Dawn of another day (Brian Auger's Oblivion Express) (LP 4113 - 4117)

Brian Auger's Oblivion Express  A Better Land (Vinyl, RCA Records, 1971) ****  

Joan Baez  Speaking of Dreams (CD, Gold Castle Records, 1989) *** 

Donovan  Sutras (CD, American Recordings, 1996) *** 

Jan Hammer Group  Oh Yeah? (Vinyl, Nemperor Records, 1976) **** 

Aldous Harding  Warm Chris (Vinyl, Flying Nun Records, 2022) **** 

Genre: Jazz fusion, folk rock, Nemperor Records

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records (all except Joan Baez - charity shop, Aldous Harding - JB Hi Fi)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Magical Dog (Oh Yeah?)

Gear costume: Tick Tock (Warm Chris)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: Recent acquisition catch up: A Better Land by Brian Auger's Oblivion Express is dominated in a good way by guitarist Jim Mullen. He composes or co-composes most of the songs and his fluid guitar lines create a beautiful sound. I can't think of a bad record associated with Brian Auger - the man is all class!!

So too is Joan Baez. I was delighted to find a copy of Speaking of Dreams at a charity shop for $2. It's on Virgin Vault - their budget line, but there's nothing budget about the music from Joan. She writes a few songs (they are always special - I wish she'd write more) and there are some heavy guests appearing on the album - Paul Simon, Jackson Brown and The Gypsy Kings. 

It's not as good as Gone From Danger but that's a really high bar. She still successfully manages to combine her love of traditional music, a concern for topical political issues and an international flavour.  

I've been after a copy of Donovan's Sutras for ages. I used to own a copy but stupidly sold it off many years ago before I really got into a new appreciation for his art. So I'm thrilled to get a new CD copy from Real Groovy.

Beyond that thrill - it's a long way from being my favourite Donovan album. Producer Rick Rubin brings his austerity/ stripped back aesthetic to play and normally that would suit Donovan but this leans more towards a clinical exercise that removes some of his warmth and humour from the delivery of songs (which are uneven on Sutras).  It's good, but it could have been great!

Same deal with Jan Hammer in terms of being a long-term member of my wants list. It's on Nemperor Records and I collect that label. Sadly, the label on the record is Atlantic but it's still a Nemperor catalogue item - NE 437. Only one more Jan Hammer album on Nemperor to collect - Melodies. Oh - and the music? Good jazz fusion with a funkiness that is appealing.

Final album - Aldous Harding's latest - Warm Chris, was in the sale bins at JB Hi Fi, so a no-brainer. She has a variety of voices and swaps them around to suit the material quite magnificently. I've now heard two of her four albums and I'm intrigued enough to search out the other two.

Where do they all belong? All for now - I did buy an album by The Youngbloods with those above so we'll get to that one eventually.

Tony (Tony Williams) (LP 3397 - 3399)

Jan Hammer  The Early Years (Vinyl, Nemperor Records, 1986) ***

Tony Williams  The Joy Of Flying (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1979) ****

Jean-Luc Ponty  Imaginary Voyage (Vinyl, CBS Records, 1976) *****

Genre: Jazz fusion, prog rock

Places I remember: Wax Trax Records (Denver, Colorado); Secondhand tool shop (also Denver)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: The Gardens Of Babylon (Imaginary Voyage)

Gear costume: Open Fire (The Joy Of Flying)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5

Active compensatory factors: While on our Californian saga and the wedding trip to Denver, I inevitably managed to visit a number of record stores. The next few posts will feature my purchases. There were some real bargains, and some albums I've been after for a while. 

I'll start with these three jazz fusion albums. 

My eyes lit up when I spied the Jan Hammer compilation on Nemperor Records in Wax Trax Records. The First Seven Days is featured mostly (4 tracks), then Little Children (2 tracks). I already have both of those albums. The remainder is a track apiece from two albums I don't have (yet) - Oh Yeah! and Melodies.

Tony Williams has also featured in my catalogue so far and The Joy Of Flying features Jan Hammer on a number of tracks.

Apart from the free jazz skronk of final track Morgan's Motion (with Cecil Taylor), the bulk of the album is brilliant jazz fusion. Tony doesn't ever showboat, instead he is a great team player. Apart from Jan and Tony, other stellar musicians appearing are Brian Auger, George Benson, Herbie Hancock, Stanley Clarke and Ronnie Montrose on guitar.

I was thrilled to find the Ponty album for $3 from a secondhand tool shop in Denver. It was a bit dusty but after a clean it looks and sounds excellent.

The music is terrific, with a side-long title track just skipping past with Ponty and his sidekicks (including Tom Fowler on bass) in complete command.

Where do they all belong? Next up are the A to O albums.

Nowhere to go (Hammer) (LP 2693)

Hammer  Hammer (Vinyl, Elektra Records, 1979) ** 

Genre: Pop 

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: One Day

Gear costume: Goodbye

Active compensatory factors: This was an attempt at a band setting for Jan Hammer. You know - like Bowie and Tin Machine.

This is a similar misfire away from his prog rock day job, into a tilt at a pop sound/pop band.

It's inoffensive mostly (Highway Made Of Glass veers too much towards the saccharine) but a lot of the album is an okay attempt at trying for a different audience. Unfortunately, I can't see the prog world embracing his version of Oh Pretty Woman too much.

Where do they all belong? A definite one-off.

Country and eastern music (Goodman/Hammer) (LP 855 - 856)

Jan Hammer   The First Seven Days (Vinyl, Nemperor Records, 1975) ****  

Jerry Goodman & Jan Hammer   Little Children (Vinyl, Nemperor Records, 1975) ***

Genre: Jazz fusion 

Places I remember: Slow Boat Records/Real Groovy Records

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Topeka

Gear costume: Fourth Day - Plants and Trees

Active compensatory factors: Jan Hammer's sound is instantly recognisable - both his drumming and his keyboard work. Jerry Goodman's violin also has a unique sound.

They combine superbly on Little Children - never getting in the other's way but creating a complementary soundscape.

Both were members of the Mahavishnu Orchestra during the early seventies and so they know what they doing! Little Children sounds like Goodman and Hammer though - without the fiery guitar pyrotechnics and fever drumming from John McLaughlin and Billy Cobham respectively.

Neither are great singers, so the vocals aren't crash hot (a star off as a consequence).

Seven Days is a Hammer solo album - his first. Jan plays pretty much everything (bar some congas, percussion and violin - by Steve Kindler this time). 

Everything he touched turned to gold in seems as he uses the creation myth as an album concept to explore his keyboards to great effect (no guitars on this album at all).

Where do they all belong? Jan definitely conjures up an eclectic sound - Little Children has some classical/ jazz/ pop/ fusion elements, while The First Seven Days features some clearer fusion wig outs with proggy flourishes (a la Rick Wakeman). 

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!

Taurian matador (Billy Cobham) (LP 573 - 576)

Billy Cobham Spectrum (CD, Atlantic, 1973) *****

Billy Cobham Shabazz (Recorded Live In Europe) (CD, Atlantic, 1975) ****

The Billy Cobham and George Duke Band 'Live" On Tour In Europe (CD, Atlantic, 1976) ***

Billy Cobham's Glass Menagerie Stratus (CD, Inak Digital, 1981) ****

Genre: Jazz fusion

Places I remember: HMV (East Croyden); JB Hi-Fi; Kings Recording (Abu Dhabi)

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Stratus (Spectrum)

Gear costume: Spectrum 

Active compensatory factors: Billy Cobham has a great rock pedigree. He's played with Miles Davis, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jack Bruce, George Duke and his solo records are fantastic. 

Of all those various bands and musicians, I prefer his solo albums. They are full of variety (and not too many drum solos).

Spectrum is the standout classic - it actually went to number one on jazz album charts at the time. Stratus is the peak for me, but the whole album is thrilling to listen to.

The George Duke collaboration is the weakest listed here. George's sense of humour works in Zappa's universe, but it doesn't translate too well outside of it.

Where do they all belong? All roads lead back to Spectrum.

Play with me (Jeff Beck) (LP 550 - 554)

Jeff Beck Group Rough and Ready (CD, Sony Music, 1971) ****

Jeff Beck Group Jeff Beck Group (CD, Sony Music, 1972) *** 

Jeff Beck Blow By Blow (CD, Sony Music, 1975) ***

Jeff Beck Wired (CD, Sony Music, 1976) ****

Jeff Beck with The Jan Hammer Group Live (CD, Sony Music, 1977) ****

Genre: British pop/ rock 

Places I remember: HMV East Croyden

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Situation (Rough and Ready); Blue Wind (Wired) 

Gear costume: Going Down (JBG); Freeway Jam (Blow By Blow)

Active compensatory factors: Having just read Rod Stewart's autobiography I have a different take on Jeff's peculiar personality. Is it the truth? Who knows, it's certainly Rod's version of the truth 

(see what I did there?). 

He's definitely a restless musician - never sticking with a bunch of musicians for very long. Woody and Roddy only lasted  for two albums (Truth and Beck-ola) and were gone for 1971's Rough and Ready. Then that band (including Max Middleton and Cozy Powell) only lasted for two albums, and so on.

This five album package in  the Original Album Classics series by Sony Music) certainly shows Jeff's ruthless methodology from 1971 to 1977.

That's not to mean the music suffers though. His guitar heroics are on display in a variety of settings over these five albums, and it's actually the period of his that I like the most. 

The second incarnation of Jeff Beck Group makes a much funkier, jazzier sound than the blues/ hard rock of the Rod Stewart version.

First 'solo' album, Blow By Blow, is an instrumental album (pesky lead singers are dispensed with from here onwards) and allows Beck to experiment with jazzier guitar styles. It's a transitional album from the rock of the Jeff Beck Group towards the full on jazz fusion sound of Wired and Live.

Max Middleton and Jan Hammer deserve special mentions - both hold their own on keyboards and are not overshadowed by Beck's guitar pyrotechnics. Instead they shine and create their own distinctive sounds to complement Beck.  

Beatle fans note: Blow By Blow and Wired are both superbly produced by George Martin.  

Where do they all belong? Truth and Beck-ola have their moments but haven't aged as well - I've gone for a cheapo best of (featuring Rod Stewart) compilation. It cherry picks the best moments from Rod and Ron's time with Jeff (and includes, of course, Hi Ho Silver Lining).