The sound is electric, but also pretty darn funky – not the colder
electro disco that would dominate the European scene in the 80s, but the
earlier mode that often had lots of live instrumentation at the core –
then augmented by sweet touches on moog and other keyboards! The
instrumentation is nice and tight throughout – and the whole thing is
very much in the best moogy disco modes of the underground – maybe a bit
more offbeat than a record on P&P, but with a similar appeal at
times.
Music and motors have always had something in common. For many people,
both give them the same emotions considering that a motor that is
working perfectly often is compared to a song, a sound, music. This
common ground is certainly strengthened by the arrival of the turbo
which - together with its sibilance - has brought motors and music yet
nearer together. This album was brought to life with this idea in mind: a
musician, Pocho Gatti, is fascinated by the turbo because of its name,
its noise, and its power to immediately become a myth.
He presented the idea of composing “Turbomusic” to Renault. The answer
was immediate: yes, please! Yes, because the talent of this artist
comes with an enthusiasm that gives you the sense that this will become a
success for sure. Pocho gets his inspiration from the Formula 1.
Especially so in the past from people like Jabouille and Arnoux and
today from Prost. He has also looked into the new cars that have been
widening the Renault Turbo product range since autum 1981: the Renault 4
Alpine Turbo and the 30 Turbodiesel.
The music and the arrangements have been written especially for this
record. For Angel „Pocho“ Gatti music certainly is not a mystery. As
musician, born into an artist family, Bach, Chopin, Dvorak and Ellington
were no strangers to Gatti who started playing the piano before he
started school. His father was a violinist at the Symphonic Orchestra of
Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, and Pocho's first notes were Argentinian.
But as Toscanini was in need of 10 musicians for the NBC Symphony
Orchestra, Angel followed his father to New York in 1940, when he was
just ten years old.
His new destination was „Junior High School“, where he became part of
the band, though as clarinetist. During the years, this reed became his
main instrument and he kept on playing it at the Symphonic Orchestra of
the University, which was directed by Leonard Bernstein. In 1949 Angel
Pocho Gatti wins a competition and enters the NBC. He stays there for
two years before he is called into military service for 1,5 years.
Pocho returns to New York, where he dedicates himself to the piano,
writing arrangements and ballets until he gets to know Nelson Riddle in
California who is looking for a pianist for Frank Sinatra. And so -
everytime Sinatra comes to Europe - the young Pocho serves „the Voice“
until 1961. In Paris he is taught harmony by Nadia Boulanger, in Italy
he works for the RAI, and plays concerts all over the old continent. In
1973 he returns to the USA where he is taught orchestra conducting by
Zubim Metha at the Conservatory in Los Angeles.
He returns to Italy in 1975 where he conducts orchestras, writes
arrangements, suites and records classic, jazz and folk concerts. Today
he teaches harmony and composition at „Centro Istruzione Musicale“ in
Verona. Inspired by the „Turbo“ Pocho's Orchestra sweeps in a swinging
tempo, while the following musicians are sticking out: the tenor sax and
flute of Hugo Heredia, the baritone sax of Claudio Rigon, the guitars
of Francesco Villa and the percussion of Francesco Casale. By Sonorama
Folk/psychelic rock band from San Francisco. It was formed by Meltzer
and his wife Tina, and also included Denny Ellis on lead guitar and
David Stenson on bass, both from The Grass Roots.
The band became a full rock outfit with the inclusion of John Payne on
organ and Clark Coolidge on drums. Ellis, Stenson, and Payne left
shortly after the first self-titled album was recorded, replaced by Bob
Cuff (from The Mystery Trend), on lead guitar and Jim Mocoso on bass. But the band didn't record another album, and disbanded in 1968.
Value :
Funky funky stuff from Jimmy Smith – a killer late 60s album cut in
collaboration with Johnny Pate, who's very much at the height of his
blackploitation power here! The backings are full, but in ways that are
quite different than other Smith albums on Verve – such as the sides
done with Oliver Nelson – and Pate's groove here is plenty schooled in
soul, yet also leaves lots of room for Smith's organ lines as the main
solo vehicle. And as an added bonus, Jimmy also sings on the record –
in a rough, raspy style that might not work on a straighter jazz set,
but which really sounds great here – almost making the music come across
like some of those funky Quincy Jones soundtrack numbers with vocals.
Titles include "I Know What I Want", "Uh Ruh", "Dirty Roosta Booga",
"Spill The Wine", "I'm Gon Git Myself Together", and "Need Mo"
The soundtrack to Franco Rossi's 1962 film Smog is the second-to-last collaboration between famed Italian composer Piero Umiliani and then self-exiled trumpeter Chet Baker.
The pair had previously worked together on 1958's I Soliti Ignoti,
1959's Audace Colpo dei Soliti Ignoti, and 1960's Urlatori Alla Sbarra,
and later collaborated on 1964's Intrigo a Los Angeles. On Smog
we get the best of both worlds: the composer and arranger is featured
prominently his charts for "Dawn" and the title track -- both excellent
vehicles for vocalist Helen Merrill -- are the stuff of dreams. Umiliani's
sense of timing, space, texture, and color is magnificent. In addition,
his sophisticated sense of humor is displayed on "California in the
Summer," as it fully engages Latin rhythms in a hard bop setting (not to
mention deliberate quotes from "Tequila" in one section). Baker's
soloing is as meaty and muscular and as it is on his Roulette sides
from a year later. (Check "Tension," with the orchestra kicking in on
the back of the quartet delivering a mean Latin bop groove, or his
soulful flügelhorn on the noir-ish fingerpopper "Smog II.") That said,
whenever his requisite expressiveness is called for -- as on "Twilight
in Los Angeles" -- he delivers big. And though Baker doesn't solo on every track, Umiliani's
tunes are so hip and his charts so imaginative that he doesn't need to.
Schema's Rearward imprint has done it again in reissuing this priceless
gem. (A note for audiophiles: the sound on this single volume is far
better than on the box set of the complete film scores from the Moochin'
About label.)
Taste :
Piero Umiliani with Chet Baker – Neapolitan Phantasy
Williams meets the Cannonball Adderley Septet on this rather interesting session. The expanded rhythm section (which includes keyboardist George Duke and both acoustic bassist Walter Booker and the electric bass of Carol Kaye) gives funky accompaniment to Williams, while altoist Cannonball and cornetist Nat
have some solo space. Actually, the singer easily steals the show on a
searing version of "Goin' to Chicago Blues," and his own "Who She Do,"
and a few unusual songs, including Duke Ellington's "Heritage."
An excellent lost funky soundtrack on Blue Note – their only one for
years, and Grant Green's entry into the blacksploitation genre! The
whole thing bristles with the kind of chunky, thumping percussive feel
as the best funky soundtracks of the era – informed by the work of
Curtis Mayfield and Isaac Hayes, but with the deeper jazz feel that
Green brings from his other Blue Note sides of the time! Some cuts are
quite funky, particularly the opener, "Past, Present, and Future" with
it's crisp trap, chicken scratch guitar and bongo driven beat. Others
have more of a stripped-down dope instrumental feel – there's some sweet
funky flute work on "Fathers Lament", and even a slight bossa groove
creeps into the title track! The whole album's very nice, and it's very
different than any of Grant Green's other work!
