Eugene McDaniels, Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse 1971

An easy pick for spectacular underrated albums coming out of '71 is this particular Headless Heroes  of the Apocalypse record by Eugene McDaniels.  If any musician ever needed a instructional how-to to combine elements of folk, jazz, soul, and psychedelic styles, this would be their Britannica reference. Not only will you find  stellar performance by the Genes' band, but the depth and narrative scope of the McDaniels' songwriting ability. "Supermarket Blues" is the second to last track on the album and talks about a usual trip to the grocery store that goes hilariously wrong. Now, what could be better you ask then all of this fine music and lyricism? Well, the package or vessel of this record for starters. I've yet to find much explanation of the album artwork depicting two samurai fighting in front of an enlarged head of McDaniels screaming.However, with this gem the unexpected or unexplainable don't beg for specificity or clearness, but sheer respect for innovative music before many of our times.

Listening Turtables

There is many ways people can play records these days. If there is a will to find good vinyl and enjoy it, theres a way. The real benefit of today's record player technology is the ability to archive records to a computer, creating a digital copy that can be listened to and shared with on most commercial digital music players today. Another feature that caters to the new "digging" community of mobile music enthusiast is portability. Most turntables are no longer anchored by a bulky exterior but replaced with sleeker features, protective casing, and battery powered options.

Heres a few brands that offer affordable modern record listening solutions:

http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/turntables/085561cf849acaa9/index.html

http://www.numark.com/pt01usb

http://www.ionaudio.com/turntables

Andrew Hill, Lift Every Voice (1969)

This album is a new favorite of mine. Andrew Hill partially abandons traditional jazz instrumentation by adding a full choir for this particular record, Lift Every Voice. Hills progressive compositions lend to the new timbre in a way that is avant-garde and progressive, yet rooted in traditional bop elements. Woodwind specialist Bennie Maupin brings a lot of exploration with his contributing solos and general playing. Other notable personnel are the rhythm section including Richard Davis on bass and Freddie Waits on Drums. Bassist Ron Carter and Trumpeter Lee Morgan are on a 2001 reissue of the album, featured on six unreleased tracks. "Blue Spark" is one of these and a standout driving 12 bar blues style tune featuring solos from Morgan, Maupin , and Hill. Whats important as the obvious theme of the record is its connection and integration of vocal accents and lyrical movement, not frequent in recordings of the late 1960's. The arrangements are particularly reminiscent of a Donald Byrd album released earlier in the century that attempted to blend voice and jazz the same way, except with more of a gospel base.

"Where am I" Continued...

The specific song i was hinting to in the related post was a cover by Brazilian composer and keyboardist
Emuir Deodato entitled "Also Sprach Zarathustra". This song was originally written by Richard Strauss and used later for  the popular 1968 sci-fi film by Stanley Kubrick, 2001: A Space Odyssey. However, in this 1972 arrangement of the piece by Deodato, interesting distinctions between the two versions are obvious.

The Deodato version completely revamps the pieces traditional orchestral roots and instrumentation to a Latin jazz and funk based nine minute jam session. The main theme stays intact while weaving solos from Deodato and bassist Stanley Clarke through out the tune. Elegant and far reaching, the single and subsequent album "Prelude" that featured the track gained mass popularity being the CTI labels most grossly popular records. A Grammy in 1974 was awarded to Deodato for this song as Best Pop Instrumental Performance.

As i stated before, the tune evokes the popular ideas and themes of the space movie  it was released in '68 while evoking the popularity of jazz fusion and funk during the 70's era. This was truly a feat for its time. Funk and excellent space movies; that is where I am.

live performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e075fXCMM_Y&feature=related


original score version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLuW-GBaJ8k&feature=related

Record Conventions

Being a avid music enthusiast and especially one that likes records, I have no problem digging through large numbers of  Barbra Streisand and Country albums to find music I actually like.My passions are Soul, Funk, Rock, Jazz, and related genres for that matter. This past Sunday the sixth quarterly Springfield Comics and Records convention came to town. Its an interesting opportunity for  record addict in me. Record dealers and collectors come from all over the Midwest come to make some money off their old nostalgic hobby. Since records are so representative of the region and time period they are originally purchased, this can lead to the possibility of finding records not usually available in certain areas. This particular areas records revolve around a lot folk, country, and classic rock genres for instance. Every so often, dealers and collectors get a box from the east or west coast lands of vinyl, which offer a wider variety of genres and time periods of music.

This is a great little tip sheet for curious record diggers: http://www.cratekings.com/10-record-digging-secrets/

"Where am I"

You've been just alerted by Hal 9000, the ships computer auto pilot intelligence, that you've been thrown off
course. It seems a funky, deep space worm hole has opened up. Inside your vessel you can first hear tambourines and percussion stirring along with warm fender Rhodes chords bathing the interstellar phenomena. Long synthesizer arpeggios bubble from the lower decks engine room. What approaches is inevitable after the first drum roll. The foundation rhythm is incorporated while trumpets and brass indicates your willingness to be pulled deep in to the ominous mystery of space and time.The long crescendos build with excitement as you pass the threshold. For the sake of mankind's ears, your its only hope to discover new sounds.

To be Continued.....

trip to vintage vinyl

Good record stores have distinct qualities about them. Variety of inventory as well as volume is an obvious start. Loud bands you never heard  blare through out the stores' ambiance speakers. The guy at the register unconcerned with his surroundings, absorbed in a "Rolling Stone" magazine usually. The true bonus is functional listening turntables. An establishment i suggest to anyone in the Midwest region trying to get into vinyl would be St. Louis,Missouri located Vintage Vinyl record shop.

 It is truly unmatched by most places i have shopped at. The staff was chill, not bombarding you with "Anything i can help you with?" every time your started dig for records. The amount of records for sale was really enjoyable and it seem as no genre was lacking in quanity either. Genres and even some time periods were clearly marked, making it tons easier to locate film score LPs and other novelty groupings. Whats always essential for quality vinyl shops is a Dollar bin rack worth rummaging through for five minutes. This is where gems can be discovered and surprise finds that making the experience of purchasing music something of a treasure hunt. For those that are not into vinyl, there where still a quality selection of cassette tapes, CDs, 45s, and DVDs.