Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Sarah Vaughan - A Time In My Life (Mainstream, 1971)

Sarah Vaughan A Time In My Life

Here's a neat Sarah Vaughan record from the early seventies. It's mostly fairly uptempo but there's some mellow numbers too. That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be is I think my fave cut. Usually I want to put my favourite tune as the preview track but this time I'm going for a shorter track just for a taste. On Thinking It Over is the second song on the album and it's a beauty.

Boomp3.com

If that strikes your fancy then you should peep the rest of it here. 320k rip from my original Mainstream vinyl.

Here is what they say about this LP at Dusty Groove:
Sarah Vaughn's looking pretty groovy on the cover of this album, and she's sounding pretty groovy too -- thanks to some sweet 70s backings from Ernie Wilkins! The style isn't exactly funky, but it's got some fully soulful sounds, and some great electric moments too -- modes that almost feel more like some of the best Kudu Records vocal sets from the time, instead of the usual Mainstream Records groove. Sarah really fits well in this sort of setting -- stretching out into groovier territory than before with the same sense of change that Ella Fitzgerald or Marlena Shaw were bringing to their music at the time. Players include Jerome Richardson on saxes, Buddy Childers on trumpet, Benny Powell on trombone, Jimmy Cobb on percussion, and Earl Palmer on drums -- and titles include "Inner City Blues", "Magical Connection", "Universal Prisoner", "Tomorrow City", "That's The Way I've Always Heard It", "Imagine", "On Thinking It Over", and "If Not For You".

Les McCann - Talk to the People (Atlantic, 1972)

Les McCann Talk to the People

This here is my favourite Les McCann record and it is some funky, soulful shit. The title track is especially uplifting but the whole thing is just good, positive music. I hope that you can get as much good out of it as I have.

Here's what Richard at AMG has to say about it.
While Invitation to Openness was Les McCann's progressive statement of 1972, this was his populist sermon, with a title to match. With four vocals among the seven tracks, Talk to the People preaches earthily in the funky soul/jazz and R&B languages of the time, with some social comment besides. Having gone completely over to the Rhodes electric piano and Hohner clavinet, McCann became a fervent convert -- indeed, he and Stevie Wonder were the funky-butt champs of the clavinet in the 1970s -- and he could beat on them with the rhythmic snap of a conga drummer. "Shamading" may be the funkiest, hip-shaking thing Les has ever recorded; the cool, swaggering funkathon "North Carolina" runs a close second; and the best of the vocals is a very gritty and convincing treatment of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On." Although there are some weak links in this chain of tunes, the highs are sky-high, and they represent some of Les' peak studio performances.

Preview Talk to the People with this vid while you link up with a 320 rip of my original Atlantic vinyl here.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Lionel Hampton - There It Is! (Brunswick, 1972)

Lionel Hampton - There It Is!

There It Is! is the only Lionel Hampton record I have but it's an interesting one so it's coming down as post number two. It has some pretty nice beats, cool backup vocals on about half the tracks and of course very nice vibes courtesy of Lionel himself. Happiness is for sure the jam here but there's some other nice numbers too.

Here's what they have to say about it at Dusty Groove:
A great little set of instrumental tracks from Hamp -- set to some hipper-than usual Brunswick soul arrangements, by the likes of Eugene Record, Willie Henderson, Sonny Sanders, and Hamilton Bohannon! Bohannon turns out the best track on the album -- the slow funky sample cut "Happiness", which steps along at half pace, and sounds like one of the killers from his own Stop & Go album! Other tracks are all pretty great, too -- and titles include "Without You In My Life", "I Never Had It So Good", "There It Is", "Wrapped Up In Your Warm & Tender Love", and "Sing A Little Song".

Check out Happiness here while you read Lionel's bio from Scotty down at AMG.

Boomp3.com

Lionel Hampton was the first jazz vibraphonist and was one of the jazz giants beginning in the mid-'30s. He has achieved the difficult feat of being musically open-minded (even recording "Giant Steps") without changing his basic swing style. Hamp started out as a drummer, playing with the Chicago Defender Newsboys' Band as a youth. His original idol was Jimmy Bertrand, a '20s drummer who occasionally played xylophone. Hampton played on the West Coast with such groups as Curtis Mosby's Blue Blowers, Reb Spikes, and Paul Howard's Quality Serenaders (with whom he made his recording debut in 1929) before joining Les Hite's band, which for a period accompanied Louis Armstrong. At a recording session in 1930, a vibraphone happened to be in the studio, and Armstrong asked Hampton (who had practiced on one previously) if he could play a little bit behind him and on "Memories of You" and "Shine"; Hamp became the first jazz improviser to record on vibes.

It would be another six years before he found fame. Lionel Hampton, after leaving Hite, had his own band in Los Angeles' Paradise Cafe, until one night in 1936 when Benny Goodman came into the club and discovered him. Soon, Hampton recorded with B.G., Teddy Wilson, and Gene Krupa as the Benny Goodman Quartet, and six weeks later he officially joined Goodman. An exciting soloist whose enthusiasm even caused B.G. to smile, Hampton became one of the stars of his organization, appearing in films with Goodman, at the famous 1938 Carnegie Hall concert, and nightly on the radio. In 1937, he started recording regularly as a leader for Victor with specially assembled all-star groups that formed a who's who of swing; all of these timeless performances (1937-1941) were reissued by Bluebird on a six-LP set, although in piecemeal fashion on CD.

Hampton stayed with Goodman until 1940, sometimes substituting on drums and taking vocals. In 1940, Lionel Hampton formed his first big band, and in 1942 had a huge hit with "Flying Home," featuring a classic Illinois Jacquet tenor spot (one of the first R&B solos). During the remainder of the decade, Hampton's extroverted orchestra was a big favorite, leaning toward R&B, showing the influence of bebop after 1944, and sometimes getting pretty exhibitionistic. Among his sidemen, in addition to Jacquet, were Arnett Cobb, Dinah Washington (who Hampton helped discover), Cat Anderson, Marshall Royal, Dexter Gordon, Milt Buckner, Earl Bostic, Snooky Young, Johnny Griffin, Joe Wilder, Benny Bailey, Charles Mingus, Fats Navarro, Al Gray, and even Wes Montgomery and Betty Carter. Hampton's popularity allowed him to continue leading big bands off and on into the mid-'90s, and the 1953 edition that visited Paris (with Clifford Brown, Art Farmer, Quincy Jones, Jimmy Cleveland, Gigi Gryce, George Wallington, and Annie Ross) would be difficult to top, although fights over money and the right of the sideman to record led to its breakup. Hampton appeared and recorded with many all-star groups in the 1950s including reunions with Benny Goodman, meetings with the Oscar Peterson Trio, Stan Getz, Buddy DeFranco, and as part of a trio with Art Tatum and Buddy Rich. He also was featured in The Benny Goodman Story (1956).

Since the 1950s, Lionel Hampton has mostly repeated past triumphs, always playing "Hamp's Boogie Woogie" (which features his very rapid two-finger piano playing), "Hey Ba-Ba-Re-Bop," and "Flying Home." However, his enthusiasm still causes excitement and he remains a household name. Hampton has recorded through the years for nearly every label, including two of his own (Glad Hamp and Who's Who). Despite strokes and the ravages of age, Lionel Hampton remained a vital force into the 1990s. In January 2001, a vibraphone he had played for 15 years was put into the National Museum of American History. On August 31, 2002, at age 94, Lionel Hampton suffered major heart failure and passed away.


You can peep a 320k rip of it here.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Rotary Connection - Songs (Cadet Concept, 1969)

Rotary Connection - Songs
For my first full album post I've got this terrific album of covers by experimental soul group Rotary Connection. The arrangements are pretty out-there as per usual for this group, but on the whole it's got more big chamber choral parts then on some other albums.

Respect is the first tune on here and it's got to be one of my favourite songs. I first heard it on a mixtape by local rare groove DJ Paul E. Lopez back in the mid-nineties. That tape was crammed with dope shit but this particular track really stuck with me. Check it out:


This brief rundown from AMG also focuses on Respect more than anything else.
The daring covers returned for Songs. In fact, the record is nothing but covers, including drastic re-castings of three songs from Cream's Disraeli Gears. So the creative well was surely drying up for Rotary Connection, right? Wrong. Despite the complete absence of original material, this is a proper Rotary Connection album as much as any other. Their version of Otis Redding's "Respect," like many of their covers, is rendered nearly unrecognizable; slowed to a crawl and stripped of its punctuative chorus of "R-E-S-P-E-C-T/I know what it means to me," Charles Stepney's string arrangement is a subdued but effective smear and Minnie Riperton and Sidney Barnes trade lines, emote in tandem, and twist around each other like they've never done before or since. The song has never sounded more steamy. The slightly eerie tone of the strings that encased "Respect" pop up again for "We're Going Wrong," one of the three Cream covers. The foreboding feel is carried forth with wordless co-ed background vocals that combine with escalating strings. But what really puts a cap on it is the moment when Riperton's voice shoots into a pitch that no theremin can approximate. It's moments like this one that make wading through the group's lapses (a dull, bungled look at "I've Got My Mojo Working," for instance) so worth it. As for those who view the group as blasphemers? Let them cringe.

Still, it's a pretty good record with plenty of other stand-out moments. Check it out here if you like.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Phase Two

I've decided that in addition to posting DJ mixes here once every few months, I will begin to post records from my collection. I've got a few things that I haven't seen on any of the other blogs that I think are worth sharing. I mean, I'll be listening to them anyway, seems reasonable enough to record them at the same time.

For my rips I'll be using the following set-up:

Technics SL 1200MK2 with Shure M44-7 cartridge -> Technics SA-EX110 receiver/phono preamp -> Presonus Firebox -> Logic Pro 7

I've opted to not use my Vestax mixer unless doing a DJ set because it's phono preamps sound pretty crap compared to the Technics. Depending on how into doing this I get, I may look at upgrading some of the components...but they're getting converted to MP3 anyway so I don't know how much difference it would really make in the end.

I'm looking forward to getting this started!