It's A Beautiful Day - Marrying Maiden 1970

San Francisco psychedelic folk-rock unit It's a Beautiful Day was primarily the vehicle of virtuoso violinist David LaFlamme, born April 5, 1941 in New Britain, Connecticut but raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. After beginning his musical education at age five, LaFlamme later served as a soloist with the Utah Symphony, following an army stint by settling in the Bay Area in 1962. There he immersed himself in the local underground music scene, jamming alongside the likes of Jerry Garciaand Janis Joplin; after his short-lived Electric Chamber Orchestra splintered, LaFlamme also co-founded an early incarnation of Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks before assembling It's a Beautiful Day in mid-1967. The group -- which originally included LaFlamme's keyboardist wife Linda, vocalist Pattie Santos, guitarist Hal Wagenet, bassist Mitchell Holman, and drummer Val Fuentes -- issued its self-titled debut LP on Columbia in 1969, scoring their biggest hit with the haunting FM radio staple "White Bird." Linda LaFlamme left It's a Beautiful Day soon after, going on to form Titus' Mother; keyboardist Fred Webbsigned on for the follow-up, 1970's Marrying Maiden, while Holman exited prior to 1971's Choice Quality Stuff, recorded with new guitarist Bill Gregory and bassist Tom Fowler. In 1973, ongoing disputes over royalties forced LaFlamme out of the group he created, and upon installing new violinist Greg Bloch, the remaining members issued It's a Beautiful Day...Today before dissolving in the wake of 1974's 1001 Nights. LaFlamme mounted a solo career in 1977 with White Bird, continuing his protracted legal tussle with ex-manager Matthew Katz for years to follow; sadly, Pattie Santos died in a December 14, 1989 auto accident. AMG.

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Jacques Dutronc - Il Est Cinq Heures, Paris S'eveille 1968

On his second album, Jacques Dutronc took a giant leap toward immortality, delivering one of the greatest albums of French '60s rock at its most creative. Whereas his contemporary Ray Davies needed five to six albums to reach his artistic summit, the often compared Dutronc already succeeded at the second attempt. Hence, the first album's garage rock overtones were exchanged in a fortnight for a record on par with the Kinks' Something Else. On top of the sheer variety in musical styles, Dutroncdelivers his finest hour: the classic chanson "Il Est Cinq Heures, Paris S'Éveille," which could be viewed as a mirror image to Davies' "Waterloo Sunset." This clearly brings up the subject of Dutronc's silent partner, the songwriter Jacques Lanzmann. The genius of his lyrics proved just as crucial to the singer's image during the first stage of his career. The clever wordplay of songs like "Mini Mini Mini" -- commenting on the day's fashion, Dutronc insists he prefers "maxiskirt" to miniskirt, "maxister" to minister, and so on -- helped to turn the debut album into a million-seller within a year of its release. However, the enchanting "Il Est Cinq Heures, Paris S'Éveille" was an altogether different kind of story. Written by Lanzmann and his other half, Anne Ségalen, it's a poetic and fairly accurate account of a nightclubber's morning after: upon describing how the city slowly awakens, the song's protagonist decides he just isn't tired enough to go home yet. Highly recognizable for its flute solo (an improvisation by Roger Bourdin), it evokes images of Paris, for which the casual listener doesn't have to know a lot of French. Released as an EP in its own right, it proved a hit all over Europe and gets a lot of airplay to this day.

Considering Dutronc's music and arrangements, there's a dazzling variety this time around. In addition, his singing has improved noticeably, as he switches on more than one occasion from mere reciting to actually carrying a melody. This becomes evident on a song like the Moody Blues-referencing "Le Métaphore" as well as the frivolous "Le Courrier du Coeur," a song set up as a newspaper advice column (kind of like "Dear Abby, I'm in love with a woman with a mustache"). Also, there are still plenty of wacky garage tunes left: the mixture of vaudeville and near hard rock of "La Publicité," the sitar-supported hippie bashing of "Hippie, Hippie, Hourrah," and Dutronc's "Hurdy Gurdy Man" avant la lettre"Les Méthamorphoses." [It should be noted that all of Jacques Dutronc's seven albums made between 1966 and 1975 lack a proper title. To keep them apart, the second album is equally referred to by its original year of release (1968), the first song on the album ("Comment Elles Dorment"), or either one of the title tunes to the preceding or later released EPs "La Publicité," "Il Est Cinq Heures, Paris S'Éveille," or "Le Courrier du Coeur." Furthermore, the content of these three EPs matches exactly with the 12 songs present on the second album.] AMG.

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Jack McDuff - The Fourth Dimension 1974

A marvelous bandleader and organist as well as capable arranger, "Brother" Jack McDuff has one of the funkiest, most soulful styles of all time on the Hammond B-3. His rock-solid basslines and blues-drenched solos are balanced by clever, almost pianistic melodies and interesting progressions and phrases. McDuff began as a bassist playing withDenny Zeitlin and Joe Farrell. He studied privately in Cincinnati and worked with Johnny Griffin in Chicago. He taught himself organ and piano in the mid-'50s, and began gaining attention working with Willis Jackson in the late '50s and early '60s, cutting high caliber soul-jazz dates for Prestige. McDuff made his recording debut as a leader for Prestige in 1960, playing in a studio pickup band with Jimmy Forrest. They made a pair of outstanding albums: Tough Duff and The Honeydripper. McDuff organized his own band the next year, featuringHarold Vick and drummer Joe Dukes. Things took off when McDuff hired a young guitarist namedGeorge Benson. They were among the most popular combos of the mid-'60s and made several excellent albums. McDuff's later groups at Atlantic and Cadet didn't equal the level of the Benson band, while later dates for Verve and Cadet were uneven, though generally good. McDuff experimented with electronic keyboards and fusion during the '70s, then in the '80s got back in the groove with the Muse session Cap'n Jack. While his health fluctuated throughout the '90s, McDuff released several discs on the Concord Jazz label before succumbing to heart failure on January 23, 2001, at the age of 74. AMG.

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RE-POST: Cream - Live 1970

Cream was a band born to the stage, a fact that the band and their record label realized the public fully understood by the number one U.S. chart placement for Wheels of Fire, with its entire live disc, and the number two chart peak for Goodbye, the posthumous release that was dominated by concert recordings. And in response to those success, we got Live Cream, Vol. 1 (originally known simply as Live Cream) in the spring of 1970, nearly 18 months after the trio's breakup. This could well be their most consistently brilliant album for sheer musicianship, though it is also a peculiar one on a couple of counts, some of which probably prevented it from reaching quite as wide an audience as it might have otherwise. Released in April 1970 and derived from tapes made at three May 1968 California shows, all of the live tracks here consist of songs originally featured on the group's least ambitious and most rudimentary album, Fresh Cream, dating from 1966 -- and as it happens, there's not a hit represented among the five songs, a fact that probably made this release seem more appealing to hardcore fans than to casual and curious listeners (who didn't know what they were missing). The performances here show how far the group had come in the nearly two years since laying down the studio originals -- take side one of the original LP, where they stretch out their playing, as well as boost it to new levels of intensity, on "N.S.U." and "Sleepy Time Time," so that the renditions here are the definitive ones, and by themselves should have made this album an essential acquisition back in 1970. But that brings us to the original side two and the 15-minute rendition of "Sweet Wine," an excursion by all three players that is worth the quarter-hour time commitment of the listener. The live portion of the album ends with their searing, rollicking high energy rendition of Muddy Waters' "Rollin' and Tumblin'." And then, for reasons not clear -- except perhaps simply that it was there, in the vaults, and seemed like a valuable piece of property, which it was (and what else were they going to do with it?) -- the producers close Live Cream with a studio cut, "Lawdy Mama," an Eric Clapton-inspired take on a traditional tune that subsequently evolved into the hit "Strange Brew" during what became the Disraeli Gears sessions. It's not a match for everything we've heard, but in the spring of 1970 no one was exactly complaining over being handed a previously unissued studio track by the Cream, as a bonus to the concert performances here. As it turned out, there were more live tracks from some of these same shows to draw on in future releases and reissues, which would include a couple of the group's hits; but Live Cream offers the overall highest quality, both in terms of clarity and fidelity, and the performances, which, in addition to the essential great playing (better in some ways than what was heard on some of the much-vaunted live tracks from Wheels of Fire), include excellent vocalizing by Clapton and Jack Bruce. Not that vocalizing looms that large here -- the live tracks are all given extended jazz-based treatment, and the dialog among the three musicians as the jams develop is fascinating. Foreground and background seem to dissolve as all three musicians take charge, using the full range of their instruments. And where Bruce goes with his bass, especially on "Sweet Wine," is every bit as rewarding as the places that Clapton's guitar takes us; and Ginger Baker's playing is a trip all its own. Performances like this single-handedly raised the stakes of musicianship in rock. AMG.

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RE-POST: Cream - Live II 1972

An oft-overlooked curio, Live Cream, Vol. 2 appeared at a very odd time, with very little warning, almost two years after its predecessor -- and at virtually the same time as the related (though not overlapping)History of Eric Clapton. And both showed up, not coincidentally, at a point when Clapton, unbeknownst to most of the public, was sidelined with a crippling heroin addiction -- this album helped keep him in the public eye, as a singer as well as a guitarist. On its face, Live Cream, Vol. 2 is a more ambitious album that its predecessor, offering more songs and including concert versions of two of the group's AM radio hits (as opposed to the album tracks that comprised the repertory on Live Cream, Vol. 1). And it is just about essential listening for anyone who wants to understand what Cream was about, which was live performance. Utilizing -- for the time -- state of the art mobile recording equipment, it was a significant achievement at the time in capturing the genuine sound of a high-wattage power trio on-stage, playing away at full volume; and the overall sonic excellence here must surely be credited to engineers Tom Dowd and Bill Halverson. The feeling that you are in the front row is very much in evidence, and this is largely due to their ability to capture the band's live fury with clarity and intimacy, down to every nuance of Ginger Baker's playing. As for the performances, this record does capture the band at their peak, though perhaps not at the very best moments of that peak -- the group made their reputation as a live act with epic, lengthy jams that verged on jazz, but the repertory represented here (as opposed to that onLive Cream, Vol. 1) is more focused on their pop/rock efforts, such as "White Room," "Sunshine of Your Love," "Tales of Brave Ulysses," etc., which don't lend themselves as easily (or at all) to opening out in extended jams, in the manner of, say, "N.S.U." or "Sweet Wine," or the legendary "Spoonful"; additionally, numbers such as "Sunshine of Your Love" and, in particular, "White Room," require more vocal dexterity than Clapton and bassist/singer Jack Bruce could muster in this kind of concert setting -- their singing, especially on "White Room" comes close to breaking down ("Sunshine of Your Love" fares better), whereas their playing holds together, almost better than perfect at times. "Deserted Cities of the Heart" -- which opens the album -- comes off exceptionally well as a concert piece, the bass and guitar actually combining to overcome the absences of swooping cellos, acoustic guitars, and other accompanying instruments from the studio rendition. And there is one priceless example of Cream in a full-tilt jam, on the 13-plus-minute closing cut, "Steppin' Out" -- the band's sheer energy overcomes what minor deficiencies there are in the overall sound quality. And coupled with the compact, four- to five-minute versions of "Deserted Cities of the Heart" and "Tales of Brave Ulysses," among others, the album is a vital, intense, and enjoyable listen that is ultimately rewarding. The original LP had its sonic limitations, and the original late-'80s CD showcased these more severely, but the 1998 remastered CD, part of The Cream Remasters series, solved most of those problems and offered the best sound ever heard for this album. AMG.

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Gabor Szabo - More Sorcery 1967

In 1967, guitarist Gabor Szabo had his finest working group, a quintet with the very complementary fellow guitarist Jimmy Stewart, bassist Louis Kabok, either Marty Morrell or Bill Goodwin on drums and percussionist Hal Gordon. A live album, Sorcery (which has been reissued on CD), features this band at its best. More Sorcery has three selections taken from the same engagement at Boston's Jazz Workshop, plus three numbers from that year's Monterey Jazz Festival. Szabo, in addition to surprisingly successful versions of "People" and the Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," performs a brief version of "Corcovado" and three of his better originals. This excellent LP is well worth searching for. AMG.

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Gong - Flying Teapot 1973

Produced by Giorgio Gomelsky, notable for his work with the Yardbirds, Brian Auger, and Magma, this relatively early Gong project is a great representation of the Daevid Allen-era Gong. Though not as intricate as its follow-up companion piece, Angel's Egg, The Flying Teapot is more of a true prog/space rock outing, where hippie-trippy lyrics and space whispering abound, as evidenced in the opening track, "Radio Gnome Invisible." The following cut, "Flying Teapot," is the sprawling highlight of the album. At times reminiscent of some early Weather Report jams, though not as jazzy, the tune features prominent bass, standout percussion/drums, and space whispering courtesy of Smyth. Improvisational groaning and percussion bring this jam to a close. "Pothead Pixies" is a fun pop (pot?) tune which probably received very little, if any, airplay due to the lyrics, followed by Blake's brief synth interlude, "The Octave Doctors and the Crystal Machine." "Zero the Hero and the Witch's Spell," another lengthy composition, features Malherbe's sax playing, which, at this early point in the Gong evolution, is credited for most of the jazz sounds heard in the music (remember, Pierre Moerlen has yet to join the band). This cut becomes quite heavy near its end before making a clever transition into the final cut, "Witch's Song/I Am Your Pussy." Here you hear Smyth's strange, sexually explicit lyrics, which she embellishes with ethereal voicings and cackling. This, combined with a jazzy sax from Malherbe and some very groovy musical lines near the closing, make for another fun tune. AMG.

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Gass - Juju 1970

Gass were formed in 1965 in London with two guys from Trinidad and British Guiana involved. Thus resulted a unique blend of soul, Latin jazz, progressive rock, blues and Beatlesque melodies provided with complex time signature changes. Peter Green, having just left Fleetwood Mac, plays guitar on two songs. Gass' regular guitarist Bob Tench later appeared on albums by Jeff Beck, Van Morrison, Roger Chapman and many more.

Stylistically, it was perhaps closest to what the likes of Ginger Baker's Airforce, Pete Brown & Piblokto! and Graham Bond were doing at the time, and definitely paved the way for further groups in the same vein in the coming years, such as Hanson (founded by Junior Kerr aka Junior Hanson, ex-Keef Hartley Band, to join Bob Marley & The Wailers) and Hummingbird. Priceless. Thanks to ChrisGoesRock.

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Golden Earring - Seven Tears 1971

Seven Tears finds Golden Earring continuing to develop its distinctive blend of hard rock and prog elements, but the end result is not as consistent as 1970's Golden Earring. The big problem this time out is that the group's adventurous genre-hopping tendencies don't always result in strong songs: "Silver Ships" is a soft, science fiction-influenced song that generates a potent atmosphere but lacks the strong arrangement and sense of dynamics that would allow it to take flight, and "You're Better Off Free" loses sight of its catchy tune with a lengthy midsection guitar jam that derails an otherwise interesting song. Despite these problems, Seven Tears shows a band willing to take big risks to transform its combination of elements into a totally unique style. When this alchemy works, the results are quite good: "The Road Swallowed Her Name" effectively blends a heavy guitar riff worthy of Black Sabbath with psychedelic lyrics and percussion, and "Hope" generates the down-and-out feeling of its lyrics with a descending saxophone riff guaranteed to stick in the listener's head. The album's highlight is "She Flies on Strange Wings," an art rock epic that combines verses done in a stomping, heavy metal style with spacy choruses and a slow, dreamy midsection that is strongly reminiscent of Pink Floyd. Overall, Seven Tears is more like a collection of songs than a fully realized album, but there are enough strong moments to make it worthwhile for hardcore Golden Earring fans. AMG.

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Grant Green - Visions 1971

Grant Green's early-'70s recordings for Blue Note are continually attacked by jazz critics for being slick, overly commercial sessions that leaned closer to contemporary pop and R&B than hard bop or soul jazz. There's no denying that Green, like many of his Blue Note contemporaries, did choose a commercial path in the early '70s, but there were some virtues to these records, and Visions in particular. Often, these albums were distinguished by hot, funky workouts in the vein of Sly Stone or James Brown, but that's not the case here. On Visions, the guitarist crafted a set of appealingly melodic, lightly funky pop-jazz, concentrating on pop hits like "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is," "Love On a Two Way Street," "We've Only Just Begun," and "Never Can Say Goodbye." Supported by minor-league players,Green nevertheless turns in an elegant and dignified performance -- after stating the melody on each song, he contributes typically graceful, memorable solos. Simply put, he sounds fresh, and his playing here is the best it has been since 1965's His Majesty, King Funk. Ultimately, Visions is a bit laid-back, and the electric piano-heavy arrangements are a little dated, but Grant Green never made a commercial pop-jazz album as appealing and satisfying as Visions. AMG.

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It's A Beautiful Day - It's Beautiful Day...Today 1973

San Francisco psychedelic folk-rock unit It's a Beautiful Day was primarily the vehicle of virtuoso violinist David LaFlamme, born April 5, 1941 in New Britain, Connecticut but raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. After beginning his musical education at age five, LaFlamme later served as a soloist with the Utah Symphony, following an army stint by settling in the Bay Area in 1962. There he immersed himself in the local underground music scene, jamming alongside the likes of Jerry Garciaand Janis Joplin; after his short-lived Electric Chamber Orchestra splintered, LaFlamme also co-founded an early incarnation of Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks before assembling It's a Beautiful Day in mid-1967. The group -- which originally included LaFlamme's keyboardist wife Linda, vocalist Pattie Santos, guitarist Hal Wagenet, bassist Mitchell Holman, and drummer Val Fuentes -- issued its self-titled debut LP on Columbia in 1969, scoring their biggest hit with the haunting FM radio staple "White Bird." Linda LaFlamme left It's a Beautiful Day soon after, going on to form Titus' Mother; keyboardist Fred Webbsigned on for the follow-up, 1970's Marrying Maiden, while Holman exited prior to 1971's Choice Quality Stuff, recorded with new guitarist Bill Gregory and bassist Tom Fowler. In 1973, ongoing disputes over royalties forced LaFlamme out of the group he created, and upon installing new violinist Greg Bloch, the remaining members issued It's a Beautiful Day...Today before dissolving in the wake of 1974's 1001 Nights. LaFlamme mounted a solo career in 1977 with White Bird, continuing his protracted legal tussle with ex-manager Matthew Katz for years to follow; sadly, Pattie Santos died in a December 14, 1989 auto accident. AMG.

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