Cruisin' (Al Di Meola) (LP 629)

Al Di Meola  Electric Rendezvous (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1982) ***** 

Genre: Jazz fusion 

Places I remember: Marbecks Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Cruisin'

Gear costume: Black Cat Shuffle 

Active compensatory factors: It's hard to categorise this one. Al Di Meola is a jazz fusion guitarist but this is, at times, more of a rock album than usual thanks to the inclusion of Jan Hammer in the line up.

But then again, there's the latin infused Ritmo de la Noche and it also includes flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucia and therefore sounds more like World music at times (Passion Grace and Fire being a great example).

It is the more rock oriented songs that attracted me to the album while I was working at Marbeck's Records back in the early eighties.

God Bird Change, Electric Rendevous, Cruisin', Black Cat Shuffle are all great vehicles for guitar wig outs! 

Where do they all belong? A couple of compilations round out my Al Di Meola collection, and of course he is a featured guitarist in Return To Forever - a collection of jazz fusion heavy hitters that we'll come across in due course!

The feeling of jazz (Duke Ellington) (LP 628)

Duke Ellington & John Coltrane  Duke Ellington & John Coltrane (Vinyl, Waxtime Records, Originally 1962, this reissue 2013) ***** 

Genre: Jazz 

Places I remember: My Music (music store in Taupo)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Stevie

Gear costume: In A Sentimental Mood 

Active compensatory factors: I am a Coltrane fan, rather than a collector (his body of work is vast and I shy away from the free jazz material). 

My dad was a big fan of the big bands and swing so he had a few of Duke Ellington's albums so I was vaguely familiar with his music.

Given all that, when I saw this in My Music's jazz bins during a recent visit to Taupo I decided to have a punt. 

Wow! What an album. I've been playing it a lot since that visit to Taupo.

Even though it features only one Coltrane 'song' it's more his album than Duke's. Mainly that's down to Coltrane's dominant tenor sax and side men (Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones feature along with Sam Woodyard and Aaron Bell).

But really it's right to bill it as a Duke Ellington and John Coltrane album as Duke plays some superb piano, composes most of the tunes and is never overshadowed.

A great find!

Where do they all belong? A one off (in many ways)

Cletus Awreetus-Awrightus (Frank Zappa) (LP 626 - 627)

Frank Zappa  Waka-Jawaka Hot Rats (Vinyl/ CD, Reprise Records and Rykodisc, 1972) *****

The Mothers  The Grand Wazoo (Vinyl/ CD, Reprise Records and Rykodisc, 1972) ****

Genre: Alternative rock 

Places I remember: The Waka-Jawaka record came from the World Record Club I used to belong to and The Grand Wazoo album from Real Groovy Records. The CD triple pack (these two plus Hot Rats) was from HMV in Oxford St.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Big Swifty

Gear costume: Your Mouth/ It Just Might Be A One Shot Deal

Active compensatory factors: I always link these two in my imagination - released months apart in 1972 while Frank was convalescing following his assault (pushed off a stage in London).They both feature big band versions of The Mothers doing mostly instrumental songs.

Waka Jawaka is one of my all time favourite albums. It does it all without any smut and the enhanced musicians play their socks off. 

I'm not sure why it's linked to Hot Rats in the title as it has very little in common with that also classic Zappa album.

The Grand Wazoo doesn't hang together in the same way for me. Waka Jawaka has a personality and a cohesiveness that Grand Wazoo lacks (in my very subjective opinion).

Where do they all belong? In the conceptional continuity of Frank's albums. Much, much more, to come yet.

Nine below zero (Muddy Waters) (LP 625)

Muddy Waters  Muddy "Mississippi" Waters Live (Vinyl, Epic Records, 1979) ***** 

Genre: Blues 

Places I remember: Marbecks Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Mannish Boy (not the version on the Live album but pretty much any version of this by Muddy is fab)

Gear costume: She's Nineteen Years Old

Active compensatory factors: This live album was recorded during tours to promote Hard Again, and features musicians who contributed to this album - notably James Cotton, Pinetop Perkins and Johnny Winter.

This album is the pared down version (it was re-released on CDs in expanded formats) and is the more potent for it. These seven tracks are suitably raucous and loud!

Muddy died 4 years later aged 70 so these are some of the last recorded versions of some much loved songs including Mannish Boy, Baby Please Don't Go, She's Nineteen Years Old and Deep Down In Florida. Classics all!

Where do they all belong? More Muddy Waters to come on CD.

Do you hear me now? (Donovan) (LP 623 - 624)

Donovan  Fairytale (Vinyl, Marble Arch Records, 1965/1969) ***

Donovan  Universal Soldier (Vinyl, Marble Arch Records, 1967) ***

Genre: Folk music 

Places I remember: Second hand shop in Havelock North.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Jersey Thursday

Gear costume: Hey Gyp (Dig The Slowness)

Active compensatory factors: These are both on the budget Marble Arch label. Fairytale is mostly made up of tracks from Donovan's second album which came out in 1965, while Universal Soldier is a compilation from 1967.

And they are great! Pye have a bizarre history of bastardising their catalogue (The Kinks and Status Quo suffered in the same way), but there's something about their cavalier attitude and their budget line Marble Arch subsidiary label that fits with these very British acts.

This version of Fairytale hacks Colours and The Little Tin Soldier from the original (Colours is on Universal Soldier), so it zips by with 5 songs a side.

Universal Soldier compiles songs from the original Universal Soldier EP, singles and the odd album track. It's a great mixture of early Donovan songs.

The following list from the Wikipedia entry explains the original releases of each song:

• "Universal Soldier" (from Universal Soldier EP, released 15 August 1965)
• "To Sing for You" (from What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid, released 14 May 1965)
• "Why Do You Treat Me Like You Do?" (b-side of "Catch the Wind", released 12 March 1965)
• "Turquoise" (UK single, released 30 October 1965)
• "Colours" (UK single, released 28 May 1965, different from Fairytale LP version)
• "Catch the Wind" (UK single, released 12 March 1965, different from What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid LP version)
• "Hey Gyp (Dig the Slowness)"* (b-side of "Turquoise", released 30 October 1965)
• "The Ballad of a Crystal Man"* (from The Universal Soldier EP, released 15 August 1965, different from Fairytale LP version)
• "Do You Hear Me Now?" (from The Universal Soldier EP, released 15 August 1965)
• "The War Drags on" (from The Universal Soldier EP, released 15 August 1965)

Great budget covers to these albums too!

Where do they all belong? A few more late period Donovan albums to go on vinyl.

Smiling (Baker Gurvitz Army) (LP 622)

Baker Gurvitz Army  Hearts On Fire (Vinyl, ATCO Records, 1976) *** 

Genre: I have this filed in the prog rock section, although by this stage they were much more pop/rock in their approach.

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records. It's taken a while to get this as Real Groovy have previously listed this album but then sent me the group's first album by mistake. Eventually they listed this album correctly and sent me the right BGA album - hurrah!)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles/ Gear costume: Hearts On Fire (probably Ginger's finest song and made better by the fact that he doesn't feel obliged to sing on it). 

Active compensatory factors: This is the third and last of the group's studio albums. Snips remains enlisted on vocals which probably makes this the best of the three as Ginger concentrates on drumming, rather than 'singing'.

Where do they all belong? A live album (Live in Derby '75) remains for me to collect. 

The hippie from New York City (David Peel) (LP 621)

David Peel & The Lower East Side  The Pope Smokes Dope (Vinyl, Apple Records, 1972) * 

Genre: Apple Records 

Places I remember: From Noel Forth back in the seventies

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: The Ballad Of New York City - John Lennon/Yoko Ono

Gear costume: The Hippie From New York City

Active compensatory factors: If not for the Apple Records/Lennon/Ono connections I would not be interested in this stuff. I mean - F Is Not A Dirty World, Everybodies Smoking Marijuana, MacDonald's Farm, Birth Control Blues - it's all pretty juvenile. And it hasn't aged well at all.

David Peel wasn't real, John! He was a chancer who somehow connected with the Lennons with his acoustic street music. - maybe the skiffle element reminded John of the Quarrymen but The Lower East Side (the group) are a pretty ragtag bunch. Here's John explaining how he and Yoko got together with them.

The few (and I stress 'few') bright spots come when he dispenses with the scatalogic 'humour' and sings songs - The Ballad Of New York City and The Chicago Conspiracy are almost songs (mainly they are populist chants).

Where do they all belong? A one off for Apple Records (thank goodness).