MORE HOT COOKIN'

J.R. MONTROSE & HUGH BRODIE
BE BOP LOOSE & LIVE
LP CADENCE,  CJR 1013  - USA, 1982

Thanks to Arkadin, I am pleased to present the second live opus featuring Mr Brodie for Cadence Records, with the added bonus of J.R. Montrose, a solid saxophonist that tends to be somewhat overlooked (as his Hugh Brodie).

Here is some solid no nonsense be bop jamming!

Too good to be left in the comments, this LP deserves a post of its own.

Track list
A1: Blue Bossa
A2: Kiamesha
B1: Green Dolphin Street
B2: What's New

Personel
J.R. Montrose : tenor & soprano
Hugh Brodie: tenor
Larry Ham: piano
Pat O'Leary: bass
Tom Melito: drums

See the comments under the previous post and say cheers to our man Arkadin!

LIVE & COOKIN’

HUGH BRODIE AND IMPULSE
Live And Cooking At The Wild Oat
CADENCE JAZZ RECORDS – CJR1004 (LP – USA - 1981)

An early 80's live recording from be-bop saxophonist Hugh Brodie.   Live and Cooking is the title of this LP and that’s really what it’s all about.  100% high octane hard bop!

The backing band is an upstate New York blues quintet called Impulse.  They may have been a blues quintet but they do have real jazz chops.

Five original tunes and an improvised version of Sonny Stitt's "Bud's Blues".  .

This LP has not been re-issued on CD but if you dig the music, I recommend you pay a visit to Hugh Brodie’s website and get his latest CDs.

Credits

Hugh Brodie - Tenor Sax, Vocals

Russ Scotti - Flute, Alto Sax

Jay Friedman - Trumpet

Larry Ham - Piano

Pat O' Leary - Bass

Ed Ornowski - Drums

Tracks

A1. Falling Dreams

A2. Bud's Blues

A3. Dot

B1. Choo Choo Charlie

B2. El . Toro

B3 Dot

Rip from original LP. Some surface noise at the end of track A2 .  Did not want to split B2 and B3 as one is the continuation of the other.

Little blues and nothing revolutionnary

The Revolutionary Blues Band 

LP Coral (US, 1970)

It’s summer time, very hot here in Morocco, so I’ll go for the least effort solution.  Posting albums that I own in my collection but re-using rips collected from the net over the years.   Too hot for new rips, and anyway I’m 3000 km from my vinyl collection.  So I’ll cheat.

This one was another discount bin perennial.  I must confess that my friends and I were somewhat disappointed when we first heard it (in the early seventies).  My friend Dédé had bought it (Place du Jeu de Balle, probably) because of Tom Scott playing on it.  We all had bought a copy of Rural StillLife (on Impulse) and we were hoping for something similar. It wasn't. By the way, Rural Still Life remains my all time favourite Tom Scott album.

Then the band had “blues band” in its moniker and in terms of blues we were into Butterfield Blues Band, Dirty Blues Band ... and here was the name of Rod Piazza, of Dirty Blues Band / Bacon Fat fame. Second disappointment, the band did not sound at all like any of those blues bands. 

I never understood at what type of audience such an album was aimed.  Not the blues fan, not the rock fan, not the straight jazz fan ...  The album was produced by Bob Thiele and is very much in the line of some instrumental MOR albums on Flying Dutchman.  It’s gently soul jazzy / funky. It's not smooth jazz yet but, with hindsight, one could see the direction Scott was heading to.

David Bennett Cohen (of Country Joe & the Fish fame, remember "Section 43"?) was on piano (and perhaps guitar also).

David Cohen (source: his website)

Soul Blues stalwart Arthur Adams (Crusaders, Jimmy Smith ...) plays the funky guitar.  No idea about the bass and drums.

Arthur Adams (Source:BlindPig Records)

Arrangements are by Gene Page (Love Unlimited, Philly Sound).  All tracks are instrumentals but one "That's The Truth Baby" featuring vocalist Lightnin Red Jones (no idea who that bloke could be).

I had not listened to this album for ages until Red Telephone66 posted it a few years back (that's where this rip comes from).  It’s not half as bad as I thought.    If you like late 60s  jazzy bluesy instrumentals in the vein of Monk Higgins, Freddie Robinson, Phil Upchurch  ... you’ll probably enjoy this album.  Last year my friend Dédé gave me his copy (and a few other LPs) and I'm quite happy to have it in my collection.  Thanks mate!

Track Order:

01.       Juicy

02.       Milkman, Milkman Leave Me Some Cream Today

03.       Lanoola Goes Limp

04.       That's The Truth Baby

05.       Have A Little Bit More

06.       Take Me Back To Tennessee

07.       Cutting The Mustard

08.       Ring My Chimes

09        Funky Lady

10.       Dirty Town Blues

Never re-issued on CD.  Thanks to whoever put the cover photos on Discogs.

SUNDANCE

GEORGE ROBERT / TOM HARRELL QUINTET

Sun Dance

(Contemporary Records , 1988, USA)

Time for something a bit more recent.  Here is the first album of the George Robert-Tom Harrell Quintet which is also George Robert's second album as a leader.

His first album – entitled First Encounter – was recorded in New York City in 1984 with Niels Lan Doky, Ron McClure & Klaus Suonsaari (CD re-issue on Polystar Records, 2005)

One of the finest jazz musicians born in Switzerland, altoist George Robert has long considered his main influences to be Charlie Parker and Phil Woods. He started on piano when he was eight, and clarinet at ten, playing with a family band that included his four brothers.

 Robert switched permanently to alto as a teenager. In 1980, he moved to the United States to study at Berklee, settling in New York in 1984. Robert recorded his first album that year and in 1987, formed a quintet that he co-led with trumpeter Tom Harrell on and off through 1992.

This album was recorded in Lausanne, Switzerland during their '87 European tour.  The quintet features George Robert (alto saxophone, soprano saxophone), Tom Harrell (trumpet, flugelhorn), Dado Moroni (piano), Reggie Johnson (bass), Bill Goodwin (drums)

On AMG Scott Yanow displays a typically American patronising attitude towards non-US players: George Robert who is credited as “the leader” “plays quite well” but it is because of Tom Harrell that the album becomes “most notable”.

Pure baloney, just forget about the “names”. Tom Harrell is excellent indeed but the album is most notable because the music cooks!  What strikes the listener is how cohesive and “tight” this combo sounded on this first date.

Then Yanow goes on “ Harrell is actually much more boppish than usual, probably due to Robert's inspiration; the leader being  most influenced by Phil Woods”.  Fact is that Harrell was a key member of the Phil Woods Quintet in the eighties.  Actually it may be interesting to compare this album with some of the works he did with Phil Woods during the same period.

.

Credits:

C 14037   George Robert/Tom Harrell - Sun Dance

Tom Harrell (trumpet, flugelhorn) George Robert (alto saxophone, soprano saxophone) Dado Moroni (piano) Reggie Johnson (bass) Bill Goodwin (drums)

Lausanne, Switzerland, March 29 & 30, 1987

Tracks

•           Solad

•           Moon Alley

•           Cancun

•           Sun Dance

•           Because I Love You

•           Viking's Theme

n.b. some discographies mention an Italian re-issue on CD in 1993 but it was probably a pirate edition.