Sunday, January 31, 2010

1066 - Mojo Special 11. Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee - Pete Kelly's Blues OST


















Track Listing

1. Oh Didn't He Ramble
2. Sugar
3. Somebody Loves Me
4. I'm Gonna Meet My Sweetie Now
5. I Never Knew
6. Bye Bye Blackbird
7. What Can I Say After I Say I'm Sorry
8. He Needs Me
9. Sing A Rainbow
10. Hard Hearted Hannah
11. Ella Hums The Blues
12. Pete Kelly's Blues
13. Opening / Narration
14. Smiles
15. Intro to 'Sweetie' I'm Gonna Get My Sweetie Now
16. Intro to 'Sorry' What Can I Say After I Say I'm Sorry
17. Intro to 'Breezin' Breezin' Along With The Breeze
18. Intro to 'Ramble' Oh Didn't He Ramble
19. Intro to 'Sugar' Sugar
20. Intro to 'I Never Knew' I Never Knew
21. Intro to 'Somebody' Somebody Loves Me
22. Intro to 'Hannah' Hard Hearted Hannah
23. Intro to 'Blackbird' Bye Bye Blackbird
24. Intro to 'Pete Kelly's Blues'

Review

As often happens with soundtracks it is actually quite hard to find one definite version of the soundtrack. The track listing up there is not in the same order as the one I listened to, even if the tracks are the same. In my version the instrumental bits with voice intro which make up the second half are spread between the Peggy Lee/Ella sung tracks at the beginning.

It is this interesting mix between vocal jazz and big band instrumentals which makes the album quite good. The version present in the Mojo collection only has the Peggy Lee/ Ella tracks and so I think it lacks quite a bit when compared to the extended versions of the soundtrack.

All this being said we've already had substantially better albums on this list by both Ella and Peggy making this slightly superfluous. The Big Band stuff here is interesting but not as amazing as what we had on the Glenn Miller Story OST for example, so even if this album is a joy to listen to I would not consider it essential.

Track Highlights

1. Somebody Loves Me
2. Sugar
3. Didn't He Ramble
4. Bye Bye Blackbird

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Matty Matlock and His All Stars supplied the music for Pete Kelly and His Big Seven: Dick Cathcart, trumpet; Moe Schneider, trombone; Matty Matlock, clarinet; Eddie Miller, tenor sax; Ray Sherman, piano; George Van Eps, guitar; Jud DeNaut, bass; and Nick Fatool, drums. In addition to the official 1955 soundtrack recording, this group, with several variations, did several other recordings: On Pete Kelly's Blues there are "announcements by Jack Webb." Pete Kelly at Home (1957) substitutes Jack Chaney on tenor sax and Abe Lincoln on trombone. Pete Kelly Lets His Hair Down (1958), an album produced by Webb, only retained Van Eps and Schneider from the original group. Songs from Pete Kelly's Blues (1955) is not a soundtrack but studio recordings by Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald, then both signed to Decca Records, of songs they performed in the film.

Pete Kelly's Blues :

Friday, January 29, 2010

1065 - Mojo 66. Duke Ellington - Far East Suite (1967)



















Track Listing

1. Tourist Point Of View
2. Bluebird Of Delhi (Mynah)
3. Isfahan
4. Depk
5. Mount Harissa
6. Blue Pepper (Far East Of The Blues)
7. Agra
8. Amad
9. Ad Lib On Nippon

Review

Now, back to some more conventional, but not completely, jazz. It is really nice to see Duke Ellington so on top of his game at this age, and this is a pretty great album, in fact it is probably my favourite Duke Ellington album.

The Duke takes inspiration from his trips through the Middle East and Japan to come up with an album which even if it hints at exotica does not make a spectacle of it and therefore avoids making the album into something of a novelty.

It is the music itself and not the exotic flavour that appeals here, Duke is capturing a sense of mood rather than taking musical inspiration (although there is a little bit of that) from his voyages. Sometimes things get particularly interesting such as in Blue Pepper where there is a block rocking beat backgrounding some great orchestra playing.

Track Highlights

1. Blue Pepper (Far East Of The Blues)
2. Isfahan
3. Ad Lib On Nippon
4. Bluebird Of Delhi (Mynah)

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The album's title is something of a misnomer, since only one track – "Ad Lib on Nippon", inspired by a 1964 tour of Japan – is strictly speaking concerned with a country in the "Far East". The rest of the music on the album was inspired by a world tour undertaken by Ellington and his orchestra in 1963, which took in Beirut, Amman, Kabul, New Delhi, Sri Lanka, Tehran, Madras, Mumbai, Baghdad, and Cairo (visits to Istanbul, Nicosia, Cairo, Alexandria, Athens, and Thessaloniki were postponed when the news of the assassination of John F. Kennedy reached the tour party).

Blue Pepper:

Thursday, January 28, 2010

1064 - Mojo 65. The Butterfield Blues Band - East-West (1966)




















Track Listing

1. Walkin' Blues
2. Get Out Of My Life, Woman
3. I Got A Mind To Give Up Living
4. All These Blues
5. Work Song
6. Mary, Mary
7. Two Trains Running
8. Never Say No
9. East West

Review

A good Blues rock album situated somewhere between Derek and the Dominoes and Led Zeppelin it really puts the rock into the blues and has some pretty amazing guitar playing thrown into the mix.

Actually it is in the more instrumental tracks that the album really shines, it has a verve the just seeps through, these are people really enjoying the music they are playing, being respectful of their origins but still aiming to push the envelope just that little bit further.

There is good reason for Mike Bloomfield to be considered the first guitar-hero of the 1960, just listen to the jazzy Work Song to get an idea for it. Still he never falls into the worse excesses of guitar heroes, it is just really enjoyable stuff.

Track Highlights

1. Work Song
2. East-West
3. Two Trains Running
4. Walkin' Blues

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Marsh's expansive liner notes observe that the song "East-West" "was an exploration of music that moved modally, rather than through chord changes. As Naftalin explains, "The song was based, like Indian music, on a drone. In Western musical terms, it 'stayed on the one'. The song was tethered to a four-beat bass pattern and structured as a series of sections, each with a different mood, mode and color, always underscored by the drummer, who contributed not only the rhythmic feel but much in the way of tonal shading, using mallets as well as sticks on the various drums and the different regions of the cymbals. In addition to playing beautiful solos, Paul [Butterfield] played important, unifying things [on harmonica] in the background - chords, melodies, counterpoints, counter-rhythms. This was a group improvisation. In its fullest form it lasted over an hour."

Work Song:

Mojo 64. The Kinks - Face to Face (1966)

See Review

Mojo 63. The Byrds - Fifth Dimension (1966)

See Review

Mojo 62. Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde (1966)

See Review

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

1063 - Mojo 61. David Blue - David Blue (1966)

















Track Listing

1. Gasman Won't Buy Your Love
2. About My Love
3. So Easy She Goes By
4. If Your Monkey Can't Get It
5. Midnight Through Morning
6. It Ain't The Rain That Sweeps The Highway Clean
7. Arcade Love Machine
8. Grand Hotel
9. Justine
10. I'd Like To Know
11. Street
12. It Takes Like Candy

Review

Clearly influenced by both Folk, Rock a little bit of Jazz and particularly by Bob Dylan who was now going the path of electric folk, David Blue brings us a great album which belongs in the library of anyone interested in folk-rock.

Interestingly there is a feeling here in this album that the music is equally important to the lyrics, as such there is an almost proto-psychedelic exuberance in the instrumental bits, even if the whole thing is tinged with melancholy.

Somewhere between the Stones, Tim Buckley and Bob Dylan this is a pretty exciting album, David Blue is a very innovative songwriter and even if his background as one of Dylan's coterie is immediately apparent, the album is no less enjoyable for it.

Track Highlights

1. If Your Monkey Can't Get It
2. Gasman Won't Buy Your Love
3. It Ain't The Rain That Sweeps The Highway Clean
4. Justine

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

In 1975 Blue joined Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue and he appeared in Renaldo and Clara, the 1978 movie that was filmed during that tour. Blue acted in other films including, The American Friend (directed by Wim Wenders, 1977), The Ordeal of Patty Hearst (a 1979 TV movie) and Human Highway (by Neil Young, 1982}.
He died of a heart attack when he was 41 years old, while jogging in Washington Square Park in New York City.

So Easy She Goes By, live:

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

1062 - Mojo Special 10. Prince Buster - Prince Buster Fabulous Greatest Hits (1960-1966)













Track Listing

1. Madness
2. Al Capone
3. Wash Wash
4. God Son
5. It's Burke's Law
6. Ten Commandments
7. Blackhead Chinaman
8. Thirty Pieces Of Silver
9. Hard Man Fe Dead
10. Earthquake
11. Judge Dread
12. Ghost Dance
13. Take It Easy
14. Too Hot
15. My Girl
16. This Is A Hold Up
17. Shaking Up Orange Street
18. Big 5
19. Rough Rider
20. Wreck A Pum Pum
21. Julie On My Mind
22. Pharaoh House Crash
23. Tie The Donkey's Tail
24. Finger

Review


With Prince Buster Ska is moving rapidly into Rock Steady but what catches your attention immediately here is not only the great music but the randiness of the lyrics, something unlike anything else in the 60s.

You listen to Big 5 for the first tame and you do a double take, I actually had to put the song back on from the beginning because I couldn't belive just how dirty the whole thing was, seeing as it is followed by Rough Rider and Wreck a Pum Pum (one of the few songs about fucking to the tune of Little Drummer Boy) you realise that Prince Buster was in a completely different context than other anglophone music.

Still it isn't just raunchiness that makes the music great, it is the music itself. Madness gave name to the eponymous band and is a great song indeed. There is very much a move from the previous R&B inspired music into a much more local flavour here, references... Buster was doing the drugs and bitches thing long before anyone else, in such a way that many of the tracks are actually pretty offensive (Ten Commandments comes to mind). Great Stuff.

Track Highlights

1. Big 5
2. Madness
3. My Girl
4. Shaking Up Orange Street

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

He joined the Nation of Islam after meeting Muhammad Ali whilst on a tour of England in 1964.

The very NSFW Big 5:

Monday, January 25, 2010

1061 - Mojo 60. The Association - And Then...Along Comes (1966)





















Track Listing

1. Enter The Young
2. Your Own Love
3. Don't Blame It On Me
4. Blistered
5. I'll Be Your Man
6. Along Comes Mary
7. Cherish
8. Standing Still
9. Message Of Our Love
10. Round Again
11. Remember
12. Changes

Review

A somewhat tacky but also strangely interesting proto-psych rock album from the mid 60s. It sounds at the same time slightly ahead of its time, bringing to mind bands like Love while coming out the same year as Revolver and Pet Sounds which just sounds miles ahead of this.

The two big hits in this album (Along Comes Mary and Cherish) are both the least musically interesting track but also the catchiest ones, as pop singles they are actually pretty good, but as such they might have actually done the Association a disservice. Becoming known for those two tracks blinded many to the other stuff they had to offer.

So it was quite nice to listen to but not really that amazing, there is plenty of unrealised potential here... but never really goes beyond the pop structure of the tracks. In the end it is some interesting music sandwiching two great pop hits.

Track Highlights

1. Cherish
2. Along Comes Mary
3. I'll Be Your Man
4. Enter The Young

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

A song from the album, "Cherish", written by Kirkman, would become The Association's first #1 in September 1966.

Cherish:

Mojo 59. The Beatles - Revolver (1966)

See Review

Mojo 58. John Mayall's Blues Breakers - Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (1966)

See Review

Mojo 57. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds (1966)

See Review

Mojo 56. The Rolling Stones - Aftermath (1966)

See Review

Mojo 55. The Monks - Black Monk Time (1966)

See Review

Mojo 54. The Mamas and the Papas - If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears (1966)

See Review

Friday, January 22, 2010

1060 - Mojo 53. Sun Ra - The Magic City (1965)


















Track Listing

1. Magic City
2. Shadow World
3. Abstract Eye
4. Abstract 'I'


Review

Well this was an interesting experience. Again free jazz proves that it is not my favourite musical genre. Which doesn't mean I can't admire it... unlike my wife who complained about it being "noise".

Well, she has a point, it is noisy, but hardly noise, there is a definite thought behind the sounds which appear here even if it might be hard for the listener to discern that process. It does not make for a pleasant sound, that's for certain.

But the music is interesting, the use of electronic keyboards is prescient and all that... but it is really not enjoyable. I actually like Sun Ra more in theory than practice... look up the wikipedia entry on his life and you'll understand why, he was a fascinating guy with a fascinating life... but the music is not something you want to listen to for fun or enjoyment. Trout Mask Replica is child's play next to this.

Track Highlights

1. Magic City

Final Grade

6/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

It is notable especially for the title track, on which "the Arkestra's range of feelings and sound is expressed in a design that's simply unprecedented in jazz". While it begins with use of tape echo recalling the experiments on Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow, the key features quickly emerge: Ra's simultaneous piano and clavioline intertwining with Boykins' bass as the underpinning for new long-forms of group music-making which draw on varying sub-ensembles from the Arkestra through the course of the piece.

'The boundaries of Sun Ra's self-proclaimed "space jazz" underwent a transformation in the mid-'60s. The Magic City is an aural snapshot of that metamorphic process. Many enthusiasts and scholars consider this to be among Ra's most definitive studio recordings.' Lindsay Planer


No video for this.
1059 - Mojo 52. Vernon Haddock's Jubilee Lovelies - Vernon Haddock's Jubilee Lovelies (1965)

Well I can't find this for love or money. If anyone knows of some way to get it let me know!
1058 - Mojo 51. Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass - Going Places (1965)

















Track Listing

1. Tijuana Taxi
2. I'm Getting Sentimental Over You
3. More And More Amor
4. Spanish Flea
5. Mae
6. 3rd Man Theme
7. Walk, Don't Run
8. Felicia
9. And The Angels Sing
10. Cinco De Mayo
11. A Walk In The Black Forest
12. Zorba The Greek

Review

While the cool kids were listening to the Beatles or if they were even cooler to Bob Dylan their parents were listening to this. Them most inoffensive, crappy, novelty stuff imaginable.

Herb Alpert star of stage and screen decides to do covers in Mariachi style... ... ... yes. Strangely enough it works in a way that supermarket music can sometimes be fascinating.

This is kind of like the home-video slapstick comedy of music, it isn't smart or thought out... but it can be sometimes strangely enjoyable... even if you know you really shouldn't enjoy it.

Track Highlights

1. Spanish Flea
2. Tijuana Taxi
3. 3rd Man Theme
4. Zorba The Greek

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The single version of "Tijuana Taxi" had more of the bicycle-horn sound effects than the album version did. "Tijuana Taxi" and "Spanish Flea" would both be reprised as part of the "Carmen" medley in Herb Alpert's Ninth. The B-side of the "Taxi" single, "Zorba the Greek," was edited for length and had live-concert sound effects added.

Spanish Flea:

Mojo 50. Otis Redding - Otis Blues (1965)

See Review

Mojo 49. Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited (1965)

See Review

Mojo 48. BB King - Live at the Regal (1965)

See Review

Thursday, January 21, 2010

1057 - Mojo Special 9. Hank Williams - 40 Greatest Hits (1978)


















Track Listing


Disc 1:

1. Move It On Over
2. A Mansion On The Hill
3. Lovesick Blues
4. Wedding Bells
5. Mind Your Own Business
6. You're Gonna Change (Or I'm Gonna Leave)
7. Lost Highway
8. My Bucket's Got A Hole In It
9. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
10. I Just Don't Like This Kind Of Living
11. Long Gone Lonesome Blues
12. My Son Calls Another Man Daddy
13. Why Don't You Love Me
14. Why Should We Try Anymore
15. They'll Never Take Her Love From Me
16. Moanin' The Blues
17. Nobody's Lonesome For Me
18. Cold, Cold Heart
19. Dear John
20. Howlin' At The Moon

Disc 2:

1. I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)
2. Hey, Good Lookin'
3. Crazy Heart
4. (I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle
5. Baby We're Really In Love
6. Ramblin' Man
7. Honky Tonk Blues
8. I'm Sorry For You My Friend
9. Half As Much
10. Jambalaya (On The Bayou)
11. Window Shopping
12. Settin' The Woods On Fire
13. You Win Again
14. I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive
15. Kaw-Liga
16. Your Cheatin' Heart
17. Take These Chains From My Heart
18. I Won't Be Home No More
19. Weary Blues From Waitin'
20. I Saw The Light

Review

Here we get 40 of Hank William's greatest hits, and the most interesting thing about it is how little country has really changed throughout the year. Hank completely crystallized the genre with his music and what you hear here is the blue print to country down to our days.

The music itself is pretty great as well, Hank was a great songwriter and even if sometimes some of the tracks draw inspiration form other tracks making it sometimes seem samey, there is a huge variety here.

Hank runs the gamut from depressing (I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry) to sprightly (Hey Good Lookin') to folksy novelty (Jambalaya (On the Bayou)) and he does all these equally well with his slightly nasally voice. It is particularly good to hear him yodelin' at times, he was pretty good at it without losing a certain edge to his voice. And there is a certain edge to the whole thing... and to think all this was recorded before 1952.

Track Highlights

1. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
2. Hey, Good Lookin'
3. Jambalaya (On The Bayou)
4. Kaw-Liga

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

His son Hank Williams, Jr., daughter Jett Williams, grandson Hank Williams III, and granddaughters Hilary Williams and Holly Williams are also country musicians.
Williams ranked #2 in CMT's 40 Greatest Men of Country Music in 2003, behind only Johnny Cash. His son, Hank, Jr., ranked #20 on that same list.

So Lonesome:

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

1056. Mojo 47. Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank (1965)


















Track Listing

1. Blues Run The Game
2. Don't Look Back
3. Kimbie
4. Yellow Walls
5. Here Come The Blues
6. Milk And Honey
7. My Name Is Carnival
8. Dialogue
9. Just Like Anything
10. You Never Wanted Me
11. Blues Run The Game (Single Version)

Review

In Jackson C. Frank, much like in Bert Jansch you see the beginning of the singer-songwriter movement and it is a great pity in both cases that they are not more widely known as their music is indeed great.

Frank obviously derives his music from a folk background as most of the first singer-songwriters did, but his music is much more contemporary... there wasn't much folk about catching airplanes and room service.

There is a level of personal and confessional music here which is verym uch absent from those who mostly do covers, singing what you wrote about your life will always resonate more with you and you will obviously be able to emote it better than doing the umpteenth version of a Gershwin track or Reynardine. Beautiful stuff which prefigures Nick Drake and Fairport Convention as well as Simon and Garfunkel... interestingly the album was produced in the UK by Paul Simon.

Track Highlights

1. Blues Run The Game
2. Just Like Anything
3. Milk and Honey
4. My Name is Carnival

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

His 1965 self-titled album, Jackson C. Frank, was produced by Paul Simon while the two of them were also playing folk clubs in England. Frank was so shy during the recording that he asked to be shielded by screens so that Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, and Al Stewart (who also attended the recording) could not see him, claiming 'I can't play. You're looking at me.' The most famous track, "Blues Run the Game", was covered by Simon and Garfunkel, and later by Counting Crows and Colin Meloy, while Nick Drake also recorded it privately. Another song, "Milk and Honey", appeared in Vincent Gallo's film The Brown Bunny, and was also covered by Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, and Sandy Denny, whom he dated for a while. During their relationship, Jackson convinced Sandy to give up nursing (then her profession) and concentrate on music full time.

Although Frank was well received in England for a while, in 1966 things took a turn for the worse as his mental health began to unravel. At the same time he began to experience writer's block. His insurance payment was running out so he decided to go back to the United States for two years. When he returned to England in 1968 he was deemed a different person. His depression, stemming from the childhood trauma of the classroom fire, had increased and he had no self-confidence. Al Stewart recalled that

"[Frank] proceeded to fall apart before our very eyes. His style that everyone loved was melancholy, very tuneful things. He started doing things that were completely impenetrable. They were basically about psychological angst, played at full volume with lots of thrashing. I don't remember a single word of them, it just did not work. There was one review that said he belonged on a psychologist's couch. Then shortly after that, he hightailed it back to Woodstock again, because he wasn't getting any work."

Blues Run the Game:

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

1055 - Mojo 46. Them - Them (1965)













Track Listing

1. Mystic Eyes
2. If You And I Could Be As Two
3. Little Girl
4. Just A Little Bit
5. I Gave My Love A Diamond
6. Gloria
7. You Just Can't Win
8. Go On Home Baby
9. Don't Look Back
10. Like It Like That
11. I'm Gonna Dress In Black
12. Bright Lights Big City
13. My Little Baby
14. Route 66

Review

So this is Van Morrison's band before he went solo, and it is a pretty great band at that. There is an aggressiveness which surpasses even that of the Stones, the band is in fact closer to stuff like the Sonics, it is proper garage stuff.

This does not mean, however that the album is missing its tender moments, there is in fact as much an influence of soul as of garage rock here, tracks like I gave My Love a Diamond are almost Sam Cookish.

Another interesting thing about this album is the fact that Van Morrison is actually a lot more intelligible here than in his further career, his voice is still recognisable but nowhere as damaged and just the fact that the original version of Gloria appears here makes this album worthwhile indeed.

Track Highlights

1. Gloria
2. Don't Look Back
3. I Gave My Love a Diamond
4. Mystic Eyes

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Van Morrison has remarked that he wrote the song, "Gloria" while he performed with the Monarchs in Germany in the summer of 1963, at just about the time he turned eighteen years old. He started to perform it for audiences at the Maritime Hotel when he had returned to Belfast and joined up with the Gamblers to form the band Them. He would ad-lib lyrics as he performed, sometimes stretching the song to fifteen or twenty minutes in duration. After signing a contract with Dick Rowe and Decca, Them went to London where they had a recording session at Decca Three Studios in West Hampstead on 5 July 1964, including "Gloria" as one of the seven songs recorded that day. The members of Them were Van Morrison, vocals, Billy Harrison on guitar, Alan Henderson on bass, Ronnie Millings on drums and Patrick John McCauley on keyboards. Rowe brought in session musicians Arthur Greenslade on organ, Jimmy Page on guitar, and Bobby Graham on drums as Rowe considered the Them members as too inexperienced. There remains some dispute about whether Millings and McCauley were miked up but Alan Henderson contends that Them constituted the first rock group to use two drummers on a recording. Gloria was the B-side, when "Baby Please Don't Go" was released in the U.K. on 6 November 1964.

Gloria:

Mojo 45. Jerry Lee Lewis - Live at the Star Club, Hamburg (1965)

See Review

Mojo 44. Bert Jansch - Bert Jansch (1965)

See Review

Mojo 43. The Sonics - Here are the Sonics (1965)

See Review

Mojo 42. The Beach Boys - The Beach Boys Today! (1965)

See Review


Mojo 41. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme (1965)

See Review

Sunday, January 17, 2010

1054 - Mojo 40. Eric Dolphy - Out to Lunch (1964)

















Track Listing


1. Hat And Beard
2. Something Sweet, Something Tender
3. Gazzellioni
4. Out To Lunch
5. Straight Up And Down

Review

Ahh! More Free Jazz, just what you need when you come home from a hectic day at work, something that reminds you of traffic and construction work to give your nerves the required edge to murder your family with an axe.

If you are like me and spend your days looking out the window at the boats on the river, while you scratch yourself, thinking that maybe you will get some writing done after dinner, it actually sounds somewhat refreshing. But only somewhat.

I can tell how important this album is, how it evolves jazz musical forms, how it frees the player to play whatever notes he feels like, how that is a reflection of inner landscape etc. etc. It just is not very pleasant most of the times, and it is only when the music kind of coalesces together into a whole for a few seconds that you get some pleasurable respite. So while I admire it rationally I cannot relate to it emotionally at some level.

Track Highlights

1. Something Sweet, Something Tender
2. Out to Lunch
3. Hat and Beard
4. Straight Up And Down


Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The title of the album's first track, "Hat and Beard", refers to Thelonious Monk; the song contains a famous percussive interlude featuring Tony Williams and Bobby Hutcherson. "Something Sweet, Something Tender" includes a noteworthy duet between Richard Davis on bass and Dolphy on bass clarinet. The third composition, "Gazzelloni", was named after classical flautist Severino Gazzelloni, but is otherwise the album's most conventional, bop-based theme. The second side features two long pieces for alto saxophone: the title track, and "Straight Up and Down", intended, according to the original liner notes, to evoke a drunken stagger.

Something Sweet, Something Tender:

Saturday, January 16, 2010

1053 - Mojo Special 8 - The Glenn Miller Story OST (1954)

















Track Listing

1. Moonlight Serenade
2. Tuxedo Junction
3. Little Brown Jug
4. St Louis Blues
5. In the Mood
6. String of Pearls
7. Pennsylvania 6-5000
8. American Patrol
9. Basin Street Blues
10. Otchi-tchor-ni-ya

Review

Another soundtrack on the soundtrack list and this time it is a pretty nifty one. Glenn Miller's music was always party music and with this recording it sounds fresher and better than it has done before.

Of course the real Glenn Miller is better, but recordings of his heyday are usually scratchy affairs because he was so popular so early on in musical recording history and here the Universal orchestra makes a great job of recapturing the excitement of his music.

In fact a lot of what most people will identify as being Glenn Miller come from this recording as this is really the best recording of his music not to have his presence in it. It is full of amazing tracks with Louis Armstrong collaborating in a couple of them which just adds to the value of the recording.

Track Highlights

1. In The Mood
2. Moonlight Serenate
3. Pennsylvania 6-5000
4. Otchi-tchor-ni-ya

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The film contains songs by legendary musicians who also make cameo appearances in the film. These cameos include: Louis Armstrong, Barney Bigard, Cozy Cole, Gene Krupa, Frances Langford, Skeets McDonald, Marty Napoleon, Ben Pollack, Babe Russin, Arvell Shaw, The Modernaires, and James Young.

In The Mood:

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

1052 - Mojo 39. The Animals - The Animals (1964)





















Track Listing

1. The Story Of Bo Diddley
2. Bury My Body
3. Dimples
4. I've Been Around
5. I'm In Love Again
6. The Girl Can't Help It
7. I'm Mad Again
8. She Said Yeah
9. The Right Time
10. Memphis Tennessee
11. Boom Boom
12. Around And Around


Review

The Animals... the other British rock band of this time who will always live in the shadow of the Beatles and the Stones show themselves to be pretty good here even if not amazing.

Not as bubble-gum as the Beatles and not as aggressive as the Stones they stand somewhere in the middle while still retaining a certain edginess which sets them apart from their American counter-parts at the time.

The real stand out here is the story of Bo Diddley, unfortunately the UK release does not have their most famous single, The House of the Rising Sun which would be packaged into the album for the American release but it is still a solid if not too impressive collection of tracks.

Track Highlights

1. The Story of Bo Diddley
2. The Girl Can't Help It
3. Boom Boom
4. Dimples

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The Animals is the Animals' UK debut album, released in 1964. It differed in contents from the group's U.S. debut album, the identically-titled The Animals.

Bo Diddley:

Mojo 38. The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night (1964)

See Review

Mojo 37. Dusty Springfield - A Girl Called Dusty (1964)

See Review

Mojo 36. The Rolling Stones - The Rolling Stones (1964)

See Review

Monday, January 11, 2010

1051 - Mojo 35. Davy Graham and Shirley Collins - Folk Roots, New Routes (1964)

















Track Listing

1. Nottamun Town
2. Proud Maisrie
3. The Cherry Tree Carol
4. Blue Monk
5. Hares On The Mountain
6. Reynardine
7. Pretty Sasro
8. Rif Mountain
9. Jane, Jane
10. Love Is Pleasin'
11. Holler Boll Weevil
12. Hori Horo
13. Bad Girl
14. Lord Greggory
15. Grooveyard
16. Dearest Dear

Review

If you've followed this project from the beginning you probably noticed that I have a deep love for 60s British folk and this album is no exception. This is one of those albums which really mark something and as such were weirdly absent from the previous list.

This is one of the first British folk albums to mark new developments in folk music, adding new elements like Graham's Indian raga like guitar playing, Jazz and "world-music" influences. Shirley's voice is also a voice that is very much defining of the genre.

The music is beautiful and the influence that this had on people like Bert Jansch, Nick Drake and John Martyn as well as bands such as Pentangle and Fairport Convention is more than apparent, this is actually really new music coming to light almost fully formed. Impressive.

Track Highlights

1. Rif Mountain
2. Reynardine
3. Nottamun Town
4. Blue Monk

Final Grade


10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

It was not in Graham's nature to pursue fame and fortune and he retired to relative obscurity for many years, when he engaged in charity work and teaching as well as protracted periods of drug use, before beginning to tour again in the years before his death. His childlike, almost obsessive, enthusiasm for music never left him, however, and he would gladly give a free private concert to any chance acquaintance.

Rif Mountain:

Saturday, January 02, 2010

1050 - Mojo 34. The Holy Modal Rounders - The Holy Modal Rounders (1964)

















Track Listing

1. Blues In The Bottle
2. Give The Fiddler A Dram
3. The Cuckoo
4. Euphoria
5. Long John
6. Sugar In The Gourd
7. Hesitation Blues
8. Hey, Hey Baby
9. Reuben's Train
10. Mr. Spaceman
11. Moving Day
12. Better Things For You
13. Same Old Man
14. Hop High Ladies
15. Bound To Lose

Review

Well I love Psychedelia, I love Bluegrass and I love the Muppets... and this album brings all of these three loves together... some more than others. Essentially this is a collection of Bluegrass tracks with Psychedelic lyrics and it has a bluegrass version of Johnny Cymbal's Mr. Bassman as Mr. Spaceman (the Muppets famously covered Mr. Bassman).

There are some things here which are a bit silly, the overly nasally voice sometimes gives the songs a sense of novelty-music which isn't particularly welcome, although as Lower East Side-Bluegrass-Psychedelia it is indeed a bit of a novelty album.

However, it is indeed well performed, it feels like a band which really loves Bluegrass as well as other kinds of grass. More than anything the album is a lot of fun, the whole thing has a pervasive party mood throughout which really makes it something that I'll want to listen to again and again.

Track Highlights


1. Mr. Spaceman
2. Euphoria
3. Hesitation Blues
4. Same Old Man

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Stampfel explained the origin of their name in the webzine Perfect Sound Forever: "We kept changing the name. First it was the Total Quintessence Stomach Pumpers. Then the Temporal Worth High Steppers. Then The Motherfucker Creek Babyrapers. That was just a joke name. He was Rinky-Dink Steve the Tin Horn and I was Fast Lightning Cumquat. He was Teddy Boy Forever and I was Wild Blue Yonder. It kept changing names. Then it was the Total Modal Rounders. Then when we were stoned on pot and someone else, Steve Close maybe, said Holy Modal Rounders by mistake. We kept putting out different names and wait until someone starts calling us that then. When we got to Holy Modal Rounders, everyone decided by accumulation [sic] that we were the Holy Modal Rounders. That's the practical way to get named."

Trailer for Documentary on them: