Month: May 2011

Brother Jack Mcduff – The Vibrator (1969)

Down Home Style is an exceptionally unique album for Jack McDuff, one that was recorded in Memphis, with a lineup and a feel that’s quite different from other Blue Note sessions of the time! There’s a lot of electricity bubbling in the record and although McDuff normally never worked with a bassist on earlier sessions, this one features a unnamed player who really lays out a nice bottom for the whole session, accenting the tunes with lots of work on the electric, and letting McDuff concentrate on funking things up with the keys of the Hammond! The set features a key recording of Jack’s classic “Theme From the Electric Surfboard,” plus the funky numbers “Butter (For Yo Popcorn),” “The Vibrator” and “Down Home Style.” [Source]

[via Thomas Tingstrup]

Herbie Hancock – Wiggle Waggle (1969)

Fat Albert Rotunda is the eighth album by jazz keyboardist Herbie Hancock, released in 1969. It also was the first album that Hancock had on the Warner Bros. Records label, since leaving Blue Note Records.

Herbie Hancock — piano, electric piano
Joe Henderson — tenor sax, alto flute
Garnett Brown — trombone
Johnny Coles — trumpet, flugelhorn
Buster Williams — electric & acoustic bass
Albert “Tootie” Heath — drums
Eric Gale – guitar


[via Anders Chan-Tidemann]

Miles Davis – A Tribute To Jack Johnson (Full Album) (1971)

The first major recording session for the album, which took place on April 7, 1970, was almost accidental: John McLaughlin, awaiting Miles’s arrival, began improvising riffs on his guitar, and was shortly joined by Michael Henderson and Billy Cobham. Meanwhile, the producers brought in Herbie Hancock, who had been passing through the building on unrelated business, to play the Farfisa organ. Miles arrived at last and began his solo at about 2:19 on the first track. The album’s two long tracks were assembled in the editing room by producer Teo Macero. “Right Off” is constructed from several takes and a solo by Davis recorded in November 1969. It contains a riff from Sly and the Family Stone’s “Sing a Simple Song”. Much of the track “Yesternow” is built around a slightly modified version of the bassline from the James Brown song “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud”; this may be a deliberate allusion to the song’s Black Power theme as it relates to the film’s subject. “Yesternow” also incorporates a brief excerpt of “Shhh/Peaceful” from Davis’s 1969 album In a Silent Way and a 10-minute section comprising several takes of the tune “Willie Nelson” from a session on 18 February 1970.