Rare Earth - Get Ready 1969

Rare Earth's Motown debut is as well-oiled as a new V-8, and so are its liner notes: "In this age of ego-tripping freak bands, Rare Earth has stood pretty much alone. Each cat stands handsomely tall as if from a fashion rack at Carnaby. They do their gig; do it well -- and split." Smirking aside, the band turns in a smoothly harmonized "In Bed" and a chugging rhythm section for "Train to Nowhere." But the core of this release is a live side-long monster version of "Get Ready." It's as driven by the crowd's rapturous response as by the various solos, and the snake-charmer sax improv by Gil Bridges is easily the highlight of the album. AMG.

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Kevin Coyne - Marjory Razorblade 1973

Of the four or five Kevin Coyne albums that fans routinely describe as his best ever, Marjory Razorblade is by far the best known in the wider world, a consequence not only of the enormous critical splash it made upon its original release in 1973, but also because of the ripples it continued sending out long after the fact. Four years later, Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten singled out the album's "Eastbourne Ladies" as one of his all-time favorite records, while the strumming, thrumming "Marlene" is one of those records whose failure to become a monster hit single continues to baffle and bewilder. (Even Virgin thought so, as they proved when they gave it a second chance in 1977.) Yet "Marlene" is just one highlight amid a storm-tossed sea of the things. A glimpse into Coyne's early influences is provided by a brace of Carter Family covers, a knockabout romp through "Lonesome Valley" and a nearly bluegrass-colored "Heaven in My View," while his eye for distinctly English working-class archetypes is unrelenting. Vacationing Anglos romp through "This Is Spain," a deliciously wry study of the suspicions that beset every Continental tourist during the first years of package holiday-making, while "Jackie and Edna" transplants much the same characters to a dour English beachfront, and turns their discomfort inwards.
The clashing of Coyne's characteristically sharp, tuneful poetry with deliberately warped imagery is breathtaking. The title track, a couple of minutes of a cappella poetry sliced out of the live favorite "Suite Marjory Razorblade," makes an excellent bed for "Marlene" to emerge from, and the remainder of side one (on the original vinyl) rattles along with express-train precision, bound for the furious blues boogie of the aforementioned "Eastbourne Ladies," a compulsive examination of the elderly inhabitants of that (and every other) English seaside town. But the ramshackle "Karate King," sounding like it's being sung through a telephone receiver, the scarcely in-tune and barely controlled "Dog Latin," offering an acerbic vision of the decline of Catholic worship, and "Good Boy," a headmasterly recitation of praise that twists almost imperceptibly into viciousness and scorn, jab your ears like thumbtacks embedded in the cushions of a comfortable chair, to ensure that, no matter how much you wind up loving Marjory Razorblade, you will never feel completely at ease with her. Yes, there are four or five Kevin Coyne albums that can be described as his best. But Marjory Razorblade remains the greatest of them all. AMG.

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Roger Bunn - Piece Of Mind 1969

Roger Bunn passed away in 2005 without ever seeing his one and only solo project -- 1969's Piece of Mind -- get heard by more than a tiny cult of music insiders. The rights were secured for a reissue on CD, and the record remastered with the reissue pending at the time of his death that summer. It's a delightfully weird-ass stream-of-consciousness creation, as much influenced by James Brown as Arthur Brown, with elements of Duncan Brown as well and the presence of longtime Bunn associate Pete Brown too, mixing soul horns, acid rock, freakbeat spaciness, jazz, and folk-pop (with elements of country and bluegrass showing up); or, sort of like Van Dyke Parks-meets-Donovan with a side-trip to the Kinks' Muswell Hillbillies sessions -- it's not always easy to make out what he's singing, but it all sounds cool and so magnificently laid-back that it seems too easy, low-wattage psychedelia with folk and jazz strains flowing through it where the soul horns aren't honking away; in hindsight, it makes one think of what the Small Faces might've done had they ever finished an LP follow-up to their final completed single, "The Universal," and that's definitely a compliment for those unaware. The album got buried by record company decision-making and competition from a brace of more overtly commercial releases, but it was good enough to gather a following among musicians and British pop cultists, and was regarded one of the great missing links among late-'60s British pop/rock. The 2006 Rollercoaster CD reissue sounds sensational, and the 76 minutes of music on it comes off every bit as beguilingly quiet and inventive as it seemed 35 years before. AMG.

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Santana - Welcome 1973

The mark that the recording of Caravanserai and Love Devotion Surrender had left on Carlos Santanawas monumental. The issue of Welcome, the band's fifth album and its first with the new lineup, was a very ambitious affair and was regarded by traditional fans of Santana with even more strangeness than its two predecessors. However, issued as it was at the end of 1973, after Miles had won a Grammy for Bitches Brew and after Weather Report, Return to Forever, and Seventh House had begun to win audiences from the restless pool of rock fans, Santana began to attract the attention of critics as well as jazz fans seeking something outside of the soul-jazz and free jazz realms for sustenance. The vibe that carried over from the previously mentioned two albums plus the addition of vocalist Leon Thomas to the fold added a bluesy, tougher edge to the sound showcased on Caravanserai. The band's hard root was comprised of Carlos, drummer Michael Shrieve, bassist Doug Rauch, and keyboard king Tom Coster. Add to this the percussion section of Armando Peraza and Chepito Areas as well as a second keyboard by Richard Kermode, and space was the place. The John Coltrane influence that inspired the Santana/John McLaughlin pairing on Love Devotion Surrender echoes here on "Going Home," the album's opening track, arranged by Coltrane's widow, pianist and harpist Alice.
The deeper jazz fusion/Latin funk edge is articulated on the track "Samba de Sausalito," and to a much more accessible degree on "Love, Devotion & Surrender," which features Thomas growling through the choruses and also features Wendy Haas, a keyboardist on Love Devotion Surrender who is enlisted here as a second vocalist. In fact, her pairing with Thomas on Shrieve's "When I Look Into Your Eyes" is nothing less than beatific. McLaughlin makes a return appearance here on the stunningly beautiful guitar spiritual "Flame Sky." Brazilian song diva Flora Purim is featured on "Yours Is the Light," a gorgeous Afro-Brazilian workout that embraces Cuba son, samba, and soul-jazz. Welcome also marked the first appearance of French soprano saxophonist Jules Broussard on a Santana date. He would later collaborate with Carlos and Alice Coltrane on Illuminations. Ultimately, Welcome is a jazz record with rock elements, not a rock record that flirted with jazz and Latin musical forms. It is understandable why Santana punters would continue to be disenchanted, however. Welcome was merely ahead of its time as a musical journey and is one of the more enduring recordings the band ever made. This is a record that pushes the envelope even today and is one of the most inspired recordings in the voluminous Santana oeuvre. AMG.

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Solomon Burke - Rock'N'Soul 1964

Solomon Burke's first album for Atlantic Records features three bona fide hits and other treats done as only the soulful, preaching singer with croon-ability can. He defies pigeonholing. Nobody ever talks of what range Burke sings in because it doesn't matter. Like Michael Jordan or Allen Iverson on the basketball court, Burke makes you feel like he's capable of anything and everything in the studio. AMG.

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Omara Portuondo - Omara 1974

Omara Portuonda is the grand old lady of Cuban music. While her early recordings made her a star in Cuba, her participation in the 1996 album and video documentary, The Buena Vista Social Club, brought her to international attention. Her solo album, The Buena Vista Social Club Presents Omara Portuondo, released in 2000, reinforced her status as one of Cuba's greatest musical ambassadors.

A native of Havana, Portuondo was one of three daughters born to a baseball player on the Cuban national team and a woman of Spanish heritage who left the comfort and support of her wealthy family home to marry the man she loved. Her parents' singing provided the soundtrack for her early life. As a youngster, she sang in school choirs and music classes.

Heavily influenced by an older sister, Haydee, a dancer at the Tropicana cabaret, Portuondo attended many of the troupe's rehearsals. When the ensemble found itself short one dancer, in 1945, she was recruited to fill the vacancy. The experience launched her on a career as a dancer and she formed a successful partnership with Rolando Espinosa. Portuondo balanced her dancing with singing engagements with friends, including Cesar Portillo De La Luz, Jose Antonio Mendez, and pianist Frank Emilio Flynn, calling themselves Loquimbambla Swing. The group helped to pioneer the filin style of music that blended bossa nova and American jazz. For a while, she also performed with Orquestra Anaconda. In 1952, Portuondo joined with her sister and Elena Burke to form a vocal group, Cuarteto d'Aida. The group's sound was established with the addition of pianist and director Aida Diestro and female vocalist Moraima Secada. Although she released her debut solo album, Magia Negra, in 1959, Portuondocontinued to work with the group.

Cuarteto d'Aida's fortunes were drastically effected by the Bay of Pigs crisis in 1961. Although they had become frequent performers in Miami, FL, they were prevented from returning as the relationship between Cuba and the United States collapsed. While Portuondo returned to her homeland, continuing to perform with Cuarteto d'Aida until 1967, her sister elected to remain in the United States. Although she performed with Orquestra Aragon in the 1970s, Portuondo had settled into semi-retirement by the mid-'90s. Her plans to slow down her career were altered after Ry Cooder, who was in Cuba recording with the Chieftains, heard her sing in 1995. When he returned, the following year, to produce The Buena Vista Social Club, Portuondo was invited to become a featured vocalist with the all-star group. In 1998, Portuondo recorded a duo album, Desafios, with Cucho Valdes. AMG.

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Love - Four Sail 1969

From a retrospective point of view, this might be the first album in the career of singer and songwriter Arthur Lee that might have been received with more enthusiasm had it been released under his name, and not under the band name. Obviously, it must have been in his commercial best interests to retain the Love identity, but here Lee is the only member of the original band left. He is trying to recreate a Love-able identity with fewer players than he had before and a completely different sound. The old Lovedelivered material in a solidly folk-rock vein, meaning among other things an emphasis on combinations of acoustic and electric guitars. When the original group wanted something a little heavier, it would really put the hammer down. Records such as "My Little Red Book" and "Seven & Seven Is" were tough enough to be rightly considered precursors of punk rock, which is a lot of mileage to get out of a Burt Bacharach tune. Lee's new lineup here does not have this kind of versatility. Guitarist Jay Donnellanplays a heavy lead guitar minus the impressive chops and gets lots of solo space in the arrangements. The rhythm section favors a more leaden sound as well, particularly drummer George Suranovich, who soaks the barbecue with Keith Moon and Mitch Mitchell licks. Lee fills in on several different instruments, but his real strength is the set of ten original songs he has provided. The tracks are deep in feeling and performed with an emotional fervor that sometimes approaches anguish. It is like going into a dark coffeehouse late at night and finding an electrically charged performer delivering messages about things familiar to one and all: love, memories, friendship, "Good Times," and even "Nothing." Lee's lyrics and performances have been compared to Jimi Hendrix, certainly a compliment. This album is such a good example of these strengths that it rises above the garage band sound to communicate a sense of time and place as well as some truly sincere feelings. AMG.

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Paul Kantner, Grace Slick & David Freiberg - Baron Von Tollbooth & The Chrome Nun 1973

Credited to Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, and David Freiberg, Baron von Tollbooth & The Chrome Nunwas the first album made by these erstwhile members of Jefferson Airplane since the breakup of that group. Like such other spin-off projects as Blows Against the Empire and Sunfighter, this one featured a supporting cast of San Francisco Bay Area musicians including present and former members of a variety of groups, such as the Grateful Dead (lead guitarist Jerry Garcia, percussionist Mickey Hart, and lyricist Robert Hunter, who wrote the words to "Harp Tree Lament"), Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young(singer David Crosby), and the Flying Burrito Brothers (bassist Chris Ethridge), as well as other former members of the Airplane and future members of Jefferson Starship. The Pointer Sisters even guested on one track. Despite the co-billing, the album's guiding force was Slick, who sang on every track and wrote or co-wrote six of the ten songs, though there was still room for the unbilled Jack Traylorto write, play acoustic guitar, and sing lead vocals on the song "Flowers of the Night," a celebration of monarchial overthrows throughout history. Perhaps more outside songwriting should have been employed, since the compositions here were second-rate. The public was catching on, too: Kantner's Blows Against the Empire had reached the Top 20, but Baron von Tollbooth didn't come near the Top 100. The team would attempt one more splinter project, Slick's "solo" album Manhole, before reorganizing as Jefferson Starship in 1974 with the notable return of singer/songwriter Marty Balin. AMG.

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The Paul Butterfield Blues Band - East-West 1966

The raw immediacy and tight instrumental attack of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band's self-titled debut album were startling and impressive in 1965, but the following year, the group significantly upped the ante with its second LP, East-West. The debut showed that Butterfield and his bandmates could cut tough, authentic blues (not a given for an integrated band during the era in which fans were still debating if a white boy could play the blues) with the energy of rock & roll, but East-West was a far more ambitious set, with the band showing an effective command of jazz, Indian raga, and garagey proto-psychedelia as well as razor-sharp electric blues. Butterfield was the frontman, and his harp work was fierce and potent, but the core of the band was the dueling guitar work of Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop, especially Bloomfield's ferocious, acrobatic solos, while Mark Naftalin's keyboards added welcome washes of melodic color, and the rhythm section of bassist Jerome Arnold and drummer Billy Davenport were capable of both the rock-solid support of veteran blues players and the more flexible and artful pulse of a jazz combo, rising and relaxing with the dynamics of a performance. The Butterfield Blues Bandsounded muscular and exciting on classic blues workouts like "Walkin' Blues," "Two Trains Running," and "I Got a Mind to Give Up Living," but the highlights came when the band pushed into new territory, such as the taut New Orleans proto-funk of "Get Out of My Life, Woman," the buzzy and mildly trippy "Mary, Mary," and especially two lengthy instrumental workouts, the free-flowing jazz of Nat Adderley's "Work Song" and the title track, a fiery mix of blues, psychedelia, Indian musical patterns, and several other stops in between, with Butterfield, Bloomfield, and Bishop blowing for all their worth. East-West would prove to be a pivotal album in the new blues-rock movement, and it was the Paul Butterfield Blues Band's greatest achievement; Bloomfield would be gone by the time they cut their next LP to form the Electric Flag, and as good as Bishop was, losing the thrust and parry between the two guitarists was a major blow. But East-West captures a great group in high flight as the bandmembers join together in something even more remarkable than their estimable skills as individuals would suggest, and its importance as a nexus point between rock, blues, jazz, and world music cannot be overestimated. AMG.

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Pete Brown & Piblokto - My Last Band 1977

One of the key eccentrics of the Harvest stable and a successful collaborative lyricist for Cream ("I Feel Free," "Sunshine of Your Love"), poet/percussionist/vocalist/trumpet player Pete Brown was one of the many artists to arise from the British beat movement in the mid- to late '60s. Like a lot of his peers, Brown's spin on progressive rock came from backgrounds in folk, jazz, and blues.

Brown was kicking around the scene as a poet until being approached by Cream to assist in songwriting. Upon achieving chart success with the trio, Brown decided to go the musician route. Graham Bond asked Brown to help out with some songs for the Graham Bond Organisation, and he was eventually invited to sing with the group on-stage. Once they broke up, Brown helped form the Battered Ornaments, hoping to work with musicians whose skills didn't dwarf his own. The group fell in with Harvest, the progressive subsidiary of EMI that housed the likes of Syd Barrett, Deep Purple, and Roy Harper. The Battered Ornaments' only record with Brown, A Meal You Can Shake Hands With in the Dark, was released in 1969.

The Battered Ornaments booted Brown from the band on the night prior to a supporting gig for the Rolling Stones at Hyde Park; his vocals on the recording of the group's second record were eventually wiped off. The sacked singer immediately set about forming Piblokto!, a group that, for 1970's Things May Come and Things May Go But the Art School Dance Goes on Forever, comprised bassist Roger Bunn, guitarist Jim Mullen, organist Dave Thompson, and Battered Ornaments drummer Rob Tait. Bunn was replaced by Steve Glover for Thousands on a Raft, which was released six months after the debut. Another shake up in the lineup predated the final Piblokto! release, the single "Flying Hero Sandwich."

Brown teamed up again with Graham Bond for 1972's one-off Two Heads Are Better Than One, which featured contributions from several of Brown's former bandmates. With keyboardist Ian Lynn, who played on Thousands on a Raft, he formed Back to the Front, a group that performed but never recorded in their original form. The group lasted until 1977; Brown faded away from music, at least in a performance sense, until 1983's Party in the Rain, which featured most of Back to the Front behind him.

The '90s saw Brown working again with Phil Ryan, a keyboardist who played with Man, the Eyes of Blue, and the final lineup of Piblokto! They made two records together, Ardours of the Lost Rake and Coals to Jerusalem. Toward the end of the decade, he formed the Interoceters, a group that performed songs from his lengthy career. Brown has also maintained a working relationship with Jack Bruce and has participated in the making of several records by other artists. AMG.

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Ahmed Abdul-Malik - Jazz Sahara 1958

This CD reissue is an early example of fusing jazz with world music. Abdul-Malik switches between bass and oud; interacts closely with the droning violin of Naim Karacand, Jack Ghanaim's kanoon (a 72-string instrument), and Mike Hamway's darabeka (a percussive drum); and mixes in Al Harewood's drums and (on three of the four selections) the tenor of Johnny Griffin. The music is a qualified success, essentially Middle Eastern folk music with Griffin added in. This set is interesting and, in its own way, innovative but not essential. AMG.

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Otis Redding - Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul 1966

Recorded and released in 1966, Otis Redding's fifth album, Complete and Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul found the rugged-voiced deep soul singer continuing to expand the boundaries of his style while staying true to his rough and passionate signature sound. Redding's ambitious interpretations of "Tennessee Waltz" and especially "Try a Little Tenderness" found him approaching material well outside the traditional boundaries of R&B and allowing his emotionally charged musical personality to take them to new and unexpected places, and while his cover of "Day Tripper" wasn't his first attempt to confront the British Invasion, his invigorating and idiosyncratic take on the Beatles' cynical pop tune proved Redding's view of the pop music universe was broader than anyone might have expected at the time. While Redding's experiments with covers on this set were successful and satisfying, it was on his own material that he sounded most at home, and "My Lover's Prayer" and "Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)" are deep Southern soul at its finest, with Redding's forceful but lovelorn voice delivering an Academy Award-worthy performance. And once again, the Stax house band (centered around Booker T. & the MG's and the Memphis Horns) prove themselves both thoroughly distinctive and remarkably adaptable, fitting into the nooks and crannies of Redding's voice with their supple but muscular performances. With the exception of his duet album with Carla Thomas, Complete and Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul was the last studio album Redding would fully complete before his death, and it proves his desire for a broader musical statement didn't begin when he encountered "the love crowd" at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. AMG.

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