14-7-05
I've now got the Urban Knights third and fourth CD. Of course these were recorded after the death of Grover Washington so there is a more fluid guest roster on these. Gone is the Weather Report rhythm section and in come guest appearances from Dave Koz, Steve Cole and Earl Klugh. The style is similar and I'm looking forward to having all 6 Urban Knights CD's so I can put them on some device that will allow me to shuffle all the tracks on the 6 CD's.
13-7-05
I spoke yesterday about the CD autochanger in the car. That was tempting fate as the car is now off the road thanks to someone driving into the back of me at speed. I thought this only happened in the movies.
12-7-05
I don't know where this is going to take us but let's take a link from yesterday and see what happens. Intrigued by the cost of a copy of Omar Hakim's solo recording effort I looked at what else he's played on apart from Weather Report and I ended up with Urban Knights which is Ramsey Lewis' occasional group. A bit like Bob James and Fourplay but perhaps with a bit more attitude. I have the first Urban Knights CD which features Ramsey Lewis, Grover Washingtom, Omar Hakim and Victor Bailey (Weather Report). This is an interesting CD and blends in well with Eye Contact when I turn on the 'Mix Mag' option on the autochanger in the car.
11-7-05
What's on my ICE (In Car entertainment) today? Jay Beckenstein's 'Eye Contact' and what a good CD this is. It's a bit of a change from his normal Spyra Gyra stuff and with guest appearences from Chuck Loeb, Marcus Miller, Omar Hakim (Weather Report) & Mino Cinelu (Miles Davis & Weather Report) it's really good to have played this again. It's becoming a bit of a collectors item because the price to get a copy now has gone close to £20. I'll keep my copy for the moment. I notice also that Omar Hakim's CD's are even more valuable.
Also at Friday nights gig I picked a CD of Luther Vandross material played by other people. It's 'Forever for Always for Luther' and features Boney James, Dave Koz, George Benson, and a host of others. Ten tracks all by different featured artists. I wasn't a big fan of Luther but his stuff was always worth leaving the radio on for and I'm happy to have made this impulse buy.
10-7-05
The reason we've been away is because we went to the Jazz Cafe to see Boney James. This was the first time I've been to this venue and I have to congralate the people at the Jazz Cafe for creating such a good setup in what used to be a Bank. Everything about this evening was excellent, the venue, the food, the music and just to put the icing on the cake we spoke to Boney and someone had their picture taken with Boney James.
7-7-05 to 9-7-05
On a day when we have yet another act of terrorism it's difficult to come up with any meaningful thoughts. Particularly when we're going to be close to the scene of these attrocities tomorrow.
6-7-05
Last night was spent raiding Emusic.com. My monthly subscription gave me a brief moment of freedom to download some new stuff. Having virtually exhausted the Chick Corea albums they have I was looking for something new and discovered that they've got some of the 'Shanachie' smooth jazz label now. So for the next few months I'll be collecting some of that. One of the artists of particular interest is Eddie Daniels. There isn't much of his music available but it is refreshing to hear a good bit of smooth jazz clarinet. A change from the almost compulsory soprano sax.
5-7-05
Well I did spend a bit more time listening to 'Storie' and 'Road Dogs' by John Mayall. Although there are a couple of Private Stash (Mayall's own label) and the 70th Birthday Concert CD/DVD between these two they could almost be a pair. The style is quite similar with 'Stories' being a collection of songs telling stories about various blues heroes, and 'Road Dogs' a collection of stories about being on the road. The overall sound of 'Road Dogs' is slightly more polished and the songs slightly more interesting. That doesn't sound like much in the way of praise but in my humble opinion 'Road Dogs' is the best album since the days of Walter Trout and Coco Montoya were Bluesbreakers.
4-7-05
Since it's American Independence Day I'm going to resist the temptation to waffle on about endless American artists. What I am going to do is post the little gem that I've known about for some time but was reminded of last week. On Thursday evening whilst I was sitting anticipating my weekend in Derbyshire I was watching Sounds of The Seventies on one of the BBC digital channels. It was dedicated to singer songwriters and although it was somewhat male dominated it started with Carol King and ended with the much underated Janis Ian. I'm providing the link to Janis Ian's site because she has made a bit of a stand against the profiteering of the record companies and has made a number of her songs available as MP3 downloads.
3-7-05
The weekend in the hills had us walking about 13 miles. However, before that we met on Friday evening in our favorite pub, The George at Alstonefield, and had exchanged a few memories from the 1970 Isle of Wight festival. It was interesting to note that mine is not the only memory that is a little but fuzy.
On the way there and on the way back I was listening to a mixture of the new John Mayall album as well as his Stories album. I've resolved to spend more time listening to these because I now believe they have more depth than is apparent on first hearing. In many ways Mayall seems to be revisiting some old themes and styles while mixing in some current and possibly controversial lyrics. The other CD of note that I was listening to is the recently released Anthology of Rory Gallagher. I was never a big fan of his when he fronted Taste but there is much to recommend this anthology and it is worth further listening.
1-7-05 & 2-7-05
Off to the hills and catching up on listening to some blues, maybe!
30-6-2005
Today's entry is for Jeff and Andy. I recently say Mark Knopfler at the Birmingham NEC. This was the rescheduled tour for the one that was cancelled from 2004 after his accident. The music consisted of the usual Dire Straits classics plus a few songs from 'The Ragpickers Dream' and the 'Shangri-La' CD that would have been new in 2004 had the tour gone ahead. It was a good concert but there were a small number of empty seats. We were in a block at the side of the stage that I would not recommend because if you are over 5' 8” you'll end up sitting at an angle and wishing you were in a perhaps more comfortable empty seat. Anyway the concert was sufficiently good to prompt me to buy 'Shangri-La'. If I was to be critical in anyway it would be to say that it follows on from 'Ragpickers Dream' but is perhaps slightly more laid back. Listening to these last two albums prompted me to go back to the Knopflers 'Notting Hillbillies' era. Released in 1990 slightly after the last Dire Straits material. His versatility at running two different styles in parallel makes him stand out against some of his contemporaries.
29-06-2005
Not a good day for writing this. The day started with Sootie (our cat) bringing home a mouse to play with and deteriorated from there. Spent part of the evening watching U2 uncovered. I suppose this is one of those bands that occurred at the wrong time in my life because I've never taken that much notice of them. I might have to reconsider my position on them after seeing this program. It's interesting that at one point it is stated that Live Aid was what made them on an international stage. It's strange what you remember but the one act from Live Aid that sticks in my mind was Sade. I guess that's because I'd never seen her before. Hopefully life will take on some semblance of normality tomorrow.
28-06-2005
For the next few entries I'm going to review some of my new music acquisitions. We'll start with the Crosby & Nash CD from last weeks concert. It's perhaps unreasonable to expect two parts of CSN to sound much different from the whole thing but I do think the style is different. Perhaps it's thirty years of development, perhaps this is what they always wanted to do and the inclusion of Steven Stills and Neil Young took them away from their goal. As I said before I always thought that the partnership between Crosby and Nash was what gave CSN&Y it's strength and this CD proves it. It is inevitable that occasionally you will think a track sounds like someone else. There were bands that perhaps unconciously ended up sounding like CSN and so you here Crosby and Nash and think oh that sounds like ..... The outstanding track for me is 'Don't Dig Here' and that's not just because of the political message in the words. It's 'Chicago' for the 21st Century.
Now a change of genre. Marcus Miller's 'Silver Rain' is an interesting CD because of the range of music and musicians on it. I'm not sure I'd call it commercial but that doesn't mean it's self indulgent. It's more than an album for his fans to add to their collection. It's got depth, it's got a wide variety of styles and it needs to be heard with the CD sleeve notes close at hand the first time you play it. It's almost an education. If I was about to do a 'Desert Island Disks' I'd probably take it with me because of the range of music on it. You won't get bored but you may have to concentrate. You might be able to relax to it but you'll miss the point of it if you do. The problem I fear is that people who aren't fans of Marcus Miller won't but it and they should. It's the “'I don't like jazz” syndrome, “what's that on your car cd player”, “oh that's quite good, I like that.” We need a mnemonic for that!
27-06-2005
Now that the annual Glastonbury mud bath is over for another year it seems an appropriate moment to take a look back at the first Bath Blues Festival. I do realise that there is little or no connection between the organisers of the two events but it just seems appropriate to reminisce. The connection as far as I'm concerned is that I was at the original event and one of my sons was at Glastonbury this weekend. I had to go back to this link http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/ebony/546/the-69-bath-festival.html to remind myself who appeared at the original event and then did a lttle bit of 'where are they now'. Since I'm a huge John Mayall fan I have to draw attention to his recently awarded OBE is recognition of his longevity in the music business. So that's one that's still performing.
Just Before Dawn seem to have reached a sunset at some point but who knows where. Deep Blues Band sunk somewhere. Coloseum are still performing from time to time, with a few small changes in their line-up. Roy Harper is still performing and releasing new material. Keef Hartley Band are no more although Keef himself has appeared with John Mayall from time to time. Edgar Broughton Band are no more although Edgar himself was performing in London pubs in the early 90’s. Liverpool Scene have gone although parts of the Liverpool scene had a second life with members of Scaffold and the Bonzos with a review called Grimms. Champion Jack Dupree passed away. Chicken Shack split but Stan Webb is still performing on the pub circuit. Blodwyn Pig lives on in its leader Mick Abrahams. Nice evolved into ELP. Led Zeppelin continue as Jimmy Page and Robert Plant but occasionally get together for celebrity/charity bashes. Taste or more specifically Rory Gallagher is singing blues with the angels. Fleetwood Mac have had a number of incarnations but John McVie and Mick Fleetwood soldier on. Peter Green has had a second/third career with Splinter Group and Jeremy Spencer has reappeared in India. Ten Years After are performing again with a new guitarist. I’m sure there will be more to come on some of these…..
26-06-2005
Today's entry has a Jazz/Fusion flavor. I spent this afternoon ripping some vinyl into MP3. I have long owned an album called 'The Griffith Park Collection' and recently acquired the second volume which is a live set of almost the same material. The line-up on these two is Stanley Clarke, Chick Corea, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard and Lenny White. You'll notice the names are in alphabetical order and it may come as a surprise that the leader on this occasion was Lenny White. Recorded in 1982 the object of the exercise was a reunion with the leaders of some of the bands that Lenny White had worked in. Both albums were released on the Elektra Musician label and to the best of my knowledge none of these tracks have ever been released on CD. The sleeve notes are written by Lenny White and it is interesting that at one point he says ‘People think of the classical genre when they speak of ‘fine’ music, but the music on this album is a type of classical music native to America. It’s American classical music in a contemporary setting’. I’m not about to disagree with what he says nor am I going to split hairs over whether he is using ‘classical’ in the sense of all things orchestral or whether he is referring specifically to the Classical Era between 1750 and 1810. However, I do think he’d find himself with an interesting debate in some circles.
25-06-2005
The beginning of what might turn into a blog.
On 22nd June we went to see Crosby Stills & Nash in Birmingham, England. Almost the hottest day of the year so far in UK and the pollen count was high. It took me best part of half an hour to get the sneezing under control as we entered the NIA. I was wondering whether I'd make it through the concert but with the aid of another hay fever pill we got things under control. I was looking at the average age of the people around me and noticing that anyone under twenty seemed to be accompanied by one or both parents and I'm not sure there weren't three generations in some groups. Mistress (my partner) was making comments about some rather flowery perfume but since I couldn't smell a thing I will never know whether that was perfume or herbal cigarettes. Anyway as I'd come straight from work I felt distinctly overdressed in a suit even without a tie, because most of the men in the audience looked like they just landed from a time machine that had taken off from Woodstock after that festival.
What I'd missed was that this was the second tour by Crosby & Nash in just a few months, it was just that this time Steven Stills was with them. The music started and we're straight into familiar CSN material. I can't remember the running order but from the beginning those of us that have known the words for some years are getting to the end of each song more or less the same time as the band. The CSN material is interspersed with stuff I've not heard before but which I assume is either on a recent album or an up coming album. I'd always felt even from the early days, that this group was really Crosby & Nash with Steven Stills there to make up the numbers or on the CSN&Y stuff it was occasionally Neil Young with a more famous set of backing musicians than Crazy Horse provided. As time went on in this concert and we saw a bit more of Steven Stills, that view of things was beginning to turn into evidence for the prosecution. The fact that Crosby & Nash have continued to record and perform together tells you all you need to know about why Steven Stills was there and how much he contributes. His attempted ‘jackson’ like moonwalk whilst fumbling through the occasional solo speaks for itself. It was good to see that the hippie dream was still alive and well and the protest song still in the very safe hands of Crosby & Nash. I enjoyed the whole experience even though I was knee deep in nostalgia. The thing is, I've been to concerts where the nostalgia factor was even bigger but I still rate this concert as very enjoyable and worth the high ticket price.
The disappointment of not having an expensive program to keep as a piece of memorabilia was in the end compensated for by what was on the 'merchandise' stand. One of these stands is conveniently sited opposite the 'ladies'. An obvious ploy to catch the men waiting outside. So there's no program! There are the usual tour T-shirts at the usual inflated prices and there are some CD's. The normal 'greatest hits', the latest Steven Stills offering and the last Crosby & Nash CD. The prices are competitive so we opt for the Crosby & Nash CD. I quickly glance at the track listing and realise that the unfamiliar material from the concert is from this CD so I walk away smiling. The following day I spend most of my time listening to the CD with my head buried deep in someone's business problem. I'm impressed. This is a good CD and at £15 for a 2 CD set it's very good value. There are a few 'political' songs and the usual 'relationship' songs and it could be construed as just more CSN type stuff but it's not. It's Crosby & Nash doing their own thing and doing it well.