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Freddie
Hubbard "Hub Of hubbard" MPS
There is a general rule to finding semi obscure Jazz on some
of the more sought after European labels and this rule is that
if you seek it out intentionally then generally you end up paying
over the odds, however if you stumble upon it quite by chance
then usually the case is you walk away with it for next to nothing
- maybe that rule is quite a generic one? This particular LP
cost me £2 quite a jammy find! Recorded on the 9th December
1969 at the legendary MPS-Studio deep in the Black Forest, quite
unplanned - Freddie Hubbard was on a tour of Europe when they
met up with friend and legendary producer Joachim Ersnt Berendt
who invited them to MPS to record an impromptu set. Personel
on this recording include Roland Hanna on piano fresh from working
with Charlie Mingus, legendary New York bassist Richard Davis
who also recorded under his own name for MPS and hard hitting
bebop drummer Louis Hayes who provided some of the most memorable
beats and solos for Cannonball Adderley, Horace Silver, John
Coltrane, Donald Byrd amongst many many more legends. This was
Freddie only release on MPS and sits amongst his legacy of roughly
100 LP's and CD's as perhaps one of his finest and most original.
there are no stand out tracks as all four compositons are first
class, but if I did have to pick one I would put forward the
startling reworking of Cole Porters "just One Of Those
Things". |
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David
Axelrod "Heavy Axe" Fantasy
Found in a 'trendy' london record shop, I just happened to be
in the right place at the right time as the shop keeper was
putting out a bunch of second hand Lp's, something caught my
eye and I picked up this particular gem and saw he had listed
this damn near mint condition original issue as a second hand
re-issue and priced it at £4. Needless to say I thanked
him on the way out and shop there everytime I make it to the
smoke. Ok, so it's not The Auction but still a lovely find.
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O'Donel
Levy "Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky" Groove Merchant
Found in a second hand store, just sitting there waiting for
a good home to go to. A fairly easy to pick up Jazz Funk classic
that contains the killer club cut 'Marbles' that oddly sounds
like it was sampled or borrowed for The Fall's "What
You Need" back in the 80's as well as containing the
funk belter title track that strangley offers zero songwriting
credits to Allen Touissaint! The only other highlight here
is a very funky version of Stevie Wonders "Living For
The City" as well as the obvious selling point - the
cover! |
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Lonnie
Smith "When The Night Is Right" Chiaroscuro
In these days of increased record diggers buying any record
by black artists that looks like it may be tough it's pretty
rare to find a Lonnie Smith Lp just sitting there in the racks
of Leicester so when it does happen its worth noting, even if
it is only an old compiation. This fantastic collection from
1980 of some of Lonnies most sought after Jazz Funk classics
from the Lp's 'Funk Reaction', 'Keep On Lovin' and 'Afro-Desia'
recorded between 1975 and 1979, Includes such gems as the sensual
"It's Changed" - original jazzfunk heads should know
this one well. The heavy jazz dance classic "Apex"
along with "Impressions' - Lonnies reworking of John Coltrane's
masterpiece take up all of side two. And check the beard and
turban this cat was on some way out tip! |
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Art
Farmer with Yusef Lateef "Something You Got" CTI
A largely ignored release from 1977 on a well investigated
label that would be relegated to complete obscurity labeled
with a big IGNORE on the sleeve if it were not for one track
halfway through the second side "Spain" which has
found it's place on the Jazz Dance dancefloor. "Spain"
starts as a fairly standard homage to the Chick Corea original
but just as you relax into the languid opening along comes
a surprise to shake you from your slumber as it jumps up several
gears into a rousing dancer. There are other moments of interest
here though including the title track which although being
slightly cheesy should have found it's way to a sampler by
now? |
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George
Duke "I Love The Blues She Heard My Cry" MPS
The second LP listed from the lovely MPS label, this time an
instant dissapointer that oddly grows better and better each
time until on the fourth listen it becomes wonderful! I keep
finding MPS Lps locally at the moment for some strange reason,
always at really low prices too :) This is well worth seeking
out if cocain riddled blues funk is your thing.
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Dr
John "Gumbo" Atlantic
New Orleans finest Dr John takes a handful of his favourite
New Orleans songs and turns them inside out, including a version
of Professor Longhairs funk classic "Big Chief" which
Mr Rebannack proves works just as well whilst recorded under
the influence of a coctail of mind altering drugs. |
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George
Shearing "The Way We Are" MPS
Found in Leicester market along with some other great Jazz lp's
that included Thad Jones, Charlie Parker and the Dizzy Gillespie
landmark bebop LP 'Champ'. The cover looked vaguely familiar
and one of the tracks sounded really familiar by name- "The
World Is A Ghetto"!!!! Seeing that it had a cover of "Aquarius"
on there and being on MPS it was purchased for the sizeable
fee of 50 pence. Connoseirs of the breaks should be aware of
this Lp for the 2 aformentioned tracks, Aquarius kicks of with
what must be one of the heaviest and most begging to be sampled
drum intro on any MPS recording whilst "The World Is A
Ghetto" should be very familiar to most. |
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Barry
Miles "Magic Theater" London Records
I first heard this at Out To Lunch in Nottingham courtesy of
Killer Jim and had to have it, luckily a sealed copy was sourced
at Soul Brothers in the City of Grime for the friendly fee of
£10, OK so I didn't find this in a flea market or warehouse
stock but it's just soooooooo good I have to include it to spread
the word. The whole LP is pretty good overall but what I am
giving you as a recommendation is the title track "Magic
Theater" 12.02 minutes of blistering drums and synthersizers,
making one of the heaviest breakbeat recordings ever issued
and this was done in 1975 by the unasumming yet freaky toenailed
piano wizzard pictured here. Drawing equal attention on the
hip hop/scratch DJ scene as it is for the Jazz Dance faithful,
this is probably going to be a biggie, but then it is so damn
wierd that maybe it wont! |
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Arthur
Lyman "Tabou (Les Sons Eotiques)" Barclay
Well it's not the originals here but instead a lovely double
pack of both the exotic loungecore favourites lovingly issued
on a double LP for the Great British easy listening armchair
movement of the sixties and seventies - your Grans and Grandads!
There are 2 songs of interest here, firstly the title track
"Tabou" a blend of groovy brazilian percusion over
a background of exotic birds and animal noises. The other track
worth hunting this down for is a killer version of the hard
jazz dance classic "Jungle Fantasy" this one comes
complete with the squarks of exotic birds and shrill screams
of natives pounding out the drum breaks and piano parts, the
only dissapointment is that they take this Latin masterpiece
and cut it down to only 3 minutes and 21 seconds. Quite an unexpected
quality of sound for a easy listening charity shop find but
one that makes you spend another £20 a month buying shit
with interesting covers just in case. The next excavations article
just may well be Shit Records With Great Covers! |
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Cliff
"Live At talk Of The Town" EMI
No I am not fucking with you, well maybe i am a wee bit, but
this British release from 1970 sees the grannies favourite burst
into a live rendition of the Northern Soul classic "Ain't
Nothin' But A House Party"! The thing is I actually think
it's quite good - I would never dream of playing it out and
it gets quite a few frowns when I play it to others, but anti
cliff feelings aside - Bloody Hell! Cliff's singing "Ain't
Nothin' But A House Party"!!!!!! Yet another charity shop
find, 50 pence woohoo! Wonder how many beat junkies amongst
you know that there is an awesome Cliff Richard breakbeat out
there? |
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Kalyanji
Anandji "Muqaddar Ka Sikandaar" EMI SUPREME
Picked this up about a year and a half ago along with a bunch
of other Bollywood funk LP's but this is the one worth mentioning,
there is a certain track on here called "Pyar Zindagi Hai"
that I have since realised is one of the most well regarded
pieces of Indian madness ever cut onto a side of vinyl. Sung
by the usual Bollywood suspects; Late Mangeshkar, Asha Bosle
and Mahendra kapoor this starts of not knowing whether its a
San Francisco car chase theme or outright pyschedelic headfuck!
Kicking of with a completely ridiculous tittyshaker to die for
intro where one of the aforementioned ladies can be heard saying
"Hey man, you dig this sort of music? you like it? then
why don't you join the lovers paradise" before the music
totally funks up, the sound slips in and out of moments where
more traditional indian vocals float in over the top, all the
time a fat and heavy, rolling funky wah wah and tittyshaker
rhymth building and building to orgasm. 10 minutes of sheer
madness that sounds like it was recorded in the height of the
60's acid haze but was instead released in 1978. The gatefold
inner alone is worth the price of the record! |
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Dr
John "Nite Tripper At His Best" Rare Bid
Found in a local second hand record shop for the reasonable
sum of £4. A German issued compilation of Dr Johns that
went unwanted due to the rather camp looking illustration on
the cover, as you might expect from a Dr John compilation, it's
packed with classics including the awesome mod groover "One
Night Late" complete with infamous breakbeat intro. Side
One is packed with the usual Dr John classics "Tippitina",
"Shoe-Ra", "She's Just a Square" while Side
Two is a bit more 'dodgy', tracks that sound like they should
be good "Women Is The Root Of All Evil", "In
The Night" turn out to be not so. |
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Lulu
"Love Loves To Love" EMI
Well we share the same surname so I had to include her and it
was a charity shop find for 50p. Not only does this sought after
Lp contain the ultra heavy sample source title track but it
also contains a pretty good cover version of Time Roses bolt
of white lightening "Morning Dew" while sadly Lulu
doesn't quite get her voice up there you have to give the girl
full marks for trying! I always thought Tim Rose was on the
more obscure end of the scale so what the hell was this sixties
version of Kylie Minogue doing with one of his tracks? But then
what was Kylie doing with Nick Cave! |
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The
Mike Theodore Orchestra "High On Mad Mountain" Westbound
Picked this particular copy up fairly recently for a mere £3,
I have had several of these in my time, Mike Theodore should
be familiar to funk and soul collectors as one half of the Theo-Coffey
partnership. This disco funk masterpiece has long been a crate
diggers delight, always in-demand and always difficult to part
with. Recently re-issued so relatively easy to pick up I imagine.
Not the type of sound I normally go for but for some reason
those infectious disco grooves get to you. First time I came
across this LP was at a time when I would pick up anything that
listed a moog as an instrument used - still have boxes of shite
moog related records but luckily this one was a good find.
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"The
Zodiac Cosmic Sounds" Electra
When I bought this record around 1990 the shopkeeper told me
i'd never play it more than a handful of times and that i'd
never sell it either - that it would just sit in my collection
only to be pulled out and admired every few years. Thinking
that the guy was pretty presumtious at the time - i've gotta
say 14 years on that he was right, something about this record
makes it impossible to part with? I recently found a second
copy and to try to break the records spell I stuck it on ebay
to sell, but would you believe it went unsold at a start bid
of $3! |
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Sun
Ra Arkestra "Live At Praxis '84 Vol 1"
Found in a local store for the reasonable sum of £2, a
surprisingly funky outing for Sun Ra and band, expecting some
way out live abstract jazz but instead finding a more RnB jumping
jazz sound. |
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Freddie
Hubbard "Backlash" Atlantic
Recently re-issued so easy to pick up, however these cheap (booted?)
re-issues seldom do the music justice with cheap mastering/pressing
and as the original should only set you back five or ten pounds
i'd reccomend you get digging. History defines this as one of
Freddie's "Boogaloo' records, it is a lot funkier than
previous outings. Highly recommend this for home listening. |
