Various - "Jazzier Rhythms" Vol. 1

Great compilation of 70s-80s soul-jazz, jazz-funk and some latin jazz, originally put in 1996 by the now-defunct Hubbub Records.

Compiled by Malachi Trout, these are mostly vocal tracks with a few jazz dancers as well, including the classics "Baltimore Oriole" by Lorez Alexandria and "What's Wrong With Groovin" by Letta Mbulu. Lots of other good stuff here, check it out.

Flageolette recently posted the equally-great Volume 2 of the series. I asked if he had other volumes then remembered that I had Volume 1 myself - pensioner moment, call the doctors ...

DOWNLOAD MP3 -  DOWNLOAD WAV 

TRACKLIST

01 Herb Geller Feat. Mark Murphy - 'Space A La Mode' (8:50)
from "An American In Hamburg" (1975)

02 Sathima Bea Benjamin - 'Africa' (6:15)
from "Dedications" (1982) ft. Buster Williams on bass

03 The Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble - 'Wet Walnuts And Whipped Cream' (8:37)
from "Le Le" (1986)

04 Lorez Alexandria - 'Baltimore Oriole' (3:13)
(1978)

05 Nicos Jaritz Unidad - 'Hasta Siempre Comandante' (7:46)
from "Para Los Companerous" (1985)

06 Sam Most With Joe Farrell - 'Samba To Remember You By' (5:50)
from "Flutes Talk" (1979)

07 Nanette Natal - 'It's Over' (7:02)
from "My Song of Something" (1979)

08 Letta Mbulu - 'What´s Wrong With Groovin' (2:50)

Sarah Vaughan - "Feelin' Good" (1972, Mainstream)

22.3.09 - Hello to all the New York Times readers who read the story about the man searching for "Just a Little Lovin" ... a friend sent me the article today. My conjecture is that the guy who finally sent him the song a few weeks ago got it from here ... timing seems right ... anyway welcome, enjoy, say hi in the comments ...

Sarah Vaughan's third studio album for Mainstream Records sits somewhere between the lush orchestrations of the Michel Legrand "Sarah Vaughan" album and the pop-jazz stylings of "Send In The Clowns" and "A Time In My Life".

"Feelin' Good" includes both contemporary pop songs and classics with rich orchestrations coming from three groups of arrangers.

This is not my usual jazz - the album arrived in a throwaway box from a retiring DJ. I dismissed it on a quick listen, but revisited it when I noticed that it was missing from the Shad Shack, and several tracks have grown on me since.

At this stage of her career Vaughan is something of a vocal dramatist, and here refines the dynamic range that Legrand's orchestrations had afforded her on the previous album. To my mind, she hits the mark in spectacular fashion on about half of this album ... and sounds like a drag queen channelling Shirley Bassey on the other half.

Michel Legrand's only contribution here is "Deep in the Night", an extraordinary track that builds from a cocktail bar blues into a full scale drama that leaves you breathless, with vocal and instrumental arrangements that trump anything on their previous collaboration - it ended up being tacked on to the CD re-release of the other album.

"Easy Evil" is a great restrained soulful piece, previously covered on this blog on Marcia Hines' album "Marcia Shines". Some nice wah-wah guitar, building brass and evil strings. "Promise Me" is a good ballad, with a nice reverbed second vocal playing call-and-answer with Vaughan's main vocal.

"Take a Love Song" sounds here like a lost Burt Bacharach number that deserves to be found, and is written by Donny Hathaway - just another example of his lost genius, covered from his second studio album.

"Just a Little Lovin' " is the established sample dig here (though I never quite understand why people want to dig holes that have already been dug, isn't that more canine than hip hop, behaviourly speaking? ) Anyway ... a guy named Irfane had a notable, catchy underground success about four years ago when he chopped it over a compressed house pulse, first running into sample clearance problems and then later releasing it on an album under the moniker "Outlines". Here's that track.

Hope you enjoy this album, just watch out for "Alone Again (Naturally)" and a cover of the Bee Gee's "Run To Me", along with a few of the others they're just a little bit scary. This album is guaranteed 50 % killer!

TRACKLIST
01. And The Feeling's Good (4:20)
(N.Gimbel - C.Fox)
02. Just A Little Lovin' Early In The Mornin' (3:07)
(Mann-Weil)
03. Alone Again (Naturally) (4:25)
(R. O'Sullivan)
04. Rainy Days And Mondays (3:42)
(Nichols-Williams)
05. Deep In The Night (3:17)
(Miller-Miriam)
06. Run To Me (3:00)
(Bee Gees - R.Stigwood)
07. Easy Evil (3:04)
(Alan O'Day)
08. Promise Me (4:00)
(Peter Matz - Carol Hall)
09. Take A Love Song (3:25)
(D.Hathaway - N.McKinnon)
10. Greatest Show On Earth (3:00)
(J.Marcellino - M.Larson)
11. When You Think Of It (4:00)
(R. Allen - A.Kent)

PRODUCTION DETAILS
Mainstream Records MRL 379
Producer - Bobby Shad
Conductor, Arranged By:
Allyn Ferguson (tracks 2, 6, 10)
Jack Elliott (tracks 2, 6, 10)
Michel Legrand (tracks 5)
Peter Matz (tracks 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9)

POST CREDITS
Vinyl rip by Simon666
Links in this post go to the Shad Shack and Daytime Lovers.
Thank them for their work if you go there!

DOWNLOAD WAV - MP3

Please say hi in the comments. 

Sarah Vaughan - "Send In the Clowns" (1974, Mainstream)

Art Director : "Don't worry Sarah, you'll look great!"

A post for the Shad Shack, cheeba's temple to all-things-Mainstream Records.

After an uncharacteristic four year break from recording, Sarah Vaughan began an association in 1971 with Bob Shad's new label, Mainstream Records - he'd worked with her during her time at Mercury Records.

First cab off the rank was the album "A Time In My Life", produced and arranged by Count Basie veteran Ernie Wilkins, and featuring a fantastic version of Marvin Gaye's "Inner City Blues" - also check a preview here. Generally, that album's a nice mix of classic pop-jazz orchestration with some "band" elements thrown in, including the occasional rhodes. The Wilkins version of "On Thinking It Over" from there, written by Brian Auger, also re-appears on today's album.

She followed that in 1972 with "Sarah Vaughan", a collaboration with Michel Legrand and his orchestra. It's a more traditional ballad collection with some superb string arangements from Legrand. 1973 saw the release of "Feelin' Good", which I've finally ripped and will throw at you when I get the cover scans fixed up - it has several different arrangers and is overall a better album than this one.

Sarah imitates a famous Millie Jackson record cover

After a few live albums for Mainstream, her final studio release for the label was this one, 1974's "Send In The Clowns". Possible confusion : she released another album under the same title for Pablo Records in 1981, and later also used the title for a greatest hits collection - but this is the 1974 Mainstream release.

Primary arranger here is Gene Page, whose work with Barry White and Love Unlimited was exploding into the charts at the time. You can echoes of that work in the simple, unison-based string arrangements and backing vocals, though the disco beat is absent - there's more elements of a blues-based southern soul.

AMG's Scott Yanow calls this album ...

... which Google's "Yanow Interpreter" translates as "contains pop/soul elements and some electric instrumentation - and there's that damned rhodes again!". Essentially this is an early 70s pop/soul album with some jazz stylings - you've just got to look at it from a different perspective to her earlier work.

Anyway - not an all-killer-no-filler, there are a few absolute stinkers, but enough good moments to recommend checking it out. "That'll Be Johnny" and "On Thinking It Over" are the standouts for me. "I Need You More" has a Fifth Dimension flavour that I like, and arranger Michel Legrand returns with an arrangement of Jobim's "Wave".

Later in 1974, Vaughan's then-lover/manager (I need one of those!) Marshall Fisher apparently had a fight with Mainstream Records over a record cover (this one??) and/or unpaid royalties, and Vaughan remained without a record contract for a further three years, until she signed with Pablo Records in 1977 and dumped Fisher.

This is a rip from a deleted CD re-release with a much nastier cover even than the one above, and it's remarkably short of information, but I've gathered what I can below.

WAV / MP3 in COMMENTS

TRACKLIST1. 'Send in the Clowns'
(Stephen Sondheim)
2. 'Love Don't Live Here Anymore'
(Rose Marie McCoy / Reddington)
3. 'That'll Be Johnny'
(H.Miller / Rose Marie McCoy)
4. 'Right in the Next Room'
(H.Miller / Rose Marie McCoy)
5. 'I Need You More (Than Ever Now)
(H.Miller / Rose Marie McCoy /Holley)
6. 'On Thinking It Over'
(Brian Auger / J.Mullen)
7. 'Do Away With April'
(H.Miller / H.Greenfield)
8. 'Wave'
(A.C. Jobim)
9. 'Got to Go See If I Can't Get Daddy to Come Back Home'
(H.Miller / Rose Marie McCoy)
10. 'Frasier (The Sensuous Lion)'
(Johnny Mercer / Jimmy Rowles)

PRODUCTION INFORMATIONReleased in 1974, Mainstream Records MRL 412
Produced by Bob Shad
Arranger on 2-5, 7, 9 - Gene Page
Arranger on 1 - P.Griffin
Arranger on 6 : Ernie Wilkins
Arranger on 8 : Michel Legrand
Arranger on 10 : Wade Marcus

POST CREDITS

Rip by Simon666
Other links in this post go to : The Shad Shack, Daytime Lovers, Crap jazz Covers and Blaxploitation Jive.
Please thank these fine folks for their music if you go there.
Some info sourced from Michael Minn's Sarah Vaughan biography.

DOWNLOAD WAV - MP3 

Mark Murphy - "Mark II" (1974)

When I saw this vinyl in the shop the other day, I thought : "That's the one between El Goog Ja's 'Bridging a Gap' (1973) and 'Mark Murphy Sings' (1975), originally ripped by Ish. .... never mind that the front cover clearly comes from the Csaba Deseö "School of Potato Print Painting", I had to have it. So here we have my first blog-related purchase ...

What can we say about Mark Murphy, apart from re-printing the same old AMG bio? One of the only "out" gay people in jazz besides Andy Bey, Fred Hersch, myself and Ish, it seems. A man who is regarded as the epitome of both "hip" and "mullet" at the same time, check this hair :

Side view : Mark discovers a blog criticising his mullet

On this release, Murphy offers his unique interpretations of lesser-known tracks by well-known "contemporary" artists - Stevie Wonder, Bread, Joni Mitchell, The Band, David Crosby and others. He also contributes two tracks himself - "They", which ponders whether or not alien visitors think about love, and "Lemme Blues", where he gradually works himself up to a relative vocal fever pitch.

It's a both a year and a musical mile away from the brilliant vocalese of 1975's "Mark Murphy Sings", but is still well worth your time - Murphy is in top vocal form here. I'm more partial to his version of Wonder's "Looking for Another Pure Love"; "Chicken Road", and the low key tracks such as Crosby's "Triad".

Apart from the aliens in "They", I note a lyric reference to "water brothers" in the Crosby "Triad" song, which references Robert Heinlein's sci-fi book "Stranger in a Strange Land", and there are also many intergalactic references in some of Murphy's collaborations at the base of this post. In 1970 he released an album called "This Must be Earth" - so it seems that Mark has definitely signed up for the Space Patrol. The rather scary Liza Minnelli confirmed this when she once said : 'There's a party goin' on in Mark's head, and I want to go to it!'



Much more detail in the back cover notes (readable from the scan above, but better in the download) - and I'm now curious about his late 60s acting career in London, particularly his role as Jesus in a TV pilot. Some would argue that the mullet alone could be grounds for crucifixion, but we'll let him off because he sings so well.

DOWNLOAD WAV - MP3 

bonus download: 

Mark Murphy collaborations, rarities and remixes

See base of discography below for tracklisting

TRACKLIST

o1. 'Chicken Road' - (Greene)
02. 'Too Much Love' - (Griffin / Royer)
03. 'The Unfaithful Servant' - (J.R. Robertson)
04. 'Lookin' for Another Pure Love' - (Stevie Wonder)
05. 'Barangrill' - (Joni Mitchell)
06. 'Triad' - (David Crosby)
07. 'They' - (Mark Murphy)
08. 'Sleeping' - (R.Manuel / R.Roberston)
09. 'Lemme Blues' - (Mark Murphy)
10. 'Truckin' - (Griffin / Royer)

MUSICIANS

Mark Murphy - vocals
Ken Ascher - keyboards
Sam Brown - guitar
John Tropea - guitar
Mike Moore - bass
Jimmy Madison - drums
Susan Evans - percussion

PRODUCTION DETAILSMuse Records 5041
Arrangements - David Matthews
Production - Helen Keane and David Matthews
Recording - Ray Hall
Liner Notes - Peter Keepnews
Recorded December 19-21, 1973
Released 1974

MARK MURPHY on le Planet Blog

SOLO ALBUMS

1958 "Let Yourself Go" - blog gone, can anyone re-up?
1959 "Mark Murphy's Hip Parade" at El Goog Ja
1961 "Rah!" at El Goog Ja
1962 "That's How I Love The Blues" at Entsharing / alternative

1965 "Who Can I Turn To" donated by "Shivers Inside" (thanks!)
1970 "Midnight Mood" MP3 at El Goog Ja
1970 "Midnight Mood" FLAC at Call It Anything
1973 "Bridging a Gap" at El Goog Ja
1974 "Mark II" in comments here.
1975 "Mark Murphy Sings" at Ile Oxumaré
1978 "Stolen Moments" at Oufar Khan

1980 "Satisfaction Guaranteed" at El Goog Ja
1981 "Bop for Kerouac" FLAC at Call It Anything
1981 "Bop for Kerouac" MP3 at Funky Disposition

1982 "The Artistry of Mark Murphy" at Nine Sisters

1983 "Brazil Song" FLACS 1 - 2 - 3 , and covers-76kb
1983 "Brazil Song" MP3 at Rapidshare (thanks Ish)
1983 "Sings the Nat King Cole Songbook" (Vol 1) at Nine Sisters
1983 "Sings the Nat King Cole Songbook" (Vol 2) at Nine Sisters

1984 "Living Room" at Funky Disposition
1986 "Kerouac, Then and Now" at Call It Anything
1987 "Beauty and the Beast" at Ile Oxumaré

1990 "What a Way to Go" at Musica & Tecnologia

1996 “North Sea Jazz Sessions Volume 5” with Louis Van Dyke Trio
- Recorded 1970-74, good early version of "Stolen Moments"DOWNLOAD from Rapidshare (thanks Soul Gentleman)
1997 "Song for the Geese" at Musica & Tecnologia

2000 "Live At Birdland" Set 1 - Set 2, cover/details-36k
2005 "Once to Every Heart" at 02 Forum or Boogie no More

2007 "Love Is What Stays" at Entsharing or musica que cuelga


COMPILATIONS

2003 "Timeless" (1971-2003 comp) - blog gone, can anyone re-up?

2008 Gilles Peterson's Mark Murphy Mixup via Play Jazz Loud
- Great mix, recommended.

COLLABORATIONS

1969
"MPS Jazz Concert '69" at Ile Oxumaré
- two Murphy tracks, "C.C. Rider" and "Broadway"
1975
"Rhyme and Reason" - Herb Geller Octet at Happy As a Fat Rat in a Cheese Factory- Murphy vocals on most tracks - great album !
1975
"An American in Hamburg" by Herb Geller at The Growing Bin- Same as "Rhyme and Reason", with additional instrumental versions of tracks
1982
"Indiana" - Jeff Hamilton Quintet at Arkadin's Ark.- Murphy on "Split Season Blues" only - single track download available in the comments there.
1990
"Dingwalls" from "Journeys by DJ" comp by Gilles Peterson
- Murphy's beatnik-rap ode to Peterson's Sunday club

1991
"One for Junior" - Sheila Jordan and Mark Murphy, MUSE 5489

1995
"Future Light" from "No Sound is Too Taboo" by United Future Organisation.

2000
"Kool Down" (King Britt's Scuba remix) by Tenth & Parker
2001
"Twelve Tribes" from "Creating Patterns" - by 4hero at Hefiorels Eclectic Music (Thanks to Ish)
2001
"Millenium Riddle Song" by Tenth & Parker
- please upload if you've got it , but not the "Late night mix". Thanks.
2002
"No Problem" - from "V" by United Future Organisation.
- beautiful track, recommended.

2003
"Little Things" with Lindberg Hemmer Foundation.

2005
"Chasing the Jazz Gone By" by Five Corners Quintet at The Music Jockey
- Vocals on "Jamming"; "Before we Say Goodbye"; "This Could Be the Start Of Something".

SOME REMIXES
1995
"Stolen Moments" - (UFO Harddisk Mix) - from "United Future Airlines" EP
1995
"Stolen Moments" - (Our Enchanted Demo Mix) by United Future Organisation
- similar to the UFO Harddisk mix

2006
"This Could Be the Start Of Something" (Povo Remix)- from Five Corners Quintet "Jamming" EP
2007
"Stolen Moments" - Nicola Conte Midnight Mood Rework
2007
"Stolen Moments" - Phil H edit - original from Murphy album "Love Is What Stays"
2007
"Love is What Stays" - Henrik Schwarz remix

A combined Collaborations and Remixes file, which includes the individual tracks profiled here, is above.

Please thank and support the above bloggers if you click through and download.
If links go dead, please let me know so I can re-direct and keep the page current.

Thanks to ISH for advice and help on this post.

- Commenting when you've downloaded keeps blogs alive, thereby increasing the amount of music available to you. Thanks to all regular commenters.