The Magnificent Goldberg

The Edsels The Falcons The Furd Falcon

To continue, by repeating the last half of album #1 (these are in chronological order of when I heard 'em first by the way) A1 David Newman & Ray Charles - Fathead I got this in summer 1960, when I was working in Harrods, so I got staff discount. I'd been nuts about Ray Charles since early 1959, when 'What'd I say' had come out. And Harrods had a good selection, so I bought lots. I thought it strange that Ray would make an album called 'Fathead'. I bought it the same day I bought Duke Ellington's 'Nutcracker suite'. Now THAT was conventional jazz as I knew it. 'Fathead' didn't sound anything like that, and nor did the MJQ albums I already had, or Ella Fitzgerald, George Shearing, Louis Armstrong or even Dakota Staton. (Duh! Of COURSE!) Yeah, it was jazz but it had the feel of R&B. Just as 'Ray Charles at Newport' which I'd bought a month before did, but MUCH more so. But I could tell Dakota wasn't that far away and started thinking about her a bit differently. And I found myself thinking about all the music I had a bit differently. I've never been able to 'follow' bebop - I can tell the difference between a b flat and a salt flat, but that's not terribly helpful. But I can hear ideas as sounds and melodies and rhythms OK. And this record, from start to finish, was ALL there. S3 Phil Upchurch - You can't sit down pts 1 & 2 This one came out at the back end of 1961. This, and Ray Charles' 'One mint julep' were the first jazz organ instrumentals I ever got. Of the two, this made more impact; 'One mint julep' wasn't really a revelation; just Ray doing his thing differently. But Upchurch's record was chock full of exciting solos, trumpet (Mack Johnson), tenor (Bubba Brooks), organ (Cornell Muldrow), Upchurch on guitar and bass, and the great Joe Hadrick (Yusef Ali, later with Gator) on drums. I didn't at the time know who the players were but they ALL hit really hard and dirty. S4 James Brown - (Can you) feel it This was the B side of 'These foolish things', which was one of James' takes on old Clyde McPhatter things. I didn't realise James Brown was an organist at that stage - 1963. This was absolutely FILTHY music. No matter WHAT great recordings JB made afterwards (and before) this is, to me, where it's AT with funk. S5 Alvin Robinson - Fever/Down home girl And now in 1965 the funk gets REEEEEAAAALLL deep! And NO ONE gave a damn about this great masterpiece of funk. A2 John Coltrane - A love supreme I got this one in 1965, as well (a good year for revelations ) At the time I was working night shift in a small anodising factory. It wasn't noisy work, and there were only four of us, so the foreman had the radio on. At 2AM, BBC closed down, so he turned to a French channel. You didn't listen to the announcements, so I didn't know what I was hearing when this came on. I'd never heard Trane before, though I'd read about him and guessed this HAD to be him. How? Dunno. And they played the WHOLE GODDAMN ALBUM! It was a Friday night and I got paid, so I didn't go home for breakfast, just got a bus into town and went into a Joe Lyons café waiting for the jazz record shop to open. I had to get this album the first available minute. When Ken opened up, I rushed in and, after he'd made us coffee, I said 'I just heard something on French radio which HAS to be Coltrane. I don't know what it is, but it went on forever.' 'Oh, they all do', Ken said. (He was a bop-oriented vibes player when he put his vibes together.) But, together, we identified the record and I rushed off home to play it. I fell asleep and DREAMED I was listening to it and think I got it even better when asleep than awake A3 Lou Donaldson - Good gracious I got this one in '65, too. I got it because it was going cheep, cheep, otherwise I might have got 'Natural soul', which is better. Because I had it, though, this one hit me first. It was the first album I had with Grant Green on it. It didn't hit me immediately; I had to be in the right frame of mind. But a few weeks later, listening while washing the dishes, 'The holy ghost' stood up and screamed at me. A4 B B King - There must be a better world somewhere This album just clicks with me. The band couldn't be improved upon. Hank Crawford (as), David Newman (ts), Ronnie Cuber, (Bars), Tom Malone, Waymon Reed & Charlie Miller (tp), Dr John (kbds), Hugh McCracken (g), Wilbur Bascomb (b), Bernard Purdie (d). The songs (all but one by Dr John & Doc Pomus) are great and REAL songs about real stuff. The arrangements are by Hank. And they're all done with complete feeling by B B King. A5 Youssou Ndour - Gainde I saw Youssou Ndour performing live on TV in the late eighties and was completely knocked out. He's one of those rare performers who truly lights up the stage. So I went in search of his albums, but after buying one of his Virgin and one of his Columbia albums, realised that it wasn't any good trying to find good Youssou Ndour on American or British labels, started looking at the racks of K7s that Virgin in Cardiff had started putting out. This was the first I got and it was everything I was looking for; music coming at you in several different rhythms and tempos and being sung in yet another rhythm, all together. It was THE most amazing dance music I'd ever heard. I think I must have played this one so much I ruined it; but I'm afraid to try. And it's never been reissued by anyone anywhere. And I've never seen it on any of the world music blogs, either. Oh, two compilations. C1 Fats Domino - Million sellers by Fats Got this one in '64, but 'I'm in love again' was the first Rock and Roll I ever heard; and the first pop music I ever liked. I was twelve. I kind of attribute my preference for black music to that record and the fact that I hadn't heard Elvis Presley beforehand. But everything Presley, or even Jerry Lee Lewis, did didn't seem like the real thing. Because there was such ease in the way Fats sang and played and the way the band played, it seemed like the natural way to make music. C2 James Brown - Mighty Instrumentals I got this in 1967. A whole LP of instrumentals by James Brown, wow! Yeah, '(Can you) feel it' was in there, and so were about ten others covering all sorts of JB work over a period of several years. MG

That we're all war babies or later This is a very subjective thing. A record or a whole album doesn't actually have to be terribly good to get through and bring revelations; it's just the way you happen to be or feel at the time. But if it DOES bring revelations, they last and last and last. So - albums first, then singles. No, I'm gonna do 'em all together. But five each, eh? S1 The Drifters - There goes my baby/Oh my love I'd decided early in 1959 that there had to be something wrong with the pop charts and I'd better study my collection of singles (only had 1 LP then) to find common factors. And I worked out that stuff produced by Atlantic, like Clyde McPhatter, Chuck Willis, the Coasters, issued here on London, was VERY likely to be stuff I wanted to buy, and worked out how to identify them pre-release by their catalogue numbers. So the next Atlantic single that was coming out here, I ordered in advance. So I got it home after school (I was 15) and flung it on the record player. And, as it happened, it was a masterpiece at the beginning of the development of Soul out of fairly straight R&B. And I'd never heard anything like it. I didn't know who the Drifters were, and even if I had, it wouldn't have helped, because this was the Crowns. The previous Drifters had been sacked and the Crowns, with Ben E King singing lead, replaced them. The song was very strange, too, with little attempt at rhyme. And the chorus of bowed basses - Phil Spector's idea - was another really incredible thing to hear for the first time. Lord, what's THIS? And on the other side, was a song that didn't even make any pretence of rhyming. And each line was drawn out and out. Phew! S2 Ray Charles - What'd I say pts 1 & 2 Two weeks later, I ordered the next Atlantic single to come out. Another revelation and music like I'd never heard it before. A LOOOONG electric piano solo to start off with... who knew what an electric piano even WAS in those days? And then... Bloomin' 'ell! And a conversation of muffled shouts moved things on to part 2. They didn't make records like that ever before. David Newman & Ray Charles - Fathead I got this in summer 1960, when I was working in Harrods, so I got staff discount. I'd been nuts about Ray Charles since early 1959, when 'What'd I say' had come out. And Harrods had a good selection, so I bought lots. I thought it strange that Ray would make an album called 'Fathead'. Gotta go, phone call. Back tomorrow MG

Joe Cuoghi Estelle Axton Mae Axton

Yes, the T-Bone is pretty nice. A good bit better than those of his later albums I've heard. MG

I decided I didn't know what Afro-Eurasian Ellipse Effect meant, so I googled it and, lo and behold, it's a typo for Afro-Eurasian Eclipse a suite by Duke Ellington with which I'm totally unfamiliar. So I don't know what's supposed to be real about it. I know what the words mean, but not what they really mean. MG

I keep meaning to get that when I see it, but I never do see it MG

Hell's Angels Angel Viloria Felix del Rosario

Interesting. I kind of like the idea of BMG RM. Looked at my Toshiba-EMI CDs. Unless you can read Japanese, you can't see anything about how they got to issue these Bethlehem albums. Same for my Sonny Criss Imperials. Oh well. MG

Your response has intrigued me. I've never been to Holland. I may have a bit more money next year than this. In addition to your shop, are there any your way that sell West African music? I mean stuff NOT on European or American labels. MG

Well said! MG

So Verse was a Toshiba-EMI label. Never heard of it. Ta. MG

Hm... well... MG

Thank you, Mjzee. Not in Discogs. I should have looked in Lord I must say, however, that I fail to see how Toshiba-EMI could have released the Bethlehem albums I bought in Japan in 2002. MG

No, just not my kind of thing. Baffled incomprehension. Searching around for something to hang it on. MG

Wicked Uncle Uncle Funky Funk Inc

That seems right. But it's also true of Prestige, Contemporary, Pacific Jazz (though Mr Bock had two concepts, I think), Atlantic (again a couple of concepts), and the other Prestige labels like Moodsville and Swingville. Very little of that music was really four or five guys playing tunes; there was always a purpose, if no more than a firm idea of the target audience. MG

Dunno Jim. I just don't get that music. MG

King DID buy Bethlehem, as Jim said, but somehow, Bethlehem ended up as an EMI property. So it's an even deeper mystery how this album ended up on Verve. I've just looked at Jaws' material on Discogs and there's no reference there to any album of his on either Bethlehem or Verve. Can you provide a link to somewhere with a track list etc? MG

It's here and looks like it's still working, Mike. Enjoy! http://thomkeith.net/index.php?cID=136 MG

Troll

Back in '69, I managed a tiny record shop in a market mainly frequented by students. I was the wrong type for them, couldn't even sell 'Abbey road' on the day it came out! I'd play stuff like this and, amazingly, I sold 'Think' to an Ethiopian student! He came in when he heard 'Son of Ice Bag', looked at the label and said. "Seems like people put on a special effort working for Blue Note", and handed over the money! MG

Goodness! I mean, WOW! MG

Well, it's kinda like there's a bit of this and a bit of that here and there and not at all clear to me what the aim is. MG

Sorry, but I stand by what I said. There were relatively few black music indies that ONLY dealt with black music. Duke/Peacock, certainly, is big league indie I can think of that never issued anything else. Nor, I believe, did any of Bobby Robinson's labels or Joe Von Battle's. Miracle, Delmark, Trilon and Sittin' in With are pretty minor (though very respectable) names in the black music business. Even Specialty and Aladdin issued C&W records. (Source, 'The American record label directory & dating guide 19401959 - Galen Gart) Sure King issued a lot of C&W material, but white consumers were the target for it; black consumers the target for the R&B, gospel and jazz. King also issued a lot of lounge music albums. MG