Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 142

Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

Congrats to reader Chris in Massachusetts, winner of last week's album-giveaway contest. For those keeping score at home, here's the answer:

Which blog has had the most recordings presented in Mining the Audio Motherlode?
Hippy Djkit, has appeared in the Motherlode 16 times! Twilightzone! came in second, with 13 appearances. Tied for fourth, with 12 appearances each are Time Has Told Me and Time's Ain't Like They Used to Be.

    
Daz René  ~  "Discover"
(Blog: A Pyrex Scholar)
A track missing from the above download can be found here.

When God Calls You to Open a Video Store, You Do It
"In the early '70s, while a full-time student at Cal State San Bernadino, wife, and voice teacher with a full-time job, the unexpected happened. Daz was asked to sign a record deal by Howard Caldwell, a producer at Try Hard Records in Rialto, CA. Unaware he was taping her, Caldwell was impressed with Daz's training with a voice student. Reluctant to sign because of her busy schedule, Daz eventually gave in to Caldwell, who assured her she wouldn't have to travel much. But after one hit song in six months, the demands for her to travel began. She traveled for a year and was home only three months. With three children and a husband, she decided to quit. 'The Lord told me to come out of it,' she said. 'I never looked back.' In 1974 (a year later) she got a regular job as a counselor at a juvenile hall and finished school with a B.S. in Psychology. She became the first black female supervisor for San Bernadino County in 1979 before becoming a probation officer in 1983. Then the Lord called her to do something else. She and her husband, Norman, opened the first black video store..."  (Excerpted from a much longer bio at Daz's MySpace page.)

Cajú e Castanha  ~  "Sensação Estranha"
(Blog: Flabbergasted Vibes)
Password = vibes 

Lotta Embolada
"This is the second album by Cajú e Castanha, natives of São Lourenço, Pernambuco, and masters of the embolada. The album opens up with a couple of forró numbers that good enough, and still highlight the pair's rhythmic singing style (especially the opener "Pensei que não pensava"), but for anybody who is already somewhat familiar with these guys you will just be impatiently waiting to get to what is coming around the corner with the third tune, 'Casamento do Meu Avô.' This is the type of tune for which these two got famous—clever, witty lyrics with infectiously funky pandeiro playing. (It is worth noting how well the recording engineers captured this by proper microphone placement and getting a crapload of low-end out of those instruments)."  (Description by Flabbergast at Flabbergasted Vibes)

 

Ruins + 梅津和時  ~  "B.U.G."
(Blog: Big in Japan)

A Bug in Your Ear
"…a live cassette released by the Japanese prog punk duo powerhouse Ruins in-between their third and forth albums, Graviyaunosch and Hyderomastgroningem. 梅津和時 is saxophonist Kazutoki Umezu, but I must confess I know nothing about him other than his bio is impressive, and his playing on this release is ferocious. The studio version of "B.U.G." originally appeared on Ruins III, the first full-length Ruins record. It's available as a bonus track (remixed, however) on the Shimmy-Disc release of the second Ruins album, Stonehenge. It's a little over one third as long as the version presented here, however, as they really stretched their improv muscles on this date with 梅津和時. Funny aside: When we first got Stonehenge at my college radio station, on LP, I thought "B.U.G." was skipping, and actually got up from my desk to check the record player."  (Description by Lightning Baltimore, who provided the original download)

 

Charles Brackeen  ~  "Rhythm X"
(Blog: Com a Boca no Trombone)

Strata Beast
"This is an intriguing LP by an obscure sax player. He may be obscure, but he certainly can play. This LP pairs him up with what is basically Ornette Coleman’s rhythm section in a recording of 4 Brackeen compositions. As you might expect from the personnel, the mood is one of freedom, but the pieces are in tempo, and ‘Rhythm X’ in particular could even be said to have a groove – think of Pharoah Sander’s ‘Black Unity’. Unfortunately, the quality of the sound is not as good as it could be – the horns, and even the bass come through well, but Blackwell sounds like he’s playing a couple of old tea chests. It’s a testament to the quality of his playing that he still manages to mesmerize with his solo towards the end of the first track. The playing is uniformly excellent. Cherry, Blackwell and Haden’s credentials are already well established, and Brackeen is more than a match for them. Amazingly, despite such quality playing, Brackeen didn’t record a session under his own name again until 1987! He was, however, married to post-bop pianist Joanne Brackeen, who was much more prolific throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s."  (Description by Craig, at The Daily Jazz

Moondog & the London Saxophonic  ~  "Sax Pax for a Sax"
(Blog: Spirits & Spices)

Human Saxual Response
"The composer calls his saxophone project Sax Pax, underlining that in this case the saxophones are not to be linked with military bands for which the instruments originally had been intended, but are used exclusively for peaceful purposes. Pax like peace or packs, meaning different sized groups within the ensemble, the first 'pack' involves 4 saxes, as in 'Single Foot,' the second one using 5 saxes, as in 'Sandalwood,' then seven saxes, as in New Amsterdam, nine saxes in 'Novette No.1,' and so on. Since Louis Hardin is deeply impressed with the achievements of the instrument-builder Antoine Joseph (called Adolphe) Sax who built his first saxophone during the period of 1840/41 he wants to commemorate the centennial of A. Sax's death with this CD. All the pieces are part of a series which the composer calls ZAJAZ, 'jazz' in two directions, like a Janus-head showing two faces. There is one looking backwards into the past, represented by classical techniques of composing and the other face turn towards the future which is characterized by a new kind of combining old and new elements of music."  (Description provided at Moondog's Corner)

 

 

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Comments

[icastico]

A couple I've been enjoying:

http://holywarbles.blogspot.com/2011/11/mal-waldron-call-japo-1971-320flac.html

http://excavatedshellac.com/2011/11/21/trio-los-aguilillas-samba-rumbera/

[chris in massachusetts]

The ones I thought would be second and third weren't even close apparently, so even more lucky that I got the right answer.

I have that Charles Brakeen LP-- I like that particular wing of the free jazz scene, still rooted in recognizable songs and structures, whereas all-out free-blowing tends to get indulgent and after a point not very revelatory (in fact I wish more totally free sessions were more subdued, those minimal free improvisations like Clifford Thornton's Ketchaoua LP.)