Month: September 2010

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Joe Henderson – Canyon Lady (1975)

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joe henderson

Joe Henderson
Canyon Lady
1975 Milestone Records

A1 Tres Palabras 10:11
A2 Las Palmas 9:54
B1 Canyon Lady 9:07
B2 All Things Considered 8:38

Recorded in October 1973 in Berkeley, California, at Fantasy Studios
Originally released in 1975 as Milestone M-9057

Congas – Francisco Aguabella , Victor Pantoja
Drums – Eric Gravatt
Engineer – Jim Stern
Flute – Hadley Caliman (tracks: A1, B1-2) , Ray Pizzi (tracks: A1) , Vincent Denham (tracks: A1)
Piano – Mark Levine (tracks: A1, B1-2)
Electric Piano – George Duke (tracks: A1-B1)
Tenor Saxophone – Joe Henderson
Timbales – Carmelo Garcia
Trombone – Julian Priester (tracks: A1, B1-2) , Nicholaas TenBroek (tracks: A1)
Trumpet – John Hunt (tracks: A1) , Luis Gasca (tracks: A2-B2) , Oscar Brashear (tracks: A1, B1-2)

Produced by Orrin Keepnews

joe henderson
———————-

The first album I ever heard by Joe Henderson was “Inner Urge” and I wondered why I had never listened to him before. With Elvin Jones and McCoy Tyner on loan from Coltrane, and Bob Cranshaw holding down the double-bass, the record just blew me away. Thereafter I took it upon myself to seek out his other Blue Note recordings and continued to find myself consistently enjoying them. It was a long time, however, before I began paying attention to his Milestone albums, like the one featured here.

For a person who had such a long career, Henderson is one of the most underrated jazz musicians of his generation. In some ways this is understandable — although he has released plenty of material, in terms of recorded output he was much less prolific than many of his peers, at times taking breaks of two years or more between releases. It is particularly unfortunate that the Milestone albums are still overlooked, with the majority of them not seeing a release on CD until the 1994 boxset titled, appropriately enough “The Milestone Years.” For most of that material, the box is the only legitimate release in the digital realm, with the individual albums still never having been issued as separated compact discs, making them accessible only to those willing to invest in a hefty boxset. A few exceptions were issued as part of the Fantasy’s ‘Original Jazz Classics’ series, which includes this set recorded in San Francisco in 1973 and released two years later as “Canyon Lady.” Less experimental than most of his other early-70s material, it is an intriguing mixture of Latin and soul jazz topped with Henderson’s passionate tenor sax. The configurations of musicians are stellar and feature arrangements by Luis Gasca who also contributes trumpet as well as a handful of other instruments like flugelhorn and assorted percussion. George Duke features on electric piano on some of the album, and tight grooves are underscored by the congeros Victor Pantoja and Francisco Aguabela and timbale player Carmelo Garcia. Pianist Mark Levine is prominent throughout and also contributes half the compositions on the album.

The album didn’t grab me right away, starting out rather slowly with the heavily-orchestrated “Tres Palabras” which builds into a more sweeping, gripping crescendo about two thirds of the way through. The following number “Las Palmas,” the only Henderson original here, quickly picks up the pace and kicks the album into high gear. Ten minutes of riffing in an angular 6/8 time signature, it is the most “out” that this record gets and it is pure joy to listen to. The second half of the album does not disappoint either. Levine’s compositions veer towards a more mainstream Latin jazz sound, but punctuated with trippy electric piano by George Duke and Henderson’s ability to be both rough and sensual simultaneously, it never gets boring. The final cut features an all-out percussion jam at the five minute mark that goes on for nearly three minutes before leading into the final choruses that close the album. Production-wise the record has a slickness very much in the style of CTI Records so popular at the time, and while this can often be a shortcoming in that label’s stable of artists, this album somehow avoids the sterility endemic to Creed Taylor’s production skills. This may not be the most adventurous place to dip into Henderson’s Milestone period, but it is not a bad place to start nonetheless.

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Novos Baianos F.C. (1973)

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novos baianos

Novos Baianos F.C.
or
Novos Baianos Futebol Clube
Released 1973 on Continental
Reissue, Warner Archives

1. “Sorrir e cantar como Bahia” (Luiz Galvão / Moraes Moreira) – 3:37
2. “Só se não for Brasileiro Nessa Hora” (Galvão / Moreira) – 3:28
3. “Cosmos e Damião” (Galvão / Moreira) – 4:07
4. “O Samba da minha Terra” (Dorival Caymmi) – 3:29
5. “Vagabundo não é Fácil” (Galvão / Moreira) – 5:06
6. “Com qualquer Dois Mil Réis” (Galvão – Pepeu Gomes – Moraes Moreira) – 3:26
7. “Os Pingo da Chuva” (Galvão / Pepeu Gomes / Moreira) – 4:10
8. “Quando você Chegar” (Galvão / Moreira) – 3:19
9. “Alimente” (Jorginho Gomes / P. Gomes) – 4:44
10. “Dagmar” (Moreira) – 2:31

* Moraes Moreira – vocal, violão base, percussão, arranjos, compositor
* Paulinho Boca de Cantor – vocal, percussão
* Baby Consuelo – vocal, pandeiro
* Pepeu Gomes – guitarra, violão solo
* Jorginho Gomes – bateria
* Dadi – baixo
* Baixinho – percussão
* Bolacha – percussão
* Luiz Galvão – letras

I may have given a somewhat overly-harsh review of “É Ferro na Boneca” in the previous post, and it may have been due to the fact that I had been listening to it back to back with THIS album. So I feel it is only fair to post about this album next, and I hope people out there can appreciate just how far along Novos Baianos had come in a couple years. The songwriting is first-rate (and, unlike “Ferro” has actual ‘hooks’ that stick in your head after listening..), the musicianship is impeccable and faultless, and the overall vision delivers on the “100% in the rhythm of our musical revolution” commentary that was promised in the liner notes to their first album. Of course, between that one and this one lay the band’s encounters and collaborations with João Gilberto and their legendary album “Acabou Chorare”, deservedly hailed as huge landmark in Brazilian music. “Acabou Chorare” tops the list of the ‘top 500’ Brazilian albums by R.S. Brasil… As much as I abhor list-making like that, it still says something about how powerful that record is. Given the accomplishments of that record, it would be almost natural for their next record to disappoint the listener. This album, known as “Novos Baianos Futebol Clube”, does not disappoint.

“If it isn’t broke…” may have been an overriding philosophy while Novos Baianos were working on this, their third album. They were obviously riding high on a wave of creative energy, but smart enough not to mess too much with the chemistry of what they had going on. They were also living in a communal arrangement on a rural property and devoted their time to music, football, and other leisurely activities, so they may have been ‘riding high’ on other things as well. Like the previous landmark album this one is a mix of old-school choro and samba styles with an early 1970s sensibility, occasionally electrified. The album starts out quietly and doesn’t even approach `rock` until the end of the third cut in, `Cosmos e Damião’. The band continues the winning formula by doing something that worked fabulously the last time — covering an old, classic samba and reinventing it. On the previous album this was Assis Valente’s “Brasil Pandeiro” (written for Carmen Miranda but never recorded by her). This time, it’s fellow son of Bahia Dorival Cayymi’s “O Samba Da Minha Terra”. Gal Costa would include her own version of this song on her album ‘Gal Canta Caymmi’ the following year, and her version is very good — but this one is revolutionary. Novos Baianos ability to switch gears in a split-second is simply flabbergasting – the change from a rock groove to a full-fledged samba is done in a single beat on this tune, and sounds as if none of them even broke a sweat. Words like “exultant”, “effortless,” and “joyful” come easily to your lips while playing this disc. Aside from the Caymmi tune everything else here is an original composition. It is hard to pick favorites because they are truly equally stunning, but ‘Cosmos e Damião’, ‘Vagabundo Não é Facil’, ‘Com Qualquer Dois Mil Réis’ and ‘Os Pingo da Chuva’ all stand out — but there it is, I just named half the tracks on the album… The last tune in that little sequence features Baby Consuelo on lead vocals and really makes me wonder why she didn’t record a solo record much sooner — She didn’t get nearly enough ‘air time’ with the Baianos in my opinion. Aside from that the only other minor gripe I have is the decision to end the album with two instrumentals, one after another. They are good enough, but they make me want to hear those vocal numbers over again… Perhaps that was their intention, to make us flip the vinyl over and play it again (or, alternately, set your digital device to “repeat”.) The band would rely on instrumentals even more heavily on their next album, “Vamos Pro Mundo”. after the departure of Morreira from the band.

The texture of the acoustic instruments on this album is fantastic, and are perfectly blended in the mix with the electric instrumentation. Warner Archives has done a better job on this remaster than any of the treatments I’ve heard for Acabou Chorare or any of the Som Livre titles. (Perhaps because Charles “Mr.Tinnitus” Gavin was not involved at any step?) This album is a treat that ranks among the top that this group produced in their career.

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Novos Baianos – É Ferro na Boneca (1970)

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OS NOVOS BAIANOS
“É Ferro na Boneca”
RGE (XRLP-5.340)

1. “Ferro na boneca” – 2:02
2. “Eu de Adjetivos” – 3:01
3. “Outro mambo, outro mundo” – 2:45
4. “Colégio de Aplicação” – 4:11
5. “A Casca de banana que eu Pisei” – 2:20
6. “Dona Nita e Dona Helena” – 2:30
7. “Se eu quiser eu compro Flores” – 3:17
8. “E o samba me traiu” – 2:05
9. “Baby Consuelo” – 2:02
10. “Tangolete” – 2;21
11. “Curto de véu e Grinalda” – 2:28
12. “Juventude Sexta e Sábado” – 2:54
13. “De Vera” – 2:50

Novos Baianos

* Pepeu Gomes – guitarra
* Paulinho Boca de Cantor – vocal, percussão
* Baby Consuelo – vocal, percussão
* Moraes Moreira – violão, vocal, letras

with supporting band “* A Cor do Som” (Jorginho Gomes, Dadi)
* Luiz Galvão – letras
———————————-

This is a very heavily Tropicália-laden album from Novos Baianos (at this point in time called Os Novos Bahianos), and pretty extremely different from what they would become known for in their masterpiece follow-up, ‘Acabou Chorare’. In fact when I compare it to their next few albums I find I don’t think this is really that good.. The song “Tangolete” is almost the only thing here that sounds like it would have fit on their next couple records, and this is only a *maybe* and definitely not with the arrangement used here. But if it was from anyone else I would say its a pretty good Brazilian psych-rock album with some good arrangements and interesting instrumentation. Collectors of obscure ‘world’ psychedelia should love this. Fans more familiar with their transformation after their “encounters” with João Gilberto will doubtless like it but maybe more as a footnote to their other work. In other words, this is a historically important album but mileage may vary depending on how groovy you are or whether or not you need regrooving.

The title track leading off this album is pure Tropicália and would fit comfortably in between any of the tracks on Caetano’s first or Gal Costa’s first two albums. The track is, just as the title would imply, a lusophile mambo with some overwrought singing. The horn arrangments by H.L. Fietta really jump out and call your attention on this track. Both because they are some first-rate horn arrangements, and also because you might have noticed at this point that you will never again hear a Novos Baianos album with orchestration that is so prominent, with hippy-jazz flutes and real-jazz saxophones peppering the mix like day-glo axeita de dendê. Same with the following cut, Colégia de Aplicação. “A Casca de Banana que eu Pisei” is a fairly straight forward baião about slipping on banana peels, not much to say here. The tune “Baby Consuelo” is just plain annoying, but of course you may feel differently. Once again, the track “Tangolete” has something of the cadence of later compositions by Morais Morreira, but you might notice there is no *band* here as far as the Baianos are concerned — the arrangement is entirely made up of the orchestra and a lone bandoneón played by… somebody. The fact that this is the most memorable song on this album highlights the main problem I have with it — Most of these songs just kind of drift in one ear and out the other. Even if you find yourself digging it, you will be hard pressed to remember any of the melodies afterwards, which is a strong contrast to all of their later work. In spite of the hyperbolic liner notes from Augusto de Campos which assert that these songs are “100% in the rhythm of our musical revolution,” this is the sound of a band finding its footing on its first full-length recording, and there were a lot more memorable releases coming out of Brazil in 1970 to overshadow this one. Still, it is well worth giving it a listen and having around. The closing song, “De Vera” is a good ‘un that rocks the groove with some nice echoplexed, distorted, wah-wah guitar that works well to distract from the trite lyrics from Gavão. It’s a good closing to the short chapter of this phase of the Baianos story.

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Sonny Lester – Ann Corio Presents `How to Strip for Your Husband & More… ` (1962)Sonny Lester – How to Strip for Your Husband & More… (1962)

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sonny lester
sonny lester

Ann Corio Presents
“How to Strip for Your Husband & More…” Volumes 1 & 2
‘Music to Make Marriage Merrier’
Orchestra conducted by Sonny Lester

01. For Strippers Only
02. Seduction of the Virgin Princess
03. Shivas Regal
04. A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody
05. Lament
06. The Raid
07. Turkish
08. Blues to Strip by
09. Walkin & Strippin
10. Bumps & Grinds
11. Easter Parade
12. Lonely Little G-String
13. Big Millie from Philly
14. The Late, Late Show
15. Perfume and Pink Chiffon
16. Swinging Shepherd Blues
17. Lullaby of Birdland
18. More Bumps and Grinds
19. Strip Poker
20. Strippers Holiday
21. A Woman
22. Dixie Belle
23. Play the Blues for Masie
24. How Mable Get Sable Cha Cha Cha

“Nothing looks better on a woman than anatomy” – Ann Corio

I have a “serious” post that is in the works, but in meantime here is a bit of naughty fun. These two albums were released in 1962. Apparently the demand was such that *instructions* on how to strip properly were needed for the second volume. Unfortunately they did not come with diagrams or a photographic essay, but the bawdy burlesque jazz makes up for it. Well, sort of. The instructions were written by burlesque bombshell Ann Corio, or at least attributed to her.

sonny lester
sonny lester
sonny lester

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Ary Lobo – Ary Lobo (1962)

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Ary Lobo
“Ary Lobo”
Released 1962 on RCA-Victor (BBL – 1172)
Reissued 2004, “Essential Classics” series (82876641002)

1. Moça de hoje
2. Minha promessa
3. Eu vou pra lua
4. Movimento do Cidade
5. Se o passado voltasse
6. Zé Negreiro
7. Mulher de saia justa
8. Planeta plutão
9. Baião do Acre
10. Pedida a São Jorge
11. É Cosme e Damião
12. Garganta de cera

—————————-

This is a particularly strong album from Pará native Ary Lobo (Gabriel Eusébio dos Santos Lobo). With experience as a radio presenter while serving in the army, Lobo relocated to Rio where he also worked in radio and began making records in 1958 interpreting other composer’s material. By the time this album was released in 1962 he had five LPs and had become a songwriter in his own right, and a top-notch one at that. His style was heavily influenced by Jackson do Pandeiro and even though he adds his own twists and personal “toque”, Pandeiro’s masterful shadow looms over just about everything here. His repertoire had come to mostly feature the regional styles of the Northeast, singing about the quotidian challenges of life in Recife (Movimento da cidade), or of the northeastern migrants to the southeastern cities of Rio or São Paulo in “Minha Promessa.” In this latter song the Cearense protagonist tells how he made a promise to Padre Cícero, swearing that if luck should come his way in Rio he would return to his home in Juazeiro do Norte. Everything turns out well for the narrator in the song, which was rarely the case for the migrants looking to trade their hard luck for a better life in the cities of the industrialized southeast, giving the song a tone of either tongue-in-cheek irony or a hopeful prayer, depending on your interpretation.

This record contains the first song Ary Lobo ever wrote, “Eu vou pra lua”, which was written and first recorded in 1960. (I am not sure if that recording was used for this Long Player or if it was rerecorded for this release..). Brilliant, clever, and catchy as hell, the Jackson do Pandeiro influence is very heavy here in both the arrangement and his vocal phrasing — in fact the first time I heard it, I thought it *was* Jackson do Pandeiro – but the song is still all Lobo’s. The lyrics use the romanticism of Sputnik-era dreams of colonizing space as a solution to earthly social problems as a way to fit in some biting social satire in under three minutes (2:56 to be exact..). I wish I had time to translate the lyrics to English for the anglophiles in Flabberland but, alas, I do not. But as a basic summary I can say that our singer is sick of hunger, crime, inflation and “uneven development” (sorry, that’s my inability to resist social-science jargon… the phrase is “O progresso daqui a carestia” or “Here, progress is expensive…”), and resigning himself to disinterested apathy (“It’s no longer worth it to even criticize / Nobody believes in politics / Where the people live in agony”). He then goes on to imagine a utopian life on the moon free of bureaucracy where there is no lack of water, electricity, hospitals or schools. Oh yes, and where a woman gets sentenced to ten years in jail for cheating on her husband but her ‘back door man’ doesn’t suffer (a bit of light male chauvinist humor tacked onto the end of the tune). Of course now we know none of these things could ever happen since even The Muppets couldn’t colonize space, or even make a good film about it.

 

Eu Vou Prá Lua
Eu vou morar lá
Sair do meu Sputnik
Do Campo do Jiquiá…

Já estou enjoado aqui da terra
Onde o povo a pulso faz regime
A indústria, roubo, a fome, o crime
Onde os preços aumentam todo dia
O progresso daqui a carestia
Não adianta mais se fazer crítica
Ninguém acredita na política
Onde o povo só vive em agonia

Na lua não tem
Nome abreviado
[a bunch of acronyms*]
Nem contrabando
De mercadoria
Lá não falta água
Não falta energia
Não falta hospital
Não falta escola
É fuzilado lá
Quem come bola
E morre na rua
Quem faz anarquia

Lá não tem juventude transviada
Os rapazes de lá não têm malícia
Quando há casamento é na polícia
A moça é quem é sentenciada
Porventura se a mulher for casada
E enganar o marido a coisa é feia
Ela pega dez anos de cadeia
E o conquistador não sofre nada

* Lobo cleverly mocks Brazil’s acronym fetish by rhyming a bunch of them in rapid succession here. The lyrics posted in numerous places online are erroneous in this part of the song, having apparently been taken from a cover version from Zé Ramalho which changed them, no doubt in an effort to make the song more ‘up to date.’ Which is fair enough, I suppose: the acronyms on the original recording seem mostly taken from institutions and bureaucratic agencies from the Vargas and Kubitschek era like COHAB and IPSEP (which was both an agency and a neighborhood, still very much existing, in Recife). He rattles them off too quickly for me to figure out, especially since I suspect a few of them no longer exist… perhaps someone out there can help set the record straight?

The album also features other notable hits like “Moça de hoje” and “É Cosme é Damião”, along with others I am quite fond of like “Zé Negreiro” and “Pedida a São Jorge”. Most of the songs were written by various pairings of Luiz Boquinho, Ary Monteiro, and Ary Lobo himself, which makes for a cohesive experience of a recording on which there are no bad or uninteresting tracks.

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Willie Rosario – El Fabuloso y Fantastico (1964)

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“El Fabuloso y Fantastico”
Willie Rosario e Su Orchestra
Released 1964 (Alegre Records??)
This reissue 1998 on Neliz Records

1. Wobbly Blues
2. Los generales de la capital
3. Quedate en tu tierra
4. A Villa Palmeras
5. Nos engano la vida
6. “Yayi’s” Instant Mambo
7. Yenye
8. Me voy para el bonche
9. Triunfo el amor
10. El charlatan
11. Mayimbe
12. Bailan guaguanco

I know relatively little about this early album from bandleader and timbale tickler Willie Rosario other than it has Bobby Valentin on the trumpet and it’s a fun listen. The opening boogaloo, “Wobbly Blues” is horribly annoying to my ears, sort of like Mongo Santamaria’s “El Pussycat” except that it’s not any good. My personal favorites off this one are the handful of original Rosario compositions sandwiched together on the first half, two of which I’ve included here – “Quedate en tu tierra,” and “A Villa Palmares.” The latter is a bomba, a musical contribution particular to the island of Puerto Rico. The album spans a lot of styles, however – cha cha cha, guajira, guaracha, bolero, and mambo are all given some time on the dancefloor. This CD reissue is actually a vinyl rip, and I can’t restrain myself from saying that I probably could have done a better mastering job on this one, but since this record is pretty damn rare I suppose I will allow myself contentment. It sounds pretty okay good, okay? Good.

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