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!
"Grand Roque" - Maurice Vander - excerpt "The Investigator" - Brian Bennett - excerpt "Beverley Hills" - Steve Gray - excerpt "Base Line" - Syd Dale - excerpt
Time for a post! This is a sequel to my 2010 "Library Rhodes" compilation which people seemed to enjoy. So once again, here's another electric piano journey through the library production music archives from the 1970s, drawing on labels like KPM, Bruton, Amphonic, Montparnasse, Bosworth, Impulse, Major, and Themes International.
Some copshow, some vibes, some jazz and some funk for the holidays ....
Link is in the comments, hope you enjoy this one.
Covers are higher quality in the download.
Here's a tracklist -
01 the fat man - syd dale
02 number one spy - syd dale
03 leisure - jeremy lubbock
04 beverley hills - steve gray
05 on the scent - james clarke
06 the investigator - brian bennett
07 night raider - vic flick
08 second cut - james clarke
09 papillion rouge - paolo zavallone
10 basse duettino - raymond Guilot
11 hocus pokus - walter murphy
12 don’t be cool jacky giordano
13 high checker - scope
14 stadio - the swingers
15 grand roque - maurice vander
16 e.s.b. - frank ricotti
17 fresh appeal - brian bennett
18 the open road - duncan lamont
19 exotica - ole jensen & his music
20 walkabout - david lindup
21 cross rolls - janko nilovic
22 award for achievement 3 - tony kinsey
23 drama montage - brian bennett
24 stop gap - dave gold
25 base line - syd dale
26 turbulence - wally asp
27 waiting game - james clarke
28 storytime - clive hicks
I always wonder at public grief for the deaths of those we have never met, but some people work their way into our hearts, and so their deaths feel personal.
R.I.P. Gil. Thankyou for the wonderful, intimate show you performed in early 1999 at the Bottom Line in New York.
Fantastic latin-jazz-funk album recorded in Lima, Peru in 1976, starring leader/saxaphonist/flautist Nilo Espinosa, formerly of Bossa 70, and also featuring keyboardist Miguel "Chino" Figueroa, a member of renowned latin-funk band Black Sugar.
A killer set from start to finish, starting off with the classic jazz-funker 'Reflexiones', and featuring giant covers of "Black Angel" (a Freddie Hubbard tune penned by Kenny Barron); John Handy's funk tune "Hard Work", and the Blackbyrd's track "Summer Love"(written by Allan Barnes).
The vinyl of this goes for way-too-big bucks, and the CD reissue has been deleted, so I've put the album together by combining relevant parts of an Espinosa CD compilation with a tracked-down missing track "Siempre" - so you can all hear the whole wonderful thing in either WAV or 320 mp3 (apart from 'Siempre', which is at 212kbps) - so check the comments for links and say hi .
TRACKLIST
01. Reflexiones (Figueroa) 02. Looking for a Blues 03. Summer Love (Allan Curtis Barnes) 04. Black Angel (Kenny Barron) 05. Siempre 06. Somos Nada 07. Hard Work (John Handy)
MUSICIANS
Nilo Espinosa: Saxophone [Tenor, Alto, Soprano], Flute Pancho Saenz: Trumpet, Flugelhorn Miguel "Chino" Figueroa: Electric piano, Clavinet, Mellotron Richie Zellon: Electric Guitar Oscar Stagnaro: Electric Bass Ramon Stagnaro: Electric Guitar Andres Silva: Drums Jorge Montero: Guitar Mauro Silva : Congas Ary Quispe : trombone PRODUCTION DETAILS Recorded in Lima, Peru 1976. MAG Records N. 2535
This is my own mix/mash of the vocal from Marvin Gaye's"Sexual Healing" with "Dark Keys" by the Jazz Liberatorz, with some additional editing work. "Sexual Healing" was never one of my favourite Marvin songs due to the original 80s instrumentation - so I replaced it :)
Edit : Thanks to Gilles Peterson for spinning this on Worldwide, and to all the other DJs who've subsequently picked it up for their mixes.
Feel free to publish on your blogs, but a link back would be nice! Hope you enjoy it, please leave a comment.
As a followup to the "Library Rhodes" compilation from the other day, here's Alan Tew's 1975 soundtrack to the Yorkshire TV series "The Hanged Man". This has been around the blogs in a lower bit rate, but here it is in glorious FLAC or 320-mp3, take your choice ...
Several (if not all?) of these tracks were Tew's former library tracks renamed for the series and album release, and four of them actually appeared on the above-mentioned rhodes comp under the original titles - but here's the whole thing.
"Bullet" were a studio band. No exact info is available, but I've read elsewhere that it was likely to have been library legends Alan Parker, Barry Morgan, Les Hurdle on bass, and possibly Alan Hawkshaw on keys.
My files come from a now-deleted CD re-release from 1998, but I've grabbed the images from the original vinyl version from Discogs, 'cos it's a nicer cover, love the star heads. Enjoy.
"The Apartment" "20 Mile High Swinger" (excerpt) "The Fence" (excerpt) "Black Light" (excerpt) "Sidewalk" (excerpt) "Running Fast" (excerpt)
The electric piano frenzy continues with 78 minutes of library goodness brought to you today, so make sure you return those overdue books and settle back for some Sunday sunshine.
If none of us read anymore, then at least we can listen to the library. I wrote a few paragraphs somewhere in another post about why I think we listen to library music, and there's something of a history here, but no need to analyse this weekend as we flow with some classics and favourites :
From Duncan Lamont's chilled opener "The Apartment" (of 'Sweeney' fame) we move into some flute-laden jazz funk territory for a few tracks, then move into some brazil soundalike tracks beginning with Andre Ceccarelli.
Alan Tew's"The Fence" and Stefano Torossi's classic "Fighting For Life" lead us through some wah wah and blaxpo near-tension, before John Cameron's "Half Remembered Daydream" takes us into the centre vocal section of the compilation : for six tracks you can practise your "woo woos", "bu-bu-bu-bu-buhs" and "da da das" - yes folks, welcome to vocalese language school.
Alan Hawkshaw and Brian Bennett pick up the pace as we head into an action section that never quite requires us to remove our seatbelts, before Stan Sulzmann and friends drop us down to some jazz, and then the final soft but still uneasy tones of our constant host Alan Tew.
TRACKLIST
01 the apartment - duncan lamont
02 money runner - alan tew
03 gang progress - andre ceccarelli
04 at risk - david lindup
05 afro metropolis - john cameron
06 undergroove - alan hawkshaw
07 black light - alan parker
08 bossa for my eet - andre ceccarelli
09 virgin land - tony kinsey
10 flute in five four - duncan lamont
11 the fence (version a) - alan tew
12 fighting for life - stefano torrosi
13 the rub - alan tew
14 half forgotten daydreams - john cameron
15 husky birdsong - keith mansfield
16 liquid sunshine- john cameron
17 high diver - alan hawkshaw
18 shout - daniel janin
19 ski bird - alan hawkshaw
20 mile high swinger - alan hawkshaw/brian bennett
21 the rally - dennis farnon
22 dindou no.1 - andre ceccarelli
23 running fast - stefano torrosi
24 theme hypnose - jannick top
25 sojan - stan sulzmann
26 sidewalk - frank ricotti/tony hymas/stan sulzmann
27 nightwatch - alan tew
28 the fence (version b) - alan tew
29 eyes - alan tew
Thanks to my fellow bloggers everywhere for everything. I tend to heavily cull all the library stuff I collect, so it's hard to trace these all back - but I know that thanks should go, as ever, to Quimsy, Bacoso, Reza and many other masters of the known universe ...so please visit these people, talk to them ...
Commiserations to our brazilian friends for the football - some consolation here in the form of twenty-three storming rhodes tracks from, or inspired by their great land.
A brief intro from the master, Hermeto Pascoal, leads us into some jazz-fused bangers from Som Imaginario, Antonio Adolfo, Marcos Resende and others.
O Quarteto'sclustered vocal tones take us through some liveSergio Mendes and Brasil '77into the middle section, fusing pop, funk and soul withMarcos Valle, Hyldon, Banda Black Rioand more.
The fusions of Azymuthand Headhunter Bill Summers (check that keyboard solo) leads us back to the atmospherics of Robertinho Silvaand the deeper jazz of an uncharacteristically instrumental Ed Motta, before we finish with the beautiful melancholy of instrumental Marcos Valle and the amazing voice ofAlaide Costaaccompanied byOscar Castro-Neves.
Enjoy the comp, check the previews above - all tracks @ 320kbps bar one or two - and leave a comment so that I know you're with me on this blogging trip ...
Big everlasting thanks to many blogs and bloggers for feeding my love of various brazilian musics over the last few years - including Quimsy, Ish, Bacoso, Reza, BC, Porco Rosso, Flabbergast, J Thyme, Bruxa, all the Gears crew, and many more, sorry if I've forgotten you ....
Back to some electric piano love. It's been a long time since the last Rhodes compilation, so here's a banging collection of funky, jazzy, 70s latin tracks for your listening pleasure! This is also in celebration of the completion of the Mongo Santamaria discography. Anyway ... the tracklist is on the back cover above, check the previews, and hope you enjoy it.
John Shakespeare Orchestra - "Number One Theme" b/w "Fade Out" (1969), arranged by Quincy Jones, promo for BEA airlines in the UK.
Spotted for $1 at the market around the corner a few weeks back, grabbed this 45 immediately for Crap Jazz Covers, then saw Quincy Jones' name. "Number One Theme" is full of his harpsichord lines, lush strings, hammond solo, "do do-do-dooo" vocals, speedy summertimes at 100 mph ..... and all the not-so-hidden meanings are explained on the back cover above.
The B-Side "Fade Out" is the title theme from a TV episode of "ITV Saturday Night Theatre" starring Stanley Baker. Similar feel, instrumental with an energetic sax solo. Can't find a synopsis of the TV episode, but here's a pic :
Fade Out
People seem to want about 30 pounds for this single, so damn it, we'll give it away for free and throw in a free bikini wax, even for the guys above. Hope you enjoy it (the music, that is).