BFT 248 - Answers + BONUS CUTS!!!

[JSngry]

Thanks to all who participated. Most tracks were identified, and all generated some nice responses.

Since its Thanksgiving weekend, I'm putting in some dessert tracks that in once way or another tie in to the official tracks in some form or fashion.

***TRACK ONE - THE HEADHUNTERS - God Make Me Funky from Survival of the Fittest

Paul Jackson bs, vcl; Benny Maupin - ts; Mike Clark - dr, Blackbyrd McKnight - gtr; Bill Summers - perc; The Pointer Sisters - vcls

Bought this album on the spot when the record store played this cut loud as fuck. The opening was enough, but then when Bennie Maupin began...disintegrating, that sealed the deal.

Also try to check out Paul Jackson's Black Octopus record. It's a trip.

DESSERT: Same thing only totally different,

 

***TRACK TWO - DON ELLIS - Hey Jude - From Don Ellis At Fillmore

Don Ellis was consistently inconsistent. This album is as well, but this cut is certainly mad genius. I do believe that it's total "fuck you" towards the whole thing, down to using the quarter-tone trumpets to may four notes out of two (listen to the section that leads into the second part of the bridge). But that intro...yes it's nothing but pure electronic music, even if he does slip in a tiny bit of foreshadowing the sone once or twice.

DESSERT: Self-Explanatory.

 

***TRACK THREE - STAN GETZ - Trains and Boats and Plains from  What The World Needs Now (Stan Getz Plays Bacharach And David)

Esmond Edward - prod; Richard Evans- arr; Chick Corea - p; Phil Upchurc - g;Walter Booker - b;R oy Haynes- dr

The thing for me here is the mood, especially how Getz plays with the chart. Everything is perfect for this song. But, I was more than a little shocked to discover that Stan was playing over tracks there were recorded months earlier in Chicago! So whover is playing that second tenor, congratulations, Mr. Unknown And congratulations Stan Getz, who is at his lonely, melodic best.

DESSERT: Stan making another "easy listening" album by playing subtle lyricism, and this time chuckling to himsel as he so does:

 

***TRACK FOUR - PROPELLERHEADS + MARTHA WAINRIGHT -  Star Crossed Lovers from Red Hot + Indigo

Don't know who Propellerheads are, the occasional research turns up nothing that sounds like this! Same thing for Martha Wainwright, although  I know her by reputation, The album is this https://www.discogs.com/master/2130475-Various-Red-Hot-Indigo?srsltid=AfmBOopl0p_OIaCTViU1oFvbvw4ea7ziGJQvVZuH452cN_HXWEqG4qqx  It looks good on paper, and isn't at all bad, but this is the standout cut for me. A totally original re-contextualization of the original theme and music.  It's stuck with me literally for decades.

DESSERT: What else?

 

***TRACK FIVE - THE BACKROOM BANDITS – You Don't Know What Love Is from a bootleg house single https://www.discogs.com/release/556952-The-Backroom-Bandits-You-Dont-Know-What-Love-Is

Oh, the things you can find on the internet! This is a remix of a Kurt Elling Blue Note cut, Both have there charms, but I like this remix for it's foot-shuffling stoned dancing overall flayvagroove. I'm in NO way a Kurt Elling fan, but this one works for me just fine. Maybe it's the song?

DESSERT: The OG

 

***TRACK  SIX - SUN RA - Makeup from A Fireside Chat With Lucifer

Sun Ra, John Gilmore, & Samarai Celestial (aka Eric Walker)

Nothing else like this on the record, and it took a few times for it to reveal itself to me, but so much of Ra is like that for me. But once it did....it's not/ever obvious, sounds like one thing, turns into something else. That's Ra.

DESSERT: June Tyson!

 

***TRACK SEVEN - SONNY ROLLINS ILL WATROUILL- Amanda from Falling In Love With Jazz

Rollins; Clifton Anderson - tbn; Jerome Harris - gtr; Mark Soskin- piano/Korg Mi; Bob Cranshaw - el bs; Jack DeJohnette - dr

No love for the Korg (awwwwww) Some unexpected love for the oft-maligned Clifton Anderson, and NO  recognition OR love for Jack DeJohnette. On that last point, I am surprised!

DESSERT: Maybe we'd prefer Tony?

 

***TRACK EIGHT -  BILL WATROUS with The Walter Raim Concept- How Long Has this Been Going On from Love Themes For The Underground, The Establishment & Other Sub Cultures Not Yet Known

No idea what, where, or how. Watrous was in the Merv Griffin band at the time, but that's useless information. So were Bill Berry & Jim Hall, And The Walter Raim concept appear to have been a bunch of session singers(?) who made the softest of Soft Rockpop records you can imagine,

And yet....THIS!!!

DESSERT - One more!

 

***TRACK NINE - JAMES BROWN - Can't Stand It "76" from Hell

Personnel not given, but definitely John Morgan - dr; Maceo Parker - as; Cheese Martin - one of the giutarists

1974, Hell, the engine was about to die, the wheels about to come off the bus for many reasons, but here is JB, weightless, possibly a little (or more) high, just levitating deeper and deeper into this groove and saying whatever comes into his mind without hesitation. These are not "lyrics", but damn, they still paint a picture and they still  are as deep in the pocket as they can be. Past that, what else do you want?!?!?! And I dig how Brown and Maceo understand each other so much that when Maceo starts playing (which in and of itself creates yet another lay of ricocheting accents), Brown immediately tells him to slow it down, which Maceo does immediate, not by playing slower note values, but by leaving more space between the notes that he does play. Truly some remarkable music by a group that was about to be gone.

DESSERT: Maceo went to P-Funk world, and George Clinton knew a thing or too about extended trance jams. Maceo fit in just fine.

 

Barbecue me, Baby.

 

[T.D.]

Thanks. Enjoyed the BFT and appreciate all the work with bonus tracks, etc.

Egg on my face regarding a couple of tracks. I own that Ra recording, and it's one of his better ones IMO, but drew a blank on the ID, for which there's no excuse. And I'm a big fan of Jack DeJ, but didn't care for his playing on the Sonny track so didn't suspect he was on it. Oh well.

[JSngry]

I hope that somebody can tell me if this thing by Propellerheads has parallels in any of their other work.

[mikeweil]

Sorry that I didn't take part, I wanted but was busy with too many things and bedridden with a cold for the last two weeks. Had a cursory listen but not the energy to post anything. Just remember I recognized the first two tracks after a few notes. Will have to take time for another listen later this month. Thanks for compiling, anyway.

p.s. please ad Bill Summers to the Headhunters personnel. Besides being one of my biggest inspirations, he was and is the driving force behind the band, together with Mike Clark. Check out their latest albums on Bandcamp, there are some great tracks on them. 

Edited December 2 by mikeweil

[Big Al]

This was an extremely enjoyable BFT! You've given me new (old) routes to drive down and I'm eager to start that ride!

Two things are f'damn sure:

1) I've been ignoring Sonny Rollins' post-70's output at my own peril. The few things I have heard tell me I should dig further deeper!

2) Next time I see that Bill Watrous album in the local discount bin, I will scoop it up post-haste!

[JSngry]

You gotta set realistic expectations about Sonny on Milestone...but anything produced by Sonny & Lucille is more likely to ,have good outcomes than the Keepnews records. But almost all of them will have at least one killer cut, often more.

Good luck on finding the Watrous!

Also, Bill Summers has been added.

[Joe]

Kurt Elling surprised me on this one. I guess I have some homework to do!

[JSngry]

1 hour ago, Joe said:

Kurt Elling surprised me on this one. I guess I have some homework to do!

For me, it was Stan Getz' "easy listening" Verve records of the late 1960s. Variable to say the least, even within albums, but Miles' quip about how Getz could play the phone book and it would sound good was not wrong...

Elling has always been too Mark Murphy-ish for my taste, but I like this cut as both remix and original cut. I would cautiously listen to more of him.

Speaking of remixes and Mark Murphy...

 

[clifford_thornton]

Going backwards and finished my catch-up listening -- the Ellis, Ra, and JB cuts were definitely my cuppa, the rest not so much. Thanks for the BFT!

[JSngry]

And thank you for your time!

[clifford_thornton]

I was surprised at the Rollins. I have been back into the Rollins world for a few years now; didn't recognize him on the cut you chose, but admittedly haven't explored much after the early 1970s.

[JSngry]

I like the sheer blowing energy on that cut. I think that's what he was into, blowing a "straight line" of energy in both sound and line. It's different from his earlier work, but it's still a continuation of his ongoing evolution. Records only sometimes capture the better parts of it, but check out Holding The Stage (Road Shows Vol. 4

[clifford_thornton]

Thanks, I absolutely will!

[felser]

3 hours ago, JSngry said:

I like the sheer blowing energy on that cut. I think that's what he was into, blowing a "straight line" of energy in both sound and line. It's different from his earlier work, but it's still a continuation of his ongoing evolution. Records only sometimes capture the better parts of it, but check out Holding The Stage (Road Shows Vol. 4

G-Man?

[JSngry]

Oh my goodness yes!!!

And watch the movie for the title cut. His eyes tell you what's going on.

[JSngry]

Ok, one last comment about Sonny - what I like most about his later work is the physical aspect of it. It seems to me like he began to adapt a method of creating/sustaining his airflow that was more "tied in" to his yoga breathing. Nowhere near as easy as it might sound! But what that would do would be to get him to a more "clear" state to where when - when - the higher inspirations came, they can flow through to the horn less impeded, and ultimately unimpeded.

So on a track like the one included here, I get a very tangible, 3D sense of an energy wave, a "straight line"of a BODY of a sound, straight through. It's a wave that you can get on and ride.

I get that a lot of people either don't like or otherwise don't appreciate this way that Sonny played past a certain point. Fair enough. But it's not any kind of a failure of anything having to do with his playing. His actual playing continue to grow and evolve. Where there was a "problem" it wasn't as much in his playing as it was in the way(s) he made records. 

So I still owe the board that Rollins Milestone overview, because there is a LOT of variance there, and to my perception, it's all traceable to that physical thing. When he's on, when he's middling, or when he's actually "bad", it all comes down to flow, and in Sonny's, seemingly more than anybody else, that's begins but does not end with the physical.

Nobody else played like that. Nobody else sounded like that. And that's not accidental or coincidental.

[HutchFan]

5 minutes ago, JSngry said:

So I still owe the board that Rollins Milestone overview

Do it, Jim !!!   

 

[webbcity]

Sorry I'm late to the reveal party! So I absolutely need to check out more of that Headhunters album. Track 2 was a big winner for me too. In retrospect of course Sun Ra makes perfect sense for track 6, and I *will* have to give that one another try. 

Thanks so much Jim! Always interesting and informative. 😎👍

Edited Friday at 01:49 PM by webbcity