Chewy-Chew-Chew Live @ the Club Mozambique

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

1st off i open the cd right in the store to make sure there wasnt another masterful blue note/capitol/emi error but low and behold it was grant printed on the label so i trusted it. id like to think im the 1st one on the w.coast to get this cd, and ill stick to that. im about 2 listen to it and will do a secondary posting but 1st off this bob belden is nutz. that houston cd is on the eastbound LABEL, isnt it? its not called eastbound, its called 'the real thing'--- houston +grant + the infamous mowtown bassist james jamerson on bass-- 1st off i wanna know is this in print or ez to find on lp? that sounds like a great date. also i doubt grant "had a love affair with Cornelius Watts". jeez.

Secondly whats the diff between a mono reference and multi track masters, other than the obvous. you mean at the venue they recorded it in stereo for the album, but also in mono, as, like a backup?!?? the note says: THE ORIG. MULT TRACK MASTERS HAVE NOT SURVIVED, CD IS FROM MONO MIXES MADE ON LOCATION....

what did Bob belden mean by the "socio-econ. demog. shift in black communities' taste in music", when he talked about the diff. between Mozambique and the more FM friendly Visions, etc.....you mean black people just stopped listening to funk and started listeing to smooth jazz right then?? i dont think it happened like turning on an off a light, did it? there were smooth lps and there were still hella funny lps, eg. kool and gang, cameo, et al....

--new cover art- its good. usually i dont like the new bluenotes covers, but ive liked a few. now its time to pound some chili and maybe some sugar (golden) crisp and listen 2 it!

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

1st off i open the cd right in the store to make sure there wasnt another masterful blue note/capitol/emi error but low and behold it was grant printed on the label so i trusted it. id like to think im the 1st one on the w.coast to get this cd, and ill stick to that. im about 2 listen to it and will do a secondary posting but 1st off this bob belden is nutz. that houston cd is on the eastbound LABEL, isnt it? its not called eastbound, its called 'the real thing'--- houston +grant + the infamous mowtown bassist james jamerson on bass-- 1st off i wanna know is this in print or ez to find on lp? that sounds like a great date. also i doubt grant "had a love affair with Cornelius Watts". jeez.

Secondly whats the diff between a mono reference and multi track masters, other than the obvous. you mean at the venue they recorded it in stereo for the album, but also in mono, as, like a backup?!?? the note says: THE ORIG. MULT TRACK MASTERS HAVE NOT SURVIVED, CD IS FROM MONO MIXES MADE ON LOCATION....

what did Bob belden mean by the "socio-econ. demog. shift in black communities' taste in music", when he talked about the diff. between Mozambique and the more FM friendly Visions, etc.....you mean black people just stopped listening to funk and started listeing to smooth jazz right then?? i dont think it happened like turning on an off a light, did it? there were smooth lps and there were still hella funny lps, eg. kool and gang, cameo, et al....

--new cover art- its good. usually i dont like the new bluenotes covers, but ive liked a few. now its time to pound some chili and maybe some sugar (golden) crisp and listen 2 it!

Enjoy! Chew slowly for fullest delight!

Two points I can make. First, you're right about the Houston Person Eastbound LP. It's not available at present. It's a crime that this hasn't been reissued on CD - it would need to be a 2 CD set, however, because it's long and some bonus cutz have come out on CD in Britain. That might price it out of the market (though not for a number of folks here, of course - but we aren't REALLY that many, are we?)

Second, the socio-economic shifts were various. You can read quite a bit about them in Nelson George's book "The death of Rhythm & Blues", which is as relevant to Soul Jazz as to R&B, though George never recognises that.

The main point, I think, is a shift of people out of the ghetto into the suburbs. What this meant was that, for the first time, the urban black audience was dispersed, not concentrated. More and more people lived farther away from the organ rooms like Club Mozambique, since it was not economic to move the venues to the periphery. And in the suburbs, other venues were available, such as golf and tennis clubs and similar places of entertainment. So the simple demographic shift of people had the effect of cutting the organ rooms’ audiences disproportionately. But it also had the effect of narrowing the audience; from catering to a wide range of people of all sorts of classes and incomes, the organ rooms' offerings had to focus on the rather more Afro-centric tastes of those left behind.

This population movement had an impact on R&B and Soul Jazz. I think it's from this period that you get splits (the same split) appearing in the two musics. It's easier to see this in terms of R&B, however. What Belden calls the Inner City market can best be typified by James Brown & (later) George Clinton; an extremely Afro-centric music. Out in the suburbs, the people who had managed to escape tended, as has frequently been the case, to look down on the more "black" music. Motown typified the more mainstream/crossover music at the time. (Which is not to say that Brown wasn't popular generally at the time. He certainly was, but he, unlike many others, didn't compromise - because he could get away with not compromising.)

The trend's typical equivalents in terms of Soul Jazz can be regarded as, on the one hand, the material Prestige were recording at the time with Earland, Person, Phillips, Bryant, Kynard, Boogaloo Joe (and also BN with GG and others produced by Francis Wolff, who let Duke Pearson tend to the modern jazz and largely concentrated on Soul Jazz himself after Alfred retired [but also McGriff & Holmes when Solid State had become BN]); on the other hand, as Bob Belden pointed out, CTI/Kudu material - there was a good reason why Motown wanted to buy CTI/Kudu.

These trends, I think, became much more pronounced later in the '70s, as Disco and then Smooth developed in both R&B and Soul Jazz. They were just beginning at the time of which Bob Belden was writing.

What he didn't mention, which is probably very significant, is that, between the Club Mozambique session and "Visions", Francis had died and been replaced by George Butler who was a United Artists man through and through - he had previously produced Ferrante & Teicher records. George was quite frank about admitting that he didn't know much about jazz and conceding that he'd been picked for the job because he was black. But George, of course, was part of the out of the ghetto movement.

MG

Edited July 18, 2006 by The Magnificent Goldberg

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

can u share a little more about what that book discusses, "The death of Rhythm & Blues"? that sounds like something interesting

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

can u share a little more about what that book discusses, "The death of Rhythm & Blues"? that sounds like something interesting

Nelson George starts by saying that black musicians of all stripes have always said words to the effect of, "if you listen to our music, you can tell where we're coming from". But he says that no one has really tried to DO that. So he reviews black politics since the 19th century and uses the analysis to understand post war R&B, from Louis Jordan to Prince (it came out in 1988). It is, essentially, a book about politics, seen through music.

MG

[kh1958]

Is this one more like Live at the Lighthouse (I quite like that one), or Grant Green Alive (which didn't appeal to me too much)?

[Eric]

From Thom Jurek at All Music:

"Live at Club Mozambique was, according to Bob Belden's liner notes, rumored to exist for decades in Blue Note's Grant Green discography, but was never released. His explanation as to why is satisfactory — Green's star had waned considerably — and makes some sense, but the label had 15 unissued albums by the guitarist by 1971. This date recorded at the famed Detroit jazz club (Green was living in the city at the time) is the second such set of grooves to be issued from the club floor — Lonnie Smith's was the first. The band consists of Idris Muhammad, Ronnie Foster, Houston Person, and the all but unknown Clarence Thomas, and the two tenor saxophonists (Thomas also played soprano here) laid out heavy, deep funk on the tunes that were chosen. Foster and Muhammad were symbiotic as a rhythm section. Foster's grooving under-the-cover basslines matched the soul groove style of Muhammad. They locked onto Green and couldn't be shaken loose. Obviously created for an inner-city audience and the jukebox crowd, this set was recorded a scant five months after Alive!, but bites a lot harder. The tunes include a simmering read of the Clarence Carter vehicle "Patches" with Green stretching the melody to the breaking point, and the horn section fills egg him on. "One More Chance" was written by the Corporation (the Mizell Brothers) and recorded by the Jackson 5. It's got that soulful ballad sweetness just over the top of some sparkling chops — Thomas' soprano here is a perfect foil to both Green and Person. Green's reliance on those low strings for his melody is special; it's meaty and stays in the pocket, allowing for more ensemble interplay — though his solo is a thing to behold, all knotty yet still full of warmth and vigor. When he starts twinning with Foster near its end, the joy just bleeds from the speakers. The read of "Walk on By" is soulful without being overly ornate. Thomas' "Farid" and the opener, "Jan Jan," written by M. Davis (not Miles), are for the hard jazz fans here. The horn charts are tight and elaborate in their fashion, and Green pulls out the stops layering blues, jazz, and soulful funkiness into each of his lines. And to hear this rhythm section simmer and pop is glorious. Highly recommended."

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

when talking about Clarence Carter, Bob Belden should of added: the song was by Clarence Carter (later of "Strokin'" fame)

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I reckon this would have been released, had Francis Wolff not died two months later.

MG

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

SEE EVEN IF FRANCIS WOLFF HAD LIVED BLUE NOTE WOULD OF ****STILL**** GOTTEN EVEN FUNKIER.

[JSngry]

when talking about Clarence Carter, Bob Belden should of added: the song was by Clarence Carter (later of "Strokin'" fame)

Actually, I'm wanting to hear a good jazz version of "Slip Away".

Anybody know of one?

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

when talking about Clarence Carter, Bob Belden should of added: the song was by Clarence Carter (later of "Strokin'" fame)

Actually, I'm wanting to hear a good jazz version of "Slip Away".

Anybody know of one?

No - perhaps you should play it at a gig.

MG

[JSngry]

It's got that thing to it, that's for sure.

[John L]

It's got that thing to it, that's for sure.

So does "It's All in Your Mind." That could be a great jazz number.