A band I have enjoyed since childhood. Their style has been varied over the years encompassing pop, rock, prog, alt. rock etc. plus plenty of non-pigeon hole ditties that only BOC could create! Mostly strong output with just the odd duff album but even those tend to have at least one splendiferous track on board that if not redeeming of the album, at least leaves the rest forgivable.
My introduction was the album Cultosaurus Erectus. Some stonking rock/metal tracks on there e.g. Black Blade and The Marshall Plan. That lead me to investigate their catalogue further with happy results. My personal preference is their darker material such as, eponymous, Secret Treaties, Fire of Unknown Origin, Imaginos but their discography is large and varied enough to appeal broadly, somewhere along the line.
If all you know of them is "Don't Fear The Reaper" (album version, not the castrated single) then you have a pleasurable voyage of discovery ahead, as this was barely average standard from them. Maybe start with tracks like Take Me Away, White Flags, Shooting Shark and First Days Of May to break the surface before a deep dive.
If you are a "Dave" start at the beginning, a "Ben" possibly nearer the middle.
I saw them live in 1977 or probably 78 when we perfected the art of sneaking in the back of the De Montfort Hall, Leicester when they opened the fire escape doors sometime during the gigs. Saw quite a lot of artistes, but have forgotten most of them. Except for Blue Oyster Cult who dressed up as dinosaurs/monsters at the end. And John Martyn who was brilliant.
There's a fantastic single album in this double, with some of Van's greatest 90s work amongst the flab. The spiritual stuff doesn't work as well as on his 80s albums.
Alto sax giant, Konitz is now 90. 90! And he's still recording and touring - currently with pianist Tepfer, who is little more than a third of his age.
I'm not much of an expert on Konitz, but he sounds on fantastic form, both technically and artistically.
Gives me goose pimples. A kind of one-off from Miles, where he points the way to ambient music? Only there's too much going on here to be truly ambient IMHO.
I haven't listened to this since sometime in the 80s. It sounds much better now!
A demo room favourite from my retail days, me likey. Another that springs to mind from different genre...
On a good system the rim shots and later flams would sound like at least the drummer was with you in the room
....aghhhh gave up inserting YouTube on the mobile app.
Find Joe Satriani "New Day" from his first album.
The bass playing is magnificent. Paul Jackson is/was a monster.
I'll give Joe a go once I've finished with another oddity from YouTube:
Dub versions of Clash favourites by Mikey Dread (I went to his house in Brockley, South London many years ago. A very nice man, very down to earth and modest).
I missed this album when it came out earlier this year, but it's a stonker! Fantastic guitar playing from Cline and Julian Lage, plus a rhythm section you'd never expect on Blue Note - Scott Colley on bass and the great Tom Rainey on drums - that both ties everything together and tries to push it apart. There's a bit of mainstream guitar jazz, a bit of avant jazz, some rock (yep, you may know Cline from Wilco!), a bit of Beefheart...
I've yet to play it on the big rig, but I suspect it's a brilliant recording, too. Sounds great here on my desk, streamed from TIDAL.
I did enjoy the linked track but further investigation left me cold. Too jazzy for me when I was hoping for more of a fusion style. That was definitely the best/stand-out track IMHO.
This is some shredding going down there! It's a good band. I'm not sure about the 'woe is us' bit in the announcement, though.
I love the original Billy Cobham album that tune came from. It was one of my earliest dips into the fusion pot.
And, of course, there's this:
I couldn't believe they'd nicked Lee Sklar's bass, Cobham's drums and (I think) Jan Hammer's keyboards. I spent years boring people by playing them the original! And it showed someone's deep knowledge of unfashionable music, too :-)
I did enjoy the linked track but further investigation left me cold. Too jazzy for me when I was hoping for more of a fusion style. That was definitely the best/stand-out track IMHO.
Sorry about that, Chris. I sold it inaccurately.
My expectations were something more 'jazz' as it's on Blue Note, who have managed to drain the more interesting (read, avant-garde) aspects of, say, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusere into something more digestible (they would probably say).
Nels Cline can be one of the more extreme exponents of out guitar and harnessed Colley and Rainey, stalwarts of the New York downtown scene as was - John Zorn's various ensembles, and Rainey with Tim Berne. I had hopes of something further out. Yet Julian Lage is more mainstream and can even be heard playing country.
The result is somewhere between the album I hoped for and the album I feared, and then to the left of the field.
A recent-ish acquisition, this Japanese CD. Turns out all of the material is on the Beauty is a Rare Thing box set, which I already have. But that only means it's absolutely essential music.
It's also worth having because of the track listing (which doesn't happen on the box set).
Music Always Brings Goodness To Us All PS Unless One Has Some Other Motive For Its Use
It was really compulsive listening. Some fabulous voices. Real moments of humour and drama. Just all round entertaining really. I dont have the musical knowledge to dissect it, just soundly enjoyed your opinion??
Herbie Hancock Septet - Live at the Boston Jazz Workshop
Before Herbie went truly funky, he went supernova with what many call the Mwandishi band (here, the Herbie Hancock Septet).
I'm listening to the official release via Tidal. But you can hear the bootleg on YT if you don't have any streaming. Prepare to have your bonce reworked, friends!:
It was really compulsive listening. Some fabulous voices. Real moments of humour and drama. Just all round entertaining really. I dont have the musical knowledge to dissect it, just soundly enjoyed your opinion??
OMG. I forgot to reply.
Sorry 'bout that. It's a very specific moment in UK avant-garde jazz when big record companies for a very short time thought they could make money from it.
So with some budget available to him, Keith Tippett (the pianist) gathered together 50+ musicians (from memory) and recorded Septober Energy - not only a huge number of musicians but a double lp! There were some (a?) live gigs as well.
Notice I said: UK avant-garde jazz. It has very little to do with what was happening and had happened in the US. On the whole, the scene (man) was free jazz, a more obviously rhythmically-rooted form ('it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing' applies even today).
But, just to contradict myself a bit, Septober Energy does have a predecessor - or some kind of kindred spirit - in Carla Bley's Escalator Over The Hill - must look up the dates, but I think Bley's effort is a bit earlier. It, in turn, was rooted in the JCOA (Jazz Composer's Orchestra Association) recordings.
What do I think of Septober Energy? I like bits of it, but find four episodic sides fail to engage me all the way through - it's the same with Escalator..., BTW. But your post is making me listen to it again, with perhaps more open ears.
On a different - but related - tack, does the term Classic Rock aggravate you as much as it does me? It just stinks of record company marketing departments.
Comments
A band I have enjoyed since childhood. Their style has been varied over the years encompassing pop, rock, prog, alt. rock etc. plus plenty of non-pigeon hole ditties that only BOC could create!
Mostly strong output with just the odd duff album but even those tend to have at least one splendiferous track on board that if not redeeming of the album, at least leaves the rest forgivable.
My introduction was the album Cultosaurus Erectus. Some stonking rock/metal tracks on there e.g. Black Blade and The Marshall Plan. That lead me to investigate their catalogue further with happy results.
My personal preference is their darker material such as, eponymous, Secret Treaties, Fire of Unknown Origin, Imaginos but their discography is large and varied enough to appeal broadly, somewhere along the line.
If all you know of them is "Don't Fear The Reaper" (album version, not the castrated single) then you have a pleasurable voyage of discovery ahead, as this was barely average standard from them. Maybe start with tracks like Take Me Away, White Flags, Shooting Shark and First Days Of May to break the surface before a deep dive.
If you are a "Dave" start at the beginning, a "Ben" possibly nearer the middle.
By the pool on Crete. My brain is making it work really well with the hot weather. :-)
Great stuff.
On vinyl
Have you just bought it on vinyl?
Toots Hibbert had one of the greatest voices ever used in the pursuit of reggae. A towering set of soul vocal cords with Jamaican phrasing.
Can I take your cue, Chris, and describe it as right cobblers?
Nah! Just can't resist an opportunity like that
I broke out a tinny for that one.
There's a fantastic single album in this double, with some of Van's greatest 90s work amongst the flab. The spiritual stuff doesn't work as well as on his 80s albums.
Love that photo of them too. :-)
You reckon the guy at the back has just been the but of a joke? :-)
Juana Molina
I think I could be in love!
And welcome back, oh person with the unfeasibly well-endowed feet :-)
Alto sax giant, Konitz is now 90. 90! And he's still recording and touring - currently with pianist Tepfer, who is little more than a third of his age.
I'm not much of an expert on Konitz, but he sounds on fantastic form, both technically and artistically.
London-based band (now defunct?) playing a Fela piece and sounding fantastic.
I haven't listened to this since sometime in the 80s. It sounds much better now!
Gives me goose pimples. A kind of one-off from Miles, where he points the way to ambient music? Only there's too much going on here to be truly ambient IMHO.
Tommy Guerrero - No Man's Land.
Chilled.
The bass playing is magnificent. Paul Jackson is/was a monster.
I'll give Joe a go once I've finished with another oddity from YouTube:
Dub versions of Clash favourites by Mikey Dread (I went to his house in Brockley, South London many years ago. A very nice man, very down to earth and modest).
I missed this album when it came out earlier this year, but it's a stonker! Fantastic guitar playing from Cline and Julian Lage, plus a rhythm section you'd never expect on Blue Note - Scott Colley on bass and the great Tom Rainey on drums - that both ties everything together and tries to push it apart. There's a bit of mainstream guitar jazz, a bit of avant jazz, some rock (yep, you may know Cline from Wilco!), a bit of Beefheart...
I've yet to play it on the big rig, but I suspect it's a brilliant recording, too. Sounds great here on my desk, streamed from TIDAL.
I love the original Billy Cobham album that tune came from. It was one of my earliest dips into the fusion pot.
And, of course, there's this:
I couldn't believe they'd nicked Lee Sklar's bass, Cobham's drums and (I think) Jan Hammer's keyboards. I spent years boring people by playing them the original! And it showed someone's deep knowledge of unfashionable music, too :-)
My expectations were something more 'jazz' as it's on Blue Note, who have managed to drain the more interesting (read, avant-garde) aspects of, say, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusere into something more digestible (they would probably say).
Nels Cline can be one of the more extreme exponents of out guitar and harnessed Colley and Rainey, stalwarts of the New York downtown scene as was - John Zorn's various ensembles, and Rainey with Tim Berne. I had hopes of something further out. Yet Julian Lage is more mainstream and can even be heard playing country.
The result is somewhere between the album I hoped for and the album I feared, and then to the left of the field.
A recent-ish acquisition, this Japanese CD. Turns out all of the material is on the Beauty is a Rare Thing box set, which I already have. But that only means it's absolutely essential music.
It's also worth having because of the track listing (which doesn't happen on the box set).
Music Always
Brings Goodness
To Us
All
PS Unless One Has
Some Other
Motive For Its Use
How cool is that?
An old favourite. I bought this on vinyl just after it came out.
If I remember correctly, I was played it by a record shop owner in Birmingham who thought I'd like it. Still do.
Centipede - Septober Energy Part Two
What do you think of it?
Before Herbie went truly funky, he went supernova with what many call the Mwandishi band (here, the Herbie Hancock Septet).
I'm listening to the official release via Tidal. But you can hear the bootleg on YT if you don't have any streaming. Prepare to have your bonce reworked, friends!:
It's somewhere around where I like the blues - that could be a post in itself.
Sorry 'bout that. It's a very specific moment in UK avant-garde jazz when big record companies for a very short time thought they could make money from it.
So with some budget available to him, Keith Tippett (the pianist) gathered together 50+ musicians (from memory) and recorded Septober Energy - not only a huge number of musicians but a double lp! There were some (a?) live gigs as well.
Notice I said: UK avant-garde jazz. It has very little to do with what was happening and had happened in the US. On the whole, the scene (man) was free jazz, a more obviously rhythmically-rooted form ('it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing' applies even today).
But, just to contradict myself a bit, Septober Energy does have a predecessor - or some kind of kindred spirit - in Carla Bley's Escalator Over The Hill - must look up the dates, but I think Bley's effort is a bit earlier. It, in turn, was rooted in the JCOA (Jazz Composer's Orchestra Association) recordings.
What do I think of Septober Energy? I like bits of it, but find four episodic sides fail to engage me all the way through - it's the same with Escalator..., BTW. But your post is making me listen to it again, with perhaps more open ears.
On a different - but related - tack, does the term Classic Rock aggravate you as much as it does me? It just stinks of record company marketing departments.
Back in the 70s, I hated this album. Today, it sounds great. How your ears change over the decades.