Gideon Nxumalo - Gideon Plays 1968

Gideon Nxumalo’s Gideon Plays might just be the most mythologized and sought-after LP in the whole South African canon. A sophisticated bop excursion with a distinctive African edge, it was only Nxumalo’s second LP as a leader, despite his crucial place in South African jazz history.

Pianist Nxumalo was a visionary jazz composer who had recorded regularly during the 1950s, and his 1962 Jazz Fantasia album was the first South African jazz recording to incorporate traditional African musical sources and instruments. But he was also the country’s most significant radio presenter and jazz tastemaker – from 1954 onwards, he had worn the nickname ‘Mgibe’ to introduce ‘This Is Bantu Jazz’, South African radio’s premier jazz show.

But in the aftermath of the Sharpeville Massacre in 1961, Nxumalo had been sidelined from radio play and was eventually sacked for playing records with political meanings. By 1968, he had not been heard on record or airwave for several years. Gideon Plays was a celebrated return to the studio for one of South Africa’s best-loved and most forward-thinking jazzmen, and it showcases Nxumalo’s deep understanding of jazz, his brilliant touch as a composer, and his commitment to bringing South Africa’s indigenous sound into the music.

However, it was released on the tiny JAS Pride label owned by production impresario Ray Nkwe, and after one pressing in 1968, Gideon Plays fell into the undeserved silence that has obscured so much of the South African jazz discography. It has since become a legend: hardly more than a rumor, it has been bootlegged by the unscrupulous, changed hands for eye-watering sums, and has scarcely been heard outside the circles of the most committed South African jazz devotees. It goes without saying that it has never been released outside South Africa, and even now only a handful of original copies are known to have survived.

Over the last ten years, Matsuli Music has been proud to present some of the greatest lost and found jazz recordings in South African history – but we have never presented a rarer, lesser-known album than the mighty Gideon ‘Mgibe’ Nxumalo’s Gideon Plays.

listen here

Joe Soap - Keep It Clean 1973

Joe Soap was a band comprised of John Tennent and David Morrison and the album "Tennent & Morrison" {Polydor, 1972) was their first album. It was recorded with several members of Stone the Crows (Jimmy, Ronnie Leahy, Steven Thompson, Colin Allen), plus Herbie Flowers (bass) and Clem Cattini (drums). Their second album, "Keep It Clean" (as Joe Soap) (Polydor, 1973), featured Gerry Conway (drums, later in Jethro Tull) and Mik Kaminski (violin, from ELO). Although they were regarded as a second-class British rock band in the early 70s' they were very good indeed. They were one of the most underrated bands in the British rock & pop history. The album features ten tracks composed by John and David with the help of Sandy Robertson (producer). Two guys rather thick but fascinating voices diffuse strong masculine beauty in all tracks.

In addition, mastermind violinist Mike Kaminski's scattering violin features in most of the tracks especially on "Feel Strange" and "On The Wing" are just superb. Jimmy McCulloch's intense guitar domains on every track as well. Overall, the album is an awesome combo set of typical British rock classics with a strong American Southern rock flavor. Both Tennent and Morrison and Keep It Clean are now extremely rare and occasionally surface on the collectors' market. After they released two albums, both John and David are not active as musicians but their talents and the albums still remain.

listen here

Betty Wright - Hard To Stop 1973

While Hard to Stop lacked a big classic hit on the order of "Clean Up Woman," it was a very solid and varied platter of early-'70s soul. Distinguished by the tight, lean Miami funk-soul of the backup players (particularly guitarist Willie "Little Beaver" Hale), it did offer a couple of pretty big R&B hits with the jittery rhythms of "The Babysitter" and "It's Hard to Stop (Doing Something When It's Good to You)," which was about as bluesy as soul got in 1973. A far more off-the-wall highlight was the radical reinterpretation of Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman," which changed it from a hokey pop tune into something that sounded far more grittily proud and defiant. However, it's a pretty consistent record throughout, with other cuts of note including "We the Two of Us," which has a great effervescent Miami organ, and "If You Think You've Got Soul," which weaves in and out of a quasi-tropical groove. The "Clean Up Woman" guitar rhythm is reprised on "Gimme Back My Man," though to a less memorable effect than on the hit single. AMG.

listen here

Denny Gerrard - Sinister Morning 1970

It wasn't long after arriving in the U.K. that South African student Denny Gerrard began making his mark on the music scene. In 1965, Jimmy Page picked him to become one half of the duo Fifth Avenue, while Rolling Stones' manager Andrew Loog Oldham brought him in as an arranger for his project The Variations. Gerrard then linked up with Barry Younghusband, and as Warm Sounds they promptly unleashed the Top 30 hit "Birds and Bees." Swiftly bored with pop the duo soon split, and Gerrard moved into production, overseeing High Tide's critically acclaimed 1969 debut album, Sea Shanties. No surprise then, that when the South African began work on his own debut, self-produced, full-length, High Tide was by his side. However, the resulting album, Sinister Morning, was far more a reflection of Gerrard's vision than Tide's sound. Much of the set has a folkie feel, accentuated by the prolific use of Gerrard's acoustic guitar and harmonica. Only on "Native Sun" is the band given a real chance to rock out, with the rest of the set given over to more mid-tempo numbers. These gave Gerrard the opportunity to explore his roots and showcase his arrangement skills. His epiphany is found on the final track, a haunting, seven-plus minute instrumental, whose rich "Atmosphere" is conjured up by his acoustic guitar and Simon House's delicate organ and rich violin. J.J. Mackey provides the spoken word segments that, sadly, are virtually buried in the mix. The album's other epic track, "True Believer" takes folk to church, with House's hymnal organ juxtaposed against a rich, Americana tapestry. "Autumn Blewn," in contrast, counterpoints '60s R&B with C&W, with Gerrard's harmonica adding a folkie feel to the intricate piece. "Rough Stuff" also has an R&B bend, but a down-home, Southern rock tinge, while "Stop or Drop It" is even more rousing, as Gerrard plays his pusillanimous acoustic guitar off against Tony Hill's electric leads. Although kept on a tight leash, High Tide still brings energy to the set, turning up the heat on virtually all the songs, particularly the poppy "Hole in My Shadow," which was probably intended for singledom. The production gives the entire album a warm sound, although on CD it comes across as a tad too pristine. The only flaw within is Gerrard's decision to overutilize layered vocals instead of true harmonies, and paying far less attention to his vocals than he did to the rest of the album's sound. Released on Decca's mid-price imprint Nova, the album surprisingly sank without a track, but swiftly became a much sought-after collector's item. Finally, after all these years, Esoteric has now lovingly remastered and reissued this splendid album on CD. AMG.

listen here

The Savage Resurrection - The Savage Resurrection 1968

On their only album, the Savage Resurrection mined a psychedelic sound that was not as heavy and metallic as Blue Cheer (also produced by Abe "Voco" Kesh), but at the same time more garagey in feel than that of the average Bay Area psychedelic band. Sometimes it's pedestrian blues-rock with overlong riffing, as on the accurately titled "Jammin.'" At its best, it has the spacier, folkier, and more melodic feel that was characteristic of much '60s Californian psychedelic music, as on "Someone's Changing." More dissonant and Middle Eastern influences make themselves known on "Every Little Song" and "Tahitian Melody," and the backup vocals on "Remlap's Cave, Pt. 2" indicate that they did their share of listening to the Who's "A Quick One, While He's Away." Randy Hammon and John Palmer create an intense and thick dual-guitar sound throughout (separated so that Hammon's playing is on the left channel, and Palmer's on the right). The CD reissue on Mod Lang adds informative historical liner notes and three previously unissued rehearsal recordings as bonus cuts, including different versions of "Thing in 'E'" and "Tahitian Melody," and a cover of "River Deep Mountain High." AMG.

listen here

Chick Corea - Tones for Joan's Bones 1968

Tones for Joan's Bones, Chick Corea's first session as a leader, is a blazing, advanced hard bop set from late 1966, with writing that reveals an affinity with McCoy Tyner's seminal hard bop structures from this period. Tenor player Joe Farrell and trumpeter Woody Shaw are ideal for this music. They deliver virtuoso performances that are both visceral and cerebral. Steve Swallow, while later focusing exclusively on electric bass, often with a melodic, impressionistic approach, is pure thunder here. In a blindfold test his acoustic bass could be mistaken for Buster Williams'. Drummer Joe Chambers is all relentless, propulsive energy, but subtle too. Corea is a torrent of harmonic and melodic imagination, couched in unerring rhythm. Anybody with an interest in this vital and exciting period will find this session indispensable. AMG.
 

listen here

Syd Barrett - The Madcap Laughs 1970

Wisely, The Madcap Laughs doesn't even try to sound like a consistent record. Half the album was recorded by Barrett's former bandmates Roger Waters and Dave Gilmour, and the other half by Harvest Records head Malcolm Jones. Surprisingly, Jones' tracks are song-for-song much stronger than the more-lauded Floyd entries. The opening "Terrapin" seems to go on three times as long as its five-minute length, creating a hypnotic effect through Barrett's simple, repetitive guitar figure and stream-of-consciousness lyrics. The much bouncier "Love You" sounds like a sunny little Carnaby Street pop song along the lines of an early Move single, complete with music hall piano, until the listener tries to parse the lyrics and realizes that they make no sense at all.  The downright Kinksy "Here I Go" is in the same style, although it's both more lyrically direct and musically freaky, speeding up and slowing down seemingly at random. Like many of the "band" tracks, "Here I Go" is a Barrett solo performance with overdubs by Mike Ratledge, Hugh Hopper, and Robert Wyatt of the Soft Machine; the combination doesn't always particularly work, as the Softs' jazzy, improvisational style is hemmed in by having to follow Barrett's predetermined lead, so on several tracks, like "No Good Trying," they content themselves with simply making weird noises in the background. The solo tracks are what made the album's reputation, though, particularly the horrifying "Dark Globe," a first-person portrait of schizophrenia that's seemingly the most self-aware song this normally whimsical songwriter ever created. Honestly, however, the other solo tracks are the album's weakest tracks, with the exception of the plain gorgeous "Golden Hair," a musical setting of a James Joyce poem that's simply spellbinding. The album falls apart with the appalling "Feel." Frankly, the inclusion of false starts and studio chatter, not to mention some simply horrible off-key singing by Barrett, makes this already marginal track feel disgustingly exploitative. But for that misstep, however, The Madcap Laughs is a surprisingly effective record that holds up better than its "ooh, lookit the scary crazy person" reputation suggests. AMG.

listen here

Talking Heads - Fear of Music 1979

By titling their third album Fear of Music and opening it with the African rhythmic experiment "I Zimbra," complete with nonsense lyrics by poet Hugo Ball, Talking Heads make the record seem more of a departure than it is. Though Fear of Music is musically distinct from its predecessors, it's mostly because of the use of minor keys that give the music a more ominous sound. Previously, David Byrne's offbeat observations had been set off by an overtly humorous tone; on Fear of Music, he is still odd, but no longer so funny. At the same time, however, the music has become even more compelling. Worked up from jams (though Byrne received sole songwriter's credit), the music is becoming denser and more driving, notably on the album's standout track, "Life During Wartime," with lyrics that match the music's power. "This ain't no party," declares Byrne, "this ain't no disco, this ain't no fooling around." The other key song, "Heaven," extends the dismissal Byrne had expressed for the U.S. in "The Big Country" to paradise itself: "Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens." It's also the album's most melodic song. Those are the highlights. What keeps Fear of Music from being as impressive an album as Talking Heads' first two is that much of it seems to repeat those earlier efforts, while the few newer elements seem so risky and exciting. It's an uneven, transitional album, though its better songs are as good as any Talking Heads ever did. AMG.

listen here

Fraternity of Man - Get It On! 1969

This US band was formed in Los Angeles, California, USA in 1967 when Elliot Ingber (guitar, ex-Mothers Of Invention) joined forces with three members of struggling aspirants the Factory: Warren Klein (guitar/sitar), Martin Kibbee (bass) and Richie Hayward (b. Richard Hayward, 6 February 1946, Clear Lake, Iowa, USA; drums). Lawrence ‘Stash’ Wagner (lead vocals/guitar) completed the line-up featured on The Fraternity Of Man, a musically disparate selection ranging from melodic flower-power (‘Wispy Paisley Skies’) to rhetorical politics (‘Just Doin’ Our Job’). The album also featured a version of Frank Zappa’s ‘Oh No I Don’t Believe It’, but is best recalled for the ‘dopers’ anthem ‘Don’t Bogart Me’, later immortalized in the movie Easy Rider. The blues-influenced Get It On! lacked the charm of its predecessor, but featured contributions from pianist Bill Payne and former Factory guitarist Lowell George, both of whom resurfaced, with Hayward, in Little Feat. Ingber was also involved with the last-named act during its embryonic stages but left to join Captain Beefheart, where he was rechristened Winged Eel Fingerling. In later years he emerged as a member of the Mothers’ offshoot, Grandmothers. Many years later, Ingber and Wagner briefly reunited under the Fraternity Of Man banner to record the dreadful 1995 EP X. AMG.

listen here

Cockney Rebel - Psychomodo 1975

If The Human Menagerie, Cockney Rebel's debut album, was a journey into the bowels of decadent cabaret, The Psychomodo, their second, is like a trip to the circus. Except the clowns were more sickly perverted than clowns normally are, and the fun house was filled with rattlesnakes and spiders. Such twists on innocent childhood imagery have transfixed authors from Ray Bradbury to Stephen King, but Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel were the first bands to set that same dread to music, and the only ones to make it work. The Psychomodo was also the band's breakthrough album. The Human Menagerie drew wild reviews and curious sales, but it existed as a cult album even after "Judy Teen" swung out of nowhere to give the band a hit single in the spring of 1974. Then "Mr Soft" rode his bloodied big top themes into town and Rebelmania erupted. The Psychomodo, still possessing one of the most elegantly threatening jackets of any album ever, had no alternative but to clean up. Harley's themes remained essentially the same as last time out -- fey, fractured alienation; studied, splintered melancholia, and shattered shards of imagery that mean more in the mind than they ever could on paper. Both the swirling "Ritz" and the ponderous "Cavaliers" are little more than litanies of one-liners, pregnant with disconnected symbolism ("blow-job blues and boogaloos"... "morgue-like lips and waitress tips"), but they are mesmerizing nevertheless. Reversing the nature of The Human Menagerie, the crucial songs here are not those extended epics. Rather, it is the paranoid vignette of "Sweet Dreams," surely written in the numbing first light of that precipitous fame; the panicked brainstorm of the title track; and the stuttering, chopping, hysterical nightmare of "Beautiful Dream" (absent from the original LP, but restored as a CD bonus track) which stake out the album's parameters. The hopelessly romantic "Bed in the Corner" opens another door entirely -- relatively straightforward, astoundingly melodic, it was (though nobody realized it at the time) the closest thing in sight to the music Harley would be making later in the decade. Here, however, it swerves in another direction entirely, the dawn of a closing triptych -- completed by "Sling It" and "Tumbling Down" -- which encompasses ten of the most heartstoppingly breathless, and emotionally draining minutes in '70s rock. Indeed, though the latter's final refrain was reduced to pitifully parodic singalong the moment it got out on-stage, on record it retains both its potency and its purpose. "Oh dear!" Harley intones, "look what they've done to the blues." The fact is, he did it all himself -- and people have been trying to undo it ever since. AMG.

listen here

Redbone - Message From A Drum 1971

Redbone was a Los Angeles-based band led by Native American Pat and Lolly Vegas, both lead singers who had previously worked under their own names, appearing in the 1965 film It's a Bikini World prior to forming Redbone, an all-Native band, at the encouragement of Jimi Hendrix. Their first success with Redbone came in 1970 with "Maggie" on Epic. "The Witch Queen of New Orleans" did somewhat better the next year, and "Come and Get Your Love" -- a single that peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and went platinum -- gave them their greatest exposure. It would also be the band's last hit, though they continued to record and perform on an intermittent basis. In 2008, Redbone entered the Native American Music Awards Hall of Fame. Six years later, "Come and Get Your Love" was introduced to a new generation when it was featured in the superhero film Guardians of the Galaxy. AMG.

listen here

Sweet Marie - Stuck in Paradise 1971

The early '70s were intriguing times to be plying your trade amid the fauna and flora of Hawaii if you happened to be a rock band. It might've had something to do with the exotic climes and locales of the islands melding perfectly with the chemically enhanced strangeness and surreal vibes of the era (or maybe there was just something in the water?), but Hawaii played home to fiercely unique bands like Mu and expatriate psychedelic trailblazers like John Cippolina, as well as serving as an important pit-stop for Jimi Hendrix and other heavy, heady artists. Sweet Marie was yet another Hollywood combo who emigrated to the isle, and they quickly became one of the hottest bands on Oahu after having a nationally successful first album, buying a nightclub there, and packing it nightly. The trio continued their popularity and success with a second album, Sweet Marie, reissued here on Gear Fab in its original form. And it's not a bad album at all; in fact, it's a pretty strong, occasionally exciting effort. Sweet Marie's music was close in many ways to the bottom-heavy, groove-laden blues and rock amalgam of Buddy Miles Express (even Band of Gypsys on the version of Phil Ochs' "Changes") but with a cooler, more languid pace and darkly mystical undertones that closely recall their contemporary, Spirit, particularly in the harmonies. The album features some really superb melodic moments, as with "It Ain't Easy" and "I Want Your Woman," while "Do Do (Find Me a Way)" is fine, soul-tinged hard rock, and "Stella's Candy Store" amusingly innuendo-laden and jazzy. But Sweet Marie didn't have that distinctive spark that allowed their music to stand out or that ultimately separated them from their era. It certainly suffers in comparison to the extravagant, alien hybrid arrived at by Merrell Fankhauser and Jeff Cotton. And some of the ideas -- "Hortense the Hippie" (a rewrite of "Octopus' Garden"), in particular, and "Drum Solo" -- have aged less than gracefully. Nevertheless, it's a fine recording and one that would be well worth grabbing for fans of off-the-beaten-path '70s hard rock. AMG.

listen here

Airto Fogo - Airto Fogo 1976

Featuring superb drummer Sylvain Krief, Airto Fogo’s sole album from 1976 is one of the best instrumental jazz-funk / rare-groove albums ever recorded in France. Heavy drums, Rhodes, analog keyboards, deep bass, hot horns, Blaxploitation & Latin touches.

listen here

Ted Nugent and The Amboy Dukes - Tooth, Fang & Claw 1974

As Ted Nugent's dominant persona took over the sound as well as the band name, Tooth, Fang & Claw brought his Amboy Dukes concept a step closer to the stadiums than its predecessor, Call of the Wild. The band members don't get photos on the back this time, it's just Nugent being a madman up against some Fender and Marshall amps. The songwriting credits on the originals are all his now as well. "Lady Luck" plays as if the "American Woman" riff by the Guess Who got inverted, placed upside down in the middle of the song, and then found itself coated in Ted Nugent's flashy and glitzy guitar work. The instrumental "Hibernation kinda touches upon the "Journey to the Center of the Mind" riff just for a moment and veers off into points unknown. Where on previous albums, Marriage on the Rocks/Rock Bottom and even Call of the Wild, there was musical experimentation, the axe is front and center on this platter and all the experimentation is now with notes and how fast they can be played -- and in what order. Riff. Thud. Crunch. But beyond Nugent's further emerging hard rock sound, a conscious shift away from the blues of the Polydor albums, and psychedelia of the material on Mainstream records, these Discreet/Warner Brothers releases document the forging of a sound and identity that would establish the controversial guitar hero as a true rock icon. Though Billy Squier would have more and bigger hits in the '80s, this foundation, coupled with Nugent's press antics, paved the way for lasting stardom. The version of "Maybelline" is so mutated you won't know it's a Chuck Berry song unless you listen hard; the melody gets put through the meat grinder. But the musicianship is refined. How could it not be with players like drummer Vic Mastrianni? The instrumental "Free Flight" is totally brilliant. That song isn't hard rock or heavy metal; it is just fine musicianship displaying an elegance few hard rock acts can muster. When he does want to crank it up, as with "The Great White Buffalo," he's set the table, and the listener is primed and ready. Where his contemporaries from the '60s, the Blues Magoos, drifted from the psychedelic to jazz and blues before fizzling out, Nugent fused his blues base with hard rock and found a stadium audience ready to devour it. Tooth, Fang & Claw shows those claws just starting to extend. AMG.

listen here

Barbara Mason - Yes, I'm Ready 1965

Barbara Mason was very much a teenager when "Yes, I'm Ready" climbed the charts, and this endearing debut LP was released. "Ready" is a captivating ballad that has been remade by many. Her first hit single, "Girls Have Feelings Too," shows the sweet innocence of youth. "Sad, Sad Girl," another self-written Mason ballad, drips with hurt as she explains how blue her world has become since she lost her fellow. Mason wrote most of her singles and has said they're based on real-life experiences; she often could be seen visibly crying on stage while delivering one of her songs. Other than the B-sides, the rest of the album consists of remakes like "Something You Got," "Moon River," and "Misty." Mason wasn't at her best redoing the material of others; the efforts seem lackluster compared to her recordings of original compositions. AMG.

listen here