Iron Leg

Another great site from the author of Funky16Corners...where Funky16Corners is funk and soul-focused, Iron Leg is more in a rock vain, with some great posts covering garage, vintage pop, psych and more. Always informative and fun.

Dig.

Joe HIggs

Allmusic calls Higgs, "The greatest reggae artist you've never heard of"...But you have heard his influence:

"...when it comes to roots reggae, his fingerprints are on nearly every important recording and band that emerged from Jamaica in the 1960s and 70s...The most famous of his pupils was Bob Marley. It was under Higgs' tutelage that Marley's guitar playing greatly improved but, more significantly, it was Higgs that arranged the beautiful trio singing of Marley and fellow Wailers Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingstone (later Bunny Wailer). So integral was Higgs to the creation of this sound that when Bunny abruptly left the band in 1973 in the eve of their first major American tour, Higgs filled in brilliantly...After spending the early part of his career singing as part of a duo with Delroy Wilson, Higgs went solo after Wilson left Jamaica for America in the late 60s. But, it wasn't until 1976 that he released his first solo album, Life of Contradiction, a title that accurately summarized Higgs' career up to that point. The follow-up album, Unity is Power, was equally good, but as impossible to find. It wasn't until 1985 when Alligator records, a label best known for blues music, released Higgs' masterpiece, Triumph. Since that time he kept a low profile, issuing a record every now and then, his work revered by reggae fans around the world...Higgs died December 18, 1999."

So much soul...but not more than you can handle...

Higgs & Wilson: There's a Reward
from a rip of Coxsone 7" WC-8

Joe Higgs: There's a Reward (acoustic)
courtesy of podcastbattle.com

Change of Plan
from a rip of Coxsone 7" CS 017 11

Dinah
from a rip of Coxsone 7" CS DODD-80

More Slavery
from an unidentified Micron 7"

I Am The Song
from a rip of Studio One 7" CS DODD-81

Jimmy McGriff: April 3, 1936 -- May 24, 2008

They say these things happen in threes and I guess you can say we we lost three giants in pop culture and the arts this weekend: Dick Martin, Sydney Pollack and jazz organ great Jimmy McGriff...

I am not the first, last or most articulate blogger to right about McGriff's passing but man, so many icons of the 50s and 60s are going to start going in the next few years...the jazz world has been losing its greats since at least the 50s, with Bird's passing, but it's old age and its ravages that I think rattle people more than drug abuse, random tragedy or anything else. Jimi, Janis and Jim are one thing, but life after Dylan, Keef and Sir Paul?

All About Jazz has a great bio of McGriff, who died Saturday of complications from MS at the young age of 72. I posted about one of my favorite records, which features McGriff, back in November. Here are three tracks from that album:

Jimmy McGriff & Groove Holmes: The Preacher's Tune, Mozambique and The Boston Whaler
from Giants of the Organ in Concert: The Complete Concert

Burning Dervish Vol 24

This week's McCoy post and last week's are both recaps along the way in my McCoy discography project...this post is a retrospective of the tracks I previously offered up from McCoy's initial run on Blue Note in the mid/late '60s...

The Blue Note records are where McCoy's voice as a composer really starts to emerge, specifically his style of explosive left-hand playing accompanied but lightning runs with his right. This crashing, virtuosic style, along with an Eastern/world influence, would define McCoy's sound for the next 5 - 10 releases on Milestone...follow the project for those...

The tracks:

Passion Dance, The Real McCoy
Man from Tanganyika, Tender Moments
Lee Plus Three, Tender Moments
May Street, Time for Tyner
Vision, Expansions via Mosaic Select: McCoy Tyner
Planet X, Cosmos via Mosaic Select: McCoy Tyner
Message from the Nile, Extensions
His Blessings, Extensions
Fulfillment, Asante via Mosaic Select: McCoy Tyner

Download Burning Dervish Vol 24: The McCoy Tyner Blue Note Years, 1967 - 70

Home of the Groove

Great blog, great music posted, great work they do...Home of the Groove is "...based on the premise that the true Home of the Groove, at least on the North American landmass, is New Orleans, Louisiana. We cannot afford to lose it. I feature selected rare, hard to find vintage New Orleans-related R&B and funk tracks with commentary. Some general knowledge of N.O. music is helpful here, but not required to get your groove on..."

You heard the man, get your groove on, head over to Home of the Groove now.

Eek-A-Mouse

I'm going to crib a little from a biography about Eek-A-Mouse I found online...but I guess if I am citing it that's not the same as cribbing, so I would be clear if this were a senior thesis....anyway...

"Born: Ripton Joseph Hylton...November 19, 1957. Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies.... It is not only Eek-A-Mouse's 6 feet 6 inches height that make him one of Jamaica's most individual talents. He has created a style all his own, and gone on to become something of an international phenomenon quite apart from the rest of the world of reggae. Hylton's unusual name was originally that of a racehorse upon which he frequently lost money; when the horse finally won a race, he had, of course, refused to back it...his first two releases, came out under his real name in the mid-70s. Not only were they made while he was still in college, they were produced by his math teacher...In 1980, he started recording with Joe Gibbs after working briefly with the Papa Roots, Black Ark, Gemini, Jah Life, Black Scorpio and Virgo sound systems...He was the toast of Reggae Sunsplash in 1981, his bubbling lunacy providing a cathartic release to a festival otherwise in mourning for Bob Marley. "Biddy biddy beng" roiled out across the crowd, and the audience shouted it back as one, instantly cementing the syllables as the catchprase of the new decade...Mouse's diverse list of early musical influences reads like a Magic 8-Ball of the varied styles that would eventually color his inventive lyricism and instrumentation..."I loved Nat King Cole, Marty Robbins, Cab Calloway, Patsy Cline ... all different singers. Sam Cooke and The Beatles ... and stuff like that," said Mouse, rhapsodically. "And then I came up with my own original style."...That "original style" included elements of "sing-jaying," an early form of toasting (boastful catch phrases, singing and DJ work) mixed with funky vocal gymnastics and effects. Mouse's contribution to the genre was a percussive, nasally vocal style, and a talent for using his voice as a musical instrument that moved The Boston Globe to call him "the Al Jarreau of reggae."...Over the years, Mouse's core audience has also happily accepted his frequent lyrical switch-ups from half-baked humor ("The Mouse and The Man" is about a Disney World meeting of the minds with Mickey) and pointed social commentary ("Operation Eradication" is about the murder of his friend Errol Scorcher by politically-motivated Jamaican eradication squads)..."

I'm really digging some of his first jams, from the early '80s this week...

Eek-A-Mouse: Noah's Ark
Greensleeves 12" GRED 42A

Wa Do Dem
Greensleeves 12" GRED 58A

Wild Like Tiger
Greensleeves 12" GRED 107A

Operation Eradication
Greensleeves 12" GRED 107B

Anerexol
Greensleeves 12" GRED 129A

Carlton Livingston

I have seen this 12" selling for mad, mad money online...It is the extended mix of Carlton Livingston's signature track, 100 Weight of Collie Weed, on Greensleeves.

I'd pay it, too. The good news is I don't need to and now you don't either...see below...this track is so damn trippy...I haven't been able to take it off rotation all week.

Livingston's main run was throughout the 80s but he's got a MySpace page and apparently continues to work...

Carlton Livingston: 100 Weight of Collie Weed (Extended Mix)
from a rip of Greensleeves 12" GRED 141

Barry Brown

I have seen this bio used unattributed on a few different websites as well as in Barry's wikipedia entry, so here goes:

"Barry Brown was one of a number of singers to find success in the 1970's under producer Bunny Lee. One of the most successful artists of the early dancehall era, Brown worked with some of Jamaica's top producers of the time, including Linval Thompson, Winston 'Niney The Observer' Holness, Sugar Minott and Coxsone Dodd, as well as releasing self-produced material. After releasing eleven albums between 1979 and 1984, Brown's releases became more sporadic, although his work continued to feature prominently on sound systems such as those of Jah Shaka. In the 1990's, Brown's health deteriorated, suffering with asthma and substance abuse problems and he died in May 2004 at Sone Waves Recording Studio in Kingston, Jamaica, after falling and hitting his head."

I've got a dozen or so of Barry's tracks in my library, primarily from 12" rips (some on the Greensleeves label, some unknown...).

Dig:

Barry Brown - Give Another Israel A Try
from a rip of Greensleeves 12" GRED 068 A
Produced in 1980 by Henry 'Junjo' Lawes
Mixed at King Tubbys by Scientist
Backed by Roots Radics

From Creation
the notes in my rip say this is from a 12" but I have not been able to find any versions of this on 12"...there does seem to be a Jackpot 7" from 1978(?) with a b-side King Tubby/Aggrovators version as well as a posthumous 2006 7" on Striker Lee with a Sly & Robbie Version b-side...my sense is that this is from the Jackpot 7" given when I think this rip was made but who knows...do you?

Don't You Try
from what my library also says is a 12" rip but no label info...can't find any supporting documentation online, either...great track, though!

Burning Dervish Vol 23

I've been doing "McCoy Mondays" as it were for almost a year now as I try to visit every record in his discography...Now that I am knee-deep into his long run of records on Milestone from the 70s, the current time seems as good as any to pause for a re-cap of some of the music posted already...

McCoy's first two labels as a soloist/band leader were Impulse! and Blue Note. From 1962 - 64 Impulse! put out six records under McCoy's name (a later retrospective of those releases was put out at Great Moments with Mccoy Tyner)...It was almost an exact two years, with the sessions and release dates spanning January '62 thru December '64...McCoy would revisit both labels later in his career, notably in the early 90s when MCA/Universal acquired and revived the Impulse! imprint...

These first records for the label only hint at the dynamo McCoy would become on his later recordings but they each represent a step towards him establishing his own voice outside of his work at the time with Coltrane. This mix contains the tracks from McCoy's '60s Impulse! output already posted here...

Download Burning Dervish Vol 23: The McCoy Tyner Impulse Recordings, 1962 - 64

Bird-watcher: Thinking about Charlie Parker, every day.

By David Remnick in the May 19, 2008 issue of The New Yorker.

"Every weekday for the past twenty-seven years, a long-in-the-tooth history major named Phil Schaap has hosted a morning program on WKCR, Columbia University’s radio station, called “Bird Flight,” which places a degree of attention on the music of the bebop saxophonist Charlie Parker that is so obsessive, so ardent and detailed, that Schaap frequently sounds like a mad Talmudic scholar who has decided that the laws of humankind reside not in the ancient Babylonian tractates but in alternate takes of “Moose the Mooche” and “Swedish Schnapps.”

For Schaap, Bird not only lives; he is the singular genius of mid-century American music, a dynamo of virtuosity, improvisation, harmony, velocity, and feeling, and no aspect of his brief career is beneath consideration..."

Click here to read a truly great piece, not on Charlie Parker but on what it means to live with obsession...

But at least you should have a Bird-inspired soundtack:

Charlie Parker: Lover Man
from Verve Jazz Masters 15

Johnny Smith: Lover Man
from Walk, Don't Run!

Jimmy Smith: Lover Man
from The Sermon!

The Good Old Grateful Dead Blog

OK, maybe this one is not fair to promote since it is another blog I maintain but what the hell, I make the rules around here...

I actually started this new blog because I wanted to play around with some new features in blogger (the platform I use for my blogs), experiment with some search engine stuff and just have a site I could monkey around with. I wasn't sure I would keep it going but after two months and 100+ posts I guess we know how that is shaking out...

I usually create all of the posts for an entire week in one late-night session and then set them to publish on different days. Maybe a couple of times throughout the week, when there is something timely going on, will I create posts in real-time...

Please visit The Good Old Grateful Dead Blog...Thanks.

The Last Poets

From Wikipedia:

"The Last Poets is a group of poets and musicians who arose from the late 1960s African American civil rights movement's black nationalist thread. Their name is taken from a poem by the South Afr