James Brown and the Famous Flames - Live at The Garden (Rare Album US 1962)

220:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition, utgången utgåva sen 2007. Svår James Brown album att hitta.)

Surely one of James Brown's most mysterious opuses: apparently never even reissued on *vinyl*, despite an impressive chart placement. Of course, the somewhat misleading packaging ("somewhat", meaning check out this review box title for the actual venue, another great landmark, though quite different in scale!), and subway station post-production effects, presumeably to make it sound like a huge auditorium event, added to the confusion. [The slow-running master tape didn't help either].

Then again, it's James Brown, who always found a special way of making order out of "chaos" - who else can keep a one-chord riff going for days, with mostly non-verbal emanations ("Hip Bag '67", track four)?

Yes, all of James Brown's live album have good audience sonic inreraction, and here the crowd is up in the mix, which adds to the excitement, although, in a sense, it also is a reminder that a big aspect of the live experience is in the visuals, and typically, though we can hear the crowd, there are no stills from the actual event. 

One can imagine the beatific glow on the on the receiving end of the funk (though that came a few months later).

I say, without hesitation that this is Brown's most exciting live album (the Live in Dallas set has that heart-pounding and foot-stompin' "pop", but is *paced*). Following the greatest vocal introduction in recorded history, we're right into nearly-manic renditions of "Out Of Sight" and "Bring It Up", and the audience is already close to being emotionally spent. Cut five has a tremendous "Prisoner Of Love", his best on record. 

The take recorded at the Apollo about five months later does not have the Soul or warmth this one has - he sounded a bit tired and distracted on that much better-known performance on "....Apollo, Vol. Two". Historians might presume that some of that "lower-impact" approach may have been by design. It's been written that sometime in 1967 JB considered retirement, and during that period changed the "pacing" of his shows. [When the Latin Casino recording was made, it seems that the over-the-top, beginning to end, approach was the key, so listeners can appreciate this intriquing piece of history].

Another tune fares better here than on the forementioned double-album: "It Maybe The Last Time". [For initiates, it is reminiscent of an earlier tune by the Staple Singers, "This Could Be The Last Time", and a later tune by the Rolling Stones]. This one has the power and compression, quite possibly noticed by Bad Company ("Can't Get Enough Of Your Love").

The gospel styled R & B-jazz hit "Ain't That A Groove" has the band at optimum capacity. (Another strong presumption: Paul McCartney referenced this particular track *and* "Please, Please, Please", prefacing the finale, "Bring It Up" [reprise]).


01. Out Of Sight
02. Bring It Up
03. Try Me
04. Let Yourself Go
05. Hip Bag '67
06. Prisoner Of Love
07. It May Be The Last Time
08. I Got You (I Feel Good)
09. Ain't That A Groove-Part 1-Ain't That A Groove-Part 2
10. Please,Please,Please
11. Bring It Up

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - Okie Dokie Stomper - Peacock Records Years 1949-59)

220:- (Blues Album från OLDAYS Records, limiterad utgåva. Endast ett exemplar i lager.)

Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown (April 18, 1924 - September 10, 2005) was an American musician from Louisiana and Texas. He is best known for his work as a blues musician, but embraced other styles of music, having "spent his career fighting purism by synthesizing old blues, country, jazz, Cajun music and R&B styles". His work also encompasses rock and roll, rock music, folk, electric blues, and Texas blues.

He was an acclaimed multi-instrumentalist, who played an array of musical instruments such as guitar, fiddle, mandolin, viola as well as harmonica and drums. He won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album in 1983 for his album, Alright Again!. He is regarded as one of the most influential exponents of blues fiddle and has had enormous influence in American fiddle circles.

Brown's two biggest musical influences were Louis Jordan and T-Bone Walker.

Born in Vinton, Louisiana, Brown was raised in Orange, Texas. His professional musical career began in 1945, playing drums in San Antonio, Texas. He was given the nickname "Gatemouth" by a high school teacher who said he had "voice like a gate". His career was boosted while attending a 1947 concert by T-Bone Walker in Don Robey's Bronze Peacock Houston nightclub. When Walker became ill, Brown took up his guitar and quickly wrote and played "Gatemouth Boogie," to the delight of the audience right on the spot.

In 1949 Robey founded Peacock Records in order to showcase Brown's virtuoso guitar work. Brown's "Mary Is Fine"/"My Time Is Expensive" was a hit for Peacock in 1949. A string of Peacock releases in the 1950s were less successful commercially, but were nonetheless pioneering musically. 

Particularly notable was the 1954 instrumental "Okie Dokie Stomp", in which Brown solos continuously over a punchy horn section (other instrumentals from this period include "Boogie Uproar" and "Gate Walks to Board"). Okie Dokie Stomp was also recorded by Cornell Dupree in the 1970s and he had success with it as well. As for his gutsy violin playing, Robey allowed him to record "Just Before Dawn", his final release on the Peacock label, in 1959.

In the 1960s Brown moved to Nashville, Tennessee to participate in a syndicated R&B television show, and while he was there recorded several country singles. He struck up a friendship with Roy Clark and made several appearances on the television show Hee Haw. In 1966, Brown was the musical director for the house band on the short-lived television program, The !!!! Beat.

The album of Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown - Peacock Records Years is now Released as a Japanese Cardboard Sleeve CD 2014, Recorded in 1949-1959.

01. Mary Is Fine (1950)
02. My Time Is Expensive (1950)
03. Did not Reach My Goal (1950)
04. Atomic Energy (1950)
05. Mercy On Me (1950)
06. Boogie Rambler (1950)
07. I've Been Mistreated (1950)
08. I Live My Life (1951)
09. Two O'Clock In The Morning (1950)
10. It Can Never Be That Way (1950)
11. Justice Blues (1951)
12. Just Got Lucky (1952)
13. She Walks Right In (1950)
14. Win With Me (1950)
15. Too Late Baby (1951)
16. Taking My Chances (1951)
17. Baby Take It Easy (1952)
18. She Winked Her Eye (1951)
19. Sad Hour (1951)
20. Pale Dry Boogie pt1 (1951)
21. Pale Dry Boogie pt2 (1951)
22. Dirty Work At The Crossroads (1952)
23. You Got Money (1952)
24. Gate Walks To The Board (1953)
25. Midnight Hour (1954)
26. Okie Dokie Stomp (1954)
27. Gate's Salty Blues (1955)
28. Ain't That Dandy (1956)
29. Just Before Dawn (1958)

Booker T. - Evergreen (Rare Memphis Soul/Funk Album US 1974)

220:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition. Som AMG skriver i sin recension: "one the greatest R&B and soul bands in the history ". Denna Mini LP släpptes 2010.)

Playing organ and keyboards in the MG's, one the greatest R&B and soul bands in the history of pop music, Booker T. Jones was no stranger to the pop world when he recorded Evergreen in 1974. As part of the MG's, he played on innumerable Stax Records sessions backing everyone from Otis Redding to Sam & Dave, and the MG's hit the charts a few times themselves, beginning with the timeless "Green Onions" instrumental in 1962. 

But things began going south for Stax in the early '70s, and Jones could see the writing on the wall, leaving the label well before it filed for bankruptcy in 1975 and signing with A&M Records in 1971 and consequently releasing a series of albums with his then-wife Priscilla Coolidge. He signed with Epic Records in 1974, issued Evergreen, and then returned to A&M Records. Evergreen isn't a soul record, at least not the way the MG's did it, and Jones wore several hats at the sessions, playing some guitar and bass on it in addition to organ and keyboards, handled most of the vocals, and also wrote, arranged, and produced all the tracks (with the exception of a cover of Kris Kristofferson's "Why Me"). 

It's really a laid-back roots album, and one doesn't get any of Jones' famous organ playing until the fourth cut, an instrumental called "Flamingo," and it's there on the title track, "Evergreen," as well, but most of the album is a light-breezed mix of folk melodies, subtle calypso, and reggae rhythms, ragtime, and what is know these days as soul-jazz, and it's all very pleasing, but far from the greasy soul-funk sound of the MG's. Wounded Bird Records reissued Evergreen in 2013, adding in six bonus tracks, which included the single version of "Evergreen" and interesting cover versions of "Take Me to the River" and "Whiter Shade of Pale," none of which change the overall mood and feel of the original album.

Booker T. Jones was one of the architects of the Memphis soul sound of the 1960s as the leader of Booker T. & the MG's, who scored a number of hits on their own as well as serving as the Stax Records house band. But Jones' accomplishments don't stop there, and as a producer, songwriter, arranger, and instrumentalist, he's worked with a remarkable variety of artists, from Willie Nelson to John Lee Hooker, from Soul Asylum to the Roots.

Booker T. Jones was born in Memphis, Tennessee on November 12, 1944. Jones developed an keen interest in music as a boy; while working a paper route, he used to pass by the house of jazz pianist Phineas Newborn, and would often stop and listen to him practice as he folded newspapers. By the time Jones was in high school, he helped to direct the school band and was proficient on saxophone, trombone, oboe, and keyboards; he also played organ during services at his church, and would occasionally sneak out and sit in with R&B combos at local nightclubs. 

In 1960, Jones, a frequent customer at Memphis' Satellite Record Shop, was recruited to play sax on a Rufus and Carla Thomas recording session when the proprietors of the store, Estelle Axton and Jim Stewart, decided to start their own record label. The label soon evolved into Stax Records, and Jones, along with guitarist Steve Cropper (who was managing the record store when he met Jones), bassist Lewis Steinberg (later replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn), and drummer Al Jackson Jr., would form the MG's, who would back up Stax artists Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Eddie Floyd, Albert King, and many others, as well as releasing a steady stream of instrumental recordings on their own, including the smash hit "Green Onions." Jones' productivity in the early to mid-'60s is all the more remarkable as he was also a full-time student at Indiana University, where he studied composition and music theory while doing shows and recording sessions during weekends and vacations.

HomeBooker T. & the MG's enjoyed considerable success in their heyday -- cutting hits, backing Stax's leading artists, touring Europe and the U.K. with the Stax/Volt Revue, and accompanying Otis Redding for his legendary set at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival -- but between internal disputes at Stax (mostly regarding the spoils of their successful distribution deal with Atlantic Records) and the increasingly busy schedules of the various members, the group was on the verge of breaking up, and in 1970, Jones relocated to Los Angeles. 

He had already been branching out, appearing on Delaney & Bonnie's 1969 album Home and Mitch Ryder's ambitious The Detroit-Memphis Experiment, and after 1971's Melting Pot, the MG's quietly broke up. Jones stayed busy with session work, playing on albums by Bob Dylan, Steven Stills, Kris Kristofferson, and Rita Coolidge, and in 1971 he released Booker T. & Priscilla, the first of two albums he would record with his then-wife, Priscilla Coolidge-Jones (the sister of Rita Coolidge). 

The same year, Jones produced Just as I Am, the outstanding debut album by Bill Withers, which featured the hits "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Grandma's Hands." In 1975, Jones and the MG's were working on a reunion album when Al Jackson, Jr. was murdered; the group continued to record with drummer Willie Hall, but they parted ways again in 1977. In 1978, Jones released his first solo album, Try and Love Again, and enjoyed one of his biggest successes as a producer with Willie Nelson's Stardust, a collection of pop standards that established Nelson as one of country's biggest crossover acts.

01. Jamaica Song  02:25

02. Mama Stewart  02:52

03. Tennessee Voodoo  04:46

04. Flamingo  03:38

05. Song For Casey  04:52

06. Evergreen  06:30

07. Country Days  04:35

08. Why Me  03:35

09. Front Street Rag  02:14

10  Lie To Me  06:00