Paul Motian - Monk In Motian

One of Miles Davis’s criticisms of the jazz world (at least, of those that came after him, especially Winton Marsalis, whom he loathed) was that they were merely repeating what had been done in the past, without pushing things forward. You might well be able to play Giant Steps, but so what? John Coltrane has already done that.

Davis, of course, genius though he undoubtedly was, ignored the fact that he himself had built on others’ work – Monk’s Round Midnight for example, whilst negging whoever would come next.

However, there is a truth in this – and it encapsulates much of my issue with modern jazz (rather than Modern Jazz). Things aren’t being driven forward in any meaningful way. It feels like the golden days are over. I listen to ABC Jazz sometimes and it’s all so easy listening.

Here, we have an album which is far from easy listening. It’s an album of ten Thelonious Monk tunes, played sparsely by drums, guitar and saxophone, with occasional piano and more saxophone. It’s sounds very of its (late-eighties) time and it’s a challenging listen.

Although the players are all top-notch, including Bill Frisell and Dewey Redmond, no less, I’m not convinced they’ve brought anything particularly new or meaningful to the Monk table, which is often challenging enough in itself.

This album was given to me when it was released by a mate who was a record company rep, who was promoting the JMT catalogue.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#PaulMotian
#MonkInMotion
#TheloniousMonk
#Jazz
#MilesDavis
#Music

Tubby Hayes with Clark Terry - The New York Sessions

Back in 1985, I bought DJ Paul Murphy’s compilation Jazz Club #2, which featured Tubby Hayes’s Pint Of Bitter. I always found it incredible that British jazz from 1961 could hold its own amongst the pick of US jazz favourites.

Pint Of Bitter was taken from this album. Well, I say this album, because what I’m playing today is the fourth iteration of this album, released in 1990: it’s been called ‘Tubbs in N.Y.’, ‘Tubby the Tenor’, and ‘Tubbs in New York’ in its time, with the sleeve becoming more shittified with each progression. To add insult to injury, they’ve added Clark Terry’s name to the main credits on this version.

Hayes was, by far, the best British jazz saxophonist of his day. Now largely forgotten, unfortunately. But this really is very good. He deserves better.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#TubbyHayes
#TheNewYorkSessions
#Jazz
#ClarkTerry
#Music

Don Cherry - Don Cherry (Brown Rice)

I didn’t realise until this morning, when I sat down and played this album, that it’s not called Brown Rice. It was called Brown Rice when it was first released in 1975, but re-named for its 1977 release to Don Cherry (the issue I own). I wonder why. It’ll always be Brown Rice to me. (Say Brown Rice one more time, motherfucker–I double-dare you!)

I imagine there was some marketing department meeting at the record label where they decided that the thing holding back sales of the album, where avant-garde jazz trumpet squawks over the top of a droning mash-up of Indian, Arabic and African rhythms, was the too-arty painting on the sleeve and a too-healthfood shop name.

The gatefold sleeve has lots of information about the tune Brown Rice: a transcription of Cherry’s solo, a stereo mix diagram, a graphic score–and both a biography of Cherry and a rather florid description of the album written by Stanley Crouch–none of which are very useful.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#DonCherry
#BrownRice
#Jazz
#Music

Charles Mingus - The Clown

When I was about 12, there was a record called Making Bacon by the The Pork Dukes. It was a kind of rude-comedy-punk tune, with the activity in the title being a euphemism for sexual intercourse. Me and my mate Paul used to like it. We were 12, like.

That song has lodged in my head since and I sing the chorus every time making bacon, or facon, as was later the case, came up.

Fast forward to about five years ago, and I met up again with Paul, who now lives in Fremantle. Turns out that he too sings The Pork Dukes every time he makes bacon.

I mention this because today I will be making facon. I do this every couple of months, so that I always have some in the freezer. One of the key ingredients is Liquid Smoke. This seems to have been dropped from all the supermarkets since I bought my last bottle, so I had to schlep across town to a specialist Mexican shop to get some.

Whilst I was over that side of town I did some trail running in the hills for the first time in ages, and was reminded of how difficult it can be, when you don’t do it often enough.

It did give me the opportunity to hobble into Big Star Records, a shop I haven’t been to in years, where I picked up this.

It’s fantastic.

Its title track does remind me of the funniest joke ever, so always makes me smile.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#CharlesMingus
#TheClown
#Jazz
#Music

George Benson - Breezin'

Let’s get this straight: George Benson was one of the best guitarists of his age. Good enough to play with Miles Davis. Fuck, his guitar playing is good.

It’s worth reminding people of this, because Benson gets remembered for his career as a smooth mom-soul vocalist.

Although there’s nothing wrong with either aspect of his career, I think you do have to view the two as distinct.

This album was, apparently, where everyone (and by everyone, I mean producer, Tommy Lipuma) discovered he had a voice, hence the inclusion of This Masquerade. So, Breezin’ marks the transition between Benson the guitarist and Benson the vocalist who also plays guitar. And also, one would imagine, between Benson the doing OK financially and Benson the doing very nicely, thank you very much.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#GeorgeBenson
#Breezin’
#Jazz
#Music

John Spithead

2025-08-19 00:14:18

23!

Miles Davis - Miles In The Sky

This was Davis’s first dip of his toes into what would come to be known as 'fusion'. Shit was going to get very real, very soon.

It feels incredible that this was recorded when I was two. It sounds so very now.

It's interesting that two players on this album, Herbie Hancock and George Benson went on to have massive popular success outside/alongside their jazz careers.

Worth mentioning that drummer, Tony Williams, was 23 years old when this was recorded. Twenty three. Fuck.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#MilesDavis
#MilesInTheSky
#Jazz
#Music

Charles Mingus - Cumbia & Jazz Fusion

The first time I ran a marathon, I did everything wrong. Of course. Everybody does.

I went out too fast, smashing through the first 10k, largely to overcome the massive panic attack I was having. I completely underestimated the amount of nutrition I would need and didn’t start taking on fuel until I was hungry, which is way too late.

Come the 30k mark I was cooked. My glycogen levels were in my boots, I could hardly put one foot in front of the other. I was, as they say, ‘bonking’. If you’ve never experienced this, it’s hard to describe just how fucking awful you feel. I had taken my headphones with me, so decided to play myself the list of pick-me-up music I had made for just this occasion.

Somehow, Charles Mingus’s Cumbia & Jazz Fusion had found its way on to the list. It’s nearly 28 minutes long. It wasn’t what I needed at all. What I should have done was get my phone out and flip forward, but my brain had lost all sensible decision-making capacity, so I struggled through. It was a long 28 minutes.

I haven’t felt able to listen to it again until this morning. I still find Cumbia & Jazz Fusion a bit re-traumatising, to be honest. However, Music for “Todo Modo” is great.

This was written as a film soundtrack, but was left on the cutting room floor. The sleeve notes gloss over this and don’t mention that it was described as a “dump” of previously discarded material, preferring to say it was because of the director’s deadline problems.

I’ve run quite a few marathons and ultra-marathons since, and don’t even bother taking my headphones with me. I just make sure I have a plan and try to stick to it. If it still all goes to shit, which it occasionally does - because sometimes, man, it just ain’t your day - I suck it up and try to make the best of it. There’s probably a lesson for life there.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#CharlesMingus
#CumbiaandJazzFusion
#MarathonRunning
#Jazz
#Cumbia
#Music

Kassa Overall - Cream

I’m not an expert on hip-hop. Apart from being very into the early DefJam stuff when it came out, it’s never been in the centre of my field of vision. I’m more likely to know the tunes sampled in hip-hop tunes than the actual songs themselves.

On this, his new album, Kassa Overall covers eight hip-hop tunes, seven of which I know nothing about and one I’m only vaguely familiar with. I don’t think this makes me the intended audience for this record. It means I get to hear it without the novelty of knowing the original.

This threw up a bit of a weird one: I have no prior knowledge of Big Poppa by The Notorious B.I.G., which gets a delicious bossa nova treatment on this album. However, I know the sample, Between The Sheets by The Isley Brothers, that was used in it really well because I bought the 12” when it came out, so, to me, it sounds like a jazz version of that. I wonder how many other old duffers are getting into this in such an arse-about-face way.

The tunes stand up as decent jazz workouts, with Overall’s unique, thoughtful and clever drumming front and centre. According to the sleeve notes, these were all one-take recordings. I look forward to hearing the originals in the wild one day and recognising them from this record.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#KassaOverall
#Cream
#HipHop
#Jazz
#Music

The Miles Davis Quintet - 'Round About Midnight

When I was growing up, working class people would often have a sing-song. In pubs, social clubs, on coach trips...anywhere where people came together to socialise. You don’t see that any more. I guess it was already a remnant of a bygone age when I was a kid. Nowadays, pubs just seem to have some cunt in the corner with an amplified acoustic guitar singing Wonderwall, whilst people look at their phones. If I was on a long coach trip and I tried to get everyone to sing The Lambeth Walk (“Oi!”) with me, they’d put me off at the next stop and call mental health services.

I say this, because Bye Bye Blackbird, was one of the songs that would get sung on such occasions, because everyone knew at least some of the words, and hearing Davis’s ‘first great quintet’, including of course John Coltrane, play this has brought back some memories and made me realise that this kind of social interaction is now all but lost – apart, I suppose, from football matches and churches (Do they still sing in churches or do they have some cunt in the corner with a guitar singing Wondergod?)

The part of the activity which was important, I think, is that everyone did it. It didn't matter if you were young or old, a decent singer or not - the sum was greater than the parts. In fact, if you'd started displaying Mariah Carey-style melisma, you'd have faced the scorn of your peers after a while. It was good-old communist fun.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#MilesDavis
#RoundAboutMidnight
#JohnColtrane
#Jazz
#Music

Yussef Dayes - Black Classical Music

Because this album sits next to 'Davis' alphabetically on the shelf, it gets looked at more often than most and I think, “must play that again one day” more frequently than most other records.

Brownswood really splashed out on this album: double album, decent pressing, embossed sleeve (ooh-la-la!), cast of thousands. It feels like the concept was to do a British Kamasi album and the result is a highly competent funky, jazz album which shows off all Dayes’s influences. I remember when I gave it its first listen, thinking, “I know all the records you’ve been listening to, mate.”

I find it all just a bit underwhelming. Where are we going here? What are we hoping to achieve? How are we driving the art form forward? Because without this, it’s such a waste of talent.

Also, I’m of an age where the sound of a fretless bass through an octaver still sets my teeth on edge, thanks to the over-use of Pino Palladino as a bass player in the 80s (No Parlez, anyone?) Pino’s son, Rocco, plays on this album and has a remarkably similar sound which is slathered on all over the shop. Fucking horrible – it’s still too soon.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#YussefDayes
#BlackClassicalMusic
#Jazz
#Music

The Comet Is Coming - Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam

I was lucky enough to see The Comet Is Coming live in Sydney, promoting this album, I reckon. The audience was roughly 50% super-cool young folk and 50% old white dudes who looked like they owned record shops. It really went off.

Whilst I acknowledge the hard work and talent of the other two members, Shabaka Hutchings is so fucking cool. Such a restrained yet imposing presence. His Caribbean-tinged, front-foot, Gatling gun blowing, marks him out as something really special.

The band called it a day after this album.

The band drew lazy comparisons to Sun Ra, which was largely based on them having a space/cosmic shtick, rather than it being a musical comparison. You’d be better served comparing them to Van der Graaf Generator musically.

I own three of their albums, but rarely fancy playing them, to be honest. I thought it might be because that speck of the zeitgeist on which they sailed had passed. However, playing this today, I’ve really enjoyed it.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#TheCometIsComing
#HyperDimensionalExpansionBeam
#Jazz
#Electronic
#ShabakaHutchings
#Music

The Crusaders - Pass The Plate

In 1971, The Crusaders released this funky little nugget, after dropping ‘Jazz’ from their name.

It’s an album full of early jazz-funk grooves, with the occasional bit of proper jazz thrown in for good measure. I swear down that Stix Hooper hits the rim of his snare by accident at the end of the drum solo on Young Rabbits – ‘71-’72, and I think they fade it out to try and hide it. That’s my #low-stakesjazzfunkconspiracy.

Whenever I hear The Crusaders, I am reminded of a house party I attended somewhere in east London in about 1984. I was wearing a white t-shirt with the band’s logo in red across the chest. This had led me to get into a bit of a conversation with a group of black women. There was a bloke at the party who I don’t remember much about, other than he had a Southern Death Cult tattoo on his forearm, and, as he got increasingly pissed, he started being more and more of a cunt towards me. This came to crossed words, and the relative merits of The Crusaders and Southern Death Cult were mentioned, I think. I don’t think he liked any jazz-funk, to be honest, or me talking to a group of black women. At that age, I wasn’t one to walk away from a fight, and, rather inevitably, the conflict turned physical. I wonder if that chap ever hears The Crusaders and remembers his teeth.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#TheCrusaders
#PassThePlate
#Tamla-Motown
#Jazz
#Music

Miles Davis - On The Corner

I listened again to Questlove’s 2017 podcast interview with Mtume this week. They obviously spend a bit of time discussing his time with Miles Davis.

And one another lesson I learned from Miles: when you cross the bridge, 
burn it so you can't even go back.

In 1972, Davis had got the funk. He had been influenced by James Brown and Sly Stone and decided that what Young Black America wanted was a blend of this with Stockhausen, Paul Buckmaster and free jazz, with trumpet played through a wah-wah pedal like Jimi Hendrix’s guitar. He crossed that bridge and lit that match.

Turns out Young Black America didn’t want it, the critics declared it a steaming turd, and it caused Davis to go off on a six year hiatus/sulk/cocaine binge.

What a fucking incredible album though.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#MilesDavis
#OnTheCorner
#Jazz
#Fusion
#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

Andy Hamilton & the Blue Notes - Silvershine

Andy Hamilton left Jamaica to come to Britain as part of the Windrush generation, bringing with him his sweet tenor style: think Lester Young with a Caribbean flavour.

The thing that is universally repeated about Hamilton is that he wrote the tune Silvershine for Errol Flynn. However, I think it's much more interesting that he recalled the tune whilst lying in a diabetic coma in the 1980s. But that's just me.

Hamilton played every Monday night upstairs at The Bear in Bearwood, accompanied by a mix of old-spars and young guns coming up under his mentorship. We used to go occasionally, and I was introduced to him once by our housemate, who studied under him. He was clearly a very important man; extremely charismatic and super cool.

Honestly, if he had moved to the US, or even London, rather than Brum, he would be much better known.

It seems unbelievable to me now, that we didn't jump on the number 11 bus and go to see him every week. What were we thinking?

This album, released in 1991, features some big names from British jazz from that time: Andy Sheppard and Steve Williamson, for instance. Graeme, his trumpet-playing son, features, as does Jean Toussaint, who features on one track, as does a pre-Stars Mick Hucknall ,who, despite my reservations, does a decent job. Yep, I said it.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#AndyHamilton
#Jazz
#Birmingham
#Music
#Bearwood

Alive! - City Life

You know, playing this today reminded me of how hard it was to hear tunes you loved back in the old days. To hear this tune, for instance, I had to go out to hear a DJ play it, or listen to a pirate radio show that might play it. If I knew what it was called, I could go to one of a few specialist record shops who might have it or if I didn’t know the name, I could hum it to them - either way, I’d pay top dollar. It’s so easy now. But not necessarily better.

This is one of those records I would have loved to have had in the old days. I never knew what it was called until I looked it up on the internet and bought a copy a few years back.

It almost goes without saying that I bought this album for Skindo Le Le, a tune (TUNE!) which immediately takes me right back to the jazz rooms of the early eighties. That intro, that build, that climax! It still gives me a visceral response. And, honestly, this is my preferred version over Viva Brasil’s original.

And God, how we loved an alto sax in the 80s.

It was a staple of West Coast and Japanese jazz. Of course, this album, out of the San Francisco Bay area, is thick with it. And scat.

I never realised until today that Alive! were an all-woman group.

The rest of the album’s a bit meh. Very meh, in fact.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#Jazz
#Music
#Alive!
#CityLife
#SkindoLeLe
#Scat

Miles Davis - The Man With The Horn

This arrived in the post this morning. A beautiful quality Japanese pressing to boot, albeit sans obi strip.

I really cannot fathom what is going on with the sleeve art work.

I’ve tried listen to this with my 1981 ears on, as well as my 2025 ears.

Alright, worst first:

To be honest it’s no surprise that the album's two low-points were the ones where Randy Hall was involved.

In the context of 1981, the dancey instrumental Shout sounds in-keeping with the crossover output of other horn players around that time, Tom Browne, Donald Byrd, or Herb Alpert, for instance. Of course we kind of expect more of Davis.

The cringe-inducing ballad, which is the title track is a contender for the worst ever Miles Davis tune. Hall's lyrics are just awful:

Smooth, suave, debonair,
Describes a man so rare.

The good bits:

Mike Stern’s guitar solo on Fat Time is ridiculously good.

Marcus Miller’s bass playing is wonderfully understated.

The distorted guitar sound on Back Seat Betty is delightfully odd.

The stand out track by a country mile is Aïda, not least because of Al Foster’s spectacular drumming.

Just waiting for a copy of Tutu to arrive now.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#music
#Jazz
#MilesDavis
#TheManWithTheHorn

John Spithead

2025-06-30 02:03:10

Getting Randy

Randy Hall - I Belong To You

Randy Hall once played with Miles Davis. How do I know this? It’s mentioned first and foremost in everything that has been written about ol’ Randy ever since. Mind you, fair enough – if I’d once collaborated with Miles, I’d have it tattooed on my forehead. And carry a big sign around with me.

I was inspired to drag this one out of the racks of wax by this post, which features Randy’s old band (before he collaborated with Miles Davis). This album comes about 4 years after he collaborated with Miles Davis. It’s produced by Ray Parker Jr, who was schmokin’ hot at the time, what with his Ghostbusters theme and all.

Randy has obviously had his hair done and gone clothes shopping for the cover shoot. Nice to see he made an effort, despite having the bona fides of having worked with Miles Davis.

I remember buying this on US import from JiFS in Chadwell Heath. I reckon it cost seven pounds fifty, just before the price of imports went up to eight quid.

Honestly, musically, I don’t mind it. It’s of an age.

Lyrically, though...fucking hell.

I’ve Been Watching You (Jamie’s Girl) tells the tale of Randy pursuing his best mate’s girlfriend (possibly – but this isn’t mentioned in the lyrics – by telling her that he once collaborated with Miles Davis), before old mate Jamie finds out, offers him outside for fisticuffs, which Randy wins, then gets all gloaty over his double-victory:

Ain't no sense in goin' home, Jamie, I got your girl and gone

A Gentleman is a lesson in non-toxic masculinity which has aged so badly, it could come from the 19th century:

Don’t forget to tip your hat – a gentleman is where it’s at.

Are you listening, Andrew Tate?

Intergenerational relationships are celebrated in a totally modern and non-kink-shaming way on Older Woman, Younger Man:

Its the new thing today, so baby if you’re able, come on and rock my cradle.

With the name Randy Hall sounding like a luxury swingers' club, it's no surprise that things get a bit hot under the collar and the album comes to its sticky climax with I Want To Touch You, essentially a slowjam singalong about finger-banging, which has more sex noises than are required in a song. (Possibly a recording of Randy looking at the sleeve notes of Miles Davis’ The Man With The Horn.)

Oh and in the thanks list on the back cover, the first name after the big G and Randy's fam is ‘Miles’.

I’ve really enjoyed playing this album this morning.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#RandyHall
#IBelongToYou
#MilesDavis
#Boogie
#music
#RayParkerJr

Miles Davis - You're Under Arrest

It is commonly said that this album was Davis’ stab at a commercial hit. As if him covering two of the day’s recent pop hits (Human Nature and Time After Time) was ever going to get him into the top ten. I don’t think this is the case, and I'll tell you why.

First off, the usual way for jazz players to score a money-generating crossover hit back in those days was via the dancefloor, hence you get jazz-fusion albums with soul singers added for a couple of tracks, see Wilton Felder (feat. Bobby Womack), Sadao Watanabe (feat. Roberta Flack), Ralph McDonald (feat. Bill Withers) etc, not by recording two instrumentals of slowish-tempo pop hits, slathered in John Scofield’s chorus pedal-laden guitar.

Secondly, no-one has ever said, “We need a pop smash, get John McLaughlin on the phone!” And McLaughlin is all over this album like a twiddly-jazz rash. Sometimes, it’s both him and Scofield. Jazz foot & mouth.

Thirdly, it’s always been part of jazz to take a slab of popular music and do something special with it. Davis has done this before: Porgy and Bess anyone?

Finally, Davis kept both of the covers in his set for the rest of his career, which he would be very unlikely to do if he didn’t value them highly.

So, let’s talk about the covers, shall we? Human Nature, was written by one of Toto and discovered and finessed under Quincy Jones’ keen eye, for inclusion on Thriller which gives it a bit of a ick-factor. However, it is arguably NOT just a Noncey McNonceface song, and it is helpful to untether the song from its most famous singer. Davis’ version of this is just wonderful. I just wish it were longer.

Cyndi Lauper, who wrote and first performed Time After Time, has undergone something of a revision of her status as an artist, so her work is no longer seen as pop drivel, as it largely was at the time, but as something of greater import. That’s fine: times change. However, it’s important to bear in mind that Davis had selected this song from the depths of the low-status, disposable shite pile, where it dwelled at the time.

I'm on my fourth or fifth spin of this album, and I like it a lot.

#NowPlaying
#Vinyl
#music
#MilesDavis
#YoureUnderArrest
#Jazz
#JohnScofield
#JohnMcLaughlin
#CyndiLauper
#HumanNature
#TimeAfterTime
#QuincyJones