Chuck Mangione - Tarantella

I have, I believe, three Chuck Mangione albums, all of them purchased from either op shops or, like this one , a proper old junk shop in Newtown, Sydney with a couple of crates of records out front.

This is a live double album of Mangione and friends in concert. And what friends he had: Dizzy Gillespie, Chick Corea, Steve Gadd, Eric Gale and Ralph McDondald all put in a shift.

Record one is kind of large-band latin-y fusion. Not bad. Side two, however, with Gillespie added, goes harder.

#Music #NowPlaying #ChuckMangione #DizzyGillespie #Jazz #Vinyl #Tarantella

Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson - 1980

I could've sworn I'd written about this record before, but no...it seems not.

This is a fantastic album, both musically and lyrically.

The issues covered are still relevant a mere 46 years later.

I miss Gil Scott-Heron.

#NowPlaying #Music #Vinyl #GilScottHeronBrianJackson #1980

S.O.S Band - Just The Way You Like It

Another whopping Jam & Lewis production. So good.

#NowPlaying #Vinyl #Music #Boogie #Soul #SOSBand #JimmyJanandTerryLewis #JustTheWayYouLikeIt

Change - Change OF Heart 12"

Super-oomphy Jam & Lewis production. Just brilliant.

#NowPlaying #Music #Vinyl #Change #ChangeofHeart #Boogie #JimmyJamandTerryLewis

Change - The Glow of Love

I’ve owned this album since about 1984, bought as a cut-out from JiFS, I reckon.
I don’t reckon I’ve ever played it as an album though, only the biggies: Searching, A Lover’s Holiday and The Glow of Love. The rest of the tracks are OK I suppose; they just pale a bit next to the three aforementioned colossi.

Luther Vandross and Jocelyn Brown on vocals are *chef's kiss*.

I listened to a podcast recently with Dimitri From Paris who said Glow Of Love was his favourite tune ever and he'd looked into remixing it, but the tapes have all been lost. In a way, I'm glad.

#NowPlaying #Music #PostDisco #Soul #Vinyl #Change #TheGlowOfLove #LutherVandross #JocelynBrown #DimitriFromParis

Roy Davis Jr. - Gabrielle 12"

My first born was 29 yesterday.

When I bundled his heavily pregnant mother into the Mini to drive her to hospital all those years ago, this record came on the stereo. It was included on one of those compilations they’d give away with Mixmag or whatever and it was in the CD player.

The only version that matters is the second track on side B, the Live Garage mix. It’s a masterpiece.

Looking on Discogs, it seems the name of this tune varied across the versions, from the masculine Gabriel to the feminine, Gabrielle.

#Music #NowPlaying #Vinyl #RoyDavisJr #Gabrielle #Garage #Mixmag

Johnny Reggae Rub Foundation – No Bam Bam

This is terrible. The drums in particular are just...all wrong. I don’t think it’s a drummer – it sounds like it’s someone just hitting a snare with one stick. Out of time. All wrong, I tell you.

A friend bought me this, so loathe as I am to slag it off, I can barely bring myself to listen to side two.

Update: I took that needle off half way through side two. It was setting my teeth on edge.

#NowPlaying #Vinyl #Music #Ska #JohnnyReggaeRubFoundation #NoBamBam

Gabor Szabo – Dreams

My only prior knowledge of Szabo was that he wrote George Benson’s Breezin’ with Bobby Womack. He led quite an interesting life: growing up in communist Budapest and moving to America, making his name as a jazz guitarist (and what at beautiful guitarist he was), suing the Church of Scientology, before dying as a result of his heroin use.

I remember reading somewhere recently (possibly Miles Davis's autobiography) that he would have been much more well known if he hadn't prioritised the gear.

This is an album of slightly Hungarian-folk-sounding guitar-led pieces. Apparently, this is called third stream: basically, a fusion of classical and jazz. It would veer a little towards the 1970s budget supermarket album sound, especially with him covering Donovan, if it wasn’t for the quality of his playing.

#Vinyl #NowPlaying #Music #Jazz #GaborSzabo #Dreams

Teena Marie – It Must Be Magic

Arguably Teena Marie’s best album, this. Certainly my favourite.

I bought it at the first Rockley Sands Weekender after Portuguese Love had been a dancefloor smash. Fifteen quid, I reckon.

#Vinyl #NowPlaying #Music #Soul #TeenaMarie #ItMustBeMagic #PortugueseLove #RockleySandsWeekender

Rick James - Wonderful

Low-point is the Cameo knock-off So Tight - such a soundalike of Word Up that the inner sleeve says 'influenced by'.

Loosey's Rap was the hit of the album, although that was likely due to Roxanne Shante bringing it. Other than that, only Love's Fire gets anywhere near where we should expect.

James' mind was elsewhere at the time, obviously.

I've got two copies of this.

#RickJames #Wonderful #RoxanneShante #Vinyl #Music #Funk #NowPlaying

Universal Robot Band - Barely Breaking Even

A tune (TUUUNE!) that still sends tingles of disco excitement down my decrepit central nervous system. ("Doctor! He's alive!")

Leroy Burgess. John Morales. Oof.

Bootlegged and reissued a couple of times. This is the original US 1982 release.

#UniversalRobotBand #BarelyBreakingEven #Music #Vinyl #Boogie #PostDisco #LeroyBurgess #JohnMorales

Cherrelle with Alexander O'Neal - Saturday Love (Extended Version) 12"

A nice bit of peak-Jam & Lewis-produced boogie.

#CherrelleandAlexanderO'Neal #SaturdayLove #NowPlaying #Vinyl #Music #Boogie #Soul #JimmyJamandTerryLewis

Bobby Womack - Lookin' For A Love Again

I used to frequent a record shop in a basement in Camden High Street and got on with the bloke behind the counter and we'd spend a bit of time chatting about music. I picked this up and put it on the counter and he said, "Oh, I was going to buy that." He later turned up as one of Captain Birdseye's associates in the fish fingers advert that was running at the time.

This is my favourite period of Womack's work. This album's got a couple of his best tunes on it.

I'd completely forgotten that, a few years later, I used to work with a bloke who was married to a Black American woman. Bobby Womack was a family friend. The bloke from work visited her family and said to Bobby Womack that he worked with a bloke who is a massive fan. Bobby Womack said something like, "That's nice."

#Music #BobbyWomack #Vinyl #NowPlaying #LookinForALove #Camden #CaptainBirdseye #Soul

Boz Scaggs - Silk Degrees

I suppose it's testament to how big a hit this album was in 1976 that it is involved in several memories I have of that year. To 11 year old me, watching the video to What Can I Say on Top Of The Pops, it all seemed so...American. Of course, American culture was still a very foreign concept to me then.

I picked this up years later on a whim for a dollar, largely due to it containing the whopping open drum break intro on Lowdown, and it's sat unplayed on the shelf until today.

Musically, the best of the tracks are what would have been described as 'blue-eyed soul'. There's also some terrible cod-reggae and some Stones-ey stuff. It now gets called 'yacht rock'. It has musos on it who later went on to be in Toto.

#BozScaggs #SilkDegrees #NowPlaying #Music #Vinyl

Lee Perry & Friends - Shocks Of Mighty 1969-1974

A collection of lesser-know Perry productions which sound like they were recorded on shitty old tape, then pressed to the terrible JA vinyl from which they've been lifted, and pressed onto even shitter vinyl. You never know where in the process that crackle comes from. Sold to me in the late 80's for five pounds seventy five.

Still good.

Incidentally, the Attack label was started by Graeme Goodall, an Aussie, who set up Tuff Gong Studios and was massively involved in the development of reggae.

#Vinyl #NowPlaying #Music #Reggae # LeePerry #ShocksOfMighty

Herbie Hancock - Sunlight

"Irk the purists, irk the purists, Irk the purists, it's a right good laugh," sang Half Man Half Biscuit.

Looking back on the slagging that this album received on its release, Hancock had managed to irk those purists who wanted him to play straight jazz (and who had already been well-irked by his Headhunters period) and those who wanted him to play funky Headhunters-style stuff. People found his use of Vocoder vocals particularly irksome.

Don't listen to them: this is a fucking great jazz-funk album. It even features Tony Williams and Jaco Pastorius on one track.

#NowPlaying #Music #JazzFunk #HerbieHancock #Sunlight #Vinyl #Vocoder

Herbie Hancock - Feets Don't Fail Me Now

By the time you're onto your twenty-second album, you'd think you might be running low on ideas. Not Herbie Hancock: he filled the studio with the great and the good of Black America's session community and produced an album of late-stage disco and funk with Herbie doing Vocoder vocals over the top. Not all ideas are good ones.

Apart from the album's massive smash hit, You Bet Your Love, it's a pretty average affair. Not bad. You Bet Your Love is brilliant though. It a truly odd slice of disco.

#NowPlaying #Music #HerbieHancock #Vinyl #FeetsDontFailMeNow #Disco #Vocoder

Various – Saturday Night Fever (The Original Movie Sound Track)

We watched the documentary, ROBERT STIGWOOD “Mr. Saturday Night” the other night. It was more of a story of the film than the man, which was a little disappointing, but it was worth a watch
.
Whilst the docco mentioned that Stigwood came from Australia, what it didn’t mention was that he came from Port Pirie, a rather grim, lead smelting town in the Mid North region of South Australia with a reputation for violence. I think this makes his rise to being one of the most influential people in the music business even more remarkable.

I had a little Bee Gees session whilst I was doing some cooking and gave this a spin as part of it. This album is so well known there really isn’t much left to say about it.

#Music #NowPlaying #Vinyl #RobertStigwood #SaturdayNightFever #BeeGees #MrSaturdayNight

The Family - The Family Album

This album kicks off with its two bangers segued together. Now segueing tracks is not something I normally approve of, but it really works here, for some reason. Either of these two tunes transport me instantly back to The Royal Oak in Tooley St (RIP) in 1985. Without wishing to lapse into hyperbole, they are better than the entirety of Prince's 1980s output.

Also of note is the rather dreary Nothing Compares 2U, which developed a life of its own a few years later. Whodathunkit?

#Music #NowPlaying #Vinyl #TheFamily #TheFamilyAlbum #PaiseyPark #Prince #NothingCompares2U

Jerry Butler - You & Me

A bit of a lacklustre effort from Butler, here. Everything is just a little bit underwhelming; a little off.

Highlights are the two 'big' cover versions: George Harrison's Something and Terry Callier's Ordinary Joe, which just needed to be pitched up a bit to make it shine.

Also, the sleeve has a flap with the opening near the spine where the inner 'hinge' is. Designed for maximum difficulty to describe in words and maximum inconvenience when trying to get the record out,

#Music #Vinyl #JerryButler #YouandMe #Soul #GeorgeHarrison #TerryCallier #NowPlaying

Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson - Bridges

This album contains one of Scott-Heron/Jackson's finest tunes, We Almost Lost Detroit. Like most people who were involved in the rare groove scene of the late eighties, though, I bought this album for Racetrack In France a lyrically and musically odd tune which works wonders on a dancefloor.

#nowplaying #Music #Vinyl #GilScott-Heron #BrianJackson #Bridges

Steve Williamson - A Waltz For Grace

I managed to fire up my intermittently-functioning CD player this afternoon and stuck this on.

Amongst the, often rather lightweight, Acid Jazz (Flaccid Jazz?) acts of the late 80s-early 90s, Williamson stood out. I'd seen him play at Dingwalls in 1990 - skip to 23:47 on this clip to see some of that actual performance - and he blew my socks off.

I bought this, his debut - on Verve, no less - as soon as it came out, and was a bit disappointed. Apart from the title track and the Stevie Wonder cover, it didn't grab me in the way that he had live.

Listening to it today, it sounds fucking great. I wish I'd played this more.

Williamson seems destined to be underappreciated. He deserves better.

#NowPlaying #Music #CD #Jazz #Verve #SteveWilliamson #AWaltzForGrace #Dingwalls

Chick Corea - Tap Step

In this country, it's illegal to fix your own plumbing or electrics unless you're a sparky or plumber. Fuck right off. Back in the auld country, I rewired a three storey house using pictures from a children's book on electrics as a guide. It still hasn't burned down.

Just to show what a Dick Turpin motherfucker I am, I spent yesterday fixing electrics and plumbing at my daughter's house and fitted a mixer tap at mine. Saved myself about $1500, I reckon.

This morning, a bit sore with having spent yesterday contorting myself underneath sinks, I pull this off the shelf for a spin. It's TAP step. That's the universe for ya!

I picked this album up in Clarity a few years back and haven't played it much. I don't know why - it's really good. Chick and his usual chums doing latin-fusion. Often spikey and complex; sometimes light and melodic.

Samba L.A. is an old jazz room classic. Magic Carpet is a shape-shifting monster.

#NowPlaying #JazzFusion #LatinFusion #Music #Vinyl #ChickCorea #TapStep

Richard Thompson - Daring Adventures

The Americanised version of Thompson's schtick goes a bit Dire Straits-y with all that Stratocaster. Not a bad album, to be fair. I don't know how a person can come up with such a high volume of songs, to be honest. You can't help thinking that less glossy, more folkier versions would have sounded better though.

#NowPlaying #Music #Vinyl #RichardThompson #DaringAdventures #folkrock

Richard Thompson - Across A Crowded Room

Never mind cocaine, if there's one thing that guitarists in the eighties couldn't get enough of it's the chorus pedal. From New Years Day 1990 to New Year Eve 1999, seemingly no-one ever said, "Is that too much chorus pedal, do you think?"

This album's smothered in it. Got to say, I'm starting to love it again.

#Music #Vinyl #NowPlaying #RichardThompson #FolkRock #AcrossACrowdedRoom

John Martyn - The Tumbler

A very young Martyn on just his second album. The guitar work on this album is something else.

#Music #NowPlaying #Vinyl #JohnMartyn #Folk #TheTumbler

Horslips - Dancehall Sweethearts

I finally managed to go to Lenny's Records in Adelaide today. I only bought records from the British Folk section. Including this...definitely not British...album.

I've been meaning to get some Horslips on my shelves for a while. This is their third album, from 1974. A mixture of Irish folk and proggy seventies rock. Cool.

The cover tells us, 'Believe it or not these tracks have traditional airs concealed about their persons.' Apparently, the album is based on the travels of an 18th Century blind harper. The record company made them come up with a more contemporary title and cover to hide this fact.

#Music #NowPlaying #Vinyl #Horslips #Irish #Folk #Rock

I-Roy - Crucial Cuts

Nothing dates this 1983 compilation as much as the word Crucial in the title. Its days as a hyperbolic adjective have long passed. You have to say it in Delbert Wilkins' voice. Crucial. Now you try it. Crucial.

A compilation of the mighty I-Roy's seventies work, pressed on possibly the shittiest vinyl in existence.

I picked this up in a little second hand record shop in Whitechapel Road in the late 80s.

I'm going to start bringing the word crucial back into use.

#Music #NowPlaying #Vinyl #IRoy #CrucialCuts #DelbertWilkins #Crucial #Toasting

Roni Size & Reprazent - New Forms

This came out just four months before our son was born. He had terrible cholic and screamed the house down for at least the first three months of his life. One of the only ways to get him to settle was to play him this. Loud.

As such, it’s an album that comes with such a high emotional load for me, it's now hard to be objective about it.

I haven’t actually sat and listened to it for decades until now. Man, it’s good. So good.
Easily in my top ten albums of all time.

The sticker on the front says it's a Mercury Music Prize nominee - it went on to win it. I can remember the Radio 4 morning news people trying to explain to listeners what Jungle was. One of them described it as the sound of cutlery in a tumble drier. I like that.

For me, this album also marks the transition from Jungle to DrumNBass.

#NowPlaying #Music #CD #RoniSize #Reprezent #NewForms #Jungle #DrumNBass

Rose Royce - Car Wash: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

I’ve never seen Car Wash. I’ve always wanted to. I remember my older sister going to see this at the pictures and buying the album, so I was quite familiar with it before I picked it up second hand years later.

This album has some whopping hits on it, ranging from big slabs of funky disco to soulful, lush ballads. Giving it a re-listen, I was struck by the nearly 11-minute hypno-funk of Sunrise. Years ahead of the game.

What really dates this album though is the pressing of sides 1 and 3 on one disc and 2 and 4 on the other. This, if you recall was because turntables used to have automatic record stackers, so you could play the album in sequence.

#Music #Funk #Disco # Soul #Vinyl #NowPlaying #AutomaticRecordStacker #RoseRoyce

Ojos de Brujo - Techarí

Probably my favourite band of the early 2000s. Loved 'em.

This was their (difficult) third album. It is a CD/CD-Rom digipack with pages and pages of art and lyrics. In hindsight, they were struggling to live up to the utter brilliance of Barí. There are, however, some really great moments to be had here.

#Music #NowPlaying #OjosdeBrujo #CD #Techarí

Weather Report - I Sing The Body Electric

I opened up the lid of my CD player this week and gave the laser a little clean with some rubbing alcohol on a cotton bud. (You wouldn't believe the shite that gets inside a CD player over 30-odd years. It's pretty amazing.) It plays again now. So it's back to the CDs.

It was my birthday in 2009, if I remember correctly. We'd recently moved into this house, a short walk from Mr V's record shop (still mainly CDs in those days), and I thought I'd treat myself (22 fucking dollars!!). I vividly remember playing this in my car on the drive to work and thinking,"Ooh, this is going to take some getting into."

This is (largely) Zawinul and Shorter going boonta. If that's your thing, then this is for you.

My nearly 3 year old granddaughter said it was "Noise".

#Music #CD #NowPlaying #WeatherReport #Jazz #JazzFusion

The Strangers - No More Heroes.

Their second album, and their second album released in 1977. I loved this when it came out and rinsed my sister's copy. I've kind of left it alone for a long time, though - largely because of some of the dodgy track titles, even though I understand some of the language was meant with humour and irony and for shock value.

In all honestly, though, it's a really great album, even though it's lyrically of its time.

#TheStranglers #NoMoreHeroes #Vinyl #Music #NowPlaying

Goldie - Timeless

At the age of sixteen, I left school and served a five year apprenticeship in dental technology. I only did it for a couple of years after passing my apprenticeship before giving it up to become a postman. I've never met another dental technician in the wild.

I share my former dental technician status with Goldie. (Although, you could argue that once you've served your time, you remain one for life, even if you're not working in the field. Like some mafioso).

I never know whether it's a massive mistake or a stroke of business genius to leave your big hits off the album, as is the case with this issue: later versions included the 'hits' Inner City Life and State of Mind - it's a fine piece of work.

I still miss the smell of a dental laboratory. Whenever I pass one, I toy with the idea of going in and asking them if I can have a sniff. Might do it one day.

#Vinyl #NowPlaying #Music #Jungle #Goldie #Timeless #DentalTechnician #dentaltechnology

Sully - Blue EP

Whenever I feel like an old cunt, I try to remember how lucky I have been to have lived through the time that saw the emergence of punk, techno, and jungle.

I used to love being in the jungle room at raves, especially before things got a bit crack-y. And when I finally get off my arse and invent a time machine that's on my list.

This is a minimalist jungle 4-sided EP. It makes me want to dance and cry tears of joy at the same time.

#NowPlaying #Vinyl #Jungle #Music #Sully #BlueEP

Bobby Womack, J. J. Johnson - Original Motion Picture Score - Across 110th Street

I have no recollection of how I acquired this album. I've owned it for yonks though - mid 80s, I reckon.

It's one of those albums that has become more well known as the years have passed. It's had bootleg and official re-releases. I don't know why this album, in particular, has been singled out for attention - it's decent, but it's no better than a hundred thousand albums of its time.

I used to have the film Across 110th Street on video. It's alright.

#NowPlaying #Vinyl #Soul #Jazz #BobbyWomack #JJJohnson #Across100thStreet #Soundtrack #Music

Stevie Wonder - Talking Book

I can't believe I haven't posted this album before.

It's a red hot 10.

Braille sleeve to boot.

#StevieWonder #TalkingBook #NowPlaying #Soul #Tamla #Music #Vinyl #braille