Bricolage Music Club: July 2009

Jeez, the pressure was on, since we've had so many great discs in a row. I had a working list of about 4 hours of stuff, and editing it down was a real pain. Some of that was decided by dropping tracks that I thought others might already have; otherwise, I picked my opener and then just went song-by-song, thinking, "Hmmm, what will sound kinda jarring after that last one, but somehow still hopefully sound good together?" Of course, that song-by-song approach kinda destroyed the overall feel of the disc, and led to a totally haphazard sequencing, which is front-loaded with a bunch of long songs, and crammed with a bunch of short stuff at the end, but what the heck, you can listen to it one or two tracks at a time and it'll be great (um, I hope). My consumption of significant amounts of rum during the editing process didn't help, either. And somehow, despite my recent all-consuming quest to acquire all of the Motown Complete Singles sets, I didn't include anything from the series. Oh well, maybe next time. As it is, I hope y'all enjoy some of the stuff on here, and hey, I've already started on the next disc, so if you don't like this one, there's always next time.

1. Maulawai - "Street Rap"

This track is from '74. The band was outta Chicago, and only had one album. Chicago was pretty much the jazz hotbed of the early 70s, at least as far as somewhat out-there stuff goes (although Sun Ra left right before things started booming). I figure I included a track on my last disc with fake party sounds, I might as well include one with fake sounds from the streets of a ghetto. Good times!

2. lil' Bob & the Lollipops - "I Got Loaded"

A good few of y'all probably already have this tune, but what the hey. A classic Louisiana (of course) track. It's genius in its simplicity. And considering that I got a little loaded (on a bottle of rum, on a bottle of rum) while assembling this disc, it fits right in. Los Lobos covered it at JazzFest this year, which for me was one of the highlights of my day at the fairgrounds.

3. Raymond Scott - "Wheels That Go"

By the same Raymond Scott whose 1920s stuff was used in all of the Looney Tunes stuff. He hated the idea of musicians improvising, and hated the inevitability of humans being human and erring. So, he built himself a whole bunch of proto-synthesizers and computers in the 40s and 50s, and started programming all of these strange early electronic pieces. He also did a lot of commercials during this time, which are pretty fascinating to listen to nowadays.

4. Esther Phillips - "From a Whisper to a Scream"

This version is better than the Allen Toussaint originals, in my opinion. She had a killer voice, but for much of her career, was stuck with really crappy production,although her super early stuff, while a teenager billed as Little Esther, is great. Of course, that early career also led her to develop a heroin addiction in her early teens. After she moved over to Creed Taylor's Kudu label (which I'm starting to get semi-obsessed with, at least due to it being the sister label to his jazz-oriented CTI label), she started working with Pee Wee Ellis, who had just quit James Brown's band. He gave her some great arrangements, and helped her a bit with song selection (she dominates Gil Scott Heron's "Home Is Where the Hatred Is"). At any rate, she's awesome. The heroin eventually caught up with her, though, and finished her off at a far-too-young age.

5. Sam Rivers - "Tranquility"

See what I mean about this disc being frontloaded with long stuff? This is from the album Crystals, which involves a band of 68 people! The beginning doesn't really hint at that, with that nice little tuba, bass and percussion groove, joined by Sam's flute before long. Then, gradually, all hell starts breaking loose with those insanely tense horn sections coming in. How it got the title "Tranquility" is anybody's guess, but it sure don't sound tranquil to me.

Sam, by the way, is still alive and kicking (and recording) at the age of 90 or so. He actually played a bit with some of the 40s Kansas City folks (Basie, Charlie Parker, etc), moved on to do a bunch of 50s R&B, started collaborating with Hendrix shortly before he croaked (but didn't record any of it, the bastard), and started the whole "loft" jazz scene in New York in the early 70s, where he had a huge role in spawning the careers of a bunch of folks like Anthony Braxton. Check him out; he's a fascinating guy. Oh, and this featured track is from the 70s.

6. Hurray For the Riffraff - "Here It Comes"

These folks are from New Orleans. I kinda wanna hate them, because they're gutter punks, and you know how gutter punks are. They're really good, though, so I'll tolerate 'em. The lead singer and banjo player actually busks with a bunch of old trad jazz guys in the French Quarter, and apparently has some serious chops. Besides that, though, her voice is waaaay better than a 22 year old gutter punk should have.

7. Suicide - "Dream Baby Dream"

From their second album. Bruce Springsteen actually covered it; when I first heard about that, I was all, like, "Huh?," but then actually hearing him do it, it makes perfect sense. Vega's vocals are (as always) a extremely dramatic, but on this song, it works.

8. Enrico Caruso - "Chiudo Gil Occhi (The Dream Song)"

Oh yeah, poppin' the Bricolage opera cherry. This track goes out to all those Fitzcarraldo lovers, a movie in which the tune features prominently. I love that repetitive, tinkly little piano part, which seems to fit in so well with the previous Suicide track (er, ok, at least I think so). Caruso had a great voice (really, Mike?), and there is a beautiful timelessness with the vocal sound that still sounds great, despite all of the surface noise (which kinda adds a nice element to the music, in my opinion).

9. Zwabesho Sibisi – “Angihambe”

This track was recorded in South Africa in the 30s or 40s, but somehow sounds thoroughly modern to my ears. Cool, ain't it?

10. Barbara Lynn – “Thanks I Get”

I looooove Barbara Lynn. She came outta Beaumont, TX in the early 60s, as a left-handed guitarist/singer who initially wanted to be a black girl Elvis. She got together with Huey Meaux, the crazy Cajun, as a teenager, and went on to cut a bunch of great songs, including Oh Baby (We Got a Good Thing Going), which the Stones covered on one of their first albums, and "You'll Lose a Good Thing," which Freddy Fender had a #1 hit with in the 70s. She left Huey in '65 or so, did one album on Atlantic in '68 (which is about to see its first release on disc/digital), and "disappeared." Turns out she was just working the club scene in Beaumont. She's been playing all over the place again since '91 or thereabouts, and just puts on one helluva live show. At any rate, this song (recorded with Meaux) destroys. Gotta love that she's a teenager on this.

11. Lucia Pamela – “In The Year 2,000!!!”

She was Ms. St. Louis, 1928. Then in the 50s, she decided she wanted to be a musician, even though she couldn't play anything, so she recorded a bunch of stuff one beat at a time, then sang like hell about being on the moon.

12. Cheeky Blakk – “Lemme Get That Outcha"

This track is not suitable for kids. I figure if Matt could include a New Orleans bounce track on his last disc (which was awesome, by the way), I could put one on mine. This is from '92 or so. Oh, bounce....

13. The Kronos Quartet/Moondog – “Synchrony No. 2”

A beautiful piece of music. Oh yeah.

14. Lee Moses – “Diana (From N.Y.C.)”

Poor Lee Moses. The guy was the guitar player for Gladys Knight; when she signed with Motown, he bowed out, deciding he wanted to find a gig where he could be the lead singer as well as guitarist. He went to New York to find fame and fortune, and ended up doing a bunch of session work, in which Hendrix was the other guitar player. He did get to cut a handful of singles, though, and put out one full length album. After they went nowhere (largely due to being on a crappy label with no promotion), he moved back to Atlanta, where he worked as an auto mechanic for a long time... In the early 90s, people started looking for him to start including some of his tracks on compilations, etc., but he had died months before he was "found," meaning that he went to the grave thinking he had been completely forgotten.

Enough of that, though, how about the music? This song is just so full of joy, I can't help but crank it up every time I hear it. It makes me wish my name were Diana. I highly, highly, highly recommend picking up the disc compiling all of his songs.

15. Albert Ayler – “Our Prayer”

This is from the Village Vanguard recordings. The funny thing with Ayler is that his live output is vastly superior to the actual albums, one of the few artists you can say that about. He was somewhat infatuated by early New Orleans street and parade sounds, which is somewhat represented on this track, but not as on some (much longer) pieces like "Truth is Marching In." He's easily my favorite jazz artist lately. This track was written by his brother Don, whose sextet will likely be on my next disc.

16. Sister Gertrude Morgan – “God’s Word Will Never Pass Away”

She was a preacher and spiritual healer in New Orleans in the 60s. She did a whole bunch of cool folk art as well, much of it painted on the styrofoam trays that prepackaged grocery store meat comes on. Love that voice, and she was a helluva tambourine player (I guess).

17. C.L. Blast – “What Can I Do”

My last disc included a Wardell Quezerque production; this is another one. The guy produced hundreds of New Orleans singles, and I've yet to find a bad one. I love how he weaves various sounds in and out (the strings, the clavichord, etc.).

As for C.L. Blast, he bounced around a bunch of Southern soul labels in the 60s, even putting out a couple on Stax in its early days.

18. Antonia Pingitore – “O Giglio e Beni Constrastatu”

Everybody knows the stuff that Alan Lomax recorded around the South, but he also went to Italy and did a bunch of field recordings there. This is one of 'em. Dig that accordion, and the absolutely desperate vocals.

19. Irma Thomas – “She’ll Never Be Your Wife”

Shannon included Swamp Dogg on his last (also awesome) disc. This is a Swamp Dogg production, from a 1971 album recorded at Muscle Shoals. Apparently, Duane Allman is on guitar on this tune. Anyway, Irma sounds defiant as hell here, especially the breakdown where the music stops and she tells it like it is.

There's another track on the same album that was on my short list for this one (but being 12 minutes long, I just couldn't fit it on), where she has a long spoken intro, in which she describes cheating on her man with a bunch of other guys until her back is sore, and then goes on to compare her vagina to a diamond. Crazy! She definitely didn't play that one at her annual Mother's Day show at Audubon Zoo...

20. Rev. Utah Smith – “Two Wings”

Another New Orleans preacher, this one from the 50s. Guy could shred. Also, he wore a giant pair of white wings during his services. Ernie K-Doe called him the greatest showman he had ever seen (I'm guessing other than Ernie himself). Dig it!

21. Ubud Gamelan – “Gender Wayang”

Because everybody needs one minute of gamelan in their life. I actually prefer the slower style of gamelan, but oh well...

22. Doris Duke – “I Don’t Care Anymore”

Another Swamp Dogg production. The most pathetic song of all time? Unlike Irma, Doris just doesn't give a crap. It coulda been a great country song, albeit a little risque (maybe Jeanne C. Riley coulda done it).

23. Mark Wirtz – “Grocer Jack (Excerpt from a Teenage Opera)”

Mark was in the band Tomorrow, and was given a little time to play around in the studio while the band was disintegrating. He came up with this odd little track, which became a huge hit in Britain, and led to his having to actually come up with "A Teenage Opera" from which this thing had supposedly been excerpted, even though that tag was just for shits and giggles. I'm a sucker for children's choruses....

Hope y'all dug it.