Mostly, though, the six part suite glides effortlessly along showcasing an understated, dreamy, ethereal and melancholy sound. Just like previous albums, The Dark Side Of The Moog IX has a truly timeless sound. Despite three years away, The Dark Side Of The Moog’s music was still relevant.
Part 10-Astro Know Me Domina.
Following the success of The Dark Side Of The Moog IX, nothing was heard of group until 2005. During that period, Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook were both busy on other projects. Eventually, they found time to record an album in early 2005.
This became The Dark Side Of The Moog X, which featured Astro Know Me Domina, a six part suite lasting fifty minutes. It had been written and recorded at Pete Namlook’s studio Klanglabor Hödeshof. Once The Dark Side Of The Moog X was completed, it was released in spring of 2005.
The Dark Side Of The Moog X was released as a limited edition by Fax on 15th March 2005. This time, only 2,000 copies of were released of an album which took ambient music as its starting point. Elements of Berlin School and electronica are added to the mix as an album of atmospheric soundscapes begins to unfold. They’re variously dark, dreamy, elegiac, melancholy moody and ruminative. Sometimes, a pulsating bass synth is added, as the tempo rises slightly. Mostly though, it’s a ambient describes The Dark Side Of The Moog X. It marked the welcome return of what this long running collaboration. Sadly, it was almost at an end.
Part 11-Astro Know Me Domina.
Another three years passed before The Dark Side Of The Moog XI was released. It featured a seven part musical suite, The Heart Of Our Nearest Star. Just like previous albums, it had been written and recorded at Pete Namllok’s Klanglabor Hödeshof studio during early 2008.
In the spring of 2008, The Dark Side Of The Moog XI was released by Fax on 15th April 2008. Again, the album was a limited edition of 2,000. However, this time, the album was a double album. This wasn’t because the music wouldn’t fit on one album. Instead, Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook wanted The Dark Side Of The Moog XI to release both stereo and surround sound versions of this album.
It’s another genre-melting album where lements of abstract and ambient music combine with avant-garde, Berlin School and electronica as The Dark Side Of The Moog take the listener on their final journey.
For part of the journey drums provide the heartbeat and add a hypnotic backdrop. Meanwhile, the music veers between atmospheric to futuristic and dark and mesmeric. Later a glistening ambient sound begins to unfold. It’s variously dreamy, elegiac, thoughtful and wistful as the arrangement glides along; Later, the earlier sound returns before The Dark Side Of The Moog take their bow.
The Dark Side Of The Moog XI proved to be the final instalment in what had been a long-running and successful series. Four years later Pete Namlook passed away four years on 8th November 2012. That day, German music lost a true pioneer.
Proof of that are the eleven instalments in The Dark Side Of The Moog series. These eleven albums were released over a fourteen year period. During that period, the music on The Dark Side Of The Moog continued to evolve and ensured that music stayed relevant. That had been the case since the first instalment in the series.
That is no surprise. The Dark Side Of The Moog featured two musical pioneers, Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook. For three albums, they were joined by Bill Laswell, Mostly, though, The Dark Side Of The Moog series was the brainchild of two pioneering musicians, Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook.
They recorded eleven genre-melting albums over a fourteen year period. Each of these albums have stood the test of time. That is because constantly, Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook reinvented their music. While ambient music was usually the starting point, different ingredients were used throughout the series. This ranged from abstract and avant-garde to Berlin, electronica and experimental music. Other times, elements of drum ’n’ bass, psychedelia, rock and techno were added combined by Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook as they continued to push musical boundaries, The result was music that’s not only innovative, but influential and truly timeless.
That’s despite the first volume in The Dark Side Of The Moog being released back in 1994. However, the music has stood the test of time. Twenty-six years later and it sounds as if it could’ve been released yesterday. It’s a similar case with the music on each of the eleven volumes of Dark Side Of The Moog.
These timeless albums feature genre-melting music that is ambitious, innovative and even today, continues to influence a new generation of electronic musicians. That’s no surprise as Klaus Schulze is one of the giants of German music and has spent a lifetime creating groundbreaking music. So did his collaborator on the Dark Side Of The Moog series Pete Namlook. Sadly, he passed away in 2012 aged just fifty-one. However, the eleven critically acclaimed volumes of Dark Side Of The Moog are part of his musical legacy and a reminder of his long-running and successful partnership with the prolific musical pioneer Klaus Schulze.
Klaus Schulze-The Dark Side Of The Moog Years.
GIRLS GO POWER POP!
Girls Go Power Pop!
Label: Big Beat.
Format: CD.
When Pete Townsend of The Who was promoting Pictures Of Lily in 1967 he was asked how he would describe their music? He replied: “power pop is what we play.” That day, a new genre was born.
However, back then, music journalists didn’t always feel the need to pigeon hole music, so the power pop sub-genre never really caught on.
It wasn’t until the late-seventies when power pop became common currency amongst music journalists. They knew exactly what power pop sounded like, and it was like a form of musical shorthand.
Power pop was essentially guitar based pop with melodic hooks and vocal harmonies that is driven along by a dynamic and powerful beat and is energetic and played with enthusiasm. However, while power pop is described as happy sounding music, but it’s often underpinned by a sense of despair, longing, sadness and yearning. That’s part of the music’s charm, and why it’s still so popular fifty-three years after Pete Townsend coined the term “power pop.”
Recently, Big Beat, an imprint of Ace Records released a new twenty-five track compilation Girls Go Power Pop! It’s the followup to Come On Let’s Go! Power Pop Gems From The 70s and 80s which was released to critical acclaim in 2019.
Looking through the track listing to Girls Go Power Pop! and there’s everything from singles and B-Sides to obscurities and hidden gems on the compilations. The twenty-five singers and groups that feature include some familiar faces who are joined by what will be new names to many music fans.
Three of the biggest names on the compilation are the Bangles, Pretenders and Go-Go’s. Less well known names include Textones, “B” Girls, Little Girls, MnMs, Fuzzy and Universal Honey. Then there’s contributions from The Runaways, The Darling Buds, Scandal, Josie Cotton and Juliana Hatfield on Girls Go Power Pop! That’s just part of the story of the compilation.
Opening Girls Go Power Pop! is Cherry Bomb from The Runaways’ 1976 eponymous debut album. The song was written by Joan Jett and Kim Fowley and released as a single the same year. However, both the album and single failed to find an audience. Americans missed out on a rocky slice of power pop with a defiant almost punk inspired vocal. Later, The Runaways found success in Japan which is no surprise given the quality of tracks like Cherry Bomb
In 1977, the Go-Go’s were familiar faces within the LA punk scene. By then, former Gems’ drummer Belinda Carlisle had joined the group and became their new vocalist. Four years later, the group released an anthemic version of We Got The Beat which reached number two in the US Billboard 100.
The Darling Buds were formed in Caerlon, near Newport in South Wales in 1986. Just two years later they had signed to Epic and released their debut album Pop Said…It featured Hit The Ground which is a melodic and memorable hidden gem. It’s a welcome addition to the compilation.
So is The Rebel Pebbles’ 1991 single Dream Lover. It was released on the IRS label but stalled at forty-two in the US Billboard 100. This hook-laden slice of power pop was the one that got away for The Rebel Pebbles.
In 1984, The Primitives were formed in Coventry and two years later, released their debut single Thru The Flowers on Lazy Records. When they released Crash in 1988 it gave them a hit single i Britain and America. So did the followup Way Behind Me which epitomises everything that’s good about eighties British power pop. That’s right down to a hurt-filled vocal full of sadness where they long to escape a relationship that’s gone badly wrong.
One of the best known groups on Girls Go Power Pop! are The Pretenders. They were were formed by Chrissie Hynde in 1978 and went on to enjoy a string of hit singles including Brass In Pocket, Talk Of The Town and Don’t Get Me Wrong. One of the hidden gems in their impressive back-catalogue is Night In My Veins which was released as a single in 1994 and reached seventy-one in the US Billboard 100. It’s taken from the album Last Of The Independents which was certified gold in America, Britain and France.
Having had to change their name to the Bangles, they released The Real World as a single in 1983 on the Faulty Products’ label. This Susanna Hoff and Vicki Peterson composition was produced by Craig Leon and more than hints at what was to come from the LA-based group.
Glad Again is a track from Fuzzy’s sophomore album Electric Juices. It was released on Atlantic Records’ imprint TAG Records in 1996 and finds the group moving more towards power pop on what was an underrated album. Sadly, the album wasn’t a commercial success and they were dropped by Atlantic Records.
Originally, Julianna Raye wanted to be an actress and had no interest in following in the footsteps of her cousin Michael Kamen. He had worked with some of the biggest names in music by the time she moved to LA to become an actress. However, Julianna Raye became a singer-songwriter and was signed by Reprise Records in 1992. Her debut album Something Peculiar was arrange and produced by Jeff Lynne and featured Peach Window. Jeff Lynne’s name is written all over this hook-laden song that showcases a talented singer-songwriter.
Letters To Cleo were formed in the Dorchester area of Boston in 1990 and released their debut album three years later. In 1999, they featured in the film 10 Things I Hate About You and performed two songs. This included Nick Lowe’s Cruel To Be Kind which is given a power pop makeover and is one of the highlights of Girls Go Power Pop!
The Textones were formed in LA in 1978, and in 1980 embarked on a tour of America and Europe. When the group arrived in London, they ended up recording their Moxie EP for Chiswick Records. It featured Vacation where new wave and power pop melts into one. By the end of 1989 Kathy Valentine had left the band and joined Go-Go’s who covered Vacation. Their version was slicker version but lacked the energy and excitement of The Textones’ original.
I Wanna Go Home by Holly and The Italians closes Girls Go Power Pop! It’s taken from their Right To Be An Italian album which was released on Virgin in 1981. This was one of the album’s highlights and finds the group seamlessly combining punk and power pop. However, the album wasn’t a commercial success and stalled at 177 in the US Billboard 200. By the end of 1981 Holly and The Italians had split-up after releasing just one album.
When Big Beat released their previous power pop compilation Come On Let’s Go! Power Pop Gems From The 70s and 80s. in 2019 this set the bar high for future collections. However, compiler Dave Burke dug deep into his collection and came up with the twenty-five tracks on Girls Go Power Pop! It’s all killer and no filler and will be of interest to anyone with even a passing interest in power pop. Especially power pop that was released in Britain and America during the seventies and eighties.
There’s contributions from some familiar faces who went on to bigger and better things including Bangles, Go-Go’s and Pretenders. Many of the other groups were short-lived and didn’t come close to reaching the heights that the Bangles and Pretenders did. However, they released some memorable examples of power pop. Hopefully their inclusion on Girls Go Power Pop! will introduce their music to the wider audience it deserves.
That’s the beauty of a compilation like Girls Go Power Pop! It’s akin to musical voyage of discovery that introduces the listener to new artists and groups. Take my advice and enjoy the journey. Who knows where it’ll take you?
Girls Go Power Pop!
BOB STANLEY PRESENTS 76 IN THE SHADE.
Bob Stanley Presents 76 In The Shade.
Label: Ace Records.
Format: CD.
Sometimes, when people of a certain age reminisce about their childhood they’re convinced that every British summer when they were growing up in the seventies was long and hot. Cue confused looks from their friends who remember things differently. “Are you sure about that?”
They remember that long hut summer when Britain went months without rain and eventually a drought was declared. What year was it though? The favourites are always 75, 76 or 77 and they begin to work out which year it was? Their tried and tested way of doing this is by thinking about the music that was released during that long hot summer.
What follows is a debate about what was number one and what singles made it into the top thirty. And what albums were released and did they buy?
Before long, memories come flooding back of their youth and the music that shaped them. They also remember the cringeworthy music that bought and hope that nobody remembers. Unfortunately they do and some good-natured comments are exchanged and they kid each other about their musical taste or lack of.
Eventually, after a long discussion that heads off at tangents and down memory lane the general consensus is the long hot summer was in 1976. Just to be sure phones and checked and some even sneak a look at the music that was released.
They find albums by 10CC, Smokey Robinson, David Ruffin, Liverpool Express, Steve Miller Band, The Emotions, Barclay James Harvest and Carmen McRae were released during the summer of 76. Forty-four years later and tracks from these albums are among the twenty on Ace Records’ new compilation Bob Stanley Presents 76 In The Shade. It’s sure to bring back memories of the long hot summer of 76.
Opening Bob Stanley Presents 76 In The Shade is Walking So Free by Spike Janson. He was a part-time jazz musician who after making a large amount of money in real estate in South California decided to fulfil his dream of recording an album. This he did with the help of producer Robert Klimes at Annex Studios. When the album Window Panes was completed, it was sold to a European record label. Later, the dreamy, lysergic sounding Walking So Free ended up being used by the BBC as the soundtrack for BBC which will bring back memories for people of a certain age.
By 1975, singer, songwriter and producer Lynsey De Paul had already won two Ivor Novello awards and had just released her third album Love Bomb on Jet. One of the highlights of the album was Sugar Shuffle which was released as a single in America and Japan. It features a sensuous and coquettish vocal and is a reminder of a truly talented and sometimes underrated vocalist.
Between 1972 and 1976 the original lineup of 10CC released a string of slick, hook-laden hit singles. This included their 1976 single I’m Mandy Fly Me which was taken from their fifth album How Dare You! Eric Stewart started writing the song after seeing a National Airlines poster with the words “I’m Cindy, fly me” and it was completed at Strawberry Studios in Manchester. The single which floats melodically along reached number six in the UK, and is one of their finest singles.
During the seventies, Simon Park established a reputation as one the leading lights in British library music. He released the album Electric Bird on Music De Wolfe. It featured Stoned Out a futuristic sounding track that combined electronica, funk and fusion. It’s a track that was way ahead of its time and proof that there’s many hidden gems to be found on albums of library music.
In 1976, former Temptation David Ruffin released Everything’s Coming Up Love on Motown. This was the much-anticipated followup to his 1975 album Who Am I? Both albums had been arranged, conducted and produced by Van McCoy. He also wrote the floater Discover Me which was released as the lead single in the UK. With its dancing strings and tender harmonies from Faith, Hope and Charity it’s one of the highlights of this oft-overlooked album.
Very few people expected Liverpool Express to enjoy a hit single during the long hot summer of 76. It had been years since their last hit with Sorrow, in 1966. However, the paean You Are My Love with its needy heartfelt vocal gave Liverpool Express an unexpected hit when the song reached number twelve in the UK.
By the time John Cameron began work at KPM Music he already had an impressive musical CV. He had arranged Donovan’s Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow albums, and then written the score to Ken Loach’s films Poor Cow and Kes. When he arrived at KPM he quickly made an impression with his 1972 album Jazzrock which is library music classic. So is Voices In Harmony which was released in 1973 and featured Liquid Sunshine. It’s a mellow sounding track where jazz and easy listening are combined to provide the perfect soundtrack to those long hot sunny nights in the summer of 76.
In May 1976 the Steve Miller Band released their ninth studio album Fly Like An Eagle. It became their most successful album when it sold over four million copies. One of the highlights is the Steve McCarthy composition Wild Mountain Honey where echo is used effectively on this beautiful, dreamy and atmospheric sounding song which transports the listener back to the summer of 76.
Before signing to Columbia,The Emotions had released two albums via the Stax imprint Volt. Flowers which was released in 1976, was the group’s major label debut. It was produced by Maurice White and Charles Stepney and reached forty-five in the US Billboard 200 and five in the US R&B charts. This gave The Emotions their first gold disc. When the title-track was released as the lead single it stalled at eighty-six in the US Billboard 100 but reached sixteen in the US R&B charts. That’s no surprise as it’s a beautiful ballad and features The Emotions’ at their soulful best.
Progressive rockers Barclay James Harvest recorded their sixth album Octoberon at Strawberry Studios during the summer of 1976. It was released in October of that year by Polydor and features Rock’n’Roll Star. It’s slow, spacey, spacious and has a summery sound that has stood the test of time. Quite simply, it’s one of the most accessible tracks on the group’s sixth album and a welcome addition to the compilation.
Closing Bob Stanley Presents 76 In The Shade is Carmen McRae’s cover of James Taylor’s Music. It’s taken from her Can’t Hide Love which was released on Blue Note Records in 1976. Carmen McRae takes this familiar song in a new direction and breathes new meaning and emotion into the lyrics. It’s the perfect way to close this eclectic selection of songs from the long hot summer of 76.
Just like any good compilation Bob Stanley Presents 76 In The Shade features songs from familiar faces and new names. That’s the case here as hit singles, album tracks and unreleased tracks sit side-by-side on a truly eclectic compilation. There’s pop, rock, R&B and soul as well as library music, pop-soul, psych and progressive rock on what’s best described as another lovingly curated compilation from Bob Stanley who has impeccable musical taste.
Compiler Bob Stanley has dug deep into his collection and come up with an a truly eclectic and highly enjoyable selection of music that brings back memories of the early to mid-seventies. This includes the long hot summer of 76 when much of the music on Bob Stanley Presents 76 In The Shade was released. It was such a good year for music that there’s plenty of material for a second volume. Let’s hope that Bob Stanley is already working on that. Meanwhile, enjoy Bob Stanley Presents 76 In The Shade which is one of the finest compilations of recent months.
Bob Stanley Presents 76 In The Shade.
CULT CLASSIC: COZMIC CORRIDORS-COZMIC CORRIDORS.
Cult Classic: Cozmic Corridors-Cozmic Corridors.
Pyramid Records was founded by Canadian artist Robin Page in Cologne and his nascent label released its first album in 1972. Over the next four years, the label established a reputation for releasing ambitious and innovative albums. However, only 50-100 copies of these albums were pressed and were either given away to Robin Page’s friends or sold in some of Cologne’s art galleries. Nobody who bought or was given one of these albums thought that one day, they would be extremely valuable.
However, not every album that was recorded by Pyramid Records was released. This includes Cozmic Corridors’ eponymous debut album.
The Cozmic Corridors story began in 1972. That was when work began on the Cozmic Corridors album. Early recording sessions took place at Robin Page’s art studio in Cologne.
Robin Page was a forty year old artist in 1972, and leading light in the Fluxus movement. He had moved from from England to Cologne, in Germany in 1969. However, it turned out that he wasn’t the only expat in the city.
Tony Robinson was a South African, who had travelled from Cape Town, to Germany where he would first work with Karlheinz Stockhausen, the Godfather of modern German electronic music at WDR Studio. This was akin to serving an engineering apprenticeship, and would serve Tony Robinson well. When he left Karlheinz Stockhausen’s employ, Tony Robinson went to work at Dierks Studio in Cologne. That was where the future Genius P. Orridge would meet Robin Page.
By then, Robin Page was a successful and established artist. He was a leading light of the Fluxus movement, and was regarded as a groundbreaking artist. He used humour within his work which sought to challenge what was regarded as good taste within the art establishment. Before long, Robin Page’s painting found an audience and became sought after. This had been what he had dreamt of and worked towards since ‘leaving’ art college in Vancouver. His new found success and financial security allowed Robin Page to work towards fulfilling another of his dreams, making music.
Robin Page was serious about making music, and had a studio in the basement to what looked like to anyone passing by, a derelict building. Deep within its bowels, was Robin Page’s studio, and where Pyramid Records first album was recorded. It was then pressed by a Turkish entrepreneur who just happened to keep his cutting lathe within the same building. Although it was more used to producing bootlegs, it was able to cut what became PYR 001, Pyramid Records’ first release. It came wrapped in a cover designed by a local student. History had just been made.
One person presented with a copy of PYR 001, was Toby Robinson who by 1972, had become friends with Robin Page. He was persuaded to provide the material for PYR 002. Essentially, this comprised a recording of sounds bounced from one tape recorder to another. Again, a master was cut, and between 50-100 copies were either given away to Robin Page’s friends or sold in Cologne’s art galleries and clubs. No copies of PYR 001 nor PYR 002 seem to have survived. It’s a similar story with the label’s next two releases.
Neither the master tapes nor copies of PYR 003 and PYR 004 seem to have survived the passage of time. Instead, the first Pyramid Records release to survive is believed to be PYR 005. It’s one of just eleven Pyramid Records’ recordings that remain. These recordings were made between 1974 and 1976. That was all in the future.
In 1972, the group that would later become known as the Cozmic Corridors were in the early stages of recording an album for Robin Page’s Pyramid Records. Rather than head into a recording studio, the early sessions took place in Robin Page’s art studio. It could easily be transformed into a makeshift recording studio and Robin Page would then watch the band jam.
The members of the Cozmic Corridors were unlikely bedfellows. Especially Alex Meyer, who until joining the Cozmic Corridors had watched on with interest as sessions took place in Robin Page’s art studio. Alex Mayer wanted to participate in the sessions. However, he was out of luck. Nobody was in need of a keyboardist.
Despite this, Alex Meyer took to parking his van outside Robin Page’s flat. This was no ordinary van though. It was also where he slept and stored his trusty keyboards. Eventually, his persistence paid off and he was invited to become a member of the Cozmic Corridors.
Joining Alex Mayer in the Cozmic Corridors was drummer and percussionist Hans-Jürgen Pütz who also added a myriad of effects on the album. For Hans-Jürgen Pütz, the Cozmic Corridors proved a stepping stone musically.
He replaced Thomas Hildebrand as Mythos’ drummer and made his debut on their 1975 sophomore album Dreamlab. Alas, this was the only album Hans-Jürgen Pütz recorded with Mythos. Six years later, Touch’s 1981 eponymous debut album was released. It had been recorded in the early seventies, and featured Hans-Jürgen Pütz’s debut as lead vocalist and producer. In the post-Cozmic Corridors’ years, Hans-Jürgen Pütz had a higher profile than the rest of the band.
Especially mystery man Peter Forster, who played electric guitar, twelve-string guitar and violin. Nothing is known about his identity. He’s remained something of a mystery man. However, he certainly was a talented guitarist. This had lead to speculation that Peter Forster is a nom de plume of a member of a high profile Krautrock band. That makes sense.
Often, the great and good of Krautrock headed to Dierks Studio where Cozmic Corridors was completed. Many a night, members of the top Krautrock bands formed all-star bands. So it could well be that Peter Foster is the alias of a high profile Krautrock guitarist. There is another school of thought that Peter Foster is yet another alias of Tony Robinson who produced Cozmic Corridors. Alas. it seems the mystery surrounding Peter Foster will never be solved.
The final member of Cozmic Corridors was Pauline Lund. She was poet from Metz, in France. She was also a percussionist and vocalist, who added lyrics to the songs on Cozmic Corridors. Pauline Lund also featured on Temple’s eponymous debut album which was belatedly released in 1997. This was a year after Cozmic Corridors was belatedly released. However, back in 1972 the album was starting to take shape.
In Robin Page’s art studio, Alex Meyer wrote the music while Pauline Lund added lyrics. Gradually, the tracks began to take shape during 1972. It soon became apparent that each member of the band had hidden talents.
Drummer and percussionist Hans-Jürgen Pütz also played cello and added a myriad of effects on the album. Meanwhile, Peter Foster played electric guitar, twelve-string guitar and violin. Keyboardist Alex Meyer switched seamlessly Hammond organ, Fender Rhodes, Minimoog and even added some chants. Pauline Lund added percussion parts and added the vocals. The recording took place in three locations with Tony Robinson a.k.a. The Mad Twiddler took charge of production.
Much of the recording of Cozmic Corridors took place at Robin Page’s art studio during 1972. It was transformed into a makeshift studio. For Robin Page’s small record label, this saved running up large studio bills. Sometimes, though, Robin Page’s art studio wasn’t the right place to capture the sound the band envisaged.
Tony Robinson had to think laterally to capture the correct sound. On one occasion, he borrowed a portable Nagra tape recorder from WDR and took Alex Meyer to a derelict building in Cologne. It had the perfect acoustics to record some organ parts. After that, the rest of the recording sessions took place at Dierks Studo
Eventually though, the time came for the recording sessions to move to Dierks Studio. By then, it was 1973. All that remained was for some parts to be overdubbed. This included Peter Foster’s guitars, some of Pauline Lund’s vocals, Alex Meyer’s chants and a myriad of noises. Once the overdubbing was complete, the album was ready for release.
Sadly, Cozmic Corridors wasn’t released during the lifetime of Robin Page’s Pyramid Records. The label closed its doors for the final time in 1976.
Later, Robin Page decided to emigrate to Canada and with him, he took Pyramid Records’ master tapes and the remaining albums. Almost nothing was left of Pyramid Records. It was as if the label had never existed.
That was until nearly twenty years later, when Tony Robinson approached Virgin Records with some of Pyramid Records’ master tapes. This resulted in the release of Unknown Deutschland-The Krautrock Archive Volume 1 in 1996. Later that year, two further volumes followed. This added to the mythology surrounded the label and resulted in further speculation about the Pyramid Records’ story.
Since then, the Pyramid Records’ story has been debated ad infinitum. Alas, far too many people have become bogged down by the speculation that surrounds the Pyramid Records’ story. It’s as if they’re determined to disprove that the music was recorded between 1972 and 1976. That’s a great shame, because in doing so, they loose sight of the important thing, the music, including the Cozmic Corridors’ eponymous debut album.
Later in 1996, Cozmic Corridors was belatedly released. By then, twenty years had passed since Pyramid Records closed its doors for the last time. Cozmic Corridors was a reminder of the music the label recorded and released during its lifetime.
Opening Cozmic Corridors is Dark Path. Straight away, the darkness descends as the Cozmic Corridors lead the listener down a Dark Path, destination unknown. The music is moody, dramatic, eerie and otherworldly. Swirling ghostly synths encircle a keyboard as a drum sounds ominously. Later, screeching, jarring sounds add to the cinematic sound. Despite this, the music is mesmeric, melodic and is always cinematic. It’s as if Cozmic Corridors have been asked to produced a spine-tingling soundtrack to a gothic horror film. This they succeed in doing, and then some.
As a hypnotic organ plays, it replicates the Cozmic Corridors’ slow climb To The Summit. Meanwhile, a synth beeps and squeaks as it skips quickly across the arrangement. Soon, the tempo rises, as sci-fi synth are added. At one point, the organ sounds as if it belongs in a cathedral. It’s accompanied by a buzzing synth. Before long, the organ takes centre-stage. The music conjures up pictures of climbers slowly, carefully and deliberately criss-crossing the Mountainside breathing in the cold, crisp air en-route to The Summit. Later, the synth takes charge, and replicates their triumphant arrival at The Summit as the organ seems to replicate the sound of breathing. At last, the Cozmic Corridors’ journey is at end. They’re responsible for an atmospheric and cinematic track that features the Cozmic Corridors at their most inventive.
After reaching The Summit, the Cozmic Corridors head down the Mountainside. A distant drone sounds, before drawing nearer. It grows in volume as if sending out a warning. Soon, sci-fi synths are added and the soundscape takes on an experimental and futuristic sound. When the bubbling synths disappear, they’re replaced by a drone which gives way to ruminative, moody strings. They’re joined by an ethereal vocal as a cymbal rinses. Sounds flit in and out, adding to the dramatic, cinematic backdrop. As the descent continues see-saw strings join effects, the elegiac vocal and shimmering cymbal. Suddenly, otherworldly and rumbling sounds can be heard. Danger seems imminent as growling, grinding, droning and futuristic sounds combine with the ethereal vocal. Eventually, the Cozmic Corridors make their way down the Mountainside. It’s been a captivating and perilous journey where elements of avant-garde, Berlin School, experimental and modern classical are combined by the Cozmic Corridors.
Straight away, contrasts abound on Niemand Versteht. A Fender Rhodes briefly plays before a mesmeric organ dominates the arrangement. It’s punctuated by effects that add a contrast. So does the addition of a searing electric guitar and Pauline Lund’s soliloquy, which is delivered in German. When it drops out, urgent, jangling guitars join with a myriad of effects and the mesmeric seesaw organ. It leads a genre-melting jam, before the vocal returns. By then, the organ veers between dark and gothic to discordant as the track takes on an experimental sound. Cozmic Corridors are pushing musical boundaries to their limits and sometimes, way beyond. In doing so, they create an ambitious, dark, and otherworldly genre-melting soundscape.
Closing Cozmic Corridors is Daruber. A drone ushers in an organ that adds a dramatic backdrop. Meanwhile, a glistening guitar combines with sounds that veer between shrill and serene. The multilayered arrangement is slow, lysergic and dreamy. That’s until Cozmic Corridors spring a surprise. Soon, the organ dominates the soundscape and is joined by dramatic harmonies. They that ebb and flow before briefly disappearing to reappear. There’s a darkness to the music. Especially as the organ prowls and dominates the arrangement. Later, though, it seems change is on the horizon during. Alas, it’s a false dawn during what’s a dark and eerie eleven minute Magnus Opus.
Cozmic Corridors saved the best until last on their long lost cult classic. It was belatedly released in 1996 and since then, original CD copies of Cozmic Corridors have been almost impossible to find. Nowadays, if a copy comes up for sale it can easily change hands for well over $100. That is beyond the budget of most Krautrock connoisseurs who dream of finding a copy of this groundbreaking cult classic.
Back in 1972 and 1973, Cozmic Corridors combined elements of avant-garde, Berlin School, electronica, experimental, Krautrock, modern classical and rock. They also seem to have drawn inspiration from a number of artists, including Terry Riley, Kluster and the early albums of Peter Michael Hamel and Klaus Schulze. Mostly, though, the Cozmic Corridors plough their own furrow and sculpt five captivating and cinematic soundscapes that were way ahead of the musical curve.
If the album had been released in 1975, a few lucky record buyers or recipients of Robin Page’s generosity would’ve heard what was an ambitious album of groundbreaking and genre-meting music. Cozmic Corridors may have even been picked up by one of the major German labels. Alas, Cozmic Corridors wasn’t released by Pyramid Records.
Twenty-three years after Cozmic Corridors was completed, the album was belatedly released in 1996. This should’ve been something to celebrate.
By then, many people have become bogged down by the controversy and speculation that surrounds the Pyramid Records’ story. The controversy, debate and speculation continued with neither side willing to back down. Many seemed determined to disprove that the music was recorded between 1972 and 1976. It was as if they were determined to be proved right. Similarly, so were those who believed in the Pyramid Records’ story. Both sides were so caught up in the Pyramid Records’ mythology and so obsessed with what happened quartet a century ago that they had lost sight of the important thing..the music.
This included the groundbreaking music on Cozmic Corridors’ eponymous debut album, which is a long-lost Krautrock cult classic that features five truly trippy ambient soundscapes.
Cult Classic: Cozmic Corridors-Cozmic Corridors.
THELONIOUS MONK-PALAIS DES BEAUX ARTS 1963.
Thelonious Monk-Palais Des Beaux Arts 1963.
Label: Tidal Waves Music.
Format: LP.
Nowadays, Thelonious Monk is regarded and recognised as one of the greatest ever jazz pianists. However, in the past, he wasn’t without his critics. English poet and jazz critic Phillip Larkin cruelly dismissed him as: “the elephant on the keyboard.” He didn’t appreciate Thelonious Monk’s innovative approach to jazz music which features on Palais Des Beaux Arts 1963 which was recently released by Tidal Waves Music for Record Store Day 2020.
Palais Des Beaux Arts 1963 features five of Thelonious Monk’s own compositions. However, he only composed seventy pieces during a career that spanned thirty-three years. Despite that, he’s now the second-most covered jazz composer of all time.
These compositions and improvisations featured dissonances and what are best described as angular melodic twists, which are an accurate representation of his unique approach to the piano. Initially, it was described as hard swinging, but evolved over the next twenty years.
Those that had followed Thelonious Monk career watched his style evolve, and his extremely percussive attack which featured abrupt and dramatic use of switched key releases, silences, pauses and hesitations, which divided the opinion of jazz critics and fans. What they forgot, was that Thelonious Monk was a relative latecomer to jazz, and had started his career accompanying a touring evangelist on an old church organ. In some ways, Thelonious Monk was making up for lost time, as he was already twenty-four before he first started playing jazz.
Despite arriving to the party late, Thelonious Monk was soon making up for lost time, and from the early fifties, was working as bandleader, sideman and collaborating with other future giants of jazz.
He had started off at Blue Note Records between 1948 and 1952, before moving to Prestige Records where he spent two years between 1952 and 1954. After that, Thelonious Monk moved to Riverside Records which was his home between 1955 and 1961, and by then, his star was in the ascendancy.
This was quite remarkable given everything that Thelonious Monk had been through since the early fifties. He had his New York cabaret card revoked in 1951, when he became the latest victim of a trumped narcotics charge. This meant that he was unable to play in New York’s club’s for six long years. During that time, Thelonious Monk signed to Riverside Records in 1955, which was his home until 1961.
Although Thelonious Monk was held in high regard by critics and commentators, sadly, for someone so talented, his records weren’t selling well. In 1955, he agreed to release an albums of jazz standards, Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington in the hope that this would increase his profile and record sales. However, later in 1955 tragedy struck for Thelonious Monk.
Towards the end of 1955, Thelonious Monk’s mother passed away, and the following year, 1956, a fire destroyed the pianist’s apartment in West ‘63rd’ Street, New York. Thelonious Monk and family were left destitute, and his family of five had no option but to stay with friends for several months, with fifteen people shoehorned into a three room apartment. Meanwhile, Thelonious Monk continued to live with an undiagnosed bipolar disorder, which nobody was aware at the time. Despite this, he released Brilliant Corners an album of hard bop in late 1956, which was one of the finest albums he released for Riverside Records.
In 1957, Thelonious Monk’s run of bad luck continued when he was involved in a car accident, and when the police discovered him unresponsive, took him to Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital, where he spent three weeks. By then, Thelonious Monk was unaware that his father had been living in a psychiatric hospital for the past fifteen years
Things got worse for Thelonious Monk in May 1957, when his wife Nellie became ill, and required a thyroidectomy. After the operation, she became frail and depressed, which affected Thelonious Monk’s wellbeing. The last two years had been hard on the couple, but at least Thelonious Monk was about to get his New York cabaret card back, and could start playing live in the Big Apple.
By then, Thelonious Monk had a manager, and started a six-month residency at the Five Spot Café, and had formed a friendship with John Coltrane. This was a coincidence as many of John Coltrane’s band had served their music apprenticeship Five Spot.
During Thelonious Monk’s residency at the Five Spot Café during 1957 and 1958, the sharp dressed and sartorially elegant pianist took to the stage with his carefully cultivated look. Thelonious Monk wore suits, hats and had taken to wearing sunglasses which hid the window to his troubled and weary soul. Still, he dazzled patrons with his unique playing style as he switched between standards and his own compositions. Thelonious Monk was back in the Big Apple, after a six-year absence.
With Thelonious Monk’s albums still not selling well by 1958, he was asked to release a second album of jazz standards. It was hoped that The Unique Thelonious Monk would increase his profile and record sales. Ironically, later, in 1958, Thelonious Monk’s face was all over American newspapers, after his latest brush with the law.
Thelonious Monk had been hired to play for a week at the Comedy Club, in Maryland, and on his way to the gig, he and Nica De Koenigswarter were stopped by the police in Wilmington, Delaware. When Thelonious Monk refused to answer or cooperate with the police officer, who beat him with a blackjack. During an authorised search the car drugs were found, and suddenly Thelonious Monk was looking at some serious jail time. Fortunately, Judge Christie of the Delaware Superior Court ruled that the pair had been unlawfully detained, and that the beating of Thelonious Monk meant that the consent to the search void as given under duress. Forty-one year old Thelonious Monk survived to fight another day.
As the fifties gave way to the sixties, Thelonious Monk’s relationship with Riverside Records had gone south, after a disagreement over royalty payments. While Riverside Records released two live albums recorded in Europe, Thelonious Monk hadn’t recorded a studio album since 5 By Monk By 5 in June 1959. Fortunately, Columbia Records one of the four major labels were keen to sign Thelonious Monk.
The negations between Thelonious Monk and Columbia Records, were protracted, and it wasn’t until 1962 that a contract was signed. At last, Thelonious Monk could get back into the studio and do what he did best…make music.
In March 1963, Thelonious Monk released his Columbia Records’ debut Monk’s Dream to widespread critical acclaim. It was a return to form and was a reminder of his considerable powers as a performer and composer. So was the followup Criss-Cross which was almost completed. However, before that, Thelonious Monk and his regular quartet embarked upon a European tour.
On the ‘10th’ of March 1963 Thelonious Monk was scheduled to play at the prestigious Palais Des Beaux-Arts in the Belgian capital Brussels. That night, the concert was recorded by the Belgian broadcast company BRT/RTB. They had brought along the best recording equipment to record Thelonious Monk and his quartet.
Thelonious Monk was always a showman and when he shuffled onto the stage he was wearing, a suit, sunglasses and his trademark grey wool Papakha hat. Meanwhile, drummer Frankie Dunlop, bassist John Ore and tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse were waiting for him. They watched as Thelonious Monk waved his arms around which was their signal to get the show underway.
Side One.
The set opens with the jaunty sounding Bye-Ya from his latest album Monk’s Dream. The rest of this experienced quartet’s playing is tight as they provide the backdrop for Thelonious Monk. He showcase his ability to improvise and his avant-garde flair. It’s a similar case on Monk’s Dream which is a reaffirmation that he’s one of the great jazz pianists. Not to be outdone, Frankie Dunlop showcases his considerable talents on Drum Solo and unleashes a spellbinding and inventive solo that lasts a minute.
Side Two.
Thelonious Monk gives a sneak preview of the title-track of his second Columbia album Criss-Cross. This album of post bop featured complex melodies and harmonies and his stride piano style. It was also showcase for his theories on pitch qualities for his improvisations. Criss-Cross was one of the highlights of Thelonious Monk’s next album as well as Palais Des Beaux Arts 1963 and later became a standard.
From there, Thelonious Monk and his band work their way through Epistrophy before closing the set with one of his favourites Just a Gigolo. For most pianists it would be a challenging piece. However, almost effortlessly Thelonious Monk manages with ease what seem like impossible chords and deploys his trademark halting delivery which he seems to exaggerate. Later, he enjoys his moment in the spotlight during a stunning solo where his hands glide over and caress the keyboard before he and his band take their bow.
After Thelonious Monk’s appearance at Palais Des Beaux Arts 1963 the set lay in BRT/RTB’s vaults for forty-two years. Since then, a team of dedicated archivists and musical technicians have spent their time restoring digitising the tapes so future generations can enjoy them.
This includes Palais Des Beaux Arts 1963 which was recently released by Tidal Waves Music for Record Store Day 2020 on 180 gram vinyl. It’s a reminder of one of greatest jazz pianists at the peak of his powers during what’s an almost flawless set from Thelonious Monk and his quartet on the hidden gem that is Palais Des Beaux Arts 1963.
Thelonious Monk-Palais Des Beaux Arts 1963.
SOUL LOVE NOW: THE BLACK FIRE RECORDS STORY, 1975-1993.
Soul Love Now: The Black Fire Records Story, 1975-1993.
Label: Strut Records.
Format: CD.
Many people who love music dream of owning and running their own record company. However, not everyone who decides to found a record company is qualified or suited to do so. They don’t have the skillset or experience that’s required and instead of it becoming a profitable venture it ends up a chaotic vanity project that’s destined to end in disaster. By then, they’ve wasted a huge amount of money.
All they’ve got to show for it, are rooms filled with boxes of unsold albums by the has-beens they signed and gave large advances to. The albums that they recorded failed to sell and couldn’t even be given away. Now they’re destined for the landfill and to rub salt into the wound they need to pay to dispose of the albums. It’s been an expensive mistake and one they’ll regret for the rest of their life. Their dream of running a record label was over.
This is a familiar story as many people have dreamt of running their own record label. However, some manage to make a success of it.
During the sixties and seventies, many record company sprung up across America. This included Black Fire Records which was founded in 1975 Jimmy Gray. He was a jazz DJ who also ran a music magazine called Black Fire. Music was Jimmy Gray’s passion and had been part of his life from an early age.
He was born in Washington DC in 1937, and growing up, music was all around him. Jimmy Gray’s aunts ran jazz clubs on U Street, and by the time he went to high school he was already a huge music fan. This wasn’t just a passing fad, it would prove to be a lifelong passion.
After leaving high school, Jimmy Gray joined the US Navy. However, he soon realised that this wasn’t what he wanted to do with his life and instead, got a job as a DJ.
Jimmy Gray was lucky as there was a vacancy at WHUR-FM, which was Howard University’s citywide radio station. The new DJ dawned the moniker Black Fire and began playing contemporary jazz. Quickly he developed his own style preferring to let the music do the talking. It was as if he was reluctant to interrupt the music which he knew was what the listeners wanted to hear. When he did speak, often Black Fire’s voice was drenched in reverb which added an air of mystery. Soon, he became an iconic figure within Washington DC’s music scene.
It wasn’t long before he was doing promo work for various jazz labels. This included one of the major labels Verve, and artist run indies like Strata East, Tribe and Black Jazz. These smaller labels allowed innovative musicians to thrive and receive a fair share of the profits their albums made. This was something that interested Jimmy Gray.
By 1973, he was running his own music magazine Black Fire. When J. Plunky Branch a.k.a. Plunky Nkabinde of Juju saw the magazine he realised that the album cover for A Message From Mozambique was being used on the cover. This angered him and his first thought was to sue Jimmy Gray. However, he soon had a change o heart.
This came about when he spoke to the musicians running the Strata-East label which he was signed to. They explained that Jimmy Gray was a friend and an influential figure within the music industry. All was soon forgotten and J. Plunky Branch and Jimmy Gray became friends.
In 1974, Juju released their sophomore album Chapter Two: Nia on Strata-East. One of its highlights was Nia (Poem: Complete The Circle) which is included on Soul Love Now: The Black Fire Records Story, 1975-1993. It’s a dramatic, driving song recorded in 6/8 time that combines African music, funk, fusion and free jazz with poetry. The result is a powerful track that is a welcome addition to the compilation and reminder of Juju before they changed direction musically.
Meanwhile, J. Plunky Branch and Jimmy Gray were interested and inspired by Strata-East’s business model, and liked how the label gave most of the profit to the artist or band and allowed them to keep their publishing rights. Most of the releases weren’t particularly successful apart from Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson’s Winter In America. Even though this resulted brought about a much-needed injection of capital the label was teetering on the brink and collapsed into insolvency.
After the demise of Strata-East, J. Plunky Branch’s band Juju was without a label. He and Jimmy Gray wondered if they could create a business model that combined artistic freedom that artists enjoyed at Strata-East?
The future business partners proposed that artists would the artist and label would enjoy a 50-50 split of net profits from album sales. They would also enjoy the complete artistic freedom that artists and bands at Strata-East enjoyed. This was the basis for Jimmy Gray and J. Plunky Branch’s new label Black Fire Records.
Meanwhile, J. Plunky Branch’s band Juju had moved away from their old free jazz sound and had adopted a new, funkier sound that was regarded as much more accessible and hopefully, radio friendly. The band was the new label’s first signing and entered the studio to record an album.
This became African Rhythms which was released later in 1975. Although the album didn’t sell in vast quantities it sold well in the Washington DC area and forty-five years later, is regarded as a cult classic. A live version of African Rhythms features on Soul Love Now: The Black Fire Records Story, 1975-1993 and finds Oneness Of Juju vamping their way through this melting pot of funk, jazz and soul which is now their best known track.
Oneness Of Juju’s other contribution is Soul Love Now from their 1976 album Space Jungle Luv. It’s delivered in a call and response style and they kick loose midway through the track as a muscular bass, backing vocalists, vibes and Fender Rhodes play their part in this anthemic track where they combine funk, jazz and soul.
Another album released in 1976 was Wayne Davis’ eponymous sophomore album. This was the followup to A View From Another Place which was released on Atlantic in 1973. Jimmy Gray had pulled of something of a coup by signing him to Black Fire Records. When he entered the studio Wayne Davis was accompanied by poet and flautist Wanda Robinson and the horn section from go-go pioneers Experience Unlimited People. They played their part in what’s a vastly underrated album of soul and gospel. One of its highlights is Look At The People 1976 which features an impassioned, powerful and emotive vocal. There’s a sense of urgency as Wayne Davis who is accompanied by backing vocalists combines soul and gospel on what’s one of the compilation’s highlights.
By 1977, Experience Unlimited’s star was in the ascendancy. They had already been crowned Best Rock Group at a talent competition at the Duke Ellington School Of The Arts in Washington DC and were playing alongside some of the city’s bigger band at established venues. Jimmy Gray recognised the band’s potential and took them into the studio to record their debut album Free Yourself. They were joined Wayne Davis who agreed to add the vocals. During the session the band recorded the future proto go-go classic Free Yourself. However, it’s the beautiful ballad People that features lyrics full of social consciousness that shows another side to this talented and versatile group.
Jimmy Gray continued to sign bands up until 1978. He took them into the studio and recorded albums which he planned to release. However, rising costs of manufacturing and promotion meant he was unable to do so. This was a huge disappointment for everyone involved and the albums weren’t released until the early nineties.
This includes Philly-born flautist and saxophonist Byard Lancaster whose album My Pure Joy which was belatedly released in 1992. He was a graduate of the Berklee Of Music and one of the leading lights of the Second Wave of free jazz. When Byard Lancaster recorded My Pure Joy he was joined by Drummers From Ibadan who were led by bassist Tunde Kuboye. This result is an atmospheric, mesmeric and cinematic collaboration that paints pictures and takes the listener on a journey.
Lon Moshe and Southern Freedom Arkestra’s album Love Is Where The Spirit Lies which was recorded on June the ‘3rd’ 1976 and September the ’14th’ 1977 at Arrest Recording Studio, in Washington DC. One of the tracks recorded in 1977 was Doin The Carvin For Thabo which a breathtaking and intense example of spiritual jazz that is one of the compilation’s highlights.
When master drummer Okyerema Asante arrived in America he was part of Hugh Masekela’s backing band Hedzolleh Sounds. He played on several albums recorded in America between 1973 and 1975. However, when the band returned to Ghana their drummer decided to stay longer. He then became a member of Oneness Of Juju and Southern Energy Ensemble. However, he recorded his solo album Drum Message on the ‘27th’ of October 1977 and Follow Me features a drum masterclass from the legendary Ghanian drum master.
Southern Energy Ensemble were formed by Marvin Daniels in Richmond, Virginia in 1977. The new group and featured some of the city’s top musicians and were about to record an album for Black Fire Records. That album was Southern Energy which was eventually released in 1993 and features Third House a driving and dramatic instrumental that combines jazz-funk and fusion.
Theatre West was a musical and theatre troupe from Drayton, Ohio, who signed to Black Fire Records and in 1978, recorded their only album Bow To The People which was eventually released in 1993. It was based on the 1971 play The System and features Children Of Tomorrow’s Dreams which is a beautiful, heartfelt message of hope. It’s one of the highlights of the Soul Love Now: The Black Fire Records Story, 1975-1993 compilation.
Many people have waited a long time for a Black Fire Records compilation to be released. Strut Records got their first with Soul Love Now: The Black Fire Records Story, 1975-1993. It’s best described as the musical equivalent of an amuse-bouche. The ten tracks are a tantalising taste of a label that always released music that was ambitious, groundbreaking and innovative.
It’s just a pity that Soul Love Now: The Black Fire Records Story, 1975-1993 isn’t a two or three CD set. Then there would’ve been room for two or three tracks from each artist and band. The only band to feature more than once is Juju who became Oneness Of Juju. They feature three times. However, the compilers will argue that their recently their music has started to belatedly find a wider audience.
Sadly, just like so many small label the albums that Black Fire Records released weren’t a commercial success when they were released. Some sold reasonably well in Washington DC where the label was based. However, the lack of success was down to the age-old problems that many small record labels face lack of finance and the lack of expertise when it came to PR. Unlike major labels like Black Fire Records didn’t have a team of PR professionals with a large budget to promote their albums. However, Jimmy Gray didn’t lack enthusiasm and believed in the music that his label was releasing.
Somewhat belatedly it’s starting to find a wider audience and the albums are being reissued and the compilation Soul Love Now: The Black Fire Records Story, 1975-1993 has just been released and is the perfect primer to Jimmy Gray’s groundbreaking label.
Soul Love Now: The Black Fire Records Story, 1975-1993.
CULT CLASSIC: MICHAEL COSMIC-PEACE IN THE WORLD AND PHILL MUSRA GROUP-CREATOR SPACES.
Cult Classic: Michael Cosmic-Peace In The World and Phill Musra Group-Creator Spaces.
In the fifties, there was a growing dissatisfaction at the limitations and constraints of bebop, hard bop and modal jazz, which was why a group of pioneering musicians decided that the time had come to alter, extend, or break down jazz conventions. This included Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor who were soon joined by Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy, Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Joe Maneri and the inimitable Sun Ra who pioneered free jazz. They discarded fixed chord changes or tempos and placed the emphasis on collective improvisation during what was an avant-garde approach to jazz and an attempt to take jazz back to its sometimes primitive and religious roots.
Some things didn’t change, and still the music continued to swing despite free jazz pioneers discarding regular meters and replacing them with frequent accelerandi and ritardando. Soon, the free jazz pioneers were looking to the jazz’s past to create the music that they believed was the future of jazz. They drew inspiration from Dixieland and African music and even began to incorporate disparate instruments that hadn’t been used in jazz before. Still, many critics were sceptical of free jazz and believed that it was a passing fad, and wouldn’t enjoy any degree of longevity.
How wrong these critics were. By the early sixties, many leading jazz musicians were part of the free jazz movement and new techniques had been adopted by the pioneers. This included the harsh overblowing that became a feature Pharoah Sanders and John Coltrane’s music. Meanwhile, other musicians reinvented the way they used traditional instruments so that it elicited a variety of unconventional sounds. They played their part in this musical revolution was about to be embraced by jazz’s establishing.
By the mid-sixties, jazz’s premier labels, including Blue Note, Impulse and Prestige, had signed many of the leading lights of the free jazz movement and it was a start of a golden age of the genre. During this period, many classic free jazz albums were recorded which would influence several generations of musicians around the world.
Two of the musicians influenced by the free jazz pioneers were brothers Thomas Michael Cooper and Phillip Anthony Alfred Cooper, who were born in Chicago on April the ‘25th’ 1950 and were raised in South Side of the Windy City. Later, the Cooper family moved to Alabama and Ohio, where the twins grew up as part of middle class family.
An important part of family life for the Cooper family was the church. Both the twins sang in the choir at the St. Paul The Redeemer Episcopal Church, where, their mother was a volunteer choir director. While this was the first time they had participated in any type of organised music, the Cooper twins had already embraced music.
From an early age, the twins spent time listening to soul, jazz and R&B with father Thomas. This was the start of a lifelong love affair with music and within a few years, the twins were playing music as well as listening to it.
As the Cooper twins became teenagers, they started taking music lessons. While many teenagers in Chicago were learning to play guitar in the hope of following in the footsteps of folk singers like Bob Dylan, the Cooper twins were learning to play reed instruments. They were quick learners, and within a couple of years, were proficient and talented players.
Around 1966, the Cooper twins were sitting in a park in Chicago’s South Side when Roscoe Mitchell a tutor at South Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, passed by and noticed Phillip’s clarinet. He started talking to the Cooper twins, and invited them to the South Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, which had been formed in 1965. Although it was still a relatively new organisation, it had talented musicians who could tutor the Cooper twins.
They agreed to attend the South Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, and were taught by a number of musicians, including Roscoe Mitchell, reedist Anthony Braxton and theory from Muhal Richard Abrahams. The tutors encouraged their pupils to be self-reliant and to actualise and realise their true potential as composers, musicians and theorists.
To help their pupils do this, the tutors introduced them to small instruments, which ranged from wooden flutes and cymbals to harmonicas and even tin cans. These instruments allowed musicians to expand their musical palette, by introducing a whole new range of sonic possibilities. This would something the Cooper twins would remember in the future.
Before that, saxophonist Jameel Moondoc the Cooper twins headed to the University of Wisconsin, where they were meant to further their musical education. However, when they arrived, the three students discovered that the living conditions were intolerable. There weren’t even any beds available, and they had to resort to sleeping on the floor. This was wholly unacceptable, and before long, Jameel Moondoc the Cooper twins had left the University of Wisconsin.
The Cooper twins decided to move to Boston, which had a vibrant arts and music scene. Boston had also a burgeoning free jazz scene, with many of the musicians students at the city’s various universities and colleges. These musicians became part of Boston’s underground music scene, which the Cooper twins were soon part of.
They discovered that there was a similar ethos to the South Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians within the Boston underground music scene. This made Boston a home-from-home for the Cooper twins, who had dawned the monikers Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra.
Home for Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra was a house that was literally full of musical instruments, which soon, was a place where many lengthy jam sessions took place. Over the next few weeks and months, many Boston-based musicians, made their way to Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra’s house, including radio presenter and percussionist Brian Jackson.
When the musicians arrived at the house, they were impressed by the variety of instruments that Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra owned. They were even more impressed to discover that Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra could play each and every one of them. There were saxophones, clarinets and even a vibraphone and Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra could seamlessly switch between instruments during the regular jam sessions and soon, rehearsals that took place.
Before long, Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra had formed a band, which featured percussionist and sometimes vocalist Brian Jackson. Rehearsals took place at Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra’s house, with the nascent band spending hours and even days honing a song until it took shape. While the songs took shape, Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra realised that something was missing from the lineup of their band.
Eventually, Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra decided to recruit poet Niozake Shange to their band, in an attempt to complete the lineup. This worked, and the band’s fusion of music and poetry proved to be a groundbreaking and revolutionary concept.
Initially, Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra’s band played anywhere that had an audience who had embrace and enjoy what they were trying to accomplish. Before long, the band had progressed to playing various coffee shops and jazz clubs, but a favourite venue was the new Black Avant-garde Coffeehouse in Boston. It was very different to the traditional jazz clubs, as it only served coffee, muffins and organic food. However, the patrons ‘got’ what Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra’s band was trying to achieve.
Within a couple of years, Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra’s band was a popular draw not just in Boston, but across the North East. They played almost non-stop travelling far and wide playing and spreading their musical message. By then, the group’s lineup was starting to take shape, and the band that featured on Michael Cosmic’s Peace In The World and Phill Musra Group’s Creator Spaces was nearly complete.
By the early seventies, the lineup of Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra’s band featured some of the leading lights of Boston’s free jazz scene. However, what the band needed was a drummer who could anchor the band and provide the heartbeat to the groundbreaking music. Fortunately, the final piece of the jigsaw fell into place around 1971 or 1972, when Turkish-born drummer Hüseyin Ertunç was introduced to Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra.
Twenty-two year old Hüseyin Ertunç had arrived in Boston in 1969, to study painting and music, and a couple of years layer, met Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra. Hüseyin Ertunç was a talented artist, who specialised in surrealist drawings, and they would later adorn the covers of Peace In The World and Creator Spaces. However, Hüseyin Ertunç was a talented and versatile drummer who when he met Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra came across as intelligent and intense. The Cooper brothers had a feeling that Hüseyin Ertunç was the man that they had been looking for.
With Hüseyin Ertunç installed as the band’s drummer, this was the start of a new chapter in their career, and one that featured a stellar lineup of gifted and versatile musicians. Among them, were guitarist and bassist Wes Riley, bassists Michael Whitaker and Miles Cosworth, pianist Michael Cochrane, saxophonist Mudon Slaughter and guitarist Rene Arlain. They player their part in what was a golden era for Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra’s band.
Despite his commitment and passion for music and his spirituality, Phill Musra had to work a couple of days jobs to pay the bills. Fortunately, one job working as a delivery driver allowed him time for his creative musings and Phill Musra found time to write The Creator Spaces, The Creator Is So Far Out and More Beautiful Vibrations From The Creator. These reflect Phill Musra’s spirituality and were partly inspired by his meditation as the music flowed through Phill Musra and onto the page. This music was very different to the music Phill Musra’s brother Michael Cosmic was making.
While Phill Musra meditated and focused on spiritual matters, Michael Cosmic had become interested in his cultural and racial heritage. He had also become politically active, and was a supporter of the Boston housing plan which resulted in desegregation of schooling within the city. Michael Cosmic’s new interests and beliefs clearly influenced his music as he wrote Arabia, We Love You Malcolm X and Peace In The World.
Although the Cooper brother were twins their different interests and beliefs, which were influencing the music that they were writing. This included the music that later, would feature on Michael Cosmic’s album Cosmic Paradise and Phill Musra’s Peace In The World. Before these albums were recorded, Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra continued to play their part in Boston’s thriving underground music scene.
That had been the case ever since Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra had arrived in Boston in the late-sixties. By the summer of 1974, they were familiar faces within Boston’s underground scene where Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra were regarded as innovative and pioneering musicians who weren’t afraid to push musical boundaries to their limits. Everyone who had seen the band live over the last couple of years realised this. However, despite playing almost non-stop over the last few years, neither Michael Cosmic nor Phill Musra had recorded an album. That was about to change.
Phill Musra Group-Creator Spaces.
The first of the Cooper twins to enter the studio was the Phill Musra Group’s debut album Creator Spaces. Phill Musra, Michael Cosmic and Hüseyin Ertunç had decided to finance the recording of the album at Egg Studios in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was engineered by Larrymar Richards, who recorded forty minutes of music.
This included Egypt and Arabia which were penned by Michael Cosmic, plus The Creator Is So Far Out and the Phill Musra composition Creator Spaces. Anchoring the Phill Musra Group was drummer and percussionist Hüseyin Ertunç, while Phill Musra played reeds, percussion and chimes. Completing the lineup was Michael Cosmic who played reeds, organ, percussion, saxophones, flutes and zurna. Creator Spaces which featured a mixture of traditional instruments that the Cooper twins were introduced to at South Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, in Chicago. They played their part in the sound of Creator Spaces.
Having recorded the privately pressed album, and had a small run of albums pressed, Hüseyin Ertunç’s drawings adorned the original copies of Creator Spaces. On the back of the album was the liner notes, setting in stone the personnel that played on the Phill Musra Group’s debut album Creator Spaces.
Later in 1974, Creator Spaces was the first release by the newly founded Intex Sound. Creator Spaces was an ambitious and innovative album that showcased the considerable talents of the Phill Musra Group. It featured the four tracks that had been recorded at Egg Studios.
Waves of captivating, genre-melting and innovative music unfold and enchant on Egypt, as the Phill Musra Group’s playing veers between impassioned and powerful to understated, ruminative and dramatic during this eleven minute musical journey. There’s then an urgency on Arabia as saxophones unite while Hüseyin Ertunç unleashes thunderous drums that are part of a vast musical arsenal that is deployed as the arrangement ebbs and flows. Waves of cosmic music that has been influenced by Sun Ra cascade as the arrangement takes a series of twists and turns as instruments are introduced, only to disappear and sometimes, reappear. Always, the Phill Musra Group play with energy, enthusiasm and freedom that epitomises everything that is good about a small group playing free jazz.
From the moment that The Creator Is So Far Out bursts into life, the influence of Pharoah Sanders and Albert Ayler is apparent. There’s an urgency as the arrangements swirls, screeches and howls that borders on chaotic before becoming melodic and impassioned during what’s akin to a cathartic outpouring of emotion that cleanses the soul. Closing The Creator Spaces is the title-track, which is the most accessible and melodic track on Phill Musra Group’s debut album.
After the release of the Phill Musra Group’s ambitious and innovative fusion of avant-garde, contemporary jazz and free jazz in 1974, The Creator Space proved popular within Boston’s underground music community. Especially amongst those who had the Phill Musra Group live during the past few years. They were one of the top bands on the Boston free jazz scene, but were never going to get rich releasing a private press.
The three members of the Phill Musra Group had financed the recording and release of Creator Space and even designed the album cover. They had also founded Intex Sound to release the album. However, like many groups who had decided to release a private press, the Phill Musra Group had a limited budget, and decided to have only a small number of copies of The Creator Space were pressed.
While it proved a popular album within the Boston underground music scene, the Phill Musra Group’s debut album had no chance of finding a wider audience as Intex Sound didn’t have the budget or expertise to promote the album properly. This was a fact of life for bands releasing private presses and they could only hope that a bigger record company would come across the album and want to license Creator Space. Sadly that wasn’t to be. Maybe Michael Cosmic would have been luck when he recorded and released his album Peace In The World?
Michael Cosmic-Peace In The World.
As 1974 drew to a close, Michael Cosmic entered Music Designers, in Boston on the ‘6th’ of December to record his debut album Peace In The World. He had written four tracks, Arabia, We Love You Malcolm X, Space On Space and Peace In The World which would be recorded by a septet.
Augmenting Hüseyin Ertunç, Phill Musra and Michael Cosmic were acoustic bassist John Jamyll Jones, percussionist Eric Jackson and Leonard Brown who switched between tenor and soprano saxophone. Joe Chiccarelli took charge of engineering duties and later, mixed the album.
Just like Creator Spaces, Peace In The World was a self-financed private press. Some copies of Peace In The World had a hand-made sleeve with a hand-coloured drawings copied and stuck on the album cover. Rather confusingly, some copies featured Cosmic Paradise as the artist, rather than Michael Cosmic. This small number of albums had the same album covers as the rest of the run. Despite this mix up, Cosmic Paradise was released by Michael Cosmic on his new label Cosmic Records.
Arabia a twenty-one minute epic opens Cosmic Paradise, and is best described as mesmeric, urgent and melodic before becoming dramatic, thoughtful and introspective. Throughout the track, the septet make good use of their expanded musical palette as Arabia takes on new life and meaning. The tempo drops on We Love You Malcolm X where woodwinds float and cascade as drums punctuate the arrangement, a bass scampers and chimes glisten. Still there’s space within the arrangement allowing the listener to reflect and ruminate during this homage to Malcolm X.
Space On Space is another twenty-one minute opus that has obviously been influenced by Albert Ayler. Here, a quintet play with power, passion, energy and urgency as the arrangement takes a series of twists and turns the music becoming jaunty, intense, hypnotic spacious and sometimes, wonderfully otherworldly. Closing the album is the hopeful, piano-led title-track Peace In The World. It’s the most melodic and accessible track but still features Michael Cosmic and his combo pushing musical boundaries to their limits and creating groundbreaking music.
Just like Phill Musra Group’s debut album The Creator Spaces, Michael Cosmic’s Peace In The World found an audience within Boston’s underground musical community. They embraced another exciting, ambitious and innovative album where Michael Cosmic and his band combined free jazz with avant-garde, contemporary jazz and experimental music. However, with Peace In The World being a private press and the label lacking the expertise and funds to promote the album properly it passed many free jazz fans by.
Across America, free jazz was still a popular genre, and a new generation of musicians were releasing albums of new and innovative music. Many were on major labels, while others like Michael Cosmic were releasing private presses like Peace In The World. This put them at a huge disadvantage and meant that there was little chance free jazz fans in other parts of America would hear the album, never mind be able to buy it. Michael Cosmic certainly wasn’t going to get rich releasing private presses, and for a man with new and added responsibilities this forced him to rethink his priorities.
By 1975, the Cooper brothers were no longer single men. They had recently married and were starting families which meant added responsibilities and indeed, expenses. This was a crunch time for Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra, who knew that they had to think about the future.
Boston still had a vibrant music scene, and Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra knew that they could stay in the city and make a living playing live. However, there weren’t the same opportunities to work as a session musician in Boston, which could provide Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra with another valuable source of income. Deep down, both Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra knew that it was time to move on, and try their luck in one of America’s music capitals.
When Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra thought about it, their favoured destination was Los Angeles which had a thriving jazz scene and much more favourable climate. Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra knew they could form a new band and establish themselves on the city’s live scene. There was also plenty of session work and musicians looking for talented musician to accompany them when they play live. After long discussions with their wives, Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra began preparing to move to LA, which was the start of a new chapter in their careers.
Before making the move to LA, Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra were invited by John Jamyll Jones to join his World’s Experience Orchestra for a very special recording session. This was the recording of the World’s Experience Orchestra’s debut album The Beginning Of A New Birth at the Oasis, in Boston, on August the ‘3rd’ 1975. That day, two lengthy tracks were recorded including The Beginning Of A New Birth and The Prayer. They were recorded during what was Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra’s musical swan-song in Boston,
After the best part of seven years, Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra departed Boston and headed for a new life in LA August 1975. A lot had happened during that time. Both Michael Cosmic and Phill Musra had established themselves as professional musicians during the Boston years and embarked upon recording careers.
The Phill Musra Group had released Creator Spaces in 1974, with Michael Cosmic releasing Peace In The World in 1975. Both albums showcase talented and innovative musicians who weren’t afraid to push musical boundaries to their limits, and sometimes, beyond. To do that, they combined traditional instruments with small instruments on their genre-melting albums.
They find Michael Cosmic and the Phill Musra Group fusing free jazz with elements of avant-garde, contemporary jazz , experimental music and spiritual jazz on their respective albums Cosmic Paradise and Peace In The World. Sadly, neither album reached the wider audience that it deserved.
That was always the risk when releasing an album as a private press during the seventies. It could be a classic album, but without the budget and expertise to promote the album, could pass record buyers by.
Sadly, Michael Cosmic’s Peace In The World and Phill Musra Group’s Creator Spaces both passed record buyers by and for over forty years, very few people heard either album. It was only much later that these free jazz fans discovered these albums and nowadays, they’re regarded as cult classics. They’re also regarded as two of the best privately pressed free jazz albums that were released in Boston during the first half of the seventies.
During that period, Boston had a vibrant and thriving free jazz scene, but Michael Cosmic’s Peace In The World and Phill Musra Group’s Creator Spaces were almost peerless albums. They’re also among the best free jazz private presses released on the East Coast during the first half of the seventies. That’s how good Michael Cosmic’s Peace In The World and Phill Musra Group’s Creator Spaces were. Maybe if Michael Cosmic’s Peace In The World and Phill Musra Group’s Creator Spaces had been picked up by a bigger label the albums would’ve gone on to find a wider audiences and the Cooper towns would’ve gone on to enjoy long and illustrious careers?
Cult Classic: Michael Cosmic-Peace In The World and Phill Musra Group-Creator Spaces.
CULT CLASSIC: STYX-CAUGHT IN THE ACT LIVE.
Cult Classic: Styx-Caught In The Act Live.
By April 1984, the members of Styx should’ve been preparing for the release of the twelfth album of the band’s career Caught In The Act Live. Sadly, Styx had split-up citing musical differences which had divided the band over the last couple of years. It was the end of an era for a group that had achieved so much. However, there was one glaring gap in Styx’s discography.
Styx also missed out on something that was seen as a rite of passage for rock groups during the seventies and eighties. They hadn’t released a live album. This was one thing that Styx had still to do and they had achieved pretty much everything else since released their eponymous debut album on Wooden Nickel Records in September 1972. It was the start of a glittering career for the band that was formed in the Roseland neighbourhood of Chicago in 1960.
That was where twelve-year old twin brothers Chuck and John Panozzo first began making music with their neighbour, Dennis DeYoung who was fourteen. Initially, John Panozzo played drums while Chuck started off as a guitarist and Dennis DeYoung played accordion, and later became the nascent group’s vocalist. However, two of the three musicians would change instruments within a few years. Before that, the three young musicians were practising whenever they had some free time.
This practise paid off, and by 1964 the group which was now called The Tradewinds, was now a quartet. Chuck Panozzo had just returned after spending a year in a seminary. During that period, he had been replaced on guitar by Tom Nardin. However, on his return, Chuck Panozzo decided to switch to bass. The other change was that Dennis DeYoung had switched from accordion to piano and organ. After the latest change in the group’s lineup, The Tradewinds continued to play on Chicago’s live scene for the rest of 1964.
During 1965, another band The Trade Winds was enjoying commercial success nationally, and the Chicago-based The Tradewinds decided to change their name. After some thought, The Tradewinds decided to change their name to TW4 (They Were Four).
In 1966, the Panozzo brothers decided to enrol on a teacher training course at Chicago State University which was where Dennis DeYoung was a student. Still TW4 continued to play at high schools and sometimes at functions and fraternity parties. This allowed TW4 to hone and tighten their sound over the next few years.
Nearly six years after Tom Nardin had joined TW4, he left the group in 1969, and was replaced by John Curulewski a college friend of the Panozzo brothers. However, this wasn’t the end of the changes in TW4’s lineup.
A year later, in 1970, guitarist James “JY” Young, who was studying at the Illinois Institute of Technology was joined TW4. With the man who would later be given the nickname The Godfather onboard, the lineup of the group that would become Styx was complete.
In early 1972, TW4 had been booked to play a concert at St. John of the Cross Parish, in Western Springs, Illinois, which was home to the band’s newest recruit James “JY” Young. When TW4 took to the stage, they were unaware that an A&R scout from Wooden Nickel Records was in the audience that night. He liked what he saw, and after the concert made his way backstage where he met TW4. Soon, the band was being offered their first recording contract. However, there was a problem the band’s name.
The five members of TW4 began thinking of alternatives names, and various names were considered, but quickly rejected. After some thought, the band chose Styx which in Greek mythology is the river that connects earth and the underworld. With their new name, Styx began work on their debut album.
Styx.
In September 1972, Styx which was produced by John Ryan and Bill Traut was released on Wooden Nickel Records. The album which married progressive and hard rock received mixed reviews and stalled just outside of the US Billboard 200 at 207. However, when Best Thing was released as a single, it reached eighty-two in the US Billboard 100 and gave Styx a minor hit single. This was something for Styx to build on.
Styx II.
When Styx II was released in July 1973, the John Ryan produced album was well received by critics who were won over by a carefully crafted fusion of progressive rock and hard rock. This also found favour with record buyers, and Styx II reached number twenty in the US Billboard 200. Buoyed by the success of the single Lady, which reached number six in the US Billboard 100, Styx II sold over 500,000 copies and was certified gold. This was the start of a glittering career for Styx.
The Serpent Is Rising.
Just three months after the release of Styx II, The Serpent Is Rising was released in October 1973, and can be loosely described as a concept album, which were hugely popular in 1973. However, The Serpent Is Rising which was another album were Styx flitted between and fused progressive rock and hard rock wasn’t a commercial success and crept into the US Billboard 200 at a lowly 192. Even the members of Styx have never been happy with The Serpent Is Rising, and Dennis DeYoung went as far as to say that it was: “one of the worst recorded and produced in the history of music.” It was no surprise that the members of Styx were keen to atone for The Serpent Is Rising.
Man Of Miracles.
Just over a year later, and Styx returned in November 1974 with Man Of Miracles. It was another album of progressive rock and hard rock, which was well received critics. However, Man Of Miracles stalled at 154 in the US Billboard 200, which was a disappointment to Styx.
Despite the disappointing sales Man Of Miracles, A&M Records were keen to sign Styx, who were keen to join a major label. Styx accepted A&M Records’ offer and in 1975 they became a major label band.
Meanwhile, by Bill Traut Jim Golden and Jerry Weintraub who owned Wooden Nickel Records were far from happy that their biggest signed had been poached by a major label. They immediately sued Styx for breach of contract. Things were about to get messy, and costly.
No long after Styx left Wooden Nickel Records, the label ceased trading. This was a shock to its other signings, who had watched as Styx II had been certified gold. Now Wooden Nickel Records was no more, and by 1977 the label was disbanded. The label that had launched Styx was no more.
Equinox.
Meanwhile, the members of Styx were in Paragon Recording Studios, in Chicago, where they were recording their major label debut, Equinox. This was the first album that the five members of Styx had produced themselves. They stuck to their tried and tested formula of progressive rock and hard rock on Equinox. It was released on the ‘1st’ of December 1975 and would reached fifty-eight in the US Billboard 200. Equinox was certified gold in America and platinum in Canada. However, before that, Styx was thrown into turmoil.
Just after the release of Equinox, guitarist John Curulewski left the band unexpectedly. This couldn’t have come at a worst time as Styx was about to head out on tour. Fortunately, Styx secured the secured the services of guitarist Tommy Shaw. He made his Styx debut on the forthcoming tour.
With John Curulewski having left Styx, Lorelei which was released as a single in 1976, was the last single to feature the original lineup of the band. It reached twenty-seven in the US Billboard 200, and have Styx their second top thirty hit single. The success of Lorelei helped sales of Equinox and in 1977 it was certified gold. By then, Styx had released two new albums.
Crystal Ball.
The first of these two albums was Crystal Ball which marked the debut of Tommy Shaw, was produced by Styx and released on the ‘1st’ of October 1976. Although Styx were rocking hard on Crystal Ball, and continued further down the road marked progressive rock, Shooz was a blues rocker and Clair De Lune/Ballerina was inspired by French classical composer Claude Debussy. However, the most popular track was Crystal Ball which would become a staple of Styx’s live sets. Despite an album full of energy, excitement and poppy hooks, Crystal Ball received mixed reviews and reached just sixty-eight in the US Billboard. However, this was enough for another gold disc for Styx. Meanwhile, Crystal Ball was certified gold in Canada and Styx’s glittering career continued.
The Grand Illusion.
Just like previous albums, Styx returned to the familiar surroundings of Paragon Recording Studios, in Chicago where they recorded their seventh album The Grand Illusion. By then, Tommy Shaw was settling into his role as Styx’s lead guitarist, and had had written Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man) and Man In The Wilderness for The Grand Illusion. Tommy Shaw also penned Superstars and The Grand Finale with Dennis DeYoung and James “JY” Young. These songs would play their part in the success of The Grand Illusion.
When critics heard The Grand Illusion, they discovered a genre-melting album which featured art rock, hard rock and progressive rock. Just like many progressive rock bands, there was a depth and substance to the lyrics which was missing in much of the disco, pop and soul being released in 1977. The lyrics to the songs on Grand Illusion loosely inspired by Styx’x interpretation of medieval history, while other songs were full of social comment, and reflected what the members of Styx thought of life. Styx’s carefully crafted seventh album The Grand Illusion was released to critical acclaim.
As soon as The Grand Illusion was released on July the ‘7th 1977, the album started climbing the charts and eventually reached number six in the US Billboard 200. By then, it was well on its way to selling over three million copies and being certified triple platinum. This was helped by the success of the two singles.
Come Sail Away reached number eight on the US Billboard 100 and Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man) reached twenty-nine in the US Billboard 100. Meanwhile, The Grand Illusion had been certified platinum in Canada. 1977 was the most successful year of Styx’s five year recording career.
Pieces Of Eight.
The members of Styx knew that trying to replicate the success of The Grand Illusion, which had sold over three million copies, wasn’t going to be easy. However, when the five members began work on their eighth studio album Pieces Of Eight, they were determined to give it their best shot as they returned to where they had recorded every album, Paragon Recording Studios, in Chicago.
Over the next weeks and months, Styx recorded Pieces of Eight what is regarded as their second concept album. The album’s theme Dennis DeYoung explained was about: “not giving up your dreams just for the pursuit of money and material possessions.” During Pieces of Eight, Styx flitted between and fused elements of art rock, classic rock, hard rock and for the last time, progressive rock. There were also two instrumentals The Message and the album closer Aku-Aku which was one of four songs penned by Tommy Shaw. He was already playing an important part in the rise and rise of Styx.
Just like The Grand Illusion, Pieces Of Eight was well received upon its release on the ‘1st’ of September 1978 and just like its predecessor reached number six in the US Billboard 200. Pieces Of Eight featured three singles, with Blue Collar Man (Long Nights) reaching twenty-one on the US Billboard 100, Sing For The Day forty-one and Renegade sixteen. Meanwhile, Pieces Of Eight followed in the footsteps of The Grand Illusion and sold over three million copies. Across the border in Canada, Styx received their third platinum disc. By then, Styx had sold over nearly eight million albums in North America just six years.
Cornerstone.
Despite being one of the most popular American bands of the seventies, Styx decided to change things around when the time came to record their ninth album Cornerstone. This time, they eschewed the familiar surroundings of Paragon Recording Studios, in Chicago, and headed to the new Pumpkin Studios in Oak Lawn, Illinois where Styx rang the changes.
In Pumpkin Studios Styx changed direction, and moved away from the progressive rock and art rock of previous albums towards a pop rock sound. This came after Dennis DeYoung read some reviews during a British tour that were far from complimentary. On his return home, he convinced the rest of Styx to change direction and record an album of pop rock, which should also appeal to a wider audience. Proof of this was Babe, which was one of two ballads Styx recorded for Cornerstone. Little did the band know they had recorded a song that would synonymous with Styx.
With Cornerstone completed, A&M Records scheduled the release of the album for October the ’19th’ 1979. Before that critics had their say on Cornerstone. Most of the critics, apart from Rolling Stone, who seemed to have a vendetta against Styx, were won over an album that showcased a pop rock sound. That was apart from the folk-tinged Boat On The River which was later covered by a number of artists. However, Boat On The River played its part in the success of Cornerstone.
Upon its release Cornerstone started climbing the US Billboard 200 and eventually reached number two and sold over two million copies. Cornerstone was Styx’s first album to be certified double platinum, although A&M Records contend that the album has now sold in excess of three million copies. That was no surprise as Cornerstone featured Styx’s first number one single Babe. Borrowed time reached sixty-three on the US Billboard 100 and Why Me twenty-six. The final single Boat On The River topped the charts in Germany and Switzerland. Styx’s ninth album had been a responding success, and was also certified platinum in Canada and gold in Germany, as their glittering career continued apace.
Paradise Theatre.
Fifteen months later, Styx returned on the ‘19th’ of January 1981 with their tenth album Paradise Theatre. It had been recorded at Pumpkin Studios in Oak Lawn, Illinois and was the third concept album of Styx’s career. This time, the theme was a fictional account of the Paradise Theatre, in Chicago. Styx charted it’s opening right up to the day it closed its door and the eventual abandonment of this once proud theatre. Paradise Theatre was an album that struck a nerve with record buyers.
When Paradise Theatre was released, it was mostly to critical acclaim. However, the increasingly cynical Rolling Stone magazine was still unwilling to give credit where credit was due. This was the latest example of churlish behaviour from the magazine as Styx released a career defining opus.
Upon its release Paradise Theatre topped the US Billboard 200, and was certified gold. Across the border, Paradise Theatre was certified platinum and silver in Britain. Styx also featured four hit singles including Nothing Ever Goes As Planned which reached fifty-four in the US Billboard 100. After that, Rockin’ The Paradise reached number eight, while Too Much Time On My Hands reached nine and The Best Of Times reached number three. By then, it was official that Paradise Theatre was the most successful album of Styx’s career.
Kilroy Was Here.
After the success of Paradise Theatre, just over two years passed before Kilroy Was Here was released on February the ’28th’ 1983. It was the third Styx album that was recorded at Pumpkin Studios in Oak Lawn, Illinois, and which was a somewhat controversial album title.
Although the album title had been inspired by a famous piece of World War II graffiti, partly the album mocked Christian fundamentalist groups and their fellow anti-rock activists. They had gotten so disproportionately powerful in parts of America, that the Arkansas Senate were forced to pass a bill requiring that if a record contained backward masking it had to be labeled as such by the manufacturer. This included albums by The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Queen, the Electric Light Orchestra and even Styx, who found humour in something that had been the subject of debate since the late-sixties.
Backmasking was popularised by The Beatles, and since then, many groups and artists had used the technique to add comedic, satiric and secret messages. However, the Christian fundamentalist groups and their fellow travellers believed backmasking was used to hide satanic messages. This resulted in the members of this intellectually challenged movement burning records while forcing state and federal governments to pass legislation. Styx had watched this unfold and were determined to have their say.
To do this, they wrote what was essentially a rock opera where music is outlawed by a fascist and theocratic government and the Majority For Musical Morality (MMM). The protagonist of the story was a former rock star Robert Orin Charles Kilroy, who was played by Dennis DeYoung. He was imprisoned by the leader of the MMM played by James “JY” Young. When Robert Orin Charles Kilroy escapes from prison, he discovers a young musician Jonathan Chance, who is played by Tommy Shaw is on a mission to bring music back. This was the story that Kilroy Was Here told and when Styx toured the album.
Before that, the genre-melting Kilroy Was Here was released to mixed reviews. Many critics were unsure what to make of where elements of new wave pop rock, progressive rock and rock were combined during a rock opera with a controversial backstory. Neither did record buyers.
Although Kilroy Was Here reached number three in the US Billboard 200, it sold just over a million copies and was certified platinum. However, some within the music industry believed Kilroy Was Here sold just over 2.5 million copies. However, there is no proof of this, and the official album sales were a disappointment for the five members of Styx.
Despite the disappointing album sales, three singles had been released from Kilroy Was Here. Don’t Let It End reached number six in the US Billboard 100, High Time forty-eight and Mr. Roboto number three. Meanwhile, Kilroy Was Here was certified platinum in Canada. After eleven albums, Styx had sold over 13.5 million albums in America and over 600,000 in Canada. Eleven years after releasing Styx, the Chicago based band were one of the biggest selling bands in America.
Caught In The Act Live.
Despite their success over the last eleven years, Styx still hadn’t gotten round to releasing a live album. By the time Kilroy Was Here was released on February the ’28th’ 1983, tension in the group building over the future direction of Styx. Dennis DeYoung was in favour of introducing ballads, which James “JY” Young were dead against. Styx was a very much group divided, and that was why it was decided that they should record Caught In The Act Live.
Things had gotten so bad that the members of Styx were even considering calling it a day. The only problem was that Styx still owed A&M Records one more album. There was no way that A&M were going to free Styx from their remaining contractual obligations. However, if Styx recorded a live album, this meant that they would’ve fulfilled their contractual obligations. That was why when Styx embarked upon another gruelling tour and for two nights the tapes would be running to record Caught In The Act Live.
As Styx embarked upon another lengthy tour where the group went to coast to coast, the band, their management and A&R Records knew that there were plenty of potential venues to record a live album and concert film. Eventually, after much consideration Styx and their management decided to record the live album Caught In The Act on the ‘9th’ and ‘10th’ of April at the small, but atmospheric Saenger Theatre, in New Orleans. The venue held just 2,736 people who would be able to tell their friends and family that they were there when Styx recorded Caught In The Act Live.
When Styx’s tour bus rolled into the Big Easy, little did any of the audience realise that was due to attend the show realise that this was the end of an era. Never agin would this lineup Styx take to the stage. This was how deep the divisions in the group were.
Certainly, as the fans started arriving at the Saenger Theatre on ‘9th’ of April 1983, nobody was aware that they were about to be present when what many regard as the classic lineup of Styx made their last recording. That night, and on the ‘10th’ of April 1983, Styx’s rhythm section featured drummer and percussionist John Panozzo, bassist and vocalist Chuck Panozzo who also ‘plays’ the bass pedals. The twins were joined by Tommy Shaw who played acoustic, electric and lead guitar while adding vocals and deploying a vocoder. James “JY” Young also played electric and lead guitar, added vocals and sometimes switched to synths. Meanwhile keyboardist Dennis DeYoung added vocals on what he realised was Styx’s swan-song.
Disc One.
The song that opens Caught In The Act Live album was the only song not recorded in New Orleans. Instead, it was recorded in the studio and features an emotional and almost dramatic vocal. It then gives way to the rest of Caught In The Act Live which was recorded at the Saenger Theatre in New Orleans.
When Styx took to the stage the Saenger Theatre in New Orleans, they opened they launched into Mr. Roboto from their previous album Kilroy Was Here. It’s followed by Too Much Time on My Hands where Tommy Shaw takes charge of the lead vocal. It’s followed by Babe where Dennis DeYoung takes charge of the vocals on this beautiful ballad, which was the direction he wanted to take Styx in.
Snowblind is a powerful song about cocaine addition, where Styx replicate the highs and lows, veering between dark and moody to a much faster, harder edged sound. This roller coaster ride is followed by State Street Sadie from Paradise Theatre and Suite Madame Blue from Equinox as Styx dip into some of their greatest and most successful albums. They seem determined to give the fans what they want to hear.
Disc Two.
Given that Paradise Theatre was Styx’s most successful album, it was no surprise that they played several songs from that album, including Rockin’ The Paradise. Dennis DeYoung takes charge of the lead vocal while Tommy Shaw unleashes the first guitar solo and James “JY” Young. The two guitarists put their differences aside for the good of the band, who have given one of their best performances.
After that, Styx play Blue Collar Man (Long Nights) one of the singles from the album Pieces Of Eight. This time, Tommy Shaw takes charge of the lead vocal and guitar, while James “JY” Young adds fills before stepping out of the shadows to deliver the final guitar solo. James “JY” Young then takes charge of lead vocal and guitar on his composition Miss America. The Godfather is in fine form and this continues as he delivers the lead vocal Don’t Let It End, while Tommy Shaw unleashes some searing guitar licks. He then switches between lead guitar and mandolin while Dennis DeYoung sings the lead vocal and plays accordion On Boat On The River.
Styx return to their 1977 album The Grand Illusion for Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man) as Tommy Shaw sings the lead vocal and this time, the versatile Dennis DeYoung switches to synths. It’s a similar case on Crystal Ball while Tommy Shaw takes charge of the lead guitar and vocal on one of the first songs that he wrote as a member of Styx. Closing Caught In The Act Live was the prophetically titled Come Sail Away, where Dennis DeYoung who had been a member of the original band since he was fourteen, sings the lead vocal. After a standing ovation, Styx left the stage of Saenger Theatre.
A year later, when Caught In The Act Live was released by A&M Records the five members of Styx had already gone their separate ways. Without a band to promote Caught In The Act Live, it was no surprise when the album only reached thirty in the US Billboard 200. This time, there was no gold or platinum disc for Styx. When Music Time was released as a single, it reached forty in the US Billboard 100, and gave Styx their twentieth hit single since 1972. For Styx this was the end an era.
Although Caught In The Act Live was released after Styx split-up. By then, they were one of the most successful bands of the seventies and early eighties. One album had been certified gold in Germany and Canada plus three in America. There was also the small matter one platinum album in America, six in Canada, a double platinum album and three triple platinum albums. This was pretty good going for a band that was formed by twelve-year-old twins Chuck and John Panozzo and Dennis DeYoung who was fourteen.
Twelve years after they signed their first recording contract they had enjoyed success beyond their wildest dreams. Styx had become the living embodiment of the American Dream.
Sadly, after eleven years recording and touring, Styx became a band divided, and after the Kilroy Has Here tour was over the group split-up. Nothing it seems, in music lasts forever, and proof of that was Styx. Even after selling over fourteen million albums in North America alone, they were unable to set aside their musical different.
Just five years later, and Styx made a comeback, albeit the classic lineup of Chuck and John Panozzo, Dennis DeYoung, James “JY” Young and Tommy Shaw was a thing of the past. Styx’s 1990 comeback album was certified gold as was their 1997 followup album, Return To Paradise. It was Styx’s second live album and the first to feature drummer Todd Sucherman who had joined the group in 1995. A year later, founder member John Panozzo passed away in July 1996, and that day Styx lost the man who for so long had provided its heartbeat. It was the end of another era.
Since the release of Return To Paradise in 1997, Styx have continued to record and tour. They’ve released three studio albums and five live albums and they still remain a popular live draw. However, for many people, Styx’s best years were between their 1972 eponymous debut album and Caught In The Act Live which released in 1984 and marked the end of an era for the Chicago-based band.
Cult Classic: Styx-Caught In The Act Live.
CULT CLASSIC: THE LIGHTMEN-FREE AS YOU WANNA BE.
Cult Classic: The Lightmen-Free As You Wanna Be.
Before founding The Lightmen, drummer, bandleader and political activist Bubbha Thomas had toured the length and breadth of America playing in R&B revues. The rest of his career had been spent working alongside the legends of jazz and playing on sessions for Peacock and Back Beat Records. However, Bubbha Thomas’ career took a different path in the late-sixties after witnessing the political and social upheaval that was tearing America apart.
Bubbha Thomas formed a new jazz group The Lightmen, who released four albums of spiritual jazz during the seventies. This includes their debut Free As You Wanna Be. It finds The Lightmen following in the footsteps of the late John Coltrane on what was a powerful album of spiritual jazz from Bubbha Thomas’ new band.
He was born and grew up in the Houston’s Fourth Ward, where Bubbha Thomas’ father was a preacher and his mother a musician. Sadly, his mother passed away before he started school, and he was brought up by his maternal grandmother. Growing up, Bubbha Thomas was a talented basketball player, but it was music that he grew to love.
All around the Fourth Ward, the young Bubbha Thomas heard music playing, especially the blues. He could walk down the streets and hear Big Mama Thornton, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown and Lightnin’ Hopkins. Bubbha Thomas heard the music as he made his way through the Fourth Ward. This made an impression on Bubbha Thomas, and so do did what was happening within the Fourth Ward.
Many of the black residents who had moved to the Fourth Ward in the post-war years, were becoming upwardly mobile socially and economically. Some were keen to become active politically, while others had joined the police force and were determined to change the force from within. This included by opposing the enforcement of the Jim Crow laws from within the police force. It looked like Houston and the South was changing.
Meanwhile, as Bubbha Thomas headed to school each morning, he always met a professional drummer called Fats. By the time he returned home at night he could hear Fats practising. He had spent most of the day honing his skills and was a talented drummer who made a big impressions on Bubbha Thomas.
By then, Bubbha Thomas was attending Booker T. Washington High School, and was playing basketball. However, his first love was music, and he was the drummer in the intermediate and senior bands. Later, he was taught by Conrad O. Johnson who would later enjoy a successful career in jazz music. Prof as he was affectionately known, would influence many young musicians, including Bubbha Thomas.
Via what was called the orchestra at Booker T. Washington High School, Prof introduced his pupils to jazz music. This wasn’t meant to happen, but he saw this as part of his pupil’s musical education. The curriculum at the school had been drawn up by white people for primarily white children. Those that were responsible for the curriculum referred to the “orchestra,” which under Prof’s tutelage became a jazz band and Bubbha Thomas’ its drummer.
Between the influence of Prof and Fats, Bubbha Thomas’ people were soon taking attention of the young drummer. He was still playing basketball, but that was more of a hobby. Bubbha Thomas was more interested in music. Meanwhile, he was about to discover the other side of Houston.
When Bubbha Thomas boarded a bus in Houston, he was still forced to sit at the back of the bus, away from his white friends. It’s hard to believe that any civilised society was treating its citizens like this in the fifties. Bubbha Thomas who was still in high school new this was wrong.
Gradually it started to eat away at him, being treated like a second class citizen. Things came to a head when he boarded a bus with his elderly grandmother who was exhausted and needed a seat. The only remaining seat was on the white part of the bus, and Bubbha Thomas encouraged his grandmother to sit down. She wasn’t sure but, was so tired that she eventually sat down. When a white woman got on the bus, she wouldn’t sit down in the empty seat next to Bubbha Thomas’ grandmother. The bus driver was watching what was happening, and stopped the bus and told his grandmother to get out of her seat and give it the white lady. Bubbha Thomas got upset with the driver, and this resulted in them being thrown off the bus. This was the first time he had been a victim of racism, and this would shape his future and eventually he would rail against political and social injustice.
Before that, Bubbha Thomas was hoping to head Wiley College, in East Texas, on a basketball scholarship. He was told that there were no scholarships available until the following year, but he was offered a musical scholarship. Bubbha Thomas and one his neighbours in the Fourth Ward spent the next four years drumming in East Texas.
When Bubbha Thomas returned the his grandmother had died, and the house that he lived in the Fourth Ward had been sold. Meanwhile, the Fourth Ward was now seen as part of the Gregory-Lincoln campus. It wasn’t the place Bubbha Thomas knew and he left the Fourth Ward for good, and moved in with his father in another part of Houston.
That was until Bubbha Thomas received his call up papers, and soon, he was en route to Korea. The irony was he was being asked to fight for a country where he was regularly discriminated against, and couldn’t even sit next to a white person on a bus.
After a few days doing mundane chores in Korea, Bubbha Thomas told a superior officer that he was a musician, and soon doing what he did best playing music. He spent his time in the army playing jazz rather than as a regular soldier. By the time Bubbha Thomas left the army, he was a much better musician than the one that arrived in Korea.
Back home in Houston in 1961, Bubbha Thomas put together his own band and hit the road. Each night, he played his own music, but other nights, he was asked to accompany other artists. He and his band backed R&B singer Chuck Jackson, bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins and jazz musicians like Leon Spencer and Melvin Sparks. Before long, Bubbha Thomas and his band were capable of playing every style of music.
It was around this time that Bubbha Thomas met Frederick Tillis who would influence him as a musician. So would Don Wilkerson, who released his debut album The Texas Twister in 1960, and then released a trio of well-regarded albums on Blue Note Records. Soon, Bubbha Thomas and Don Wilkerson were part of a quartet together and played all over Texas.
By the mid-sixties, Bubbha Thomas was a talented and versatile musician who had played all over America. He played from small venues and taken to the stage in some of the most prestigious concert halls America had to offer. However, by then, jazz’s popularity was in the decline in America, and other musical genres were growing in popularity.
Fortunately, Bubbha Thomas was asked to join Chuck Jackson’s band in the mid-sixties, and after that, led a trio in Houston that featured Leon Spencer. Later, he founded The Jazz Merchants, who despite their name, weren’t influenced by Houston’s very own The Jazz Crusaders. The Jazz Merchants were determined to head in a different direction and make music that was unique. This they managed to do as the world around them started to change.
By the late-sixties, the civil rights movement had brought about change in America, and the country was changing. Bubbha Thomas had been part of the civil right’s movement and played his part in the changes that were taking place around him. Now he turned his attention to the musicians with the Houston music scene.
While Houston had many talented musicians, Bubbha Thomas realised that they had an image problem. People’s perception of the local musicians wasn’t good. They were seen as people who slept all day, lived on fast food and after gigs drank too much and smoked reefer. Many people were looking down their noses at musicians, and they were starting to receive bad PR. This Bubbha Thomas knew was wrong and ironic as he was university educated, and many of his musician friends were well-educated. Others were studying at college and music was a way of paying the bills. This was very different to the articles that were being write about local musicians in Houston.
Bubbha Thomas started to spend more time with groups of musicians, and got to know them. His next step was to try to get them some much-needed publicity. This was how drummer Bubbha Thomas found himself working for the local anti-poverty, grassroots newspaper Voice Of Hope.
Soon, Bubbha Thomas had a regular column and wrote about a variety of local issues. This resulted in the local police targeting Bubbha Thomas, who was regularly followed and stopped for no apparent reason. The musician and part-time community and cultural activist was once again being discriminated against. Just when it looked as if things were changing in the land of the free.
Meanwhile, Bubbha Thomas was collaborating with playwright, poet and professor at Texas Southern University Thomas Melecon. He was combined the philosophy of the Black Panthers with the style of early Bob Dylan. It was a potent and powerful combination and one that impressed Bubbha Thomas.
So much so, that Bubbha Thomas produced the two singles that Thomas Melecon released on Judnell Records. Not long after this, he asked the poet to join him when he played live and bring a new angle to his music. By then, Bubbha Thomas was already an innovator when it came to art and music.
He was also someone who wanted equality, and when he noticed that there were no black television presenters, wrote to local stations. This resulted in Bubbha Thomas being given his own television show, which sadly, was short-lived. It featured the only live footage of the Kashmere Stage Band, and spiritual jazz combos the Fifth Ward Express and The Lightmen Plus One led by Bubbha Thomas. It was part of his plan for the future.
As 1969 dawned, Bubbha Thomas was leading The Lightmen and The Jazz Merchants. They accompanied some of the high-profile local jazz musicians including Annette Cobb. However, Bubbha Thomas was thinking beyond live gigs and wanted to release music that was very different to what his peers were releasing. The music would be ambitious, innovative and revolutionary, and released on record labels that were co-ops. This was way before Strata in Detroit and Strata Records in New York thought of the concept.
Soon, Bubbha Thomas and his band The Lightmen were rehearsing and writing material for a new album. During the rehearsals before the recording of Free As You Wanna Be, the members of The Lightmen had been discussing the concept of freedom from the perspective of the African-American people. By then, many had started to question the United States’ constitution regarding their rights as American citizens. Ed Rose who knew that Bubbha Thomas had been active within the civil right’s movement asked Bubbha Thomas: “how free are black people in America?”
It took some time before Bubbha Thomas responded: “free as they wanna be.” This inspired Ed Rose to write new track.
He remembers: “with the answer to the question came the name to a tune i had written, the title tune of this album. After the head of tune, there should be no sense of time; each musician has the freedom to be free musically, as he can imagine himself.”
By the time The Lightmen were ready to record their debut album Free As You Wanna Be, members of the band had penned seven tracks. Bandleader Bubbha Thomas had written May ’67, which referred to a clash between student protesters in the Third Ward and the Houston Police Department. During the clashes twenty-four year old rookie policemen Louis Kuba was shot, and 500 people were arrested. These events insured Bubbha Thomas to write May ’67.
Meanwhile, Ed Rose who had written Free As You Wanna Be had also written Luke 23:32-49 which deals with Jesus’ forgiving two criminals just before his crucifixion. These two songs by Ed Rose were joined by Joe Singleton’s High Pockets, Kenny Abair’s Talk Visit, Doug Harris’ #109 Psychosomatic and Creative Music which was a Carl Adams and George Nelson composition. These tracks were recorded by The Lightmen.
Bubbha Thomas’ band featured a rhythm section of drummers Bubbha Thomas and William Jefferies, bassist Ed Rose and guitarist Kenny Abair. They were joined by conga player Mike O’Connor and a horn section that featured trumpeter Carl Adams, trombonist Joe Singleton, tenor saxophonist Doug Harris and flautist Ronnie Laws who played alto and soprano saxophone. The Lightmen’s debut album was produced by George Nelson.
When the Houston underground jazz collective had completed its debut, The Lightmen released Free As You Wanna Be on Judnell Records in 1970. Although Free As You Wanna Be found a small but appreciative audience in Houston sadly, it never found the wider audience it deserved.
It was only much later that a new generation of record buyers discovered The Lightmen’s debut album Free As You Wanna Be. By then, it was regarded as a hidden gem and an oft-overlooked album that featured music that was ambitious, cerebral, innovative album, powerful and thought-provoking album of spiritual jazz.
Especially tracks like Free As You Wanna Be, May ’67 and the album closer Luke 23:32-49. These are especially thought-provoking and have a strong narrative. However, the album opener Creative Music, High Pockets, Talk Visit and #109 Psychosomatic feature a group of like-minded innovative musicians pushing musical boundaries to their limits and sometimes beyond.
Album opener Creative Music finds spiritual jazz almost heading in the direction of free jazz, before The Lightmen play with speed, power and freedom on Free As You Wanna Be. It gives way to the melodic shuffling High Pockets and then Talk Visit where the tempo increases and The Lightmen keep things melodic. That is despite playing with the utmost urgency, power and accuracy. May ’67 is cinematic and thought-provoking and is without doubt one of Free As You Wanna Be’s highlights. So is #109 Psychosomatic where sharp bursts of squealing horns play their part in the sound and success of the track. Closing Free As You Wanna Be is Luke 23:32-49 which is another slower cinematic and cerebral track from spiritual jazz pioneers The Lightmen.
Nowadays, this oft-overlooked spiritual jazz hidden gem is regarded as a cult classic. Free As You Wanna Be features Bubbha Thomas’ band The Lightmen as they embark on the start of a four album musical journey. It’s an album of spiritual jazz that is ambitious and innovative and finds The Lightmen pushing musical boundaries to their limits and playing with freedom. In doing so, The Lightmen created music that is cerebral, cinematic, melodic and thought-provoking as they broach subjects like freedom, religion and one of the darkest days in Houston’s recent history in May ’67. All this makes Free As You Wanna Be as a compelling and groundbreaking album of spiritual jazz from Houston-based musical mavericks The Lightmen.
Cult Classic: The Lightmen-Free As You Wanna Be.
ORCHESTRA COMETA-DAYDREAM AND MISCELLANEA.
Orchestra Cometa-Daydream and Miscellanea.
Label: Cometa Edizioni Musicali.
Format: LP.
Over the last few years, interest in library music released between the sixties and early eighties has grown, and albums released by labels like KPM, De Woife, Amphonic, Conroy and Sonoton have become highly collectable. This is ironic as these albums were never meant to fall into the hands of collectors.
Originally, library music was meant to be used by film studios, television and radio stations or advertising agencies and was never meant to be commercially available. That was the theory.
The music was recorded on spec by music libraries who often hired young unknown composers, musicians and producers. This ranged from musicians who were known within publishing circles, to up-and-coming musicians who later, went onto greater things, and look back fondly at their time writing, recording and producing library music. This they now regard as part of their musical apprenticeship.
For the musicians hired to record library music, their remit was to supply music libraries with a steady stream of new music which originally, was referred to as production music. During some sessions, the musicians’ remit was write and record music to match themes or moods. This wasn’t easy, but after a while they were able to this seamlessly. Soon, the musicians were able to enter the studio and write and record a piece of music that matched a theme or mood for a film or television show.
Once the library music was recorded, record libraries sent out demonstration copies of their music to advertising agencies, film studios, production companies, radio stations and television channels. If they liked what they heard, they would license a track or several tracks from the music libraries. That was how it was meant to work.
Sometimes, copies of these albums fell into the hands of DJs, sample-hungry producers and record collectors who realising the quality of music, recorded by these unknown musicians, started collecting library music.
That is still the case today, and nowadays, many original albums of library music are highly collectable. Often, though, these albums are beyond the budget of most record buyers. Luckily, many independent record labels in Britain and Europe are releasing compilations of library music as well as classic albums.
One of these labels is Cometa Edizioni Musicali which is based in the Italian capital, Rome. They’ve recently reissued Orchestra Cometa’s 1974 album Daydream and Miscellanea which was originally released in 1969. They’re the perfect introduction to two of the most important Italian library music labels.
Orchestra Cometa-Daydream.
When Daydream was released in 1974 by Orchestra Cometa it came with what some people will describe as a distinctive album cover. Other people will describe the picture of a hand holding a flower that has eyeballs on each petal as weird or lysergic. It certainly makes one wonder what the music on Daydream will sound like? Is this the type of library music that Salvador Dali might have made?
Despite the cover, the music isn’t as trippy or lysergic as one might have thought. Far from it. Appearances can be deceptive and that’s the case on Daydream.
Instead, a wide range of musical genres can be heard during the fifteen tracks on Daydream. There’s everything from jazz, funk, fusion and folk to blues, jazz-funk, psychedelia and rock. The Orchestra Cometa featured top Italian session musicians who were versatile musicians and able to seamlessly switch between disparate genres. That wasn’t all.
They were able to write and record music to match themes or moods. Not all musicians could do this. However, the Orchestra Cometa were able to and it was akin to painting pictures with music. This they do throughout Daydream.
Side One.
Among the highlights are Rash with its tough, funky sound while Daydream is beautiful, wistful and jazz-tinged and Simpton moody and dramatic. Bike is a genre-melting track where funk, fusion and jazz combine and a clavinet adds a tough edge. Quite different is Gadder which is melancholy, dramatic and guaranteed to tug at the heartstrings. Then Diplomat which closes side one, sounds like the theme to a late-seventies television drama.
Side Two.
Canty opens side two and is jazz-tinged and funky with a feelgood sound. Very different is Swallow which sounds as if it was written for a period drama. Then a clavinet is deployed on Obstinacy which sounds as if it belongs on a seventies cop show or Blaxploitation film. Reeds are to the fore on the Riddle a mellow slice of jazz that closes Daydream on a high.
Sadly, Daydream was the only album that the Orchestra Cometa recorded for the Cometa Edizioni Musicali label. Just like so many albums of library music, the musicians who played on Daydream aren’t credited. Given the quality of music on they album they were obviously top session players.
Daydream showcases their considerable skill and versatility as they flit between and fuse disparate musical genres. This is something that lesser musicians would’ve been unable to do. However, the members of Orchestra Cometa make this seem easy on Daydream which forty-six years after its release in 1974 is regarded as an Italian library music classic.
Miscellanea.
So is the compilation Miscellanea, which was released by the SR Records in 1969. It features ten tracks including nine written by Luigi Zito. This was his debut as a composer and he continued to write and record throughout the seventies.
The other track was Dolce Notte which was penned by Ranieri Romagnoli. He had started working as a writer and arranger in the mid-fifties and continued to work until the early nineties.
The ten tracks on Miscellanea were recorded by a group of musicians who recorded under various names including Unione Musicisti Di Roma. They play their part in the sound and success of an album of evocative tracks that paint pictures and toy with the listener’s emotions.
Sometimes the music on Miscellanea is dramatic, moody and full of tension. Other times, it’s wistful and melancholy. Sometimes, the music transports the listener to another time and place. It’s like time travel going back in time before hearing a snapshot of what the future will sound like. That is Miscellanea is another Italian library music classic. It’s also a reminder of what was a golden age for library music. It began in the sixties and lasted until the early eighties and the music released during this period is highly collectable.
Especially albums released by KPM, De Woife, Amphonic, Conroy and Sonoton. Then there’s lesser known labels like Cometa Edizioni Musicali and SR Records who released Orchestra Cometa’s album Daydream and Miscellanea.
Nowadays, both albums are regarded by connoisseurs as library music classics. Original copies of both of these albums and highly collectable and extremely rare. When a copy does come up for sale there’s a premium attached and usually it’s beyond the budget of most collectors.
Thankfully, Cometa Edizioni Musicali recently reissued Orchestra Cometa’s album Daydream and Miscellanea as limited editions of 300 and this is the perfect opportunity to discover the delights of these two Italian library music classics.
Orchestra Cometa-Daydream and Miscellanea.
TIM MAIA-RACIONAL VOLUME 2.
Tim Maia-Racional Volume 2.
Label: Seroma.
Format: LP.
By 1975, Tim Maia was a changed man and had turned his back on the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle that he had embraced and enjoyed since releasing his eponymous debut album in 1970. Back then, the charismatic Brazilian singer realised that he was only here for a visit and decided to live life to the fullest. He drank, took drugs and partied as he enjoyed the newfound wealth his musical career had brought him.
Despite that wealth and a lifestyle that many of his fans must have envied, Tim Maia wasn’t happy. The problem was the royalty rate that he had been paid by Polydor for his first four album. That was why he decided to found his own publishing company Seroma. This just happened to coincide with him signing to RCA Victor.
This was a new start for Tim Maia, and he began work on his next album which was going to be a double album. He wrote and recorded the instrumental parts and all that was left was for him to write the lyrics.
Seeking inspiration for the lyrics, Tim Maia decided to visit one of his former songwriting partners Tibério Gaspar. That was where he found the book that would change his life, but sadly, not for the better. The book was Universo em Desencanto (Universe in Disenchantment) which revolved around the cult of Rational Culture. It transformed Tim Maia’s life and inspired what was to be his fifth album Racional Volumes 1 and 2, which was also the most controversial of his career. It was the latest extraordinary chapter in his life.
Tim Maia, was born in Rio De Janeiro on September the ‘28th’ 1942 and was the eighteenth of nineteen children. Aged just six, he earned a living delivering homemade food which his mother cooked. This he hoped would be the nearest he ever got to an ordinary job. After that, Tim Maia decided to devote himself to music which offered him an escape from the grinding poverty that was around him.
It turned out that Tim Maia was a prodigiously talented child who wrote his first song as an eight year old. By the time he was fourteen, he had learnt to play the drums and formed his first group Os Tijucanos do Ritmo. They were only together for a year, but during that period, Tim Maia took guitar lessons and was soon a proficient guitarist. This would stand him in good stead in the future.
In 1957, Tim Maia joined the vocal harmony group The Sputniks who made a television appearance on Carlos Eduardo Imperial’s Clube do Rock. However, the group was a short-lived, and Tim Maia embarked upon a solo career. This lasted until 1959 when the seventeen year old decided to emigrate.
Tim Maia decided to head to America, which he believed he was the land of opportunity and arrived in New York with just twelve dollars in his pocket. On his arrival, he who was unable to speak English, but somehow managed to bluff his way through customs telling the officials that he was a student called Jimmy. Incredibly, the customs officer believed him and he made his way to Tarrytown, New York, where he lived with extended family and started making plans for the future. By then, Tim Maia had decided he would never return to Brazil.
During his time in New York, Tim Maia held down a variety of casual jobs and it has been alleged that he even augmented his meagre earnings by committing petty crimes. However, Tim Maia also learnt to speak and sing in English which lead to him forming a vocal group, The Ideals.
During his time with The Ideals, they decided to record a demo which included New Love which featured lyrics by Tim Maia. When they entered the studio, percussionist Milton Banana made a guest appearance. Sadly, nothing came of the demo although Tim Maia later resurrected New Love for his album Tim Maia 1973. Before that, things went awry for Tim Maia and he was eventually deported.
Confusion surrounds why and when Tim Maia was deported from America, and there’s two possible explanations. The first, and more rock ’n’ roll version is that Tim Maia was arrested on possession of cannabis in 1963, and deported shortly thereafter. That seems unlikely given how punitive penalties for possession of even a small quantity of cannabis were in the sixties. Indeed, it’s highly unlikely that Tim Maia would’ve been deported without having to serve a jail sentence first. This lends credence to the allegation that Tim Maia was caught in a stolen car in Daytona, Florida, and after serving six months in prison he was deported back to Brazil in 1964.
Now back home in Brazil, Tim Maia’s life seemed to be going nowhere fast. He was fired from several jobs and was also arrested several times. It was no surprise when he decided to move to São Paulo, where he hoped that he could get his career back on track.
Having moved to São Paulo, Tim Maia, hoped he would be reunited with Roberto Carlos who had been a member of The Sputniks. Ironically, it was Roberto Carlos who Tim Maia had insulted before he left The Sputniks. Despite leaving several messages, Roberto Carlos never returned Tim Maia’s calls and he had no option but to try to make his own way in the São Paulo music scene.
Tim Maia’s persistence paid off, and soon, he had featured on Wilson Simonal’s radio show, and then appeared alongside Os Mutantes on local television. Despite making inroads into the São Paulo music scene, Tim Maia was still determined to contact Roberto Carlos and sent him a homemade demo. Eventually, Tim Maia’s persistence paid off.
When Roberto Carlos heard the demo, he recommended Tim Maia to CBS who offered him a recording deal for a single, and an appearance on the Jovem Guarda television program. However, when Tim Maia’s released his debut single Meu País in 1968, it failed to find an audience.
Tim Maia tried a new approach with his sophomore single and recorded These Are the Songs, in English. It was released later in 1968, but again, commercial success eluded Tim Maia. Things weren’t looking good for the twenty-six year old singer.
Fortunately, Tim Maia’s luck changed when he wrote These Are the Songs for Roberto Carlos which gave his old friend a hit single. At last, things were looking up for Tim Maia.
Things continued to improve when Elis Regina became captivated by Tim Maia’s composition These Are the Songs. This led to Elis Regina asking Tim Maia to duet with her on the song. Tim Maia agreed and they recorded the song in English and Portuguese and the song featured on Elis Regina’s 1970 album Em Pieno Veroa. Recording with such a famous Brazilian singer gave Tim Maia’s career a huge boost, and soon, he was offered a recording contract by Polydor.
Having signed to Polydor in 1970, and somewhat belatedly recorded his debut album Tim Maia 1970. Although it showcased a talented, versatile and charismatic singer, who married soul and funk with samba and Baião. This groundbreaking album spent twenty-four weeks in the upper reaches of the Brazilian charts and launched Tim Maia’s career.
The following year, Tim Maia returned with his sophomore album Tim Maia 1971, where elements of soul and funk were combined with samba and Baião There were even hints of jazz, psychedelia and rock during what was an ambitious and innovative album of genre-melting music. It was released to critical acclaim and like his debut was a commercial success.
Tim Maia 1971 also featured two hits singles Não Quero Dinheiro (Só Quero Amar) and Preciso Aprender a Ser Só. Having released just two albums Tim Maia’s star was in the ascendancy, and it looked as if he was well on his way to becoming one of the biggest stars of Brazilian music.
After the success of his sophomore album, Tim Maia headed to London to celebrate after years of struggling to make a breakthrough. For the first time in his career he was making a good living out of music, and he was determined to celebrate and enjoy the fruits of his label. However, it was during this trip to London, that he first discovered his love of the rock ’n’ roll lifestyle.
Realising that he was only here for a visit, Tim Maia embraced the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle and almost defiantly, lived each day as if it was his last. He hungrily devoured copious amounts of drugs and alcohol which became part of Tim Maia’s daily diet. Fortunately, his new-found lifestyle didn’t seem to affect his ability to make music. That was until he discovered a new drug that would prove to be his undoing.
In London, Tim Maia discovered LSD and became an advocate of its supposed mind opening qualities. He took 200 tabs of LSD home to Brazil and gave it to his friends and people at his record label. Little did he know, but this was akin pressing the self destruct button.
Over the next two years, he released two further albums, Tim Maia 1972 and Tim Maia 1973. Both were released critical acclaim and were a commercial success in Brazil. It seemed that the charismatic singer who had been christened the father of Brazilian soul music could do no wrong.
The only problem was that after the success of Tim Maia 1973, Tim Maia became unhappy at the royalty rate he was receiving from his publisher. This led to him founding his own publishing company Seroma, which coincided with Tim Maia signing to RCA Victor.
Racional Volumes 1 and 2.
RCA Victor had offered Tim Maia the opportunity to record a double album for his fifth album and he was excited by this opportunity. He, agreed to sign to RCA Victor and soon, began work on his fifth album.
Somehow, Tim Maia was still seemed able to function normally on his daily diet of drink and drugs. He and his band headed to house in a quiet part of Rio de Janeiro and spent their days smoking marijuana and experimenting with hallucinogenics as they worked on new songs. By the end of July, they already had worked out several dozen songs and instrumental grooves followed . They stayed true to Tim Maia’s samba-soul formula.All that was left was for Tim to write the lyrics to the double album.
Seeking inspiration for the lyrics, Tim Maia decided to visit one of his former songwriting partners Tibério Gaspar. That was where Tim main found the book that would change his life, but sadly, not for the better. The book was Universo em Desencanto (Universe in Disenchantment), which revolved around the cult of Rational Culture who didn’t believe in eating red meat or using drugs. Given Tim Maia’s voracious appetite for drink and drugs, he seemed an unlikely candidate to join the cult. However, sadly, he did. It’s also alleged that he coerced the rest of band to join the cult and live by its strict precepts.
Straight away, the cult’s beliefs affected Tim Maia and his music. Ever since he joined the cult of Rational Energy, he was clean-shaved, dressed in white and no longer drank, ate red meat, smoked or took drugs. He also became fixated on UFOs and wherever he went he held a mysterious book in his hand. Tim Maia was a changed man and even his music changed.
The lyrics for his fifth album, and RCA Victor debut, were supposedly about his newly acquired knowledge that came courtesy of Universo em Desencanto. With the ‘lyrics’ complete, Tim Maia’s vocals were overdubbed onto what became Racional Volumes 1 and 2. With the album completed, Tim took it to RCA Victor who promptly rejected the album.
RCA Victor’s reason for rejecting the album was that it wasn’t of a commercial standard. To make matters worse, the lyrics made absolutely no sense. There was only one small crumb of comfort and that was that Tim Maia’s voice was improving. That hardly mattered for RCA Victor who said that they weren’t going to release the album. For RCA Victor, Racional Volumes 1 and 2 was a huge disappointment.
That was until Tim Maia offered to buy the master tapes from RCA Victor so that he could release the album independently. RCA Victor accepted his offer which allowed them to recoup some of their money. Having bought the master tapes, Tim Maia set about releasing Racional Volume 1 in 1975.
When critics and record buyers heard the lyrics on Racional Volume 1 they struggled to understand them. They were very different to the lyrics on his four previous albums. It was hard to believe it was the same artist. Tim Maia was a changed man since joining the cult and was as if he had been brainwashed and was transformed into an excitable evangelist as he shouts: “Read the book, the only book!” throughout the album. That was apart from Rational Culture which was an epic genre-melting jam that closed the album on a high. It was a reminder of what Tim Maia was capable of.
Elsewhere it was a different story as Tim Maia combines his own inimitable brand of gospel music that’s full of sci-fi imagery with elements of blues, soul, pre-disco funk and psychedelic rock. The influence of Motown can be heard and the album heads in the direction of on Imunização Racional. The arrangements were tight and up to Tim Maia’s usual standards as he delivered impassioned and powerful vocals. However, the problem was that Tim Maia was using his fifth album Racional Volume 1 to spread the word about the cult’s so-called philosophy.
This extended to the album cover which detailed the cult’s core beliefs. It was very different from Tim Maia’s previous albums. However, he released Racional Volume 1 on his own label Seroma.
There was a problem though. Most record shops were sure about stocking such a controversial album. However, Tim Maia managed to convince a few shops to stock copies of Racional Volume 1. Despite that, the album wasn’t a commercial success when it was released in 1975. The only track to receive any radio play was Imunização Racional (Que Beleza). Even then, it was only a minimal amount and Racional Volume 1 was the least successful album of Tim Maia’s career. Still he as determined to release Racional Volume 2.
Racional Volume 2.
Following the release of Racional Volume 1 many of Tim Maia’s fans thought he was no longer the artist he once was. The album was very different to his first four albums and they thought he had lost his way musically. However, the problem was his membership of the cult was affecting his judgment and also his music.
It was as if he had been brainwashed and Tim Maia was willing to publicise the cult’s so-called philosophy via his music. He wasn’t the first to do this, but very few artists had decided to dedicate two consecutive albums to a cult’s philosophy. Tim Maia was the first do this.
In 1976, he was preparing to release the rest of the music that he had originally recorded for RCA Victor as Racional Volume 2. Just like his previous album, the lyrics were inspired by the cult’s philosophy which Tim Maia had embraced fully by 1976. He was almost unrecognisable and very different to the musical bon viveur he once was. Now he was preparing to self-release Racional Volume 2 via his own Seroma label.
He went through all the same problems as he had with Racional Volume 1 and struggled to get shops to stock his new album. Given the commercial failure of Racional Volume 1, most shops were reluctant to stock the followup. For Tim Maia this was another disappointment. Despite this, he went ahead with the release of Racional Volume 2.
When Racional Volume 2 was released in 1976 lightning struck twice when the album failed to impress the critics. Worse was to come when the album sunk without trace. Very few copies of Racional Volume 2 were sold and it was another commercial failure for Tim Maia.
Meanwhile, his fans thought that he had lost his way musically after the release of his sixth album Racional Volume 2. It was his second album that wasn’t a commercial success. There was a reason for this.
Tim Maia’s fans didn’t want to buy another album that featured lyrics about the cult’s philosophy. They preferred his usual albums lyrics which ranged from romantic to party oriented while other songs had a feelgood sound. That wasn’t the case on Racional Volume 2.
Just like his previous album, the problem with the songs were the lyrics where Tim Maia parroted the cult’s philosophy. Despite that, he delivers heartfelt vocals while others are a mixture of power, passion and emotion. He may have been singing about a cult’s philosophy but Tim Maia was still a talented vocalist and was improving with every album he released. His voice was clear and powerful and he seemed to be maturing as a vocalist.
Meanwhile, the arrangements marked a return to form from Tim Maia. He combined shuffling South American rhythms with soul and funk where horns play an important part in the arrangements. Sometimes, sweeping orchestrated arrangement take the songs in the direction of MPB. Other times, elements of blues, early-seventies funk and psychedelic rock can be heard on Racional Volume 2. It features some stunning arrangements that are tight and provide the perfect backdrop for Tim Maia’s vocal. Sadly, very few people heard Tim Maia’s sixth album. Maybe this was the wakeup call he needed?
In 1976, Tim Maia quit the cult after the release of Racional Volume 2. By then, he had fallen out with its leader and felt as if he had been duped. So much so, that he wanted the master tapes to Racional Volumes 1 and 2 destroyed. The two albums were part of his past, and now Tim Maia was ready and wanted to move forward.
Nowadays, Racional Volumes 1 and 2 are both regarded as cult classics, whereas in 1976 they tarnished Tim Maia’s reputation. Joining the cult was one of the worst decisions he made in what had already been an eventful life. For the two years he was part of the cult it was as if Tim Maia had been brainwashed and his music was regarded as a way to publicise the cult. He was being used and eventually saw through this ruse in 1976.
By then, Tim Maia had spent money buying back the tapes for Racional Volumes 1 and 2 from RCA Victor and had released the two albums on his own Seroma label. It had been an expensive episode for Tim Maia and wasn’t a happy time in his life.
Tim Maia’s music changed after the release of Racional Volumes 1 and 2 and he entered what was the most prolific period of his career. Sadly, he struggled to reach the heights of his first four albums and Tim Maia was never the same man or musician after his dalliance with the cult of rational behaviour.
Despite this, Racional Volumes 1 and 2 are still regarded as cult classics and must have albums for anyone interested in Tim Maia’s music. However, Racional Volumes 2 is strongest of the two albums and is a reminder of the father of Brazilian soul music during what was one the strangest periods in what was an eventful, roller coaster of a life.
Having said that , Tim Maia enjoyed every minute of a life lived in the fast lane. It was as if his mantra was to live life to the full. That was just as well because Tim Maia passed away on March the ‘15th’ 1998, aged just fifty-five.
Since his death, Tim Maia’s music has been a well-kept secret outside of his native Brazil and even many Brazilians still aren’t aware of his music. However, older record buyers still talk about the maverick singer-songwriter in hushed tones and remember the flawed genius that was Tim Maia and a singer who could’ve and should’ve been a huge star outside of his native Brazil. Sadly, something held him back and stopped Tim Maia from enjoying the widespread commercial success and critical acclaim that his music so richly deserved.
Was it Tim Maia’s love of the rock ’n’ life style which he embraced and enjoyed with a voracious appetite? Maybe Tim Maia’s dalliance with the cult of rational behaviour had lasting effects and somehow stopped this hugely talented singer, songwriter, musician and producer from scaling the heights that he should’ve? However, he left behind a rich musical legacy including several classic albums and his cult classic Racional Volume 2.
Tim Maia-Racional Volumes 2.
LOLEATTA HOLLOWAY-CRY TO ME.
Loleatta Holloway-Cry To Me.
Label: Tidal Waves Music.
Format: LP.
Before being transformed into a disco diva by arranger, guitarist and producer Norman Harris at Salsoul imprint Gold Mind Records, Loleatta Holloway released two albums of Southern Soul for Michael Thevis’ Aware Records. This includes her sophomore album Cry To Me, which was released in 1975, and has just been reissued for Record Store Day 2020 by Tidal Waves Music.
Loleatta Holloway was born in the Windy City of Chicago, on November the ‘5th’ 1946, and just like Minnie Ripperton and Aretha Franklin her talent was noticeable from an early age. Growing up, music was always part of Loleatta Holloway’s life.
Her first involvement with music was when she joined her mother’s gospel group. Her time with The Holloway Community Gospel Singers was akin to a musical apprenticeship.
That was also the case for another young singer that Loleatta Holloway met whilst singing with her mother’s gospel group. This was a young Aretha Franklin who later, would influence Loleatta Holloway’s vocal style and phrasing.
In 1967, Loleatta Holloway was asked by Albertina Walker to join The Caravans, the gospel group she founded in the fifties. She agreed, and later, that year, The Famous Caravans as they were now billed, released their critically acclaimed album Help Is On The Way. Loleatta Holloway’s recording career was underway.
For the next four years, she was a member of The Caravans and on their 1969 album Think About It takes charge of the lead vocal on two tracks. However, by 1971 Loleatta Holloway was ready to embark on a new chapter in her career.
She acted in the musical revue Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope and formed and toured with her own company Loleatta Holloway and Her Review. By then, she had also met future husband and manager Floyd Smith, who arranged for Loleatta Holloway to record her first secular tracks.
This was a cover of a Gene Chandler song Rainbow 71, which was released on the Apache label in 1971. Later, they leased to Galaxy who were able to distribute the single nationwide. However, the song failed to chart and Loleatta Holloway returned to the studio.
Her next single was Bring It On Up, originally the b-side to Sentimental Reasons. It was around this time that Michael Thevis became aware of Loleatta Holloway, and he signed for his new Atlanta based Aware label.
Now that he had signed Loleatta Holloway, Michael Thevis wasted no time recording her first single for his new label. This was Mother Of Shame, which was released in May 1973, and reached number sixty-three in the US R&B Charts. Although it was only a minor hit, Loleatta Holloway entered the studio with producer Floyd Smith to record her debut secular album.
Loleatta.
This was Loleatta, which was recorded at the Sound Pit Studios, in Atlanta, Georgia. The album was produced by Floyd Smith who penned Part Time Lover, Full Time Fool and cowrote Only A Fool with William Johnson. Accompanying Loleatta Holloway as she recorded the ten tracks were The “Homegrown” Rhythm Section. Once the album was completed, it was released later in 1973.
By July 1973, DJs were playing Our Love which was on the B-Side of Mother Of Shame. It eventually reached forty-three in the US R&B charts and game Loleatta Holloway her second hit single.
Buoyed by the success of Our Love, Part Time Lover, Full Time Fool was released as a single. Despite being one of the strongest song on the album and an obvious choice for a single it failed to chart. This was a disappointment for Loleatta Holloway and Floyd Smith who wrote and produced the song.
There was further disappointment when Loleatta was released later in 1973 and failed to chart. That was despite the album receiving positive reviews from the critics that reviewed it.
The album featured a series of vocal masterclasses from Loleatta Holloway who sounded as if she had lived the lyrics. She breathed life, meaning and emotion into the songs on Loleatta and was like actress in a play on the tales of love and love gone wrong. Sadly, very few people heard Loleatta when it was released in 1973 and she hoped that the followup fared better.
Cry To Me.
In the spring of 1974, Loleatta Holloway returned to the studio to record her next single.The song that had been chosen was a Sam Dees’ composition Help Me My Lord. It found Loleatta Holloway strutting her way through the track delivering a vocal powerhouse as she combines Southern Soul and gospel.
Then Loleatta Holloway delivers a defiant vocal that is a mixture of anger and frustration on Frederick Knight’s The World Don’t Owe You Nothin’. It features a funky, soulful arrangement that is the perfect backdrop to this mini soap opera. However, despite being the stronger of the two tracks it was destined for the B-Side.
This decision came back to haunt Aware Records when Help Me My Lord was released as a single and failed to chart. Despite this, Loleatta Holloway returned to the studio to record the rest of her sophomore album Cry To Me.
Another eight tracks were chosen for the album including Sam Dees’ I Know Where You’re Coming From and The Show Must Go On. They were join ed by David Camon’s Cry To Me; Curtis Mayfield’s Just Be True To Me; Johnny Jacobs and Ronnie Walker’s Something About The Way I Feel; A. Jerline Williams and William Johnson’s I Can’t Help Myself and Jo Armstead’s Casanova. The other track was the Loleatta Holloway composition I’ll Be Gone. These tracks were recorded at the Sound Pit Studios, in Atlanta, Georgia.
Just like Loleatta, Cry To Me was produced by Floyd Smith. Accompanying Loleatta Holloway at the Sound Pit were The “Homegrown” Rhythm Section. Just like her debut album they played an important part in the album’s sound.
This includes on the album opener Cry To Me where a piano plays slowly, guitars chime and combine with the rhythm section as Loleatta Holloway delivers a soliloquy. She’s heartbroken and sings about how her relationship is breaking up against an arrangement that is a mixture of power and drama. Strings sweep in while the rhythm section add drama and backing vocalists accompany a powerful, soul-baring vocal. It’s almost impossible not to to get caught up in the emotion and sadness of what’s one of the album’s highlights.
The Show Must Go On was written by Sam Dees who originally recorded this ballad. Loleatta Holloway delivers a hurt-filled soliloquy against Floyd Smith’s arrangement. By the time the vocal enters, the rhythm section, sweeping strings horns, gospel-tinged backing vocalists, vibes and even applause accompany a defiant, dramatic soul-baring vocal.
I Know Where You’re Coming From is a song about a relationship breakup with a twist in the tale. Loleatta Holloway delivers a soliloquy as a guitar chimes and a bass cuts through the arrangement. Meanwhile, soaring backing vocals join Loleatta Holloway as she reassures her friend: “I Know Where You’re Coming From” before singing: “why don’t you take my hand and be my man” on this timeless slice of sassy Southern Soul.
There’s a sense of drama to the ballad Just Be True To Me. It features an arrangement where strings sweep and horns rasp as the rhythm section provide the heartbeat. Meanwhile, Loleatta Holloway delivers a heartfelt and impassioned vocal that becomes needy and hopeful when she sings: “Just Be True To Me” on this beautiful ballad.
The tempo rises slightly on Something About The Way I Feel as the rhythm section, horns and vibes set the scene for an impassioned vocal. Loleatta Holloway reflects about the past and what she’s been through with her partner. She’s accompanied by backing vocalists that prove to be the perfect foil as the song swings and she gives thanks for the love she’s found, what she has and “the way I feel.” It’s a beautiful paean where the future disco diva paints pictures with the lyrics.
I’ll Be Gone is another ballad and the only song on the album written by Loleatta Holloway. She warns on this tale of love gone wrong that: “I can’t let you keep on hurting me for I’ll Be Gone.” Her vocal is bristling with emotion and hurt as the rhythm section add a degree of drama and are joined by a crystalline guitar, vibes plus sweeping and pizzicato strings. They provide the perfect backdrop as Loleatta Holloway delivers an ultimatum to her cheating, no good man.
Dramatic describes the introduction to I Can’t Help Myself before it sets the scene for Loleatta Holloway’s vocal. There’s a degree of confusion in her voice as she’s fallen for the wrong guy. “I never thought I could fall in love with a guy like you, although I know you could never be true, I find myself wanting to live with ‘cos I love you, I can’t help myself.” Meanwhile, backing vocals soar above the arrangement and coo, as drums pound, a guitar chimes, strings sweep and horns rasp. It’s one of the best arrangements on the album and the perfect accompaniment for the vocal.
Stabs of horns, backing vocalists and the rhythm section combine to create a dramatic backdrop before Loleatta Holloway unleashes a powerful, emotive vocal on Casanova. She tells her parter “Casanova your playing days are over.” Meanwhile, the backing vocalists sing “it’s over, it’s over baby” as strings sweep and swirl and the drama builds during this four minute soap open. It’s one of the eight tracks recorded at the Sound Pit and is without doubt one of the highlight Cry To Me.
With the rest of the album completed, Cry To Me was scheduled for release later in 1975. Loleatta Holloway must have been hoping that it would fare better than her debut album.
Things were looking good when Cry To Me was released as a single in January 1975 and reached sixty-eight in the US Billboard 100 and ten in the US R&B charts.
In June 1975, I Know I Where You’re Coming From was released as a single and stalled at sixty-nine in the US R&B charts. It was a case of one step forward and two steps back for Loleatta Holloway.
She released her sophomore album Cry To Me later in 1975 and although it was well received by critics but like her debut failed to trouble the charts. The problem was this future Southern Soul classic hadn’t been promoted properly. However, this time there was a reason for the lack of promotion.
All wasn’t well at Aware and the label was teetering on the brink. Despite this, Casanova was released as a single but failed to find the audience it deserved. Not long after this, Aware and the rest of Michael Thevis’ empire folded.
All the artists signed to GRC, Aware and Hotlanta Records were left high and dry. They were left without a label and some of the artists were also owed royalties, which in some cases, was a significant sum of money. These artists had no idea what the future held for them.
In the case of Loleatta Holloway she was signed to Salsoul imprint Gold Mind Records by Norman Harris. This was the start of a new chapter Loleatta Holloway who was transformed into a disco diva at her new label.
This was very different to the two albums of Southern Soul Loleatta Holloway had recorded at Aware. Sadly, neither Loleatta nor Cry To Me was a commercial success when they were released. It was only much later that the two albums started to find a wider audience.
Cry To Me is the best of the two albums and is almost flawless. Ironically, the weakest track on the album is the lead single Help Me My Lord. The rest of the songs on the album are tailor made for Loleatta Holloway and play to her strengths. She delivers vocals that veer between dramatic, emotive, heartfelt, impassioned and soul-baring to defiant, hopeful and sassy as she struts her way through the lyrics about love and love gone wrong. Other times, the vocals are needy and hopeful as Loleatta Holloway brings the lyrics to life. Especially when accompanied by Floyd Smith’s timeless arrangements. They add to the drama and theatre of the songs on Cry To Me and are play their part in the sound and success of the album.
Sadly, Aware was the wrong label for Loleatta Holloway and the two albums weren’t promoted properly. Especially Cry To Me which was released just before Michael Thevis’ house of cards collapsed. This was a great shame and meant that very few people got to hear Cry To Me. For Loleatta Holloway it was a case of what might have been?
Forty-five years later, and Loleatta Holloway’s music is more popular than ever. Although she’s better known as a disco diva the two albums she recorded for Aware are belatedly receiving the recognition they deserves and this includes Loleatta Holloway’s Southern Soul classic Cry To Me.
Loleatta Holloway-Cry To Me.
CULT CLASSIC: CAN-SOON OVER BABALUMA.
Cult Classic: Can-Soon Over Babaluma.
When Can released their fifth studio album Soon Over Babaluma in In November 1974, it was another ambitious album of innovative music that saw the Cologne-based band continue to push musical boundaries to their limits. This is what they had been doing since they Can was founded in 1968.
Although they would release six more albums, what the members of Can didn’t realise was that they had already released the best music of their career. These four albums are known as Can’s golden quartet, and began with 1972s Tago Mago and continued up until 1974s Soon Over Babaluma. The golden quartet were the pinnacle of their career and featured music that was bold, challenging, innovative and progressive and is why nowadays, Can are regarded as one of the most influential bands in musical history. The story began in 1963.
That was when Holger Czukay and Irmin Schmidt met when they were students and studying music under Karlheinz Stockhausen. He was one of the pioneers of electronic music, and was also fascinated by aleatoric music and serialism. The two future members of Can were influenced by his teachings during the three year course and graduated in 1966. That was when Holger Czukay decided to become a music teacher.
The twenty-eight year old settled into his new life as a teacher. Then his life was changed forevermore in 1967 when he heard a song on the radio. This was The Beatles’ I Am A Walrus. Holger Czukay was captivated by this psychedelic rock single and its innovative use of bursts of radio and the experimental sound and structure. He went in search of similar music discovered Frank Zappa and the Velvet Underground. Inspired by this new music, he decided to form his own band in 1968…Can.
After his time studying under Karlheinz Stockhausen, Irmin Schmidt headed to New York, where he spent time with avant-garde musicians like Steve Reich, Terry Riley and La Monte Young. Soon, he was aware of Andy Warhol and Velvet Underground. This inspired him to form his own band when he returned home to Cologne.
In Cologne, Irmin Schmidt who could play piano and organ joined forces with his old friend and bassist Holger Czukay plus American flautist David C. Johnson. This was a stylistic departure for the trio.
Up until then, the trio had exclusively played avant-garde classical music. Now their ambitions lay beyond that. Their influences included garage, rock, psychedelia, soul and funk. So they brought onboard three new members of the group which started life as Inner Space, and then became The Can. Eventually, they settled on Can, an acronym of communism, anarchy, nihilism
The first two new additions were guitarist Michael Karoli and drummer Jaki Liebezeit. Then vocalist and New York-based sculptor Malcolm Mooney joined the band midway through 1968. By then, they were recording material for an album Prepare To Meet Thy Pnoom. Unfortunately, record companies weren’t interested in the album.
Despite that, the group continued recording what would become their debut album Monster Movies. However, David C. Johnson left the group at the end of 1968. He was disappointed at the change in musical direction. Little did he realise he’d lost the chance to be part of a groundbreaking band, Can.
Monster Movie,
They began recording their debut album Monster Movie in Schloss Nörvenich, a 14th-century castle in North Rhine-Westphalia during July 1969. The album which was credited to The Can featured four tracks and bore the subtitle “Made in a castle with better equipment.”
When Monster Movie was released in August 1969, it was an ambitious genre-melting album where Can fused blues, free jazz, psychedelia, rock and world music. It’s also as if Can have been inspired by Velvet Underground throughout Monster Movie as they improvised, innovated and experimented. Multilayering and editing played an important part in Monster Movie’s avant garde sound. So did spontaneous composition, which Can pioneered.
Spontaneous composition was hugely important in Can’s success. Holger Czukay remembered: “that the members of Can were always ready to record. They didn’t take time to think. It was spontaneous. The music flowed through them and out of them.” Holger remembers that he was always “given the job of pressing the record button. This was a big responsibility as the fear was failing to record something we could never recreate.” In some ways, Can were an outlet for this outpouring of creativity, which gave birth to a new musical genre.
This new musical genre was dubbed Krautrock by the British music press. So not only was Monster Movie the album that launched Can’s career, but saw a new musical genre, Krautrock coined. The founding father’s of Krautrock were Can, led by Holger Czukay.
Soundtracks.
Released in 1970, Soundtracks, was Can’s sophomore album. Essentially, Soundtracks is a compilation of tracks Can wrote for the soundtracks to various films. It’s the album that marked the departure of vocalist Malcolm Mooney. Replacing him, was Japanese busker Kenji Damo Suzuki. He features on five of the tracks, contributing percussion and vocals. His addition wasn’t the only change Can were making.
Soundtracks was a coming of age for Can. It marked a move away from the psychedelic jams of Monster Movie and a move towards their classic sound. That saw the music becoming much more experimental and avant-garde. The music took an ambient, meditative, mesmeric and thoughtful sound. This marked the beginning of Can’s classic years, when albums like Tago Mago, Ege Bamyasi, Future Days and Soon Over Babaluma were released.
Tago Mago.
The first instalment in Cam’s golden quartet was Tago Mago. This was the first album where Kenji Damo Suzuki was a permanent member of Can. He and the rest of Can spent a year in the castle in Schloss Nörvenich. It was owned by an art collector named Mr. Vohwinkel. He allowed Can to stay at Schloss Nörvenich rent free. For what Holger Czukay described as “a poor man’s band,” this was perfect.
He remembers Can during this year as “just jamming and seeing what took shape. Songs started as lengthy jams and improvised pieces.” This Holger Czukay remembers is “how Can always worked” After that, he worked his magic editing them and the mini masterpieces featured on Tago Mago, which was four months in the making.
For four months between November 1970 and February 1971, Can recorded what would become one of their most innovative and influential albums, Tago Mago.
A double album, Tago Mago featured seven groundbreaking tracks. Tago Mago was released in February 1971. Straight away, critics realised the importance of Tago Mago. Here was a game-changer of an album. It has an intensity that other albums released in 1971 lacked. Jazzier with an experimental sound, the music is trippy, mysterious, mesmeric and multilayered. It’s innovative, with genres and influences melting into one. Nuances, subtleties and surprises reveal themselves. No wonder. Can deliver an avant garde masterclass.
This comes courtesy of jazz-tinged drumming, improvised guitar playing and showboating keyboard solos. Then there was Kenji Damo Suzuki’s unique vocal style. All this, resulted in an album that was critically acclaimed, influential and innovative.
Released to widespread critical acclaim in 1971, Tago Mago was the start of a golden period for Can. Their reputation as one of the most innovative groups of the seventies started to take shape. Can had released one of the most innovative albums, Tago Mago. Holger remembers the reaction to Tago Mago. “I knew Tago Mago was an innovative album, but I never realised just how innovative an album it would become?
On Tago Mago’s release, it was hailed as Can’s best album yet. However, not in Holger’s opinion. “Tago Mago is a classic album, but I much prefer Future Days.” Despite Holger’s preference, several generations of musicians have been inspired by Tago Mago, a true Magnus Opus, that belongs in every record collection. So does the followup Ege Bamyasi.
Ege Bamyasi.
Can were on a roll and it seemed they could do no wrong. They released Spoon as a single in 1972 and it reached number six in Germany, selling over 300,000 copies. That was helped no end, by the single being used as the theme to a German thriller Das Messer. It seemed nothing could go wrong for Can. The money the made from Spoon, allowed Can to hire disused cinema to record what became Ege Bamyasi.
Can advertised for a space to record their next album, Ege Bamyasi. Recording began in a disused cinema, which doubled as a recording studio and living space. The sessions at Inner Space Studio, in Weilerswist, near Cologne didn’t go well. Irmin Schmidt and Kenji Damo Suzuki took to playing marathon chess sessions. As a result, Can hadn’t enough material for an album. This resulted in Can having to work frantically to complete Ege Bamyasi. Despite this, Can were still short of material. So Spoon was added and Ege Bamyasi was completed.
Ege Bamyasi was a fusion of musical genres. Everything from jazz, ambient, world music, psychedelia, rock and electronica melted into one. When it was Ege Bamyasi released in November 1972, it was to the same critical acclaim as previous albums. Critics were won over by Can’s fourth album. It was perceived as a more accessible album than its predecessors. Just like Can’s previous albums, the quality of music was consistent.
Critics hailed Can as one of the few bands capable of creating consistent and pioneering albums. They were one of the most exciting bands of the early seventies. Can were continuing to innovate and influence musicians and music lovers alike. Just like its predecessor, Tago Mago, Ege Bamyasi is an essential part of any self respecting record collection. Having released two consecutive classic albums and their first single, it seemed nothing could go wrong for Can.
Future Days.
Despite Tago Mago and Ege Bamyasi being referred to as two of the most influential albums ever released, Holger Czukay prefers Future Days. This is the album he calls “my favourite Can album.” It was the third in Can’s golden quartet, and marked a change in direction from Can.
Future Days saw Can’s music head in the direction of ambient music. The music is atmospheric, dreamy, ethereal, melancholy, expansive and full of captivating, mesmeric rhythms. It’s also pioneering and progressive, with elements of avant garde, experimental, psychedelia and rock melting into one. Rather than songs, soundscapes describes the four tracks. Future Days and Bel Air showcase Can’s new sound. Bel Air was the Future Day’s epic. It lasted just over nineteen minutes, and sees can take you on an enthralling musical journey. Just like the rest of Future Days, critics hailed the album a classic.
On its release in August 1973, Future Days was hailed a classic by music critics. The move towards ambient music may have surprised some Can fans. However, Brian Eno was just one artist pioneering ambient music. This move towards ambient music must have pleased Holger’s guru Karlheinz Stockhausen. He must have looked on proudly as Can released the third of a quartet of classic albums. The final album in this quartet, Soon Over Babaluma was released in 1974.
Soon Over Babaluma.
The final album in Can’s golden quartet was released in November 1974. This was Soon Over Babaluma, which was recorded at Inner Space Studios, Munich.
Soon Over Babaluma features five tracks penned and produced by Can. It marked a change in direction for Can. This was their first album without a lead vocalist. During this period, Can had released some of the most groundbreaking music of the late-sixties and early seventies. This continued with Soon Over Babaluma.
Can released Soon Over Babaluma in November 1974. It featured the ambient sound that Can pioneered on their previous album, Future Days. Critically acclaimed, and featuring a myriad of beeps, squeaks and sci-fi sounds, Soon Over Babaluma is like musical journey into another, 21st Century dimension. A musical tapestry where layers of music are intertwined during five tracks, Soon Over Babaluma, which brought to a close the most fruitful period of Can’s career.
Dizzy Dizzy opens Soon Over Babaluma. Moody and atmospheric describes the arrangement. A whispery scat, scratchy strings and drums combine with crystalline, sometimes, wah-wah guitar. Soon, Can are in the groove. From this groove, the song emanates and this is an example of Can’s spontaneous composition. Through jamming, then with Holger editing the end result the song evolves. When he’s finished this is the result, an innovative fusion of musical genres. Everything from ambient, country, electronica, folk, funk, jazz, Kraturock and rock is combine as Can continue their quest to reinvent themselves.
Can spring a series of surprises on Come Sta, La Luna. Driven along by the rhythm section, the arrangement is slow and moody. Harmonies interject, and with the piano adds drama. Then there’s the return of the sinister scat. It’s as if we’re eavesdropping on someone unravelling. Meanwhile sound effects, piano and the broody vocal combine with a myriad of percussion as the arrangement takes on a jazz-tinged, ambient sound. Other times, the music is dramatic, discordant and veers towards folk, jazz and rock. Gypsy violins, melancholy horns and percussion are all thrown into the melting pot, as the music becomes cinematic and theatrical. Multilayered, full of nuances and subtleties, it’s a pioneering, groundbreaking piece of art. Describing this track as just music, doesn’t do it justice.
Splash explodes into life, allowing Can the chance to showcase their versatility. Seamlessly and peerlessly, they combine musical genres. A myriad of musical influences unite. So do a multitude of instruments. Some are transformed. In the hands of Can, their sonic possibilities seem infinite. Instruments are reinvented as Can maraud their way across the arrangement. Driven along by a thunderous rhythm section, grizzled horns, screeching strings, blistering guitars and percussion Can push musical boundaries. Avant-garde, experimental and free jazz join forces with Krautrock and Latin are added to this lysergic, musical pot pourri. Groundbreaking, defiant and bold, Can go where no group dared go before.
Chain Reaction is best described as an eleven minute epic. With a sci-fi, cinematic sound, it’s as if we’re heading on a musical journey to another dimension. Drums pound, synths bubble and searing guitars herald the start of this journey. Can lock into a groove and explore it to its fullest. Crystalline guitars chime, while the drums provide the thunderous heartbeat. Percussion and sci-fi synths augment the arrangement as the arrangement makes fleeting visits to musical genres. Funk, jazz, Krautrock, ambient and rock are all combined. As Can maraud their way through musical genres, blistering mating gun guitar licks are unleashed. Groove laden, edgy, funky, jazz-tinged, pioneering and cinematic this soundscape is all this more.
Quantum Physics closes Soon Over Babaluma. Broody, moody and haunting, it’s akin to a track from a movie soundtrack. Over nine minutes, washes of eerie, haunting synths, ethereal, chilling vocals, crashing cymbals and dramatic drums play their part in the track’s cinematic sound. This could easily be the soundtrack to a film. The music conjures up pictures, that unfold before your eyes. They’re chilling, haunting, eerie, atmospheric and sometimes, sinister. Ambient, minimalist, experimental and post modern describes this track’s cinematic 21st Century sound. This seems a fitting way to end not just Soon Over Babaluma, but Can’s golden period, when they could do no wrong.
When Soon Over Babaluma it was released in November 1974, Soon Over Babaluma it was to critical acclaim. Sadly, the album wasn’t the commercial success that it deserved to be. Instead, it was more of an underground album. However, weren’t alone.
Can followed in the footsteps of a whole host of innovative artisst who didn’t enjoy the commercial success their music enjoyed. Among them are Velvet Underground and Frank Zappa, who had with influenced Can. A small crumb of comfort for Can was that they went on to influence several generations of musicians. There’s a reason for this.
Can were pioneers and the music that they released during the golden quartet was inventive, innovative. The musical revolutionaries pushed musical boundaries to their limits and sometimes beyond during their golden quartet. It ended with Soon Over Babaluma which finds Can fusing elements of ambient, avant-garde, electronic, experimental, free jazz, funk, industrial, jazz, psychedelia and rock on a genre-melting epic. It’s a case of expect the unexpected on an album where musical influences and genres became one on Soon Over Babaluma which marked the end of Can’s golden quartet.
These albums, including Soon Over Babaluma, feature some of the ambitious, progressive and innovative music of Can’s career is why nowadays, they sit proudly at Krautrock’s top table alongside the genre’s other giants including Neu!, Cluster, Harmonia and Kraftwerk.
Cult Classic: Can-Soon Over Babaluma.
CULT CLASSIC: SHINA WILLIAMS AND HIS AFRICAN PERCUSSIONISTS-AFRICAN DANCES.
Cult Classic: Shina Willians and His African Percussionists-African Dances.
By 1979, Afrobeat had grown in popularity in Nigeria, and was influencing and inspiring a number of Western musicians including the legendary vibes player Roy Ayers. He was just one of many musicians who had started to incorporate elements of Afrobeat into his unique and inimitable sound. No longer was it just Western musicians who were influencing their African counterparts like Shina Willians.
It was a two-way street, with African and Western musicians listening to the latest music and using it to inspire their music. One of these albums was Shina Willians and His African Percussionists’ album African Dances, which issued in 1979.
At this time, a musical revolution was taking place in Ghana with musicians combining elements of West African musical genres including highlife and fuji music with American funk and jazz. Playing an important part important part in this new genre which later, became known as Afrobeat, were chanted vocals, percussion and complicated converging rhythms. The result was an irresistible, potent and heady musical brew that later, spread across West Africa.
By the early seventies, Fela Kuti and his band had just returned to Nigeria after a brief stay in America, where they had hurriedly recorded what later became The ’69 Los Angeles Sessions. The album had been recorded quickly, as a promoter had informed the Immigration and Naturalization Service that Fela Kuti and his band had no work permit. Fela Kuti was tipped off that the Immigration and Naturalization Service was about to swoop, and decided to head home to Nigeria.
When Fela Kuti and his band arrived back in Lagos, Nigeria, he decided to rename his group The Afrika ’70. Fela Kuti’s next move was to found the Kalakuta Republic, which was a commune which soon, became home to the many people connected to The Afrika ’70. It also meant that Fela Kuti and The Afrika ’70 were always ready to practise and record music.
Within the Kalakuta Republic was a recording studio where Fela Kuti and The Afrika ’70 could work. By then, Fela Kuti was writing song were the lyrical themes ranged from love right through to the various social issues affecting Nigeria. Despite his concern for his fellow Nigerians, Fela Kuti, who was the leader of Kalakuta Republic, declared independent from the Nigerian State. That was still to come.
Having established the Kalakuta Republic, Fela Kuti and The Afrika ’70 began experimenting musically. They regularly incorporated disparate musical genres into their This new sound was innovative, and also proved to be influential, when Fela Kuti established a new club that he called Afrika Shine.
That was where Fela Kuti and The Afrika ’70 first introduced Afrobeat to Nigeria in 1970. Between 1970 and 1975, Fela Kuti and The Afrika ’70 had a residency at Afrika Shine, in Lagos, and people from all over Nigeria flocked to the club. This included many Nigerian musicians who were inspired by Fela Kuti and The Afrika ’70.
Even after Fela Kuti and The Afrika ’70 completed their five-year residency at Afrika Shine, their music was inspirational. So was the music of the Afrobeat pioneers in Nigeria. It would influence and inspire the next generation of musician including Shina Willians.
By 1979, bandleader, percussionist and vocalist Shina Willians was already an experienced and talented musician when he began work on the album that eventually became African Dances. To record his debut album he brought onboard the creme de la creme of Nigerian musicians.
This included Biddy Wright, Fred Fisher, Prince Bolam, Saliu Alabi and Tutu Shoronmu, Tunde Willimas who were joined by some of Nigeria session player and musicians. The members of this all-stat had backed and played alongside everyone from Fela Kuti, SJOB Movement, Sonny Okoson and King Bucknor. These musicians were christened as Shina Willians and His African Percussionists as they entered Phonodisk Studio, a twenty-four track studio in Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun, Nigeria.
That was where Cunny Jam Wayo, Agboju Logun and Gboro Mi Ro, which were recorded by Shina Willians and His African Percussionists and became African Dances. It featured three timeless genre-melting songs where Shina Willians and His African Percussionists fuse elements of Afrobeat, boogie, disco, electronica and even a hint of psychedelia and soul on what was an ambitious album of groundbreaking and genre-melting music.
This includes the album opener Cunny Jam Wayo which features a rueful, emotive vocal as harmonies, hypnotic and jazz-tinged horns play. Meanwhile, the rhythm section and percussion lock down a groove where Afrobeat and funk combine, on a track that sometimes sounds as if it’s from a lost Blaxploitation film.
The centrepiece to African Dances was the eleven minute disco classic Agboju Logun. It’s best described as call to dance as where dancers give thanks to the disco gods. As they do, the psychedelic sound of taking drums, a mesmeric bass combine with searing guitars, chanted vocals and the fattest of horns. Adding finishing touches is a peerless synth part of Shina Willians and His African Percussionist’s Magnus Opus.
This leaves Gboro Mi Ro which closes African Dances. It gradually unfolds with elements of Afrobeat and funk combining with soulful harmonies and Shina Willians’ impassioned vocal. Blazing drums, pounding drums and crashing cymbals are added to this mesmeric and irresistible musical stew which closes African Dances on a high.
Despite the quality of music on African Dances, Shina Willians and His African Percussionist’s debut album wasn’t a hugely successful album when it was released in 1979 by Phonodisk. African Dances sold steadily but wasn’t the success they had hoped.
That was a great shame as African Dances veered between a feegood sound to joyous, uplifting and irresistible to beautiful, soulful and dancefloor friendly. The members of Shina Willians and His African Percussionist’s had combined the best of American and American music, and in doing so, created an album that was funky, melodic, memorable and guaranteed to get any party started. Sadly, it was a case of what might have been for Shina Willians and His African Percussionist
If only record buyers had given Shina Willians and His African Percussionist’s cult classic a chance, they would’ve discovered an album full of floorfillers that is akin to an irresistible call to dance.
Cult Classic: Shina Willians and His African Percussionists-African Dances.
CULT CLASSIC: RYO FUKUI-MELLOW DREAM.
Cult Classic: Ryo Fukui- Mellow Dream.
Ryo Fukui, who was born in Biratori, Hokkaido, in Japan, on the ‘1st’ of June 1948, was a late starter when it came to the piano and unlike most of the musicians he encountered during a career that spanned five decades, had never learnt to play the instrument as a child. Instead, Ryo Fukui had just turned twenty-two in 1970, when he announced that he wanted to learn to play the piano, and was going to teach himself.
If Ryo Fukui’s friends thought that his decision to teach himself to play the piano was bound to end in tears, they were soon proved wrong as he turned out to be a talented pianist. So much so, that the self-taught pianist was good enough to embark upon a career as a professional musician, playing the music that he loved…jazz.
As September 1976 dawned, twenty-eight year old Ryo Fukui was living in Sapporo, where he led his own trio who were a familiar sight in local jazz clubs. Ryo Fukui had also just signed to Trio Records, and was preparing to record his debut album Scenery.
Scenery.
For his debut album Ryo Fukui had written the title-track Scenery, and the rest of the album comprised cover versions. This included Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke’s It Could Happen To You, Billy Eckstine’s I Want To Talk About You, Hideo Ichikawa’s Early Summer, Ann Ronell’s Willow Weep For Me and Joseph Kosma and Jacques Prévert’s Autumn Leaves. These tracks became Scenery, which Ryo Fukui planned to record at Yamaha Hall, Sapporo.
The recording of Scenery took place at Yamaha Hall, Sapporo, on the ‘7th’ of September 1976, pianist Ryo Fukui leading a trio that featured drummer Yoshinori Fukui and bassist Satoshi Denpo. Taking charge of production were Masataka Ito and Ryo Fukui who worked well together, and Scenery like many jazz albums was recorded quickly, with just a day spent laying down the tracks. This was how countless classic albums had been recorded during the fifties and sixties.
Scenery was released in late 1976, and was regarded as an important album by Japanese jazz critics, who called the album a game-changing release that was one of the finest of the seventies. Despite receiving widespread critical acclaim in Japan, Scenery passed American jazz fans by, and they missed out on hearing what was a remarkable debut album.
Ryo Fukui opens his 1976 debut album Scenery with It Could Happen To You, which was the first of four oft-covered classics that he set about reinventing. It was a similar case on I Want To Talk About You, Willow Weep For Me and Autumn Leaves where with the help of drummer Yoshinori Fukui and bassist Satoshi Denpo, pianist Ryo Fukui ensures that these classics take on new life and meaning. This isn’t easy given who often these tracks had been recorded by 1976. However, the twenty-eight year old pianist who had only been playing for six years by the time he recorded Scenery plays with maturity that belies his relative inexperience.
For much of the time, his playing is smooth, subtle and effortless as his fingers glide and flit across the piano keyboard as he plays with fluidity ensuring the songs swing. Other times, he plays with speed and energy, and isn’t afraid to improvise and innovate. Stylistically, Ryo Fukui sometimes sounds like Bill Evans, and especially during the energetic modal rework of Early Summer. By then, Ryo Fukui and his trio play with a newfound urgency, before closing the album with the title-track Scenery. It was Ryo Fukui’s only original composition on Scenery and is a reminder of a talented bandleader, composer and pianist as he began his career with game-changing album which is a glorious fusion of bop, cool jazz and modal jazz.
Buoyed by the critical reaction and success of Scenery, Ryo Fukui continued to hone his skills as a pianist, and before long, he was already beginning work on his sophomore album Mellow Dream.
Mellow Dream.
While Scenery only featured one Ryo Fukui composition, he wrote half of the tracks on his much-anticipated sophomore album Mellow Dream. This included the title-track Mellow Dream, Baron Potato Blues and Horizon, which were joined by covers of Victor Young’s My Foolish Heart, Johnny Burke’s What’s New and Richard Rodgers’ My Funny Valentine. Mellow Dream was a mixture of the new music and much-loved classics and just like Scenery, was recorded at Yamaha Hall, in Sapporo.
This time, Masataka Ito took charge of production when Mellow Dream was recorded on August the ’17th’ and ’18th’ 1977. Joining pianist Ryo Fukui was drummer Yoshinori Fukui and bassist Satoshi Denpo, which was the same lineup of the trio that featured on Scenery. They took just two days to record Mellow Dream, which was mixed during two days in September 1977 and was ready for release.
Mellow Dream was released in late 1977, to plaudits and praise, with critics calling the album a fitting followup to Scenery. By then, Ryo Fukui had a matured not just as a pianist and bandleader, but as a composer.
The twenty-seven year old’s pianist sophomore album Mellow Dream, found Ryo Fukui continuing to combine and explore bop, cool jazz, modal jazz, post bop and even a hint of blues on what was a much mellower, soulful and ruminative album that allowed time to reflect, especially on Mellow Dream and the reinvention of My Foolish Heart. Other times, the music on Mellow Dream packs a punch and swings as Ryo Fukui grabs Baron Potato Blues and Horizon by the scruff of the neck. His fingers fly across the piano keyboard as he plays with speed and fluidity as the rest of the trio match him every step of the way. Meanwhile, the music on Mellow Dream is an emotional roller coaster as it veers between vibrant to joyous and melancholy and rueful. Ryo Fukui it seems is a man for all seasons on his sophomore album Mellow Dream.
Following the success of his sophomore album Mellow Dream, Ryo Fukui continued to hone his skills and mature and improve as a musician, but made the decision to concentrate playing live. This included in the Slowboat jazz club in Sapporo, which Ryo Fukui owned and ran with his wife Yasuko. With Ryo Fukui concentrating on playing live, it was eighteen years before he returned with a new album.
Ryo Fukui returned with My Favorite Tune in 1995, and followed this up with Ryo Fukui In New York in 1999. It was another sixteen years before Ryo Fukui released A Letter From Slowboat in 2015, which proved to be his swan-song.
Sadly, Ryo Fukui passed away on March the ‘15th’ 2016, aged just sixty-seven. That day Japanese jazz was in mourning at the loss of one of its great pianists, who although self-taught was a masterful performer who played with grace, fluidity and invention during a career that spanned five decades.
Although Ryo Fukui enjoyed a long career, he only released five albums, including his cult classic Mellow Dream which like his debut album Scenery are a reminder of bandleader, composer and pianist Ryo Fukui who sadly, was and still is one of jazz’s best kept secrets outside of his native Japan. Hopefully, that will change and Ryo Fukui’s music will be discovered by the new and wider audience it deserves.
Cult Classic: Ryo Fukui- Mellow Dream.
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