Issue #28 Extra!: Archives & Reissues
Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express - “Happiness Heartaches”
Kevin Ayers - “Joy of a Toy”
Kevin Ayers and the Whole World - “Shooting at the Moon”
Kevin Ayers - “Whatevershebringswesing”
Kevin Ayers - “Bananamour”
Brandywine Bridge – “An English Meadow”
Ian Carr's Nucleus - "Out of the Long Dark" / Ian Carr - "Old Heartland"
Maynard Ferguson - "Carnival"
Jet - "Jet"
Mahavishnu Orchestra – “Mahavishnu”
Neuronium – “Quasar 2C361 + Vuelo Quimico”
David Sancious and Tone – “Transformation (The Speed of Love)”
Seatrain – “Watch”
Various Artists – “Best of Baltimore’s Buried Bands II”
Maynard Ferguson - "Carnival"
(Wounded Bird/Sony, WOU 5480, CD, 1978/2003)
For those of you uninitiated, Maynard Ferguson was part of the jazz-rock scene originating from the stable of jazz players who broke out under the auspices of Stan Kenton's big band. "Carnival" was Ferguson and his sixteen-piece band's eighth and possibly his most successful blend from the big band jazz direction incorporating 1970s modern rock covers. Brass arrangements were the rage, often informed by radio in a trend that has vanished from today's pop world. This LP showcased a peak of the trumpeter's ability to re-configure familiar tunes of the day and fit brass arrangements that didn't choke the original melody. The real meat and potatoes of the group lies in the new pieces such as the opening "M.F. Carnival"; it captures the essence of the big band's sound as arranged by keyboardist Biff Hannon. The piece opens with Spanish guitar from John Qdini before Ferguson's broad tone solo comes in. Tracks such as Earth Wind and Fire's funky top ten hit "Fantasy", and Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" are the better-known tracks on the disc. "Stella by Starlight" finds the group in a far more traditional jazz mode with trombonists Nick Lane and Phil Gray carrying the bulk of the melodic load with some exceptional charts. Weather Report's "Birdland" is given the big band rendition with Qdini rocking it up a bit too. Overall this work stands as a high water mark for Ferguson and his ensemble. - Jeff Melton
Ian Carr's Nucleus - "Out of the Long Dark" / Ian Carr - "Old Heartland"
(BGO BGOCD420, CD, 1979/88/98)
One of the last incarnations of Nucleus from the late seventies featured Carr along with long time cohort, Brian Smith on reeds. Geoff Castle, Billy Kristian and Roger Sellers rounded out this version of the quintet that recorded one of the best selling LPs in the U.S. Capitol catalogue, Out of the Long Dark. Kicking off the set was "Gone with the Weed" which illustrated the group's continued maturity since establishing this specific line-up for "In Flagrante Delicti" a year prior. Note that since dropping the guitarist role from the band, the group steadily got funkier and also injected disco influence, as was the mode of the times. Best tracks on the album are "Lady Bountiful" that relies on a solemn bass line to anchor the tune before diverging into the most memorable bluesy piano solo by Castle on any Nucleus record. The next track "Solar Wind" is noteworthy for Castle's brilliant Jan Hammer style Mini-Moog solo. "Simply This" is part three of the title track and is a distinct departure relying on a cutesy suitable synth riff.
Fast forward to 1998 and Carr was out on his own recording a jazz/orchestral suite - "Northumbrian Sketches". With only Castle remaining onboard from the last line-up, old Nucleus/Soft Machine drummer John Marshall and guitarist Mark Wood are added into the personnel. The cornerstone of the arrangement is based largely around the inclusion of the Kreisler String Orchestra, a 32-piece group. It's no surprise that Carr would eventually take this composition route considering Nucleus successful integration into two of Neil Ardley's best works and the trumpeter's fascination with Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain. Best tracks include "Disjunctive Boogie" where ex-Jeff Beck bassist Mo Foster plays atop a spirited string section doing a keen pizzicato. "Selina" is perhaps the most forlorn song as a pensive violin sections gives way to a mournful clarinet that later blends into a Carr solo which captures a similar flame to that of "Flamenco Sketches". The album was engineered by drummer Jon Hiseman and corresponding liner notes from Neville Farmer, a staple of the UK jazz scene, which on leads further credence to the validity of the work. Together these two album bookend two contrasting road signs in Ian Carr's respected career. - Jeff Melton
Jet - "Jet"
(Radiant Future RFVP002CD, CD, 2002)
The travels of guitarist David O'List (from the Nice to Roxy Music) eventually found somewhat of a home in Jet, a splinter group from the remains of John's Children and Radio Stars. O'List fit in well into this quintet built around vocalist Andy Ellison and keyboardist Peter Oxendale. The group falls squarely into Queen and Aladdin Sane era Bowie with their imaginative rock and roll arrangements and studio trickery. The Queen linkage is evident due in part from producer Roy Thomas Baker as one of the first acts under his tutelage that never achieved the heights of his other production efforts. What's also of note is that bassist Martin Gordon is the prime songwriter in ten of twelve tracks and co-wrote one of the others. Tracks such as "Brian Damage" occupy much of the musical terrain as 'Virginia Plain" or "Out of the Blue". The guitarist's only song, "My River" sounds like The Sweet or Head East with it's opening power chords and trendy synth backing. "Whangdepootenawah" is a tongue twister that spoofs pop rock and was probably considered a single contender for its campy approach and choppy keyboard playing. Closing out the disc is a series of studio banter that shows the chaos in the control room during backing track playback for all its blazing glory. Overall, Jet was no better or worse than contemporaries and deserved more than a small footnote in British 70's rock. - Jeff Melton
Mahavishnu Orchestra – “Mahavishnu”
(Wounded Bird WOU-5190, 1984/2002, CD)
I don’t think anyone would argue against the idea that the Mahavishnu Orchestra’s peak was long past by the time John McLaughlin put this version of the band together. McLaughlin probably regarded this as a somewhat different band anyway, as evidenced by the fact that it was originally released just as Mahavishnu (for this reissue, the “Orchestra” is added). Billy Cobham is the only other Orchestra member present, and the role of melodic foil to the guitar and keys, previously filled by violin, is taken over by Bill Evans on saxes and flute. Listeners expecting the manic edge-of-the-seat energy that made the original band’s first few albums so remarkable will be disappointed; while this is no snooze-fest, the whole thing is more polished and mannered, due in large part to McLaughlin’s avoidance of the guitar. Yes, one of the great guitarists of all time recorded an album on which he plays mostly keyboards and “digital guitar” rather than his main axe. Maybe he was just tired of it and wanted to try something different, though he does rip out exactly one excellent solo on the third track. The results are somewhat mixed, for though there are some great moments, on the whole it’s a little too polite to rank with the best MO. Jonas Hellborg is uniformly good on bass, and Mitchell Forman fills the keyboard role admirably. All of which leaves this album as a curiosity in McLaughlin’s career, far from worthless, but not one of the greats.
– Jon Davis
[www.woundedbird.com]
David Sancious and Tone – “Transformation (The Speed of Love)”
(Wounded Bird WOU-3939, 1976/2003, CD)
David Sancious came at the genre of jazz-rock fusion from a rather different direction than most of the key figures. Rather than coming into it as an established jazz player or from the progressive rock side, his career began when Bruce Springsteen hired him to play keyboards in the E Street Band. His exposure during much of the 80s and 90s comes from his stints as sideman for such diverse mainstream acts as Sting, Peter Gabriel, and Bryan Ferry, but he produced a string of adventurous albums from 1975 to 1982, just now seeing CD release. Transformation was his second effort after going solo, and it compares favorably with the classics of its time, though Sancious plies his own path, with elements of Mahavishnu, but with some of the Eastern esoterica replaced by earthy American blues. The second of the album’s four tracks starts with a gritty acoustic slide guitar, and shuffles along like a down-home jam before bursting into a quick, funky electric guitar workout. Sancious handles both keyboard and guitar duties on the sessions, displaying flashy technique and good melodic sense on both, laying back to dish out tasty melodies, then building up his solos to McLaughlin-like fast-picked runs. The rhythm section of drummer Ernest Carter and bassist Gerald Carboy (both unknown to me outside this recording) handles the varied moods and tempos very well, generating plenty of energy when the arrangement calls for it. – Jon Davis
[www.woundedbird.com]
Neuronium – “Quasar 2C361 + Vuelo Quimico”
(Rama Lama RO 50492, 1977/78/1998, 2CD)
Despite the 1998 publishing date on this set, these reissues have not been generally available (other than through pricey bidding wars on eBay) until now. This brings both the first and second Neuronium releases together in a single 2CD package. Most people know Neuronium as simply being synonymous with Spanish synthesist Michael Huygen, though in the early days Neuronium was a three piece band also featuring synthesist/guitarist Carlos Guirao and multi-instrumentalist Albert Gimenez. On the debut Quasar 2C361 the sound could pretty much be considered a clone of what Tangerine Dream was doing about four years prior, circa Phaedra and Rubycon: dense washes of keyboard synths floating in space with touches of guitars, flute and percussion, with occasional sequenced sections and samples of natural sounds. Not a bad thing in and of itself, in fact the album is quite good, but that said, it’s not terribly original either. On the second release Vuelo Quimico from a year later, the sound – while still as heavily electronic based as the first, features a higher profile role for acoustic guitar, and more importantly vocals, including a guest appearance by Nico, ex of the Velvet Underground, offering some poetry by Edgar Allan Poe. The overall tone of the album is far less derivative than its predecessor, and with its sequenced elements perhaps even leans more in the direction of Klaus Schulze at times. Those interested in a seventies styled vintage electronic sound would do well to check this set out. – Peter Thelen
Kevin Ayers - “Joy of a Toy”
(EMI/Harvest, 07243-582776-2-3, 1969/2003, CD)
Kevin Ayers and the Whole World - “Shooting at the Moon”
(EMI/Harvest, 07243-582777-2-2, 1970/2003, CD)
Kevin Ayers - “Whatevershebringswesing”
(EMI/Harvest, 07243-582776-2-3, 1972/2003, CD)
Kevin Ayers - “Bananamour”
(EMI/Harvest, 07243-582776-2-3, 1973/2003, CD)
Ex-Soft Machine bassist Kevin Ayers left that group after their full-on live U.S. assault with the Jim Hendrix Experience in 1969. Since that time, Ayers had spent the following years putting together a solo career enviable by most artists in the U.K. if only for his cheerful experimentation that incorporates a wide array of styles and influences. Archivist Mark Powell is the man again that has dug deeper into the EMI cargo holds of outtakes and master recordings to provide vastly improved listening pleasure and liner notes. In addition Powell has seen fit to obsolete Odd Ditties (1976), an album of outtakes and singles where he has added back tracks to the albums they were left off. This makes each reissue expanded by approximately twenty-minutes and thus improved listening experience. Ayers first album’s title track, "Joy of a Toy" dates from the end of 1969 and includes an array of players from the likes of Robert Wyatt to Syd Barrett (whom plays guitar on an early take of “Singing a Song in the Morning”). Ayers vocal style can best be described as a curious blend of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen with that of Barrett as well. Important songs include “Girl on a Swing” that captures English pop psychedelia at its best with a simple lyric offset by tape loops and heavy mellotron usage. “Stop the Training (Again Doing It)” features a steadily increasing tempo and a vintage Mike Ratledge Lowry organ solo that simply shreds.
Shooting at the Moon was a major step forward creatively for Ayers as it established his on-going working relationship with arranger David Bedford as well as introduced then bassist Mile Oldfield to the record buying public. Classic tracks on this album include “May I” (a plaintive ballad) and “Clarence in Wonderland” (one of two Soft Machine leftovers that encapsulate Ayers’ sardonic wit). The Whole World was Ayers’ first post Soft Machine band that also included avant-garde saxophonist Lol Coxhill (in his most tame, but appropriate musical setting). Much of the album features fun-spirited experimentation in the form of backwards tape loops on “Colores Para Delores” and free jamming on “Pisser Dans un Violon” and “Underwater”. These tracks help break up some of the album’s continuity but in a non-gratuitous manner. Tracks such as “Lunatics Lament” show the quintet at it’s rocking best with one of Oldfield’s first inspired guitar solos. Essential bonus tracks include “Gemini Child” and “Butterfly Dance” also extracted from Odd Ditties.
The third LP in the reissue series is perhaps Ayers’ and Bedford’s greatest arranging achievement, Whatevershebringswesing as the Whole World band splintered thus allowing the artist to continue to refine his craft. The opening medley of “There is Loving/Among Us/There is Loving” is a grand foray that leads off the original eight pieces. Essential tracks include the title piece with a characteristic lead guitar performance from Oldfield and “Stranger in Blue Suede Shoes”, another unappreciated UK single. “Song from the Bottom of the Well” is simply Ayers’ sinister masterpiece of mayhem from this time frame. “Fake Mexican Tourist Blues” is another Odd Ditties song that has been appended to the end of the disc as it adds light-hearted closure.
Lastly, Bananamour from 1973 also received the remaster/bonus track treatment, but with an additional liner notes interview that details song-by-song annotations from the composer. Essential pieces are “Shouting in a Bucket of Blues” that features an excellent Steve Hillage (pre-Gong) lead guitar break and “Interview” where Ratledge makes another fierce organ appearance. “Take Me to Tahiti” and “Caribbean Moon” are two of the four bonus tracks from the same recording time frame that bolster further support this underrated work.
Overall this group of four seminal works personifies the best and least recognized of the Canterbury stable of artists. Each CD is highly recommended to that loyal fan base as well as those who can appreciate Bob Dylan with a sardonic twist. - Jeff Melton
Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express - “Happiness Heartaches”
(Wounded Bird WOU 2981, 1977/2003, CD)
The latter incarnation of Oblivion Express (led by Hammond B3 player extraordinaire, Brian Auger) was characterized by soulful blues-rock, percussion and danceable grooves. Ex-Return to Forever drummer Lenny White (just a few months after the band’s peak on Romantic Warrior) sets up an excellent back beat for bassist Clive Chaman (ex-Jeff Beck group) to pound steady pulses as on the funky opener “Back Street Bible Class”. Guitarist Jack Mills co-writes three pieces on the album and gives his best lead guitar solo on the title song. Lennox Langton was also an essential member of the six-piece group adding smooth conga playing on the LP’s longest track, “Spice Island”. Chaman’s funky submission “Never Gonna Come Down”, is propelled by a Moog synthesizer lead, wah-wah guitar and more feel good bump and grind. Vocalist Alex Ligertwood’s lead vocal was an essential part of this line-up as well before his later stint with Santana. In this working environment, he is at home belting out up-tempo numbers such as “Gimme a Funky Beat” (that also feature’s Auger’s best organ solo here). “Paging Mr. McCoy” is the album’s closer and the only instrumental piece from the keyboardist’s pen. It’s also the highpoint of the disc with its emphasis on synthesizers atop piano rhythms and a blistering attack from the rhythm section. Overall it’s another consistent performance from an underrated fusion outfit with a long catalogue of noteworthy releases. - Jeff Melton
Brandywine Bridge – “An English Meadow”
(Kissing Spell KSCD 937, (1978/2002), CD)
English trio Brandywine Bridge released its only LP, An English Meadow, in 1978. The album, just reissued by Kissing Spell, contained twelve original songs penned in the style of traditional English folk music. The arrangements are all-acoustic with Dave Grew, Stuart Hague, and Sheila Hague playing guitar, banjo, and mandolin, fiddle, recorder, concertina, bowed psaltery, spoons, and bells. Four songs here are instrumental, but most feature vocals. Sheila Hague’s fragile voice (sounding a bit like Sandy Denny’s) is featured most often and most prominently, although her two colleagues handle their share of vocal duties, proving themselves to be competent singers in the unpolished and rough-hewn style typical other early 70’s male British folk-rockers (Jansch, Hart, Cockerham, etc.). The band does do a fine job of evoking the traditional styles, although their reliance upon cheery major key melodies seems at odds with the darker, lyrical content (which includes songs about poaching, war, witches, and animal sacrifice. All in all, this is a very pleasant and well done album of English folk from the mid-70s but it remains purely in the folk realm, without ever venturing into psych-folk, prog-folk, or the like. It’s very nice for what it is— I’m just not sure many Exposé readers will be interested. — Jim Chokey
Seatrain – “Watch”
(Wounded Bird WOU-2692, 1973/2003, CD)
The Blues Project is remembered as an innovative, somewhat erratic band of the mid-60s who combined rock with folk, blues, and jazz. In 1967 they split up, with some members going on to form Blood, Sweat & Tears, and others to form Seatrain. Seatrain put out three moderately successful albums before splitting up in 1973, with this album being their swan song. Only one original member of the band remained, and though their standard combination of blues, rock, folk, and bluegrass is intact, the music really fails to capture any sort of spark. It’s hard to put a finger on where the fault lies. The musicians are all competent, and the arrangements feature a lot of variety without sounding forced. Fans of the Band might well find things to like here, as there’s a similar old-timey down-home feel to much of the music, though not the questing experimental spirit that makes Music from Big Pink, for example, so extraordinary. And maybe that’s what’s missing here. We’ve all heard bluesy folk done electric, and adding a banjo now and then doesn’t make it special.
– Jon Davis
[www.woundedbird.com]
Various Artists – “Best of Baltimore’s Buried Bands II”
(Oho Music OM 053, 2003, 2CD)
This two CD set was produced by OHO main-mover and elder statesman of the Baltimore progressive scene Jay Graboski. Apparently there must have been a “Part I” (maybe an LP?) and this is of course Part 2 – basically a non-chronological collection of demos and unreleased cuts by 18 or so bands from Baltimore from as early as 1972 through the present, each with meticulous lineup documentation. I’ll bet almost every major metropolitan area in the USA could assemble a collection like this, filled with great bands that for whatever reason never met with enough success to get them beyond the demo tape stage.
Disc one begins. After a brief electronic montage piece by duo Wild Mouse (from ’95), we hit one of the disc’s high points; a four song set by Outrageous, a 5-piece + guests that existed from ’74 to ’76. At their best (as on the seven-minute “Faggy Goats”) their sound is a bizarre and humor filled stew of styles, full of unpredictable twists and turns, with influences ranging from Zappa to Teapot era Gong to The Bonzo Dog Band and beyond, but all the humor certainly doesn’t get in the way of some great playing, there are some seriously good chops at work here. Onward. Next up is OHO, who have a total of 8 tracks scattered around the two discs – fair enough, their man produced the set, and most of the material is from their best period from 74 through 76 (Okinawa and Vitamin OHO, neither which have ever seen a CD release.) The first set is 4 tracks (actually a 25 second intro from Okinawa and 3 normal length previously unreleased pieces) of their patented period sound, straddling the fence between late psychedelia and 70s art-rock, with experimental fun at every turn. Next up are 4 tracks from 1975 by the more conventional sounding Elf Park (at least by comparison to what has been presented previously), a six-piece with two guest players on loan from OHO, who seem to be influenced by everything from British prog-rock to sixties’ R&B to the harmony style of early Styx. “Queen of Ice” is the highlight of their set, where the influences are less clearly identifiable and they beef up the vocal harmonies with an excellent female backup singer. The remainder of disc one is one-offs by a number of different bands, including Trance Figures, Grok, Richard Lake, and Steakhouse – the latter from as recently as 2002 (not buried all that long I guess!), a four-piece of vocals, bass, drums, acoustic and electric guitars; featuring Graboski’s son Matt, they sport a decidedly fresh, modern song-based approach, and all the players are featured on Matt Graboski’s solo disc Drag of The Mask. Side one concludes with a current band, Blammo, with their David Surkamp-esque singer, and the lighthearted “You Never Should Have Sold Your Mellotron”.
Well, I’ve already almost doubled my allowable word count, and I haven’t even started disc two – this review will surely get cut, but what the hell, let’s keep going; there is some great stuff on the second disc too. And as disc one ended, so begins disc two, with Blammo’s “I’m A Frog Man”, more goofy musical humor in what appears now to be a Baltimore tradition. The two songs by five-piece Neige, who date from 79/80, are among the most interesting on the entire set, with a definite nod to the more aggressive Crimson, Present, and what might now be called Cuneiform school on one hand, and a more fluid symphonic sound on the other (but note that it’s all done with guitars, violin and winds, the band has no keyboards). Next up are three cuts by St. Joseph’s Ass, dating from the mid-90’s, which could probably be best described as art-punk with an attitude. I’ve heard many bands mining this same territory in the Bay Area over the last fifteen-or-so years, and these guys seem to be doing a respectable job with it also. OHO appears again for two tracks – this time the early 90’s version, with Sue Ellen Sacco on vocals, and a definite folky influence that wasn’t present on their earlier material, with flutes, violin, acoustic guitars, and 12 string. “Burning Grey” recalls the Seattle based band The Other Side, and again is one of the better songs on the entire set. What comes next is one song each by a chronological series of three bands featuring keyboardist Bob Tiefenworth and guitarist Paul Rieger, beginning in ‘77. The first piece, “L.S.E. (Bob’s Funky Tune)” by Klangfarb almost sounds like a minute and a half’s worth of tapework, in the style of late 70s Residents, but without the vocal weirdness. Klangfarb with some personnel changes became the Liesure Suited Executives by 1980. “In The Village” is a ten-minute piece composed of busy loops, drifting ambient washes, and taped voices, again looped, repeated and often processed beyond recognition. After about seven minutes they finally launch into something that could be called “rock”, although heavily processed, again recalling the Residents. By 1984, Tiefenworth and Rieger were part of a fairly conventional sounding pop-psych outfit called The United States of Existence, with a sound that would have been right at home about 17 years earlier amid the psychedelic candy-pop of the late 1960’s. The remainder of disc two contains some tracks by Matt Grabowski, The Concertgebrew Orchestra, the art-punk oriented OHO spinoff Food For Worms, Vulgarians and closing the disc are two short tracks from classic period OHO, including one from Vitamin OHO.
In all, this set is a treat for the curiosity seekers among us. We all know the bands who made it; this set spotlights those that didn’t, and along the way unearths some real gems. - Peter Thelen