Ferrante & Teicher - In A Soulful Mood (1974) & Killing Me Softly (1973) (2013 reissue)

A typically fine-sounding twofer remaster from Dutton Vocalion, focusing on piano tricksters Ferrante & Teicher.  Like the recent Chaquito post, these two albums come from a period in the 60s-70s when the easy listening industry turned to the more contemporary hits of the day to update its mass appeal.  So if Chaquito featured tunes like Aquarius and Light My Fire gone cod-Latin, the two records here include the likes of Ain't No Mountain High Enough and My Cherie Amour gone Philly Soul-lite with liberal amounts of piano.

Yep, these two albums are both stone-cold crate-digger gold, with abundant sampling potential in their funky backing - and it's not all covers, as evidenced by the smoking original blues Hong Kong Soul Brother.  Other highlights of In A Soulful Mood (placed first on CD) include a lovely slow-grooving version of Duke Pearson's Cristo Redentor, made famous by Donald Byrd, and two Stylistics songs, Stone In Love and Betcha By Golly.  Released the previous year, Killing Me Softly was the album with that striking cover painting above - it's not a legit Margaret Keane, just an imitation.  Here we get a bit more of a films & shows focus, with the likes of Also Sprach Zarathustra (modelled after Deodato's version) and Last Tango In Paris, as well as two more F&T originals, See Saw and Night Sounds.

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pw: sgtg

Miles Davis - Dark Magus (rel. 1977, rec. 1974)

One more Electric Miles Friday post for now, and probably the most ferocious-sounding live document of his career, besting even Agharta for sheer sonic assault.  With most of the band in place who would travel to Japan the following year for Miles' pre-retirement period concerts, the music on Dark Magus was recorded in March 1974 at Carnegie Hall, NYC.  The recordings wouldn't be released for another three years - or 23 years, for the world outside of Japan.

In his liner notes for the eventual 2-CD reissue, saxophonist Dave Liebman recalls being inducted into Miles' band with only the barest of preparation for what they were going to play - a fragmentary vamp here, a listen to the densely layered grooves of a Sly Stone record there - and the rest would just be led by Miles on stage.  A full-throttle thrash of drums introduces Moja Part 1 - the original four LP sides were simply named after the numbers one to four in Swahili.  Miles is in full wah-pedal trumpet and smears of Yamaha organ mode, and new guitarist Dominique Gaumont burns through Hendrix-style solos.  This calms down just a little in Moja Part 2, which eventually fades into a spacious atmosphere of reved-up drum machine from James Mtume.

 

Things get funkier for Wili Parts 1 & 2, then Disc 2 kicks off in similar fashion to Agharta with another storming jam, before again petering out via drum machine into the organ riff from Calypso Frelimo.  Drum machine weirdness skitters all over the slowburning start to Nne Part 1, which is nominally sub-titled Ife, but as on Live-Evil, only resembles that piece occasionally, and is a dark, atmospheric slow exploration.  The final stretch of Nne is another belter, to close out one of Miles Davis' most uncompromising, thrilling releases.  Dark Magus is sometimes described as "jazz metal" in latterday appraisals, and why not.

Disc 1 link

Disc 2 link

pw: sgtg

Miles Davis at SGTG:
Conception
Walkin'
Blue Moods
Bags' Groove
Miles Ahead (with Gil Evans)
Sketches Of Spain (with Gil Evans)
Quiet Nights (with Gil Evans) 

A Tribute To Jack Johnson

Live-Evil
On The Corner

In Concert

Big Fun
Agharta

Miles Davis - In Concert (1973)

For this double-live helping of electric Miles, we're in the dark, dense funk of the On The Corner era. Just under 90 minutes of smoking-hot dankness was drawn from a concert in New York City on 29 September 1972, and packaged in another eye-catching Corky McCoy cover drawing.  When originally released on vinyl, the four sides had no track titles, although the two records were sometimes known as "Slickaphonics" and "Foot Fooler" from the illustration captions on the inner sleeves.

Transferring to digital does give us individual track divisions and titles, but doesn't really clean up the album's notoriously murky sound - arguably though, the fuggy mix sort of works in favour of Miles' music at this point in time rather than against it.  A full-steam Rated X gets Disc 1 into gear, before Honky Tonk highlights Reggie Lucas' guitar and the noisy smears of Miles' wahed-trumpet.  On the old second side of the LP, the Theme From Jack Johnson kicks up a gear again, with plenty of solos for Miles and Carlos Garnett, then the groove changes abruptly to Black Satin from On The Corner.

Most of Disc 2 is taken up by a lengthy Ife jam, although the identifying bassline from Big Fun doesn't make an appearance until halfway through.  It's a nice long midtempo stretch for everyone in this future-funk band to pile on solos and effects pedals, and probably the highlight of the album for me.  Right Off/Sanctuary takes us to the end, in another fast and furious free-for-all.

Disc 1 link

Disc 2 link

pw: sgtg

Miles Davis at SGTG:
Conception
Walkin'
Blue Moods
Bags' Groove
Miles Ahead (with Gil Evans)
Sketches Of Spain (with Gil Evans)
Quiet Nights (with Gil Evans) 

A Tribute To Jack Johnson

Live-Evil
On The Corner

Big Fun
Agharta

Bob James - One, Two, Three & BJ4: The Legendary Albums (2003 compi of LPs rel. 1974-77)

Handy collection of the first four albums by jazz funk musician/arranger and one-man sampling goldmine Bob James.  Tunes from these "Legendary Albums" have been a summer staple for me for decades thanks to friends' mixes and such, so it's fantastic to have them all in one place.

After beginning his career as a jazz pianist (discovered by Quincy Jones in 1962), Robert McElhiney James was hired by Creed Taylor in 1973 to be an arranger for CTI, contributing to several funky fusion LPs put out by the label.  Taylor first gave James the chance to release his own album the following year, and One is an ambitious mix of themes from classical music (Pachelbel, Ravel and Mussorgsky), slick playing and incredible grooves, not least in the future classic Nautlius that closes the album.

Released in 1975, Two is the album that opens with the hip-hop sampling staple Take Me To The Mardi Gras, in James' eternally joyous arrangement of the Paul Simon song.  This album is smoother in some places, like the Patti Austin-sung I Feel A Song In My Heart, but still finds time for knotty fusion in The Golden Apple.  Bizet's Farandole gets the funked-up classical treatment.  On to 1976, and Three opens with a smoking take on One Mint Julep, and includes James' classic tune Westchester Lady.  His CTI era then drew to a close with BJ4 from 1977, the one with the funky earworm Tappan Zee among other delights.

Disc 1 link

Disc 2 link

pw: sgtg

Rogier van Otterloo - On The Move / The French Collection (2011 reissue of LPs from 1976)

All of one album and almost all of another by Dutch conductor and film composer Rogier van Otterloo (1941-1988).  These records date from the start of van Otterloo's time on Polydor in the 70s, when he was styled as something of a Quincy Jones-like arranger of both smooth and funky orchestral jazz, and were exquisitely remastered by Dutton Vocalion for this reissue that saw On The Move receive its first digital release.

On The Move was recorded in the UK in late 1975 and released the following year.  Not only furnishing these eight tracks with sumptuous arrangements, van Otterloo also composed seven of them.  The opener, Go On Forever, is an extended arrangement of the Dutch hit song We Zullen Doorgaan by Ramses Shaffy that sounds absolutely gorgeous, with new lyrics sung in English at the end.  Otherwise, from Rogier's pen we alternately get exquisite slow numbers like Alfie's Lullaby, Alone At Last and The Eternal Triangle, or funky grooves like the title track, My Dearest Fluffie (with vocals again) and the slowly-building closer The Flattened Tenth.

The French Collection, recorded in London in September 1976, is an album of interpretations by French writers as per its title.  There's a track missing from the LP, Cent Mille Chansons - perhaps for reasons of space, although Vocalion often do 2-CD releases when paired LPs top 80 minutes, so who knows.  The eight tracks here are mostly on the high-quality easy listening side, superbly arranged, and Les Gars De Rochechouart gets a catchy light funk groove going with great drums, wah'ed guitar and electric piano.  In fact, every track on this CD just sounds so damn good I can't stop listening to it at the moment - wish more van Otterloo albums were reissued.  He did a few more with Polydor, then took up the Metropole Orkest baton in 1980 (they're currently conducted by Jules Buckley), before he sadly died of cancer at age 46.

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pw: sgtg

Weather Report - Mysterious Traveller (1974)

After two initial exploratory records (links below) and something of a transitional third one, Weather Report were well on the way to the tighter compositions and funkier grooves they became famous for.  This didn't suit everyone on board, and amid general acrimony, founding bassist Miroslav Vitouš headed for the exit, represented here only by his brief co-write with Zawinul, American Tango.  Still a couple of years away from the arrival of their definitive bass player, WR's journeys into funk on this album, Cucumber Slumber and the title track, were underpinned by Alphonso Johnson.

As well as it being increasingly tighter and well-composed throughout (Zawinul writing the lion's share, with a Shorter feature in the middle), I love Mysterious Traveller primarily as an album full of atmospheres.  The production still sounds great, making all the more vivid (as does the cover art) the title track's evocation of visitation by the galaxy's funkiest aliens.  Also on the album's second side, Scarlet Woman is similarly eerie, and the closing Jungle Book returns to earth with the wide open space atmosphere of Pat Metheny's later experimental ventures like As Falls Wichita.

link

pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:

s/t debut

I Sing The Body Electric

Miles Davis - Big Fun (2000 expanded edition - compi rel. 1974, rec. 1969-72)

An outtakes collection that's at least as good as the original albums it connects to, Big Fun spends just over an hour and a half offering up four magnificent slabs of electric Miles.  As originally released on double vinyl, it was bookended by two tracks from just after the Bitches Brew sessions, with one each from the On The Corner (link in list below) and Jack Johnson eras in the middle.

Other than Miles, I haven't put the usual musician names in the tags - not even half of them would fit in to the maximum space.  The late 60s - early 70s was a time when Davis would record and tour constantly, flit through new lineups at a Mark E Smith pace, and generally push the boundaries of jazz, fusion and Afro-futurist cosmic funk to ever further extremes.  

The opening track here, Great Expectations (with elements of Joe Zawinul's Orange Lady at points) starts out as a sitar-flavoured mid-tempo exploration that gradually dissolves into Silent Way-like ambience, before gathering pace again.  Next we're in the On The Corner mode of insistent funk for Ife, riding an indelible bass groove that occasionally trips over itself until the rhythm again falls away towards the end.

Go Ahead John, with the most compact lineup of Davis, the titular McLaughlin, Steve Grossman (who just died a month ago) on sax and the dream rhythm section of Holland & DeJohnette, dates from the Jack Johnson sessions.  For me it's easily the best of the four main tracks, with a groove that spins in zero-gravity thanks to the constantly panning drums and angry-hornet guitar solo.  This production, more than any other, locates Teo Macero at this point in time less alongside other jazz producers and more in a league with Plank and Czukay, or the Jamaican dub innovators.  Don't miss Lonely Fire afterwards though - I used to neglect it at the end - it lands back in late 1969 with a softly glowing ambience.  This reissue adds a further 40 minutes of Bitches Brew-era material, further fleshing out a time when Miles was constantly exploring sound, and still sounding contemporary today.

Disc 1 link
Disc 2 link
pw: sgtg

Miles Davis at SGTG:
Conception
Walkin'
Blue Moods
Bags' Groove
Miles Ahead (with Gil Evans)
Sketches Of Spain (with Gil Evans)
Quiet Nights (with Gil Evans) 
On The Corner
Agharta

Miles Davis - On The Corner (1972)

Someone mentioned late 60s-70s Miles in the comments recently, which made me dig this one out.  When On The Corner got its Columbia Legacy reissue in 2000, it became my introduction to Miles Davis' electric period - and holy crap, what a choice for diving into his post '68 journey to the outer limits of jazz fusion.  Already getting a hammering from establishment jazz critics for setting his sights light years farther than theirs, by 1972 the James Brown/Sly Stone-influenced Davis cared less than zero with On The Corner, its straightahead funk cacophony and its cartoon cover by illustrator Corky McCoy (Miles' idea being to appeal to a younger African-American audience).

If On The Corner was meant to be a record to groove to, that's not exactly easy at the outset, as the odd rhythm (the sixteenth-notes on the hi-hat are the key to following it) cuts in mid flow.  The title track - the first three minutes of the opening suite - is the kind of full-on fury that would lead to scorching live documents like Dark Magus and Agharta a few years later, with John McLaughlin's guitar and Collin Walcott's sitar wah-wahing like fighting lions.  Even as the larger 20-minute track opens up to give a bit more space, the subsequent sections deftly spliced by Teo Macero (wonder if he was ever aware of Tago Mago?), the groove doesn't calm down until the very end.

The head-shaking of the jazz critics continued as the rest of the album - that's 34 minutes - proceeded to hinge around one single bassline.  I must admit on early listens this did make me tune out, particularly on the 23 minute Helen Butte/Mr Freedom X - big mistake.  To follow these tracks closely is to hear infinite variations from the assembled players (Miles himself sticks mostly to electric organ, in his Fela-like lead shaman role), and an abundance of clever editing and other studio trickery, influenced by both Stockhausen and Paul Buckmaster  Essential, life-affirming deep groove music that the rest of the world is still catching up to.

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Arp Life - Jumbo Jet / Z Bezpieczną Szybkością (2014 compilation, rec. 1975-78)

In 1975, library music composer Mateusz Święcicki (1933-1985) teamed up with film soundtrack composer Andrzej Korzyński (b. 1940) to start off a studio ensemble for Polish Radio.  The name given to the project, which Święcicki had been using a couple of years earlier, was Arp Life: he'd liked how the Arp Odyssey synthesiser sounded much more refined compared to the rougher Minimoog.

For the next three years, additional musicians associated with the radio studios, most of their names lost to history, would come and go to add strings, brass or percussion as desired.  And ironically enough, Arp synths were scarcely, if ever, used - pretty much everything electronic here is either Fender Rhodes or Minimoog.  The best known artefact to emerge from this arrangement, and a mainstay of crate-digger blogs for as far back as I can remember, was the Jumbo Jet LP, released by Polskie Nagrania in 1977, and featuring new core member Maciej Śniegocki as writer and arranger.

Whether on a vinyl rip, or a remastered CD like this, the sampling appeal of Jumbo Jet is undeniable - wah-wah guitars, funky Rhodes and nifty bass & percussion riffs are everywhere, along with a handful of great fuzz guitar leads and melancholy disco strings.  Vocals are either wordless or limited to the track title; only the title track has more than that.  Only two tracks top the four minute mark - Jumbo Jet is basically a library LP par excellence, and a few tracks saw use in film, with Baby Bump and the gorgeous Hotel Victoria featuring in Andrezj Wajda's Man Of Marble.

original cassette cover, 1978

The following year, the Wifon label released a series of cassettes specifically promoted for in-car use, with the titles encouraging Poland's motorists to 'have a nice journey', 'don't dazzle [with your headlights, presumably]', and 'drive at a safe speed'.  That last one - in Polish, 'Z bezpieczną szybkością', was effectively Arp Life's second and last album.  Three tracks on the tape were taken from Jumbo Jet (Motor Rock was presumably a no-brainer to open the tape with), and the remaining ten were never released in any other format until this 2014 CD, which was followed by individual vinyl reissues.  The sound of these tracks is much the same as on Jumbo Jet, although Korzyński is the dominant writer rather than Śniegocki, leading to a bit more brass in the arrangements.  A couple of non-album singles and an unused signature jingle written for the Tonpress label round out this great compilation.

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Deodato - Night Cruiser (1980)

Magnificent jazz-funk from the era in Eumir Deodato's career where the Rio-born keyboardist/arranger/producer decisively headed for the dancefloor.  This is around the time Deodato was producing Kool & The Gang, and Night Cruiser is similarly good-time music.  Electric piano grooves, synth bloops and great brass arrangements are everywhere, along with more slap bass than you can shake a stick at.

Pretty much every box is ticked, to be honest, for what you'd expect from an album with a track called Uncle Funk.  I should start insisting that my niece and nephews call me that, but I think to qualify for the title you have to have to post a bit more than, er, one jazz-funk album a year on your blog.  Will try to seek out more - in the meantime, if you love stuff like this, Opium Hum have been crate-digging it to the max lately.

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