Sunnyland Slim (1977) She Got That Jive (LP) Airway Records 4275

Sunnyland Slim

She Got That Jive 

1977

Airway Records 4275

*** Noteworthy

While he’d headed north to Memphis in the late 1920s, when he was in his early 20s and settled in Chicago in the late 1930s (Dahl), this 1977 outing is still soaked in the Mississippi mud of his rural birthplace.  It’s just dripping with it.

While he played with on countless classic Chicago blues dates and played alongside nearly every Chicago blues legend, and had in fact released plenty of his own sides, he never really became a household name for the casual listener.  Eventually he set up his own label, Airway, which released this set.  Likely they didn’t have all the latest studio technology and that just helps give this recording some nice basement sound that fits the blues like an old piano in the corner.

Mostly Slim and the band stick with slow and mid tempo numbers but get the thing chugging along like a fast train on the instrumental “Station Break.”  Along with the piano, Slim offers vocals on most of the cuts, Bonnie Lee lending her pipes to “Standing on the Corner.”  Fans of electric Chicago blues will likely find plenty to enjoy on this set.

— winch (author of )

Dahl, Bill.  “Sunnyland Slim.”  AMG to the Blues. 2nd Edition. 1999.

Silvetti (1977) The Sensuous Sound of Silvetti: Spring Rain (LP) Salsoul (SZS 5516)

Silvetti

The Sensuous Sound of Silvetti: Spring Rain

Salsoul (SZS 5516)

Arranged and Conducted by Bebu Silvetti

Produced by Rafael Trabucchelli

Tom Moulton Mix

*** noteworthy

Argentine pianist/producer Bebu Silvetti had time on his side with disco in full swing and before the disco-sucks movement had had much time to gather their thoughts, and Silvetti found success right from the beginning with the disco instrumental “Spring Rain,”a cut featured both on his debut LP and this second set.  The version for this set is likely a remix or a re-recorded offering.  This is followed by the equally compelling “Primitive Man,” where the group sinks a little deeper into the groove.  Much of the rest of this instrumental set is designed for when the lights are turned down low, either on the dancefloor, the waterbed, or in the rear quarters of your custom van.

 

While nothing quite matches the first two cuts, it’s a consistent set and obviously a notch or two above most of the disco competition, Silvetti’s style clearly not from the United States or Europe.  While this may be too restrained from some, most fans of disco should at the very least give this long player a drive around the block.

 

— winch

author of Kalamazoo: Growing Up Sideways in the 1970s

 

 

 link to seller:

Kiki Gyan (1977) Afro Reggae (LP) P.V.P. 7777

Kiki Gyan

Afro Reggae

P.V.P. 7777 (Holland pressing) 

1977

rating: *** (noteworthy)

African keyboardist Gyan joined Osibisa as a teenager, released this rare solo debut a few years later.  (Apparently, he’d never kick the drug addiction that started here.  It would end up killing him.)  This is African DISCO with some reggae and funk elements but fans of funk or reggae might be disappointed.  He offers some variety and some of the cuts are quite unique, but contrary to some sellers’ brags, this is not really funk but rather a disco-funk sound.  He creates a groove on some of the cuts but often loses the groove or floats over the groove in signature disco style.  He has one horn (soprano sax) and cool African percussion on some cuts, and his synthesizer often sounds very dated—which some listeners might find charming.  

The set is somewhat typical of bands led by keyboardists—typically not a good sign— but he keeps it playful and doesn’t waste much time showing off his chops.  The best cut is “Doing My Thing,” but other selections have some charm as well.  For fans of rare disco or African 70s music, this is a worthwhile listen.

Kiki Gyan (fender rhodes, piano, synthesizer, organ, bass, lead vocals, production), Jake Sollo(guitars), Richard Bailey (drums), Ray Allen (sax), Kofi Ayivor (percussion), Liza Strike, Helen Chappelle & Joan Stone (backing vocals).  Recorded in London.

— winch

The Damned (1977) The Peel Sessions (LP) Strange Fruit SFPS 002 (1986)

The Damned

The Peel Sessions

Strange Fruit (SFPS 002)

recorded:1977

Producer: Jeff Griffin

Rating: **** (Recommended)

Recorded May 10 1977, first transmitted May 16, 1977, released June 1986 (UK only)

Four-songer from the John Peel show, a couple of comments but mostly tunes, about 10 minutes total.  Some might find the killer sound wrong for punk, but worthwhile grab for fans.

Crass (1977 – 1984) Best Before (LP) Crass Records 5 (1984)

Crass

Best Before

Crass Records (5)

1984
Material: 1977 – 1984

Recorded 1977 – 1984, released July 1984 (UK only)

This double LP collects singles and unreleased material, a nice gesture, saving fans from having to collect all the singles, and packaging the material with killer artwork.  While this might have been better served up as a more concise two-sider, it certainly provides an overview of their history, moving from fairly straight-forward punk to abrasive avant garde. 

For fans, this is essential.  It also serves as a good intro.

— winch

http://www.eight-track.com/

 

 

Don Pullen (LP) Tomorrow’s Promises (1977) Atlantic 1699

Don Pullen

Tomorrow’s Promises

Atlantic 1699
Produced by Ilhan Mimaroglu

1977

Rating:**** (Recommended)

Offering healthy doses of the avant garde but grounded in a blend of hard bop and R&B (60s groove and 70s funk), this set opens with a hard-driving 10+ minute Pullen original called “Big Alice,” George Adams on alto, Michael Urbaniak on electric violin, Randy Brecker on trumpet, Pullen on piano, each getting time for solos as the rhythm section (bass plus three percussionists) keeps the sound powering along, a fairly funky freight train bouncing down the line.  After the reflective post bop of “Autumn Song,” the side picks up the pace again, closing with “Poodie Pie” (Pullen, Morgan Burton, Sterling ” Satan” Magee), Mr. Satan’s guitar work more pronounced and helping carve out the groove, the cut featuring Pullen on clavinet, producer Mimaroglu with electronic tracks. While the groove moves through various tempos and moods, it never completely forgets where it started.

The second side opens with another stand-out Pullen original called “Kadji,” this number featuring an almost hip-shaking tempo but sounding like it owes something to Coltrane’s explorations of the African continent.  After a free-form duet with Pullen and Adams, the set closes with a vocal cut, a reflective message song called “Let’s Be Friends” featuring the pipes of Rita DaCosta.  While this set doesn’t end as strong as it opens, it remains interesting and enjoyable, moving through moods and tempos to create a totality of effect.  There’s certainly enough solid material to make this recommended listening.

— winch

http://www.eight-track.com/

David Moss / Baird Hersey (LP) Coessential (1977) Bent Records BRS 2

David Moss / Baird Hersey

Coessential

Bent Records BRS 2
recorded in Maine, April 4-5, 1977
1977

Rating:**** (Recommended)

Avant garde with elements of jazz and rock, tribal percussion and the sounds of the natural world, Moss on 28 instruments and Hersey on electric guitar.

On part of the first cut, Hersey offers a sound perhaps influenced by the late-60s fusion of Larry Coryell, the 1970s work of Terje Rypdal, and Electric Ladyland-era Jimi Hendrix, but for the most part, Hersey focuses on feedback, bowing, scratches and such, returning to a Rypdal style for the final cut, meanwhile Moss mostly offering frantic fits of percussion throughout the set, the pair conversing with improvisation, pushing and pulling at each other like two animals battling for territory, backing up and charging forward into each other, rolling the animals together, Moss sometimes going semi-reflective to fuse his sounds with the electric musings of Hersey.

This is one of the more successful outings in the avant garde category.  Fans of experimental head rock should also enjoy at least some of the cuts. 

— winch

http://www.eight-track.com/

Pirates: Out of Their Skulls (LP) 1977

The Pirates

Out of Their Skulls

1977

Rating:**** (Recommended)

 

 

 

 

 

 

With likely most straight-forward rock and roll UK outfits (from the Who and the Stones to the hard-rock of Led Zeppelin and the pub-rock of Dr. Feelgood, to the punk rock of the Clash and the Sex Pistols) owing something to this outfit, the Pirates wax this half-live/half studio set, reminding folks how it’s done.
— winch

 

http://www.eight-track.com/Eight_Track_Publishing.php

http://www.amazon.com/Winch/e/B00MGBTVLU/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1424322302&sr=8-1

 

 

B o n e y M . ( 1 9 7 7 ) Love For Sale (LP)

Boney M.
Love For Sale

Produced by Frank Farian

Noteworthy ***

1977

While disco lasted about as long as a light bulb, for a few years it shined like a bright neon sign on a dark city street.  Kids like myself found that sign quite annoying, in need of a rock, but in different ways disco influenced most forms of music that followed those years.  Many artists simply invented new names, but clearly continued playing disco.  Others continued with the disco-sucks ideal, purposely staying in the shadows away from the artificial lighting of disco.Punk reared its head around the same time as disco and was just as influential, but in the 70s punk was mostly ignored in the States.  The few people that even took notice mostly thought it a fad so minor that it made disco seem like a major movement.  If you counted the U.S. sales of all punk albums of the era, the numbers would be miniscule compared to the sales of just one disco album such as Saturday Night Fever. Dozens of discos were opening each week across America, but punk clubs were extremely rare.  For example in Michigan, the first venue dedicated to punk opened late in 1979.  Shortly before, it had been a gay bar.In many ways, punk was the opposite of disco, and punks typically joined the disco-sucks movement, but there were some similarities.  Both were calling for change in the music scene, both called for audience involvement, and both typically trimmed both the size of band and the number of chords, reducing the music down to a repetitive rhythm.  And even more so than disco fans, punks were often considered gay.  Of course, while disco went from the gay community to the mainstream, punk was confined to small communities in California and New York City.Meanwhile in the UK, punk was making its mark, but one simply has to look at the sales of this band to understand that even in Europe, punk was likely small compared to disco.  Commercially speaking, punk bands rarely even came close to the success of Boney M.

The success of Boney in Europe didn’t translate to sales in the States.  It’s not that America didn’t embrace some Euro-disco, but Americans didn’t show much interest in this band.  This album wasn’t ignored, but its U.S. sales didn’t come close to the sales in Europe.The sleeve artwork probably helped the sales elsewhere, but Americans weren’t ready for this artwork.  While some aspects of social norms in the 70s might seem quite daring (or narrow-minded) in retrospect, the decade was not the time for taking lightly the issues of women’s lib.  (One simply has to look at the reaction to Andy Kaufman’s 1979 comments to realize how Americans had no tolerance for anyone making fun of women’s lib.) The Ohio Players pushed the envelope with their sleeves, and got considerable bad press for doing that, but this sleeve was something else, likely too much for American audiences.  Both the liberals and the conservatives would have taken issue with this one.  So the album was repacked for U.S. distribution, using the back photo as the front.
The content of this album perhaps reveals some of the reasons it didn’t do well in the States.  Here, Boney M. covers such sacred cows as “Motherless Child,” Cole Porter’s “Love For Sale, and CCR’s “Have You Ever Seen the Rain.”  While fans of the first two were likely too old to even take notice, messing with CCR was asking for trouble.As part of the disco-sucks movement, Americans were rediscovering CCR in the late 70s, with mail-order CCR albums commonplace on primetime TV, and the idea of a European disco band covering a CCR song likely didn’t sit well with many.  Meanwhile, the folks arguing that disco was making rock obsolete likely didn’t want to embrace a band that was using the music of some outdated rockers sporting old jeans and flanneled shirts.Of course, a California band doing Southern swamp music was perhaps as silly as a disco band doing the same thing in Munich, and Boney M. was actually made up of singers from the West Indies–a place closer to the swamp than California.  While this version is a disco song, the island sounds come through, and one could argue that this band was actually bringing the swamp back closer to home.  It wasn’t exactly like Ike and Tina doing “Proud Mary,” but perhaps it’s not completely different.  It’s worth discussing because this version is quite lovable.

The rest of the set explores a variety of subject matter, and this might have had something to do with why this didn’t land well in the States.  American disco focused on love, sex and escapism, and this set tackles such subjects as the conflict in Ireland.  And for this American, the social commentary sounds odd next to the title track–a song about under-aged prostitutes.  While some of the original intent of the song perhaps shows in this version, the sad undercurrents seem quite masked. Mostly, it seems a celebration of young sex sold on the street.

While this album is only for fans of disco, those fans should give this set a listen.  The synth swatches wave across the groove like a magic wand over a boiling pot of bass and drums, horns and electric piano, guitars and vocals.  The female voices are spiced with island accents and this helps make some of this set clearly a few notches above much of the competition.  The sound clearly comes out of Munich, but the vocals are more earthy than the somewhat similar Silver Convention.  The voices aren’t earthy like Southern gospel, but semi-innocent like island girls.

The album closes with a cover of “Still I’m Sad,” which surprisingly remains relatively faithful to the original Yardbirds’ version.  For this listener, the covers of rock songs are the most enjoyable cuts, but disco fans will likely enjoy dance-floor favorites such as “Ma Baker” and the title track.  This is certainly part of the story, a chapter that most Americans missed at the time of its release.

— winch (author of…http://www.eight-track.com/Eight_Track_Publishing.php

Love (band) Essential

Essential LOVE

(90 Minute Tape)

 

“My Little Red Book” (Bacharach/David)
“Can’t Explain” (Lee/Echols/Fleckenstein)
“A Message to Pretty” (Arthur Lee)
“My Flash On You” (Lee)
“Emotions” (Lee)
“You I’ll Be Following” (Lee)
“Gazing” (Lee)
“Hey Joe” (Valenti)
“Signed D.C.” (Lee)
Love       Elektra 4001     July 1966

cool Love cover:
“Signed D.C.”/”Hey Joe”
Dead Moon (Clackamas, Oregon)  Live Evil  1990

 

“Revelation” (Lee, MacLean, Echols, Forssi)
“Stephanie Knows Who” (Lee)
“Orange Skies” (MacLean)
“Que Vida!” (Lee)
“Seven & Seven Is” (Lee)
“The Castle” (Lee)
“She Comes in Colors” (Lee)
Da Capo      Elektra 4005     February 1967

 

 

“Alone Again Or” (MacLean)
“A House is Not a Motel” (Lee)
“The Daily Planet” (Lee)
“Maybe the People Would Be The Times or Between
 Clark and Hilldale” (Lee)
“Live and Let Live” (Lee)
“Bummer in the Summer” (Lee)
Forever Changes      Elektra 4013     January 1968

 

 

cool Love cover:
“Alone Again Or”
UFO (London)  Light’s Out  1977  

 

 

compiled by Winch (author of Kalamazoo: Growing Up Sideways in the 1970s and the two-part novel Junk Like That)

http://www.eight-track.com/Eight_Track_Publishing.php