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.

Pharoah Sanders, Love Will Find A Way (1977)

Ferrell  "Pharoah" Sanders is a musician is who pushes his craft. His nickname "Pharoah" comes from early collaborator avant grade jazz giant, Sun Ra, whom himself it one the most eclectic and far reaching musicians of his time. For these purposes, jazz and related music genres needed individuals like Sanders  to force innovation and even strange deviation from the norm. This is most understood through looking at his whole career of exploration in free jazz  but particularly this 1977 effort produced and partially arranged by Norman Connors.  The tracks that make up this album are collectively soulful, with a interesting blend of intricate percussion and lyrical melodies. The Arista label Sanders demonstrates the  late 70's jazz funk sound while staying true to his more exploitative side.  My particular favorite cut is "Pharomba" which grooves on ethnic percussive layers with driving melodies and equally intricate melodic qualities.

Michael Franks, The Art of Tea (1975)

Michael Franks embodies a definitive smooth jazz sound. Folk/easy-listening type lyrics that make musical analogies worth not keeping a straight face over and immense talent seeping out of the rhythm section make this album an interesting listen for this particular Valentines Weekend. The album cover doesn’t provide any more of an appeasing value other than it’s beautifully minimal and modern. Enchanting qualities of this album are only understood through the preemptive first listen.  Under the Warner Brothers Music Label, Franks was able to link up with Keyboardist Joe sample and other members of the equally great smooth jazz group, The Crusaders.  The lushness of the arrangements is a testament of this. Samples’ solos are technical, catchy even at times. These are dueled against guitar work by Larry Carlton and Franks himself and tight rhythm section blends on gems like “Monkey See, Monkey See Do”.   The novel storytelling and hilarity of suggestive lyrical sources in Franks writing draws one in and don’t distract but rather balance the bliss, not to mention the wealth of fantastic solos by the likes of, but not limited to, Dave Sanborn on alto saxophone and Michael Brecker blowing tenor 

saxophone. 

Song: "Mr.Blue"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvn9WOVPva4&feature=related