What's the direct connection to the previous post featuring Hank Crawford? Since Moe avoids the sax entirely, it's the fact Crawford and Koffman regular Doug Riley were past musical directors for Ray Charles; Hank for an extended stint at the start of the 60s and RIley for a short spurt at the end of the same decade. Otherwise, the albums were released within a year of each other and share something in musical sensibilities as well, a fact picked up on by Dusty Groove who mention it in their brief review:
A groovy album of moody electric funk tracks from Moe Koffman -- and probably one of his best records from the 70s! The groove is nice and rolling, with less of the break-oriented sound than you might expect, but still with some very nice mellow, almost CTI-ish moments, thanks to keyboards from Don Thompson.
Not much left unsaid about Moe or this roster of regulars in one of the many posts here on Soundological covering Koffman and Riley. However, out of Moe's oeuvre, it is by far and away the closest to the smooth jazzfunk sound epitomised by Creed Taylor's imprint. More importantly, it pretty much sidesteps the copious cheese slathered upon the albums book-ending this session (Jungle Man before, Things Are Looking Up after) and hits a sweeter spot where groove, technique and studio polish intersect. A snapshot of many popular trends in jazz during the period, there are a couple adventurous post-bop tunes on hand ("Dinosaurus" & "Wildlife"), some proto-smooth jazz moments ("Pharoah's Dream"), orchestral string-backed slow blues ("Evolution Blues") and a couple outright funkified offerings in the form of Weather Report-style fusion with some drum breaks ("Rocks") and the Mizell-flavoureddowntempo funk of "Digs."
Days Gone By (Egyptology)
Based on its use by Jill Scott, you may already be aware of the mellow "Days Gone By (Egyptology)" and though it's not the best track on the record, it's why sample-spotters often snatch this one up on sight. That bite alone is one of the main reasons copies of this album are seldom seen out in the wild, coupled with the fact this is probably Koffman's strongest effort in the latter part of his pop-fusion phase so folks were likely more inclined to keep it in their collections.
Featuring prominently on the track is Ed Bickert's crystal clear tone on the guitar. He displays his deft mastery of the instrument throughout the album and for many fans his playing here is a big reason to pick up this set. Though more well-known for his work on bass, Don Thompson's contributions on keyboards (mostly Rhodes) are mainly as an astute accompanist with few solos on the album outside of "Wildlife" and "Days Gone By." Speaking of Ed and Don, this album was released around the same time as their critically acclaimed live duo set, At The Garden Party.
Intro to "Rocks (Mineralogy)"
On "Rocks" it's pretty clear Riley's still crushing on Mwandishi and Head Hunters era Hancock but always with his own bluesy touch thanks to his B-3 background. However, he's all over the map stylistically on his own composition "Dinosaurus", a tune described as "a delightful romp through the harmonic overtone series" which highlights both his skills and his influences (especially Bud Powell and Oscar Peterson) but meanders a bit too much as a result of some kitchen-sinkism.
For the most part Moe keeps it melodic throughout, maintaining his mainstream-oriented style without taking the type of excursions in his solos witnessed on the kosmigroovish Solar Explorations nor straight-up displaying his bebop chops like when he was Live at George's. However, he has a few moments where he lets go a bit and soars high, especially on "Pharoah's Dream" and "Wildlife."
Sometimes a picture doesn't paint a 1000 words Australian issue [RCA VPL14130]
All in all, an enjoyable album that saw a modicum of critical and chart success here in Canada upon its release (nominated for 2 Juno awards in 1978). Created as a conceptual piece to accompany exhibitions at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto (pictured on the back cover), its main drawback is in replicating the sterile, hands-off environment of most museums to a fairly high degree.
As indicated by the cover art's roped-off skeleton, sarcophagus and caveman mannequin, the music is often dryly academic and tends to be aimed moreso at the head rather than the heart or hooves. However, as also hinted at on the cover, there's just enough howler monkey to keep things lively and nobody is placed on a pedestal so it stands as cohesive communal effort among some of Canada's A-list jazzbos of the late 70s.
Moe Koffman - Flute Ed Bickert - Guitar Marty Morell - Drums and Percusion Rick Homme - Electric and Acoustic Bass Don Thompson - Keyboard, Arco String Bass Bob Mann - Rhythm Guitar on "Rocks," "Digs" & "Museum Piece" + solo on "Dinosaurus" Doug Riley - Keyboard on "Rocks," + Clavinet & Piano on "Dinosaurus"
1 Museum Piece 2 Rocks (Mineralogy) 3 Digs (Archaeology) 4 Evolution Blues 5 Pharoah's Dream 6 Wildlife (Mammalogy) 7 Days Gone By (Egyptology) 8 Dinosaurus
Celebrate Cheeba's birthday today by tagging along with Soundological & Moe for a trip to the museum - free ticket in the comments!
MOE KOFFMAN Back To Bach 1979 256+ VBR LAME mp3 Vinyl rip & scans from Anthem ANR-1-1023
Canned Daddy
Nursury Rhyme Dancer
This is widely acknowledged as the worst set from the entire Moe Koffman catalogue and that truly says something, don't it? Frankly, it encapsulates everything wrong with discofied jazz and much of music in general at the end of the 70s (or is that the start of the 80s?): monotonous metronome disco beats, cheezy and unchallenging solos, horrendous concept albums, salubrious string sections, schmaltzy balladry, slick assembly-line production sapping the soul out of every note and even bad cover art to boot.
Obviously Moe had exhausted his ideas and made an ill-advised return to not only the nearly dried-out well of Western Classical Music but, as the the title so non-cleverly states, back to Bach's well-worn and immediately-identifiable ditties. Bad call there, buddy. On the bright side, beat builders may find a funky brick or two to work with here - however "brick" is definitely the operative word overall since this here album sinks like one in almost every aspect. In the immortal words of Brenda Lee: I'm sorry. So sorry. Sorry my completist tendencies compel me to cough up this chunk of Can Con crap into your lap. But hey, this means Moe's mostly done here at SI (check his discography post here) and we can hold our head high for keepin' it real and reppin' our hinterland 'hood...
Moe Koffman - Flute & Piccolo Doug Riley - Keyboards & Toy Drum Bob Mann - Guitar Tom Szczesniak - Bass Bob McLaren - Drums & Percussion Brian Leonard - Drums & Percussion
1 Canned Daddy 2 The Wooden Soldier 3 Singing Voices 4 Bad N Eerie 5 Back to Bach 6 Bach's Lunch 7 Air D'Or (Melody of Gold) 8 Irish Tea Party 9 See Us Home 10 Nursery Rhyme Dancer
MOE KOFFMAN Solar Explorations 1974 256+ VBR LAME mp3 Vinyl rip & scans from GRT 9230-1050 Venus
Since the previous Herbie Mann post included a cover of Moe's signature tune, Swingin' Shepherd Blues, I thought I'd bump this one up in the rotation. I'd have to say the fact the world's premiere jazz flautist chose to include one of Moe's compositions along with heavy hitters such as The Beatles, Smokey Robinson and a fundamental track from the roots reggae canon speaks volumes of the high regard in which he was held by the woodwind world.
This double-LP is definitely a singularity in Koffman's catalogue and the closest any of his releases came to a true kosmigroove or free jazz mode as opposed to the bop-licitous charts of his early and later days or the snazzy reinterpretations of popular/classical music and saccharine smooth jazz that often plagued his output during the late 60s through to the early 80s. Overall it's very similar in feel to the third Dr. Music album recorded a scant few months earlier at the same studio.
This is likely due to It sharing much of the same core line up save for Kennedy and Mallory (who were most responsible for the lyricism and song-oriented structures of that project's output) with the addition of some Boss Brass members and guitarist Sonny Greenwich, who had spent the previous decade performing with luminaries like Miles Davis, Charles Lloyd, Wayne Shorter, Pharoah Sanders, McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, John Handy and Sun Ra as well as recording with Hank Mobley on the latter's acclaimed Third Season album from 1967.
Note that persisting issues from the RapidShare and PayPal problems of the past two weeks prevent the preview player from working so I've provided a link to a track instead. Since posting clips currently costs over $200 per year in server fees, I might have to switch up to this more economical method, use minimal snippets instead of the whole track or ditch the previews altogether.
Koffman's album of choice is Solar Explorations, a double lp of nine tracks with titles corresponding to the nine planets in this solar system. Obvious yeah, but far preferable to his early 70s conceptual missteps in blending jazz with Bach or Vivaldi's Four Seasons. David Axelrod, these ain't. On Solar Explorations, some of the larger ensemble pieces ("Saturn", "Uranus") resemble a more kozmik Boss Brass-- unsurprising with the guest appearances of both Rob McConnell and Guido Basso.
Better are the octet recordings, which are dominated by Koffman on flute, Sonny Greenwich on guitar and Doug Riley on Fender Rhodes. The tastiest cuts are designated by "Earth" (atonal free electronic interludes alternating with fierce percussive sections), "Mars" (great middle section tribute to Rod Serling) and "Venus" (anchored by a near-serialist bassline doubled on ARP and a jerky funk rhythm.).
Moe Koffman - Flute, Piccolo, Alto & Soprano Sax Doug Riley - Keyboards, Fender Rhodes Don Thompson - Bass Rick Homme - Bass Terry Clarke - Drums Claude Ranger - Drums Michael Craden - Percussion Sonny Greenwich - Guitar Guido Basso - Trumpet Fred Stone - Trumpet Arnie Chycoski - Trumpet Al Stanwyck - Trumpet Rob McConnell - Trombone Ian McDougall - Trombone Russ Little - Trombone Bob Livingston - Trombone Eugene Amaro - Sax Keith Jollimore - Sax David Rosenbloom - ARP synthesizer Peter Schenkman - Cello
256+ VBR LAME mp3 Vinyl rip & scans from T-bow (no cat#)
Totally obscure private press recording of some straight-up jazz with a boppish flavour by saxophonist Mark Allen. Actually, it's more of a collaboration between Allen, the Aurèle Lecompte Trio ca. '78 and the duo of Joe Turner and Robin Moir. In the local region it usually sells for anywhere from $5-$10 but elsewhere in the country and internationally it seems to fetch $50 or more, as is often the case with private press albums. Unfortunately, I couldn't dig up any info on Mark Allen himself and his exceptionally commonplace name wasn't much help, so I gave up my pursuit after a few weeks of dead ends. Apparently the only release by T-Bow Records, there's no other reference to the label name outside of this album.
It was a bit easier to find some info on Aurèle Lecompte since he's still active on the supper club circuit and was holding down resident duties as recently as last year, performing at chi-chi resto gigs in Ottawa and the adjacent Gatineau region of Québéc. There's scant biographical info available, limited to a mention of him having played with Louis Armstrong and Liberace and reference to a position at the Ottawa office of Radio-Canada in the 70s. Recently he's worked often with québécoise chanteuse Jo Bocan, particularly at the upscale St-Estèphe Restaurant and they accompanied its master chef, Stéphane Paquet, to Nice in France for a special cultural exchange event in 2006. According to Tom Lord's extensive Jazz Discography, Lecompte has two performance credits from 1978 but I can't find hide nor hair of the other. The standards "Lullabye Of Birdland,""For All We Know" and "Lady Is A Tramp" are basically showcases for the trio since they lack participation by Allen, Turner or Moir.
Bassist Gilles Champagne had a few other credits in the local Ottawa music scene including a stint in the Orpheus Theatre orchestra in 1979, where he was listed as an organist in the production credits along with drummer Robb. Champagne appears to have ended up at one of the hippie havens of the Canadian West Coast, Saltspring Island (a major source of BC Bud) where he popped up as a member of local classic rock cover band Lookinglass sometime in the mid-90s. Since then he's been replaced by another bassist and seems to have dropped off the map.
Glenn Robb is still very active member of the jazz scene in his native Ottawa, regularly playing drums at the supper clubs of both the Monterey Inn Resort and Villa Lucia as part of various trios (The Monterey, Jazz'oo and Art Lawless Trios to name three) and he gigs weekly with his band Magnolia Rhythm Kings. In his 40+ year career, he's performed on many Canadian TV and film soundtracks and has shared the stage with legends such as Benny Goodman, Bud Freeman, Bud Shank, and Cab Calloway as well as holding membership in the orchestras of Ron Milne, Ken Campbell, Gerry Heike and Champ Champagne.
When it comes to the husband-wife team of music moguls Joe Turner and Robin Moir, however, there's no shortage of info on them or their many projects. Cutting their teeth in Ottawa with a party band called Fizz, they've branched out and built a veritable empire with Isle of Skye Productions that includes a bustling recording studio, music publishing business, artist management, broadcasting and not one but three party bands: The Jaguars, Moetown and the Fifth Avenue band. This album captures them at a relatively young age and early stage in their career and the vocal tracks "Lush Life" and "Little Girl Blue" portray Moir's talent as an interpretive vocalist.
Mark Allen - sax, clarinet Aurèle Lecompte - piano Gilles Champagne - bass Glenn Robb - drums Joe Turner - guitar Robin Moir - vocals
1 Petite Fleur 2 Lush Life 3 You Light Up My Life & I Can't Get Started 4 Lullabye Of Birdland 5 Sweet Georgia Brown 6 Send In The Clowns/Michelle/Like Someone In Love 7 Lady Is A Tramp 8 Little Girl Blue 9 For All We Know 10 Louise
Update: Forgot to mention that the album was produced by Gene Perla, who will be here in Montreal at the venerable Upstairs Jazz Bar & Grill this weekend, August 7th & 8th, with Al McClean, Andre White and Dave Lang.
Yeesh. Listening to this LP is almost physically painful for me. It's not just the fact it's a textbook smooth-jazz snoozer, although that does have quite a bit to do with it. The aversion I have to this album is mostly related to its (and my) time and place in history more than anything else. You see, I was 8 years old when this was released and, for me, it's the sound of sitting in doctor/dentist waiting rooms and getting dragged to the supermarket in the late 70s and early 80s.
Heck, this album - especially the production techniques - pretty much sums up everything I wrongfully associated with post-bop jazz (exceptions being the soundtracks of Spider-Man, Space Ghost and Johnny Quest) until I started listening to soul-jazz and proper fusion in junior high. Whaddaya expect? I was a white kid without older siblings growing up in a mid-west medium-market city where the radio choices were Top 40, C&W or AOR and my parents listened to Babs Streisand, Neil Diamond, Willie Nelson and Roger Whittaker. I think I overcame that handicap pretty well, thanks very much, but sounds like these still tend to make me cringe reflexively.
The epitome of poor format in both musical and technological terms
Of course, with the team involved here there are a few enjoyable (and eminently samplable) moments, regardless of the childhood-trauma-induced baggage I've saddled on this old grey mare. And an old grey mare it is, since Moe's sound, she ain't what she used to be. I can get past most of those memories but this is still a paint-by-numbers, overproduced piece of pap that's so watered-down, "smooth" is a misnomer. It would be better described as "thin and runny." Even then it's a crime against nature, defying the laws of fluid dynamics by having an exceptionally low viscosity yet it somehow still manages to completely hamper flow and restrict movement.
If the two preview tracks don't do it for you at all, you probably shouldn't bother grabbing the full release since those are a cut above the rest. I find myself enjoying Lighthouse quite a bit since it's the odd-man-out and its cinematic feel is the closest thing to what I would call real jazz. Stanloo is a bit more representative of the other tracks, although it's funkier than the rest by at least a furlong - yikes!
It's fairly obvious the fleeting moment of Moe's funky(ish) flute fusion had finished and he really should have put that filly out to pasture prior to this. Thankfully, like most artists of the era, he returned to straight-ahead jazz by the early 80s and regained the critical acclaim that had steadily eroded as the 70s wore on. This helps explains the "black hole" effect of the 70s jazz era in Canada that was briefly touched on in the comments for Dr. Music's Bedtime Story.
As far as the roster is concerned, we've already covered most of the players in some detail. Ed Bickert is a massive star in the Canadian jazz constellation and extremely influential on canuck guitarists from the 60s to the 90s but his popularity and reach extend much further as a precursory search on the google will quickly reveal. His relationship with Moe goes all the way back to the 50s as well, appearing on Moe's debut Cool and Hot Sax in '56 which included Moe's smash hit "Swingin' Shepherd Blues".
As wonderful as Bickert's works book-ending this session were - Down Beat spoke of his stint with Paul Desmond two years prior as having an "understated eloquence matched only by such masters as Jim Hall" and the year following he was touring the world with Milt Jackson to great acclaim and forming his relationship with Concord Jazz as Rosemary Clooney's guitar player - he's pretty much restricted by the "smooth jazz lite" format here. Sure his tone is excellent as always and he plays superbly but he is sometimes (and unfairly) pegged as more of an adept technician than soulful artist and this set does more to exacerbate that perception than it does to dispel it.
Ed, Moe & James (Jimmie) Dale in 1965 backing Guido Basso from The Boss Brass
Marty Morell's biggest claim to fame is definitely as part of the Bill Evans Trio from 1968 to 1974 - the longest any drummer stayed with Evans. You can hear some of his work with the trio at Soundological's post of Evan's From The 70s or on a slew of his albums covered by master Simon at never enough rhodes. His web page seems to have died out since we last checked in but thanks to the wayback machine at archive.org, you can still read up on his activities with Evans, The Boss Brass and on the Broadway circuit. Personally, my favourite work with his presence on percussion is probably Gabor Szabo's classic The Sorcerer. For some reason, his participation on this particular Koffman piece doesn't make his "selected" discography. Go figure.
Not much info on Rick Homme out there besides assorted credits on dozens of Canadian albums. As far as Moe's 70s output is concerned, he played on the ones with the most appeal to jazz purists: Solar Explorations, Live at George's and Museum Pieces. He remains active in the Canadian jazz scene, still doing some recording and a good deal of gigging across the country but especially in the Greater Toronto Area.
Thanks to the plethora of Moe posts on Soundological, there's no need to cover his history here. In fact, most of the line-up has received personal attention on these pages in the multiple Koffman and/or Dr. Music posts over the last year and you need only click on the "can con" label for a full reading list. One dude involved in this set who hasn't had much mention here is long-time session guitarist Bob Mann, who has appeared on some of my favourite records (Johnny "Hammond" Smith'sWild Horses/Rock Steady, Hal Galper'sWild Bird and Chico Hamilton'sEl Exigente to name a few). Being a go-to guy for NYC session work in the early 70s and doing the same in the Toronto scene after the mid-70s, his extensive credits also place part of the blame on him for perpetrating some of the worst pop pap in recent history (Barry Manilow, Cher and Tony Orlando & Dawn anyone?). However, putting aside how he chose to earn his daily bread, his talent is not in question and most of the funky touches to be found on this LP are derived from his playing.
Speaking of which, there are a couple factors holding this album back from being truly funky in the final analysis. The first is Koffman's well-known inclination to be an early-adopter (or even follower) of musical trends and at this point in time, fusion-oriented funky jazz was beginning its metamorphosis (or is that slide?) into the super-sanitized sound that would be known as "smooth" jazz. Production-wise the album is ahead-of-the-curve in that aspect, for the most part sounding like a late 70s or early 80s outing from any major jazzbo on a major label: slick studio sheen, gated compression galore, vague world music influences, overdone overdubs and dodgy synth presets.
Another shortcoming is the compositions themselves. Most are decidedly radio-friendly MOR and although there is much in the way of technical brilliance on the album, the grittiness inherent in funk has been bleached out by safe choices and washed away with assembly-line soloing. It's almost as if everyone involved on both sides of the glass forgot they weren't working on a TV show or an advert and came to the session with that requisite clinical detachment so crucial to recording purely commercial music. For all intents and purposes, this one could have been called Jingle Man.
That's not to say the album is bad...if you like the smoother side of the genre then you'll probably find it a superb addition to your playlist. However, if you prefer an edge to your jazz then you'll likely have a hard time warming up to this marshmellow of a record. For the crate digging sample heads, there are a few treats you may find tasty but not much in the way of open breaks to be found on this short but saccharine set. Often fetching $10 or less, it's worth picking up at that price point if only for the dope Gahan Wilson cover art and the catchy title track.
1 Jungle Man 2 Monkey Strut 3 Tribal War Dance 4 Spider Lily 5 Jungle Woman 6 Tiger Claw 7 Temple Flower 8 Idono (About De Jungle) 9 It's All Right (In De Jungle)
Get lost in the jungle with SoundologicalHERE or HERE.
Every good doctor has a few tricks in their pharmacopeia for inducing sweet dreams and the good Dr. Music is no different. Rather than rendering you comatose or anesthetizing you 'til you're numb, as the album art seems to promise, this album would be more along the lines of an opiate or a mild hallucinogenic. A lot of that probably has to do with Riley's switch in preference from the brash B3 to the dulcet Rhodes for the bulk of the album but maybe even more with the fact that it was the mid-70s and everybody was high on something. Just look at the way they dressed in those days.
It's often called the best Canadian jazz album and if it isn't, it ain't far from it. What it is far from, are the first and second Dr. Music albums previously posted on Soundological. Outside of two short vocal numbers that tether the album to earthly matters (Jimmy Webb's"I Keep It Hid" and the 20s standard "She's Funny That Way"), the remainder drifts off into the free-jazz (the white-knuckled "Tickle" and the samba-tinged "Gandalf") and kozmigroove ("Take That Rollo") sectors of the galaxy on the remaining four extended pieces. Showing his contemporary influences on his sleeves, the title cut is a laid-back interpretation of Herbie Hancock's"Tell Me A Bedtime Story." It's turned into a soft ballad here and only spotlights Riley's deft touch on the Rhodes late in the game, almost as if out of deference to the composer. However, he shines in both technique and feel (as he does throughout the album) and it's a gentle comedown to return you to reality and a fitting end to softly send you to your pillow. Don Thomspon's return to the fold is surely welcome but the big addition to the line-up on this effort has to be highly-respected drummer Claude Ranger. In all probability, his stridently uncompromising nature was a major factor in the success of the free-jazz format Dr. Music put forth on this effort. How uncompromising? He was fired by Moe Koffmanon-stage, mid-set, in front of an audience in Sydney. Figuring the goings-on were shite even for a cheese-meister like Koffman, he stopped playing mid-song and refused to continue which sparked a colourful shouting match (f-bombs included) with Moe and resulted in the termination of the Claude's services on the spot - all while being taped live by Australian TV. He was that uncompromising. Or maybe it was drunk. Getting fired for getting stinko was becoming a pattern with Claude and he had been sacked the year before by his friend Lenny Breau for letting his boozing get in the way of business.
Notoriously difficult to work with, Ranger lived like a pauper in a one-room apartment because he refused to become a puppet in the commercial milieu while his colleagues in the Toronto jazz scene were making money hand-over-fist recording jingles for TV and radio ads or doing session work for pop stars. However, many of those who worked with him are effusive in their praise of his talents and the following quote from Stone Alliance'sGene Perla is typical:
Having had the opportunity to play with some of the greatest drummers(Elvin Jones, "Philly" Joe Jones, "Papa" Joe Jones, Art Blakey, RoyHaynes, Mel Lewis, Buddy Rich, Billy Higgins, etc.), I can honestlytell you that I always looked forward with extreme delight to beplaying with Claude, and he never let me down.He was a stand-alone individual and I would rank him in the same categoryas those I've mentioned above, except for one -- Elvin. Elvin was ina class by himself, and I know that Claude would agree as he told me sohimself. 07/27/2005 at 05:53:26
Unfortunately, the drug & alcohol habits that were as notorious and uncompromising as the man and his music would be his undoing, as is so often the case. Shortly after selling his cherished custom-built drum set (one of his few worldy possessions) at a rock-bottom price in the late 90s, he checked into a rehab in BC. He walked out the back door one day in 2000 and seems to have completely dropped off the face of the earth since then - his missing persons file is apparently still open with the police and he is presumed dead. The CBC aired a captivating radio documentary on this stereotypical tragic figure in 2007 called "Sticks and Stones" but it currently seems available only from Australia's ABC Radio National.
In an interview for the documentary, Don Thomspson recounts a backstage chat he was having about Ranger with avant-garde sax goliath Dewey Redmanafter a Montreal gig in the late 90s. The young drummer who was playing with Redman's band at the time enquired as to whom was the subject of their conversation. Thompson replied "Oh, Claude Ranger...he was probably the best drummer in Canada," whereupon Dewey - who came to prominence while working with Elvin Jones - interrupted to say: "Make that the world."
1 I Keep It Hid 2 Take That Rollo 3 Tickle 4 She's Funny That Way 5 Gandalf 6 Bedtime Story
Rumour has it this album is available on iTunes but I ain't installing that proprietary-format pimpmobile just to confirm it. If you like to choose for yourself what type of gizmo on which you play your 1s and 0s, until it's out on CD you can get the full story from SoundologicalHERE. (Link updated May 23, 2013)
Continuing with the Dr. Music discography, here's the second album by the pared-down unit Riley had re-assembled. Losing the powerful singers from the previous line-up, Brenda Russell (née Gordon), Terry Black, Rhonda Silver and Diane Brooks, meant more emphasis was put on the musical chops and the result was an album that is almost half instrumental. It's still rooted very much in the same free-form R&B and gospel-inflected spirit as its predecessor, although less obviously chasing radio success and more comfortable with just being itself. If Dr. Music I was the first date - more tense than relaxed, trying a bit too hard to impress - then Dr. Music II has the relaxed attitude attained after having cohabited for a few months.
One roster change made when the band shrunk from 15-piece to 7-piece was a switch to Wayne Stone on drums. No stranger to the crew, he was also in Motherlode with Kennedy and Marco and, like them, had originally come from the rock-soul garage band Grant Smith & The Power. Like Marco, who never returned to the line-up after the first outing, Stone only appears on just the one Dr. Music LP. He lays down a nice break with some sampling potential at the start of "On The Road" and does a good job of keeping it funky and swingin' enough to be more than a bluff throughout the proceedings.
Besides the vocal team, another cut from the first group is bassist/keyboardist extraordinaire Don Thomspon. One of Canada's premiere jazz bassists, he was part of the John Handy Quintet when they played Monterey in '65 and he also played on The 2nd John Handy Album which was posted a while back on Soundologicalhere. The year this particular Dr. Music album came out he was steadily working on stage and touring Canada and the U.S. as part of Paul Desmond's unit and by sometime in '74 he hooked up with Jim Hall and was off to play Europe. I'm not sure sure if it was simply his schedule that precluded him from working on this album since there is no bassist credit at all. It's most likely that the role was filled economically, and to great effect, by Riley's B3. However, Thompson would find the time to participate in Dr. Music's next outing, Bedtime Story, released the following year.
Doug Riley - keyboards Doug Mallory - lead vocals, guitar Michael Kennedy - vocals, percussion Steve Kennedy - vocals, tenor & alto sax, flute Keith Jollimore - vocals, baritone, alto & tenor sax, flute Barrie Tallman - tromboneWayne Stone - drums
1 Long Time Comin' Home 2 On The Road 3 In My Life 4 6~5 5 Tryin' Times 6 Doctor Doctor 7 Rollin' Releases 8 Where Do We Go From Here
The Dr. and Soundological make another housecall HERE. (link updated May 23, 2013)
Thanks once again for your patience, friends! It's recently been pretty much impossible to give Soundological the attention it requires but now that things are slowing down for a few months I'll be throwing down some new posts, post-haste. Hot on the heels of Canada Day, we're going to focus on Doug Riley and his Dr. Music project and along the way drop a handful of blogland exclusives and links to lots of goodies elsewhere.
Doug Riley is a name you may find familiar since it's been attached to almost all of the Moe Koffman posts that have proven to be popular on Soundological. However, while little known outside of his home country, Riley is probably one of the most prominent figures in the Canadian music industry and a fixture in the Canadian psyche. Even hosers who have no idea who buddy is would probably recognise his radio and TV jingles (especially the ones for the iconic Labatt's beer brand) which dominated the airwaves in the 60s and 70s. He's also internationally regarded as one of the hands-down masters of the Hammond B3 organ, receiving Jazz Report magazine's Organist of the Year award for eight consecutive years from 1993 - 2000. If you doubt his chops, check him out below holding his own against organ giants Joey Defrancesco and Dr. Lonnie Smith.
Paul Schaffer, Joey DeFrancesco, Doug Riley, and Dr. Lonnie Smith cookin' it up on the B3's in 2006 on the Canada's Walk of Fame special.
Music starts at 2:00 so ffwd if you don't love Schaffer's voice as much as he does.
Dr. Music was a freeform jazz/R &B/pop ensemble along the lines of Lighthouse, Blood Sweat & Tears and early Chicago and it was the brainchild of Doug Riley, who was a brain child himself. Riley was born April 24th in 1945 with perfect pitch and polio, the former explains him starting his training in classical piano at the age of three and the latter kept him at home for hours on end listening to records for much of his youth. He grew up idolizing stride and boogie-woogie pianists like Meade Lux Lewis, James P. Johnson, Albert Ammons and Fats Waller, who were mainstays in his father's 78 collection. His higher-education years were spent in the Montreal area learning pipe organ from Harry Duckworth and piano from Oscar Peterson's teacher, Paul DeMarky.
He then returned to the Toronto area in the mid-60s and became a part of its vibrant music scene, playing with many artists that would go on to international acclaim, among them Neil Young, Buffy Ste. Marie, Joni Mitchell, RIck James, The Band and Steppenwolf. In fact, one of Doug's closest friends and member of his first real band, The Silhouettes, was David Clayton-Thomas from Blood , Sweat & Tears. He also found success writing hundreds of jingles for TV and radio, especially the aforementioned beer brands. As destiny would have it, beer jingles would bring Riley across the pond to meet British engineer/producer Terry Brown, who would start a studio with him in Toronto.
He had what he called "the biggest break of my life" when he was hired to be the second keyboardist and arranger for another hero, Ray Charles, on theDoing His Thing album in '68. Riley checked Charles as his "first influence outside of boogie-woogie and stride pianists" saying he was "enthralled by his jazz, blues, and gospel music and really his roots and my roots were the same." That obscure session from Charles' voluminous discography is also notable for the fact that all tracks were written by unsung soul sultan Jimmy Lewis (check Totally Involved at Funk My Soul for more on him), who provided vocals as well. Charles actually asked Doug to join the band, but he declined and chose to remain in the Great White North. Whether he knew it at the time or not, this decision would ultimately seal Riley's fate as one of the most influential, and arguably the most widely-loved and respected, member of the Canadian music industry. You might call him the anti-David Foster.
Ray Charles - If It Wasn't For Bad Luck
Grab Doing His Thing from SoundologicalHERE or HERE.
(NB: Not my rips, pulled from slsk, 256 VBR)
After his experience with Ray, he traveled to London to record some beer jingles with Terry Brown (who worked on albums by The Who, Dave Clarke, Donovan, The Animals, Rolling Stones, Procol Harum and other A-list British Invasion acts) they become partners and opened Toronto Sound Recording, a studio whose clientele consisted mostly of acts signed to fledgling GRT Records. Brown recounts the story in the bio on his website as follows:
With two studios running around the clock it seemed as if (London) was where the pop scene began and ended! The Rolling Stones, The Eagles, Jimmy Hendrix, Procul Harum, The Small Faces, Manfred Mann and then as if out of nowhere a group of Canadians breezed into town to record a pool of beer spots for Canadian radio. Under the leadership of Mort Ross and Doug Riley we recorded non-stop for a week, sessions that were refreshingly up-beat, but had little to do with British pop and all the while Morgan (Studio) was taking shape; piece by piece equipment was arriving and walls were going up and treatments were being applied. Then all of a sudden we were ready to open the doors and begin recording with a Scully 8-track recorder and the first CADAC console — Andy Johns was hired as tape—op (not for long I might add- he had big plans!) and I was recording ‘The doughnut in Granny’s Greenhouse’ with The Bonzos and Gus Dudgeon producing, ‘Feeling Alright’ with Traffic and mixing Joe Cocker’s ‘With a little help from my friends’- we were off to a flying start! It was then that the ‘Canadian Connection’ began to take shape with a phone call to Doug Riley which was really more social, but saw me heading out to Toronto during a quiet week and recording more beer spots. Beer! I could think of worse reasons to head to North America. We recorded all week, but I did get to savour the local music scene which, although small, was vibrant. The recording studios were few and far between and even then had very little of the gear I had become accustomed to using. Once back in London I missed the gang in Canada and we hatched a plan to build a studio/label to operate out of Toronto and to open in the fall of ’69. Our first band was Motherlode and our first hit was ‘When I Die’; then came Dr. Music, a 15 piece big band and a national hit this time with ‘Sun Goes By’. I engineered sessions for April Wine, The Stampeders, Michel Pagliaro, Moe Koffman (the theme for "As it Happens" is still on CBC), we recorded the music for a number of TV shows including Sony and Cher and Ray Stevens and I found myself consulting the audio on the Kenny Rogers series among others.
In case you're wondering why a producer of Canadian beer jingles would go all the way to the UK just to record some commercials, it was pretty much what you'd have to do if you wanted orchestral elements in your recorded music. Thanks to musician union rates in Canada (and Ontario specifically) in the 60s, it was actually cheaper to fly to Britain, hire a world-famous studio and employ an orchestra there than it was to pay a symphony the scale rate for a few afternoons in Canada.Riley had been a behind-the-scenes guy on television shows as a music director and when he put together a band for the 1969-1970 season of CTV's The Ray Stevens Show (yes, the guy responsible for "The Streak" was given his own show up here) it was the core of what would become Dr. Music. Following the cancellation of the show, the ensemble remained together for the purposes of recording and touring. However, they would stay on the back-burner studio-wise for a couple years while other ambitions came to fruition although many of the original members would regularly pop up on various projects in the interim. One of those was Riley's first full-length album, the soundtrack to 1971 Canadian sex-romp comedyFoxy Lady. It also happened to be the debut directing effort of Ivan Reitman, who you may remember as the man responsible for Meatballs, Stripes and Ghostbusters. It's another rare record and highly sought-after among collectors and DJs alike, the latter looking for it on account of the Jimmy Smith-like scorcher Savin' Grace(available on canuck funk compilation Canadian Racer at Boogie No More). Riley employed Dr. Music vocalists Terry Black, Diane Brooks and Rhonda Silver (apocryphally the Rhonda in the Beach Boys' "Help Me Rhonda") but until I get my hands on an actual copy, I can't confirm any other players involved since I can't seem to find much info. All told, he scored a total of six flicks, most for Reitman in the early part of their careers.
Doug Riley - Savin' Grace
Get Foxy Lady courtesy of Soundological HERE or HERE. (NB: Not my rips, pulled from slsk, 192 CBR)
It was actually Riley who approached GRT with the idea of arranging classical music in a modern (read "fusion") jazz context, cementing a long-term musical relationship with GRT artist Moe Koffman that would give the label Moe Koffman Plays Bach in 1971 and nine albums until the label's shuttering in '79. Having previously released Foxy Lady on GRT, and seeing some critical and commercial success with his initial Koffman gambit, Riley was able to secure Dr. Music's self-titled debut LP on the label in 1972. It included the singles "Try A Little Harder," a gospel-inflected rocker and "Sun Goes By," a laid-back slice of West coast-type harmonies that hit it fairly big in Canada. Both tracks were written by Motherlode member Steve Kennedy. Another Motherloder, Kenny Marco, was also part of the line-up but this first version of Dr. Music disbanded shortly after and Riley concentrated on the success of his new studio.
Pulling focus for a moment, Steve Kennedy has an interesting history beyond Motherlode and Dr. Music. As one of the musicians toiling away in Toronto's seminal scene during the late 60s, Kennedy worked closely with Robbie Robertson before the latter hooked up with Ronnie Hawkins as a member of Levon & The Hawks (who would later become The Band) and he was also involved with Lighthouse, which was started by Skip Prokop (who turned down drummer duties in what was to become Big Brother & The Holding Company in order to do so) and Howard Shore (the first musical director of Saturday Night Live and currently a major tinseltown soundtrack composer).
He even earned a credit on Funkadelic'sAmerica Eats Its Young, which was partially recorded in TO after George Clinton high-tailed it up there with Bernie Worrell to live for a year or so when things in Detroit got too hairy for the ex-barber and his bandmates. The 'delics recorded their single Baby, I Owe You Something Good there in 1972 and Kennedy, along with fellow Dr. Music singer Diane Brooks, contributed backing vocals. George and the boys were also on one helluva binge, taking advantage of Canada's high quality recreational chemicals. This was a rabbit hole from out of which vocalist/guitarist Tawl Ross just couldn't crawl and he became a burnt-out husk who never returned to reality, let alone the studio. Billy Nelson recounts the story to Rob Bowman in the liner notes for the 1992 compilation Music For Your Mother - Funkadelic 45s :
It's a horrible story. They used to play dare games with drugs, with acid and speed. They all dared each other. We were up in London, Ontario. There were these guys following us around. They had this pure methedrine which is like pure speed, and acid, yellow sunshine to be exact. I was right there when they did the dare. George took what looked like about three (tabs of acid), Grady took what looked like about three, Fuzzy took about three and Tawl took damn near a whole handful. I would say he dropped at least six tabs of acid at one time, enough to kill somebody. It was lucky there was no speed or strychnine in it. It was just pure acid. We were getting it like that. Fuzzy and Grady spit theirs out. I stood there and watched them. After Tawl took the acid, then he started snorting this raw speed. He just snort it and snort it and snort it. When the acid set in, he just started going wild with it. I managed to take that away from him because we were in the same (hotel) room. I flushed it down the toilet. While Tawl was going through all those changes, he was hallucinating so bad that I could see the hallucinations. I could see him sitting in the hotel room talking to his mother who had been dead for at least seven or eight years. I had a little acid in myself so I could actually see what he was seeing. You talk about somebody having a harrowing experience. It was like spooky. All the hair on my body was standing up straight. I could actually see him leaning over a coffin talking to his mother and his mother leaning out of the coffin talking to him. That's the kind of conversation he was having. He never played again with nobody. That was it. When he got to that gig Tawl was totally out of it and he stayed that way. He never came back, period.
Kennedy's street cred was certified when a couple samples from the first Motherlode album, which of course was arranged and co-produced by none other than Riley, were employed by elite hip-hop producers. Foremost were J Dilla, who used their hit When I Die, and DJ Shadow and DJ Premier, who were both partial to the break that kicked off Soft Shell.
Strike Motherlode's first two albums, When I Die and Tapped Out, HERE or HERE. (NB: Not my rips, pulled from slsk, 192 CBR)
Although the Canadian radio success Dr. Music had seen with their Kennedy-penned tunes in '72 didn't go global, Riley seemed to have the golden touch that year, arranging Edward Bear's schmaltzy Billboard Top 10 hit "Last Song." The Jacques Brel/Rod Mckuen cover wasn't the first time one of the projects with which Riley was involved made it on the U.S. charts (When I Die hit #18 on Billboard in '69) and it wouldn't be the last.
According to the Canadian Pop Encyclopedia, "by 1973 Riley had assembled the second version of Dr. Music featuring a smaller 7-piece lineup which was essentially a retrofitted version of the ever evolving Motherlode and Lighthouse line-ups. The new group was received enthusiastically and they successfully completed a Western tour, an Eastern tour and a new album - Dr. Music II - before calling it quits in early 1974."
On the next episode of Soundological...
Riley returned to arranging, producing and working on TV and in 1973 reformed Dr. Music to fulfill house band duties onCBC's Keith Hampshire's Music Machine, a Don Kirshner-type affair which featured early live broadcast performances from Canadian bands like April Wine, Lighthouse and Rush. During the second season of the show the group headed back into the studio and recorded a third album, Bedtime Story. Longtime members Steve Kennedy, Don Thompson, Doug Mallory, Keith Jollimore and Barrie Tallman, all formidable jazz musicians, continued to form the backbone of the unit but on this album were really able to flex their tech and prove their talents moreso than their earlier outings.
Unlike the song-centred R&B-tinged flavour of the previous two releases, the third was in a more progressive jazz-rock fusion vein and was primarily instrumental. It also bore the influence of Zawinul-era Miles Davis & Weather Report and the title track was a Herbie Hancock cover from what is considered the first album of his Mwandishi phase, Fat Albert Rotunda. Obviously Riley had added a couple keyboard heroes to his pantheon and kept his ear to the ground for new developments in many musical milieus.
Coming soon...
That iteration of the band didn't last long after the third LP and Riley found himself busy as always composing, arranging, producing and recording as a musician. His prolific output in the next few years included more Moe Koffman as well as stints with other Canadian icons Klaatu, Anne Murray, Sylvia Tyson, Dan Hill and Gordon Lightfoot. He also released another album under his own name, Dreams, on Gene Perla's PM Music label in 1976. This was a straight-up jazz affair and featured his deft touch on the Rhodes.
Doug Riley - In My Life Still-sealed vinyl copies are available at PM Music's website for $15 - less than most used copies I've seen in stores! You can also buy the album in mp3 version for a measly $6!
A great example of his barrelhouse stride-playing style was recorded during this period on a track named Little Miss Evil which highlights his talent by stereo-separating Riley's left and right hands in the mix. It appeared on an album by Canadian guitar god Walter Rossi (ex-Wilson Pickett and Buddy Miles' Express), the self-titled debut Walter Rossi. BTW, Rossi gives good quote and this is one of my favourites from him:
"Music is like the Universe, it has no beginning and it has no end, so much to learn, and so much to experience. How can anyone say they were at their creative peak? If you admit to that you obviously have or have had limitations in your creative process."
Riley also laid down some killer B3 work on Nils Lofgren'sNils and he had a hand in what might be Ringo Starr's worst album (an accomplishment in itself when you think about it), the perennially-panned Bad Boy. Although it's generally accepted that Doug played on some of the tracks that were recorded in Toronto, he doesn't receive a credit outside of arrangements. Of more interest to most readers of this blog would be his responsibility for arranging and playing the bulk of keyboards on the Brecker Brothers'Don't Stop The Music and Tornader's Hit It Again, both from 1977. Tornader was headed by Sandy Torano and Larry Alexander (Brass Construction, BT Express) and also featured the Breckers as well as Joe Beck and Johnny Winter along with a hoser horn section including Moe Koffman, Dr. Music veteran Keith Jollimore and Guido Basso (with whom Riley would release an excellent album of B3 and flugelhorn duets called A Lazy Afternoon in 2003). Most notably, at least as far as the radio is concerned, he's the man that tickled the ivories on Bob Seger's best song (for my money anyway), the title track from Night Moves. It proved to be a popular staple on AM, hitting #4 on the Billboard singles chart upon its release and propelling the album, the first one backed by The Silver Bullet Band, to #8 that year. That smash hit single was actually recorded in Toronto and also features Dr. Music singers Rhonda Silver and Laurel Ward on backing vocals.
It's likely the geographical proximity of hogtown to Detroit played a big part in Doug's appearance on a consecutive run of the three Seger albums that rounded out the 70s. His close pal, David Clayton-Thomas, also credits him with playing the piano on Old Time Rock 'n' Roll but the album notes don't seem to back up his claim so taking his word for it might be risky business.
After a 10-year hiatus, Dr. Music (or at least Riley and some dudes - the only returning member was vocalist Terry Black from the first line-up) made what seems a half-hearted attempt at a comeback in the early 80s with their now rare and expensive mini-LP Dr. Music (circa '84). Even in Canada that one went pretty much unnoticed save for the track "Two Can Play," a nice little slice of boogie and a fave among DJs in the know for some time. If anyone has a copy to share, Soundological would love to have a listen!
Dr. Music - "Two Can Play" from Dr. Music (circa '84)
Update May 24, 2013: LP now available HERE (not my rip)
After that, Doug pretty much stuck with classical and straight-ahead jazz for the rest of his life until he passed away in 2007. He wrote three ballets for the Canadian National Ballet, composed the music for The Famous People Players, conducted and arranged both the London Symphony Orchestra and Placido Domingo and was involved on an organizational level with many Canadian jazz festivals. He continued to play live throughout that time and loved nothing better than laying down some soul-jazz on the B3 in a smoky jazz club. If you search his name on YouTube you can see a lot of clips from these types of gigs, as well some retrospectives from a lot of the bands with whom he worked. Obviously, with hundreds, even thousands, of other obscure credits over a 45-year career, this lengthy post is far too short to tell the whole story of the man they called Dr. Music. We'll finish off with one of the better videos out there to capture the arc of his career.
1 Rollin' Home 2 Sun Goes By 3 One More Mountain To Climb 4 Find Me Some Wine 5 When You Believe 6 Glory Glory 7 Try A Little Harder 8 Dreams 9 Don't Wait Too Long 10 Road To Love
Get the Dr.'s remedy from SoundologicalHERE. (link updated May 23, 32103)
Just tryin' to put back into the music blogosphere by fillin' in any blanks I can with out-of-print vinyl as well as the occasional mix, remix, re-edit, art or rant. But mostly vinyl. Mostly.
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