The Sunday Six

I hope everybody is spending a groovy Sunday. To all the mamas, Happy Mother’s Day! None of us would be here without you! And to the papas and the kids, remember mothers are superheroes working hard every day, so please do not only be kind to them today but also during the remaining 364 days of the year!

Why don’t we all, the mamas, the papas and the kids, have some fun with another music time travel trip? As always, the magical time machine will take us to six different decades to listen to six tracks in different flavors. Let’s fasten our seatbelts and go!

Lester Young/There Will Never Be Another You

Our first stop today is June 1954 and what feels like a bar late at night with some relaxing jazz music by Lester Young. The American jazz tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist was born in Woodville, Miss. in 1909 and grew up in a musical family. By the age of ten, he already had learned the basics of the trumpet, violin and drums and joined the Young Family Band, touring with carnivals and playing in regional cities in the southwestern U.S. He first picked up the tenor saxophone in the 1920s and left the Young Family Band at the age of 18, since he no longer wanted to tour in the racially segregated Jim Crow South. Eventually, Young settled in Kansas City in 1933 and gained prominence playing in Count Basie’s band. Over the next 10-plus years, he also was in various other bands and recorded with Billie Holiday and Nat “King” Cole. In the ’50s, Young recorded a series of albums as a leader. Sadly, he passed away at the age of 49 in March 1959 from internal bleeding resulting from alcoholism. There Will Never Be Another You, a popular song with music by Harry Warren and lyrics by Mack Gordon, was included on Lester Young with the Oscar Peterson Trio, one of two compilation albums with that title released in June 1954. They were subsequently combined with music from a third album, The President, and reissued in 1956 as The President Plays with the Oscar Peterson Trio.

The Tragically Hip/Bobcaygeon

Next, we set our time machine to July 1998 and music by alternative rockers The Tragically Hip. Max from PowerPop recently featured the celebrated Canadian band, who in turn had been brought to his attention by Canadian fellow bloggers Dave from A Sound Day and DeKE from deKe’s Vinyl Reviews & More… – lots of cross-pollination happening in our blogger community, which is an important reason why I dig music blogging as much as I do! The Tragically Hip, formed in Kingston, Ontario in 1984, were the best-selling band in Canada between 1996 and 2016, yet they were much less recognized in the U.S. And, yes, you can call that a tragedy! During their 33-year run, which ended in October 2017 after the death of vocalist Gord Downie, the group released 13 studio albums, one live album, one compilation album, two video albums, two extended plays and a boxed set – Wikipedia had to count them all! There were also 54 singles. Nine of the Hip’s studio albums topped the Canadian charts and eight reached Platinum or multi-Platinum status there, not to mention Canada’s Walk of Fame, Canadian Music Hall of Fame, multiple Juno Awards and all the other accolades they received – a truly extraordinary record! Bobcaygeon is a great track off the Hip’s sixth studio album Phantom Power, which appeared in July 1998. Credited to the entire band, the tune also became one of the album’s five singles and is among their most enduring and beloved signature songs.

Cream/Outside Woman Blues

On with the trip to the ’60s and music by what may well have been the best power trio of all time. In November 1967, Cream released their sophomore album Disraeli Gears, less than a year after their debut Fresh Cream. During their short, less than 2.5-year recording career, Jack Bruce (bass), Eric Clapton (guitar) and Ginger Baker (drums) released four albums. By the time their final release Goodbye came out in February 1969, they already had disbanded. Given the oftentimes violent fights between Bruce and Baker, it’s actually a miracle they lasted as long as they did and all came out alive. In case you wonder why, you can watch the 2012 documentary Beware of Mr. Baker, which I did again the other day. It’s a fascinating and pretty sad film! Let’s hear Outside Woman Blues, written by folk-blues guitarist Arthur Reynolds who also first recorded it in 1929 as Blind Joe Reynolds. Mr. Slowhand did a nice job rearranging the tune for Cream.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers/Change of Heart

Time to pay a visit to the ’80s and one of my favorite artists of all time, who sadly has been gone for five-and-a-half years: Tom Petty. It’s safe to assume most if not all readers have heard about the guitarist and vocalist who hailed from Gainesville, Fla. where in 1976 he formed Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, together with Mike Campbell (lead guitar), Benmont Tench (keyboards), Ron Blair (bass) and Stan Lynch (drums). Campbell and Tench had been members of Petty’s previous group Mudcrutch, which he had started in 1970. At the time, they only released one poor-selling single before disbanding in late 1975. Petty ended up reviving Mudcrutch more than 30 years later and releasing two albums with them, Mudcrutch (2008) and Mudcrutch 2 (2016). Petty passed away in October 2017. His death was subsequently declared as “multisystem organ failure due to resuscitated cardiopulmonary arrest due to mixed drug toxicity.” Only a week earlier, Petty, who had been on potent painkillers for knee problems and a fractured hip and was also battling other health issues, had finished the final show of the Heartbreakers’ 40th-anniversary tour at the legendary Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Change of Heart, written by Petty alone, appeared on Long After Dark, the fifth studio album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released in November 1982. The tune also became one of three singles. Here’s a terrific live version I couldn’t resist using!

The Staple Singers/I’ll Take You There

For our next stop in the ’70s, we don’t need to set our time machine and instead can rely on The Staple Singers to take us there. Our specific destination is February 1972. That’s when the gospel, soul and R&B vocal group put out Be Altitude: Respect Yourself, which became their second-charting album, hitting no. 19 and no. 3 on the Billboard 200 and Soul charts (today known as Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums). At that time, the family group already had existed for 24 years and issued close to 20 albums. Be Altitude: Respect Yourself featured family patriarch Pops Staples and his children Cleotha Staples, Mavis Staples and Yvonne Staples. All have passed except for Mavis Staples, an amazing lady who remains active at 83 years and just embarked on a summer tour with dates until mid-September, mostly in the U.S. and a few in Europe! I’ll Take You There, written by Alvertis Isbell, became one of two no. 1 singles the group scored on the Billboard Hot 100, beating Respect Yourself, the other hit single from that album, which “only” reached no. 12 on the pop chart. Take us there!

The Lone Bellow/Gold

We have time for one more stop. Let’s finish our trip in the present, specifically in November 2022. The Lone Bellow are an Americana and roots trio that began as a song-writing project for Zach Williams (guitar, lead vocals). Following his wife’s temporary paralysis that resulted from an accident, Williams started writing a journal to cope with the situation. Urged by friends, he picked up the guitar and turned his journal entries into songs. After performing as a solo act in New York City, he joined with Brian Elmquist (guitar, vocals) and Kanene Donehey Pipkin (mandolin, bass, keyboard, vocals). In January 2013, the trio released their eponymous debut album. Fast-forward nearly 10 years to Love Songs for Losers, their fifth and most recent album. Here’s Gold, a roots rock tune with a dose of pop – quite catchy music and neat harmony singing!

This Sunday Six wouldn’t be complete without a link to a Spotify playlist of the above tracks. Hope there’s something that tickles your fancy!

Sources: Wikipedia; Mavis Staples website; YouTube; Spotify

Musings of the Past

It’s already been more than a month since the last installment of this irregular feature, so I thought this would be a good time to unearth another previously published post. This one, about the storied Apollo Theater in New York City, first appeared in November 2017, about one and a half years into my blogging journey. It has been slightly edited.

Where Stars Are Born And Legends Are Made

The history of the Apollo Theater and a list of artists who performed at the legendary venue

The Apollo Theater has fascinated me for a long time. At around 2003 or so, I watched a great show there, featuring Earth, Wind & Fire and The Temptations. According to its website, the storied venue in New York’s Harlem neighborhood  “has played a major role in the emergence of jazz, swing, bebop, R&B, gospel, blues and soul.” When you take a look at the artists who are associated with the performance venue, I guess the claim is not an exaggeration.

To start with, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Count Basie Orchestra, Sarah Vaughan, Sammy Davis Jr., James Brown, Gladys Night and “Little” Stevie Wonder are some of the artists whose journey to stardom began at the Apollo.  Countless other major artists, such as Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, B.B. King  and Bob Marley, have performed there. Oh, and in February 1964, a 21-year-old guitarist won first place in the Amateur Night contest. His name? Jimi Hendrix.

The long history of the venue starts with the construction of the building in 1913 to 1914, which would later become the Apollo Theater. Designed by architect George Keister, it was first called the Hurtig and Seamon’s New Burlesque Theater after its initial producers  Jules Hurtig and Harry Seamon. As was sadly common during those times, they enforced a strict “Whites Only” policy until the theater closed its doors in 1928. In 1933, the property was purchased by businessman Sidney Cohen and following extensive renovations reopened as the Apollo Theater in January 1934. Cohen and his business partner Morris Susman adopted a variety revue show format and targeted Harlem’s local African-American community. They also introduced Amateur Night, which quickly became one of New York’s most popular entertainment events.

After Cohen’s death, the Apollo merged with the Harlem Opera House in 1935. This transaction also changed its ownership to Frank Schiffman and Leo Brecher whose families operated the theater until the late ’70s. From 1975 to 1982, the Apollo was owned by Guy Fisher, the venue’s first black owner. Unfortunately, Fisher was also part of African-American crime syndicate  The Council that controlled the heroin trade in Harlem during the ’70s. He has been serving a life sentence at a New York federal prison since 1984. Following the death of an 18-year-old due to a shooting, the Apollo was closed in 1976.

The theater reopened under new management in 1978, before shutting down again in November 1979. In 1983, Percy Sutton purchased the venue. Under the ownership of the prominent lawyer, politician and media and technology executive, the Apollo was equipped with a recording and TV studio. It also obtained federal and city landmark status. In 1991, the State of New York purchased the theater and created the non-profit Apollo  Theater Foundation, which runs the venue to this day. The years 2001 and 2005 saw restorations of the building’s interior and exterior, respectively. In celebration of its 75th anniversary, the Apollo established a historical archive during 2009-10 season, and started an oral history project in collaboration with Columbia University.

Now comes the part of the post I enjoy the most: clips capturing performances of some of the artists who have performed at the Apollo Theater. First up: Count Basie Orchestra playing One O’ Clock Jump and He Plays Bass In The Basie Band. Apparently, this footage is from a 1955 show. I just get a kick out of watching these guys and the obvious fun they had on stage.

Sarah Vaughan was one of the many artists who won Amateur Night at the Apollo in 1942. According to Wikipedia, her prize was $10 and a promised engagement at the venue for one week. The latter materialized in the spring of 1943 when she opened for Ella Fitzgerald. Here’s a clip of a tune called You’re Not The Kind Of A Boy, which apparently was captured in 1956.

Perhaps the artist who is best known for his legendary shows at the Apollo  is James Brown. Various of his gigs there were recorded and published as live albums, such as 1963’s Live At The Apollo and 1968’s Live At Apollo, Volume II, both with The Famous Flames, and Revolution Of The Mind: Live At The Apollo, Volume III (1971). Here’s a clip of a medley including It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World and a few other songs. The footage is from James Brown: Man To Man, a concert film recorded live at the Apollo in March 1968 and broadcast as an hour-long TV special. The intensity of Brown is just unreal. No wonder they called him “Mr. Dynamite” and “The Hardest Man Working In Show Business.”

In 1985, the Apollo celebrated a renovation with a 50th-anniversary grand reopening and a TV special called Motown Salutes the Apollo. Very fittingly, one of the performers included Stevie Wonder. While I wish he would have played Sir Duke in its full length, I just find Wonder’s tribute to the great Duke Ellington beautiful and inspirational.

The Apollo is mostly known to focus on African-American acts, but white artists have performed there as well throughout its history. More recent examples include Guns N’ Roses, who were there in July to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their 1987 studio album Appetite For Destruction. In October 2015, Keith Richards played at the Jazz Foundation of America’s  annual benefit concert. Here’s a great clip of Gimme Shelter, which he performed in honor of Merry Clayton. The American soul and gospel singer sang on the original studio version. Richards was backed by Waddy Wachtel (guitar), Ivan Neville  (keyboards), Willie Weeks (bass) and Steve Jordan (drums), his solo band also known as the X-Pensive Winos, as well as Sarah Dash (vocals), and longtime Rolling Stones backup singers Lisa Fischer and Bernard Fowler.

Today, music remains at the core of the Apollo Theater’s offerings. The Amateur Night at the Apollo competition is still part of the theater’s regular schedule. In fact, the current schedule lists Amateur Night at the Apollo Quarterfinal for tomorrow night (May 25), the first time the competition returns after being dark for nearly two years. The organization’s programming also extends to dance, theater, spoken word and more.

– End –

Pre-COVID, the Apollo Theater attracted an estimated 1.3 million visitors annually. I imagine it is going to take some time to restore this kind of visitor traffic. But the level of activity seems to be picking up.

Sources: Wikipedia, Apollo Theater website, Rolling Stone, YouTube

The Sunday Six

The Sunday Six has become my favorite recurring feature of the blog. Highlighting six tunes from any genre and any time gives me plenty of flexibility. I think this has led to pretty diverse sets of tracks, which I like. There’s really only one self-imposed condition: I have to truly dig the music I include in these posts. With that being said, let’s get to this week’s picks.

Lonnie Smith/Lonnie’s Blues

Let’s get in the mood with some sweet Hammond B-3 organ-driven jazz by Lonnie Smith. If you’re a jazz expert, I imagine you’re aware of the man who at some point decided to add a Dr. title to his name and start wearing a traditional Sikh turban. Until Friday when I spotted the new album by now 78-year-old Dr. Lonnie Smith, I hadn’t heard of him. If you missed it and are curious, I included a tune featuring Iggy Pop in yesterday’s Best of What’s New installment. Smith initially gained popularity in the mid-60s as a member of the George Benson Quartet. In 1967, he released Finger Lickin’ Good Soul Organ, the first album under his name, which then still was Lonnie Smith. Altogether, he has appeared on more than 70 records as a leader or a sideman, and played with numerous other prominent jazz artists who in addition to Benson included the likes of Lou Donaldson, Lee Morgan, King Curtis, Terry Bradds, Joey DeFrancesco and Norah Jones. Here’s Lonnie’s Blues, an original from his above mentioned solo debut. Among the musicians on the album were guitarist George Benson and baritone sax player Ronnie Cuber, both members of the Benson quartet. The record was produced by heavyweight John Hammond, who has worked with Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Leonard Cohen, Mike Bloomfield and Stevie Ray Vaughan, to name some.

John Hiatt/Have a Little Faith in Me

Singer-songwriter John Hiatt’s songs are perhaps best known for having been covered by numerous other artists like B.B. King, Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Emmylou Harris, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, Linda Ronstadt, Ry Cooder and Nick Lowe. While his albums received positive reviews from critics, it took eight records and more than 10 years until Hiatt finally had an album that made the Billboard 200: Bring the Family, from May 1987, which reached no. 107. The successor Slow Turning was his first to crack the top 100, peaking at no 98. If I see this correctly, his highest scoring album on the U.S. mainstream chart to date is Mystic Pinball from 2012, which climbed to no. 39. Hiatt did much better on Billboard’s Independent Chart where most of his albums charted since 2000, primarily in the top 10. Fans can look forward to Leftover Feelings, a new album Hiatt recorded during the pandemic with the Jerry Douglas Band, scheduled for May 21. Meanwhile, here’s Have a Little Faith in Me, a true gem from the above noted Bring the Family, which I first knew because of Joe Cocker’s 1994 cover. Hiatt recorded the album together with Ry Cooder (guitar), Nick Lowe (bass) and Jim Keltner (drums), who four years later formed the short-lived Little Village and released an eponymous album in 1992.

Robbie Robertson/Go Back to Your Woods

Canadian artist Robbie Robertson is of course best known as lead guitarist and songwriter of The Band. Between their July 1968 debut Music from Big Pink and The Last Waltz from April 1978, Robertson recorded seven studio and two live albums with the group. Since 1970, he had also done session and production work outside of The Band, something he continued after The Last Waltz. Between 1980 and 1986, he collaborated on various film scores with Martin Scorsese who had directed The Last Waltz. In October 1987, Robertson’s eponymous debut appeared. He has since released four additional studio albums, one film score and various compilations. Go Back to Your Woods, co-written by Robertson and Bruce Hornsby, is a track from Robertson’s second solo album Storyville from September 1991. I like the tune’s cool soul vibe.

Joni Mitchell/Refuge of the Roads

Joni Mitchell possibly is the greatest songwriter of our time I’ve yet to truly explore. Some of her songs have very high vocals that have always sounded a bit pitchy to my ears. But I realize that’s mostly the case on her early recordings, so it’s not a great excuse. Plus, there are tunes like Big Yellow Taxi, Chinese Café/Unchained Melody and Both Sides Now I’ve dug for a long time. I think Graham from Aphoristic Album Reviews probably hit the nail on the head when recently told me, “One day you’ll finally love Joni Mitchell.” In part, his comment led me to include the Canadian singer-songwriter in this post. Since her debut Song to a Seagull from March 1968, Mitchell has released 18 additional studio records, three studio albums and multiple compilations. Since I’m mostly familiar with Wild Things Run Fast from 1982, this meansbthere’s lots of other music to explore! Refuge of the Roads is from Mitchell’s eighth studio album Hejira that came out in November 1976. By that time, she had left her folkie period behind and started to embrace a more jazz oriented sound. The amazing bass work is by fretless bass guru Jaco Pastorius. Sadly, he died from a brain hemorrhage in September 1987 at the age of 35, a consequence from severe head injuries inflicted during a bar fight he had provoked.

Los Lobos/I Got to Let You Know

Los Lobos, a unique band blending rock & roll, Tex-Mex, country, zydeco, folk, R&B, blues and soul with traditional Spanish music like cumbia, bolero and norteño, have been around for 48 years. They were founded in East Los Angeles in 1973 by vocalist and guitarist David Hildago and drummer Louis Pérez who met in high school and liked the same artists, such as Fairport Convention, Randy Newman and Ry Cooder. Later they asked their fellow students Frank Gonzalez (vocals, mandolin, arpa jarocha), Cesar Rosas (vocals, guitar, bajo sexto) and Conrad Lozano (bass, guitarron, vocals) to join them, completing band’s first line-up. Amazingly, Hidalgo, Pérez, Rosas and Lozano continue to be members of the current formation, which also includes Steve Berlin (keyboards, woodwinds) who joined in 1984. Their Spanish debut album Los Lobos del Este de Los Angeles was self-released in early 1978 when the band was still known as Los Lobos del Este de Los Angeles. By the time of sophomore album How Will the Wolf Survive?, their first major label release from October 1984, the band had shortened their name to Los Lobos and started to write songs in English. In 1987, Los Lobos recorded some covers of Ritchie Valens tunes for the soundtrack of the motion picture La Bamba, including the title track, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks in the summer of the same year. To date, Los Lobos have released more than 20 albums, including three compilations and four live records. I Got to Let You Know, written by Rosas, is from the band’s aforementioned second album How Will the Wolf Survive? This rocks!

Booker T. & the M.G.’s/Green Onions

Let’s finish where this post started, with the seductive sound of a Hammond B-3. Once I decided on that approach, picking Booker T. & the M.G.’s wasn’t much of a leap. Neither was Green Onions, though I explored other tunes, given it’s the “obvious track.” In the end, I couldn’t resist featuring what is one of the coolest instrumentals I know. Initially, Booker T. & the M.G.’s were formed in 1962 in Memphis, Tenn. as the house band of Stax Records. The original members included Booker T. Jones (organ, piano), Steve Cropper (guitar), Lewie Steinberg (bass) and Al Jackson Jr. (drums). They played on hundreds of recordings by Stax artists during the ’60s, such as Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Bill Withers, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas and Albert King. In 1962 during downtime for recording sessions with Billy Lee Riley, the band started improvising around a bluesy organ riff 17-year-old Booker T. Jones had come up with. It became Green Onions and was initially released as a B-side in May 1962 on Stax subsidiary Volt. In August of the same year, the tune was reissued as an A-side. It also became the title track of Booker T. & the M.G.’s debut album that appeared in October of the same year. In 1970, Jones left Stax, frustrated about the label’s treatment of the M.G.’s as employees rather than as musicians. The final Stax album by Booker T. & the M.G.s was Melting Pot from January 1971. Two additional albums appeared under the band’s name: Universal Language (1977) and That’s the Way It Should Be (1994). Al Jackson Jr. and Lewie Steinberg passed away in October 1975 and July 2016, respectively. Booker T. Jones and Steve Cropper remain active to this day. Cropper has a new album, Fire It Up, scheduled for April 23. Two tunes are already out and sound amazing!

Sources: Wikipedia; YouTube