My semi-weekly trip to my two neighborhood (withing a 10 minute drive) used record shops proved fruitful yesterday.
Found at store no.1 (where I’ve seen nothing worse than VG+ LP’s):
- Dean Martin: Dream With Dean (Reprise Records, stereo), $6. I knew him as an actor and comedian, but Dean first made his name as a singer. Unlike most of his other albums, this is serious music making, with accompaniment by Barney Kessel on guitar, Ken Lane on piano, Red Mitchell on upright bass, and the great Irv Cottler (Sinatra’s long-time drummer) on drums (Irv kept his sets in the same storage facility as I in Burbank, and offered to sell me the Slingerland kit Buddy Rich gave him. He wanted too much for it, so I passed).
Chad Kassem thought so highly of the music and sound of the Dream With Dean album that he put it out on his Analogue Productions label, but in mono I think.
- The Charles Lloyd Quartet: Love-In (Atlantic Records, stereo), $7. Corny album title, an attempt to sell to the young white kids (such as myself) who were just starting to get into Jazz in 1967 and 8. The album was recorded live on a Sunday afternoon in late-1967 at The Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, and look at this line-up: Lloyd on tenor sax and flute, Keith Jarrett on piano, Ron McClure on upright bass, and Jack DeJohnette on drums. What a band!
Charles became involved with The Beach Boys in the 70’s, and DeJohnette was playing in Miles Davis’ band when The Band had Miles open for them at The Hollywood Bowl. Jack and Band drummer/singer Levon Helm became close friends. DeJohnette included The Band’s "Up On Cripple Creek" in his own band’s set. Ironically, playing drums on The Band’s recording of that great song is Band pianist/singer Richard Manuel.
- Steve Forbert: Little Stevie Orbit (Nemperor Records), $5. The LP was mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound in NYC, so should sound great darn good.
I only recently got into Forbert, picking this one up simply because I saw Bobby Lloyd Hicks is the drummer on the album. Bobby was a member of the great Springfield, Missouri band The Skeletons, and later a member of Dave Alvin’s band The Guilty Men. Alvin also worked with an all female band he named---of course---The Guilty Women ;-) . The GW’s drummer came out of the band of a great songwriter based in Austin, Cornell Hurd. I knew Cornell from growing up in San Jose, where he played drums in his first musical combo---a garage band, of course. He ended up gravitating towards Country & Western and Western Swing, making music that is like Asleep At The Wheel, Commander Cody, and Dan Hicks rolled into one. Junior Brown has recorded a couple of his songs, as did The Skeletons.
- The Bernie Leadon/Michael Georgiades Band: Natural Progressions (Asylum Records), $5. Bernie left The Eagles when they moved too far away from Country for his liking ("Life In The Fast Lane"? Oy.), moving into pretty hard Bluegrass. I know nothing about Georgiades, but I guess I’m about to find out. Playing drums on the album is a very good one---David Kemper, who was also the drummer on T Bone Burnett’s great Truth Decay album.
- And lastly, three albums by a guy whom I know only from his 1968 hit single "Classical Gas": Mason Williams. But all three are on Warner Brothers Records (THE artist-orientated label in the late-60’s/early-70’s), have members of The Wrecking Crew playing instruments on them (including Jim Gordon---later of Derek & The Dominos, etc.)---as well as James Burton, and were priced right. They are:
- The Mason Williams Phonograph Record (which contains "CG"), $10.
- The Mason Williams Ear Show (participants include Jennifer Warren and John Hartford), $7.
- Handmade, $6.
That’s long enough for one post, I’ll do the other shop later.
Found at store no.1 (where I’ve seen nothing worse than VG+ LP’s):
- Dean Martin: Dream With Dean (Reprise Records, stereo), $6. I knew him as an actor and comedian, but Dean first made his name as a singer. Unlike most of his other albums, this is serious music making, with accompaniment by Barney Kessel on guitar, Ken Lane on piano, Red Mitchell on upright bass, and the great Irv Cottler (Sinatra’s long-time drummer) on drums (Irv kept his sets in the same storage facility as I in Burbank, and offered to sell me the Slingerland kit Buddy Rich gave him. He wanted too much for it, so I passed).
Chad Kassem thought so highly of the music and sound of the Dream With Dean album that he put it out on his Analogue Productions label, but in mono I think.
- The Charles Lloyd Quartet: Love-In (Atlantic Records, stereo), $7. Corny album title, an attempt to sell to the young white kids (such as myself) who were just starting to get into Jazz in 1967 and 8. The album was recorded live on a Sunday afternoon in late-1967 at The Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, and look at this line-up: Lloyd on tenor sax and flute, Keith Jarrett on piano, Ron McClure on upright bass, and Jack DeJohnette on drums. What a band!
Charles became involved with The Beach Boys in the 70’s, and DeJohnette was playing in Miles Davis’ band when The Band had Miles open for them at The Hollywood Bowl. Jack and Band drummer/singer Levon Helm became close friends. DeJohnette included The Band’s "Up On Cripple Creek" in his own band’s set. Ironically, playing drums on The Band’s recording of that great song is Band pianist/singer Richard Manuel.
- Steve Forbert: Little Stevie Orbit (Nemperor Records), $5. The LP was mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound in NYC, so should sound great darn good.
I only recently got into Forbert, picking this one up simply because I saw Bobby Lloyd Hicks is the drummer on the album. Bobby was a member of the great Springfield, Missouri band The Skeletons, and later a member of Dave Alvin’s band The Guilty Men. Alvin also worked with an all female band he named---of course---The Guilty Women ;-) . The GW’s drummer came out of the band of a great songwriter based in Austin, Cornell Hurd. I knew Cornell from growing up in San Jose, where he played drums in his first musical combo---a garage band, of course. He ended up gravitating towards Country & Western and Western Swing, making music that is like Asleep At The Wheel, Commander Cody, and Dan Hicks rolled into one. Junior Brown has recorded a couple of his songs, as did The Skeletons.
- The Bernie Leadon/Michael Georgiades Band: Natural Progressions (Asylum Records), $5. Bernie left The Eagles when they moved too far away from Country for his liking ("Life In The Fast Lane"? Oy.), moving into pretty hard Bluegrass. I know nothing about Georgiades, but I guess I’m about to find out. Playing drums on the album is a very good one---David Kemper, who was also the drummer on T Bone Burnett’s great Truth Decay album.
- And lastly, three albums by a guy whom I know only from his 1968 hit single "Classical Gas": Mason Williams. But all three are on Warner Brothers Records (THE artist-orientated label in the late-60’s/early-70’s), have members of The Wrecking Crew playing instruments on them (including Jim Gordon---later of Derek & The Dominos, etc.)---as well as James Burton, and were priced right. They are:
- The Mason Williams Phonograph Record (which contains "CG"), $10.
- The Mason Williams Ear Show (participants include Jennifer Warren and John Hartford), $7.
- Handmade, $6.
That’s long enough for one post, I’ll do the other shop later.