SEASONAL CLASSICAL MIXES

SPRING

SUMMER

MIDSUMMERS NIGHT DREAM-You are floating down a languid river on a warm summers night.

AUTUMN. 

WINTER AND CHRISTMAS  see and hear here.

FOR A VIDEO ABOUT ALL THIS SEE ….

It seems hard to believe but the roots of British R&B lay not with a certain rubber lipped, snake hipped vocalist called Mick Jagger but with an ageing, balding, ex-panel beater, nicknamed ‘Squirrel’ or Cyril Davies.

Above– A pre 1962 photo with Cyril Davies on left, Charlie Watts on drums and Alexis Korner with perhaps Jack Bruce  on bass.

Along with Alexis Korner and Chris Barber this triad began what became an overwhelming tide of blues that shaped the next fifty years of rock music.

Cyril Davies helped to pioneer electric blues in Britain as part of Chris Barber’s band. Barber had a traditional jazz band which was a hot commodity at the time in the late fifties but they also did blues for part of their performances. Barber was also instrumental in bringing American Blues performers to the UK  for tours.

Above Wardour Street in Soho and the Roundhouse Pub (left on picture) in about 1960. That pub is where the very early British blues scene originated.

(Also on that street the Flamingo Club famous later in the sixties for the Hammond organ based jazz blues of Georgie Fame)

Below-In 1962 this seminal blues album came out in the UK.

In March ’62, after building up a sizeable following at the Roundhouse Pub in Soho they moved to  west London’s  Ealing Jazz and Blues Club.

Below from left-? pianist, Alexis Korner, Jack Bruce, Mick Jagger, Cyril Davies. Drummer not seen could have been Charlie Watts.

By the end of May ’62, the band had a more regular line up and was offered a Thursday night residency at The Marquee Club on Oxford Street. Their first appearance attracted just 127 loyal followers but by October they were regularly pulling in a crowd of 1,000. In November 1962, Davies left the band to form his own Cyril Davies’ All-Stars with members recruited from Screaming Lord Sutch’s Savages, including drummer Carlo Little, pianist Nicky Hopkins, Long John Baldry on vocals and black female trio, the Velvettes.

Davies soon claimed that weekly Thursday night Marquee residency for himself and subsequently played there every week throughout ’63. He also released two singles that year, ‘Country Line Special/’Chicago Calling’ (at the time the only British single that ‘American Only’ purists bought) and ‘Preachin’ the Blues/Sweet Mary’.

He passed away on January 7th 1964, two weeks before his 32nd birthday.  On January 28th, the first of two benefits concerts in aid of his wife and two children took place at the Flamingo featuring Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames, Alexis Korner and the remaining All Stars under the new banner Long John’s Hoochie Coochie Men. The second took place at Fairfield Hall in Croydon on Feb 21st and featured Sonny Boy Williamson and Chris Barber’s band. Cyril Davies was on the verge of national recognition. Whether he would have been successful in the long term is questionable, but it remains undisputed that he was the greatest harmonica player in this country at that time.  (Courtesy of Paul ‘Smiler’ Anderson, July 2014).

Below-On the Hullabaloo TV show. Cyril Davies All Stars featuring Long John Baldry and the Velvelettes. 1963

The show was produced by Jack Good who also produced the first Blues incorporated album.

The next year this EP record was made.

 

Below from Hullabaloo 1963- Long John, Cyril and the Velvelettes

Another version of Mojo this time a year later in 1964. Long John Baldry with the Beatles in the audience balcony on a Beatles TV Special called “Around the Beatles” with Backing vocals by Liverpool’s Vernon Girls.  Baldry by this time had gone his own way with the Hoochie Coochie Men who may have been backing him on this video..

If you can stand to read anymore here is a good page from the UK Blues Federation and here from wikipedia.

Above The early Rolling Stones playing at The Crawdaddy Club in West London. Note in those days the sixth Stone Ian Stewart playing maraccas though his best work was on piano and organ. He played on many records but at some point it was decided he wasn’t optically acceptable for live performances. He was always a Stone though and played on many Stones albums.

 

“Tom always wanted a radio station that sounded like you were in the living room of a friend who had the most amazing stereo system imaginable and a tremendous collection of records and impeccible taste.”

Howard Hesselman talking about Tom Donahue of KSAN in San Francisco and his vision of what a radio station should be.

Above –Tom Donahue “Big Daddy” Donahue  300 pounds of solid Sounds holding what looks like the first Big Brother album..

 

 One got an education listening to KSAN. It wasn’t just a string of unrelated computer algorhythm generated hits.  Yes- there were popular records played- but between them were other less well known tracks all connected and linked in some way.  All in perfect booming stereo sound with a bare minimum of advertising. Sales of those big tube amplifier  tuners went up because of this.

Each part of the day had a particular flavor depending on who was playing the records. Mornings were easy going folk and country blues. Friday and Saturday nights were very funky.  Sunday mornings aired the philosophy of Alan Watts.

 

Saturday night midnight to 6 am the best of Bay area soul music with Dusty Street and Voco (The Mahdi) . (Photo below).

“It’s midnight….. lights off….. clothes off…… candles glowing….. incense is fading away……. don’t need no electricity, baby- I’ll be your amplifier, because we can boogie in the dark'” – and so pioneer San Francisco disc jockey Voco introduced himself every Saturday night at midnight.

Though called Lights Out it was anything but sleepy.

You tube also has this documentary below about KSAN

 

 

 

 

The Club a Go in Newcastle was one of the classic clubs of the early sixties where one could hear all the best bands that played the blues circuit around the country, along with American artists that were touring the UK at the time.

Before they had a hit record bands at that time had to do the tour of these clubs which were in almost every big city.

 

The resident band at Newcastle’s Club A  Go Go was the Alan Price Combo soon to become the Animals. They played most weekends- but after their big hit House Of The Rising Sun we understandably didn’t see them at the club much more.

Above-The Alan Price Combo. They changed their name right about the time they backed Sonny Boy Williamson on his tour in late 1963. They made a live album at The Go Go with him and some tracks are on Vol 1

Sonny Boy did not have a back up band but woul- like many artists, hire local bands for the job.  He thought the Animals quite up to the job but we will not mention the names of those bands he thought not up to par.

Above The Young Set for those under drinking age. Visiting bands played one early set at eight pm then moved across the lobby to the Jazz Lounge for two more sets until 2 am. when it was last orders.

The Stage in the “Jazz Lounge” was only a few feet wide and only raised a few inches above the dance floor. One could sit at a table just feet away from the stage. On that stage I saw the likes of Spencer Davis with Steve Winwood, John Mayall with Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart and Long John Baldry even the some of the Rolling Stones along with Jerome and the Duchess with Bo Diddley. Sonny Boy Williamson, Jimmy Reed, Jimmy Witherspoon. Who did NOT play there is a shorter list

Above.  Before The Go Go was the Downbeat Club which was an old Victorian era building down near the river.  It was known to be the hangout of the Beats who had very long hair and seemed to wear black all the time.

The first time I went there it was to the all night session sometime in 1963.  I remember hearing music I had never heard before. It was dark with old wooden floorboards and brick walls. Long haired people were shuffling around in the darkness to this “jungle ” music. Great rhythms and infectious. I had never heard this before. The BBC did not play that type of music. (One may have heard the odd piece once in a while on a late night jazz show).

I asked the d.j what was playing. The sound was so loud I could not hear the answer. Several tries later I heard  ...”Its a Chess Record”– meaning anything from that Chicago label was worth playing, not the specific tune.

Below-Chess Records and most other smaller US labels were not directly sold in the UK. They had to rely on British labels to distribute their wares such as Pye’s budget label Golden Guinea who put out this iconic collection of Chess tunes. But that’s another subject.

 

 

A very thoroughly modern take on swing music.

AURAL FIXATIONS IS-THE SOUNDTRACK TO (MY) LIFE

Writing about music is a bit like explaining art with words. The reason for images is they are NOT words. Words are redundant. However we still try.

Music to me is like oxygen. I have always taken note and collected it.

I started paying attention to music when I  was a youngster in the mid fifties in England.  I dont recall exactly when. All there was then to hear was the 3 BBC stations and distant crackling Radio Luxembourg (at night only) and whatever 78 rpm records my elder brother would bring home. I discovered some music moved me to dance – like swing and rock & roll. Later classical music on Radio 3 would do something “different” for me so I began writing down notes as to the names of the pieces and the composers.

I eventually learned that music can be organized into what you want it to do for you. Rather like lighting in a room it can make or destroy a mood. I also discovered that to most people music is not as important as to me.

I could never understand that, but these are the same people happily living in rooms with bare light bulbs on the ceiling and seeing no problem with that.

This blog is an adjunct to my music collections on Spotify and Mixcloud. The goal with these collections is to put out my history with music in an organized fashion for the benefit of anyone who is interested coming after me.

As far as popular and jazz music goes I suppose the sixties and seventies are more represented in my collections than others as those times were when I really absorbed much music being a teenager to being middle aged in London and then San Francisco during those impressionable periods. My taste is of course from these periods but I can appreciate the best of any era and there is a large selection of thirties and forties swing and jazz to be found. Each playlist or “set” is thematic. There is a beginning middle and end which I hope listeners stay for.