WHITE VYNIL

PETER APPLYARD PRESENTS

Salisbury Laboratories ‎– SALS D2D 001
Limited Edition Vinyl, LP, Direct to disc, white quadradisc virgin vinyl 

I found this LP in the 90s, on a brocante Chaussée de Warerloo in St Gilles (Brussels).  I had no clue who Peter Appleyard was but it was a nice gatefold LP with a cheesy cover and a white vinyl inside.  Just that would justify the 2 € I paid.  Listening to the LP at home, I was pleasantly surprised by the music.  Jazzy funk / funky jazzy easy listening with some great soloists.  Actually this record features most of the outstanding Canadian jazz musicians of the 70s.  Just to name a few, we have here people like Ed Bickert, Moe Koffman, Rob McConnell, Guido Basso, Bernie Senesky …

Vibraphonist, percussionist and composer Peter Appleyard was born in England in 1928. After cutting his musical teeth in British dance bands and RAF ensembles, he moved to Canada in 1951 and quickly built a reputation as a first-class vibraphone player. By 1957 he'd put together his own Toronto-based band, which toured throughout North America and made several television appearances in Canada and the U.S.. During the '60's he co-hosted a CBC radio show named "Patti and Peter" with singer Patti Lewis, and "Mallets and Brass", a CBC television show with Guido Basso. Between 1977 and 1980 he also hosted "Peter Appleyard Presents", a television jazz and variety show that was syndicated throughout North America, and gained international exposure when he toured with clarinetist Benny Goodman's sextet throughout the 1970's. During the '80's and '90's he toured clubs, festivals and concert halls in North America, Scandinavia, Switzerland, Japan, Germany and the UK with the All-Star Swing Band as well as a Benny Goodman tribute band comprised of Goodman alumni.  Appleyard was awarded the Order of Canada in 1992.

Peter Appleyard Presents / A Quadradisc Virgin White Vinyl LP Release - Limited Edition

01.    Open The Gates Of Love

02.   , A Face Like Yours

03.    You Put The Shine On Me

04.    Pavanne Pour Une Infante Defunte

05.    Mambo #V

06.    Swinging Sheperd Blues

07.    Who Needs It

08.    Night Journey

Salisbury Laboritories Presents a gatefold Direct-To-Disc album on white virgin vinyl with a who`s who of Canadian jazz musicians:

Peter Appleyard: vibes, bass marimba, typani, bongos, conga drum, percussion

Rick Wilkins: arrangements, conductor, ARP synthesizer

Dorothy White: harp

Guido Basso: solo flugle horn, trumpet

Arnie Chycoski: lead trumpet

Rob McConnell: trombone

Moe Koffman: alto sax, soprano sax, baritone sax, piccolo, flute

Eugene Amaro: tenor sax, soprano sax, flute

Bernie Senensky: electric and acoustic piano and organ

Jerry Fuller: drums

Ed Bickert: solo guitar

Andy Krehm: guitar

Pete Magadini: timbales, percussion

Gary Gross: electric piano

David Young: electric and acoustic bass

There are some solid grooves on this LP.  Enjoy!
Not my rip, I got it from the blogsphere a few years ago.  Thanks to the original ripper.

TRANSCRIPTION

JOE SEALY TRIO

LP Radio Canada RCI 304 – 1969

A jazz pianist with a long career going back to the late 50’s, Joe Sealy is unjustly little known outside of Canada.  Still active today, his early influences were Oscar Peterson of course (they’re both Canadians and Sealy studied piano with Peterson’s sister), and Horace Silver.

Two bluesy originals by Mr Sealy in a style reminiscent of Ray Bryant, Junior Mance, Ramsey Lewis …, some classic soul jazz tracks (Silver’s Song for my Father, Burell’s Chilli con carne, Ode to Billy Joe …) and a few standards make it a well-balanced and enjoyable album.

These Transcription LPs were sent by RCI to radio stations in several countries with which – I assume - Canada had cooperation agreements.  My copy comes from the Comoros Islands!

Tracks

Side A

Chili

 For all we know

Soft Winds

Golden Earrings

 Dumpling

Side B

Song for my father

Spring is here

 For once in my life

Early Morning Blues

 Ode To Billy Joe

Personel

Joe Sealy – piano

James Sadler – bass

Tim Cahoon - drums

(from the Web)

Rip from the original LP (sorry for the small pop on “Song for My Father”, it was too late when I noticed, I had left Brussels – and my records - already)

LIVE AT PHOENICIA

Clarence Big Miller

Big Miller...Live From Calgary

Black Bear Record ‎– BBR 1006, Canada, 1982

It always makes my day when I find records in the most unexpected places.  I found this album last year when strolling thu’ the souks in Rabat's old medina.  Probably left behind by a Canadian expat’ years ago.  I don’t think this album was distributed outside of Canada.

It was pretty dusty but in good condition and played well after a good cleanup.

Clarence “Big” Miller ((December 18, 1922, Sioux City, Iowa - June 9, 1992, Edmonton, Alberta) was a US born, Canadian Blues Shouter / Jazz singer and actor who started as a teenaged blues shouter in Kansas City with Jay McShann during the years 1949-54.  The following year he sang with the Duke Ellington Orchestra.  He started performing in Canada in the early 60s, travelled to Australia and and toured briefly with the Jo Hendricks’s revue The Evolution of the Blues which left him stranded in Vancouver.

Instead of returning to the USA, Miller began to perform on an itinerant basis in western Canada, settling in 1970 in Edmonton. There he emerged in the mid-1970s as a popular figure on the local jazz scene and, under the aegis of the provincial government, performed in many small Alberta communities and on a promotional tour in Japan. In 1978 Miller sang with the Tommy Banks Big Band at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland; a recording of the performance (Jazz Canada Montreux 1978, RCI 485) received the Juno Award in 1979 for best jazz album. (More here.)

Big Miller (courtesy Edmonton Jazz Society Photos Archives)

Tracklist

A1       Shuckin'

A2       After My Laughter Came Tears

A3       Ain't Nobody's Business But Our Own         

A4       Lullaby

A5       I'll Always Love You So

B1       For All We Know

B2       I Got That Feeling

B3       Sermon

B4       Find Out Yourself

Credits

Vocals – Clarence "BIG" Miller*

Saxophone / Flute – Eric Friedenberg

Piano [Fender Rhodes] – Bob Erlendson

Piano [Yamaha Grand] – Wayne Feschuk

Acoustic Bass / Electric Bass – George Koller

Drums  – Ken Searcy

HOW ABOUT SOME ELECTRICITY FOR A CHANGE?

SKYWALK     "LIVE IN DETROIT"
ORIGINAL RADIO CANADA INTERNATIONAL /
RCI 520 B  (Canada, 1981).

With hindsight, the period going from the mid-Eighties to the mid-Nineties appears as a golden age for buying vinyl albums.  Lots of people sold their vinyl collection to buy the new CD - often buying back albums they already had on vinyl, …so easy, so convenient, such a clear sound and it would last forever … not like your old scratchy vinyls taking so much room in the living room and putting you in trouble with the Mrs.  So the vinyls were stored in the attic or the basement until the next jumble sale, car booth sale or – as it is known in French  - “Brocante”. Because of professional activities, I spent a lot of time abroad, usually in faraway places where there wasn’t much records to be found but every time I got back to Brussels I would spend a great deal of my free time cratedigging in flea markets, brocantes de quartiers and second-hand stores.

The album posted today was found - if my memory serves me right - in a street brocante, Chaussée de Waterloo in St Gilles.  Among the usual odds and ends, I found` a small batch of Canadian jazz albums: Skywalk Live, Presenting Peter Appleyard (on white vinyl) and a couple of Rob McConnell albums. Not a bad day!

I did not know anything about Skywalk but still bought it as part of the batch and it was cheap.

It turned out to be a interesting funky jazz fusion album with good soli – these guys were obviously proficient musicians - very much a product of its own time. 

Most of these guys have become well established and highly regarded musicians in Canada and abroad (check their website).  

Here’s what I found on the band:

Skywalk was a fusion jazz band based out of Vancouver, British Columbia. The band was formed in 1979 by Graeme Coleman (keyboards) and Rene Worst (bass), with Tom Keenlyside (tenor and soprano saxophones, flute), Ihor Kukurudza (guitar), Jim MC Gillveray (percussion), and Lou Hoover (drums).

They opened for Oscar Peterson at the 1980 Montreux/Detroit International Jazz Festival. This performance was recorded and released as their initial album Skywalk Live In Detroit (RCI 520), which received air play on Radio Canada International. This is the only recorded performance of the band with Hoover still playing drums.
(Hoover was for a long time the drummer for Vancouver's No1 blues band: Powder Blues).

Skywalk “Live in Detroit” 
side 1

• untitled #1 6:50
• there you go 6:40
• the optimist 9:50

Side 2

• oz 7:38
• Mr Fun 5:25
• Fee Fi Fo Fum 7:34

Recorded Live @ Montreux / Detroit International Jazz Festival, August 30, 1980


MUSICIANS :
TOM KEENLYSIDE-SAXOPHONE. 
IHOR KUKURUDZA-GUITAR. 
GRAEME COLEMAN- KEYBOARDS. 
RENE WORST BASS. 
JIM McGILLVERAY-PERCUSSION. 
LOU HOOVER-DRUMS

RE-POST- modern big bands and a few other things

Some Big Band Re-posts:

- Jean-Loup Longnon 's CYCLADES (France).

- Upsalla Big Band (Sweden):

The KICKS BAND (US)

Ernest Wiehe 10-pieces jazz ensemble (Mauritius)

Full Faith & Credit Big Band (US)

NOJO   (Canada ... absolutely superb, don't miss it this time).

Fra Fra Big Band (NL + members from US, Uk, NL Antilles, Surinam, Mexico ...)

Etienne Verschueren & BRT Jazz Orkest (Belgium)

Other things ...

Brand New Orleans (NL)

EXPO 67

MOE KOFFMAN QUARTET - Live at Expo 67
(Transcription Radio Canada LP, 1967)

Over the years, I've found LPs in some unlikely places. For instance, this LP was salvaged from the trash can of Radio Comores - a small archipelago in the South West Indian Ocean - in the late Nineties. It is a CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Cortporation) transcription of a concert given by the Moe Koffman Quartet at the Montreal World Expo 1967. 

It was recorded at the Canadian Pavillon as part of a series of concerts showcasing the best of Canadian jazz (for more info on Montreal 67 Expo jazz concerts, click HERE).


There are some good solos by reed player Moe Koffman on this album but he was clearly trying to be "with it" by chasing trends of the era. The repertoire (which includes "Comin' Home Baby," "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy," "Watermelon Man" and a remake of Koffman's big seller "Swinging Shepherd Blues") is dominated by jazz hits of the era and Koffman, who sometimes plays two tenors at once (sounding like a one-handed Rahsaan Roland Kirk!), also plays an electrified sax but is best on his flute. The Montreal-based organ-bass-drums rhythm section does their job well and there are enough worthwhile Koffman solos (particularly on the medium-up tempo "Spectacular" which is really "There Will Never Be Another You") to make this set worth picking up (...) (AMG).


Considering that the LP come from a pile of rubbish, it is a miracle that it was still in listenable condition.  I took it last week to Records Magician Paul D. who applied his wizardry to it and came up with a wonderfully clean sound which we are now offering you. Wow!  Couldn't believe that nice crisp sound - without scratches and other pops - came from my old battered LP. The Wizard did it again!  And there's more coming soon ... 


Warning: it's in WAV and it's a big file. Be patient and you won't regret it.


Credits and tracks:
Personnel: Moe Koffman (flute, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone); Art Ayre (organ), Gary Binsted (e-bass), Andy Cree (drums).


Trivia: 
Art Ayre was for a while the organist of Jack London & the Sparrows, which, after the arrival of  East-Germany born singer John Kay would eventually mutate into Steppenwolf.

n.b.: this is not the back cover of the LP. It's taken from the Web.  After all the hard work to make the old LP listenable we realised it had been re-issued on CD in 1999. Listen and then buy it here.

JIVING AT THE OPERA

The JIVE KINGS with Measha Bruggergosman (Canada, 2001)

The JIVE KINGS were a Canadian neo-swing band that recorded two albums in the years 2000/2001.  They were part of the short-lived Swing Revival scene of the late Nineties.  The only source of information on the Web is the website of bass-player Deryl Gallant.

Their first album “Spoon for a Knife” was released in February 2000.  Today's post, their second album came out a year later.  The originality of this second album is their choice of female vocalist in the person of  a young Canadian operatic soprano, Ms Measha Bruggergosman. 

Miss Bruggergosman has impressive lungs obviously (listen to Big Spender) and a lot of vocal techniques, I let you decide whether it works or not in a jazz setting (sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t …).

Now if you are not keen on Neo Swing, let me reassure you that these guys are not a rock band with added horns.  They are all proficient jazz players and they do take some good soli (esp. Dan Warren on trumpet and Barrie Sorensen on saxes). 

On the weak side, their compositions are not always up to the standards (Tugboat being especially dreaful, IMHO).  They're at their best when they play standards

Credits:

Tracklist

1. She Made Me Wanna Jive*
Music & Lyrics: Barrie Sorensen


2. You Stole My Heart From Me*
Music: Barrie Sorensen 
Lyrics: Michael Ross
Solos: Dan & Barrie


3. Telephone Call From Istanbul
Music & Lyrics: Tom Waits
Solos: Perry, Mike & Barrie


4. Blue Skies**
Music & Lyrics: Irving Berlin
Solos: Perry & Barrie


5. Summertime**
Music & Lyrics: Dubose Heyward and George Gershwin
Solos: Bob & Dan


6. Mr Magic*
Music & Lyrics: Michael Ross
Solos: Mike, Bob and Barrie


7. Maybe I'll Meet You*
Music: Barrie Sorensen 
Lyrics: Michael Ross
Solos: Dan & Barrie


8. When I Close My Eyes*
Music & Lyrics: Perry Williams
Solos: Dan & Barrie


9. Big Spender**
Music & Lyrics: Dorothy Fields and Cy Coleman
Solo: Dan


10. A-Tisket, A-Tasket**
Music & Lyrics: Ella Fitzgerald and Van Alexander
Solo: Barrie


11. They Can't Take That Away**
Music & Lyrics: George and Ira Gershwin
Solo: Barrie


12. Tugboat*
Music & Lyrics: Michael Ross
Solo: Mike (n.b. this one is pretty dreadful, skip it!)


13. Nowhere Like This*
Music: Barrie Sorensen 
Lyrics: Michael Ross
Solos: Bob & Perry


14. Omegabop*
Music: Barrie Sorensen 
Solos: Dan, Barrie, Perry & Alan


* Jive Kings original composition
** featuring special guest Measha Brueggergosman

You can get a copy directly from band member Deryl Gallant HERE  

ALBERT IN GREEN

THE NEUFELD-OCCHIPINTI JAZZ ORCHESTRA - NOJO (Canada, 1995)


I found this CD in a second-hand records shop in Toronto about ten years ago.  I didn't know anything about the band but a 16-pieces modern jazz orchestra seemed something worth investigating.  


If you like adventurous modern jazz orchestras that are not afraid of stretching the borders (think FlatEarth Society, UMO Jazz Orchestra, Either/Orchestra just to name a few...), you'll dig NOJO.



Despite its size, the 16-member Toronto based Neufeld-Occhipinti Jazz Orchestra, or NOJO, is not a typical big band by any stretch of the imagination. Likened more to avant-garde and free jazz artists like Henry Threadgill, Charles Mingus, and Thelonious Monk than to late jazz greats like Count Basie, Woody Herman, or Duke Ellington, the band is known for pushing the musical envelope with its visionary approach to sound and structure.


"Theirs is the most venturesome jazz orchestra in the city, if only for the example they take from writers such as Henry Threadgill and Kenny Wheeler and the influence they have found in the music of various African cultures," wrote jazz critic Mark Miller in the Globe and Mail. "It's tough, provocative jazz."


Formed in 1994 by York University classmates Paul Neufeld, a pianist, and Michael Occhipinti, a guitarist—both earned Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees from the university in 1992—the pair was seeking a suitable venue to showcase their skills as composers, honed in a jazz composition/arranging class with David Mott. Both played with smaller ensembles on their own—Occhipinti under his own name, and Neufeld with the Rhythm and Truth Brass Band, among others. To their surprise they found that a big band environment, although typically associated with oldstyle, swing jazz, was the perfect forum in which to combine their multi-layered compositions, which incorporate elements of world-beat, country, blues and experimental music in addition to jazz. "This band started as a workshop for our own material, and it continues to be the place where we teach ourselves and each other about writing music," Neufeld explained in Words & Music.


And that music, as some jazz musicians might say, is way out. "Neufeld and Occhipinti obviously enjoy being fractious and unpredictable, filling their compositions with lurching figures, curious turns and sudden developments that have the effect of keeping the musicians perpetually off-balance," Miller wrote in a 1997 review of one of the band's live performances.


While more established musicians were invited to give the group a try when Neufeld and Occhipinti began their venture, the pair ended up going with lesser-known artists to achieve their desired sound. "I think what works to our advantage is that there's a real youth factor to NOJO," Neufeld said. "There's an energy that comes from younger musicians and an open-mindedness that might not exist if we had some mainstream players."


That youth factor has created a sound which has garnered accolades practically from day one. NOJO's first album, which is self-titled, earned the 1995 Contemporary Jazz Album of the Year at the Juno Awards. 
"A lot of time has passed since the mainstream of jazz tradition was established," Neufeld said. "We both have strong feelings about jazz as a living tradition that's got to be relevant to what's happening now. We're not just looking to 1950s' Miles Davis as an inspiration—there are a lot of things that happened in the 1960s and 1970s that changed the way we look at music. It's important to take those things into account so the music's not a museum piece or treated like classical music."


"I love playing standards and I'm glad there are people who do it, but I'm also glad there are people doing newer things," Occhipinti added. "There are other jazz voices that need to be heard, and I think we're one of them."

(source: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3430000049.html)


NOJO 
 Tracks

1 Art of the Secret                          Occhipinti 10:16
2 Crime Fiction                                  Neufeld         10:17
3 Don't Hum (Slight Return)                  Occhipinti 11:42
4 Albert in Green                                  Neufeld           6:50
5 Warm Orange                                  Occhipinti 10:48
6 Somalia                                          Neufeld          7:04
7 MR.K.C. (For Keith Copeland)  Occhipinti   7:34
8 Moravagine (After Blais Cendrars)  Neufeld          8:32



Credits:
Joe "Public" Allen   Flugelhorn, Soloist, Trumpet
Rob Clutton           Bass, Soloist
Colin Couch           Soloist, Tuba
Stephen Donald   Trombone
Jeff Elliot                  Assistant Engineer
Kenny Kirkwood  Sax (Baritone), Sax (Soprano), Shaker, Soloist, Triangle
David Mott         Conductor
Mike Murley         Sax (Soprano), Sax (Tenor), Soloist
Paul Neufeld         Fender Rhodes, Mixing, Piano
John Obercian         Drums, Soloist
Michael Occhipinti Guitar, Mixing, Photography, Soloist
Sean O'Connor        Clarinet, Flute, Sax (Soprano), Sax (Tenor), Soloist
Phil Strong        Mixing
Roy Styffe       Clarinet, Clarinet (Alto), Clarinet (Bass), Sax (Alto), Soloist
Scott Suttie      Euphonium, Soloist, Trombone (Bass)
Ernie Tollar      Flute, Sax (Alto), Sax (Soprano), Soloist
Kevin Turcotte      Flugelhorn, Soloist, Trumpet
André White      Engineer, Producer


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