DJ Handi's Archive Picks: Session People (1)

A ton of music-from the most obvious to the most obscure-features session people. I fished for great session musicians playing on obscure records.

Guitarist Hugh McCraken backed many mainstream musicans, but also played for the experimental country blues band Insect Trust with bassist Chuck Rainey and drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie. Listen to "Walking On Nails" played by Jessie on the Fro Show. Rainey also backed frequent drum partner Purdie on the title track to Purdie's Soul Drums, played by Mr. Fine Wine on Downtown Soulville.

A big part of what kept the Free Design from being 1960s vocal syrup was the funky agility of their backup group. It's damn near impossible to hear past those amazing singers, but listen to "Bubbles", played by Irwin. The bass (Russ Savakus) and drum (Bill Lavornga) interaction could be from any master jazz funk album.

Drummer Hal Blaine played on top forty records by bands like the Fifth Dimension, The Association, and singer Johnny Rivers. But Blaine, who says he worked on tens of thousands of recordings, played with long time bass partner Joe Osborn, Ry Cooder and Van Dyke Parks on the Terry Melcher-produced Gentle Soul, used by Rich Hazelton on Inflatable Squirrel Carcass. Blaine also worked on an album with Savakus and Eric Weissberg by Monte Dunn and Karen Cruz played on Toothpick Rhythm by Betsy Nichols.

Headless Heroes Of The Apocalypse was a 1971 jazz/funk/folk protest record by Eugene McDaniels. So strong were the politcal and religous overtones, Vice President Spiro Agnew called label president Ahmet Ertegun to ask Atlantic Records not to release the album. McDaniels band is Carla Cargill (vocals); Richie Resnikoff (guitar); Harry Dhitaker (piano); Miroslav Vitous (acoustic bass); Gary King (electric bass); Alphonse Mouzon (drums); Welfare City Choir (backing vocals). Listen to how the players insert jazzy flourishes into the chunky "Jagger The Dagger" played by Hot Rod. Incidentally, Small Change wrote liner notes for the reissue of the Headless Heroes.

There are countless great session musicians in the WFMU archives, and I can't even provide an adequate departure point here. But.look any of these names up on  All Music Guide and you'll find hundreds of albums with dozens of great players. While you do that, I'll find much different music using session people for next week.

Comments

[Denora]

Hey, very interesting article. Keep us posted!