Ah spring, when a (not so) young man’s thoughts turn to vinyl and the upcoming Record Store Day celebrations, which this year take place on April 12.
According to the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), vinyl has seen 18 years of continuous growth and has hit its highest level of revenue since 1984, when the CD and cassette boom began.
Of course, vinyl costs more than it did back then – though not as much more as you may think when adjusted for inflation: 1984’s $9 list price in today’s money is about $28 – that’s to be expected. Not only are there far fewer pressing plants than in the past, but vinyl is a petroleum-derived plastic and the cost of crude oil has roughly tripled during those years.
Anyway, I digress.
My point is that that even with higher prices and the perception that they’re even higher, music lovers are still gobbling up rekkids like they’re going out of style ... when in fact they’re back in style.
Here are some of the latest gems to land on my desk (with, gasp, some CDs, too). You can find them, or order them, from your hometown independent record stores.
The ongoing series of Motown Sound vinyl reissues from Elemental Music has brought a number of Motor City classics back into print – including a few on eye-catching colored vinyl – along with some lesser-appreciated Tamla Motown gems. But, sadly, all good things must come to an end and with The Temptations’ landmark “Psychedelic Shack” – a 1970 funk/soul classic, the 11-month series comes to an end, having unleashed 28 deserving LPs back into shops.
In addition to “Shack” – which includes the title track, also has the original version of “War,” made famous by Edwin Starr and the essential “You Make Your Own Heaven and Hell Right Here on Earth” – the last couple batches also included its predecessor, 1969’s “Puzzle People,” which is just as fiery and less ubiquitous “Solid Rock,” from 1972, which is reissued in its gatefold sleeve.
The Four Tops’ 1970 LP was called “Changing Times” and as this 140-gram virgin vinyl reissue shows, one thing that hadn’t changed was the expressive majesty of Levi Stubbs’ voice. Similarly, Smokey Robinson sounds sweet as sugar on his second solo set, 1974’s “Pure Smokey,” and Gladys Knight & the Pips 1969 set, “Nitty Gritty,” is benefits from the same hot funk that producer Norman Whitfield brought to the Temps LPs mentioned above.
Lastly, are two final reissues by the Supremes, including 1968’s “Reflections,” which was not only the first without Flo Ballard (don’t get me started) and the first with her replacement Cindy Birdsong, but also the Supremes’ last LP with Holland-Dozier-Holland. Worth it for the title tracks alone.
Their 1969 “Let the Sunshine In,” was a sign of the times – though The Supremes were always hitched by Berry Gordy to trendiness (see “A Little Bit of Liverpool,” for example) – and included versions of other people’s hits, like “Everyday People,” and “Let The Sunshine In” (from “Hair”).
Until we meet again, Motown...
One of my most anticipated recent compilations is the handsomely-packaged “Jamaica to Toronto: Soul Funk & Reggae 1967-1974” from Light in the Attic. The double-LP in a heavyweight gatefold sleeve explores the musical crossover of Jamaican artists that emigrated to Canada during the late 1960s and early ‘70s.
The music on these two colored vinyl LPs – cut at 45 rpm for maximum fidelity – is truly a melange, from the vintage reggae of Johnny Osbourne’s instrumental “African Wake” to The Courgars’ cover of The Temptations’ “I Wish It Would Rain” and the super funky “Mr. Fortune” by The Hitch-Hikers featuring The Mighty Pope. A great booklet is packed with essays, great photos and more.
A surprise to me was “Let Me Dream On,” a compilation of previously unreleased demos, rehearsals and love recordings by Nashville R&B cat, Johnny Bragg, released for Black Friday Record Store Day by Org Music in collaboration with the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum.
Bragg recorded some of his earliest tunes with The Prisonaires and The Marigolds while he was doing time at the Tennessee State Penitentiary. These tracks were rescued from a garden shed in Music City, where they offer a deeper look at lesser-known light of American rhythm and blues.
Org Music also issued an overview of the Paramount Recordings by blues legend Charley Patton for that last RSD. “Father of the Delta Blues: Selections from Paramount Recordings” is pressed on yellow vinyl and includes 12 tunes Patton recorded for the Grafton label, including a few actually recorded at the Grafton studio.
The music is, of course, essential and the sleeve and pressing are good, too. But the lack of any information about Patton or the recordings means this is less useful than it could be in telling a new generation about their importance.
Acoustic Sounds (read the recent story in The New York Times!) continues its incredible string of Acoustic Sounds Series audiophile reissues with two astonishingly beautiful blues reissues.
The music on Lightnin’ Hopkins’ “Lightnin’ Strikes,” recorded for Verve in 1965 with Earl Palmer on drums, and John Lee Hooker’s “It Serve You Right to Suffer” (is there a better name for a blues album?), released on Impulse! In 1966 is unspeakably beautiful – two absolute legends in fine form.
The mastering and pressing is as good as you’d expect from the series and the sleeves (here I go) are spot-on recreations of their original gatefolds, complete with heavy cardboard construction and lamination.
A number of jazz records are getting the same treatment, including 1960’s “The Great Kai & J.J.,” two-trombone attack of Kai Winding and J.J. Johnson, along with star-studded support from Bill Evans, Paul Chambers and others, on Impulse!; Sonny Rollins’ 1966 soundtrack to the film “Alfie,” with Oliver Nelson’s orchestra, on Impulse!; and a record you’ll find in nearly every jazz collection, “Getz Au Go Go” on Verve, by The New Stan Getz Quartet featuring Astrud Gilberto, a cool 1964 live set helped fuel the Bossa Nova craze in the U.S.
These all benefit from the same treatment as the blues LPs – audiophile quality mastering and pressing and carefully recreated sleeves. If you can keep up with this series, voila!, you’ll have a great ready-made jazz and blues collection.
Craft Recordings’ Original Jazz Classics reissues are just as good. Based on Fantasy Records’ series of the same name (with the same obi strips), Craft’s versions go one (or three) better with 180-gram vinyl, top notch mastering by Kevin Gray and the heavy duty tip-on sleeves the originals would’ve had. (Fantasy’s were released with sleeves made in the 1980s style.)
The latest batch has some classics and all featuring big names.
Miles Davis’ “The Musings of Miles” and “Walkin’” on Prestige offer a chance to compare mid-50s MIles in a quartet setting (“Musings”) and fronting a septet. Whichever you choose, you win. They make great music to listen to while reading the recent, “3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of Cool” book by James Kaplan.
Another great soundtrack to that book is Cannonball Adderley’s 1962 “Know what I mean?” for Riverside as it also features Bill Evans and both Evans and Adderley figure heavily into Kaplan’s book.
As with the Miles records, Joe Pass’ 1973 “Virtuoso” and “The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery, recorded in 1960, are nice comparison pieces. Two groundbreaking guitarists with two completely different styles.
Pass’ LP for Pablo is appropriately named, as the guitarist was an adept technician who played with fluidity and passion, while Montgomery, more rooted in the blues, was equally skilled but, to my ears, played with a finesse and heart that can only be matched, for me, by Kenny Burrell.
There's also a new reissue of Thelonious Monk's solo "Thelonious Himself" LP. I haven't experienced that one in person but I can attest to the quality of the performances from earlier editions.
Another of the Org Music Black Friday RSD releases was a double-LP version of Cecil Taylor’s 1963 “Live At The Cafe Montmartre,” regarded as one of the great live jazz records, especially from the avant garde “New Thing” era.
Recorded in Copenhagen in November 1962 with Sunny Murray on drums and Jimmy Lyons on alto sax, this was Taylor’s last record until 1966. It is issued here as a double-LP on quality vinyl in a single-LP-style sleeve with updated artwork and the original liner notes, and it feels no less powerful and exciting more than 60 years later.
Also still sounding fresh and exciting 60 years later is John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme,” which has gotten yet another reissue, this time in honor of its birthday.
One of the best-selling and most influential jazz albums of all time, I can’t imagine it needs any explanation here. IYKYK and if not, get on board. Choose this version for the striking clear vinyl and the shiny silver lettering on the cover.
Although there are special Record Store Day vinyl versions of the new releases from Resonance Records, I’ve only seen and heard the CD versions, which are quite nicely packaged, as always, in gatefold digipaks with liner notes and attractive designs. The LPs are out on April 12 and the CDs six days later.
Fitting for the music inside which is pretty much always previously unreleased live recordings of jazz greats, in this case trumpeters Kenny Dorham and Freddie Hubbard and bassist Charles Mingus.
Starting with the latter, “In Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts,” showcases the rarely heard quintet with Dannie Richmond and Jack Walrath that Mingus brought on a South American tour in 1977.
Mingus – who six months later would be diagnosed with ALS – and his talented, if unsung, band plays a range of material from across his career, and the bassist even plays piano on a couple tunes.
The trumpeters’ discs were both recorded in 1967 by Bernard Drayton at the Blue Morocco Club in the Bronx, which was owned by Sylvia Robinson, whose Sugar Hill Records would pioneer recorded hip-hop a decade later.
The well-recorded and transferred sets capture two hard bop trumpet masters, still atop their game, just as jazz was going through changes and would soon be hit with a wave of electric rock and funk influences that would lead to fusion.
Hubbard is supported by a cast that includes Kenny Barron, Herbie Lewis, Bernie Maupin and Freddie Watts and Dorham by Sonny Red, Cedar Walton, Paul Chambers and Denis Charles. They’re both top-notch but I can’t seem to stop playing Dorham’s glorious 13-minute “Blue Bossa” on repeat.
Also on repeat these days is Celia Cruz’s vivacious and diverse “Son Con Guaguanco,” released on vinyl for the first time since its Tico Records debut in 1966. This reissue of an early Cruz set is the first fruit of Craft Recordings’ year-long celebration of the life of the legendary Cuban singer, born in 1925 (she died in 2003).
There are limited-edition colored vinyl and bundle variants that are just the start of the vinyl and digital reissues and other features that will celebrate the centennial throughout the year.
Sadly, the story of the always-unappreciated Badfinger is also seemingly always of tragedy, from the suicides of Pete Ham and Tom Evans, the fatal brain aneurysm of Mike Gibbins, the lackluster sales of their Apple Records releases, their warring with Warner Brothers records, their seemingly endless management woes and the recent death of the last surviving member, Joey Molland, just after the anniversary edition of the troubled “Head First” LP.
Despite the tragedy, the band leaves behind a trove of brilliant music, including the first officially mixed and released version of “Head First,” which was begun at Apple Studios in London in 1974, but never released.
The rediscovery of the original session tapes made this release – put together by later member Bob Jackson and released by Y&T Records (Milwaukee’s Mark Strothmann is helping promote it, continuing a complicated Brew City/Badfinger connection) – possible.
Including the last studio recordings by main singer and songwriter Pete Ham, the record is a lost treasure of pop-inflected ‘70s rock and roll, packed with melody and emotion.
Y&T also recently released another Badfinger LP, albeit from the group’s earliest days as The Iveys.
The 14 tracks on “How Much Is The Sky (Demos: 1967-1969) - The Iveys Anthology Volume 4” were recorded during the band’s earliest days and include demos that helped them gain the attention of Apple Records’ Mal Evans (you saw him all over Peter Jackson’s “Get Back” film) and Peter Asher, who brought them to the Beatles.
The limited edition LP comes with an insert signed and numbered by original early member Ron Griffiths (who was replaced by Molland in 1969), which is a hint that while this set makes for fun and interesting listening, it’s more for die-hard fans than the casual listener.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
