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My claymation Superfly Curtis has been entombed in an old plastic takeaway box for ages. And he’s been in the wars.

All that time in solitary confinement would be enough to make anyone lose their head. As cool as Curtis is/was, he eventually went that way.

His eyes had gone a bit boss, and his nose was flattened by the lunch-box lid. Not surprisingly, his posture was shot all to Hell. I did what I could for him.

‘Oh why hast thou forsaken me?’ he seems to be saying, in the above shelfie.

I want to make him a guitar and mic stand. But I might also need to make Curtis #2. As Curtis #1 is a bit floppy.

Something for your ears to chew on:

Oh dear… later the same day:

Listening to and loving this 1979 recording, by jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby. I have a couple of Ashby albums (Afro Harping, for example). But there’s a lot more by her that I want to check out.

So I thought I’d try this. And I’m not at all disappointed. This recording finds Dorothy and co taking the jazz train in a funky R & B direction, with a bit of pop and easy-listening thrown in.

There are woodwinds, strings, funky backbeats, and covers of numbers such as one of my favourite sambossas, ‘Canto d’Ossanha’, and even pop numbers like ‘By The Time I Get to Phoenix’, ‘This Girl’s in Love With You’, and a fab rendition of ‘Windmills of Your Mind’!

I guess this is exactly the kind of recording many ‘moldy fig’ jazzers felt was ushering in the decline or commercialisation of jazz. I can see what they’re getting at. But I have to beg to differ. Music, jazz as much or more so than any other form, continually evolves.

I personally love it. And the truth is that right from its inception, jazz would take popular songs of the day (often from musicals), and jazz them up. When Dorothy and co. do so, they do it beautifully. I love their jazz samba reading of The Beatles ‘Fool On The Hill’, which closes this album.

Open hearted open minded open eared listeners could do a lot worse than check out Dorothy Ashby in general, and this terrific album in particular. Love it!

There are a couple of sets combining several of Ashby’s earlier recordings, such as the one above, which can be had very cheaply. The four albums pictured on the cover are included, plus a few tracks from a fifth LP, Soft Winds.

Sadly the one below, from Fresh Sounds, is sold out (at least on their website). This one includes all the tracks from all five albums, inc. Soft Winds, and is remastered. I must have one of these two. Preferably this one!

I got this book quite some time ago. And I’ve leafed through it several times. I’ve never read it all the way through. But tonight I read a number of sections of the text, and spent longer than I’ve ever done before, perusing the images.

I have to confess that on my first viewing of this book I was rather disappointed. Looking at it now, I can still see why that is. But I also appreciate it better for what it is.

I’ve grouped some of my images together, out of sequence with how they appear in the book. These Tamba Trio covers, for example, are spreads out across the whole book. But I like gathering them together!

I guess I was kind of hoping for something akin to the Blue Note cover art books, or similar collections of jazz record covers. But Blue Note was a rather singular affair, and sets the bench very high, in terms of art, design, photography and typography. And that’s before you even get to the fabulous music!

* Turns out the answer is no. I have this:

I’m not as taken as the folk behind this book (who include famed DJ and jazz/Brazilian music buff Gilles Peterson) may be, with, for example, Cesar Villela, a designer who contributes a little essay to this book.

A number of Villela’s album cover designs are featured herein. But I don’t think I’ve included any of his stuff amongst the snaps I present here? Unlike some reviewers of this book, who love Villela’s work, it doesn’t do much for me.

It’s interesting, to me, that certain artists – The Tamba Trio and Milton Banana, for example – crop up repeatedly, and have consistently groovy covers. And I love their music! Whereas other artists, such as Joyce, whilst included here twice – and I really love her music – yet I don’t like the covers enough to want to include them.

Most of the names of musicians I am familiar with. But a few I’m not. The names of the designers and record label folk are more less all new to me. And it’s interesting to read about this side of music production in this period. The book, incidentally (as the cover subtitle say), deals just with the sixties.

This was a time when Brazil came out of a quite liberal progressive era, only to wind up under a less open-minded military dictatorship for a number of years.

The next few covers, I’ve grouped together because these are the few albums featured in this book that I have. And for continuity’s sake, I start/continue with Edison; fab cover, okay music. Edison Machado and Milton Banana are both very highly regarded a Brazilian Drummer’s.

Banana – what a name! – is credited with inventing or defining the bossa nova drum rhythm (now a universal phenomenon), via his playing on Joao Gilberto’s early recordings. And of the two, Machado and Banana – based on what I know of their work this far – I’m more of a banana man!

Most of the music in this book that I have in my collection is in CD format. Only the Joao Gilberto one is vinyl. The Marcos Valle album above, I got as a Japanese import, via the US (dustygroove.com). Very expensive! At the time that was the only way to get some of this stuff. Since then, at least with Valle, a lot of stuff has seen wider re-issuing.

Quarteto Novo were absolutely amazing. As is this album. The only one they made. With Hermeto Pascoal (flute, etc) and Airto Moreira (drums/percussion), plus Theo de Barros (bass/guitar), and Heraldo do Monte (guitar).

I’ve got several Milton Banana albums on CD, including Balançado. I don’t have the two further up this post, or the one below. Or rather, I don’t have albums with these covers. I rather suspect I may have some of the music. But packaged differently.

I have some Nara Leao. But not the above. It’s quite bold, having only her image, and no typography or info’ whatsoever. A rare thing in any market.

Several of the next discs are striking album covers from Brazilian artists I’m not familiar with. Mind, I might have heard them, if they appear on any of the several Braz/Latin compilations I have a fair few of.

The above is the one of the very few record cover that occurs both in this book and in Charles Gavin’s 25 picks for The Som Livre 50th Anniversary reissue series. Whilst it’s bold and colourful, and I chose to include it here, it’s not a favourite. It’s fun, but rather dated.

Several Os Catedraticos/Eumir Deadato releases feature in this book. But this is only one I’ve snapped. Again, like the Decisão one, it’s striking – I like the pencil depressing the piano-key motif – but not a favourite.

All in all? A good book. Well worth having if you’re passionate about music of this era from Brazil. Which I certainly am. Not quite as groovy as I’d anticipated. With numerous albums, or covers, I might’ve expected to see not appearing. And some choices – quite a few – that just don’t align with my tastes.

But very good nevertheless. I’ll have to read the rest of the text next!

To finish, a couple of covers I’d expected to find here, but didn’t:

Wowzers! I’d love this. It looks incredibly beautifully put together. And I can imagine that it would have me delving down a warrens-worth of musical rabbit-holes.

British jazz isn’t something I’ve ever taken too much of an interest in, per se, to be brutally honest. I mean, there’s such vast amounts to be explored coming out of the birthplace of jazz, the US of A.

I’ve explored the tiniest amouts of European jazz, and even less British stuff. I have Stan Tracey’s Under Milk Wood, somewhere. And I have a terrific Chris Bowden album called Time Capsule. And more recently there’s stuff by local heroes, like the Portico Quartet, and Resolution 88.

Mind you, all of the latter – save Stan Tracey – would fall outside the chronological remit of this very handsome looking tome, which covers the golden era that spanned 1960-75.

What (else) can I sell, to fund purchasing this, I wonder? Trouble is, I’m not having much luck selling the stuff I’m already trying to flog. Which (so far non-existent) money is to go towards paying basic things, like bills.

When I lived in London I used to love visiting Ray’s Jazz and Mole Jazz. There were other jazzy joints, I think, like Honest Jon’s. But I very rarely fit out that way (West London). And towards the end of my time In’t Smoke, some new ones began appearing, like Mr Bongo, that carried a lot of jazz, but were a bit broader in their catalogues.

Both Ray’s and Mole closed. I didn’t realise this, but Ray’s Jazz is actually still going, as a sub-department, within Foyle’s Bookshop, London. I’m glad to learn that!

I also didn’t know that, like me, Ray was both born in Ealing, and a drummer!

I really must get this book, if humanly possible. And, whether I succeed in that endeavour or not, I gots to start digging into British jazz history.

FOOTNOTE… Oops! I forgot about this!

I talked about not really digging into Brit-Jazz above. And I suddenly remembered that, actually, whilst that’s still broadly speaking very true, there are some things I forgot I’d checked out. Such as the Torrid Zone collection of Ian Carr/Nucleus recordings.

I’ve also started to check out recordings by Neil Ardley. And then there’s the connections between UK prog and Brit-Jazz… and so it goes, on and on. The musical multiverses multiply.

FIT THE 1st

It’s Saturday, and nine days since Ruby was written off in my local crash. I’ve got a neck and headache that’s been persisting for several days now. I guess this’ll be some form of whiplash? Mayhap I oughta get myself looked at?

Unusually, when I reluctantly administered a dose of co-codamol last night – always very efficacious, I find – it didn’t really help. That is very rare indeed. And both annoying and disappointing.

Anyway, back to now; I still have the neck/head-ache. And, as ever, I’m exhausted. But it’s time to ‘get up, get into it, and get involved’, as the great JB exhorted us all to do.

And for me, today, that means starting with hanging as many of my drum room pics as I can. That’s actually a fun job. Or should be. Fingers crossed it’ll prove to be as fun as I’m hoping. Snaps of the results will of course adorn this post… later!

I have two images of Karen Carpenter at her drums. This one tucked away, somewhat furtively, right by the drum stool, but hidden from view elsewhere, as it’s on a rear of the room facing aspect of some shelves.

With the Karen pics, it’s not so much that she’s a big influence on me, or anything like that. She was indeed a superb drummer, as well as a brilliant singer. But I’ve never studied her drumming intently. And she was, alas, ultimately a somewhat tragic figure, in ways.

You could say she’s a guilty pleasure. But that’s disingenuous. I feel no guilt whatsoever for loving her or the Carpenters. Perhaps, aside from their inherent visual appeal – she looks great! – I have them up in part as a salutory lesson? She loved her drums, but allowed others to deflect her from that path.

Maybe she would’ve gone the way she went ultimately anyway? Perhaps it was almost inevitable? Built into her psychic fabric? One hopes not. That idea sounds too much like something Phil Lynott sings about, in his fab song, Fatalistic Attitude.

Meanwhile, Macca’s on’t floor, temporarily, along with one of my monitor speakers, the guitar pedal-board, & sundry other bits n’ pieces. In Bull Fiddle corner. I need a better way to store the bass. Ideally a dedicated stand. I did have one, when I had my other (Antoni) double bass. Should’ve kept it!

The Macca pic is a bit like the Karen C ones, more there just for the overall vibe. Not ‘cause I partic’ rate Paul’s drumming! But for the whole ‘wonderful world of music’ thing that the image evokes.

This back to front one is Bonham. Can’t hang him just yet, as the hanging eye needed relocating. The next phase is to populate the area behind the kit. And I have plenty of images for that area. That’ll get done after lunch. Taking a lunch break now…

FIT THE 2nd

Lunch etten, time for phasoid two. First up, the other nice big Tom Closing Time 50th anniversary poster. This one is behind me.

I don’t want to over clutter this space. There’s room for one or two small images below, perhaps?

I took lots of pics of me in front of this Tom poster. And I’m far from happy with any of them. This was the best of a bad lot!

Despite my efforts, at relocating his ‘hanging eye’, Bonham’s still a bit tipsy! And Paul is a little low… hey ho! Not to worry.

Unfortunately the above photo is a wee bit distorted in places. I’ll try and take some better pics in dew coarse. But at least it catches a bit of atmos’!

FIT THE 3rd

And last bit not least, here I am putting up a couple of Jim Fitzpatrick’s Thin Lizzy artwork prints.

And in lower lighting…

I do have some more frames and prints. I want to get a few more jazz funk soul cats up on the walls. And also a few other musicians: bass players, Grant Green… but I think that’s all for today?

Passed through Wisbang on the way to work. And after work I found another interesting church; St James, at Newton in the Isle.

I was passing it, and decided to stop and look. Sadly ‘twas locked up. So, just exterior shots. I’ll go back, some day, for a look inside.

The whole structure looks rather neglected. And a little bit sad.

There are some nice old memorials. And the grounds are green and pleasant.

I’m hoping someone can let me look around inside. There are issues with the structural safety of this poor old church. But I’ve talked to someone, and they say it’s do-able.

This church is unusual, in that it’s so run down. It also puts into perspective how well looked after most of the churches I stop and look at are. Which is a rather nice thing to contemplate.

If I ever have a bob or two to spare, I’d like to support the work of The Churches Conservation Trust. Here’s hoping my finances will one day be healthy enough to do so!

As grey a day as it was, there was this… look at this field of daffs! Gorgeous.

PART THE FIRST

How does one get rid of condensation that’s inside a double glazed window? Is it even possible? Googling the subject suggests, yes, one can remedy the situation. Although it sounds like it’ll recur.

I need to heat the window, prob’ whilst open, to remove damp air. Then close it, with – one hopes? – only warm dry air inside. I’ll give it a try. But not immediately.

Why not straight away? Because I’m proving ridiculously tardy, when it comes to photographing and listing my drum hardware for sale. I think what I’ll do, in order to make the latter a manageable job, is do it in chunks.

First off, I’ll do the Yamaha hardware. As that’s both what I have the most of. And also, possibly or probably, the most valusable. Being as it’s heavy-duty double-braced pro’ level gear.

There’s also the issue of ‘what do I want to keep?’ Once upon a yesteryear, it’d’ve bean the Yammy stuff. Not so any more! It’s too heavy. It’s good for a studio set up, that once erected is left in situ. But it’s too much hard work for carting around gigging.

Mind, I’m not actually doing either any more. But I might resume?

For now I’m going to keep the Gibraltar hardware, and the few bits of Gretsch that go with my Catalina Club Jazz kit.

I may well sell the Club Jazz kit. In which case I’ll certainly be selling the Gretsch hardware that goes wi’ it. But that’s only floor-tom legs, bass drum tom mount, and, er… well, I think that’s it?

If I recall aright, my Gibraltar stuff – hi-hat stand/pedal, kick pedal, straight cymbal, boom cymbal, and snare stand (poss’ a seat as well?) – came with the Gretsch kit?

Then there’s the Mapex stuff. This includes: a cymbal stand mounting ‘free floating’ tom arm/clamp, two sets of floor-tom legs, a double kick pedal, snare stand, and one or two cymbal stands.

If I sell the Mapex kit – and I must admit I don’t really want to, at least not yet – the issue of hardware is more confused. I might want to keep the double-kick pedals? But once again, I don’t use it. In fact I’ve almost never used it. So mayhap I should just move it along?

And then there’s various other bits and bats, such as my two Big Dog snare stands. I think I’ll keep both of those for now. One for a practice pad. The other for a practice snare. And having two is useful when teaching. Although whether I’ll ever be doing that again is questionable.

Right now it’s tea break time…

Part the Second

Having spent the afternoon photographing and listing various bits of Yamaha hardware, and a Premier triple-mount stand, plus a pair of Fastball clamps, on numerous interweb drum selling pages, we had dinner.

After dinner, I shifted my efforts to clearing and organising the drum room/office. Here’s what it looked like before tidying:

The room was literally full to overflowing! Mostly with drum kits and related gubbins. There are three kits in here at this point: Yamaha Club Jazz four piece; Mapex Meridian five piece; Ayotte Custom Maple (all wood hoops!) five piece.

Plus sundry other bits: lots of hardware, a number of cymbals, extra snares, a pair of congas, and a heap of non drum stuff. The latter includes tech bits and bobs, and other instruments, like guitars (and pedals/pedal-board), assorted percussion, and even a double bass (three-quarter size).

And here are a few post tidy-up pics:

It’s great to get a kit set up again. After quite a few months of not playing at all. Getting the set back in place felt good. I’m actually looking forward to resuming playing.

Ok, the room is massively improved. There’s a playable kit set up. And I can move about the room, where before it was a chock-full cluttered disaster zone. But there’s room for a great deal more improvement.

One thing I did, which improves the ergonomics and practicality of the room massively, is move the printer from the opposite side of the room to the computer – a stupid arrangement I persisted with for aeons (doh!), constantly causing me to trip over dangling leads – to the same side.

As can be seen in the above photo, I’m experimenting with placing crash cymbals higher than formerly (although I’m limited as to how high, by the low sloped ceiling). I used to usually have two crashes. At prez I just have the one. But I’ll prob’ set another one up, as soon as time allows.

I also want more lighting options. Which again, I’ve had in the past. And I want more art or inspirational imagery up, on the walls. To which end several previous posts here attest (find them here and here), with my gradual accumulation of music and drumming related prints.

Wow! This is wonderful. I will always love David Munrow, even if only for the music he Contributed to an old BBC Radio 4 adaptation of The Hobbit.

In the opening sequence he proves himself to be the bastard love-child of Bamber Gascoigne and Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong, with his knowledge of and prowess on this ancient wind instrument.

He also demonstrates here why aesthete snobs throughout the ages, all the way back to the Ancient Greeks, felt that wind instruments were not for true gentleman. Look at what they do to one’s face! Those bullfrog puffed-out cheeks?

He wasn’t just good at playing these one or two instruments, but could play many, with an impressive level of proficiency. And he not only kept old repertoire alive, but composed as well. Writing music for all sorts of uses, including the OST for the film Zardoz!

Munrow proves to be yet another person that I love with a tragic tale to tell. This immensely talented young man hung himself, at the very young age of 33! So sad. What a waste.

Having frequently experienced depression myself, and not only entertained but even tried out what they nowadays call ‘suicidal ideation’. You’d think I’d understand. And maybe I do? Or maybe I don’t?

I fully intend to dig deeper into the man the was David Munrow, and his multifarious musical machinations.

MUNICH, 17/8/‘72

Ah, this takes me back. Not quite to ‘72. As that’s the year I was born. But to my mid- to late-teens, when I discovered The Mahavishnu Orchestra.

I’m a bit more reserved or circumspect about my enthusiasm for and admiration of these guys than I was ‘back in the day’, when the intensity of my love for them was akin to, albeit not quite on a par with, their own volcanic levels of energy and intensity.

I do still love these guys and their music. And perhaps at this early point in their career most especially so. This is basically their debut album Inner Mounting Flame, live.

Setlist 
Meeting Of The Spirits
You Know You Know
The Dance of The Maya
(Cobham solo) One Word
The Noonward Race
A Lotus on Irish Streams

Inner Mounting Flame
1) Meeting of the Spirits
2) Dawn
3) The Noonward Race
4) A Lotus on Irish Streams
5) Vital Transformation
6) The Dance of Maya
7) You Know You Know
8) Awakening 

That was the first album by them I got, as it happens. Prob’ off the back of hearing The Life Divine, a collab’ ‘twixt Santana – who I was already a huge fan of – and McLaughlin, from Love Devotion & Surrender.

Oh, those heady youthful days of emergent ecstasy! How naive was I?

LONDON, 25/8/‘72

This is the same band playing much the same repertoire. But the video and audio are slightly better quality. Hence the extra half star.

I love how the internet has made exploring music a lot easier. Watching a live Billy Cobham video, from Norway, in ‘74 (see below), I was as taken with some of the clothing as I was with the blisteringly intense post-Mahavishnu prog’ fusion.

I was also introduced to Milcho Leviev, a Bulgarian jazz pianist I’d not been aware of before. I’d heard him on recordings, but not been aware of him as an individual.

Turns out he was not only a sideman with Billy Cobham and co, touring and recording with the drummer during the seventies, but he also worked with trumpeter and composer/bandleader Don Ellis.

Trivia fans might be interested to know that track one of Don Ellis’ 1973’s Soaring album is a certain Whiplash, by saxophonist and composer Hank Levy… as used in, and indeed giving it’s name to, the 2014 ‘jazz studies horror’ film of that name.

Anyway, back to Haiku, also released in ‘73. It’s the kind of album that causes some, so called ‘jazz purists’, for example, to break out in sweaty or clammy hot n’ cold flushes, and all manner of other febrile eruptive ailments, wondering, ‘but… is it jazz?’

Who gives a good goddamn? My main criterion for music is, do I like it? Or put another way, does it move me, or in some way connect with me? And the answer with Haiku is, yes, in a mixed bag of ways.

Don Ellis is yet another character, or star, within the many galaxies of music, and jazz music within that, that I simply must explore more. I didn’t realise he was also a drummer, as well as a famed trumpeter and bandleader, composer, etc.

He’s done a lot of film soundtrack work. And is also known for composing and performing music in unusual time signatures, and what was once referred to as ‘Third Stream’ experimentalism. This last refers to bringing elements of the so called classical tradition to bear, on jazz and popular music.

As well as featuring Leviev, on keys, who I just discovered thanks to the Cobham concert footage, these two also share contributions from trombonist Glenn Ferris. And there are other notable and/or recognisable names, such as guitarist Jay Graydon, famed for his solo on Steely Dan’s Peg.

The above video captures a later Don Ellis group performing live at Montreux Jazz Festival. Holy guacamole! Seriously intense. The more I hear Don Ellis, the more I want to hear.

I definitely want to add Haiku to my music collection. Being totally broke at present that’ll have to wait. But in the meantime I can enjoy it via YouTube. Which is better than not being able to hear it at all.

FOOTNOTE

A rather sad coda to this post: I discovered Don Ellis died, of a heart attack, only a year after the above 1977 Montreux performance. He was only 44 years old! He seems so full of life in the Montreux footage. Rather ironically, for an artist who is so associated with unusual time signatures, it was his heart doing just that – irregular rhythms – that killed him!