Music

Atlantic Unearthed (Soul Brothers / Soul Sisters)

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A rare foray into CD reviews for Musings section of The Rag, largely prompted by a fortuitous, periodic repositioning and reordering of this author’s CD collection, as is his fastidious nature . I always feel a slight sense of unease when any reissue programme features previously unreleased or unavailable material. Too often the reason for the tracks failing to see the light of day is self evident, with either song or performance clearly sub-standard – in many cases you can’t help but agree with the label’s initial quality control assessment. Which is why these two releases were a worry; fortunately however, this hard to find material is the exception which proves the Shades rule – I guess the recording machine that was Atlantic in the 60s and early 70s genuinely did have more quality product than it saw fit to actively market.

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DVD – Various Artists: Folk Blues Festival Volume 3

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Another old review (way back in 2003 originally), but like the Bishopstock reviews a while back, I decided they might be of interest to both the R&B Primer aficionados and the Musings crowd, so they appear in both areas. In addition, the DVDs are still available and are definitely worth the entrance fee. This music doesn’t go out of fashion for authentic blues lovers and, surprisingly, there are still enough young fans coming through to make both the past and present viable music destinations – even if with this type of series retrospective (the first two are also worth owning), there is a temptation to wallow in the past and reminisce extensively about the good old days. But short of being there at the time, it genuinely doesn’t get any better than this.

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Habit Forming Yet? (Blue Spirits)

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John, George And Pete

Another visit to Jazz At The Fleece and another overnight stay at Stoke-By-Nayland Resort, although on this occasion we decided to have lunch in the lounge and upgraded the room (worth the extra we both agreed). Still extremely good value for money and, as the title indicates, it’s starting to feel like a home from home, although I’m convinced it’s going to be years until we will be considered anything other than naïve novices. It is however a great way of getting to grips with superb jazz players (not literally obviously, that would be rude), knowing that if someone doesn’t ‘float your boat’ for whatever reason, you’ve still had a lovely break at a fine hotel.

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A Dangerous habit forming??

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Not two weeks (actually it’s exactly two weeks since the last gig but hey-ho) since our last visit and here we are again, returning for a very different type of gig from the last. On this occasion we went to see the Zoe Schwarz Blue Commotion, a vocalist and band who we are assured (by the Fleece Jazz promotional literature) have a foot firmly in both the jazz and blues camps. Again, to facilitate our OCD tendencies, we took the fleeze jazz package, which included an overnight stay at the hotel and breakfast the following morning.

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Back To The Fleece – Antonio Forcione

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Fleece Jazz

Over two years after our last visit, we booked a return to Stoke by Nayland hotel and spa and to Jazz At The Fleece to sample the guitar delights of Antonio Forcione. In the interests of all I should disclose that we hadn’t heard of Antonio, which is of course a sad reflection on us rather than the artist, but we were intrigued by the short bio and reviews on the Fleece site and decided to give it a shot. As an aside, the Jazz at the Fleece offer at the hotel (overnight stay, two tickets to the concert and breakfast the following morning is a cracking deal, in my very humble opinion!

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Another Revisit – Solomon Burke

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Solomon Burke

Another oldie, and it stays on the site for the same reason as Bishopstock – and the chance of ever seeing the ‘King Of Rock’n’Soul live have long gone – sadly, he died in October 2010. Below is the original review of the London Barbican gig, written all the way back in November 2002. It all began a little cheesily – an opening two perfunctory jams by the competent, but not particularly exciting backing band and an oversized red throne centre stage, flanked by buckets of red roses, awaiting the great man. You knew he was big, but nothing really prepared you for the man mountain who finally made his way to centre stage.

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Bishopstock 2000

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Van Morrison

Sunday

First up on the Sunday (and an interesting choice to kick start the second day) was Corey Harris. He had to battle the worst of the day’s weather and his acoustic, intimate music is hardly suited to raising the crowd on a damp early Sunday afternoon – and yet he worked perfectly. Remarkable guitar work, heavy on feel and touch and less on pure technique, coupled with wonderfully expressive vocals, the performance went down well with the crowd and set us up for the rest of the day. The fact that Corey could then be seen wandering in the audience after his set listening to the artists following him speaks volumes about the event; by and large, any egos had been left at the door (or the next field possibly!)

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Bishopstock 2001

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Bishopstock

Saturday

Saturday kicked off at 12.00 on the dot with Amor, the band led by ex-Hoax member John Amor. Good, solid, heavy riffing blues with a contemporary edge. Very different to the Hoax but none the worse for that and a fine start to the first day. Ana Popovic was next up, a vocalist and guitarist with a growing reputation. Her performance got stronger as the set developed but I didn’t hear anything truly exceptional or noteworthy in the set.

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Doo-Wop Dilemma

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On a roll now with posts that are R&B related but can still find a place in the main musings section of this site. Well, no-one said I couldn’t include a little contemporaneous R&B material and post it on the main site without detracting from the older R&B material I ported over from the old Shades Of Blue website of yester year. So, along with the previous post, here comes another one.

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The ‘Black Country’!

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No, the title is not a reference to the deep, dark and somewhat disappointing direction that the country has taken – although given the recent, traditional tropes more usually associated with a right of centre party but now apparently adopted by a supposedly socialist (or even social democratic) government, one might be forgiven if this article was little more than an excuse for a conspiratorial rant – but we’re better than that! So no, this is simply a brief and hopefully more aesthetically pleasing meditation on the sometimes quite pronounced overlap of black artists and country music!

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Forget the Rhythm….

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Apparently, it’s all about the blues!! I should have seen it coming but I’m no clairvoyant (although it does sound a tad like a blues song I think). Following the last post, @ForeverBlues decided a blues variation of the theme would be most welcome. Now, I’m really a fan of the R&B genre because by definition and, unsurprisingly, it covers both the ‘rhythm and the blues‘! Be that as it may, I’m still partial to the more straight forward musical form and have included a number of blues performers in both the original, long gone Shades of Blue website and on the cut down version that appears on the stripped down The R&B Primer (and in the booklet, to be absolutely clear).

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