Παρασκευή 29 Οκτωβρίου 2021

Salah Ragab & The Cairo Jazz Band – Egypt Strut 1973 (Arab Republic Of Egypt - Ministry Of Culture)



Label : Arab Republic Of Egypt - Ministry Of Culture (Strut reiss. Record Store Day Drop)

Value :

In 1968, while he was also the leader of the Military Music Departments in Heliopolis, Salah Ragab formed the first jazz big band in Egypt, The Cairo Jazz Band. Some of the best musicians in Egypt of that time were members – Zaki Osman (trumpet), Saied Salama (tenor sax), Khamis El-Kholy (piano) and Ala Mostafa (piano). 

On these recordings The Band consists of five saxophones, four trumpets, four trombones, piano, bass, drums and percussion and various other oriental instruments. The opening concert of The Cairo Jazz Band was in Ewart Memorial Hall at The American University 23/02/1969 followed by many other concerts in various prestigious places such as the Old Opera House, The University of Alexandria and appearances on Egyptian TV Jazz Club Weekly. 

Salah Ragab studied jazz theory and improvisation with the jazz musician and composer from Kansas City, USA, Osman Kareem, with whom he formed the first Jazz Quintet in Cairo in 1963 recording with the Radio Service of Cairo. He accompanied the great bandleader and composer Sun Ra on a tour in Egypt, Greece, France and Spain in 1984. 

These recordings present Salah Ragab and The Cairo Jazz Band’s definitive work, recorded in Heliopolis Egypt between 1968 and 1973. Western jazz musicians have been fascinated with the world of Islam for many years, for religious, spiritual, musical and sociological reasons. It was therefore inevitable that musicians of the Arabian North African area would play a part in the interaction of these two musical cultures. 

The compositions correspond to the cross-over of musical styles at the time of the recording 6000 miles away across the Mediterranean and Atlantic in New York with releases on Moodsville by Yusef Lateef and RCA by Ahmed Abdul-Malik. This record represents the Cairo Jazz Band responding to the American jazz scene in the 60’s and 70’s with influences from Mongo Santamaria to Randy Weston to Sun Ra. These tracks (apart from “Egypt Strut”) were first presented by the Ministry Of Culture in Cairo as a Prism Music Unit Production.
 

Taste :

Salah Ragab & The Cairo Jazz Band – A Tribute To Sun Ra

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By Electric Looser

Δευτέρα 25 Οκτωβρίου 2021

Willie Bobo - Juicy 1967 (Verve)

 

Label : Verve

Value :

Hard soulful Latin from the great Willie Bobo! The record's an extremely tasty blend of cuts that mix hard Latin grooving with a swinging 60s pop feel – all filtered through the crossover genius of late 60s Verve. There's lots of great boogaloo groovers, shing-a-ling rhythms, and a tight no-nonsense approach to percussion 

Taste :

Willie Bobo - Roots

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By Electric Looser

Πέμπτη 21 Οκτωβρίου 2021

Alan Moorhouse – The Big Beat Vol.2 (KPM)

Label : KPM

Value :

The big beat here is plenty darn funky – but in some really weird and wonderful ways too – thanks to the genius talents of the mighty Alan Moorehouse, the legendary British maestro featured on this rare sound library album for KPM! Moorehouse is even more compelling than some of his funky contemporaries on the sound library scene – because he's not only got a great way of cooking up a short, simple, soulful groove – but he also puts the instruments together in really unusual ways, often to create sounds that veer past their simple origins, to make the grooves sound even greater! This album's a sound library masterpiece all the way through – the kind of set that makes you realize why this under-exposed genre of music is regarded so highly by modern beatheads – thanks to Moorehouse's use of organ, keyboards, funky drums, and a fair bit of acoustic guitar – quite unusual for a KPM set, but all the more compelling. 

Taste :

Alan Moorhouse - Pop Pastime


Alan Moorhouse - Pop Mandolin

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By Electric Looser



Παρασκευή 15 Οκτωβρίου 2021

Lucio Battisti ‎– Amore E Non Amore 1971 (Ricordi)


Label : Ricordi 

Value : 

If Lucio Battisti was Italy’s answer to France’s Serge Gainsbourg, then Amore E Non Amore is his own Histoire De Melody Nelson, a concept album that’s widely regarded as a formative artistic achievement (if far from the most hit packed album) of his respective career. Both albums were released in 1971. For Battisti, the concept came from that dichotomous title: there’s a rocky ‘non-love’ side of the album, which has songs about obsession and adultery, and a ‘love’ side of dreamy, prog-rock instrumentals.

Amore E Non Amore was to be a watershed moment for Battisti. His label considered it to be too experimental and advanced for the Italian audience, and refused to release it. They were wrong: it instead set Battisti on a liberating course of artistic freedom and widespread success, and gifted the world one of Italy’s greatest musical exports.By LightintheAttic

Taste :

Lucio Battisti ‎– Dio Mio No


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Κυριακή 10 Οκτωβρίου 2021

Gert Wilden & Orchestra – Schulmädchen Report 1996 (Crippled Dick Hot Wax!)



Label : Crippled Dick Hot Wax!

Value :

The tag end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s brought a river of permissiveness into film, with sexploitation getting a pretty good foothold in American drive-ins and cheap theaters -- not porn, but softcore weirdness involving lots of young people running around naked in whatever circumstances could be concocted. As good as America's breed of low-rent filmmakers got with this, though, they couldn't hold a candle to the Europeans -- particularly the Germans, who all but turned softcore into a science. It may well be that America retreated to cheap horror movies in self-defense (and a case could be made that the English also beat a retreat, assuming a hardcore literary stance). And so, Germany produced Schulmäedchen Report (Schoolgirl Report), its many sequels, and its ilk. There were a lot of them, many of which wound up exported, badly dubbed, and run to death. If they didn't have a soundtrack by Gert Wilden & His Orchestra, then they weren't worth bothering with -- well, at least according to the liner notes here. Going by the evidence at hand, the liner notes might well be right. Wilden's music is a wonderfully demented pastiche that takes its inspiration from all kinds of sources -- "Dirty Beat" swipes from Led Zeppelin, but chucks in bits of acid rock, crazed Farfisa organ, and drum work that sounds like tap-dancing piledrivers. Other cuts teeter on the edge of pure lounge, there's bits of smoky jazz, R&B, crazily mangled surf music, whatever else can be jammed in and will stick -- listening to this is like dealing with weather in Vermont: wait a couple of minutes and it'll change completely. One moment it's lolling saxophone, and the next it's James Last on amphetamines. It all fits, it's often hilarious, and it is absolutely worth keeping on hand. The album producers have also provided multiple liner notes (in English, German, and very small type) that explain the background of the films, provide biographical information about Gert Wilden, and have a little fun with the audience. Lobby cards and stills are scattered liberally throughout so that booklet begins to resemble a photo essay on nudism (the booklet front and the tray card feature nude stills as well; no disguises evident here.) The music, however, remains interesting long after the images have become boring.

Taste :

Gert Wilden & Orchestra – Hot Dance


Gert Wilden & Orchestra – Girl Face


Gert Wilden & Orchestra – Sexy Girls


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By Electric Looser

Κυριακή 3 Οκτωβρίου 2021

Emma Dorgu - Roverman 1979 (Polydor)


Label : Polydor

Value :

In 1979, Emma Dorgu decided it was time to act. He’d torn up the Lagos live scene with The Thermometers and conquered the airwaves with the single, ‘World People’. But there were injustices afoot, not just in Nigeria, but in South Africa and Zimbabwe and across the continent as well, and he felt that something needed to be done. Roverman was his politicized call to action. Blackman Akeeb Kareem lent him the instruments and let him rehearse in his sitting room. Dorgu sets his stall out early in the reggae-tinged ‘Free My People’ calling for freedom for South Africa, freedom for Zimbabwe, indeed, freedom for all. Thankfully political injustice hadn’t rid Emma completely of his urge to get on down. The New York ghetto funk of ‘Roverman’ and ‘Loving’ and the straighthead boogie of ‘Afro Fever’ leaven the message with a funky beat and an irresistible pull towards the dancefloor. On Roverman Emma Dorgu has achieved that that rarest of beats, an album that challenges your mind while it speaks to your feet. Protest music has never sounded so funky. 

Taste :

Emma Dorgu - Lovin

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By Electric Looser