Boscoe

[JSngry]

http://www.dustygroove.com/item.php?id=4c2...p;ref=index.php

One of the hippest records ever to come out of Chicago -- the sole recording by Boscoe, a group who was even more obscure and experimental than contemporaries like The Pharoahs or Artistic Heritage Ensemble! Like those groups, Boscoe has a very unique, very visionary approach -- one that's not content just to echo the standard post-Coltrane modes that other spiritual jazz groups around the country were hitting -- but which instead moves into territory that touches on the darker sides of funk, soul, and spoken word of the time -- all with a message that's incredibly powerful, and conception that's wonderfully fresh throughout! The group's lineup features tenor, trumpet, trombone, guitar, bass, and drums -- but they way they're put together is often far different than other funky combos -- and it's clear that the group had as much of a sensibility about the overall sound of their record as they did their freer grooves. At times, there's a righteousness here that recalls the best of the early Westbound Records scene from Detroit -- but there's an even higher agenda too, which is more in keeping with the spiritual aspriations of their Chicago contemporaries, and which really show up in the lyrics. The whole album's a masterpiece from start to finish -- unlike anything that we can think of, still ripe for rediscovery today, and just the kind of set that makes us prouder than ever of our Chicago heritage! Titles include "We Ain't Free", "Money Won't Save You", "Now and Den", "He Keeps You", "I'm What You Need", and "Writin' On The Wall".

Samples and liner notes here: http://www.numerogroup.com/catalog_detail.php?uid=00319#

Especially recommended, "He Keeps You". but samples don't do justice.

For people who found Mtume's Alkebu-Lan a little...ambivalent, here ya' go. For everybody else, except people who just don't wanna go there (as is your right), then here's something to make you think about a lot of things.

And read those liner notes. You wanna talk about a real slice of reality, there it is.

At $13.99, if you're into it, probably the deal of the year. or one of 'em.

Carpe diem.

[Harold_Z]

I heard one track off this - He Keeps You.

Sounds great! Very hip record. Early 70s funk with a touch of Curtis Mayfield among the influences. Very apt for a Chicago record. I think I'll score while the scoring is good.

[Noj]

Looks cool, I pulled the trigger. Thanks JSngry!

Almost added Demon Fuzz - Afreaka! but boy the price on that one is steep.

[Rooster_Ties]

Thanks Jim. Haven't heard the samples yet, but on paper anyway this'd be right up my alley.

Will try to grab one soon as well.

[ejp626]

May be worth noting that at the link JSngry provided, you can buy the CD for $15 (roughly the DG price) or the MP3 version for $10. That may not be so appealing, but there were a couple of funk 45s they had on-line where the MP3 price was $2, and I am thinking about springing for a couple of those.

[JSngry]

Thanks for the reminder!

'bout time this was out on disc.

Don't tell me - of the 500 or so original copies, you've got one, right?

Right?

[clifford_thornton]

Looks cool, I pulled the trigger. Thanks JSngry!

Me too. The original pops up on eBay every now and then, but it's usually out of my price range.

[.:.impossible]

p.s. just clicked on "check out my blog!"

outrageous! you ought to refer to it as your "b-log", "b" of course standing for "brown". possibly later referring to it as your "ups log".

[JSngry]

The main thing for me about this album is hearing this kind of lyrics with this type of music.b Not just "militant" but Nationalist (and as to what the difference is, hey, maybe you had to be there. But there is a difference). My expereince with hearing that type rhetoric-in-music has been in jazz, theatre, you know, more of an "arts" environment. These guys, with the exception of a little bit of here and there, are dropping this stuff into Cluband '73, and knowing alittle bit about Clubland '75 and beyond, I can't imagine that things were that much different in '73, and it makes me go WHOA!!! to hear some of this stuff coming out like it does. The music is solid, quite solid, actually, although, no, nothing you haven't heard before. And the lyrics are strong, direct, idealistic/naive/serious, and indeed - very much of thier time and place. But together....wow.

Then again, maybe you did had to be there, or fairly close to there. Entirely possible. But this stuff's definitely made an impression on me

Dig this, though - there's a thing from the liners that gets me where I live, because it's just so real, in so many ways. We're in the middle of a portrait of a young, very idealistic band committted to the cause (albeit with the assistance of two white (I assume) similarly idealistic but hardly loaded/connected backers, refusing to sell out, sticking together, and making it locally/regionally, if barely. Life on a shoestring fighting The Good Fight, because, yes, it really is Nation Time.

And then:

With the existence of the government's Co-Intelligence Program becoming exposed, attacks on militant groups, the assassinations of prominent black leaders and even that of a presidential candidate, the group's message took on a deeper meaning. What to do in the face of this and diminishing performance opportunities became the source of intense daily debate among the group's members. Darry Johnson was the first casualty of this new reality, putting family ahead of all else. Boscoe collapsed in an instant, in such a hurry that equipment was left behind in the rehearsal space. It was never retrieved, and none of the members spoke again for a year.

I can literally see this happening, ideology, idealism, reality, all coming to a head as some young cats who had put all their eggs into one idealistic basket all of a sudden gotta wonder wtf now? I can see it, and it hurts.

Anthenagin...

Ehrenberg (one of the backers) helped Boscoe's circular members transition into a square world, using his connections with AT&T to place Cobb, Johnson, and Warner in jobs there. Warner would retire decades later, having broken through the corporate glass ceiling during his stint.

Now, if that ain't America, I don't know what is. From "War is the precedent to Peace" to Reach Out & Touch Someone.

Same thing, only waaaaay different.

Hell, maybe you really did had to be there. But oh well.

[jlhoots]

I listened to Funky Skull today.

How does this fit in with that?

[JSngry]

Parallel universe.

[Alexander Hawkins]

Parallel indeed!

Both are fantastic albums.

[Noj]

Listening to this now. I'm feeling very militant at the moment.

[JSngry]

By the time it's over, you should cross over into Nationalist. Cross you fingers!

Been listenng some more to this, and musically, this stuff is tight. Part aspiring professionalism, part Chigago tradition, part Nationalistic-inspired aspirations to excellence, part raw talent, part...whatever. But there it is, and it is good.

And the more I hear bands like this, The Pharoahs, The Artistic Heritage Ensemble, The Awakening, and all the other cross-pollinational outfits from that late-60s/early-70s Chicago scene, the more I come to realize that what the "rest of us" took as a really good band in Earth Wind & Fire was actually sort of a summation and bursting out/forth of an entire subculture.

[BruceH]

Didn't that also use to be George Costanza's PIN?