Playlist for
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
January 18, 2008

Hosted by Greg Lyon on FRIDAYS at 2-4 pm
on WPVM Asheville (103.5 FM and www.wpvm.org)

This show is available for listening as an archive for one week after its airing at WPVM’s Archive Page (click on the STREAM button for this show–under the letter ‘G’)

Notes:

– When I don’t have guests on the show, I play more jazz. I recently picked up a copy of Joe Harriott’s Abstract on vinyl, and it’s a real gem. Harriott was probably the greatest proponent of 1960s New Jazz in England, sounding very much in the same league as Ornette Coleman and Eric Dolphy. Here’s a short bio and discography. Ken Vandermark has paid homage with his Joe Harriott Project CD, Straight Lines on Atavistic, but I played something newer by Vandermark, namely his Territory Band-6 release, Collide, which also features Norwegian noise-meister Lasse Marhaug among many other notables. Vandermark consistently makes music that stretches the boundaries without going over the cliff, more Outward Bound than Out There, to use the Eric Dolphy albums as metaphors–something I’m sure the Dolphy-loving Vandermark wouldn’t mind, although much of Vandermark’s music is indeed farther out there than Dolphy’s album by that name (Out to Lunch, however, is a different story). I’ve discovered that my favorite jazz artists work in a similar vein: pushing the outer limits of tradition, with a discernible vector beyond those limits (outward bound). Steve Lacy epitomizes this for me. Back to earth: this Collide CD really does sound fresh: both avant-garde and listenable. I’m also working through all those Free America Records reissues put out a couple of years ago, and this time I featured Alan Shorter’s Tes Esat from 1970, one of only two albums led by the trumpet- and flugelhorn-playing brother of Wayne Shorter. Orgasm is the other one, and it’s truly dynamite. Orgasm needs a new reissue; it goes for far too much money on ebay nowadays. Lastly, I managed a cool Lester Young live track from the newly refreshed ESP-Disk label.

– A real find this week was the Marc Wilkinson soundtrack to the 1971 British sexploitation horror film, Blood on Satan’s Claw. It’s creepy throughout and incredibly well scored–on par with Morricone in his horror mode.

– My Jack Nitzsche pick this week was the Everly Brothers doing "Hey Mr. Soul" from 1968. It didn’t see a release, though, until 1984, according to the liner notes of my Ace Records Nitzsche collection (one of two on that label). They also report that Nitzsche recorded Buffalo Springfield doing this song, but that version didn’t make the record. Nitzsche later worked with Neil Young on his first solo record.

– My favorite website usage error of the week: Lion Productions reissued a big, shiny ruby of a find in the 1972 French band Ophiucus’s self-titled debut. But either their blurb needs an editor, or the liner notes really pissed someone off: "A fulsome 28-page booklet includes band history and commentaries on the songs written by Ophiucus, photos, lyrics (French and English), and a contemporary review. Not to be missed!" I read the liner notes and didn’t find them at all fulsome. Yes, I am a pedant.

Background Music: Joe Harriott Quintet - Abstract (1961 Capitol)

This entry was posted on Friday, January 18th, 2008 at 5:59 pm and is filed under Playlist. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.