The Basement Rug

The Bureaucrats are:

Vocals: Gary (Gaz) Sidwell
Rhythm Guitar & Vocals: Mitch Sidwell
Lead Guitar & & Vocals: Joe Frey
Bass: Grant Bucosky
Drums: Wayne Johnson

The following info is a loose re-write of the liner notes to this 1999 compilation CD. I found them at the SonOfSpam blog:

Ottawa’s Bureaucrats were formed in the summer of 1978. During that time, there was very little happening on the Canadian music scene. Bands that wrote and performed their own material couldn’t get gigs in local clubs. Club owners systematically selected “cover” bands to fulfill their club’s musical needs. Record companies didn’t believe original Canadian bands had anything to offer. In fact, they’d rarely venture outside New York to check out new talent.

Eventually, Toronto was seen as a stepping stone to NYC. But even that didn’t occur until well into the 1980’s. But Ottawa…? With apologies to residents in the Nation’s Capital, the city is still seen as a bit of a cultural joke.

But the Bureaucrats helped change things in the Canadian capital’s club scene. Their growing appeal ultimately led to almost all clubs opening their doors to the band — and eventually, to the just then emerging “new music scene”.

Over the course of those early years, The Bureaucrats had been busy writing and recording original songs. In total, the band had written about 20-30 of them. Unfortunately, only half of those songs got recorded.

However, they did release a number of singles in 1979, along with a 12? EP in 1980. The singles veered from snotty, fuzz driven punk rock, to slightly more polished power pop, to neo-reggae (however you might define it). Their 12? EP expands on the power pop sound.

In 1999, Drummer Wayne Johnston and Rhythm Guitarist Mitch Sidwell released a compilation CD titled “roi” (sic) . That’s pronounced “Roy” as in Rogers, not “Rwa” as in Patrick or a French king. It stands for “Return On Investment”.

Interesting Sidenote 1: The Brothers Sidwell (Gaz & Mitch) hailed from Leicester, UK (hence the accent). Their family emigrated to Canada during the so-called British “Nanny Boom” in Ottawa.

Interesting Sidenote 2: Everyone in the Sidwell family (including sister and parents) all have entirely different accents.

What are they doing now?

Well, Joe is a Chef. Mitch is a Draftsman (or “Draughtsman” for you Brits) . Grant works as a General Contractor, and Gaz is a Printer.

And Wayne? Oh, he’s now Chief of Operations for International Trade at Statistics Canada — a government agency. So yes: he is a bureaucrat.

Track Listing:

1) Grown up Age
2) The Game
3) Bureaucracy
4) Today & Everyday
5) Frustration
6) Girl of your Dreams
7) Now and Then
8) She’s an American
9) Feel the Pain
10) A Question of Sport *
11) Passion Bastards *
12) You Never Wanted Me *

* Recorded live at Barrymore’s (Ottawa) - February 1980

Every now and then I come across some obscure and long-forgotten blues artist that just blows my mind. Cecil Barfield is the latest to be added to the roster. I discovered him in a post on SundayBlues.org that reviews the George Mitchell Collection:

George Mitchell made some remarkable field recordings throughout the South over a twenty year period beginning in the early 1960’s. Many of these recordings have appeared on specialist labels like Southland, Revival, Flyright, Arhoolie and Rounder but are long out of print now. Several years ago the Fat Possum label acquired the Mitchell archive and has been reissuing the recordings through a variety of formats including CD, 7-inch record and digital download.

Mitchell wasn’t the only one roaming the south in the 1960’s in search of blues; there was folklorists and researchers such as David Evans, Sam Charters, Gayle Dean Wardlow, Art Rosenbaum and others. Some were hunting for the famous names who made records in the 1920’s and 1930’s, others were seeking to fill in biographical blanks regarding some of the older musicians coveted by collectors and then there were those, like Mitchell, who were seeking to record whoever they could find. Mitchell did record some of the famous artists of the past like Buddy Moss, Furry Lewis, Will Shade, Sleepy Johns Estes and was the first to record artists who would achieve later fame such as R.L. Burnside, Jesse Mae Hemphill, Othar Turner and Precious Bryant. While the blues revival was picking up steam with newly discovered artists like Son House, Bukka White and Mississippi John Hurt hitting the circuit, Mitchell’s recordings were a sort of a parallel undercurrent to the more famous artists. What Mitchell recorded in the rural communities of Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi in the 1960’s was a still thriving, if largely undocumented, blues culture. Mitchell had the passion and drive to seek out these folks, and unlike some folklorists didn’t use the music to reinforce his own theories, he simply let the musicians speak for themselves and judging by the recordings they clearly responded to Mitchell’s sincerity (being a southerner probably didn’t hurt as well).

Mitchell came along at the right time as he relates in the notes to the LP South Georgia Blues by William Robertson aka Cecil Barfield: “As late as 1969 a country bluesman who at least occasionally played could be located in most small towns of Georgia. In 1976, there are very few active blues musicians left in the state! In the short span of seven years, one of the world’s most vital and influential forms of music as it was originally performed has all but died out in Georgia, and probably in the rest of the South as well. …Most bluesmen have either died or fallen into ill health accompanying old age, and the younger generation of rural blacks long ago turned their backs on the blues.” It was also, he noted, the Church who claimed many bluesmen as well as the lack of financial incentive to play the blues that was the music’s death knell.

The most striking musician on the first disc is Cecil Barfield, and I agree with Mitchell’s assessment that he was some kind of genius. Mitchell called him “probably the greatest previously unrecorded bluesman I have had the pleasure of recording during my 15 years of field research.” Using the name William Robertson, in fear of endangering his welfare checks, he cut the LP South Georgia Blues for Southland in the mid-70’s with several other tracks appearing on Flyright’s Georgia Blues Today (reissued by Fat Possum with the same title and liner notes). I imagine Barfield is an acquired taste but to me he is simply mesmerizing; his music, with his droning, lightly distorted electric guitar coupled with his powerful mushed mouth, nasal singing, is hypnotic. Barfield has some originals but his genius is in the way he transforms well known songs by Frankie Lee Sims (”Lucy Mae Blues”), Lightnin’ Hopkins (”Mojo Hand”), J.B. Lenoir (”Talk To Your Daughter”) and others into something startlingly original. Only four songs by Barfield are on the box set although I was so taken with his music I downloaded all his songs on Amazon (George Mitchell Collection Vol. 2, Disc 3 & 4), 43 songs in all!

I have been jamming again and trying to get up my drumming chops. I went over to DrummerWorld.com to check out some Joe Morello videos. Most any drummer will watch Morello in complete awe - his technique is perfection. Morello’s Ludwig kit above is the standard for jazz club drummers.

Watching the Morello technique videos inspired me to haul out It’s About Time and offer it here. Recorded in 1961, this LP includes Morello’s Sextet and Orchestra.

Track Listing:

1) I Didn’t Know What Time It Was
2) Time After Time
3) Every Time
4) Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye
5) Just in Time
6) Summertime
7) Time on My Hands
8) Mother Time
9) Fatha Time
10) It’s About Time

Review by Shawn M. Haney:

Awe-inspiring, stirring, soothing. These words can best describe the adventurous music led by legendary drummer Joe Morello. Here in this recording are tracks breathing alive with flair and resonance. The songs of spontaneous beauty, some speedy and some relaxed, seem to soar off the spinning black record. Others, such as the romantic, sullen “Every Time We Say Goodbye,” seem to possess a dreamy, ethereal quality, delighting young couples toward a romantic mood. In the song “Just in Time,” Morello sets the pace with a dashing, daring timbre, giving Phil Woods the freedom to explore melodically creative territory on his lush-sounding alto sax. Woods has been regarded as one of the finest sax soloists in the post-bop era. Gary Burton also receives creative expression to expand the record’s musical variety in the use of a merry-go-round-like vibraphone. “Every limit in jazz and popular music has been stretched and broken with the passing years. Technical skills have been sharpened; musicians have turned what was once dazzling virtuosity into the professional norm.” These are the written words of music critic George Avakian, who sincerely expresses the fact that jazz as an art has evolved to enter new heights, a startling yet fascinating new frontier in its creative direction. Thanks are due to Morello, who toured with his musical compatriot Dave Brubeck and his quartet, playing to well-received crowds largely in the ’60s. Morello, the percussionist that he is, gave the jazz and musical world new ground to explore, concerning the field of timbre and percussive measures. He improvs in everything, including 6/4, 3/4, and 5/4, in this collection of songs. Though present in the back of the group, his leadership provides tremendous drive and sweeping force, eagerly inspiring Woods and Burton to reach and express their musical senses. Gene Cherco adds the baritone flavor on his steady marching walking bass, while John Bunch displays sweeping melody notes sitting down at the piano. This record is compelling and free-spirited, giving listeners a delightful picture of some of the best in ’60s jazz.

Joe Morello biography by Rick Mattingly:

Born July 17, 1929 in Springfield, Massachusetts, Morello began studying violin at age six, and three years later was featured with the Boston Symphony Orchestra as soloist in the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. By age 15 he had switched to drums, first studying with a show drummer named Joe Sefcik and then studying with the legendary George Lawrence Stone. “I’d work out of his book, Stick Control, and after I could play the sticking patterns I’d start throwing in accents in various places,” Morello recalls. Stone was so impressed with Morello’s ideas that he incorporated them into his next book, Accents & Rebounds, which is dedicated to Morello. Later, Morello studied with Radio City Music Hall percussionist Billy Gladstone, one of the most technically advanced drummers of all time.

“My training was basically classical snare drum technique,” Morello says. “But I used it the way I wanted to. The objective of a good teacher is to bring out the creativity of the pupil. Some teachers insist that a student play a certain style. Let the students be themselves and\ develop their talent. Give them a knowledge of the instrument; once they have that, they can use it the way they want to use it.”

After moving to New York City, Morello worked with an impressive list of jazz musicians including Johnny Smith, Tal Farlow, Phil Woods and Stan Kenton. While working with Marian McPartland at the Hickory House, Morello’s technical feats attracted the attention of a legion of drummers, who would crowd around him at a back table during intermissions to watch him work out with a pair of sticks on a folded napkin. Jim Chapin tells stories about unsuspecting drummers who would try to impress Morello by showing off their fancy licks. Morello would listen intently, then say, “Is this what you’re doing?” as he’d play their licks back at them twice as fast.

His 12-year stint with Brubeck made Morello a household name in the jazz (and drumming) world, and on the quartet’s recording of “Take Five” he performed one of the most famous drum solos in jazz history. “When people use the word ‘technique,’ they usually mean ‘speed,’” Morello says, commenting on the solo. “But the ‘Take Five’ solo had very little speed involved. It was more about space and playing over the barline. It was conspicuous by being so different.”

After leaving Brubeck in 1968 Morello became an in-demand clinician, teacher and bandleader. He has appeared on over 120 albums, the latest of which is his own Going Places, released last year (1993) on DMP. He has written several drum books, including Master Studies, published by Modern Drummer Publications, and has done an instructional video for Hot Licks titled The Natural Approach to Technique. Morello has won countless music polls over the years, and was elected to the Modern Drummer magazine Hall of Fame in 1988.

Morello says that the secret to technique is relaxation. “It’s a matter of natural body movement,” he explains. “When your hand is relaxed, your thumb isn’t squeezing against your first finger and your wrist isn’t at some funny angle. The stick just rests in the hand in a very natural position. When you strike a practice pad, you should be able to hear the ring of the wood stick. The average person chokes the stick, and that comes through on the drum. The whole thing is relaxation and letting the sticks do most of the work.

“Technique is only a means to an end,” Morello stresses. “The more control you have of the instrument, the more confidence you will get and the more you will be able to express your ideas. But just for technique alone - just to see how fast you can play so you can machine-gun everybody to death - that doesn’t make any sense. Technique is only good if you can use it musically.”

Throughout his career, Joe Morello has embodied that ideal to the fullest, achieving renown for both his technique and his musicality, and inspiring generations of players through the example he has set of always striving for excellence.

“I’m sure there are people who disagree with my playing,” he says, “and there are some who think I’m the greatest thing that ever happened. That’s what is so great about this art form. It would be awfully boring if everyone played the same. You would only have to own one record.

“I’ve heard people say, ‘This drummer swings more than that one.’ I think ‘swing’ and ‘feel’ are individual things. There is not just one way to swing. It’s a feeling that comes from within that you project through the drums.

“I’m not the end-all and know-all of the drums. There’s a lot out there I don’t know, but I’m trying to do the best I can. The main thing is to be original.”

With so much musical genre-busting going on in the last twenty years, the music industry is running out of genre “fads”, and so the latest gimmick is now the “duo”. The duo itself is certainly nothing new, but it seems as a fad, the duo is the latest excuse for what appears to be the demise of the band concept altogether.

Calm down now, I hear ya. Certainly the “band” has not played its last waltz just yet, but let’s face it, the explosion of the DJ sub-culture in the last twenty years has certainly changed the club landscape where most live music is played.

When the the “house” and “hip-hop” scenes first got started I never would have imagined that DJ’s would eventually become superstars with a fan base, but then, I never took the DJ sub-culture all that seriously.

Increased urbanization and electronic culture have further seperated us from our more traditional musical roots. Our increasingly fast-paced “broken social scene” has made keeping a band together harder than ever before, so much so I believe that many of those who bother to play actual instruments have given up looking for that third or fourth band member, and have decided to make do as a duo.

The success of bands like The White Stripes has made record labels less skittish about signing duos, regardless of the musical genre. Many of the new duos are in fact extensions of the DJ sub-culture, making heavy use of looping devices and electronica to create a live disco dance environment.

But there was a time when the duo was just an extract of the classic trio: piano, bass, and drums. In fact, rock and roll has some of its roots in the boogie-woogie duos of early blues music.

This release from the Emarcy label represents some of that history. Art Hodes plays piano, and Truck Parham plays bass.

Track Listing:

1) Washboard Blues (H. Carmichael - I. Mills - B. Callahan) 2:37
2) How Long, How Long Blues (L. Carr) 4:16
3) Mister Blues (A. Hodes) 3:04
4) The Chimes Blues (J. Oliver) 3:50
5) Pine Top’s Blues (C. Pinetop Smith) 3:23
6) By A And T (A. Hodes - T. Parham) 4:14
7) Call To Attention (A. Hodes) 3:18
8) Randolph St. Shuffle (A. Hodes) 3:03
9) Basin Street Blues (S. Williams) 3:56
10) Snowy Morning Blues (J.P. Johnson) 2:23
11) Royal Garden Blues (S. Williams - C. Williams) 4:04
12) Buddy Golden’s Blues (F. Morton) 3:56

Following info taken from wikipedia:

Pianist Arthur W. Hodes was born in Ukraine on 14 November 1904. His family settled in Chicago, Illinois when he was a few months old. His career began in Chicago clubs, but he did not gain wider attention until moving to New York City in 1938. In that city he played with Sidney Bechet, Joe Marsala, and Mezz Mezzrow. Later Hodes founded his own band in the 1940s and it would be associated with his home town of Chicago. He and his band played mostly in that area for the next forty years. He also wrote for jazz magazines like Jazz Record. He remained an educator and writer in jazz. His style tended to be traditional and influenced by the blues. This meant he had generally taken the position against bebop in the jazz debates of the 1940s. In 1998, he was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame. He died March 4, 1993 in Harvey, Illinois.

Following info taken from “All That Jazz The Illustrated Story of Jazz Music”, General Editor: Ronald Atkins, Copyright 1996, Carlton Books Limited, ISBN 0-76519-953-X:

African-American jazz bassist and drummer Truck Parham was born on 25 January 1911. A longtime fixture in the Chicago music scene, Charles “Truck” Parham played in a countless number of settings during his long career. A fine athlete in his early days (including spending time playing professional football with the Chicago Negro All Stars and as a boxer), Parham was originally a drummer before switching to bass picking up early experience with Zack Whyte’s band in Cincinnati from 1932-34.Back in Chicago from 1936-38, he played regularly with Zutty Singleton and Roy Eldridge and occasionally with Art Tatum. In 1940 Parham joined Earl Hines’ big band for two years before working with Jimmie Lunceford’s Orchestra until 1947. In Chicago, Parham was part of Muggsy Spanier’s dixieland band (1950-55) and also worked with Herbie Fields (1956-57), Earl Hines and Louie Bellson. In the 1960’s Parham mostly played with Art Hodes and since then he has continued playing with trad jazz groups.

Although he never recorded as a leader, Parham appeared on many records through the years including with Eldridge, Hines, Lunceford, Spanier, Bellson and Hodes. Parham died in July 2002 after he’d been in the hospital for a few weeks, he was 90. The entire jazz world will miss Charles “Truck” Parham.

I searched all over the net and called some friends, but I was unable to any information whatsoever about this very obscure 12″ single from 1980. It is a one-sided pressing (side B is dead wax), probably from New York, but I cannot say for sure. Apart from the fact that it is obviously OLD “old school”, the image of the label above tells you as much as I know about it. Enjoy!

This is one of a great string of albums from 1968-1974 that express the frustration of those victimized by the American “ghetto” institution. Most of these albums are long-forgotten (especially the jazz albums), but thanks to the interest of the DJ subculture, re-issues are bringing these gems back on to turntables and CD players everywhere.

Review by Germein Linares:

It is often difficult to gauge the relative importance or message of an artwork, years or decades after its initial release. Truly impressive are those works that not only retain their Zeitgeist, the spirit of the times, but also find relevance and significance with the present. Listening to the re-release of 1968’s Eddie Gale’s Ghetto Music, one not only senses the social awakening of the late 1960s, there is an equal and unfortunate awareness of our current cultural waste. Francis Wolff, co-founder of Blue Note, felt so strongly about this album that he personally financed the production and release of this music in 1968, after recording Gale on Cecil Taylor’s Unit Structures and Larry Young’s Of Love and Peace.Along with its companion piece, Black Rhythm Happening, Eddie Gale’s Ghetto Music fell victim to the chaos following Liberty Records’ takeover of Blue Note. Both pieces never appeared beyond their initial releases, until now.

The good people at San Francisco-based Water Music have taken the initiative and re-released Eddie Gale’s Ghetto Music on CD. The success of the album stems from its unique use of folk, blues, gospel, soul and jazz to create a wildly vibrant, urban force. “The Rain,” with Joan Gale’s soft, assured delivery, sets the pace for the entire album, as it morphs from a single guitar strum into a massive entity of sound, rhythm, and swing. Surprising, since 17 musicians appear on the album, is the precision and efficiency of the music.

On “Fulton Street,” for example, the feel of the famous Brooklyn street is captured immediately by the child-like voices pronouncing its name proudly: “Fulton Street, baby!” Then, the low down riff comes in, the singers mimic the sound of the horns, they interchange riffs, and someone runs here, somebody else goes there, and you feel it, you’re on Fulton Street, baby. It welcomes you.

Once in, it may well be difficult to relinquish the sensation of songs like “A Walk With Thee” or “The Coming of Gwilu.” Both burn as deep, groove as hard, as anything else on the vaunted Blue Note catalog. For that reason, those that rarely venture outside the hard bop fringes of Blue Note will be most rewarded by the music here, as it presents new possibilities without abandoning the “Blue Note sound.”

Track listing:

1) The Rain
2) Fulton Street
3) A Understanding
4) A Walk With Thee
4) The Coming of Gwilu

Personnel:

Eddie Gale - trumpet, soprano recorder, Jamaican thumb piano, steel drum, bird whistle; Russell Lyle - tenor saxophone, flute; Judah Samuel, James “Tokio” Reid - bass; Richard Hackett, Thomas Holman - drums; The Noble Gale Singers: Elaine Beiner, Sylvia Bibbs, Barbara Dove, Joann Gale, Evelyn Goodwin, Art Jenkins, Fulumi Prince, Norman Wright, Edward Walrond, Sondra Walston, Mildred Weston - vocals

Ever since Oscar Peterson died, I have been telling friends there would be more offerings in the works from the late Canadian pianist. I have also received some requests for recordings by Stephane Grappelli, and so this offering has allowed me to wash to birds in one bath - and in Paris, no less!

Even considering the fact that the violin is not a traditional jazz instrument, Grappelli is a standout artist in the field of jazz. He was his own musical genre. More Grappelli offerings should follow in the future, but I cannot say when. Spring is here and blogging time will become more scarce pour moi. C’est la vie!

The following review is by Michael Simmons:

When Stephane Grappelli entered the recording studio with Oscar Peterson in 1973 to record this collection of standards, it marked his 50th anniversary as a professional musician. Grappelli’s most famous collaboration was of course his six-year stint in the 1930s with the Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt, but it wasn’t until he started playing with pianists like Peterson that he really developed into a world-class soloist. Peterson’s lush, full chords suit Grappelli’s unabashedly romantic style perfectly, and on ballads like “My One and Only Love” his fiddling is lyrical, but with a melancholy depth that keeps it from descending into mere prettiness. The other musicians include bassist Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen and drummer Kenny Clark, whose supple, swinging rhythm gives the solos a gentle lift while driving them forward. Peterson and Grappelli were both old pros when they made this record, but the charm of tracks like “Thou Swell” and “Makin’ Whoopee” show that even after decades in the business, they hadn’t lost the ability to surprise and delight each other.

Track Listing:

1) Them There Eyes
2) Flamingo
3) Makin’ Whoopee
4) Looking At You
5) Walkin’ My Baby Back Home
6) My One And Only Love
7) Thou Swell