This is my favorite CTI Benson album. I picked up this 1979 vinyl reissue (the album was originally issued in 1971) at the recent RockNRoll music sale. I am sure the reissue came about due to Benson’s huge late 70’s success.
Benson’s guitar is as fat and easy to listen as his late 70s heyday, but is not buried in the near disco arrangements of that period. Here Benson is accompanied by an amazing band that included Ron Carter on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums. Unknown to me is organist Clarence Palmer and the two percussionist (Michael Cameron and Albert Nicholson).
The guitar, organ, drum trio was a 60s classic and almost a cliché, so it is very unique to have a hall of fame bassist on the session. Ron Carter’s contributions are particularly cool as he extensively adds a bowing technique to the arrangements – almost violin like.
The album opens with a wonderful cover of Miles’ “So What?” which has an almost rock feel. The second side has a beautiful quite song called “Ode To a Kudu.” Closing your eyes you can almost imagine a grand solitary beast on the savanna. The fact that beast’s horn will become an instrument is a bonus. Note CTI also had related label called Kudu that focused on soul jazz.
Very cool album – accessible, yet challenging enough to be interesting.
Kudu:
This album is not that far from yesterday’s entry regarding Matthew E. White and it has me nearly as excited. This has been a great week for somnolent navel pondering beard rock.
The Wall Street Journal’s Jim Fusilli offhanded wrote in a recent article: “…Father John Misty, whose debut disc, ‘Fear Fun,’ is one of the year’s best albums…” Fusilli has very reliable taste so I had to check it out.
Well this is very well crafted album. Although the big PR back-story is that FJM’s Joshua Tillman spent time in the Fleet Foxes, this is not the Fleet Foxes redux. However a Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses or My Morning Jacket fan would dig this. It is a mix of folk rock, beatlesque, beard rock, Jeff Buckley and Gram Parsons.
There is a nice bio on FJM’s label SubPop. Here is a stream of the album if you want to check it out:
Every once in a while you listen to a new album and you are completely blown away. You are reminded why you are on the endless quest to discover music. You are chasing the reward. Matthew E. White’s Big Inner is one of those rare rewards.
Even better is when you discover it on your own. I can’t claim to have discovered this album on my own – I read a short “artist to watch” review in Rolling Stone. There was enough there for me to get off my butt this past Monday and Google “Matthew E. White” and listen to a stream. That was enough to get me to buy the album on emusic when it was released the yesterday. After a couple of listens I loved this album so much I had to order a vinyl edition today!
So what is this? It is a pinch of The Band, a dash of Bon Iver, and a splash of Al Green. This album bows to the south (southern rock, gospel, New Orleans, and Memphis), yet nods to LA (e.g. Brian Wilson to Randy Newman). What most impresses me are the subtle yet over the top arrangements – this is very ambitious without an ounce of pretension: soulful horns, choirs, stings, percussion and fearless of use of stereo.
This is Matthew’s debut album and all I can think of is where the hell does something this fully realized come from? He comes from what appears to be an amazing Richmond Virgina music scene led by who else but Matthew E. White. For a great profile check this article out from the local Richmond alternative weekly.
Reserve a spot on my 2012 best of list for Matthew E. White’s Big Inner.
I ran into a crate digger this past Record Store Day who turned me onto the Expedit shelf as the low-cost shelving solution for out for control record collectors. This is probably the best solution (value and wife approved) you can find if you have a 2000 plus LP problem.
I recently bought one of these ($200) and for the first time in years I have my permanent collection in one location (with some room to spare). They come in a variety of sizes. Each cube holds about 90 albums. The largest unit has 25 cubes, and the smallest has 5. It comes in three colors: white, birch and black/brown.
Ikea probably had no idea they were making a record shelve, but it is near perfect. The shelves are the right size and it can handle the weight. Google Expedit and you will learn some important tips from real record collecting pros on how you can hack this piece to true perfection.
Here is how my collection looks (nice and tidy):
I know it should not count as a Crate Digger’s Gold when you pull something out of your own collection. But I had kind of forgotten about this album until I was talking to the Bruemaster this spring at a whysowhite concert. It has taken me until now to pull this out of the stacks and give it another listen.
This album is the bastard love child of Yes (sans vocals) and Weather Report. More prog than jazz, but it is both. This was an amazing and short-lived band. Bill Bruford (drummer) has Yes and King Crimson pedigree, but the real treat for me is Allan Holdsworth (guitar).
Holdsworth has a truly distinctive style – dare I say his guitar sounds like keyboard playing like a horn. If you Google Holdsworth you will be amazed at his resume: it is a who’s who of jazz and progressive rock. A true unsung guitar hero.
I think this album out of print in physical editions, as best I know, but it is still available digitally. Used vinyl and CDs are available at under $5 (a real value for this epic music).
If you like jazz rock fusion this 1979 release can not be missed. If you are a progressive rock fan and don’t mind all instrumentals you will likely enjoy this release. This falls into my top 100 releases in my collection!
One of the great things about vinyl records (besides buying a great album for $1 at a garage sale) is that the more effort you put into playing them the more you are rewarded. You can buy a $50 dollar CD player or you can buy a $500 CD player – but that $500 machine will not sound 10 times better. With vinyl every dollar you invest is rewarded.
This past year I finally purchased a record cleaning machine. There are lots of options out there – but they follow a pretty basic pattern: fluid, a brush and a vacuum. There are more elaborate options and there are cheaper options, but from my perspective the Nitty Gritty represents the best overall value. I bought the low-end Nitty Gritty from the Needle Doctor The Nitty Gritty 1.0 ($400). You can spend more on Nitty Gritty products ($1200 if you please), but all you are buying is some ease of use. The 1.0 is manual – and hey if you are cleaning a record don’t you want to be engaged in the process anyway? If I was to do it over I would have bought the next product up – but that would only be cause of the esthetics of a wood case vs. black vinyl.
There are several competitors out there that work on the same basic principle, but what I like about the Nitty Gritty is that the vacuum is on the underside leveraging gravity.
I am a crate digger and so many of the records I buy are pretty damn grungy. With the Nitty Gritty I can take a $1 investment and turn it into a $5 record – tell me another component in your stereo that can literally create value?
Are there better options on the market? Are thee more state of the art solutions? You bet, but I am Axl the humble audiophile and I believe the The Nitty Gritty 1.0 is the vest value out there for the serious vinyl junkie.
There is nothing better than sexy jazz funk. I got turned on to the Lyman Woodard Organization via their 1975 classic Saturday Night Special after reading a profile in Wax Poetics magazine a couple of years ago. This is a live album from 1979 and it cooks. A much looser jam than the highly orchestrated Saturday Night Special.
Lyman is a Detroit cat with strong connection to Motown (he was the musical director for Martha and the Vandellas) and was in a pre-Motown band with guitar legend Dennis Coffey. Lyman mixes jazz, funk, and Latin into one hell of a booyah.
This a very well recorded and performed recording. I am assuming the Lyman Woodard Organization was a pretty obscure band in its day, but I swear I can hear some influences on the jazzy side of Prince (the timing is about right to be impressionable on a young Prince). This pretty exquisite grease. Available through emusic for a lot less then iTunes. Check out a little sample below:
I “discovered” this album in Gregg Allman’s autobiography. Gregg off offhandedly mentioned that one of brother Duane’s greatest performances was on this album. To quote: “My brother played is ass off. His Dobro work on ‘Walk on Gilded Splinters’ was just flat-out evil, man, and that’s why we still do that song to this very day.”
Well that was enough to stir my curiosity and so I headed over to emusic to download a copy (sorry not exactly crate digging, but at $200 on eBay for an original vinyl, finding this at a garage sale would be real gold) .
I am currently obsessed with “Walk on Gilded Splinters.” This song was sampled by Beck in his breakthrough hit “Loser.” It is beyond brilliant – it is timeless. Evoking both soul/blues and hip hop. This song and the whole album should resonate with fans of neo-blues rock hipsters (e.g. Black Keys, Jack White, etc.). Walk on Gilded Splinters is the standout track, but the whole album is great.
I turns out that this was going to be Duane Allman’s solo album, but he got distracted by starting a little band called the Allman Brothers. Jenkins was no slouch himself – an established bandleader who first hired Otis Redding. The album foreshadows the innovative southern rock style the Allman Brothers would go on to invent.
I am real sucker for rock and roll autobiographies and biographies. I breezed through this one in about a week – fast for me. Not as good as Keith Richards’ Life – but that who can compete with a candid Keith Richards.
The Allman Brothers are one of the most innovative bands in the history of rock and roll – incorporating the blues, R&B, country and jazz into an amazing gumbo. Although they invented southern rock, they spurned the redneck pride associated with the genre. Their greatness can’t be denied and Gregg Allman is one of the all time great rock and roll vocalist and songwriters.
Gregg (or as we learn Gregory to his real friends) writes a candid autobiography. Living in the shadow of his brother Duane (who makes most top 10 lists of greatest guitarist) was a mighty curse. He avoided that challenge with drugs and alcohol. I am a fan of both the Brothers and Gregg solo – and I am amazed he produced the kind of excellence he did given the mess he was.
Gregg had so much bad press in his time: married to Cher (true), Narc (sort of), minor talent compared to his brother (not true), junkie (true), alcoholic (yeah), womanizer (hey only 6 marriages) and douchebag (yeah). It is amazing he was able to rise above all of that. His story is pretty compelling and the concept of the Allman Brothers is pretty amazing to survive multiple tragedies and abuse.
I have seen the Bothers twice – both times the modern Derek Truck/Warren Haynes version – and when you read this book it is even more amazing that they could survive into this millennium, let alone reinvent themselves into a band that rivaled their early greatness. Gregg literally took every opportunity to shoot himself in the foot and shit can his career, yet his artistic output transcended his stupidity.
If you are a fan, you should read this book. It will make you appreciate Gregg and the Brothers that much more.
As a side note, by reading this book I discovered Johnny Jenkins Ton-Ton Macoute!- a truly amazing album.
Back in my youth they called this a slow jam. This is a great album if you like simmer and not a hard boil. For me there is not an obvious breakout single, but that is OK by me as I am an album guy.
I know this guy has gotten lots of hype: member of Odd Future (which means nothing to me), straight/gay, Target controversy etc. All I know is that a couple of years ago when listening to pwelbs‘ radio show he would play these amazing songs and I would ask “who is this?” It was Frank Ocean (from his mix tape Nostalgia, Ultra). So when the hype machine started growling about this release I was all in.
The first thing that came to mind when I listened to this album was D’Angelo’s Voodoo (one of my favorite recent R&B albums – oops that was 2000, but recent compared to Marvin’s Sexual Healing to my old ears). Voodoo and channel ORANGE both are slow jams, they both have a hip hop point of view and a nod to sophisticated classic R&B. I hear so many influences: D’Angelo, Prince (another cat who played the straight/gay mystique early in his career) , Stevie, Marvin, and even a little Joni Mitchell (a huge influence on Prince too). “Sweet Life” would not sound out-of-place on Joni’s Court and Spark.
The masterpiece of the album is “Pyramids” clocking in at close to 10 minutes. Musically this a tour de force – defining the Frank Ocean sound: hip hop beats, soulful vocals, and a seductive narrative. It starts with the Cleopatra story and bridges into the ultimate male fantasy and nightmare (a first person lament from a guy whose girlfriend is a stripper). A contemporary twisted R&B symphony – eat your heart out Kanye.
On first listen I thought – epic. On subsequent listens I kept trying to knock it down (trying to dismiss it as nothing that special), but it this album keeps dusting itself off and standing tall – it gets better with each listen.
Axl's Catch Groove 