Brian's Got Some....De Sade jazz?

The Dissection And Reconstruction Of Music From The Past As Performed By The Inmates Of Lalo Schifrin's Demented Ensemble As A Tribute To The Memory Of The Marquis De Sade

Found this in a cobwebbed corner of the Internet long ago. Needless to say, the title jumped out at me. Quite a handle, huh?

So, what is it? Well, with a title like that, you'd expect it to be someone screaming into a piano soundboard while some other Mad Hatter banged a pan and recited snippets from "Philosophy In the Bedroom" or "The 120 Days"? Something like the audio equivalent of watching El Topo, maybe?

No, it's actually just a jazz album, and I admit one that's not near scary enough for a title like that! Mr. Schifrin  was known at the time for his jazzy film scores like The Cincinnati Kid or the Mission: Impossible theme. He doesn't stray too far from those roots. What he does do though is take aspects of 18th century music and apply them to a swinging, mid-60's jazz context.

You hear the gentle opening guitar notes of "Renaissance" and you can imagine them being played on a harpsichord. When an actual harpsichord shows up on "Beneath The Weeping Willow Shade", it seems appropriate under those period-style vocals. And then when that track kicks into gear, it still works. And man, on "Versailles Promenade", the guy is working that harpsichord like Bud Powell!

It's brave that the title track, "Marquis De Sade", has the most pop melody of the whole set. Imagine seeing that song on a hit parade! "Blues For Johann Sebastian Bach" is a great piano-led swinger. "Bossa Antique" is a dark little number, reminding me more than a little of Angelo Badalamenti's work for David Lynch.

Putting this in a kind of historical context - this album came out in 1966. Ten or fifteen years before, De Sade had gotten his first major reprinting and critical reassessment in his native France. The play Marat/Sade had opened in Germany in 1963. In fact, this album's long title is a homage to the full title of that play -

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marat/Sade

So, in a way De Sade was kind of an icon of the underground/avant-garde back then. How he inspired this well-played but still mainstream jazz album is beyond me. The 60's were a strange time all over, I guess.

But this is a swinging little oddity! Put out by Verve Records, produced by Creed Taylor, recorded by the great Rudy Van Gelder. Was put out as one of those Limited Edition CDs, now runs for $100 or more. Files sound great @320 Kbps, and also includes full art.

Brian's Got Some Bobby McFerrin (no, really.....)

It can be aggravating when you're a big fan of an artist, and all other people know about them is that one annoying, stupid song that they did. That is most definitely the case with one of my favorite musicians.... 

Bobby McFerrin is an amazing singer, with a great range, perfect pitch, and a captivating way of singing a cappella, making music using many aspects of his voice. He's also classically trained, an expert on Mozart, and a very gifted conductor. Years ago, I saw him lead the Toledo Symphony Orchestra in a program of Mozart, with a long vocal improvisation in the middle...

AND ALL PEOPLE FUCKING KNOW ABOUT HIM IS "DON'T WORRY BE HAPPY"!!!!!!

*pant, pant, pant* Whew! OK....

Surely one of the most annoying 80's songs next to "We Are the World" and "Walking On Sunshine", "Don't Worry" was a smash hit that was everywhere. And I remember even as a kid, it rang false with me. I'd seen Bobby perform on TV before, and I thought what is this? The faux-Jamaican accent, the flat vocals, the ridiculously simple tune.... it's like if you got Placido Domingo to sing the theme from Three's Company! It's just not representative of the man's talent. It was a fluke hit for him, but that was the zeitgeist at the time.

"Don't Worry..." - and the album it came from, Simple Pleasures - are nowhere near this post. What we start with are his two earlier albums for Elektra - The Voice and Spontaneous Inventions. Voice was an eye-opener for the jazz world, performed entirely unaccompanied. Bobby alternates bass lines, drums on his chest, becoming his own rhythm section. And he can make his voice sound like a muted trumpet, soloing over it all. Key tracks are his versions of "Blackbird" and "I Feel Good", the great "Medley", and the fantastic "I'm My Own Walkman".

Spontaneous was my first CD of his, and still my fave. It's a bit jazzier affair, featuring versions of "Walkin'" (with Wayne Shorter) and "A Night In Tunisia" (w The Manhattan Transfer). Also has one of my fave Beatles covers, his take on "From Me To You". And his duet with Robin Williams, "Beverly Hills Blues", is just phenomenal. Both these albums were recorded live, by the way. They're in one file.

The next album, Medicine Man from 1990, is a bit different. Bobby creates background vocals by multi-tracking himself. It's a great, organic sound. "Sweet In The Mornin'" features a group called Voicestra singing with him. On "Discipline", Voicestra and Bobby Sr. help deliver a solid, gospel-tinged number. The whole album has a mellow, funky world-beat kind of feel. A great summertime CD.

Bobby has had a long friendship with pianist Chick Corea. I have two CD's where they collaborate. This first one, Play ('92), is a live album of duets. There's amazing versions of jazz standards like "Round Midnight" and "Autumn Leaves", as well as "Spain", which is a variation on the Concerto D'Aranjuez. This album sneaks up on you; it's that good.

The next disc, The Mozart Sessions, has Bobby leading the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra with Chick playing piano. Bobby sings as well, but it's not the focus of the music until "Song For Amadeus", where he and Chick improvise off of "Sonata No. 2 in F Major". Gorgeous classical music. If you don't have any Mozart CD's, start with this one!

Again featuring the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Paper Music is a varied program of classical pieces. There's more Mozart, but there's also Stravinsky, Mendelssohn, Bach, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi, Fauré, and Boccherini's "String Minuet". Bobby sings on 5 out of the 9 tracks. A perfectly realized album. Haunting in its own way, really. 

The last disc here is Mouth Music. It is a Sony compilation of his 90's material. Repeats four tracks from the previous classical discs, but it's not a throwaway. Has a different version of "Round Midnight" featuring members of Miles Davis' 60's Quintet. Also several tracks with Yo-Yo Ma, as well as two great "Circlesong" tracks from 1997. 

Brian Brings Some Scary Free Jazz

(Scott)-Not a peep from me on this one, this falls way outside the realm of my limited "expertise" (such as it is)...I'll be checking these out, as I do EVERY SINGLE THING anyone sends me, and thanks once again to Brian for bringing eccentricity and variety to the table!

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Here is a post I hope won't fall on too many deaf ears. I've barely hinted at it before, but I'm a nut for jazz music... I have 150+ CDs of it. And I should say, not the TV menu/background music/smooth jazz kind of crap that passes for it nowadays. I like my stuff pre-1980, that's for sure. I've got a lot of classics to share. But first, we're gonna go weird....

The strangest discipline of jazz I've gotten into is the free stuff. While I have many key albums from the leading artists of the style - Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor - for me, the person who's created the most apocalyptic, fascinating free jazz is German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann. He has been a lynchpin of European free music since the mid-60's. Any number of major musicians have played with him over the years.

                                                              

This first one is an album I posted last year. Machine Gun was a defining moment of 1960's free jazz. The group Brötz assembled consisted of three saxes, a piano, two basses, and two drummers. Comparatively, this thing is like Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz with a shotgun to it's head! Just an explosiveness of sound, reaching a point where the instruments transcend the very idea of music itself and just go for emotion. This file is a rip of my really out of print 2008 Complete Machine Gun Sessions CD.

Balls and Nipples are two mischievously titled albums from the late 60's. Balls is a trio album consisting of Brötz, dynamite drummer Han Bennink, and pianist Fred Van Howe, all returning from Machine Gun. They create a hell of a racket with just three of them. Nipples is a sextet affair, consisting of two long tracks. I don't know the personnel.

In the mid 80's, Brötzmann formed the group Last Exit with bassist Bill Laswell, guitarist Sonny Sharrock, and drummed Ronald Shannon Jackson. They created a driving, rock-edged kind of free jazz, fronted by Brötz's saxophone and the shards of Sharrock's guitar. I've always  wondered if this group was influential to John Zorn; I think his jazz-metal supergroup Painkiller bears no small resemblance to Last Exit.

While they almost exclusively released live albums - of which I've included the dynamic Köln here - they released one studio record, the very rare Iron Path from 1988. If you like energetic music in all it's forms, you just need these two. Maximum volume, kids....

In the late 90's, Brötz formed the Die Like A Dog Quartet. The name of the group refers to how Brötz's musical idol Albert Ayler died. The group featured William Parker and Hamid Drake as the rhythm section, and trumpeter Toshinori Kondo as co-lead instrument. Kondo's trumpet - which bears the strong stamp of Miles Davis's smeary, wailing 70's electric sound - drives Brötz to even greater heights of saxophone fire-breathing.

The centerpiece of their discography is the two disc live album Little Birds Have Fast Hearts. It consist of six parts, ranging in length from 4 mins to 45 minutes long. The group displays any number of emotions and colors throughout while they create their intense sonic stew. Interplay like you can't imagine. These two files are the complete set - 2 1/2 hours of music. Apocalyptic shronk.

If you guys have ever gambled on one of 

my suggestions, try this one too. There is an intensity and purity to this music that must be respected. If your music collection includes grindcore, drone, noise music, or avant-garde strangeness, you may find something to like here. The bonus link for this post is 3 albums by one of my favorite cynical modern comics, a fella named Doug. I had posted one of his albums last year. Here it is again, along with two infamous bootlegs of his from the mid-2000s. This music and this comedy both stare into the abyss.

Brian's got a Nina Simone Trio

(SCOTT)-In our continued effort to keep thing here both interesting and varied, here is Brian's latest
submission, and as usual it's completely unexpected, unique, and of the utmost interest.

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Anybody remember Point Of No Return, that corny American remake of La Femme Nikita? Saw it in high school, don't remember a thing about it, except the fact that Bridget Fonda's character loved Nina Simone. That little factoid somehow led to me becoming a Nina fan myself a few years later. The same reason why Thelonious Monk's appearance on the Se7en soundtrack caused me to become a jazz nut. Life is weird, huh?

I recently saw a trailer for a movie coming out this year about Nina, starring Zoe Saldana (Guardians Of The Galaxy, Star Trek). I understand there's some controversy about such a pretty, light-skinned actress playing a woman who looked so unconventional and unquestionably black. Still, I'm interested to see it - anything that raises public knowledge of Nina is a good thing - and figured I'd get the word and some music of Nina's out beforehand....

                                       

The woman was mercurial, unclassifiable, and very unique.  Her music was jazz, but also touched on folk, blues, and soul, all the time bearing the stamp of her distinctive vocals. There's something androgynous about that voice. And I don't mean that in a funny way; I think it's the central fascinating aspect of her sound. No one, except for maybe Cassandra Wilson, has had a voice like that in contemporary music.

I'm giving you 3 albums: The Amazing Nina Simone (1959), Nina With Strings (1965), and Nina Simone Sings The Blues (1966). Amazing was her second album, and contains "Blue Prelude" and "That's Him Over There", the two songs that bewitched me years ago. Strings actually is a hodgepodge with some added strings, but I still like it. It's contains the rhythmically driving "Blackbird" as well as the stomping "Chain Gang (The Work Song)", which she also plays piano on. BTW, this album is an unsequenced file, so you'll have to number the tracks. Sorry.

Sings The Blues is a great album, too. While no one will confuse Nina with Etta James, she acquits herself well. I particularly like "Backlash Blues" and the really funky "Buck". It also contains her second recording of "House Of The Rising Sun", which is done at a much faster tempo than her stark version off of At The Village Gate. The lady was one of a kind. Hopefully I plant a seed of fandom in some of you. Her voice has gotten me through many hard times. 

The bonus link for this post is an album by an old black comic most of you probably haven't heard of. Funny stuff, though. Really rare, and ripped from warm, slightly crackly vinyl. 

Guest stuff, part 2, Stranglers related

My go-to reggae guy, Cliff in the UK, is still under the weather.... we are all praying for a quick recovery for ya, Cliff.... however, he does send along a fine link to a BBC broadcast, "Men In Black, The Stranglers Story"... very very good, narrated by Glen Matlock.... if you are a Stranglers fan you WANT this trust me.

http://www58.zippyshare.com/v/1dxP8xoC/file.html

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Also in the Stranglers deluge, we have old blog friend John Baker presenting THREE great Stranglers bootlegs from his stash.... the Stranglers mega-post was quite popular, and why not? It's the Stranglers! and these are worth your time, trust me.    First up we have "1977 Live at the Roundhouse"
http://www68.zippyshare.com/v/vEIYaU2C/file.html

Next up is 1980s "Live in Toronto"
http://www68.zippyshare.com/v/V8w5JcZm/file.html/

And finally, from 1981"Emerald City" from Cherry Hill New Jersey......
http://www68.zippyshare.com/v/bLvpECh0/file.html

Thanks loads to Jon Baker for these gems!
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Finally, non-Stranglers, from Jonder comes my favorite recent submission.......I will copy the email
as it is in the form of a review:

Cassandra Wilson is a singer best known for her 1990's jazz albums on Blue Note. Her voice is deep, rich, and smoky (most often compared to Betty Carter and Abbie Lincoln). The musical arrangements on her albums draw on acoustic blues and Afro-Caribbean percussion, and her songs can rarely be labeled as traditional jazz.

Ms. Wilson is also known for unconventional interpretations of cover songs. She was born in Mississippi, and was a child of the 60's who became a teen in the 70's. She was raised on popular radio, blues and country classics, as well as jazz standards. Her own music breaks down the boundaries of these genres.

Many of Wilson's pop/rock covers were compiled on the 2009 collection Closer To You (including her sublime versions of "Tupelo Honey", "Harvest Moon" and a slow burning "Last Train to Clarksville"). This is my homemade companion volume, which includes songs released during the past
two decades for Wilson's own albums as well as soundtracks, tributes, and guest appearances on other artists' albums (bassist Lonnie Plaxico, violinist Regina Carter, and guitarist Pat Martino).

Cassandra Wilson and her musical collaborators take surprising approaches to well-known songs and transform them into something new and truly special.

01 Crazy Love (Van Morrison)
02 The Wind Cries Mary (Jimi Hendrix)
03 Blackbird (The Beatles)
04 I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry (Hank Williams)
05 If It's Magic (Stevie Wonder)
06 Both Sides Now (Joni Mitchell)
07 Killing Me Softly With His Song (as made famous by Roberta Flack, The
Fugees, etc)
08 If Loving You Is Wrong (as made famous by Luther Ingram, Barbara
Mandrell, etc)
09 One Less Bell To Answer (Burt Bacharach)
10 Longer (Dan Fogelberg)
11 Papa Was A Rollin' Stone (as made famous by The Temptations)
12 Only A Dream In Rio (James Taylor)
13 Painted from Memory (Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach)
14 Crazy (Willie Nelson)
15 Shelter From The Storm (Bob Dylan)
16 Black Crow (Joni Mitchell)

(SCOTT): "Shelter from the Storm" blew me away but the rest is great too....fantastic homemade comp!

A bunch of presents from the great Dave Sez!

Of the several (HINT: I wish there were MORE OF THEM) guest posters that generously contribute
to the site, Dave Sez has probably contributed the most varied selection of things for our listening pleasure....he's recently sent me four such packages, and I'm going to round all four of them up today......haven't listened to any of them yet, so we will find out together. Please, I'm just passing them along to you....if you opt to sample all/any of them, please extend your gratitude to Dave Sez, with the hope that he will continue to contribute to the blog from his extensive collection. Also, if anyone else has ANYTHING they think would be of interest, PLEASE contribute it, tapes of your bar band, rarities, hell, a tape of your kid's choir or something. Tomorrow, we will get another segment of Greek Punk from Apantabapanta, as well as some stuff from Ruben Chandler's band that I said I'd put up a while back and forgot to.....but today, it's all about the generosity of Dave Sez, so let's see what he has for us in THIS delivery.

First up, we have a fine looking comp, "Fast Product-Mutant Pop 78-79 (1980), features mutlipel tracks from The Mekons, Scars, The Human League, 2-3, the Flowers, and Gang of Four....correcting what I said earlier, I DID listen to this one and it's cool, looked it up and it's a group of obscure 7"'s from Fast Product Records, the highlight for me being the alternate versions of "future" Gang of Four classics, "Anthrax", "Damaged Goods", and "Armalite Rifle"......also always love discovering a "new" act from that era, and I was, until now unfamiliar with 2-3, the Scars, and the Flowers, all of whom certainly merit a listen, I found the Scars especially appealing.

FAST PRODUCT-MUTANT POP 78-79-01 THE MEKONS-Never Been In a Riot/02 THE MEKONS-32 Weeks/03 THE MEKONS-Where You Been/04 THE SCARS-Adultery/05 THE SCARS-Horror Show/06 THE HUMAN LEAGUE-Being Boiled/07 HUMAN LEAGUE-Circus of Death/08 2-3-All Time Low/09 2-3-Where to Know/10 THE FLOWERS-After Dark/11 THE FLOWERS-Confessions/12 GANG OF FOUR-Love Like Anthrax/13 GAMG OF FOUR-Aramlite Rifle/14 GANG OF FOUR-Damaged Goods

See comment section for link.
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Next up we have a live set from Wilko Johnson, of which whom Dave Sez has shared some fine work
before.....if you don't know him, Johnson is a fine blues singer/guitarist who is best known for his work with Dr. Feelgood in the 70's.....always great fun to hear his rumbling guitar work, scanning the tracklist by eyeball, I see "Wooly Bully" makes an appearance, can't recall for sure hearing him take on that classic before, should be fun!

WILKO JOHNSON 1990.12.00 BELGRADE, K.S.T. CLUB-01 All Right/02 Title/03 Dr. Dupree/04 I Wanna Be Your Lover/05 You Got Me/06 Track 6/07 Sneakin Suspicion/08 When I'm Gone/09 Extasy/10 Wooly Bully/11 Don't Let Your Daddy Know, Part 1/12 Don't Let Your Daddy Know, part 2/13 Back in the Night/14 She Does It Right/15 Roxette/16 Bottle Up and Go/17 Audience/18 Bye Bye Johnny

See comment section for link
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Now, for something in the "anything goes" spirit in which I try to keep the blog, a spirit which Dave Sez understands completely...Rites of Strings, from whom I have never heard a note, taken from Chapiteau de Maricac, Jazz A Maricac, France, July 30 2007......the trip consists of Violinist Jean Luc Ponty, with whom we are likely all familiar and has created some tremendous sounds over the years, guitarist Al Di Meola, and double bassist Stanley Clarke.....I know about as much about jazz as I know about playing 3-D Chinese Scrabble, however, I do know this: I trust fully in Dave Sez' judgement, and, also, I have always enjoyed what I've heard of Ponty, who at times used to get some play on some of the free-est form rock stations back in those late great 70's.....I will be listening to this one within the hour, betting it's quality, and I'd like YOU to check into it as well......and let me and "provider" Dave Sez know your thoughts on it, and to everyone, I WELCOME CONTRIBUTIONS LIKE THIS, anythime......

RITE OF STRINGS-JAZZ MARCIAC 2007-01 Indigo/02 Memory Canyon/0 Song To John/04 Poema Valseado/05 Nostalgia/Desert Crossing/06 All About the Bass (parts 1 & 2)/07 Renaissance/08 Mediterranean Sundance

See comment section for link
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And, finally, from the generous Dave Sez, we unwrap the final of our Christmas gifts.... Well, this is
certainly of interest.... a (long) while back I posted a bunch of Police rarities..... "rarities" being a relative term when it comes to this package though..... first of all, Sting's first band, Last Exit, come through with a set of studio demos from between 1974-76... Last Exit were Keyboardist Gerry Richardson, bassist/vocalist Sting, drummer/vocalist Ronnie Pearson, and guitarist John Headly... see below for track listings, Tracks 1-4 are 1974 demos from Impulse Studio, Tracks 5-15 are also from Impulse, ca. 1976.

LAST EXIT-IMPULSE STUDIO DEMOS-01 Every Day's Just the Same/02 Carrion Prince (Ye of Little Hope) (Alternate Short Version)/03 Don't Let It Bring You Down/04 Whispering Voices (Alternate version)/05 Carrion Prince (Ye of Little Hope) (Alternate Long Version)/07 I Burn For You/08 Untitled Instrumental I/09 Fool In Love/10 I'm On This Train (Alternate Version)/11 Don't You Look At Me/12 Savage Beast (Alternate Version)/13 Untitled Instrumental II/14 Soul Music/15 Night In the Grand Hotel......

Next in this collection is a recording by the original Police from 1977, Dave Sez it's the only recording he knows of with Henry Padovani on guitar. Also a single from the same era.

THE POLICE-3/6/77 LONDON NASHVILLE-01 Landlord/02 Kids to Blame/03 Clouds In Venice/04 Night at the Grand Hotel/05 It's My Life/06 Dead End Job/07 Fall Out

THE POLICE 1977 single-01 Fall Out/02 Nothing Achieving
And finally, a single from a crew which called itself The Radio Actors, also from 1977

RADIO ACTORS-01 Nuclear Waste/02 Digital Love

Interesting lineup for this last single, bassist Mike Howlett, Drummer Steve Broughton, Guitarist Steve Hillage, Vocalist Sting, rhythm guitarist/vocalist harry Williamson, saxophonist/vocalist Nick Turner, vocalist Gilli Smyth.

Check it out and let the world know what you think.  See comment section for link!