Autoren-Archive: blechtram

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Grant Green: Idle Moments

Rating: 8.2/10
Rated as: Album
Album Status: Genre Classic
Released: 1965
Recorded: 1963
Specific Genre: Hard Bop
Main Genre: Jazz
Secondary Genre: Cool Jazz
Label: Blue Note

1 Idle Moments 2 Jean de Fleur 3 Django 4 Nomad
Bonus Tracks: 5. Jean de Fleur [Alternate Take] 6. Django [Alternate Take]

Awesomely suggestive exercise in good taste

Stellar jazz guitarist Grant Green and stellar vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson join forces for this terrific workout in nocturnal, silky hard bop that avoids being listlessly smooth, but is elegant, soothing and occasionally brooding. The opener „Idle Moments“ is fifteen minutes of low-key barroom depression à la grandeur. Slow, languid and winding, Green, Hutcherson and Joe Henderson take off from the beautiful motif opening and closing the number with inconspicuous but effective solos – perfect for long lonesome cognac nights. The up-tempo „Jean de Fleur“ swings hard and wouldn’t be very interesting if not for the amazing interplay between all the quartet’s members (plus soloists Hutcherson and Henderson) – there’s scarcely another formation playing as democratic, tightly balanced and hypnotising as Green and his colleagues. Green knows that solos are only as interesting as their frame and his quartet is all about this framework. The structure is the same as before, with a catchy riff starting and ending the piece, swinging solos in between.

Green’s down-tempo version on „Django“ takes its time building up and kicks into mid-tempo gear almost two minutes into the track, with another splendidly understated statement by Grant’s guitar on top of the sax-supplied riff. In its strongest moments, Idle Moments sounds like a soft-spoken but confident answer to Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue. „Nomad“ plays like a mix of the opening track and the faster swing of its followers, a fascinating twelve minutes of gentleman-bop, borrowing and quoting details of „Idle Moments“, creating a feel of careful coherence for the album.

There are no standouts in the traditional sense to speak of, because nothing sticks out of the overall quality. „Idle Moment“ is the deepest and most effective track, but the musicianship creates varieties of similar moods that invite you to rest and dwell in, each like the cool part of a pillow before you have to turn over. I couldn’t say that Hutcherson „shines“ on here for example – he just blends in perfectly, supplying even more subtle nuances to Green’s own subtle nuances. The album is really about letting yourself sink into the incessant swing these guys put down, not about the single tracks. Don’t make the mistake to dismiss this as too smooth or easy-listening – this is an awesomely suggestive exercise in good taste.

Lightnin‘ Hopkins: Goin‘ Back Home

Rating: 1.5/10
Rated as: Anthology
Compilation Status: Useless
Released: 1997
Recorded: 1964–1969
Main Genre: Blues
Specific Genres: Acoustic Blues, Electric Blues, Acoustic Texas Blues, Electric Texas Blues
Label: Comet 43324

1 Shaggy Dog 2 Santa Fe Blues [New Santa Fe] 3 Shinin‘ Moon [Shining Moon] 4 I’ll Be Gone 5 Shake It Baby 6 Goin‘ Back Home 7 Good Times 8 I’m Wit‘ It [What’d I Say] 9 Don’t Wake Me 10 Talk of the Town 11 California Landslide [California Mudslide] 12 Rosie Mae 13 Easy on Your Heals 14 Leave Jike Mary Alone 15 You Treat Po‘ Lightnin‘ Wrong

Good times here, but it’s better down the road

Another European cheapo collection by one of the greatest. A mix of some infectious, driving electric blues numbers in classic jaunty Hopkins-style and his trademark acoustic texas blues. Excellent, if unspectacular fret work, some surprising horn sections (on a Hopkins record!) and overall a more polished sound compared to his earlier stuff from the 1960s.

Some research: Tracks 1 and 3–10 are from 1967’s Something Blue (recorded 1965), tracks 2 and 11–13 are from 1969’s California Mudslide and the last two acoustic numbers (14–15) are from 1964’s Live at the Bird Lounge. Some track names have been slightly changed, I think intentionally, to cover up that this is probably a borderline illegal compilation just grabbing randomly from different sources (which also explains the indiscriminate mix of electric and acoustic tracks from different sessions).

Anyhow, the album Something Blue is here in its entirety though with scrambled sequencing (and inferior sound quality). So that’s okay if you find this in some one-dollar-trash bin, but any serious collector can skip this and go for the actual albums. There really is no point to any of this.

Eric Clapton: Me and Mr Johnson

Rating: 4.1/10
Rated as: Album
Album Status: of Discographical Interest
Released: 2004
Specific Genre: Electric Blues
Main Genre: Blues
Undertones: Chicago Blues
Label: Reprise

1 When You Got a Good Friend 2 Little Queen of Spades 3 They’re Red Hot 4 Me and the Devil Blues 5 Travelling Riverside Blues 6 Last Fair Deal Gone Down 7 Stop Breakin‘ Down Blues 8 Milkcow’s Calf Blues 9 Kind Hearted Woman Blues 10 Come on in My Kitchen 11 If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day 12 Love in Vain 13 32-20 Blues 14 Hell Hound on My Trail

Would sell you more, but they ain’t none of mine

As the title – a play on Johnson’s „Me and The Devil Blues“ – doesn’t suggest, Eric Clapton reimagines Robert Johnson’s catalogue of haunting, forlorn, sparse blues as a fun, cheerful romp. The good thing about this decision is that there are no ambiguities about it. This is the kind of relaxed, boisterous electric Chicago blues that Clapton went to musical school with, which dominated the output of popular 1970s and -80s blues and which he only partly followed on his only other straight blues album, 1994’s From the Cradle.

Belying the down-home, decidedly ‚acoustic‘ aesthetics of the album cover (which is outdated in an unsuspected way – a third photograph of Johnson has surfaced eversince, but who could’ve known) with his straight electric blues combo, this might make one think of the exhilarating Cream-reinventions of ethereal Skip James-numbers („I’m So Glad“) or the legendary cover of Johnson’s „Crossroads“. But this homage-album is an entirely different affair, with a consoling, good-natured, smotheringly nostalgic approach that in itself isn’t the problem – but nuance and, so to speak, any individual interpretation of a given song get lost in the overall joviality. Unsurprisingly, this works best on bouncier numbers like the ragtime/hokum „They’re Red Hot“, but that one was an oddity at least in Johnson’s recorded catalogue to begin with (for all we know, he could have had dozens of these shuffling folk and dance numbers in his repertoire like every self-respecting ‚blues‘ performer of the time – there was a market to supply with entertainment and most of these guys had a much broader catalogue than what this or that Lomax recorded).

I can see how this would appeal to Clapton-fans, but laidback as it is, there is a cloud of complacency here. This is the easiest way to make such an album: just have fun with those great songs, suppose a sense of ‚modesty‘. On the upside, this is so to speak the ‚back catalogue‘ of Johnson’s songbook – no „Sweet Home Chicago“, no „I Believe I’ll Dust My Broom“, no „Ramblin’ On My Mind“ – good! On the downside, Clapton uses these songs to play them like unimaginative versions of mentioned, absent standards – take every clichéd electric blues rock element, make it comfy and apply. There is not a note on this record that isn’t a hundred percent predictable, be it the rather subdued rhythm section, the functional piano licks, the disciplined lead guitar or even Clapton’s cautious, very epigonal singing (he tries no tricks with his vocals, maybe for the better). Well, well. Be sure to pick this up if that is what you’re looking for – Clapton romping through fun, in the end indistinct blues rock songs – but I’m afraid as a film, it’d be called „Deconstructing Eric“.

Billie Holiday: The Silver Collection

Rating: 6.0/10
Rated as: Anthology
Compilation Status: Obsolete
Released: 1985
Recorded: 1956–1957
Specific Genre: Vocal Jazz
Main Genre: Jazz
Undertones: Swing
Label: Verve

1 I Wished on the Moon 2 Moonlight in Vermont 3 Say It Isn’t So 4 Our Love Is Here to Stay 5 Darn That Dream 6 But Not for Me 7 Body and Soul 8 Comes Love 9 They Can’t Take That Away From Me 10 Embraceable You 11 Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off 12 Gee Baby Ain’t I Good to You 13 All or Nothing at All 14 We’ll Be Together Again

Half a love, never appealed to me

This compilation combines songs from the 1957 studio album Body and Soul and 1958’s All or Nothing at All. Many of the late 1950s recordings by Holiday which were issued as albums between 1957 and 1959 come from these same sessions (from 1956/57). No surprise then that nowadays, you can buy a double disc compilation also called All or Nothing at All (as part of the Billie Holiday Story, Part 7) which contains all the songs of the two mentioned albums as well as the whole Songs for Distingué Lovers album from 1957 (same session as for Body and Soul) – that’s all of the 1956/57 session recordings that were seperately issued on said three albums.

Anyhow, as an early single-disc-compilation compiling the alleged highlights of two late 1950s albums, this does a respectable job. Late night vocal jazz with subtly swinging arrangements and, compared to the 1930s takes, a much more foregrounded, if subdued, horn section showing up now and then. Many nice standards, but Holiday had a softer and more professional tone at this stage of her career – personally, I prefer her more emotionally aggressive tone from earlier on.

Of course it’s about the vocals from start to finish, but I don’t see anything specific about the compilation: either you already have the original albums, or you should buy the mentioned reissue of All or Nothing at All which gives you the complete picture. But actually, you should get the box set The Complete Billie Holiday on Verve: 1945-1959 which gives the total overview. Or you haphazardly got a hold of this, like me.

1, 3, 4, 6, 13, 14: All or Nothing at All (1958)
2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12: Body and Soul (1957)

Trivia: Note the compilation cover: „Over 60 Minutes of Music“. Can you remember a time when this was a selling point? Anyway, all the more reason to get the double disc with all the sessions.

Kunst im öffentlichen Raum: Vol. 4

Vol. 4, Wien

Kurze Erläuterung: Da waren mal Schiele-Selbstporträts auf dieser schönen Plakatwand. Allerdings hat jetzt jemand acht großformatige, hochwertig gedruckte, wetterbeständige Exemplare davon zuhause.

So sah’s ursprünglich aus:

Quelle: Instagram

Nur am Rande ist noch auf die eindeutig von der Graphikabteilung aus gedachte, in der kommunikativen Umsetzung allerdings etwas hysterisch wirkende Doppelung des aufgeregten WE ARE PREPARING SOMETHING NEW FOR YOU! WE ARE PREPARING SOMETHING NEW FOR YOU! hinzuweisen.

Bloomfield, Hammond, Dr. John: Triumvirate

Rating: 6.2/10
Rated as: Album
Album Status: of Discographical Interest
Released: 1973
Main Genre: Blues
Specific Genres: Rhythm&Blues, New Orleans Jazz, Funk, Electric Blues
Label: Columbia

1 Cha-Dooky-Doo 2 Last Night 3 I Yi Yi 4 Just to Be With You 5 Baby Let Me Kiss You 6 Sho Bout to Drive Me Wild 7 It Hurts Me Too 8 Rock Me Baby 9 Ground Hog Blues 10 Pretty Thing

Uh-huh! Cha-Dooky-Do! Uh-huh…

Well, apart from Dr. John who had just issued In the Right Place neither John Hammond, having recorded a row of lackluster albums, nor Mike Bloomfield, coming from interesting, draining jam-experiments like The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper, were exactly on a hot streak at this point in time. Of course the rootsy music here is rock solid: these guys learned from the masters and had their respective blues idioms down pat. Hammond sings all the songs, making me question if this was supposed to be the start of a supergroup with a „frontman proper“ instead of a one-off project, and while he’s technically the most skilled singer, I’m not sure his mannered style really fits the mood better here than Bloomfield’s comparatively unrefined vocals or Dr. John’s infamous croak.

The album’s most interesting aspects therefore derive from the mix of Chicago- and New Orleans-styles – Dr. John’s presence sort of forces some funky, Orleans-ian piano rhythm&blues into the affair, adding a heavily syncopated base to the more conventional blues patterns. He never really dominates with a solo though, often drowned out by a quite loud horn section – well well. But apart from the album closers (the swampy „Ground Hog Blues“ and the playful, flute-driven „Pretty Thing“), this is mostly solid, not super. I remember being really excited getting this as an American import – I’m still glad I have it, and I’d still recommend it as a historical trophy object, but it’s one of those „obvious“ team-ups that didn’t create additional magic.