What are you listening to?

[The Minsky Moment]

More Charlie Christian on his Gibson ES-150.  Mostly Goodman band stuff.

[Josephus]

King Crimson Live at the Zoom Club, Frankfurt . April 12, 1971.
Their first concert after the dissolution of their debut line up some two years prior.

[mongers]

King Crimson Live at the Zoom Club, Frankfurt . April 12, 1971.
Their first concert after the dissolution of their debut line up some two years prior.

Oh, that's interesting, was our local pub crooner, Gordon Haskell vocalist on that? Or am I confusing that slot with Boz thingy?

[Josephus]

King Crimson Live at the Zoom Club, Frankfurt . April 12, 1971.
Their first concert after the dissolution of their debut line up some two years prior.

Oh, that's interesting, was our local pub crooner, Gordon Haskell vocalist on that? Or am I confusing that slot with Boz thingy?

I think Boz took over vocals by the time they were touring. Haskell may not have ever played live with them.

[garbon]

St. Vincent - Happy Birthday, Johnny
Julia Michaels - Worst In Me

[Liep]

The Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East

[mongers]

King Crimson Live at the Zoom Club, Frankfurt . April 12, 1971.
Their first concert after the dissolution of their debut line up some two years prior.

Oh, that's interesting, was our local pub crooner, Gordon Haskell vocalist on that? Or am I confusing that slot with Boz thingy?

I think Boz took over vocals by the time they were touring. Haskell may not have ever played live with them.

Thanks they had a lot of personnel changes, hard to keep track.

If I ever bumped into Haskell, I'll ask him if he did any live work; though I guess the answer in on the web.

[Savonarola]

Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow

The high point in the various incarnations of Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship; this is the one with "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love."  There are also a number of gems on this as well, especially "Today" and "Embryonic Journey."  Jefferson Airplane was the first band out of the Haight Ashbury scene to make it big.  Listening to it this time through it's easy to hear the influence of The Byrds and The Mamas and the Papas (both LA based acts.)

While I'm not a big fan of Jefferson Airplane (or any of its successor bands); this one is worth the listen.  In fact it will still be influential a millennium into the future.



I'm meeting you halfway, you stupid hippies.

[Savonarola]

The Byrds - Younger than Yesterday (1967)

The first Byrds album without any Gene Clark material and the last one with David Crosby; this is my favorite Byrds album.  The songwriting has improved over "Fifth Dimension" and the band has a more unified sound.  Chris Hillman starts writing songs on this one; his music has a more country-western sound.  (Ultimately this would lead to the Country-Rock album "Sweetheart of the Rodeo".)

The real dead spot on the album is David Crosby's avant garde "Mind Garden;" otherwise the album is excellent throughout.  This album has the only Dylan cover the Byrds did better than Dylan (and they did a lot of them), "My Back Pages."

[mongers]

Deep Purple 'Hush' - I guess from around 1968, check out the groovy Hammond organ work on the single. 

[Tamas]

Brian Fallon - If Your Prayers Don't Get to Heaven

He is the Gaslight Anthem frontman, a band which I love. The guy had a divorce a couple of years ago and it had a STRONG pull on their music, so much so that the band is temporarily disbanded.

His solo efforts have been good, but this is the first song from him in quite a while which gives me hope he may have finally put the whole ordeal behind him and can go back to the melancholic-but-resilient-and-positive vibe that I like, not the everything-is-going-to-shit-inevitably one he had been obsessed with.

Also, I only recently realised that this favourite musician of mine is my age almost to the exact day.

[The Minsky Moment]

Cal Tjader - Live at the Club Macumba (1956)

Swedish-American vibes player - early in his career he hired a bunch of Cuban musicians and fronted one of the leading Afro-Cuban bands of the era.  Only in America.  Was well positioned to catch the Latin craze of the mid/late 50s.  This is a relaxed and informal live show in San Francisco, musicians and the audience enjoying themselves.  Fun listen.  Vince Guaraldi of Peanuts fame is on piano.

[Savonarola]

The Electric Prunes - I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) (1967)

The Electric Prunes were a garage band from Los Angeles who were trying to play psychedelia.  Their music ended up being recognized as proto-punk and the title track to this album is the opening track on the "Nuggets" collection.  The biggest problem is that their producer didn't trust them with their own music so they had to play what he selected; and he didn't seem to know what sort of music they should be playing.  The result is that the compositions are all over the place, but there's so much experimentation with so many types of instruments that every song is recognizable as The Prunes.  The result is sort of a garage band "Pet Sounds."

[Savonarola]

Aretha Franklin - I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You (1967)

sockittomesockittomesockittomesockittome

It's helpful to remember that not everyone in 1967 was dropping acid and playing electric sitar.  This album is one of Aretha's best with the title track, Respect, and Do-Right Woman; but every track on this is great.  The real test for any R&B singer is if they can do a Ray Charles song; and she passes with flying colors with "Drown In My Own Tears."  You can tell she got her start singing gospel (her father was a minister) a number of the songs start out like sermons.  Her version of Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come" is an especially good example of that.

[The Minsky Moment]

Bobby Hutcherson - Oblique (1967)

Coincidence on the date . . . also no sitars and acid here.  This is a Herbie Hancock collaboration and features an extended take from the theme of Blow Up, so the 60s feel is there.  One of my favorite of the Blue Note period albums for Hutcherson.