Sunday, January 13, 2013

Carol Kaye - First Lady On Bass








Carol Kaye - First Lady On Bass
Hot Wire Records HOT 9011 C (1994)







Track Listing:
1. More & Poke Stomp
2. Bass Catch
3. Groundhog Shuffle
4. Greenapple Quickstep
5. Better Days
6. Bass Blues
7. Boogaloo
8. Slick Cat
9. Greens And Hamhocks
10. Sunny
11. New York State Of Mind
12. The Very Thought Of You
13. If I Were A Bell
14. Twisted
15. Take 197 - 243
16. The Radio Interview (Bass Talk With Carol On National Public Radio)












Personnel:
John Guerin - Drums (1,2,3,4,15)
Carol Kaye - Bass, Guitars, Producer
Joe Pass - Guitar
Ray Brown - Double Bass
Mark Soskin - Piano
Joe Sample - Piano, Fender Rhodes
Tom Scott - Saxophone, Flute
Earl Palmer, Paul Humphrey, James Levi, Jimmy Hops, Mike Stobie - Drums
Howard Roberts - Guitar
Conte Condoli - Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Milt Holland - Congas
Hampton Hawes - Piano
Noreen Jackson - Vocals
Dave Hanson - Keyboards
Bob Prince - Conductor





Carol Kaye - Picking Up On The E-String








Carol Kaye - Picking Up On The E-String
Groove Attack Productions GAP 00131 (1995)







Side One:
1. Bass Catch
2. Burning Spear
3. Greenapple Quickstep
4. Better Days



Side Two:
1. Moke & Poke Stomp
2. Boogaloo
3. Slick Cat
4. Free Sample










Personnel:
John Guerin (A1, A3, B1), Earl Palmer, Paul Humphrey - Drums
Carol Kaye - Bass, Producer, Guitar
Milt Holland - Congas
Ray Brown - Double Bass
Joe Sample - Fender Rhodes, Piano
Howard Roberts, Joe Pass - Guitar
Tom Scott - Saxophone, Flute
J.J. Johnson - Trombone
Conte Condoli - Trumpet, Flugelhorn





V/A - Television's Greatest Hits, Vol. 6: Remote Control







V/A - Television's Greatest Hits, Vol. 6: Remote Control
TVT Records 1800-2 (1980)








Track Listings:
1. Fish
2. Night Court
3. What's Happening?
4. Diff'rent Strokes
5. Mr. Belvedere
6. Growing Pains
7. Charles In Charge
8. Silver Spoons
9. Webster
10. Too Close For Comfort
11. Who's The Boss
12. Perfect Strangers
13. Alice
14. It's A Living
15. Angie
16. 227
17. The Golden Girls
18. ALF
19. Mork And Mindy
20. Police Squad
21. Family Ties
22. Moonlighting
23. Soap
24. Benson
25. The Benny Hill Show
26. The Young Ones
27. The People's Court
28. Family Feud
29. The Price Is Right
30. Siskel And Ebert
31. Monday Night Football
32. Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous
33. Fame
34. Paper Chase
35. Fantasy Island
36. Falcon Crest
37. The Colbys
38. Highway To Heaven
39. The Dukes Of Hazard
40. B.J. And The Bear
41. Movin' On'
42. The Fall Guy
43. James At 15
44. Eight Is Enough
45. Baa Baa Black Sheep
46. Trapper John, M.D.
47. Chips
48. Vegas
49. Matt Houston
50. Cagney And Lacey
51. T.J. Hooker
52. Hardcastle And McCormick
53. Hunter
54. MacGyver
55. Knight Rider
56. Airwolf
57. The Incredible Hulk
58. V: The Series
59. The New Twilight Zone
60. Doctor Who
61. Mystery!
62. The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries
63. Roots
64. Vietnam: A Television History
65. Cosmos











Personnel on # 10:
John Guerin - Drums
Johnny Mandel - Conductor
Bud Shank, Bill Perkins, Bob Tricarico - Saxophones, Woodwinds
Chuck Findley, Gary Grant, Larry Hall, Jerry Hey - Trumpets, Flugelhorns
Charlie Loper, Lew McCreary, Bill Reichenbach - Trombones
Dennis Budimir, Tommy Tedesco - Guitars
Mike Melvoin - Keyboards
Neil Stubenhaus - Bass
Joe Porcaro - Percussion





Bonnie Owens - Hi-Fi To Cry By






Bonnie Owens - Hi-Fi To Cry By
Capitol Records ST 341 (1969)




Track Listing:
1. My Hi-Fi To Cry By
2. Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Alone
3. Philadelphia Lawyer
4. What Else Can I Do
5. It Don't Take Much To Make Me Cry
6. How Many
7. I'll Kiss My Wedding Ring Tonight
8. That Little Boy Of Mine
9. Jealous Heart
10. I Don't Care If Tomorrow Never Comes








Personnel:
John Guerin, Eddie Burris - drums
Bonnie Owens - vocals
Roy Nichols - guitar
James Burton - guitar, dobro
Norman Hamlett - pedal steel guitar
Chuck Berghoffer - bass
Glen D. Hardin - piano
Ken Nelson - producer




The Association - Waterbeds In Trinidad!







The Association - Waterbeds In Trinidad!
Columbia Records CBS S 65009 (1972)







Track Listing:
1. Silent Song Through The Land
2. Darling Be Home Soon
3. Midnight Wind
4. Come The Fall
5. Kicking The Gong Around
6. Rainbows Bent
7. Snow Queen
8. Indian Wells Woman
9. Please Don’t Go (Round The Bend)
10. Little Road And A Stone To Roll











Personnel:
Band:
Gary "Jules" Alexander - Guitar, Vocals
Ted Bluechel - Drums, Vocals
Brian Cole - Bass, Clarinet, Vocals
Russ Giguere - Vocals, Guitar
Terry Kirkman - Drums, Vocals, Wind
Larry Ramos - Guitar, Harmonica, Saxophone, Vocals
Jim Yester - Guitar, Keyboards, Saxophone, Vocals

Additional Musicians:
John Guerin - Drums
Dennis Budimer, Larry Carlton, Dean Parks, Artie Wayne - Guitars
Wilton Felder - Bass
Milt Holland - Percussion
Lincoln Mayorga, Michael Melvoin, Don Randi - Keyboards
Lewis Merenstein - Producer
Clark Burroughs - Vocal Arrangement
Joe Foster - Producer, Synthesizer
Benny Golson - Arranger
Andy Morten - Producer
Allan Rinde - Voices
Nick Robbins - Synthesizer
Richard Thompson - Guitar, Vocals





Saturday, January 12, 2013

Joni Mitchell Meets Don Juan's Reckless Daughter













Nineteen Seventy Eight is a watershed year for Joni Mitchell; DON JUAN's RECKLESS DAUGHTER (Asylum) is the superlative singer-songwriter's tenth album; its release marks the tenth year of her association with 'personal manager' Elliot Roberts. While last year's European tour was cancelled on account of exhaustion, sources close to Roberts claim that Joni 'just may' play the States in '78. But whether Our Lady of the Canyon opts for seclusion or the road, her new, deluxe double-set crowns a decade of ambitious record making.

She was born Roberta Joan Anderson, in 1943, in Fort Macleod, Canada. Her early inspirations, like those of Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt, were drawn from the well of folk music. Like them, she travelled the folk festival and concert route during the early and mid-sixties. Primarily, she began as a song-writer, only incidentally plucking a guitar and singing her tunes. In those days it was virtually impossible to get anyone to 'do' your songs. So you sang them yourself.

Curiously, it was the opposite of this formula that became the foundation for Joni's recognition. Married to American folksinger Chuck Mitchell and then divorced, she continued to ply her trade in the States while, almost without effort, other performers began to include Mitchell material in their programs. Among others, Tom Rush and Buffy Saint Marie recorded Joni's Circle Game, in 1967. Buffy's version, with its rockabilly background, became a hit and listeners began to wonder about the name behind the song. In 1968, Judy Collins' version of Both Sides Now sold a million copies, Joni was poised and ready for public acceptance as a performer in her own right.

And circumstances were in her favour. Buffy's manager, Elliot Roberts, was so taken with Joni's presence on stage that he left his management position to devote himself full time to her career. He signed her to Reprise Records in 1968 and then, when he joined with partner David Geffen, brought her to Geffen's fledgling label, Asylum.

Joni eventually settled in LA's fashionably rustic Topanga Canyon where, for many years, she shared the company of peers Crosby, Young, Nash, Browne and assorted Eagles. Most of the material for the series of albums that followed, though gathered through her travels, was formulated there.

DON JUAN is an all-studio double — but, at just under an hour, it runs only six minutes longer than 77's stunning HEJIRA single LP. DON JUAN is only one song bigger than HEJIRA's nine, but what a song: the seventeen minute autobiographical epic sprawled across Side Two, complete with full symphony orchestra, called Paprika Plains:

"I would tie on coloured feathers and I'd beat the drums like war…"

Joni sings, forecasting Side Three's Tenth World, the pop poetess's first instrumental track, a conga jam featuring ace Brazilian percussionist Airto Moriera.

There's much more: an all-rhythm (cowbells, congas, shakers, snare drum, sandpaper block) back-up on Dreamland, Joni's gem-like contribution to Roger McGuinn's 1976 CARDIFF ROSE LP. Mitchell's rendition evokes her '75 HISSING OF SUMMER LAWNS set, with its startling Jungle Line track courtesy of the Warrior Drums of Burundi.

Jericho on the other hand, is a straight studio re-make of the delicate tune which Joni debuted on her live MILES OF AISLES package, with Tom Scott's LA Express. Here, drummer, and sometime lover, John Guerin is the only Express holdover, cooking with the likes of Weather Report's Wayne Shorter on sax. Report veteran Jaco Pastorius, who shared bass duties with Max Bennet on HEJIRA, defines DON JUAN's moody sophistication with a haunting, single handed vibrato.

Around Elliot Robert's office, they're calling DON JUAN "Joni's best album in years. She's grown from the jazz proficiency of the Express to the sheer virtuosity of Weather Report." And, more to the point, "DJRD was the highest FM add-on the last week in December."

Three months and "lots of money" in the making, DON JUAN assumed many names — including "some really long, weird ones that nobody remembers" — before taking its title from "the song with the ankle bells."

According to a studio assistant, Mitchell decided, mid-session, that she really needed "ankle bells" for "tempo and atmosphere." Longtime engineer Henry Lewy put out a frantic call, with no luck. "Finally," the assistant laughs, "somebody came up with a dancer named Alejandro Acuna. They dimmed the lights, stuck her on a little stage, and ran the tapes. I think they got her from the Screen Actors Guild, actually. But she is a real Indian."

Real Indians — the North American kind — tend to recur ("They cut off their braids and lost some link with nature") throughout the lyric, as do Black Men, mostly pimps with dizzy, adoring White Broads. All three prototypes figure on the cover photograph — and all three are Miss Mitchell, in degrees of disguise. "Norman Seeff took a bunch of pictures," tut-tuts a friend, "and Joni happened to like these the best. So they cut 'em up, and stuck 'em on the sleeve." What the friend fails to mention is that, among her ten album covers — all designed by Mitchell, who once studied at Alberta College — DON JUAN may sport her most provocative image. Joni Goes Jolson: how could it miss?

It couldn't. Between her professional family of Roberts, Lewy, Steve Katz, David Geffin and what Billboard calls "her steady legion of fans," Joni carved a comfortable, serious and significant niche in the barracuda-heavy record biz. Her smoky, folky jazz will always make money for Mitchell and Asylum, even should DON JUAN take a tail spin in the year of You Light Up My Life. But what's she like to work with, this auteurist who hires orchestras, handles graphics, disdains the press and rarely performs? Is Joni a sublime Barbra Streisand?

"Believe it or not," the studio assistant swears, "she's always running around hugging and kissing everybody between takes. She's real affectionate, isn't temperamental because she surrounds herself with friends and pros. There's always David Crosby hanging out, and Henry Lewy getting skinny. Joni doesn't have to be 'demanding,' either, because she always knows exactly what she wants." Pause. "And she always gets it."




by Wesley Strick
March 2, 1978



















Bud Shank with The Bob Alcivar Singers - Let It Be








Bud Shank with The Bob Alcivar Singers - Let It Be
World Pacific Jazz ST-20170 (1970)






Side One:
1. Let It Be
2. Games People Play
3. Something
4. Long Time Gone
5. Both Sides Now



Side Two:
1. Loves Been Good To Me
2. A Famous Myth
3. Didn't We
4. Long And Winding Road
5. For Once In My Life










Personnel:
John Guerin - Drums
Bud Shank - Saxophone
Bob Alcivar - Arranger
Carol Kaye - Bass
Dennis Budimir - Guitar
Roger Kellaway - Piano





Burt Ward - The Boy Wonder Sessions







Burt Ward - The Boy Wonder Sessions
Not On Label / Unofficial Release (1966)







Track Listing:
1. Boy Wonder I Love You
2. Oranged Colored Sky
3. The Comedian (Backing Track #1)
4. Boy Wonder, I Love You (Demo)
5. Orange Colored Sky (Demo)
6. Teenage Bill Of Rights
7. Tears Come From Loving You (Backing Track)
8. Gotta Fall In Love (Backing Track)
9. The Comedian (Backing Track #2)
10. Various False Starts











Personnel:
John Guerin - Drums (2, 3, 5-7, 9, 10)
Burt Ward - Vocals
Frank Zappa - Arranger, Conductor
Roy Estrada - Bass
Frederick Dutton - Bassoon, Contrabassoon
Benjamin Barrett - Cello
Justin Gordon, Jack Nimitz - Clarinet, Bass Clarinet
Dennis Budimir, Elliot Ingber, Lou Morell,William Pitman - Guitar
Eugene DiNovi - Piano
Tom Wilson - Producer
Plas Johnson - Saxophone
Kenneth Watson - Timpani, Mallets, Traps
Anthony Terran - Trumpet
James Zito - Trumpet , French Horn
John T. Johnson, Red Callender - Tuba





Ray Conniff - After The Lovin'







Ray Conniff - After The Lovin'
Columbia Records PC 34477 (1976)








Side One:
1. A Fifth Of Tchaikovsky
2. If You Leave Me Now
3. Rain On
4. Lowdown
5. Remembering You (Closing Theme From "All In The Family" TV Show)




Side Two:
1. After The Lovin'
2. Tara's Theme (From The Motion Picture "Gone With The Wind")
3. Kiss And Say Goodbye
4. You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine
5. Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word









Personnel:
John Guerin - Drums
Dean Parks - Guitar
Larry Muhoberac - Organ
Pete Jolly - Piano
Ray Conniff - Producer, Trombone
Jack Gold - Producer
Clark Gassman - Synthesizer