Monthly Archives – September 2008

Flash Beverage: Train

In today’s parallel universe Lemmy fronts a Southern Rock band. I don’t know if FLASH BEVERAGE ever heard, let alone heard of, MOTORHEAD back in 1980, but I have my doubts. I prefer to think that playing Hard Rock whilst blind drunk on grain alcohol has a universal sound. The key is hitting the blitz-ing […]

Alan Skidmore Quintet: TCB (Philips 1970)

Featuring Skidmore, John Taylor, Mike Osbourne and John Surman et al. This LP is made of lunacy I sold my previous copy of this and regretted not really giving it a fair chance, I’m pleased to have found another copy but I can see why I found difficulty with it. Predominantly the LP consists of […]

Zbigniew Namyslowski: Lola (Decca UK 1964)

Looking at the cover it’s hard to understand how the baby faced Zbigniew managed to come up with this LP (Possibly the first Polish Jazz record recorded and released in the UK? He was also the oldest in the quartet). A recent bay purchase, I’ve been after a copy of this for quite some time. […]

John Taylor: Pause and Think Again (Turtle)

Memorable for it’s cover (Which makes you pause and think “Did Wallace design this?”) as much as it’s contents. This LP can at times be a little too intellectual for my ears (Which are for the best part feral and emotive when it comes to jazz) nevertheless there are several tracks on this album that […]

Merrill Clark: Operating Engineer

A short bit of agonizing over whether or not to crack the seal followed my one dollar purchase of this local San Jose, CA bulldozer man lp. I guess it just seemed like another likely candidate for the better left to the imagination section. Glad my curiosity got the best of me though as it’s […]

Robert "Killer" Fields – S/T

Who is Robert “Killer” Fields? That is a legitimate question. To be honest, I have no idea. I do know that in 1986 he decided to make a tape. A very homemade tape.  The first side of this cassette is a complete genre fuck. Mr. Fields lets loose with nine tracks of raunchy and vulgar […]

Tom Wilson: All-American Boy

Tom sings about all the stuff he does on the cover of his album, and more! [Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Don Rendell / Ian Carr: Phase III (Columbia 1968)

Having won the Melody Maker best British Jazz Group poll in 67 the Rendell / Carr Quintet had gathered a reasonable following of fans despite the decline in popularity of jazz amongst music lovers as they continued to opt for other forms of experimental music. With the Summer of love upon them the Quintets response […]

Don Rendell / Ian Carr: Shades of Blue 1965

The first of the Rendell / Carr quintet series, this LP features Colin Purbrook on keys (Garrick joined the quintet on Dusk fire) Overall a great LP but perhaps not quite as solid as Dusk Fire. Carr describes the aim of the LP in the sleeve notes stating. “What Don and I aimed at was […]

The New Jazz Orchestra: Western Reunion (Decca 1965)

Patchy would be a kind description of this LP. The inclusion of Ardley’s Shades of Blue (Version of the title cut from the LP bellow) is what saves this album for me. “Shades of Blue” [Audio clip: view full post to listen]

New York Saxophone Quartet – Sensitivity

Fans of The Free Design’s songwriting might enjoy these early (mid 60s) Chris Dedrick compositions for saxophone quartet. His uncle Rusty Dedrick has a few cuts on it as well. The rich harmonies and chords that later shaped the Free Design vocal arrangements are here fully formed yet more angular in nature. There’s no date […]