Daly-Wilson Big Band ft. Marcia Hines (1975)

Many of you enjoyed the other Daly-Wilson Big Band album (see there for the history and scandals), so here's another. Our vocalist this time around on a couple of tracks is Marcia Hines, who went on from here to become one of the biggest pop stars in 1970s Australia. After this album, she recorded his first (and best) solo album "Marcia Shines" in 1975.

There's not as much attention paid to this particular release, as neither Mobb Deep or DJ Shadow have sampled this one - but perhaps you could be the first? To be straight with you, this is not as good an album as the Kerrie Biddell one, with a few seriously bad tracks, but it's got its moments - good Rhodes workout in "Theme From the Rockford Files"; a version of Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon", which features some wah-wah trumpet; and Marcia is good on "Ain't No Mountain High Enough".

The band had just come back from a world tour around this time, interestingly having extensively toured Russia, which was unusual in those days, and having performed at the White House in Washington. Not sure what Nixon (or possibly Ford) made of this ...

Strangely enough, as part of their national tour that year, they visited a number of high schools, including mine, and it inspired me to write some brass parts for my band. Luckily for you, the cassettes of this have long since disintegrated ...

Marcia Hines with the Daly Wilson Big Band, 1975

Thanks again to Micko and the Midoztouch community for this rip.

TRACKLIST

01 El Boro 

02 Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans 

03 Theme From The Rockford Files 

04 Chameleon 

05 Satin Doll 

06 The Way We Were

07 Ain't No Mountain High Enough 

08 Jimmy Webb Medley: Up Up And Away - Wichita Lineman - MacArthur Park


PERSONNEL

Trumpets - Don Raverty, Norm Harris, Lary Elam, Warren Clarke & Pat Crichton
Trombones - Ed Wilson, Herbie Cannon, Merv Knott & Peter Scott
Saxaphones - Doug Foskett, Paul Long, John Mitchell & Bob Pritchard
Vocals - Marcia Hines
Drums - Warren Daly
Bass - John Helman
Guitar - Dave Donovan
Keyboards - Ray Alridge

PRODUCTION CREDITS

Produced by Warren Daly and Ed Wilson
Recording and Mixing Engineer - Martin Benge
Recorded at EMI Studios Sydney
Marcia Hines appears by arrangement with Wizard Records
Photography - Phillip Mortlock
Art Direction - Ken Smith

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Exciting Daly-Wilson Big Band ft. Kerrie Biddell (1972)

Long title hey ?
Well, I was pretty excited when my dad took me to see this funky big band in 1972, the year this album was recorded.

As a ten-year-old, my two major impressions from the show were :

1. I wanted a wah wah pedal. Now. Right now.
But it was to be five long years until I got a wah wah pedal.

2. Singer Kerrie Biddell looked a bit like my mother.
Maybe she was my real mother, and dad was just trying to tell me ? ...

In any case, this is a pretty funky 70s big band, perhaps a little looser and dirtier than the european equivalents of the time.



Best known track is "Dirty Feet" sampled by rapper Mobb Deep in the track "Shook Ones Pt. II". It starts with a breakbeat from sampler heaven, goes into a big brass section then builds into a psych guitar meltdown.



"City Sounds" is like a mini soundtrack, big band soul working it's way into an almost "free" middle section with crazy wah wah and scraped piano strings, plus great work by Kerrie Biddell/"Mom" who brings things back to basics at the end.



"Three for One" is a little like the music from an imaginary 70s detective show, perhaps with shots of the main character joking with pretty girls around the water cooler at the police station, then we cut to the money shot of him taking aim with a fat gun at some bad guys / male competitors ...


The track "In Necessity" was on the "Dusty Fingers 8" compilation - all in all, there are plenty of killer tracks to go around, with only a few crap tracks at the end.

* SENSIBLE BIOGRAPHY *

The Daly-Wilson Big Band existed from 1969-1983, formed by trombonist Ed Wilson and drummer Warren Daley. They went broke soon after this album was made, but were rescued by sponsorship from the Benson and Hedges cigarette company in 1973 - so this fiery album was also their last smoke-free one (I'm so sorry). They went on to make another three or four albums, adorned with B&H logos, that are not as fantastic as this one.

* DIRT-DIGGING BIOGRAPHY *

Musicians' biographies can be so boring. Rather than doing proper bios on these people, today we'll do a dirt-digging VH1 "Where are they now?" :

Kerrie Biddell appeared in this 80s World War 2 movie, along with jazz great Don Burrows, presumably appearing in some sleazy bar scene.
Or she was my real mother. Or both.

Warren Daley is giving drum lessons in Perth, Australia. First lesson is apparently free! I think we should all call Warren up and ask him to play the Mobb Deep "Dirty Feet" breakbeat over the phone (his phone number is there, add 61-8 to call from other countries).

Ed Wilson sells brass arrangements to the police, the army and your local school - but hopefully he changes that shirt occasionally ...

Finally, it seems that trumpeter / bass player Dieter Vogt had a creative way of paying his tax back in the 70s. So what happened to Dieter after that ? Is it him playing viola on this rather beautiful Jazzanova track 30 years later, a lit Benson and Hedges cigarette nonchalantly hanging from his bow? Sadly no ... he's retired to nasty dixieland hell. And is hopefully paying his taxes.

TRACKLIST

01 "Limp Dropper" - 4:30(Ed Wilson)
02 "Dirty Feet" - 3:30(George Broadbeck)
03 "City Sounds" - 4:32(The Carsons)
04 "Col's Dilemma" - 5:05(The Carsons)
05 "In Necessity" - 2:25(Martin)
06 "Today" - 4:28(The Carsons)
07 "Three For All" - 6:24(Col Loughnan)
08 "On My Own" - 3:20(Ed Wilson)
09 "Do Me A Good Turn" - 4:41(Rhode)

CREDITS

Label: Elephant Records
Catalog#: ELA 7002
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: Australia
Released: 1972(Listed incorrectly at Discogs as 1975)
Engineer - Spencer Lee
Producer - Ed Wilson, Warren Daly
Vocals - Kerrie Biddell(Can't seem to find musician's credits, sorry!)
Recorded at United Sound, Sydney, Australia

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