Author Archives: Joseph Neff

Graded on a Curve: Lightnin’ Hopkins,
Lightnin’ Hopkins

Remembering Lightnin’ Hopkins, born on this day in 1912.Ed.

Lightnin’ Sam Hopkins remains one of the crucial figures in the annals of the blues. By extension, he recorded a ton, and owning all his music will require diligence and a seriously long shelf. However, there are a few albums that are a must even for casual blues collectors, and his self-titled effort from 1959 is one of them. Recorded by historian Samuel Charters in Hopkins’ apartment while he played a borrowed guitar, it served as the door-opener to years of prominence. A highly intimate gem of nimble-fingered deep blues feeling, Lightnin’ Hopkins is available through Smithsonian Folkways, remastered from the source tapes in a tip-on jacket with Charters’ original notes.

To call Lightnin’ Hopkins the byproduct of rediscovery isn’t inaccurate, but it does risk stripping the contents of its unique story. Unlike Son House, Skip James, Bukka White, and John Hurt (all from Mississippi), Texan Hopkins had only been inactive for a few years when Samuel Charters found and recorded him in Houston, and if he’d been playing since the 1930s, he was still very much in his musical prime.

Hopkins debuted on record in 1946 for the Aladdin label of Los Angeles in tandem with pianist Wilson “Thunder” Smith, the partnership bringing him his sobriquet. From there, a solid decade of studio dates (and some R&B chart action) commenced; his additional sides for Aladdin fill a 2CD set, and the sessions for Gold Star take up two separate CD volumes. Additionally, there were worthy recordings for Modern, Sittin’ in With, and majors Mercury and Decca. 1954 brought a massive spurt of wild, highly amplified material for the Herald label; it contrasts sharply with the one-man circumstance of Lightnin’ Hopkins.

If commercial recording industry prospects had dried up by ’59 and Hopkins’ guitar was in hock, there was no trace of rustiness from inactivity, though the comfort level does increase as these songs progress (the bottle of gin Charters bought likely had something to do with it). What’s shared with his prior electric band stuff is a recognizable, eventually signature style based in the conversation between rural blues verve and more citified boogie motion (in this he shares much with John Lee Hooker).

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Graded on a Curve:
Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis with Shirley Scott, Cookin’ with Jaws and the Queen

Remembering Shirley Scott, born on this day in 1934.Ed.

Credited to tenor saxophonist Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis with organist Shirley Scott, Craft Recordings’ 4LP/4CD/digital set Cookin’ with Jaws and the Queen: The Legendary Prestige Cookbook Albums offers 23 tracks cut during three 1958 sessions recorded by Rudy Van Gelder and first released as three separate Cookbook volumes and the Smokin’ LP between ’58–’64. The 180 gram vinyl is limited to 5,000 copies with the records housed in individual jackets replicating those original sleeves. The CD edition has three bonus tracks from the same sessions. The music is early soul jazz personified.

A curious jazz newbie might be wondering if this set is an overabundance of goodness. To which I will retort that Cookin’ with Jaws and the Queen offers thorough documentation of a sharp as brass tacks quintet from inside a concise timeframe; the first session occurred on June 20, the second on September 12, and the third on December 5 of 1958, with Davis and Scott joined by Jerome Richardson on flute, tenor, and baritone sax, George Duvivier on bass, and Arthur Edgehill on drums.

For this reissue, Davis and Scott are given equal credit, and deservedly so, but on initial release it was the saxophonist who received top billing, which is also understandable, as Scott was relatively new on the scene while Davis had been a member of Count Basie’s orchestra twice, along with cutting a string of records as leader or co-leader, as was the case with The Battle of Birdland with fellow tenor Sonny Stitt, issued in 1955 by the Roost label.

But in fact, Scott was indeed given a “Featuring” credit on two prior albums with Davis’s trio (with Duvivier and Edgehill), one released by Roost and the other by Roulette, both in ’58. What this imparts is how the addition of Richardson deepened a core that was already rock solid through experience. This is vitally important, as the group knocked out 26 tracks in three days spaced out over half a year.

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Graded on a Curve:
Meiko Kaji,
Gincho Wataridori

Meiko Kaji is justly celebrated by fans of international genre cinema as the star of the 1973 film Lady Snowblood and its sequel from the next year. Alongside a sizeable filmography, she recorded an extensive body of work as a singer that amassed a dedicated following. The Wewantsounds label has been catering to her fanbase with high-quality reissues, and they’ve just released her 1972 debut Gincho Wataridori in an attractive gatefold sleeve deluxe edition with an insert and an OBI strip. It’s a musically swank affair, sturdy as pop but with cinematic sweep. Aficionados of global sounds, step right up.

Due to its outsized impact on Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill double banger, Lady Snowblood is Meiko Kaji’s most well-known film with the international audience, but she was busy before and after, and reliably in the role of a single-minded vengeance seeker; if Meiko Kaji starred in a film, it was a cinch that bloody mayhem would be part of the scheme.

Debuting in a supporting role in Retaliation (1968) billed as Masako Ota (her birth name), many standalone films and series followed. Regarding the latter, there was the Stray Cat/Alley Cat Rock series (five films, 1970–71), the Sasori series aka Female Prisoner Scorpion series (four films, 1972–73) and the two Gincho or Wandering Ginza Butterfly films (1972), the first of them giving Kaji’s debut LP its name.

Although the title song and “Ginchou Buruusu” from the film Gincho Wataridori are included on this album, it is not a soundtrack. The record also includes “Koini Inochio” and “Jingi Komoriuta” from Blind Woman’s Curse (1970), the final entry in the Rising Dragon series, and notably, the film where Masako Ota became Meiko Kaji.

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Graded on a Curve: Samuel Prody,
Samuel Prody

As detailed in the booklet accompanying the Guerssen label’s new reissue of the sole LP by Samuel Prody, there’s an eventful backstory that precedes the formation of this obscure British band. Rather than recount it all here, it suffices to mention that this four-piece outfit grew out of Giant, a gigging group that briefly featured Viv Prince of the Pretty Things on drums. The sturdiness of Samuel Prody’s material makes this edition, remastered and officially rereleased for the first time, a worthwhile acquisition for hard rock fans. The set is available now on vinyl and compact disc.

Samuel Prody (altered from Samuel Purdy) featured Tony Savva (guitar, bass, lead vocals), John Boswell (drums, vocals), Derek “Morty” Smallcombe (lead guitar, vocals), and Stephen Day (bass, vocals). Once these cats came together, they recorded an LP’s worth of material that was released eponymously only in Germany in 1971, and unbeknownst to the band until much later, after the album had been reissued a few times; originals have sold in the ballpark of $500.

Engineered by noted hard rock specialist Roy Thomas Baker, the contents of Samuel Prody are, when the band gets down to business, legitimately heavy, and the instrumentation is consistently sharp. The band travels down a handful of psychedelic avenues in the record’s less heavy moments, and to largely non-detrimental results, but neither are they particularly adept at getting expansive. But it should be added that all seven tracks on this LP do find the band kicking it into heavy gear, though in opener “Who Will Buy” it does take a little while.

Had they chosen to not swerve from (and lean into) the path of heaviness, my assumption is this LP would be held in even higher retrospective esteem. Sometimes compared to Black Sabbath, Samuel Prody’s strong suit is more accurately a hard edged boogie (see the manic “Scat’s Shuffle”). Importantly, they groove but never choogle. There are a few spots reminiscent of first album Sabbath, but it’s necessary to differentiate that Samuel Prody don’t cultivate a dark, downer vibe.

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Graded on a Curve:
Nino Gvilia,
Nicole / Overwhelmed
by the Unexplained

Fresh out from the always interesting Hive Mind Records is Nicole / Overwhelmed by the Unexplained, which places two EPs on one vinyl disc from Nino Gvilia, an artist described by the label as a singer-songwriter born in Poti near Lake Paliastomi in the country of Georgia. But in reality, Nino Gvilia is the wholly fictional construct of Italian vocalist, sound artist and performance artist giulia deval, her creation intended to inspire contemplation “on the place of the songwriter in times of global crisis.” The record succeeds in its thematic ambitions and most importantly, it sounds good, too.

For this pairing of EPs as an album, Nino Gvilia is responsible for songs, lyrics, vocals, toy guitar, harmonium, and field recordings (with an assumption made that the credited Gvilia is giulia deval). Alongside are her collaborators Zevi Bordovach (arrangements, synth, Hammond, harmonium, vocals), Pietro Caramelli (arrangements, electric guitar, electronics, vocals), Giulia Pecora (violin), and Clarissa Marino (cello). There is also a choir for one track, the excellent “Dirty is just what has boundaries,” that features Bordovach, Caramelli, Amos Cappuccio, Erika Sofia Sollo, Giulia Beccaria, and Matteo Martino.

Conceptual recordings such as this one ultimately sink or swim on how substantial they are as a listening experience; this isn’t to discount a presentation (in this case a fabrication) that’s based in ideas, instead, it’s simply a statement on what should be obvious: if the sounds hold up, then the point(s) being made be given deeper consideration.

Thankfully, the songs and musicianship are sturdy across Nicole / Overwhelmed by the Unexplained, in addition to stylistic range that’s sharpened by a singular, if fictitious, persona (and the very real artist behind it). Opening track “Nicole” is moodily intense with strong singing (up close conversational then boldly soaring) and with its noirish trip-hop air, it’s a decidedly ’90s proposition.

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Graded on a Curve:
The Zombies,
The Complete Studio Recordings

Celebrating Chris Wright on his 81st birthday.Ed.

With three enduring hit singles, the last of which derives from a classic album that’s as redolent of its era as any, The Zombies aren’t accurately classified as underrated, but it’s also right to say that the potential of much of their catalog went unfulfilled while they were extant. Since their breakup, subsequent generations have dug into that body of work, which has aged rather well, and right now nearly all of it can be found in Varèse Sarabande’s The Complete Studio Recordings, a 5LP collection released in celebration of the band’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For anyone cultivating a shelf of ’60s pop-rock vinyl, this collection is a smart acquisition.

The Zombies began cohering as a band around 1961-’62 in St Albans, Hertfordshire UK. By the time they debuted on record in ’64 the lineup had solidified, featuring lead vocalist-guitarist Colin Blunstone, keyboardist Rod Argent, guitarist Paul Atkinson, bassist Chris White, and drummer Hugh Grundy. That’s how it would remain until their breakup in December of ’67. Rightly considered part of the mid-’60s British Invasion, The Zombies’ stature in the context of this explosion basically rests on the success of two singles, both far more popular in the US than in the band’s home country.

Those hits, “She’s Not There” and “Tell Her No,” each made the Billboard Top 10 (the former all the way to No. 2) and respectively open sides one and two of the US version of their first album, a move suggesting confidence on the part of their label Parrot that, as the needle worked its way inward, listeners wouldn’t become dismayed or bored by a drop-off in quality.

That assurance was well-founded. While “She’s Not There” is an utter pop gem, thriving on perfectly-judged instrumental construction (in its original, superior mono version with Grundy’s added drum input) and emotional breadth that’s found it long-eclipsing mere oldies nostalgia, and “Tell Her No” a more relaxed yet crisp follow-up, their talents were established beyond those two songs, even if nothing else on The Zombies quite rises to the same heights of quality.

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Graded on a Curve:
The Galileo 7,
You, Me and Reality

From Medway in the UK, The Galileo 7 hit the scene in 2010. Their current lineup features not seven members but four: guitarist-vocalist Allan Crockford, organist-vocalist-percussionist Viv Bonsels, bassist-vocalist Paul Moss, and drummer-vocalist Mole. Psych-tinged Mod-ish freakbeat is their specialty and their new record You, Me and Reality, out now on vinyl and compact disc through Damaged Goods, finds them in sharp form across a dozen tracks.

If Allan Crockford’s name rings a bell, that might be because he was in The Prisoners, Medway contemporaries of The Milkshakes (they even cut a split live LP together). After the dissolution of The Prisoners in 1986, Crockford played in a slew of outfits including those of his fellow Prisoners, Graham Day & The Forefathers and The James Taylor Quartet. He also played with Day in the Prime Movers and The Solarflares and even joined Thee Headcoats in the late ’80s for the albums The Earls of Suavedom and Headcoats Down!

But by now, it’s certainly possible that Crockford’s name sets off buzzers of recognition through The Galileo 7’s body of work, as You, Me and Reality is their ninth full-length album. And it surely bears mentioning that The Galileo 7 is more than just Crockford’s show. This new record is the byproduct of a long stable lineup that persevered through the pandemic in the recording of this set.

Opener “Can’t Go Home” comes roaring out of the speakers with just the right blend of melody, harmony, fuzz and pound, as the organ gives it that touch of circa-’66 psychedelia. This is an important distinction, as there is nothing excessive about The Galileo 7’s sound. Instead, they favor sharp tunefulness and economy, as in the title track, which combines jangle pop and freakbeat with soaring vocals as a bonding agent.

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Graded on a Curve:
Ben Frost,
Scope Neglect

Melbourne, Australia-born and Reykjavík, Iceland-based, Ben Frost returns to the forefront of experimental composition with his first album in seven years, incorporating electronic elements and industrial atmospheres with infusions of noise and even metallic textures. This last aspect is especially prevalent across Scope Neglect, the record’s fascinating sonic excursions simultaneously familiar and alien, caustic and meditative. Following a limited edition white vinyl release on January 11, the black vinyl, compact disc, and digital are all available now via Mute Records.

Ben Frost made his inroads into the music scene early in this century, self-releasing the CDr EP “Music for Sad Children” in 2001 and making a bigger splash with Steel Wound, which was issued by the Room40 label in 2003. Like many of his experimental contemporaries, he’s amassed an expansive discography, both solo and with numerous collaborators, prolific amongst them Lawrence English, Daníel Bjarnason, Nico Muhly, Tim Hecker, Colin Stetson, and Swans. A significant portion of this work has been composed for film and television, along with dance performances and operas.

For his new record, Frost’s has chosen guitarist Greg Kubacki of the New York band Car Bomb and bassist Liam Andrews of Australian act My Disco to assist in the realization of his vision. Kubacki is front and center in Scope Neglect’s opener “Lamb Shift,” a two and a half minute succession of metal miniatures (with just a touch of electronic residue) that grind and lurch and pause but never manage sustained forward motion.

Functioning not as a subversion or a deconstruction but instead as an overlay of variation and repetition, “Lamb Shift” connects organically (rather than clinically) and also serves as a prelude to “Chimera,” where similar start-stop-start metal-isms are present but used to decidedly different effect as part of a dystopian electronic-tinged landscape.

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Graded on a Curve: Excavate! The Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall, Edited by Tessa Norton and Bob Stanley

Remembering Mark E. Smith, born on this date in 1957.Ed.

As The Fall’s constant fount of creativity, vocalist-songwriter Mark E. Smith has attained a rare position in the rock pantheon, with the man and his band exhaustively covered in print form. And so, the publication of Excavate! The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall might seem an inessential item. However, the objective of editors Tessa Norton and Bob Stanley isn’t biography, but is rather to assemble between hardcovers a series of ambitious essays plus photos of front and back album covers, flyers, correspondence and much more.

Norton and Stanley’s objectives for Excavate! are admirably bold, but it still feels right that the book’s final piece is a eulogy, by Richard McKenna, that was published on January 30, 2018, six days after Smith’s death, for the website We Are the Mutants, of which McKenna is senior editor. It’s also fitting that his opening line functions a bit like tripwire for writers covering this hefty tome who might not have finished the text or indeed even bothered to begin: “Mistrust all eulogies containing the words ‘contrarian,’ ‘curmudgeon’ and ‘national treasure’: these are inevitably the work of hacks.”

It’s pretty clear the author was referring to those either choosing to or fulfilling the given task of eulogizing Smith in the period shortly after his passing, so that hopefully the next sentence in this paragraph will escape McKenna’s harsh judgement (but if not, them’s the breaks). If by now so well-established as to be considered clichés, in the admittedly short interval since his passing, “contrarian” and “curmudgeon” (we’ll set “national treasure” aside for a bit), along with an unquenchable thirst for booze, remain dominant aspects of Mark E. Smith’s persona.

Norton and Stanley’s book doesn’t refurbish his reputation but instead complicates the issue by delving into the outside forces that helped shape Smith’s perspectives and his art. That means the man isn’t always front and center, with the shift of emphasis onto influences artistic, cultural, and environmental driving home that Smith’s antagonisms weren’t kneejerk or for the sake of just being difficult (well, mostly), and that his grumbling and grousing ultimately stemmed from the same complex worldview that shaped his art.

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Graded on a Curve: Screaming Urge, BUY + Homework & Gentilesky, Ways of Seeing

Inching toward two decades of excellence, HoZac Records of Chicago sprang into being with a focus on wild, raw, and often catchy bands of the moment. With a flag planted firmly in the fertile soil of punk, the label has since branched out into archival recordings and books. Two LPs fresh out from HoZac, BUY + Homework, a reissue of the debut from late ’70s Columbus, OH band Screaming Urge, and Ways of Seeing, a new release by Sardinian/Istanbul post punk-garage supergroup Gentilesky, are covered below.

Busy while active but never breaking out of the original punk-new wave era’s underground, Screaming Urge provides a scuzzy but tuneful template of sorts for much of HoZac’s back catalog (the label’s earlier archival have done the same). With a stature that has retroactively flourished through inclusions on the compilations Killed by Death #6 and Bloodstains Across Ohio, Screaming Urge’s “Homework” also provided titular inspiration for the Hyped2Death label’s extensive series of multi-artist CDr retrospectives, the song itself landing on Homework No.1: American “D.I.Y.” 45s R to T.

Coming together in 1978, Screaming Urge—Michael Ravage (guitar), Myke Rock (bass), Dave Manic (drums)—debuted in 1980 with “Homework” on the A-side of a 45 issued by New Age, a label formed by noted subterranean Ohioans Mike Rep, Tommy Jay, Nudge Squidfish, and Chuck Kubat. The song and its flip “Runaway” kick off HoZac’s expanded reissue, a welcome edition as the original releases are frankly scarce and quite pricy in vinyl form.

“Homework” is a classic hunk of teenage frustration aimed at parents and school and a lack of freedom in general, all done up with infectious punk energy. But with vocals reminiscent of the Wipers’ Greg Sage, “Runaway” nearly steals the show. And if the proper LP’s opener “Hitler’s in Brazil” perhaps suggests an inclination for first wave punk shock value, that’s not really what Screaming Urge was about. Instead, they helped to establish Rock Against Racism in Columbus, played guerilla street shows, and broadened their repertoire with the legit protest number “War.”

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Graded on a Curve: Shelly Manne & His Men, At the Blackhawk,
Vol. 1

Although he’s noted for extensive and diverse credits as a sideman and as a contributor to countless scores for television and film, drummer Shelly Manne remains best known as a leader, and particularly for a string of albums beginning in the early 1950s piloting Shelly Manne & His Men. This includes four LPs released together in 1960 that document a live stand at San Francisco’s Black Hawk club from September of the previous year. At the Black Hawk, Vol. 1 is reissued March 15 on 180 gram vinyl as part of Craft Recordings year-long series reissuing select titles from the catalog of Contemporary Records.

Make no mistake; in terms of numbers, Shelly Manne’s discography is a massive achievement, and that’s excluding sideman credits and soundtrack contributions. When a body of work grows to that size, obviously there’s a much smaller percentage gathering the essentials plus some additional higher quality work. For Shelly Manne, the four At the Black Hawk, Vol. 1 sets belong to that category. This first volume is a sensible place to begin investigating Manne’s work, but it also serves to expand West Coast jazz of the 1950s beyond the stereotype.

First, the band; there’s Joe Gordon on trumpet, Richie Kamuca on tenor sax, Victor Feldman on piano, and Monty Budwig on bass. This isn’t the highest-profile lineup of the Men, as prior iterations featured altoists Art Pepper, Bud Shank, and Charlie Mariano, along with Jimmy Giuffre on baritone sax, but the playing is consistently strong and the atmosphere across At the Black Hawk, Vol. 1 never falters.

And the ambience is a big part of this record’s appeal. High quality recorded documentation of robust jazz captured in a nightclub that catered to exactly that sort of thing just wasn’t that common in the retail bins during this era, so when Contemporary dished out all four volumes in 1960, interested parties could gather some insight into how a working band operated across numerous sets and nights during a club engagement.

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Graded on a Curve:
Art Blakey &
The Jazz Messengers,
Caravan

Art Blakey remains high on the list of the greatest drummer-bandleaders, a claim that’s given solid support by the star-studded Jazz Messengers album Caravan. Originally released by the Riverside label in 1962 and featuring trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter, trombonist Curtis Fuller, pianist Cedar Walton, and bassist Reggie Workman, the album’s hard bop thrust is streamlined but sturdy with Blakey leading the charge. It’s out on 180 gram vinyl March 1 as part of Craft Recordings’ Original Jazz Classics reissue series.

By 1963, when Caravan was released, Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers were no longer on the cutting edge of contemporary jazz. Key to the development of hard bop, the band that Blakey led throughout its existence (until his death in 1990) didn’t waver stylistically. Instead, the Messengers existed as a platform where promising young talent matured into greatness.

The lineup for this album is particularly stacked, and was productive, cutting three LPs for Riverside (Caravan, Ugetsu, and Kyoto) and one for Blue Note (Free for All), plus one for Colpix (Golden Boy) with an expanded lineup that added James Spaulding on alto, Charles Davis on baritone, Lee Morgan on trumpet, Julius Watkins on French horn, and Bill Barber on tuba.

Blakey’s hard bop allegiance extended to his non-Jazz Messengers albums as leader and across his extensive work as a sideman, which extended back to the dawn of the ’50s in connection with the initial bebop wave, supporting saxophonists Dexter Gordon and Sonny Stitt, trumpeters Fats Navarro and Dizzy Gillespie, and pianist Thelonious Monk.

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Graded on a Curve:
Isaac Hayes,
Hot Buttered Soul
Small Batch Edition

Released in 1969, Hot Buttered Soul brought Isaac Hayes widespread attention as he helped lead the charge into a new decade of soul music innovations. An impeccable album in a genre that hitherto had been largely dominated by singles, Hayes’ achievement is a perfect addition to Craft Recordings’ Small Batch series. Pressed on 180 gram vinyl at RTI with Neotech’s VR900 compound using lacquers cut from the master tapes by Bernie Grundman, the edition of 3,000 is available March 1.

Given how Hot Buttered Soul has consistently pulled in new listeners across a span of generations since its smash hit release, it can be easy to misplace the record’s reality as a groundbreaker. Featuring two songs on each side, the LP did something almost unheard of, hitting the marketplace without any accompanying singles; radio edits of “Walk on By” and “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” were subsequently issued (and charted) after the record’s unexpected success.

That Stax (through subsidiary Enterprise) allowed Hayes such creative freedom is not only unusual but also pretty risky, as the set’s bold conception couldn’t have been inexpensive. The scoop is that Hot Buttered Soul became a reality through Stax honcho Al Bell’s directive to the label’s active roster to cut a slew of albums for release in a very tight timeframe, a decision made because Stax had lost its entire back catalog to Atlantic Records.

Presenting Isaac Hayes, the artist’s debut from 1968, proved a disappointment, and to nobody more than Hayes himself, who responded to Bell’s album initiative with a demand for complete creative control. That the resulting LP received the necessary promotional push to take root with consumers and then catch fire is testament to Hayes’ talent but also to Bell’s stature as a record man.

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Graded on a Curve: Dexter Gordon,
Our Man in Paris

Remembering Dexter Gordon in advance of his birthdate tomorrow.Ed.

On May 23 of 1963 a trio of bebop originals joined up with a worthy European compatriot and visited CBS Studios in Paris. The comeback of tenor giant Dexter Gordon was well underway, but the Continent was a relatively recent change of scene. Pianist Bud Powell and drummer Kenny “Klook” Clarke had been living in France for quite some time however, and bassist Pierre Michelot was born there. Together this quartet agreed upon five standards and executed them with utter brilliance. Blue Note titled it Our Man in Paris, and years later it remains a classic.

They ate voraciously as Dean, sandwich in hand, stood bowed and jumping before the big phonograph, listening to a wild bop record I had just bought called “The Hunt,” with Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray blowing their tops before a screaming audience that gave the record fantastic frenzied volume.
—Jack Kerouac, On the Road

Much deserved praise gets heaped on Dexter Gordon for his comeback(s), but it can be occasionally overlooked that even if he never came back at all, he’d be a hugely important figure anyway. To begin, he’s the most distinctive tenor saxophonist to emerge from the ‘40s bop scene, extending the influence of Lester Young and quickly adapting the innovations of Charlie Parker, recording with Bird and Dizzy Gillespie and as a leader for Savoy before heading back to California and cutting those tenor battle 78s for Dial, the very sides that impacted Kerouac and Neal Cassady (i.e. Dean Moriarty) so massively.

It was heroin that nearly ended Gordon’s career for good; the ‘50s were a lost decade, though he did cut two records in ’55, Daddy Plays the Horn for Bethlehem in September and Daddy Blows Hot and Cool for Dootone two months later. After kicking the habit, he commenced his return with The Resurgence of Dexter Gordon, a minor session (some would call it a false start) for the Jazzland label.

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Graded on a Curve:
David Sylvian,
Brilliant Trees

Celebrating David Sylvian, born on this day in 1958.Ed.

When UK new wavers Japan broke up in 1982, the members predictably splintered off into various directions, and the highest profiles belonged to Mick Karn and David Sylvian. Over the decades the latter has amassed a solo and collaborative discography of unlikely reach and impressiveness; however, giving a fresh listen to ‘84’s Brilliant Trees makes abundantly clear Sylvian’s career trajectory isn’t as surprising as it might initially seem.

Upon consideration, very few musicians who made their name in the pop sphere have aged as well as David Sylvian. Of course, this is mainly due to his choice after Japan’s dissolution (they briefly reunited for one self-titled ’91 album under the name Rain Tree Crow) to gradually leave the milieu that fostered his initial reputation. The subsequent journey led him into the outlying territories of experimentation and the avant-garde, though this shouldn’t give the false impression that Sylvian’s post-Japan oeuvre is devoid of pop elements.

As a youngster of the ‘80s, I knew little of Japan, my discovery of Sylvian supplied by his ’87 collaboration with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Secrets of the Beehive. The introduction was made through the frequent play and promotion of said disc by my hometown Mom & Pop record mart, an enterprise also involved in the sale of high end stereo equipment.

To my teen mind any system comprised of separate components was high end, and at the time Secrets of the Beehive basically eluded me, as did much “deep-listening” material attached to ambient, new age, minimalism, art-pop etc. Reengaging with Sylvian as a mature adult provided, if not an epiphany than another instance aiding the realization that artistic assessments work in tandem with personal growth, therefore flouting finality.

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  • SUPPORTING YOUR LOCAL INDIE SHOPS SINCE 2007


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