danasgoodstuff

I was (over)reacting to Clem's post, which I still find quite objectionable for, oh, so many reasons...but to try to stay on topic and not troll, I do think that understanding Motown throws as much light backwards as forwards, or sideways. (See T.S Eliiot's "Tradition & the Individual Talent" re how this chronilogically paradoxical phenomina can be possible) As for writing dealing with the earlier period of R&B, I would suggest looking not so much to stand alone books (although the rec's above are all good, just not great), but to the liner notes for various box sets, e.g. anthologies for labels like Specialty, Alladin, King, Swingtime, etc. and stylistic collections like Rhino's Doo Wop I & II. The late '40s & v. early '50s are an interesting, and somewhat forgotten, period - not just in music but otherwise too, but y'all probably don't need to hear my rant on the demise of the American independant auto makers (Hudson, Packard, Kaiser, etc.). Love, Dana

Good selection of tunes, but you could probably get the same effect as Rush playing 'em if you just took the originals on LP and played 'em back at 45rpm (cheap shot, but someone had to say it!).

Gato Barbereri & Dollar Brand - Confluence "I do not scream," says Gato "for the same reasons Pharoah Sanders screams." Scream on, cat.

jazz has been the (non-exclusive) focal point of my listening since the early '70s (when I went to college). Before that it was mostly rock 'n blues.

No one who actually wants to understand R&B should ignore Motown; it simply don't make any sense without the monetary, social and musical ambition that fueled Motown. Motown and Stax were like ying and yang...

I too have (re)learned that I don't know as much as I thought I did, nor am I nearly as good at expressing what I do know as well as I ;thought I could. Most of all, I have (re)learned that partisanship in all its myriad forms is just poison...

Lewis is on the Edmond Hall Celestial Quartet stuff (4 tunes + 1 alt, I believe) on BN, playing Celeste (he had a foundness for pre-piano keyboards). Not t0o mention, it's Charlie Christian's only acoustic guitar wession. All the MLL I've heard is good, but he did have a habit of rerecording set pieces like Honky Tonk Train... Besides more Lewis and Ammons, you might want to check out Pete Johnson, on BN and elsewhere.

Here's two off the top of my head: The Death of Rhythm & Blues Sweet Soul Music

Yes, but how were the records?

I, too, am deeply sadened by this loss. I was at the concert here in Portland that produced the album The Rent. Fine as that is, I don't think it, or any other I've heard, fully captured his sound.

Perhaps Pee Wee was a hermaphrodite, which would make Lester's "half a motherfucker" comment exceptionally perceptive, even for him!

Let me see if I can do the Readers Digest thing to this thread thus far: 'Fusion' may well be a particularly problematic episode in the evolution of jazz but it's way more than just a "footnote" and even footnotes can be interesting, sometimes way more than just 'interesting'...n'est ce pas?

He did two nice sax/piano duet albums, one with Jay McShan which is just what you'd expect and one with Dollar Brand which isn't...

Berigan, Don't have, haven't heard that one; I've got a French reissue from awhile back, can't remember the label, but the sound is about as good as I've heard for this material and I bought it in Paris so it's got sentimental value as well. Am I the only one who hears a direct tie to the JBs when he listens to this material? dana

sjarrell, I certainly agree that the Kinks "Waterloo Sunset", "Autum Almanac", "Dead End Street" series of singles is superb, and so very British that it's no surprise they didn't do nearly as well here as there. I like Victoria best as a whole album, but the track I'm most fond of is "Last of the steam Powered Trains" (Village Green, mono version only?) where they take the Yardbirds' arrangement of "Smokestack Lightening" and turn it from a stomping jam that has nothing whatsoever to do with the performers actual lives (or trains either, except nominally) to a whimsical excursion that presumably does relate to actual lives and trains... A long way from Rush (the nominal subject of this thread), but that's kinda the point. Unless, of course, Geddy and the guys actually did witness a battle between the various species of trees...

The Louvins are indeed the real deal, the last in the long line of brother duets--the Monroes, the Allens, the Blue Sky Boys, the Delmores--last that is unless you count the Everleys, which I do... If Satan is Real is a bit much for your tastes, check out their Sorrowful Songs of Life instead.

It's not that surprising that Sears sold their own branded records given that they did sorta the same thing with cars (Kaiser Henry J's sold as Allstates) and motorcycles (Puch and Benelli, also sold as Allstate). I think the same goes for musical instruments, but I don't know who 'ghosted' for them...

"Some big trees there..." That's what they all say...

Chris, If Led Zep was the poor man's Yardbirds, what does that make the first Jeff Beck Group? I mean, other than most excellent and why did Jeff have a prob with Micky Waller's wonderful drumming which is the main reason that Rod's solo albums are NOT just faces records under another name, and another thing is why isn't there a jazz equivalent for the Rock Book of Trees with all those complicated diagrams of personnel changes, I mean Miles, the Messenger and Horace Silver's bands would just about fill it on their own...[done in lower case so you won't mistake me for aric]

Iron Butterfly predate Led Zeplin, or was that your point?

As far as I'm concerned stax mono 45's are pretty much the ideal sound...different strokes, eh?

STYX did suck, as you would expect of a band made up of former engineering students, BUT I saw Dennis DeYoung doing the schill thing on PBS in connection with some orcastrated renditions of their tunes and he was a hoot!

PM'd you, twice just to be sure...

Jeez, half the stuffs you guys picked isn't really that bad sounding at all to my ears, e.g. the Hot 5s & 7s sound just fine the way(s) they are IMHO. Now the King Oliver Creole Jazz Band with Louis and Dodds could definitely stand a miracle upgrade, as could just about all the blues (Patton, House, etc.) on Paramount from the '20s-'30s, and there's this Howlin' Wolf boot from Cambridge in '66 that I love in spite of it's not even good for a boot sound...

sjarrell, Yes i meant the 'poor man's Who' jibe re the v. early 'mod R&B band' Small Faces, the Immediate period being more a psych-ed up Kinks, kinda 'Music Hall on acid'. Re the Kinks and the Who (who I see as having many similarities and/or parallels), perhaps the Kinks realized before most that staying with the (relatively, for then) heaviness of "Really Got Me", etc. would only lead to inadvertant silliness so they decided to short-circuit the process and go straight for overt silliness...? This 'poor man's' thing works for jazz too: the Charles Lloyd band with Jarrett and DeJohntte always struck me as 'the poor man's Coltrane Quatrtet', except the rhythm section consistantly outplayed the leader...