Jeannie Trevor - Sings!!

JEANNIE TREVOR
Jeannie Trevor Sings!!
1965
256+ VBR LAME mp3
Vinyl rip & scans from Mainstream 56075

Preview clips:
Four
Visit Me

Could any record be better suited to current predilections of Soundological? We have here a lesser-known chanteuse supported by the Quartette Trés Bien recording for the first incarnation of Bob Shad's Mainstream records, wrapped in a wonderful Jack Lonshein pop-art cover. Although the QTB is not listed by name "due to contractual problems" (in other words, Bobby didn't want to pay Decca and/or Norman Wienstroer) their sound is unmistakable and Jeter Thompson is given ample room to shine on the ivories throughout. In fact, it pretty much sounds like a slightly poppier-than-usual QTB record with a vocalist and a horn player present - a good thing in this case considering the fine talents displayed by both soloists.

Jeanne Trevor was a Harlem native who trained in opera and then moved out west after graduation, eventually settling in St. Louis after a short stint in tinseltown. With her wide vocal range and ability to belt out big tunes as easily as she can sweetly and softly croon, she soon become a local icon in the swinging 60s scene revolving around the infamous Gaslight Square district. Mainly a live performer, aside from contemporaneous singles on local labels like Norman Records, "the first lady of St. Louis jazz" would not return to the recording studio for another 33 years (not counting the occasional voice work on commercials that garnered her a Grammy). Rather than delve into her long and illustrious bio here, you can read it elsewhere or watch a recent interview with her below.

Jeanne Trevor on KETC-TV St. Louis

Trevor and the QTB are joined on this set by another legendary Gaslighter, Hugh "Peanuts" Whalum. He's the uncle of smooth jazz sax sensation Kirk Whalum, who's been causing a stir the last few years with his The Gospel According To Jazz concert series, the most recent of which features George Duke. Although not the most recognised name in the biz, he's played with luminaries like Nat King Cole, Billy Exkstine, Miles Davis and Ella Fitzgerald to name but a few. Born in Memphis, Whalum wound up in St. Louis when he was touring with Lionel Hampton's band and the city happened to be the tour's last stop. Seems he just stuck around ever since.

Peanuts is often praised by industry insiders for his subtle improvisational skills and his personal approach to phrasing on sax. He's also highly regarded among musicians for his ability to effortlessly forge an emotional connection to both his material and his band-mates. Much the way a sports team's playmaker will chalk up more assists than goals themselves, Peanuts is one of those sought-after accompanists who focuses more on the final score than personal glory. Still plugging away at 82 on piano as well as tenor, he released his first solo album Hugh "Peanuts" Whalum in 2006 to high critical praise - head over to his MySpace page to hear some of the tunes.

Jeanne & Peanuts ca. 2009 c/o St. Louis Magazine

As you probably gathered from watching the interview or judging by the pic just above, Trevor also remains active on the scene to this day. As well as acting in plays and musicals, she continues to be a popular draw as a songbird both on tour and in St. Louis where, some 45 years on from the recording of this album, she can still be seen gigging with Peanuts. Besides the aforementioned release in 1998, she also appears on a recent CD, Together, a collection of standards in duet with yet another Gaslight Square veteran, Kevin Kruth.

1999 Love You Madly
buy at Amazon

2009 Together w/ Kevin Kurth
buy at kmk music

Jeannie Trevor - Vocals
Hugh "Peanuts" Whalum - Sax
Jeter Thompson - Piano
Richard Simmons - Bass
Albert St. James - Drums
Percy James - Percussion


1 People Will Say We're In Love
2 Don't Blame Me
3 Get Out Of My Life
4 I've Got You Under My Skin
5 Four
6 Lady With A Painted Smile
7 Moonlight Serenade
8 The Last Moment
9 I Know That You Know
10 From An Ancient Proverb
11 The Lady's In Love With You
12 Visit Me


If you happen to find this album for less than $50, consider yourself lucky. This rip is from a mono version (it seems almost impossible to find a stereo version) that was in excellent condition when it arrived on the doorstep. In fact, the original shrinkwrap was fully intact and only removed so the cover could be properly scanned for posterity. You can have your own personal powwow with Jeannie, Peanuts and the QTB by checking out the comments.

Les McCann - Les McCann Plays The Hits

LES McCANN
Les McCann Plays The Hits
1966
256+ VBR LAME mp3
Vinyl rip & scans from Limelight LS 86041

Another of Les McCann's unabashed stabs at the mainstream market for Quincy Jones' Limelight during the mid-60s, Les McCann Plays The Hits is exactly what the title advertises. Although enjoyable on the whole, it's generally a luke-warm affair for the most part as Les sounds less eager to interpret these tunes than the liner notes would lead you to believe. While "Sunny" and "Sunshine Superman" certainly have sizzle, and McCann's jubilation during the gospel read of "River Deep, Mountain High" is palpable even in the bum notes, the remainder of the instrumentals come off as merely the work of a lounge band, albeit a highly competent one as the roster attests.

Original Billboard review from Nov. 19, 1966

Ironically, two of the top tracks are not only the sole original compositions, one by himself and one by friend Gene "Not Yet Eugene" McDaniels, they're also the only vocal tunes and seem somewhat tacked-on to the track listing. It could be the inclusion of "Sad Little Girl" and "Compared To What" was a concession on Limelight's part, especially when it comes to the latter song. That type of social commentary in pop soul lyrics, which would be Les' specialty by the time he moved to Atlantic, had not yet fully come into vogue on the hit parade. The Summer of Love was still almost a year off and the bubbling brew of aspirational middle-class America's angst and disillusionment was not quite potent enough to sanctify its clear reflection in the charts.

As noted a few years ago on Funky 16Corners, this seems to be the first recorded appearance of McDaniels' "Compared To What." It pre-dates any others involving McCann and was taped prior to any version recorded by McDaniels himself. I originally heard the track on Roberta Flack's First Take, a classic soul-jazz "perfect storm" that remains one of my most cherished albums. Although for me Flack's remains the definitive version (mostly due to Ron Carter's bass), this version feels closer to the style McDaniels' exhibited on his later albums, such as the 1971 masterpiece Headless Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Willie Mitchell - Solid Soul

WILLIE MITCHELL
Solid Soul
1968
256+ VBR LAME mp3
Vinyl rip & scans from Hi SH-32045

San-Ho-Zay



In a city populated by multiple generations of musical goliaths, WIllie Mitchell was somehow still able to stand head and shoulders above most Memphians. Since his passing this January, there have been many tributes made and obits written, so we'll keep it short and sweet here at SI. I'm throwing this one down mostly due to the fact that my pal, Professor Groove, asked me to guest on WeFunk Radio tonight to drop some science on Mitchell and flip some beats, both old and new, to highlight his legacy. You can listen to the live stream on CKUT's site if you like (midnight EST) and later I'll also drop a link to the show on the deep 'n' dope WeFunk archives).

While gearing up I noticed blogopolis was devoid of this smouldering coal of southern soul, so thought I'd share this classic set with y'all. Hip hop hedz will know the main joint Groovin' from GZA of the Wu-Tang's Liquid Swords but I originally bought it back in the 80s for the covers of Hugh Masakela's Grazing In The Grass and Cliff Noble's The Horse (previously posted here). If you ask me though, the real killer thriller is the rendition of Freddie King's San-Ho-Zay, a banger for the boards and a track that falls squarely between the nascent funk sound of the time and four-on-the-floor shakers familiar to the Northern Soul scene. On the whole, this LP sounds exactly like the cover sez and how it looks: Solid. Soul. Slick. Badass.

Wille's "Groovin'" vs. GZA's "Liquid Swords"

Wax Poetics' Obituary

One of the greatest record producers ever, Poppa Willie Mitchell ruled the soul charts with hits on Hi Records for O. V. Wright, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Otis Clay, Ann Peebles, and Syl Johnson. But everything changed the day a young soul crooner named Al Green arrived at his doorstep in South Memphis.

They had previously met in Texas at one of Green’s gigs. Mitchell offered to bring him back to Memphis, but Green wasn’t quite ready to commit. “He wanted to know how long it would take to make him a star,” Mitchell told Andria Lisle in Wax Poetics Issue 9. “I told him eighteen months, and you know what he said? ‘I really can’t wait that long!’” Poppa Willie, with a heart of gold, loaned the young Al $1500 to pay off some debts, but without a contract, Al Green disappeared into the night. “About six months later,” Mitchell remembered, “the doorbell rang at six o’clock in the morning. I thought it was a man coming to paint my kitchen, but the guy said, ‘Don’t you remember me? I’m Al Green.’”

Willie Mitchell died on Tuesday, January 5, 2010. He was eighty-one.

When you compare the Al Green anecdote with another one told by Al Bell at Mitchell's Memorial in Memphis, it's clear Willie really was as generous as they say. Seems after Stax went belly up, Al was not only persona non grata in the Memphis music scene for a while, the outcome was also financially crippling for him. During the service he reminisced how his main competitor, Willie, was the one cat who kept Al and his family from falling through the cracks at that crucial time. You can read all about it at Red Kelly's stupendously informative and stupid cool the "B'" side, a blog all soul fans should have the pleasure of perusing.


Willie Mitchell - Trumpet
Charles Hodges - Organ, Keyboards
Leroy Hodges - Bass
Mabon "Teenie" Hodges - Guitar
Al Jackson, Jr. - Drums


1 Prayer Meetin'
2 Grazing in the Grass
3 Windy
4 Sunrise Serenade
5 The Horse
6 Groovin'
7 San-Ho-Zay
8 Up Hard
9 Monkey Jump
10 Strawberry Soul
11 Hideaway
12 Willie Wam


Willie Mitchell Links
Hi Records Home Page
Wikipedia
AMG Bio
Red Kelly's the "A" Side and the "B" Side


Solid Soul was reissued on CD in 1993 (Hi 120) and again on Sept. 11, 2001 (Hi 182), on each occasion it was packaged as 2-for-1 with its successor, On Top. Both reissues are OOP and can fetch big bucks on line ($200 at Amazon! WTF!) so don't think twice and grab it if you see it for a reasonable price.

In the meantime, Soundological does your Willie a solid HERE or HERE.

Frank Turba - Frank Turba

FRANK TURBA
Frank Turba
1974
256+ VBR LAME mp3
Vinyl rip & scans from MRL 411

Duett



Frank Turba was an active participant in the heady German music scene during the 70s, mostly as a songwriter of pop songs. He has quite a few credits in the first half of the decade and a few of the earlier ones were collaborative efforts that included Giorgio Moroder prior to his breakthrough in global popularity with his pioneering take on electro-disco.

Turba also had a short-lived project at the start of the 80s called F.O.X. on German disco label Teldec but around the same time he made a major impact singing the German version of the theme song to cartoon kingpins Rankin & Bass's The Last Unicorn. There are actually numerous YouTube videos dedicated to covering his take on the track but skip over the video below to spare yourself the pain of listening to 14-year old girls using crappy computer mics to squeek them out over slideshow pastiches of pink and purple unicorn paintings. The masochists among you need only press play to satiate your need for sonic self-flagellation.

WARNING: Not for the faint of heart

Since then he's better known for translating and dubbing English movies, video games and TV series into his native language (including one of my favourite shows The Wire). In fact, he's literally created a legacy in the niche since his children, David and Magdalena, are busy voice actors in their own right and highly sought-after in the German dubbing scene. By all appearances, Turba still keeps a finger in the musical-performer pie though and plays keys with what appears to be a popular cabaret cover band called Past Perfect.

In some places, this album is listed as "Krautrock" but that's a serious misnomer. Besides being rock performed by Germans, there is little connection to what most folks would actually consider part of the genre. In fact, the closest it comes to that classification is via the players Turba assembled for his sole album under his own name.

Foremost are duo Jackie & Frank Diez, who both lent their voices to one of Krautrock's masterpieces, the sophomore album by one of my favourite bands in the genre, Agitation Free's 2nd. Diez also played guitar with Emergency on both Entrance and No Compromise, and backed Frumpy's Ingrid Rumpf on a couple of her Atlantis records as well as stints with Armageddon, Karthago and Ihre Kinder. Frank's a genuine German guitar god and according to his website he played a large role in bringing the Blues and its heavy rock derivative to the country, kind of like a teutonic Jeff Beck or Eric Clapton.

For further fine fretwork from Frank

Another significant name associated with this project is Gary Unwin. Originally from the UK, he was in the freakbeat combo The HiFis with legendary library music bigwig Brian Bennett and moved to Germany at the end of the 60s to cash in on his "British Invasion" rep. No matter where he would have emigrated, in those days that was good for quite a bit of mileage in the session business and he spent a few years as a hired hand, often uncredited. During this time he played on some Krautrock classics including Ralf Nowy's Lucifer's Dream with Diez and Niagara's S.U.B., the former being put out the same year as Turba's album.

Soon after this release, another of Unwin's projects, Silver Convention, blew up worldwide with their hit "Fly, Robin, Fly" and for a decade after he enjoyed a solid career in disco and funk as a writer and producer but he's perhaps better known as bassist on Munich Machine hits for the likes of Claudja Barry, Boney M, Dee D Jackson, Sister Sledge and Donna Summer. Info on Martin Harrison is scarce but he appears to have worked closely with Unwin as a rhythm section and he appears on many of the same albums made in Europe. Both seem to have pretty much dropped out of the spotlight by the mid-80s.

Gary Unwin: From Herpetology to Handcuffs

As for the music itself, it's a hodge-podge of mostly pop and rock styles with little-to-no thematic congruity. Rambling from one end of the spectrum to another and back again, Turba takes a stab at a multiplicity of musical milieus, running through lighthearted Sgt. Pepper-ish pych ("Funny Song"), mediocre reggae ("Telephone Love"), raunchy riff rock ("Blue Jeans"), pale Elton John piano man imitations ("Alice Brown"), Brill-building blue-eyed soul ("Manhattan") and beer hall sing-song ("Bini") with varying degrees of success. The MPD nature of the album culminates on the schizophrenic "Tempest Storm" which shifts gears from reverb-laden 50s R&B to crunchin' southern-fried boogie à la Johnny Winters and then back again without any warning whatsoever.

The closest the album comes to an actual kosmische sound is Diez's arpeggiated fretwork on opener "Stony Silence" and his criminally short acid-burned solo midway through "Duett." In fact, with a memorable melody, excellent musicianship and some soaring moments, that track pretty much encapsulates the potential the album has. It also highlights how Turba's obvious populist leanings detracted from what could have been a hell of an album. The deft touch of Deitz and the tight rhythm section are definite highlights throughout and enough to recommend this effort to pop and rock fans who might find a song or two very much to their liking.

Doing this record in English was a strategic misstep and the language factor goes a long way to giving the listener an impression of amateurism, albeit unfairly so. Had it been recorded in his native German, he may have had more success with its particular sensibilities but there's just too much disparity for consumption by a post-Altamont North America's increasingly tribalized rock audience compounded by a total lack of the hipsterism required to make it in London.

Lack of Hipsterism Exhibit A: Turba today on keys w/ Past Perfect

Not sure how Shad got his hands on this one but being published by Brent it's clearly not licensed material. Either recorded specifically for Shad in Germany or done on spec and then shopped around to US labels afterwards, this attempt at breaking into the Anglo market falls short of the mark in many ways. However, if you can get past some of the lamer lyrics and are comfortable walking the fine line between eccentric eclecticism and chemical imbalance then you may enjoy this collection better than most so if you see it in the bins for a fin or less, you might want to grab it.


Frank Turba - Keyboards, Vocals, Arrangements
Frank Diez - Guitars
Gary Unwin - Bass
Martin Harrison - Drums
Jackie Diez - Vocals


1 Stony Silence
2 Bini
3 Telephone Love
4 Funny Song
5 Duett
6 Blue Jeans
7 Alice Brown
8 Manhattan
9 Tempest Storm
10 End Song


Turba charge your music collection with Soundological HERE or HERE.

Joe Scott - A Symphony of Our Time

JOE SCOTT
A Symphony of Our Time
1970
256+ VBR LAME mp3
Vinyl rip & scans from MRL 307

Movement 1 (excerpt)



This is the second of two albums Joe Scott put together for Bob Shad's newly revamped Mainstream imprint, Mainstream Red Lion. The first, Motion Pictures: The NOW Generation, was a pretty straight-forward orchestral take on the hits of the day with some dope guitar fuzz by Jay Berliner (who would release one of the funkier albums on MRL, Bananas Are Not Created Equal) and some fine electric piano/organ/old skool analogue synth sounds from the keys of session man Frank Owens (check out his sole solo LP over at never enough rhodes) accentuating the arrangements. Personally, I very much enjoyed the set as it was anchored by some boffo bass from a youngish Chuck Rainey and provided a much meatier take on the "hip hits orchestra" meme that pervaded the sonic landscape from the mid-60s to mid-70s.

The line up for A Symphony of Our Time stayed much the same, with minor differences in the horn & string sections, with Romeo Penque added on flute while swapping Owens for Dick Hyman and Rainey for Joseph Macho (he previously played with Owens in support of Bob Dylan and in the group The Restless Feelin's and he would also go on to contribute to one of my all-time fave albums, Van Morrison's Veedon Fleece). Although the personnel changes were slight, the compositions took on a whole new level of complexity as Scott used the pop material as a spingboard to a true symphonic arrangement, rather than simply arrange the songs to be played by an orchestra.

In the intensely informative liner notes replete with massive music-geekery, Scott explains in detail his process and the manner in which he conceptualised the songs as themes to be developed in a classical mode. A case could be made for this recording to be considered as Third Stream, although academics would likely cringe at the thought since the improvisational aspect is hard to discern, the focus is much more on the "rock" than the "jazz" and the compositions do teeter on the precipice of being fugal. I would conjecture that the very act of melding the different themes together into a single movement would avoid its fall into the latter, but I'd have a hard time arguing the case in classicist court.

There are some surprisingly sublime moments here where Scott's gambit pays unexpected dividends. However, at times he overreaches (not necessarily a bad thing in itself) or keeps the structure too rigidly poppy or classical and winds up a bit too predictable or slightly cliché. However, you've gotta give the man an A+ for effort at connecting people with music from the other side of the fence and trying to create something new and completely different in an idiom that was all too often rife with ivory tower elitism, artistic laziness or outright crass opportunism. Years later this kind of treatment would be adopted by struggling symphony orchestras to get bums in the seats or by pretentious prog-rockers searching out a certificate of authenticity for their oeuvre.

I would love to have been able to provide some biographical info on Mr. Scott since the slightly generic name shows up in different roles from the 40s to the 00s and I wanted to get the facts straight. Was he the Trumpet player & arranger who worked with who worked closely with Bobby Blue Bland since the 40s? Was he the singer for mid-60s art rock act Ford Theatre as some claim? Was he the arranger & conductor for a plethora of rock and C&W acts in the late 60s and early 70s? Was he the bass player who worked with Aretha Franklin, The Staple Singers and Curtis Mayfield? Is he the guy who fronts a popular wedding band on these days? All of the above? AMG lists no less than 15 artists with the same name or variations thereof and speaking to the man himself would help nail it down.

I was hoping to do so before posting because the fine Mr. Bostrom, who hosts the other Scott album linked to in the first paragraph, sent me Joe's email over a week ago but I haven't heard back from the man yet. Unfortunately, time is of the essence since I'm aiming to post the last five remaining MRLs yet to appear in the blogosphere before the 12th of the month - Bobby Shad's 90th birthday! Rest assured that if Mr. Scott does reach out, I'll update the post with any info he feels like sharing with us...


1 Movement 1 (Sonata Allegro) - Introduction: House of the Rising Sun; Theme I: Ruby Tuesday; Theme II: A Day in the Life
2 Movement 2 (Andante) - White Room
3 Movement 3 (Moderato) - America
4 Movement 4 (Finale) - Theme I: Dandelion; Theme II: We Can Work It Out; Theme III: Yellow Submarine


Savour Scott's symphonic sonics courtesy of Soundological HERE or HERE.

Carmen McRae - I Want You

CARMEN McRAE
I Want You
1964
256+ VBR LAME mp3
Vinyl rip & scans from MRL 387

Here's the last of the Carmen McRae releases on the Mainstream MRL to be shared in the blogosphere. As usual with her MRL reissues, this one was compiled from various sources and tracks are culled from the same session used for Alfie [Mainstream S-6084] & Haven't We Met? [Mainstream 56044], except for #8 which is taken from Woman Talk Live at the Village Gate [Mainstream S-6065].

Despite the seemingly haphazard way Shad programmed the tracklists on the reissues, there is very little to no overlap when it comes to tunes and those who do not own the originals should find these to be new to their Carmen collection (again, that may depend on what other reissues you have on Sony's Legacy label, who bought Shad's Mainstream catalogue from his daughter in the 90s). No surprises here either way since the magical voice and introspective interpretive style that she made the cornerstone of her career are present in all their intimate glory.

However, as opposed to her stripped-down sessions she recorded live, the orchestration can get in the way once in a while, especially on the Peter Matz-produced tracks. Those overseen by Don Sebesky show the usual tasteful arrangements he was known for, ones Creed Taylor would regularly put to good use on his CTI imprint a few years later. At any rate, fans of this amazing vocalist will not be disappointed since she is never completely overshadowed by the string swells thanks to the strength of her voice, which was at its peak during the period these songs were waxed.

Carmen McRae: Too Good

schuon25 | MySpace Video

Highlights for me include the spine-tingling "Too Good," an excellent example of the lovelorn fatalist role she played so well, along with "And I Love Him," her restrained reversed-gender take on Lennon & McCartney's well-worn ballad which would have still been a relatively new tune at the time of recording. Special mention also goes to the opener, which leans a bit to the saccharine side but features Carmen playing with the tempo of her phrasing to create a layer of tension within the song's static time signature (a technique for which she was renown), highlighting her mastery of the craft and demonstrating the intensely personal individuality she brought to her repertoire.


1 The Night Has a Thousand Eyes
2 Too Good
3 Don't Ever Leave Me
4 Sweet Georgia Brown
5 And I Love Him
6 In Love in Vain
7 Fooling Myself
8 The Shadow of Your Smile
9 My Reverie
10 Winter in May


This time I was too lazy to split out the musicians from the different sessions but a quick trip over to the Carmen McRae Discography site will pay dividends to the uber-OCD trainspotters. For the rest of our readers, below is a list of all musicians from the three sessions who participated in these recordings.

Carmen McRae (v)
Ray Beckenstein (f)
Phil Bodner, Leon Cohen, Charlie Mariano, Stanley "Champ" Webb (f, af, pic, cl, as, ts, o)
Shelly Gold (f, af, cl, o)
John Bello, Burt Collins, Mel Davis, Bernie Glow, Jimmy Maxwell, Jimmy Nottingham (t)
Wayne Andre, John Messner, Charles Small, Bill Watrous, Chauncey Welch (tb)
Ray Alonge, Dick Berg, Jim Buffington, Earl Chapin (frh)
Don Butterfield (tu)
Paul Faulise, Tony Studd (bt)
Barry Galbraith (g, elg)
Joe Puma (g)
Paul Breslin, Aaron Davis, Richard Davis, Victor Sproles (b)
Norman Simmons (p)
Eugene Bianco, Margaret Ross (hrp)
Archie Freedman, Mel Lewis, Frank Severino, Ed Shaughnessy (d)
Jose Mangual (bo)
Doug Allan, George Devens, Phil Kraus (per)

Strings:
Adriana Broone, Fred Buldrini, Peter Buonconsiglio, Max Cahn, Norman Carr, Bernard Eichen, Arnold Eidus, Leo Kruczek, Walter Legawiec, Charles Libove, Carmel Malin, Joe Malin, Marvin Morganstern, David Nadien, George Ockner, Gene Orloff, George Polikian, Raoul Polikian, Max Pollikoff, Aaron Rosand, Tosha Samaroff, Michael Spivakowsky, Jack Zayde (vn), Al Brown, Harold Furmansky, David Mankowitz, Emanuel Vardi (vl)
Maurice Brown, Alla Goldberg, Charles McCracken, George Ricci, Harvey Shapiro, A. Sophos (cll)


If you want Carmen as much as she wants you, get her from Soundological HERE or HERE.

Bertha Belle Browne - Bertha Belle Browne

BERTHA BELLE BROWNE
Bertha Belle Browne
1972
256+ VBR LAME mp3
Vinyl rip & scans from Mainstream MRL 383

I Cannot Say Goodbye

I'm Jus' An Orphan



In honour of hump day, here's the hump. Regardless of matters of taste in genres, this one is widely acknowledged as the worst album on the label and it's a helluva head-scratcher as to how it could come to pass in the first place. Upon much speculation ranging from the casting couch to a gambling debt, the closest I can come to explaining this pea-under-the-mattress is somehow Shad thought (or had been sold on) the idea that BBB could be his next Janis Joplin (whom he had "discovered" and signed first).

Well, lemme tell you, he was sorely mistaken if that's the case. The best word I can come up with for her singing style is "caterwauling." Look it up. To be fair, she's OK in the middle range but she jumps around waaaay too much and pulls more gimmicks than Mariah Carey at a diva convention, losing it completely in the upper registers. She's got less chops than a kosher vegan restaurant.

She's not helped any by the musical material, all her own compositions. It's your run-of-the-mill tepid white-kid funky country blues with requisite hackneyed lyrics coming off like entries from a sophomore community college humanities major's journal. Obviously earnest but this girl is about 5 years away from a demo tape, so what the hell is she doing being backed by Ernie Wilkins and his orchestra? He produced this affair so the arrangements are awesome and throughout the set there's some great grooves underneath the "singing." Rumour has it he used the same personnel as the gorgeous and majestic Alice Clarke LP but for what seems like obvious reasons, they probably didn't want their name on this turd.

Apparently BBB became a born-again Christian at a later date and has given interviews on the subject but I don't know if she's recorded any other material. Nor am I eager to find out. File this one under "curiosities" and consider it recommended for weirdos, tone-deaf trustafarian hippie chicks from the old south who discovered Woodstock this summer and completists only. In my estimation, this album marks the beginning of the end for the label as it's the first point where Shad lost the plot.


1 I Cannot Say Goodbye
2 Gotta Take My Stand
3 Don't Feel Bad
4 Country Borders
5 Have You Seen The Mirror
6 I'm Jus' An Orphan
7 I Felt Myself Fall
8 Lily Lady
9 Come Innocent


Soundological humps you HERE or HERE.

Carmen McRae - Carmen McRae

CARMEN McRAE
Carmen McRae
1965
256+ VBR LAME mp3
Vinyl rip & scans from Mainstream MRL 309

Bye Bye Blackbird


Here's some Sunday-mornin'-comin'-down listening for you with yet another acoustic trio set, this time in the form of a live affair backing Carmen McRae. Carmen needs no introduction to regular readers of Soundological or the shad shack as she's appeared here before and there many times, with 5 releases (all reissues) on MRL. She's also one of the pre-eminent jazz vocalists of the silver age so there's all sorts of info out there on her and to keep this post short 'n' sweet we'll just make with the discographical data...

This set was most likely taken from her month-long stint at The Village Gate in November 1965 but not necessarily so according to the Carmen McRae Discography page which lists all tracks as being recorded on Jan 1, 1966 except "My Ship," which is listed as Nov 2, 1965. Couldn't find any corroboration of the former date so filing it under "maybe" for now. All of her other 60s live recordings on Mainstream come from the November engagement and were recorded on either Nov1, Nov 2 or Nov 21: Alive!, Woman Talk, Live & Doin' It, Live & Wailing. The exception is her other live set on MRL, In Person, featuring the same line up but was recorded 9/21/63.

There's something else that makes the dates as listed seem suspect and that's Shad's sloppiness for record-keeping when it came to artists and repertoires - if he couldn't remember your name he'd just take a stab or make one up, which is how bluesman Peppermint Harris got his moniker. In this case, the track listing on the affixed labels is actually incorrect and puts "My Ship" as track 1 on side 1 when it's really track 4 on side 2, meaning all songs are off by one as indicated on the labeling. Rather than change the song sequence by placing "My Ship" first, this rip maintains the one originally pressed on the vinyl and corrects the numbering and titles. It's a bit sharp in places since a minimum of filtering was done so there's a bit of crackle when the v/u is hot.


Carmen McRae - Vocals
Norman Simmons - Piano
Stuart Martin - Drums
Victor Sproles - Bass


1 Spring Can Really Hang You up the Most
2 Bye Bye Blackbird
3 Solitude
4 I'm Gonna Laugh You Right out of My Life
5 Long Before I Knew You/Just in Time
6 'Round Midnight
7 I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)
8 My Ship


Mellow out with Carmen and Soundological HERE or HERE.