JSngry

On the slow tunes, yeah. I thought I was listening to a Ray cut with the vocal tape slowed down. Figured that was the only way that anybody could draw that much out of a song. But no, that was Alvin au natural. I can honestly say I've never heard anything quite like it. Ray always had different levels going on in amy one number, even the most raw and gut-wrenching. This cat doesn't have those layers, he just wrings you dry with the shortest distance between two points. A two minute and some change ballad can literally devastate you. At least it did me... And then he's got that Chis Kenner-ish drawn out drawl on the funky stuff, but the way he does it is damn near unduplicable. Again, I can honestly say I've never heard anything quite like it. The Coasters did "Down Home Girl", and it was dandy, but the way Alvin does it is something else altogether. It's no longer a Lieber/Stoller tune, it's a freakin' maifesto every bit as powerful as "Say It Loud". It's not just in a zone, it's in a zone of it's own making, and that is something else altogether! Alvin Robinson would seem to be a prime candidate for rediscovery amongst the Dusty Groove Deep Soul crowd. When will somebody from England (seems like that's where most of the good "obscure soul" retrospectives come from) step up and do the honors? I'll buy a copy of a well-done, complete compilation yesterday, and I'd pimp it to everybody I know, and a few hundred I don't. There's different types of greatness, to be sure, but by the standards of at least a few of them, Alvin Robinson must be considered GREAT.

Charlie Pride Joy Nicole Yandell Sercy Pledge

Isn't that the intro to "All You Need Is Love"? (JUST KIDDING!)

No, it hasn't. I've been looking.

Hey, I like a lot of stuff, period. I'm either incredibly eclectic or else have no powers of discrimination whatsoever.

Michael Jackson Roman Polanski Mary Kay LeTourneau

Big Freddie Roach fan here, but all I can say is to get everything.

That Amazon thing is f-ed up. The track listing is for the Blakey Olympic gig, but all the reviews are for the Monk/Blakey Atlantic side.

Man, you don't know how much!

"How Can I Get Over You" & "Let Me Down Easy" are like unfiltered Atlantic-era Ray Charles gospel-ish ballads, and I say that w/o a trace of irony. Unbelievably raw and soulful.

Prince Lasha Rogers Hornsby Nelson Boyd

Or not. But DAMN! http://funky16corners.tripod.com/5_alvin_robinson.htm God bless you, Harold!

No, I've got two CDs on RTE & a 3rd on Trema. Never heard of the Lighthouse label. Do you mean Laserlight? Also, I thnk that maybe Malaco has a release of them. Not sure about that. However you can find them, get them!

Mister Moose Bunny Rabbit Dancing Bear

Alfred the Airsick Eagle Manfred the Wonder Dog Mike Mulligan

Yeah, it's a carbonated soft-drink. There's some pretty rank stuff to be had, but IBC is one of the best. Very tasty!

IBC is one of the world's great root beers. They moved to Texas from St. Louis, thanks to corporate hoe-downs and green snakes on the ceiling. http://www.ibcrootbeer.com/index.html

Freddie Cannon Chuck Barris Jaye P. Morgan

Hasn't there been a similar quarterly publication out of Rutgers for some time? Seems like it started sometimes in the late 1970s. Did it stop for a while?

No, and I think that Gil's intro to "So What" was basically a transcription/orchestration of Bill Evans' intro, wasn't it?

Haven't heard that one. Is it on Black&Blue?

Now if you want to hear a really "loose" Blakey, check out "Nihon Bashi" on Kyoto. WHOA! And hey, no discussion of great Blakey performances, trumpet-centric or not, is complete w/o a serious consideration of the 5/13/61 Olympia gig released on RTE/Trema/etc. That's "HOLY SHIT!" material if ever there was any.

No, that's IBC... IIRC + If I Recall Correctly As for Whalum, ok, Memphisian by birth, Texan by Sound! You'd not know it by 99% of what he's recorded, but the cat can PLAY!

I would beg to diiffer. The tempos might not be as bright, but the energy is at least as high, if not higher.

Somewhere in my closet I've got an old Hit Parader from 1968 (when it was actually a "serious" rock magazine) with an article about the Coral Electric Sitar. Now - who/what was Coral, and what kind of marketing department did they have?