Sauce
Leroy Hutson - Closer To The Source
I was trying to find a different record when I re-discovered this on my shelf. Haven't played it for ages.
Hutson does that mid-tempo soul thing so well. On this album you get two of his biggies: Get To This (You'll Get To Me) and the title track. There's also a very cheeky rip-off of What's Going On in Where Did Our Love Go, which - if it were recorded nowadays - would need a 'contains elements of' tag. But no. Nothing.
I just need to acknowledge Hutson's slip-on, rope-soled, wedge shoes in taupe. The perfect shoe to wear with a cream three piece suit with flared trouser legs and white socks. Worn with panache on the front and back of the sleeve.
Julian Calendar
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
One of the hangovers from the clocks going back at the weekend, is that I wake up an hour early. Whilst this sucks on a workday, today it's given me an hour to listen to this album whilst I make soy milk.
There's really nothing new to say about this album. It's a work of genius of staggering proportions.
On the sleeve notes, Cannonball Adderley is referred to by his real name, Julian. I never knew he was called Julian.
Also, this is never not funny:
Ace of Bass
Charles Mingus - Jazz in Detroit/Strata Concert Gallery/46 Selden
The other day, I watched this film of Mingus live in 1964. I was struck by how cheerful he was, contrary to everything I'd ever read about him being a grumpy bugger. Anyway, it made me resolve to sit down and listen to this five album box set, recorded in 1973.
I bought this when it was released in 2018, and I haven't played it much, because it's not something you can just dip into, and committing to five LPs is a bit much. Still, the clocks went back last night, so I've got an extra hour on my hands.
It's a very different Mingus quintet on this album, recorded live for the local radio station, and a very different Mingus, coming out of a six year hiatus, due to poor financial, mental and physical health.
I wonder with these recordings, how they just sit there for decades without being released, and how many more are tucked away, gathering dust, or being chucked into a skip when they clear a house after the owner dies.
Jesus would think you're a jerk and it would be true
Frank Zappa - Broadway The Hard Way
I took a bit of a lucky dip into the record shelves and this came out. I think someone left this behind in a room in our house when they fucked off owing rent and leaving us with all their junk and a dog with a septic paw.
This album is made up of live recordings from the 1988 tour. A lot of the references and the humour have dated a bit.
There's some of Zappa's work that I really like. There's a lot that leaves me cold and makes me think I should like it more. I think it's the more theatrical-sounding stuff that I like the least, and that's what this album is, basically.
Wake up you sleepy heads
David Bowie - Hunky Dory
An album which contains three of my favourite Bowie songs: Changes, Kooks, and Queen Bitch. The rest of it's pretty decent too.
When I was in a band, the bass player's vocal mic soundcheck was Oh You Pretty Things, so it always reminds me of him, because I've heard that version far more than the original, even though he rarely got further than "...coffee-e-e."
Sheltering under the eaves of French Connection
Richard Dawson - End Of The Middle
Richard Dawson wrote the lyrics for this album in the shed on his allotment.
He has the incredible talent of being able to capture the finest detail of life, kind of like a lyrical ASMR - he gets right in there - and applies that to the bigger picture.
Whilst not exactly a more mainstream album, there's more of those melodic flourishes which pop up and make you go, "Ooh that's a good tune" before quickly disappearing again.
This album is greatly enhanced by occasional squawking jazz clarinet.
Never failed me yet
Gavin Bryars - The Sinking Of The Titanic
On the first side of this LP, the title track, Bryars cheers us all up with his exploration of the tunes that were being played by the band who went down with RMS Titanic, and how the vibrations of the music would have travelled through the water.
However, I bought this for the B side - Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet, in which a recording of a homeless man singing is looped over a musical background. Years ahead of its time. Probably would be seen as a bit exploitative nowadays, but blimey, what a banger. Or, according to my wife, it's basically I Know A Song That'll Get On Your Nerves and I've just bought it to annoy her.
I heard Alexei Sayle say once that he chose this piece to be played before one of his shows and it was about 30 minutes until he managed to get a laugh out of the audience.
When you're in love, you know you're in love
The Human League - Dare
Me and the Human League had history. My sister had owned the Being Boiled 7" and The Dignity Of Labour 12" and I had acquired the Holiday '80 EP and I'd loved them. When this came out in 1982, I'd have dismissed it as sell-out pop crap.
Years later, during the free download days, I'd nabbed their discography and really got into some of their later stuff via my ipod shuffle (some of their later stuff.)
It really took me picking this LP up on Discogs a few years to realise what a stroke of absolute genius it was. Pop genius...but genius nonetheless.
I like how it contains call-backs to their earlier, gloomier, work, but still has great big smash fucking hit pop songs.
I recently watched some youtuber re-create Don't You Want Me on his vintage synth collection, and that made me appreciate it even more.
Sc*t P*rn
Chet Baker - (Chet Baker Sings) It Could Happen To You
I first heard Baker's Do It The Hard Way on an NME compilation tape in the 80s and loved his woodwind-like voice.
On this album, he opts to play fewer trumpet solos, in favour of scat solos. Fair enough. He did both well.
I picked this up in Clockwork Culture in Adelaide when I was passing a couple of years ago. I've always intended to return, but never have, despite it being tantalisingly near my work.
Don’t know what’s going wrong inside
Sean Khan presents The Modern Jazz and Folk Ensemble - Volume 1
I received this LP for my birthday last year from a mate who knows I like jazz and knows I like folk.
There's nothing wrong with this album. It just leaves me a little cold and I find it hard to articulate why. I mean, what's not to like? Lovely songs given a jazz glow-up.
Perhaps it all sounds a bit JazzFM? I like it most when Khan stretches out the most (like in the soprano sax solo of Who Knows Where The Time Goes.) Perhaps it's aimed at people who don't dig so deeply into the folk ditch? I dunno.
The fact it's called Volume 1 leads you to think there's going to be a Volume 2. What'll be on there, I wonder? Moondance? Come On Eileen? I've Got A Brand New Combine Harvester?
I know you're leaving, that's okay
Steely Dan - Pretzel Logic
"Alright lads, I've got a new song."
"Great! What's the chords?"
"All of them...all the chords. Don't worry too much about learning them though."
"Oh, I've been meaning to ask, who's that bloke with the drum kit over there?
"Ah, don't worry yourself about him."
*
Another of yesterday's purchases.
Recorded in the middle of Becker and Fagen's hostile takeover of the band, just before they gave the rest of the band the elbow, it's a primarily soft-rock affair, but still with all the chords.
Rikki Don't Lose That Number is a genius piece of soft-rock-pop, which robs the intro riff from Horace Siliver's Song For My Father, and has a slightly gaslight-y lyric. I love it. If I was a jazz musician, I'd cover the fuck out of it.
Heart of a lion: lifetime ban from the zoo.
McCoy Tyner - The Real McCoy
One of the things I like most about John Coltrane's music is McCoy Tyner's piano playing (Have a listen to My Favourite Things, as an example): he's got such a taught but unfettered style.
This album was his first after leaving the Coltrane fold, and his Blue Note debut. Joe Henderson, Elvin Jones and (of course) Ron Carter keep him company and match his intensity. This must've sounded fucking wild in 1967.
Alfred Lion, the bloke who started and ran Blue Note, said the album made "...absolutely no concession to commercialism..." - which initially seems like a complement, but - from the label boss - might have been the opposite.
I'd recently promised myself I was going to pick up a few more of those superb quality Blue Note reissues and this is one of them.
Please make it clear
Steely Dan - Countdown To Ecstasy
One of my favourite podcasts is We Buy Records. Each episode, some bloke comes on and reviews loads of new releases, including an in-depth critique of pressing quality etc. For a couple of years, I've listened to him go on about GZ pressings and how good they are. I bought this LP today, it's a GZ pressing, and bloody hell, it's good quality.
I've been on a bit of a Steely Dan tip lately, so had decided to fill a couple of holes in my collection. I'd had Bodhisattva (a spelling challenge) on a compilation tape years ago and liked it.
The jazzy influence is emerging on this album, even though it's still got its feet firmly in the rock-pop ballpark.
This album came out long before ecstasy the drug was widely available, and - in hindsight - the title would make you think it was a compilation of early rave classics.
Also, ecstasy is the hardest word in the world to spell. I get it wrong every time.
Bye, Meta!
So that's it. I've moved all my pics over from Insta. Apologies to anyone who has been bothered by my bot-factory level volume of posts.
I've dumped WhatsApp for Signal. Much better.
Insta had become a shitshow anyway, and I've been happier without it, to be honest.
Facebook, I'd left years ago, but had re-joined to get parkrun pics, but it kept suggesting people from my past who I don't like, so that's no loss (apart for the parkrun pics).
Threads was a bit shit anyway.
I can be found on Mastodon, Bluesky, or Pixelfed, if you're interested.
So that's me de-Metafied. Good riddance.
Breakfast
29 November 2024
Sarah's Sister's Sustainable
Sadly closed down now. Shoulda gone there more often.
Warmest day of the year and where am l? Crawling round in a loft space, that's where.
Salisbury, South Australia
