Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Frank Strazzeri - "View From Within" (1973)






Frank Strazzeri is probably best known to some of you from his 1976 album "After The Rain", a funky electric affair featuring tracks like the often-compiled "Cloudburst" - I've got a few tracks from issues 2 and 4 of my rhodes compilations.

On this one we're back a few years - the album stands as a link between Frank's earlier straight-ahead piano sideman work with people like Louis Bellson, Leroy Vinnegar and Maynard Ferguson, and his more electric work in the later 70s.

Here, Strazzeri's on the fender rhodes, with a trio base supplemented by trumpet, trombone, sax, and sometimes flute. In most of the tracks, the subdued but amazingly tight horns establish the main melodies and harmonies before they and Strazzeri venture out into solos. It's a laid-back, cool rhodes album.

This album was originally released as "Taurus" on Revelation Records, then later retitled as "View From Within" for the Creative World Music release.

Drummer Dick Berk had been a member of George Duke's trio, and had recorded on the "Inner Source" album. Three weeks after this album he drummed on Cal Tjader's "Puttin it Together", and later in the year he worked on Tjader and Charlie Byrd's "Tambu". Bassist Gene Cherico had worked extensively with Gary Burton, Paul Desmond and Stan Getz.

Trumpet player Conte Candoli, who worked with Strazzeri in Oliver Nelson's Big Band, had a partnership with trombonist Frank Rosolino that went back almost two decades before this album - records they'd appeared on ranged from Anita O'Day to Paul Horn to Dizzy Gillespie to Leonard Cohen!
Little wonder then that there's such a strong communication between the two on this album. A few months after this, Candoli and Rosolino recorded their first duo album for the MPS label, "Conversation", later followed by "Just Friends" and "Westcoasting". Rosolino was also a veteran of several Francy Boland and Peter Herbolzheimer albums.

Frank, thinking about lunch

Strazzeri, Candoli and Rosolino had also worked several times with saxaphonist/flautist Don Menza, who had just played clarinet on John Klemmer's "Constant Throb", and recorded with people as diverse as Maynard Ferguson, Louis Bellson, Joao Donato and Sergio Mendes. Menza and Rosolino also worked on Luis Gasca's "Collage" and Moacir Santos' "The Maestro" around this time.

However, today's winner in the "link game" with these musicians is Louis Bellson's big band album "150 MPH" (1974), which features Menza, Rosolino, Candoli, and Cherico. Not sure why Strazzeri wasn't there, but Dick Berk was presumably asked to stay home for not having an Italian-sounding name.

If you enjoy this album, a good stylistic follow-on is Don Menza's more rhythmic "First Flight" (1976), which reunites Menza with Strazzeri, Rosolino and others.

TRIVIA :
Frank Rosolino played on the same Quincy Jones albums as Leon Ware - "Mellow Madness" and "Body Heat".
Don Menza played the saxaphone on the famous Henry Mancini "Pink Panther" theme.
Gene Cherico played bass on the classic Gilberto track "Girl From Ipanema".
Conte Candoli played trumpet in the "Tonight Show" band on TV from 1972-1992.

TRACKLIST

01 Taurus (4:40)
02 Lazy Moments (4:22)
03 Strazzatonic (9:14)
04 Calcutta (5:24)
05 Sphinx (7:32)
06 View From Within (5:57)MUSICIANS

Frank Strazzeri (fender rhodes)
Conte Candoli (trumpet)
Frank Rosolino (trombone)
Don Menza (flute / tenor sax)
Gene Cherico (bass)
Dick Berk (drums)

All compositions by Frank Strazzeri
Recorded January 6th, 1973
Creative World Records CW 3003
Originally released as "Taurus" on Revelation Records


POST CREDITS

Other albums linked in this post are at : Oufar Khan, Orgy In Rhythm, My Jazz World, Latin Jazzoteca , My Favourite Sound , Magic Purple Sunshine, Abracadabra-LPs do Brasil 2, Call It Anything and Pharoah’s Dance. Please thank these folks if you click through. "View From Within: was a Soulseek find. 




and a few comments would also be great :) 

33 comments:

g.raf said...

Hi Simon,
I got this from 'swarmi' and it is a lovely record, but i will take this opportunity to say thanks for all the work you put in here and over at Ish's mps blog, it is greatly appreciated.

Simon666 said...

Thanks g.raf,
in researching this album I've actually come across some more covers and info for MPS-love, just about to post them there ...

katonah said...

how many times has taurus been on bootlegs and comps ??
have to say, not heard dick berk ever put a foot wrong. he really holds it down on inner source and tambu ... thanks as always

vesper said...

Simon, downloading it right now! Looks promising. Thanks also for setting links and telling, a very elegant way to behave in blogland - I've read your recent discussion with a certain site :)
I'm lovin' your place!

Gianni aka Cesare Barbetta said...

Simon...
just to tell you I am downloading strazzeri lp...
just to tell you again
I love your blog and check it everyday.
peace & love

as I told Analogged
I am lookin for the belowlinked lp in my hardisk. hope to find it as soon as possible and share tomorrow here the link if you need it. it should be a 192kbps rip and I like it & want it to buy original cd:
http://www.dustygroove.com/item.php?id=kgh66mnb7c&ref=index.php

Weekend Hippie said...

Very Cool, I look forward to hearing this lp.

Keep up the great work!

Gianni aka Cesare Barbetta said...

http://www.mediafire.com/?ummwdxllbbc

enjoy that lp I was talking about with dustygroove link

Jonne said...

Thanks alot, great info as always!

Simon666 said...

Thanks for the comments guys.

Vesper, hope you enjoy it ... researching this one this got me listening to your Don Menza album at Pharoah's Dance for the first time in a while, such a lovely album.

Gianni, thanks for the link to Al Rahman/Doug Carn - I actually already had that one but I hope other readers will enjoy! So thanks as always for your enthusiasm and comments here :)

ish said...

Simon I've always considered myself a liner notes reader though in the CD age my eyes strain at the teensy tiny type. Anyway I love learning the connections between players and the background on albums and with downloading further removing us from the information attached to music I just wanted to say how much I'm enjoying the way you're doing your blog.

And thanks for this album.

Unknown said...

thank you

Dr. Johnny Fever said...

Simon I love this one! Thanks so much for turning me onto it. I really appreciate your blog and the knowledge you offer here. It takes a lot of dedication and hard work to put out such well researched posts. My hat goes off to you!!

P.S. Had a really good day at the record store. Scored this private press jazz LP from Minneapolis with tons of Rhodes on it. I'll work on getting it ripped and posted up on my spot. Pretty sure you'll dig it.

Peace........Dr. Fever

Simon666 said...

Thanks ish, will and Dr johnny ,,,,
Dr Fever I'm looking out for that album, take my temperature ... :)

anyathar said...

i enjoy not hitting up blogs for a few days so that i can stumble on these treats on the return visits... thanks for an awesome blog simon. although not a blogger, i echo the sentiments of ish who admired how you are running your blog and it is part of my daily routine to visit at least one or two of the excellent music blogs like yours and ish's (and the dozens of others)...

johnv said...

Another first class post. Thanks Simon for all the great tunes and the wealth of info!

MANERO LA APARATO said...

i wanna thank u from barcelona your great work rediscovering for the people this great music, keep on!

valdez in the country said...

G'day Simon, you made my day !!! Thanks a million ;-)

Unknown said...

This is smooth as hell..Thanks A Billi fellas

Anonymous said...

i usually don't like jazz. but the rhodes-thing is cool. thank you.

oui said...

fantastic! i really do appreciate this find, thanks a lot

Gildas 12 said...

Original LP is called Taurus (1973)

[URL=http://img178.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=18940_Frank_Strazzeri-Taurus1_122_15lo.jpg][IMG]http://img178.imagevenue.com/loc15/th_18940_Frank_Strazzeri-Taurus1_122_15lo.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://img230.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=18971_Frank_Strazzeri-Taurus2_122_117lo.jpg][IMG]http://img230.imagevenue.com/loc117/th_18971_Frank_Strazzeri-Taurus2_122_117lo.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Burningbluesoul said...

Simon,

Thanks so much for posting this set. I have a very beat original copy I found at at a garage sale in Detroit recently. The combination of Straz and Menza are tough to beat during this period. The info you posted and your comments on etiquette are also quite welcome. Again, many many thanks. TJ

Simon666 said...

Gildas 12 - I did note that in my post text, and decided to use the re-release title as that was the vinyl this was apparently ripped from. Thanks for posting the images.

Simon666 said...

Thanks Burning Blue Soul. I need to look deeper into Menza - I love his work on this and the albums I referred to in the post.

Stretch said...

Thanks for the files...loving the site

S Park said...

Such a great album!

JC said...

Simon,
Thank you for all the music and especially your great blog entries. It's definitely an education. You have kindled an interest in me!

Scott

Simon666 said...

Thanks for your comments Stretch, S Park and Scott.
Actually, in being drawn back to here by Scott's comment today I've done a "refit" on the post, so all the album links work now and the previews are back. So if you missed any of the linked akbums, check it out.
Thanks,
S

ish said...

Did you see this finally show up at MPS? http://mps-love.blogspot.com/2008/07/15449-frank-rosolino-conte-candoli.html

Simon666 said...

Thanks Ish,
post edited again accordingly :)
Actually, you may also notice an unlinked album by Louis Bellson called "150MPH" in this post, which features all of the same musicians. I was staring at it in a record store yesterday, knowing that I'd been looking for it at some stage, but had no idea why. Coming back here has reminded me ... :)

Simon666 said...

.... well I didn't buy "150 MPH" but it's been posted at CIA anyway, featuring much of the same lineup as this album :

http://andifyouhadtwocoats.blogspot.com/search?q=Louie+Bellson+-+Inferno!%3A+150+MPH

Art Simon said...

Well, I was slow to find this one. The post of "Big Cheese Records - The Meltdown" at My Jazz World had "Cloudburst" which I loved, and of course a few searches got me here. Wonderful Stuff. Thanks Simon! Your scholarship will be appreciated in the future.

Simon666 said...

hey Art, glad you found it :)