Pharoah Sanders, Floating Points & The London Symphony Orchestra – Promises (2021, Luaka Bop)
Since I mentioned this on Day 5, it seems only natural and right that Day 6 should be this wonderful record from Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders and The LSO. I’m not going to say much of anything about it; I know there were many reviews of this album and I am sure many of them are also wonderful. The album was conceived and recorded during the pandemic and somehow felt like the album we needed, even if we may not have deserved it. A proprietor of a local record shop where I live didn’t like it, he complained that it sounded “new age” — a characterization that I think is neither accurate nor fair – and that Pharoah barely plays on it, and is too subdued. But (as I mentioned yesterday) the mood here is very introspective, and feels like a musical meditation on the passing of time, on the luxury and strangeness of having lived to an old age. Any new worlds that Pharoah may seek to discover at this point are more subtle than the soaring heights of his youthful work, somewhere in between the planes, teetering suspended between the flesh and the disincarnate. I have this one on vinyl, but I’m still digesting it, so it’s not the version I’m sharing here.
Charles Lloyd & The Marvels gifted us a new album in 2021, and it’s an inspired one too. The Marvels are a piano-less ensemble with two guitarists – Bill Frisell plays the standard six-string, and Greg Leisz plays the pedal steel. This makes for some interesting arrangements, especially on tunes where you’d expect to hear a piano, like um, Monk’s Mood. The guitars manage to fill in a lot of the empty space where those 88 keys would be. Sometimes Frisell flips the tremolo switch on his amplifier and treats us to vibraphone-like textures. Charles Lloyd is sort of an elder statesman at this point and it’s great to hear him making this kind of joyful music. The two opening Ornette Coleman cuts, for example, especially “Ramblin,'” earns the adjective “rollicking” from me. It injects some NOLA second-line funk into the rhythmic structure and has some of the best interplay between the musicians of any of the tunes here. It’s followed by a rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem” that probably shouldn’t work nearly as well as it does, albeit maybe a bit too sweetly reverent. It’s tempting to contrast this simple but elegant record with a very different 2021 release from another elder statesman and true giant: Pharoah Sanders’s “Promises,”a collaboration with composer and electronic knob-twiddler Floating Points, which was a lovely surprise of this year. But whereas that album is densely textured and pensive, maybe even somber at times, and feels like Winter, or a musical reflection on the closing years of a long and fruitful life, “Tone Poem” is light and buoyant, feels like Spring, and makes me think or at least hope that Charles Lloyd & the Marvels still have a lot of music left to make together.
More information: https://www.discogs.com/Charles-Lloyd-The-Marvels-Tone-Poem/release/17814862
Alto Flute – Charles Lloyd (tracks: B1)
Bass – Reuben Rogers
Design, Photography By – Dorothy Darr
Drums – Eric Harland
Guitar – Bill Frisell
Lacquer Cut By – JH*, KPG*
Layout – Meat And Potatoes, Inc.
Liner Notes – CL*
Management – Dorothy Darr, Forest Farm Music + Art
Management [Proudly Presented By The Blue Note/Capitol Team] – Alex Anastasi, Cem Kurosman, Don Was, Eduardo Ribeiro (2), Francisco Marmol, Joshua Kamzan, Justin Seltzer, Melissa Cohen, Rachel Jones (7)
Mastered By – Kevin Gray
Mixed By – Michael C. Ross
Producer [Produced By] – Charles Lloyd, Dorothy Darr
Recorded By – Adam Camardella (tracks: C2), Dom Camardella (tracks: D2), Michael C. Ross (tracks: A1 to C1, D1)
Steel Guitar – Greg Leisz
Supervised By [Supervision: Tone Poet] – Joe Harley
Tenor Saxophone – Charles Lloyd (tracks: A1 to A3, B2 to D2)
LINEAGE: 2021 Blue Note B003313501; Pro-Ject RM-5SE with Audio Tecnica Signet TK7E cartridge; Speedbox power supply; Creek Audio OBH-15; Audioquest Black Mamba and Pangea Premier interconnect cables; M-Audio Audiophile 192 Soundcard ; Adobe Audition at 32-bit float 192khz; clicks and pops removed manually with Adobe Audition 3.0; resampled and dithered using iZotope RX Advanced. Converted to FLAC in either Trader’s Little Helper or dBPoweramp. Tags done with Foobar 2000 and Tag and Rename.
Airto – Seeds On The Ground / The Natural Sounds of Airto Vinyl rip in 24-bit/192 kHz | FLAC | 300 dpi scans | Jazz, Brazilian, Fusion Original release, 1971 Buddah Recordhs / Reissue 2020 Real Gone Music / Sony Records
Day 4 of Flabbergasted Vibes’ 12 Days of Christmas finally brings us to Brazil. Sort of. I predict there will be much more Brazilian content on this blog in 2022.
The first couple albums from Airto Moreira could easily be co-credited to Hermeto Pascoal, since he played such a major role in them. He wrote all but two of the tracks on this one. I once had a transcendental shamanic experience with this album while laying in a hammock in the middle of mountain forest. But you don’t need such accoutrements to be transported by the music here, it’s truly the stuff of magic. At turns moody, deep, and profoundly uplifting, sometimes all at once. A young Flora Purim shines here too, and she channels Gal Costa’s tropicalista phase with aplomb on tunes like O Sonho / Moon Dreams, a tune credited to Livingston & Evans of “Que Sera Sera” fame and which is also on Flora’s “Butterfly Dreams” LP on Milestone from a few years after this. It is also worth noting that Sivuca puts in an appearance on the accordion, and Dom Um Romão on the drums, as well as (honorary Brazilian?) Ron Carter on bass throughout.
A1 – Andei (I Walked)
A2 – O Sonho (Moon Dreams)
A3 – Uri (Wind)
A4 – Papo Furado (Jive Talking)
B1 – Juntos (We Love)
B2 – O Galho Da Roseira (The Branches Of The Rose Tree)
B3 – O Galho Da Roseira (The Branches Of The Rose Tree) Part II
A1 Andei (I Walked)
Bass – Ron Carter
Vocals, Percussion, Berimbau – Airto
Written By, Harpsichord, Flute – Hermeto Pascoal
A2 O Sonho (Moon Dreams)
Bass – Ron Carter
Drums, Percussion – Airto
Keyboards – Hermeto Pascoal
Vocals – Flora Purim
Written By – J. Livingston & R. Evans
A3 Uri (Wind)
Accordion – Sivuca
Acoustic Guitar, Voice, Written-By, Flute [Bass Flute] – Hermeto Pascoal
Bass, Cello – Ron Carter
Viola – Severino De Oliveira
Vocals, Drums, Percussion, Voice – Airto
Voice, Vocals – Flora Purim
Voice, Written By – Googie
A4 Papo Furado (Jive Talking)
Acoustic Guitar, Voice – Severino De Oliveira
Bass, Voice – Ron Carter
Percussion, Voice – Dom Um Romão
Vocals, Percussion, Voice – Airto*
Written By, Acoustic Guitar, Voice – Hermeto Pascoal
B1 Juntos (We Love)
Bass – Ron Carter
Drums, Percussion – Airto
Organ – Severino De Oliveira
Percussion – Dom Um Romão
Written By, Flute [Bass Flute], Piano – Hermeto Pascoal
Written By, Vocals – Flora Purim
B2 O Galho Da Roseira (The Branches Of The Rose Tree)
Acoustic Guitar, Accordion – Severino De Oliveira
Bass – Ron Carter
Keyboards, Written By – Hermeto Pascoal
Percussion – Dom Um Romão
Vocals – Flora Purim
B3 O Galho Da Roseira (The Branches Of The Rose Tree) Part II
Acoustic Guitar, Accordion – Severino De Oliveira
Bass – Ron Carter
Percussion – Dom Um Romão
Vocals – Flora Purim
Written By, Keyboards – Hermeto Pascoal
Credits
Art Direction, Photography By – Sid Maurer
Co-producer, Engineer – Tony May
Coordinator – Flora Purim
Creative Director [Director Of Creative Packaging & Merchandising] – Milton Sincoff
Design – Michael Mandel
Photography By [Back & Inside Covers] – Hal Wilson
Producer – Airto Moreira
Notes
Limited to 1000 copies
LINEAGE: 2020 Real Gone Music / Sony vinyl; Pro-Ject RM-5SE with Audio Tecnica Signet TK7E cartridge; Speedbox power supply; Creek Audio OBH-15; Audioquest Black Mamba and Pangea Premier interconnect cables; M-Audio Audiophile 192 Soundcard ; Adobe Audition at 32-bit float 192khz; clicks and pops removed manually with Adobe Audition 3.0; resampled and dithered using iZotope RX Advanced. Converted to FLAC in either Trader’s Little Helper or dBPoweramp. Tags done with Foobar 2000 and Tag and Rename.
Fat Larry’s Band – Off The Wall
Vinyl rip in 24-bit/192 kHz | FLAC | 300 dpi scans | Funk, Soul, Disco 1977 Stax Records STX-41303
Two words: Peaceful Journey… I mean, the lead-off song Sparkle is fantastic: it’s about getting it on with an alien, so how could it not be? I like to imagine it as an alternative version of the film of the same name with the Aretha Franklin / Curtis Mayfield soundtrack. But Peaceful Journey, that’s where it’s at. The group must have thought so too since it was the first single off the album, though it barely registered on the R&B charts, reaching No.98. Still, you know you have a first-rate start-to-finish funk and soul album when even the slow tunes burn with a tight, smokey groove. That rock solid beat just kills: founder and bandleader Fat Larry, aka Larry James , was a drummer. This is definitely a classic highlight from Fat Larry’s Band’s brief catalog. And, like another classic highlight, Soul Makossa, it contains an idea that Quincy and Michael J would rip off a few years later. Continue reading
Chet Baker – It Could Happen To You: Chet Baker Sings 2021 Craft Recordings RLP 1119 – Original Release 1959 Riverside
Around the world in late December, millions of the faithful gather together to commemorate the birth and short life of a golden child: Chet Baker, born December 23, 1929. He would have been 92 this year. If you love Chet’s vocal sessions – and I happen to love them – then you likely already know this essential record. This 2021 Craft Recordings reissue does not disappoint. The sessions feature the magnificent Kenny Drew on piano, and Philly Joe Jones sharing the drum chair with Dannie Richmond. It is also features the future Lionel Ritchie hit, “Dancing On The Ceiling” in it’s original arrangement. Continue reading
Kellee Patterson – Maiden Voyage Vinyl transfer in 24-bit/192 kHz | 300 dpi scans | Jazz, Vocal Jazz 2020 Real Gone Music RGM-1189/ Original Release 1973 Black Jazz
Welcome to what might become a new tradition here: Flabbergasted Vibes’ Twelve Days of Christmas. There’s been a ton of great music that has helped me get through the last year, and although I don’t have as much time to write about it as I did once upon a time, I’d still like to spread the word and the joy, hence this “holiday event” with some short and sweet blog posts. In 2021, reissue label Real Gone Music finished putting out the rest of the Black Jazz catalog, the first time this significant body of work has received a legitimate reissue campaign. This Kellee Patterson album was resissued last year, and is a singular entry in the catalog of Black Jazz records – a set of sweet and soulful vocal jazz. She would go on to make some solid jazz-funk-disco albums later in the decade, but nothing that sounded quite like this. Note that the title track is the classic by Herbie Hancock with the addition of lyrics. The reissue features informative liner notes from Pat Thomas, but unlike the original releases, these are not also pressed as quadrophonic discs.
