At the beginning of 2009 I announced a format change: weekly posts featuring themed compilations and podcasts. I only managed to squeeze out about a dozen compilations in 2009, but I also posted several very interesting recordings throughout the year, the best of which are featured here. Stay tuned for lots more in 2010!
1) SNCC Freedom Singers – Governor Wallace
The Freedom Singers were originally formed in 1962 to raise money for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and their songs and music played an important role in the Civil Rights movement. One of the group’s key founders was Cordell Hull Reagon, known for his many nonviolence training workshops and anti-segregation efforts in the Albany, Georgia area. Other founding members included Bernice Johnson (who later married Reagon), Charles Neblett and Rutha Harris. They traveled widely and won new fans at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival. In 1964 the group reformed as an all-male quartet with another Nashville native, Matt Jones.
2) Pesniary – We’ll Walk Along the Street
This groovy Belorussian psych-folk from the Melodiya label [CM 02651-2, from 1971] is one of a few Soviet-era gems sitting in my vinyl vault. Pesniary was a vocal-instrumental ensemble founded in 1969 by guitarist Vladimir Muliavin. Before 1970 the band was known under the name Liavony. Pesniary merged Belarusian folklore with popular psychedelic rock elements. They were one of the first Soviet bands to tour the United States in 1976 (apparently with the New Christy Minstrels).
3) Larry Estridge – Spirits of the Revolution
Many thanks to the Smithsonian for sending me this compilation, and especially for introducing me to Larry Estridge - a painter, sculptor, guitarist and folk singer who was a part of the Grenwich Village scene of the 1960s. The lyrics in this song are as good as anything from Dylan at the time. Vive Le Revolotion Larry! Thanks so much for writing and recording this song, and thanks to Smithsonian/Folkways for making it available again.
4) Barrett Strong – Money
“Your lovin’ give me a thrill
But your lovin’ don’t pay my bills. Now gimme money that’s what I want.” –Janie Bradbord & Berry Gordy.
Ain’t that the truth? It has been more than two years since the global economic meltdown began, and I still don’t believe the average person (at least in the “anglosphere”) is much better informed about where money comes from and how it is created in the internationalized system of fractional-reserve banking. I hope my Bailout Blues for the Broke and Busted will help remedy that situation.
5) Al Green – All Because I’m a Foolish One
The Flipside of Al Green was one of my best finds of 2009. Who knew that Al had such solid b-sides? This one is the snappiest of the collection. I love the simple use of the percussion switch on the Hammond organ. With this switch on, and the Hammond’s touch-sensitive keys, you can create sharp sounds with strong attack and quick decay, simply by striking the keyboard hard and quick. This song pivots around the simple use of this technique.
6) String Cheese – Here Am I / Empty Streets
When it comes to rare vinyl, there are lost gems, and then there are tragic lost gems. As the first release for Chicago’s Wooden Nickel label (distributed by RCA), String Cheese would definitely fall into the latter category.
The lack of commercial success for some recordings simply defies explanation, but Wooden Nickel was one of those labels that seemed to be truly hexed, despite publishing some of the more interesting albums of the 1970s, including releases by Exile, Siegel-Schwall Band, and most notably, the first 4 pieces of wax by Styx. When Styx signed with A&M in 1975, Wooden Nickel’s fate was sealed.
If you love the San Francisco band, It’s A Beautiful Day, then you will love String Cheese. There’s also some similarity to early Jefferson Airplane and The Great Society. I put these two songs together because they flow well into each other in the album and I didn’t want to seperate them.
7) Chicago – A Song For Richard Nixon and His Friends
Just like Nixon, as a U.S. president, Obama inherited his wars, but he certainly doesn’t seem interested in shutting them down. Perhaps he should stop by here and listen to Chicago’s message to Nixon? I doubt it would make any difference, but since we are being sold so much hope these days….
8) Gypsy – Late December
Formed in Minneapolis in 1964 as the Underbeats by guitarist James Johnson, bassist Doni Larson, and drummer Tom Green, Gypsy is an accessible mix of southern- and progressive rock pivoting around the kind of arrangements and production values that made bands like the Doobie Brothers into superstars.
The band expanded to include singer/guitarist Enrico Rosenbaum and keyboardist James “Owl” Walsh in 1969, performing throughout the Twin Cities circuit. Relocating to Los Angeles led to a gig at the Whiskey-a-Go-Go, and the band renamed themselves “Gypsy” and began to pursue a more progressive sound similar to the original line-up of Deep Purple.
9) Eddie Safrinski – Sa-Frantic
According to a biography by Richard S. Ginell, “Eddie Safranski was best known for his gig as the bass anchor of the most popular of Stan Kenton’s big bands (1945-1948). The owner of a solid, clear, precisely articulated tone and a sure command of the swing and bop idioms, Safranski was also lucky enough to have been the beneficiary of terrific recording quality from Kenton’s engineers at Capitol Records; his bass registered far more cleanly and powerfully than many of those who recorded for rival companies.”
10) Shelly Manne, Louie Bellson, Paul Humphrey, Willie Bobo – One Score and Four Drummers Ago
Four jazz drummers playing together. Wow! What a concept! If you enjoyed this, head over to My Jazz World and download The Drum Session – a 1976 Philips label release featuring drummers Louis Bellson, Shelly Manne, Willie Bobo and Paul Humphrey. Additional players are Bob Bryant on trumpet & flugelhorn, Jerome Richardson on sax & flute, Mike Wofford on keyboards and Chuck Domanico on bass. Production by Oliver Nelson.
11) Allman Brothers Band – Every Hungry Woman
Whereas At Filmore East was the result of a professionally engineered effort to produce a concert album, the Allman’s Ludlow Garage album is full of technical flaws – beautiful wonderful flaws. When it was recorded by Dan Britt and Rick Lemker at Ludlow Garage in Cincinnati on 11 April 1970, it was likely for the band’s personal archives and not intended to be released to the public. Many of the jam bands of this period – but especially the Grateful Dead – went to extra lengths to document every show they performed for future reference. Nowadays bands can simply plug in their portable digital devices to the venue’s soundboard to archive their shows, but in 1970, archival feats were accomplished on tape at 7 1/2 inches per second. That’s a lot of tape – more than 3700 feet of it for this concert!
12) Jackie Alexander – Said and Done
Amadou Bailo Diallo was a 23-year-old Senegalese immigrant in New York City who was shot to death on 4 February 1999 by four NYC plain-clothed cops. As reported by the Washington Post, “In February 1999, four New York City policemen searching for a rape suspect knocked on Amadou Diallo’s door to question him. When he came to the door he reached inside his jacket, at which point the officers shot at him 41 times, hitting him with 19 bullets. The object Diallo was reaching for turned out to be his wallet.”
According to producer Weldon Irvine (aka Master Wel), The Price of Freedom: The Amadou Project “was an attempt on my part to speak about the whole subject of police brutality in general and Amadou in particular. I was very fortunate many spoken word artists including Mums the Schemer, Rah Goddess, Rich Medina, Tree, so many people, Sister Nzingah. From hip hop we had Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Q-Tip, Don Blackman, Carla Cook, even Amadou’s mother herself. I sampled her. But all of us collectively had so much to say about this tragedy, this unjust act and under the title the Amadou Project, which I hope people will avail themselves of we spoke very passionately about not only the fact that he was killed, but things that we feel as a society we should do to stop this from every happening again.”
13) McCoy Tyner – Smitty’s Place
I am still waiting for an RVG-edition re-issue of this absolutely stellar album – one of Tyner’s final recordings for the Blue Note label. Tyner’s band has incredible chemistry and is in absolute top form.
Piano – McCoy Tyner
Bass – Herbie Lewis
Cello – Ron Carter
Drums – Freddie Waits
Producer – Duke Pearson
Recorded By – Rudy Van Gelder
Saxophone [Alto], Flute [Wooden] – Gary Bartz
Saxophone [Tenor], Clarinet – Wayne Shorter
Trumpet – Woody Shaw
14) Chicago – Italian From New York
Every year I spend a little time reviewing old bands that I haven’t listened to in a long time. Chicago VII was one of the first albums I pulled out, and I was astonished at how much I had forgotten about this band – especially Terry Kath’s fiery guitar. The fact that Chicago put the pop hits on the final side of this double album shows how committed they were to getting audiences to listen to more experimental music in the early 1970s.
15) String Cheese Incident – Remington Ride
The String Cheese Incident is mandolinist/violinist Michael Kang, guitarist Bill Nershi, bassist Keith Moseley, pianist Kyle Hollingsworth, and percussionist Michael Travis. Formed in Boulder, CO, in 1993, the group’s self-described “sacrilegious mix of bluegrass, calypso, salsa, Afro-pop, funk, rock, and jazz” quickly built up a following on the local club circuit, and within six months of their formation they earned an invitation to open the legendary Telluride Bluegrass Festival. SCI’s annual halloween shows are now legendary.
16) Rotary Connection – Last Call for Peace
Rotary Connection was a psychedelic soul band formed in Chicago in 1966. The highly experimental band was the idea of Marshall Chess, son of Chess Records founder Leonard Chess. Marshall was the director behind a start-up label, Cadet Concept Records, and wanted to focus on music outside of the blues and rock genres, which had made the Chess label popular. This led Marshall to turn his attention to the burgeoning psychedelic movement. He recruited Charles Stepney (producer), a vibraphonist and classically-trained arranger and producer. Marshall then recruited members of a little-known white rock band, The Proper Strangers: Bobby Simms, Mitch Aliotta, and Ken Venegas. Sidney Barnes, a songwriter within the Chess organization, also joined, as did Judy Hauff and a Chess receptionist named Minnie Riperton, who would later be successful in her own solo career. Marshall also called up prominent session musicians associated with the Chess label, including guitarist Phil Upchurch and drummer Morris Jennings.
I am the creator and site administrator at The Basement Rug. I have been collecting LP's and CD's for more than 30 years. I 
