George Duke - A Brazilian Love Affair

This album is one of my favourites. I know and love every note.

I think I was first introduced to it in the mid-eighties by my mate, who had the LP, which I taped. I reckon I must’ve played that tape a lot, until I picked up a copy on CD.

I got this superb Japanese pressing from friends for my birthday a few years ago, obi strip and fold-out sleeve notes n’all.

It’s basically Duke doing his thing in Rio with a load of Brazilian musicians (most of whom he was playing with regularly anyway). This album opened up a whole new world of music and musicians to me. It was my introduction to Airto, Flora Purim and Milton Nascimento, just for starters.

Whilst we’re on the subject of Milton Nascimento, I was once in a record shop run by a very knobby-know-it-all-cunt. He was playing Cravo E Canela (the Tortoise & Bonnie Prince Billy version, as it turned out). “Oh” says I, just making conversation like, “Cravo E Canela – I’ve got George Duke doing this.”
“Ohh no,” says K.K.I.A.C., “This is a Bonnie Prince Billy song, blah, blah, Tortoise, blah, blah.”
“Nah, mate - it’s a Milton Nascimento tune, I think you'll find.”
He wasn’t having a bar of it, even as I left the shop, confident that he would look it up when I'd gone.

Oh, and the I’d like to say the Tortoise & Bonnie Prince Bill version is shite, but it’s quite OK.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#GeorgeDuke
#ABrazilianLoveAffair
#JazzFusion
#Music

Larry Young - Larry Young's Fuel

I sometimes find myself in the position of pulling a record off the shelf and thinking, “I’ve not played this much – I bet it’s great.” For someone who tends to be something of a pessimist, this is an oddly optimistic kink in my psychological make-up.

It’s an unusual album, this.

Larry Young had played on Bitches Brew five years prior and was clearly still in that groove. There is no doubting whose name was on the record sleeve here. Young would’ve been sitting in front of the mixing desk nudging up the keyboard faders, and proclaiming, “More keyboard!”

And, after all, this is what gives rare groove classic Turn Off The Lights its odd-ball charm.

The rest of the album is a much more challenging listen. It has a kind of proggy ELP vibe at times. And I’m not sure that’s a good thing.

This is a demo copy of the album and came with a biography and 8x10 glossy headshot, which is nice.

Interestingly, the biography, spends two-and-a-bit sides telling us about Young’s credentials, then only addresses the actual album in one, rather damning, line:

‘The album’s sound takes on a distinct character created by Young’s simultaneous playing of all the keyboards involved. (Moog, organ, piano, Fender Rhodes electric piano.) He is very pleased with the results.’ - LOL.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#LarryYoung
#LarryYoungsFuel
#JazzFusion
#Music

John McLaughlin With The One Truth Band - Electric Dreams

My copy of this is a US pressing, which has been ‘manually rebranded’ for CBS in international markets. I’ve read about this but never seen it in the wild before. The back cover has been redacted with a texta and the labels have black rings stuck over them, obscuring the Columbia logo. This would’ve been someone’s job, man.

Talking of shit jobs, L. Shankar, the violinist on this album, went on to play on Phil Collins’s Face Value album the following year.

This album came out the year after my favourite J.Mc album, and it’s a clear move further into the rock sphere, which for my ears, makes it a tad dull.

I’d never properly looked at the sleeve before today. The front photo is a sepia toned photo of old mate John sitting at a white Formica fold out kitchen table in his jim-jams and satin dressing gown. Before him is a coffee cup full of pitch black fluid, with a spoon standing up in it. Now this could be seen as uncouth, although please remember Johnny-boy comes from Donny, where this is probably OK. Also, the black fluid could be Yorkshire tea.

Behind him, his appliances seem to have gone boonta, have adopted ghostly manifestations, and are levitating. This is particularly worrying because what can only be described as a kettle/clock combo are plugged in quite high up the wall on a short cord. If it stopped levitating it would be just dangling there.

To make matters worse, ALL FOUR rings on his electric stove top are blaring. Turn them off, man!

As if all this isn’t bad enough, there’s a ghostly girl stood outside the window holding a suitcase. No-one wants that.

Nightmare.

Here’s an interesting snippet for you: the son of Fernando Saunders, who played bass on this album, represented Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2014.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#JohnMcLaughlin
#OneTruthBand
#ElectricDreams
#JazzFusion
#Music

John Spithead

2025-03-05 02:52:58

We got one there. We got one there.

John McLaughlin - Electric Guitarist

I believe that this was the first proper jazz-fusion LP I bought. I remember picking it up in JiFS Records, Chadwell Heath in about 1984. (Man, I'd fucking love to go back and have a dig in that shop again!) I was an avid reader of guitarist magazines at the time and kept reading about McLaughlin and his Gatling gun playing-style, and just had to hear it. There was no way of hearing it before buying in those days, so it was a bit of a gamble, although to be fair, I knew I was going to love it.

All the big guns are wheeled out in support of McLaughlin on this album and they all get a fair shake of the sauce bottle.

The second track, Friendship, is a frequent spinner on my earworm jukebox, and has been for some 40 years now.

url=https://friendica.world/photos/johnspithead/image/120244070867c7bc835c083569008833][/url]

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#Jazz-Fusion
#JohnMcLaughlin

Miles Davis - Live-Evil

It was Fathers' Day yesterday in Australia. I try my best to be a conscientious objector (I mean, the kids didn't ask for me to impregnate their mother, thus forcing them into existence, and so really have no need to thank me for doing my basic duty to them in the intervening years), but my bastard children won't have it. In an attempt to limit the proceedings, I suggested that - if they must - they just fill a Live-Evil shaped gap in my record collection and be done with it. It was a partial success, in that I do now own a Record Store Day reissue of the album on teal-splatter (What a time to be alive, eh?) vinyl.

I haven't heard Live-Evil before and it's quite a substantial work, so these are just my initial thoughts:

- Like I say, there's a lot of it. It's going to take time to digest.
- This is firmly in the On The Corner ballpark, although generally dialled up a notch or two. Davis is wah-wahing away like a man possessed.
- John McLaughlin's guitar sound, let alone his playing, took my breath away.

Anyway, I might add further comments in future as I get into this more.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#MilesDavis
#LiveEvil
#JazzFusion
#JohnMcLaughlin
#Music

George Duke - I Love The Blues, She Heard My Cry

I picked this album up in my local record shop a few years ago after I’d popped out to buy a cucumber or something. They’d had a delivery of second-hand jazz-funk and I couldn’t resist filling my boots.

It has a real heavyweight line-up, including Flora Purim, Airto, Leon Ndugu Chancellor, Lee Ritenour and Johnny “Guitar” Watson, but it largely falls short of the potential there. It’s easy to let the album’s worst moment, the absolutely awful, no redeeming features, Rokkinrowl – in which they do a really poor Jimi Hendrix impression, overshadow the rest of the album.

The high points are Flora Purim’s appearance on Look Into Her Eyes, a song she later reprised on That’s What She Said; Someday sounds years ahead of its time, Duke’s keyboard playing is so him-sounding and his electronic wizardry is so advanced for 1975, and it’s always good to hear JGW singing and playing.

Worth noting, it’s an Aussie pressing which, for once, isn’t really shit.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#GeorgeDuke
#IloveTheBluesSheHeardMeCry
#Jazz
#JazzFusion
#FloraPurim
#Airto

John Spithead

2025-06-28 04:21:55

I can feel you in my space

Flora Purim - Stories To Tell

Friendica has been out of action for a while, so I've got a bit of a backlog of tunes to post. Glad it's back, but I'm going to miss those 503 Service Unavailable messages. It means some of those #NowPlaying tags will be a bit of a lie.

I went onto Discogs over the weekend to have a quick look at what Flora Purim albums I don’t have and discovered that I own this. Turns out it had been mis-filed.

A really decent album. Brazilian-Fusion with the emphasis on the Brazilian. Flora calls back to her work with Chick Corea/Neville Potter’s Scientology-fusion Return To Forever work on the super-angular-funky title track.

It has Earl Klugh listed as guitarist. I’ve got a couple of his albums and they tend to be verrrrry melllllow affairs. I was onto the second side when I thought, “Bloody hell, Earl, you’re going for it a bit.” Turns out Carlos Santana was swapped in for that track.

Looks like I paid $20 for this, probably in Mr V’s in Semaphore. Bargain.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#Music
#FloraPurim
#StoriesToTell
#JazzFusion
#BrazilianFusion

Flora Purim - Stories To Tell

Friendica has been out of action for a while, so I've got a bit of a backlog of tunes to post. Glad it's back, but I'm going to miss those 503 Service Unavailable messages. It means some of those #NowPlaying tags will be a bit of a lie.

I went onto Discogs over the weekend to have a quick look at what Flora Purim albums I don’t have and discovered that I own this. Turns out it had been mis-filed.

A really decent album. Brazilian-Fusion with the emphasis on the Brazilian. Flora calls back to her work with Chick Corea/Neville Potter’s Scientology-fusion Return To Forever work on the super-angular-funky title track.

It has Earl Klugh listed as guitarist. I’ve got a couple of his albums and they tend to be verrrrry melllllow affairs. I was onto the second side when I thought, “Bloody hell, Earl, you’re going for it a bit.” Turns out Carlos Santana was swapped in for that track.

Looks like I paid $20 for this, probably in Mr V’s in Semaphore. Bargain.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#Music
#FloraPurim
#StoriesToTell
#JazzFusion
#BrazilianFusion

Flora Purim - Open Your Eyes You Can Fly

A prime slice of mid-70's Brazilian-fusion, featuring all the usual suspects, or, as it says under the personnel photo on the inside of the gatefold, 'Flora and some of her associates...'

This album has Flora covering the Chick Corea/Neville Potter Scientology-singalong, Sometime Ago from the Return To Forever album of a couple of years prior.

The sticker on the cover shows I paid $8 for this. I reckon it was from Porthole Records in Port Adelaide in about 2010.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#FloraPurim
#JazzFusion
#BrazilianFusion

John Spithead

2025-05-03 01:26:05

What shall we see, for the first time altogether?

Chick Corea - Return To Forever

This is the album that gave birth to the band Return To Forever. Corea's next album would be Light As A Featherfriendica.world/display/84b6ef… You can see why they might've thought this particular vein might've been worth chiseling away at a bit more.

I picked it up yesterday. Japanese pressing, no obi strip - which the record nerd in me mourns, but the pragmatist in me doesn't mind, because they are a bit of a ball-ache to keep undamaged. Japanese pressings, though, are always beautiful.

I think jazz-fusion must've been quite big in Australia in the 1970s, because second hand record shops often have a good selection. Also, there's always a disproportionate (to my mind) amount of Herbie Mann and Chuck Mangione albums.

Addit. After a few spins, this album is just getting better and better. An amazing piece of work.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#ChickCorea
#ReturnToForever
#JazzFusion

Chick Corea - Return To Forever

This is the album that gave birth to the band Return To Forever. Corea's next album would be Light As A Featherfriendica.world/display/84b6ef… You can see why they might've thought this particular vein might've been worth chiseling away at a bit more.

I picked it up yesterday. Japanese pressing, no obi strip - which the record nerd in me mourns, but the pragmatist in me doesn't mind, because they are a bit of a ball-ache to keep undamaged. Japanese pressings, though, are always beautiful.

I think jazz-fusion must've been quite big in Australia in the 1970s, because second hand record shops often have a good selection. Also, there's always a disproportionate (to my mind) amount of Herbie Mann and Chuck Mangione albums.

Addit. After a few spins, this album is just getting better and better. An amazing piece of work.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#ChickCorea
#ReturnToForever
#JazzFusion

John Spithead

2025-02-27 10:25:20

Floating like a bird am I

Chick Corea and Return to Forever - Light As A Feather

The second RTF album, with Flora Purim on vocals, her husband Airto Moreira on percussion, Stanley Clarke on bass, and Joe Farrell on flute and saxophone, has them gliding through really complex Brazilian-jazz-fusion flavours, without compromising on complexity or losing the groove - a very hard balance to achieve.

It's one hell of an album, even on my rather shitty Australian pressing.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#ChickCorea
#ReturnToForever
#Jazz