Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters (1974)

4 x Herbie Hancock on Musik Laden, German TV, 1974 Click here for more Herbie Hancock on this blog.

Freddie Hubbard - "Intrepid Fox" (live) - 1973

Twenty minutes of live Freddie Hubbard from 1973. 

Freddie Hubbard - trumpet 

Junior Cook - Tenor Sax 

George Cables - fender rhodes 

Kent Brinkley - bass 

Michael Carvin - drums 

There's a rip of Hubbard's 1975 album Polar AC on this blog a few years back here. 

Fal Frett - Fal Frett (1976)

First album from the band "Fal Frett" - you may have seen their second album at The Growing Bin last month.

Big thanks to Orangefunk for ripping and donating this album, and please give him some thanks in the comments!

Looked for some history on this album and found some in a Googlebooks excerpt from Brenda F Berrian's book "Awakening Spaces : French Caribbean Popular Song, Music and Culture". Successfully grabbed the text with free OCR software and here we are :

"One of the most talented families on the contemporary Martinician musical arena is the Barnards. The grandfather, Armand, was a violinist, and his sons Gaëtan and Parfait continued the tradition : the former was another violinist and the latter, a keyboard player.

Raised in a household where music totally surrounded them, it was only natural for Parfait's sons Alex, Jacky and Nicol to love playing instruments. Alex, the oldest and a bass player, is the only full-time musician among the brothers since he quit his job at the Hopital de la Meynard. He studied with Edmond Michalon and, as a bass player, joined the jeunesse Etudiante Catholique (Catholic student youth group), to which other aspiring musicians belonged, such as the pianist Paulo Rosine and the flutist Serge Lossen. In 1969, he joined the Merry Lads, which evolved into Malavoi, and he continues to play with the band today. Furthermore, between the two disbandments of Malavoi in the 1970s, Alex took the opportunity to go on tour in Canada with Marius Cultier.

The multiple instrumentalist Jacky, born four years after Alex, commenced playing the piano at age eleven. In 1970, he passed his baccalaureate and left to study law in Paris at the Faculty of Assas. While there he began to perform at Caribbean venues and worked in the recording studios. ln 1975, he returned to Martinique where he played the piano and keyboard in piano bars, especially at the Inn of Monsieur Duban in the town of Riviere Salée.

Nicol, the youngest of the three, born in 1956, familiarized himself with several instruments, but at age fourteen, he seriously studied the bongos and other percussion with Colette Frantz and eventually with Henri Guédon. Since then Nicol has become known as an accomplished percussionist. In 1969, Nicol participated in a jazz concert with his brothers at the Cercle Martiniquais. Afterward, he left to study in Paris, where he became a member of Guédon’s newly composed Cosmos Zouk. 

At age nineteen in 1976, he returned to Martinique and agreed with his brothers, Jacky Alpha, and Bid Monville to create Fal Frett. In 1976, Fanny Augiac proposed that Fal Frett should make its debut before the public at the Centre Martiniquais d’Action Culturelle (CMAC). The band’s first concert repertoire was taken from its first record Fal Frett, which was released by Jacky Nayaradou’s 3A Productions. Afterward, Ralph Thamar and Robin Vautor joined the band, with Jacky Bernard functioning as the leader on the second album In the Wake of the Sunshine. Jacky was responsible for organizing the program so that the music in each set followed harmonic key changes. 

In general, what makes Fal Frett stand out is the band's distinctive sound, which some call jazz fusion. This is in reference to the band’s incorporation of traditional Martinican musical themes and an extension of them along more jazzy lines." 

Fal Frett apparently means "the action of being overcome, gripped or stunned by something".

Fal Frett – Fal Frett
LP 3A [3A 0093] (1976)

Bass - Alex Bernard
Drums - Jacky Alpha
Rhodes - Jacky Bernard
Percussions - Nicol Bernard
Saxophones, Composer - Bid Monville

Tracks 1-5 composed by Jacky Bernard
Track 6 by Bid Monville

1. Fal Frett
2. En Devirant
3. Baza-Bar
4. Untel
5. Picom
6. Biguilla

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R.I.P José Roberto Bertrami

R.I.P. José Roberto Bertrami (1946-2012)
Keyboardist and leader of Brazilian group Azymuth.

Various - "Rhodes In Japan" - comp. 16

PREVIEWS :

White Fire - Takaeo Uematsu

  Satsuki - Terumasa Hino

  Green Caterpiller - Masaru Imada

  Cat - Teruo Nakamura

In 2000 I went to Tokyo for the first time, and immediately injured my knee. I hobbled around the city on crutches immersing myself in the amazing range of jazz, funk and soul. It wasn't just the hidden, special 2nd hand vinyl stores that blew me away - even Tower Records had the largest jazz collection I'd ever seen; with racks and racks of Japan-only CD releases of USA albums that could only be found on expensive, scratchy vinyl in their home country.

I'd finally found somewhere that had a large population of people who loved the same music as I do, and even today, my DJ partner and some of my closest music buddies at home are Japanese.

However, at the time I knew nothing of Japanese jazz - it's only in the decade since then that my blog brothers have introduced me to Japanese music of the 1970s, music that soaked up electric Miles and electric Herbie in the jazz diaspora, and that even today continues to develop its idiosyncratic permutations through people like DJ Mitsu, Gagle, Sleep Walker and others. There's far too much beautiful music to fit onto one compilation, so expect more.

This is dedicated to my blogger friends, past and present, who've introduced me to this music and taken me on the type of journey that I hope you experience as well.

Thanks to El Goog Ja, Reza, Greg, Bacoso, Ish, Katonah, Taro Nombei, Vesper, Hoochie, Wara Katsu and many more ..... 

More rhodes compilations here

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Herbie Hancock Mwandishi live (1972)

Here are some fantastic videos of Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi band from 1972, performing "Water Torture", "Toys" and "Sleeping Giant".




French TV broadcast 1972

Herbie Hancock - Piano & Rhodes
Eddie Henderson - Trumpet
Julian Priester - Trombone
Bennie Maupin - Soprano Sax, Flute & Bass Clarinet
Buster Williams - Bass
Billy Hart - Drums

More Herbie-related things here

MIX : "Higher Soul"

Simon666 : "Higher Soul" - Warmup #5 Skid Row radio mix by Simon666

This is a mix I made for a friend's radio show a few weeks back - some new soul, some old funk and some 90s hip hop - plenty of rhodes, natch :) Hope you enjoy!

Download MP3 or WAV