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Daniel Salinas - Atlantis

July 22nd, 2012

Daniel Salinas - AtlantisDANIEL SALINAS

  • Atlantis
  • Top Tape
  • 1973
  • Brazil

Daniel Salinas, a pianist, composer, arranger and conductor from Sao Paolo, Brazil, apparently released only two albums in the early 1970s. His debut was an album of Brazilian sambas called Paz amor e samba released in 1972. After that album he was heading more and more into the world of jazzfunk sounds and the second album of Salinas called Atlantis was released in 1974. It was totally different than the first album. Funky horns, strings, flutes and Rhodes sounds remind time to time of some great blaxploitation soundtracks.

There’s still plenty of variety on Atlantis. There’s mellow downtempo tracks like the opening title “Like a rainy night”. It’s acoustic guitar and percussion driven mellow start is actually quite nice before turning into an even nicer uptempo breakbeat groover in the middle and then again returning to it’s mellowness towards the end. The next one, “No broken heart”, is exactly what it sounds like, a melancholic and moody downtempo track. Then comes “Baiao”, an uptempo jazzy groover with a quite heavy strings. In my opinion it could’ve been a great track but the strings are occasionally way too disturbing for my taste. Next up is the best track on this album, a nice uptempo breakbeat driven version of Richard Strauss Jr.’s masterpiece “Also sprach Zarathustra” here renamed as “Straussmania”. With it’s guitar melodies (familiar from 2001 Space oddity), nice bassline and bboy friendly drums it belongs to my all time favorite takes of this much covered song. Remember the Deodato version? This one works even better for me. After that comes yet another cover, a slow and moody but at the same time very groovy seven minute version of Simon & Garfunkel’s hit “Bridge over troubled water”. “A song for a helping hand” is again a melancolic downtempo track similar to “No broken heart”. Last one, the title track “Atlantis” (a cover of a Donovan song) is again a downtempo song with a certain sadness in the beginning, but in the middle it changes into a nice groovy tun with quite a heavy drums.


Like a rainy night


Baiao


Straussmania


Bridge over troubled water


Atlantis

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Written by Mista Tibbz, at 18.00, filed under jazzfunk, south america | No Comments »

Eero Koivistoinen Music Society - Wahoo!

July 4th, 2012

Eero Koivistoinen Music Society - Wahoo!EERO KOIVISTOINEN MUSIC SOCIETY

  • Wahoo!
  • RCA Victor
  • 1973
  • Finland

1946 born saxophone player Eero Koivistoinen is undoubtedly one of the biggest names in Finnish jazz scene. He has done a long career as a musician, composer, arranger, conductor and producer. His career started in the mid 1960s in an orchestra playing experimental avant-garde jazz. The first solo album of Eero Koivistoinen was a concept album of poems by well known Finnish poets sung by well known Finnish singers Eero Raittinen, Vesa-Matti Loiri and Seija Simola. That album was called Valtakunta (The Kingdom in English) and it was released in 1968. In the beginning of 1070s Koivistoinen moved to the United States to study in the famous Berklee College of Music in Boston for three years. After almost 50 years and dozens of albums he’s still an active character playing with the next generation of Finnish jazz cats today.

In 1973 was released the album Wahoo! with a one-off group called Eero Koivistoinen Music Society. Involved in this sort of a supergroup was many of the very same musicians that were playing in most of the Finnish jazz records that time. And what a line-up that was; Eero Koivistoinen on saxophones (tenor, soprano, sopranino and electric soprano), Juhani Aalto on trombone, Kaj Backlund on trumpet, Juhani Aaltonen and Unto Haapa-aho on reeds, Esa Helasvuo, Esko Linnavalli and Olli Ahvenlahti on Fender Rhodes, Ilpo Saastamoinen and Ilkka Willman on electric guitar, Heikki Virtanen and Ilkka Willman on bass and Edward Vesala, Esko Rosnell, Reiska Laine and Sabu Martinez on drums and percussion. The album sounds exactly what you expect with a line-up like that. Syncopated funky jazz fusion with really tight rhythms by the set of two drummers, two bassists and two guitarists.

The album starts with the strong midtempo saxophone driven jazz groover “Hot c”. Almost eight minutes of action is what you get here. It’s followed by “7 up”, more jazzy but at least equally heavy track. Next up is “6 down”. With it’s eight minutes of some serious wah-wah, funky Rhodes and drums it’s among the best tracks on the album. B-side starts with the epic almost 11 minutes long “Suite 19”. It starts with an experimental sounding four minute intro before turning into an uptempo wah-wah driven, percussive, almost blaxploitation sounding track. Next track, “Bells” is the only mellow track on the album. Last but not least is the downtempo funky fusion title track “Wahoo!”. Overall this album is really great but not that magnificent it’s often praised. And in my opinion it’s not worth the 300-400 euros people ask for it. Luckily for all the non purists it was reissued in 2001. The reissue – both cd and vinyl – come with the cover coloring it should’ve been. Originally the print messed up the cover and it’s colors were a little different what they were intended to be.


Hot c


7 Up


6 Down


Suite 19


Bells


Wahoo!

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Written by Mista Tibbz, at 18.00, filed under europe, jazzfunk | No Comments »

You & The Explosion Band - Lupin III

April 22nd, 2012

You & The Explosion Band - Lupin IIIYOU & THE EXPLOSION BAND

  • Lupin III
  • Nippon Columbia
  • 1978
  • Japan

Yuji Ohno (大野 雄二) was born 1941 in Atami, Shizuoka. Soon after his first public appearances he became very well known in his homeland Japan as a great jazz pianist and composer. In the mid 1970s he formed his own jazz band, called You & The Explosion Band (ユ－&エクスプロ－ジョン・バンド) - where You Refers to Ohno himself. Even though he has released a lot of records during his career, he is primarly known for his scores for the anime series Lupin III. Before Ohno started scoring the Shin Rupan Sansei (New Lupin III) series in 1977, there was only some occasional 45s released of the series within its original run in the late 1960s early 1970s. But with Ohno handling things, there suddenly started to appear a relatively great number of soundtrack albums during the years. Of course these were not all for the tv anime series that run from 1977 to 1980 and from 1984 to 1985, but there was a great number of other stuff aswell. Including direct-to-video releases, yearly television specials and full length anime films. And they were really popular. Even the legendary Studio Ghibli did their share with the feature film called Castle of Cagliostro (Rupan Sansei: Kariosutoro no Shiro) in 1979 (as directed by Hayao Miyazaki). Hayao Miazaki and Isao Takahata also directed a great deal of the original 1971-1972 series by the way, but that was a time before Studio Ghibli was even established. But anyways, when the second Lupin III series began running on NTV in 1977, the boom of soundtracks also begun. Totally 48 soundtrack albums were released and most of them were composed by by Yuji Ohno. Takeo Yamashita made his little share on those too, but it was really minimal compared to Ohno. Later on Ohno have even released 15 collections of jazz arrangements of the Lupin III series with his Yuji Ohno Trio, The Lupintic Five and The Lupintic Sixteen.

This soundtrack here, simply named Lupin III, is supposingly the first one of the new series. It was released in 1978. The album starts with “Theme from Lupin III”, the original take of the new series theme. It’s an uptempo disco’ish soundtrack with some jazzy feel and there’s some dialogue in the middle as well. Next two, “Silhouette” and “I miss you babe (yes I do)”, are a little cheesy ballads. The latter one has vocals sung by Sandra Hohn. Next one is “Red roses for the killer”, a midtempo jazzy track. Then there’s “Dangerous zone”, which is an uptempo chase theme with nice breakbeats, some percussion and strong horns but on the other hand, there’s some occasional cheesy synth strings too. Next one, “Sunset flight” is a mellow groover with a hint of latin in it. It’s followed by the well known downtempo groover “Magnum dance” and a little similar “Lonely for the Road”. Last two tracks are the love songs of the album, “Lovin’ you (Lucky)” and “Love theme”. First one sung by Tommy Snyder (of the Godiego fame). Overall this is a pretty decent album and a good start for the great series.


Theme from Lupin III


Red roses for the killer


Dangerous zone


Sunset flight


Magnum dance


Lonely for the Road

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Written by Mista Tibbz, at 18.00, filed under asia, disco, jazzfunk, soundtrack | No Comments »

Eddy Louiss - Histoire sans parole

November 2nd, 2011

Eddy Louiss - Histoire Sans ParoleEDDY LOUISS

  • Histoire sans parole
  • Goss records
  • 1979
  • France

Organist Eddy Louiss (real name Edward Louise) was born in France, 1941. His father was a talented musician of Martiniquan descent and his mother was a French schoolteacher. They both encouraged little Edward to the land of music, and he started his piano lessons at the age of five. Later he continued to study harmony and music theory in conservatory, and also toured with his father on casino summer tours playing piano and singing. Edward quit school at the age of 16 and fully concentrated on music thereafter. His professional career begun in 1961 with one Daniel Humair. Almost two decades later his solo album Histoire sans parole was released on a small Goss label. During his career, Eddy Louiss have been involved with dozens and dozens of recordings, but he did only few straight solo albums.

Histoire sans parole is a quite pure jazzfunk album. With a range of songs from midtempo groovers to uptempo floorfillers, it’s a one truly magnificent record. Uptempo “St. Cyprien” and midtempo “Sagittaire” are both nice jazzfunk groovers, the latter being among my all time favorite French jazzfunk tracks. Last song, the midtempo “Insomnie” is an almost 11 minute monster rare groove jazzfunk track that is very close to “Sagittaire” what comes to its splendor. Three other tracks on this album, “Histoire sans parole”, “Canon” and “Capricorne” aren’t that bad either.


St. Cyprien


Sagittaire


Insomnie

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Written by Mista Tibbz, at 18.00, filed under europe, jazzfunk | No Comments »

Nathan Davis - Suite for dr. Martin Luther King jr.

February 23rd, 2011

Nathan Davis - Suite for dr Martin Luther King JrNATHAN DAVIS

  • Suite for dr. Martin Luther King jr.
  • Tomorrow international
  • 1976
  • USA

Kansas City born multi-instrumentalist (tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, bass clarinet and flute) Nathan Davis did this album in honor of dr. Martin Luther King and his achievements. Although the music is mostly free improvisation and traditional jazz, it contains also small elements of soul, funk, gospel and blues with some spoken word added between the tracks. This album may not be as funky as his If album from the same year, but it still has two really magnificent tracks. Uptempo jazzfunk track “Funk-a-dilly Molly” starts with a guitar-drum break and continues as a nice percussion driven dancefloor filler throughout the whole song. “Mean business” is similar groover, with more horns, more funkiness and a little less pace. There’s two different cover versions both released on Nathan Davis‘ own Tomorrow international label and this green cover being the second pressing.


Funk-a-dilly Molly


Mean business

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Written by Mista Tibbz, at 18.00, filed under jazzfunk, north america | No Comments »

Byron Peterson orchestra - Jazz rock U.S.A.

February 11th, 2011

Byron Peterson Orchestra - Jazz Rock USABYRON PETERSON ORCHESTRA

  • Jazz rock U.S.A.
  • Hoctor
  • early 1970s
  • USA

Once America’s #1 organizer of dance workshops and competitions, Hoctor Dance Enterprises was established in 1959 by Danny and Betty Hoctor, a famous dance team who later founded a record company to produce material for dance instruction. From the early 1960s they produced wide range of music intended for dancing. Most of the albums produced are non-interesting traditional stuff, but there’s several pearls to be found from their catalogue too. Not much info is available of this record’s artist, Byron Peterson, except a short bio that’s written on the back cover.

The title Jazz rock U.S.A. is a little misleading one. the record doesn not contain any jazz-rock at all, it’s a mixture of mellow jazz grooves and jazzfunk. In their own way all the tracks are good or at least decent. There’s a lot of percussion, catchy horns and no electric guitar at all. Despite the occasional cheesy feeling, Jazz rock U.S.A. is one of the best ones as a whole in the Hoctor catalogue. Album starts with a groovy midtempo track “Sunday satisfaction” that has a kind of a break in the beginning and nice mellow groove throughout the song. Next up is a smooth cover of Bill Withers‘ classic “Ain’t no sunshine” that starts as a mellow downtempo groover and suddenly fastens the pace with a percussion break before getting back to mellowness again. Much covered Isaac Hayes‘ “Theme from Shaft” follows. It’s a pretty funky take with more jazziness than the original. The covers of Carole King’s “I feel the earth move” and Arthur Conley’s “Funky street” are also good ones. Rest of the songs are groovy jazz numbers such as “Blues down” and “Moogie mood”. Now that Hoctor Records has bankcrupted there’s no possibility to get exact info when this was released but around 1972 should be quite close.


Blues down


Moogie mood


Ain’t no sunshine


Sunday satisfaction


Theme from Shaft


I feel the earth move


Funky street

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Written by Mista Tibbz, at 18.00, filed under jazzfunk, north america | No Comments »

Big band Katowice - Music for my friends

January 15th, 2011

Big band Katowice - Music for my friendsBIG BAND KATOWICE

  • Music for my friends
  • Muza
  • 1977
  • Poland

Katowice is a relatively small city in Silesian voivodeship in southern Poland that has stood there since the 16th century. It has a colorful history between the kingdom of Prussia and the Russian federation, but most of all it has been an important effect on the jazz scene in the whole Poland. And of course it has produced one of the best jazz albums in Polish jazz history. This album - Music for my friends - presents Big band Katowice at its peak line-up with a variety of jazz-rock fusion tracks mixed with contemporary mainstream jazz. This line-up consists of students from Katowice Academy of Music and here you can find some of the brightest stars of the Polish jazz movement of the 1970s. After this album members of the band have played in many of the most important groups in Polish jazz, such as Extra ball, Sunship, Novi singers and Swing session. Some of the musicians also appear on various German library music records.

Music for my friends is a fine example of the sound widely known as the “Silesian sound”. It’s a selection from mellow downtempo tracks to grooving uptempo dancefloor fillers. It’s no doubt one of the finest moments in Polish jazz. Standouts in this album are the really funky uptempo jazzfunk number “Hey, man” with a little lazy horn and flute driven drum/percussion breakdown in the middle, the uptempo jazzfunker “Sorcerer” and the insane “Madrox” that starts with a hectic bboy break and continues with pitched up riffs lifted from Meters‘ classic “Cissy Strut”. Not too easy to find with a cheap price but not that rare either.


Hey, man


Sorcerer


Madrox

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Written by Mista Tibbz, at 18.00, filed under europe, jazz | No Comments »

Charles Kynard - Your mama don’t dance

December 28th, 2010

Charles Kynard - Your Mama Don't DanceCHARLES KYNARD

  • Your mama don’t dance
  • Mainstream Records
  • 1973
  • USA

As the last one of the ten albums Charles Kynard did, Your mama don’t dance is clearly the most funky. It’s an all instrumental album that starts and ends with a Stevie Wonder cover. The musicians on this album are basically the who’s who of the funky jazzers; On bass there’s Chuck Rainey that we know from the co-operation with Jiro Inagaki on the great Blockbuster album. On drums there’s two really funky jazz drummers - Paul Humphrey and Ray Pounds. The cover doesn’t say who plays on which track though. There’s also Arthur Adams on guitar and of course Charles Kynard on Hammond B3 organ.

First up on the album is a nice jazzfunk take of the big Stevie Wonder hit “Superstition” that starts off with a basic superstition-break and continues as a mid-tempo organ groover. The last song instead is a mellow take of the Wonder song “You’ve got it bad girl”. Generally the songs on this album are nice down-tempo or mid-tempo jazzfunk numbers like “Your mama don’t dance”, Momma jive”, “Summer Breeze” and the melacholic War-cover “The world is a ghetto”. Best tracks on this one however are the jazzfunk groover “Zambesi” and the magnificent version of the Sir Joe Quarterman hit “I got so much trouble”. This is not exactly a rare one, should be quite easy to get.


Superstition


The world is a ghetto


Zambesi


I got so much trouble

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Written by Mista Tibbz, at 18.00, filed under jazzfunk, north america | 2 Comments »

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