An mp3 blog for my friend, and you too.<br><br> The tracks posted here are up for a limited time. <br>If you\’re a copyright owner and would like anything removed, please let us know.
So, for the second time in four years I’m movin’ on up. Not to the East Side, but over to my new, personal, tumblelog. The songs I’ve posted here never get too much reaction, and I can understand it. We’re primarily a cartoon industry blog after all, and we’ve tried hard to keep Frederator Blogs out of the realm of punditry and opinion, and more in the arena of fandom of filmmakers we love. My peculiarities of baby booming musical taste shouldn’t really have too much currency, and I figured the reblogging, community nature of tumblr could be a more hospitable environment.
This track is cool. Very cool. It’s the electro blues, yawl. It’s never been released anywhere, so heads up.
It sure is nothing like you’ve ever heard before. Try it, you’ll see. A holy alliance of the legendary country blues musician Mississippi Fred McDowell and his student, mentor, and friend (and my friend) Tom Pomposello, the tracks were recorded in the winter of 1971 (they were, in fact, Fred’s last recordings before he passed away in 1972), and overdubbed/remixed in 1998 by Tom (also his last project before he passed away in 1999) and Lenny Kravitz’s partner, composer/producer/mixer Dave Baron. The 26 years between sessions is the secret sauce.
After recording Fred’s last album, Tom asked Fred for some coaching at a demo session. Fred wanted to sing along with Tom’s guitar, and Tom, nervous about his still forming skills thought [Read more…]
You’ll have to buy the two-disc set to get all the songs and demos in full quality (and a whole bonus disc of Skullmonkeys music) and the great liner notes story by Terry. Loving classic cartoon music (and though there’s nothing whatsoever old fashioned about this soundtrack, it’s obvious so do Terry and Doug) I can never get enough of this soundtrack (and remember, this was for a game).
It doesn’t take much to get me in an impressionistic mood, so our friend Steve Woolf’s photo and title moved me there today.
Was Curtis Mayfield the most impressive singer/songwriter of his day? Of his genre? Probably. And it’s probably why it took me so long to pick a single to feature here. I ended up with We’re a Winner because aside from being a favorite I seem to remember it being a core sample for something from the Space Jam soundtrack, so I thought some of the older young folk reading might recognize it.
Phil Schaap’s obsessive nature has made him an invaluable resource in the world of jazz (and plagued many of his relationships he’s had that I’ve witnessed). And he’s become such a fixture in the New York radio community that the editor of The New Yorker has devoted an extensive profile of Phil this week that I’d recommend to anyone who loves Charlie Parker.
Anyone who knows Phil (he and I were in college radio in the early 70s; he still broadcasts on the station today) can argue pro and con for slightly less long than his description of a, say, 1947 Count Basie recording session, but I found his philosophy of jazz incredibly refreshing when he told me about it at a bar in 1999, and is recounted in the profile:
“The school system is creating six thousand unemployable musicians a year—from the Berklee College of Music, Rutgers, Mannes, Manhattan, Juilliard, plus all the high schools,” he said. “There are more and more musicians, and no gigs, no one to listen. So what happens to these kids? They work their way back to the educational system and help create more unemployable musicians. My rant is this: I’m not trying to teach you to play the alto sax. No. I’m trying to get you to learn how to listen to Charlie Parker.”
When I was a budding record producer my go-to guy for album covers was my great friend from childhood, Frank Olinsky, who went on to become one of the most respected and successful music designers of the last 30 years (starting, most famously, with his co-design of the MTVlogo). He selflessly went to work on whatever I asked him for, including this unreleased album cover for the unreleased (really tasty) jazz album cut by R&B pianist/singer/songwriter RustyCloud (Bo Diddley, Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, The Blues Brothers). (Maybe I can find and post the tapes someday.)
Frank’s a great designer, but, in my eyes, an even more incredible illustrator and painter. This cover always reminded me of Eberhard Weber’s “The Colours of Chloë”, but with Frank’s trademark wry humor.
It’s been confusing to some that rather than the individual tracks from my collection I usually post, lately I’ve been putting up whole albums (and bonus tracks) from records I produced for Oblivion Records, the indie label I started with Tom Pomposello, in the 70s (here, here, here, here, and here). There’s a blog that sporadically tries to explain everything over here.
1. TOMMY’S JUMP Array
(By H.T. Pomposello)
Tom. electric mandolin
Michael Altshuler. Guitar
Bruce Kapler. tenor saxophone
Michael “Kid” Avanzini. Bass
David Longworth. Drums
Recorded 9.3.75
2. OLD JOE CLARK Array
(Traditional; arranged by H.T.P.)
Tom. Dulcimer
Kid Avanzini. Bass
Nicholas “Nick” K. Moy. pitch pipe
Recorded 10.6.73
3. JESUS DIED ON THE CROSS [TO SAVE THE WORLD] Array
(Traditional; arranged by H.T.P./Special thanks to John Fahey)
Tom. bottleneck-dobro
Michael Altshuler. Guitar
Kid Avanzini. Bass
David Longworth. drums
Recorded 7.4.74
4. MOVIN’ TOO FAST Array
(By Roosevelt Sykes / H.T. Pomposello)
Tom. vocal & electric [Read more…]
JoanOsborne never quite registered on my radar. She was a wonderful singer who sang a hit I liked (the bluesy video for “One of Us” was great) and she was one of the modern day highlights of The Funk Brothers’ Standing in the Shadows of Motown, but nothing really made her break through for me. In fact, I’ve been meaning to post this CD since I started this blog, but somehow nothing compelled me to complete the thought.
One day a few years ago I was out having a business breakfast and in the background there was a song playing that had a familiar feeling, but I knew I didn’t know it at all. I never pay attention to the words but I wanted to know about the track and the lyric “how sweet it is” kept repeating. I knew it wasn’t the Marvin Gaye song, but [Read more…]
Willis Jackson: tenor saxophone
Pat Martino: guitar
Carl Wilson: organ
Jimmy Lewis: bass
Yusef Ali: drums
Ralph Dorsey: percussion
Willis Jackson single handedly pulled me away from the avant garde and towards the soulful, bluesy expression of jazz that was popular in the African American neighborhoods of mid-century America. He didn’t mean to, he didn’t want to, it was just that he was so damn good.
Less a producer than actually a recording supervisor (my credit on this album) I arrived at our first session together with virtually no information on what we were recording or who was playing. Willis was tough and a little paranoid so this situation played out during the three or four sessions we did together. I’d never heard any of his music (it wasn’t cool enough within the jazzbo circles [Read more…]
![Bulldog Blues [Dance Remix]](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3096/2573149740_beb15b685c.jpg)
