BLACK & BEAUTIFUL: GEMS I FOUND WHILST CRATE DIGGING
Record Store Day 2024 inspires me to share some of my favourite treasures
Bjork digging in Ray’s Jazz, early 90s - the more things change the more they stay the same!
I’ve been meaning to write the occasional column detailing some of the notable records I find while digging crates for a while. Realising today is Record Store Day, well, I obviously must pay tribute to the gods of recorded music.
Anyone who knows me will be aware I like to listen to a lot of music and regularly seek out old records to add to my collection. I buy 45s and LPs and – yes – 78s. I also continue to buy CDs. Owning thousands of CDs ensures I still love the shiny discs and continue to buy jazz/classical/vintage soul compilations of such. Partly this is practical - I can’t afford to collect original Blue Note LPs and, as that label’s catalogue has been beautifully remastered on CD, I’m happy purchasing such. While the likes of Ace Records put out remarkable R&B compilations on CD. So I’m not snooty about discs that are (thankfully) compact. But records are more fun to look at and – if a good pressing – have a more dynamic sound than CD (45s and 78s can sound like the band are playing in the room – this is because, before the advent of multitrack recording in the late-1960s, most recordings were made live in the studio).
While I mostly purchase used records/CDs, I do buy specific new releases – Charles Lloyd’s wonderful new album being my latest (I’ll write on it here soon) – but I never go out and buy Record Store Day releases. OK, occasionally I might pick up a discounted RSD release months after the event (inevitably found when sifting through a shop’s “discount” bin) but I have never bought into the whole “limited edition/novelty factor” that surrounds so many RSD releases. I even once wrote that RSD is the one day of the year where I am likely to avoid entering record shops. Puritan? Moi?
Camberwell’s finest hosted an all day RSD party - warm music on a chilly day.
Not that this is a rule I stick to – today I cycled up to Camberwell where Dash The Henge had DJs in the shop and live music in the pub across the road. Dash The Henge sells used and new records and is a wonderful community space, putting on all kinds of music/poetry/art week in, week out. I like the owners and, while I didn’t buy any RSD releases, I did find a heap of used 45s, LPs and 12 inch remix singles that took my fancy. The Henge hosted a selection of artists performing across the day and into the evening – its remarkable how many talented musicians are out there, doing their thing for the love and making and sharing music. What a delight!
Here’s Horace Silver, a majestic jazz pianist, outside Dobell’s Records, the foremost jazz/blues shop in London’s West End.
Speaking of RSD releases, I did look at the list and there were a few items that, if gifted to me, I’d be happy to own. Notably these: Average White Band – Live At The Rainbow 1974, Anne Briggs’ Topic LP, Everybody Digs Bill Evans, two double LPs of Cannonball Adderley live in France and Prince Buster’s Back To Where It All Began – The Blue Beat Years. I’m surprised to see Lowell George’s sole solo LP reissued as a double (what have they found to fill out what was a slight effort to 2 LPs?!?). Oh, there’s lots of releases that tempt me but none are essential and all are expensive. As RSD boosts sales for independent shops I won’t bleat on about consumer fetishism and the hustlers who queue to buy limited editions then immediately put their purchases on eBay at inflated prices.
Celebrating record shops – or stores, as our American friends call them – is a good thing. This is because, in my experience, these often eccentric emporiums are wonderful spaces, little temples of sound where knowledge is shared and friendships formed. Thus I’m happy many have enjoyed a fat April on this extremely chilly Saturday.
Anyway, amongst the myriad records I’ve so far purchased in 2024 I’ve chosen a baker’s dozen that happen to be available on Youtube (my more obscure choices often aren’t) so you can share my enthusiasm/shake your head in bafflement. I hope, dear reader, that you get some joy out of listening to any/all of the following – I certainly enjoyed finding (and listening to) these gems.
JACKIE WILSON & COUNT BASIE – Ode To Billy Joe
Digging in Soho’s Reckless Records recently I came across Two Much, a 1968 LP that pairs pioneering soul singer Jackie Wilson with Count Basie’s magnificent big band. By ‘68 both Basie and Wilson’s glory days were long past and this pairing was likely organised by either management or label, thinking one might help the other broaden their audience. I’d heard of this album’s existence but never previously seen a copy. Studying the track listing, I found it largely consisted of R&B hits from recent years (My Girl, Respect etc) so guessed it would be an uninspired knock off. But only £4 ... I had to buy it. I even mentioned my doubts to Chris as I paid. “It might be brilliant,” he replied. Guess what? - he was right! Jackie’s huge voice suits Basie’s band and they deliver really dynamic readings of hits by Stevie, Otis, Aretha et al. None more so than on the one non-soul number, Bobbie Gentry’s eerie Ode To Billy Joe. Here the Basie band’s arrangement provides remarkable atmospherics while Jackie revels in singing the detailed narrative. What a shame they didn’t follow up with another album where they chose from a wider pool of contemporary tunes – I’d love to hear them attempt Scratch My Back or Midnight Rider or Israelites. Anyway, I’m enamoured with this LP.
MOSE ALLISON – Young Man
Mose Allison was a one-off – a white youth from Mississippi who played fluent jazz and blues piano and wrote idiosyncratic songs which he sang in a nonchalant manner. I saw him once in the 1990s playing solo at Pizza Express Holborn and Mose was cool personified. I picked up 1963’s Mose Allison Sings at the Oxfam in Herne Hill - £4 – and its immensely enjoyable.
JANET KAY – Silly Games
I’ve long loved this lovers rock classic but only recently came across a copy of the 1979 45 in Music & Video Exchange’s Greenwich branch. With its loping rhythm and Kay’s school girl vocal stretching for the high notes, this is one of the breakthrough tunes in Black British music’s development. Dennis Bovell, who previously was noted for his work with LKJ and The Slits, wrote and produced this gem – give the man a seat in the House of Lords! How much? Two quid.
PAUL KELLY – Been To The Well Before
I also found this unsung 45 also in Greenwich when last there. It was very cheap – a pound or less – so I took a punt, wondering if this was the same Kelly who had a Southern soul hit with Stealin’ In The Name Of The Lord in the early 1970s (while hoping it was not the Australian singer songwriter whose voice is so thin and nasal he makes Bob Dylan sound like Otis Redding). It is the US soul singer yet here he’s singing over the kind of gentle reggae rhythm Dennis Bovell (or Johnny Nash) would be proud of. Singing beautifully, that is. The video above is the only one on Youtube and has had very few views, which suggests this 45 (on A&M) got no traction when released in 1981 and hasn’t developed much since. Odd as its a gorgeous, uplifting tune. I also discovered that Mavis Staples recorded it first in 1979 – a really nice version – but I think Kelly (who wrote it) owns it. Here’s Mavis so you can make your own decision:
Mavis is great, ay? Any excuse to post a link to her music is a good one. And now I must seek out this 1979 LP.
GWEN MCCRAE – Move Me Baby
I’m a huge Gwen McCrae fan so when I came across this 45 – in Greenwich (yes, a really good afternoon’s digging) – I did a little dance. This is a pretty simple number co-written by Henry Casey (KC of the Sunshine Band) that finds Gwen demanding her lover move and groove. Dynamic Miami soul. One whole pound!
JOHN COOPER CLARKE – Beasley Street
I heard JCC on 6 Music a few days ago and he was his usual droll, witty self. That he recently sold out The Palladium – aged 75 he’s more successful than ever – suggests his remarkable vintage is now widely appreciated. Anyway, I picked up a battered copy of his brilliant 1980 album Snap, Crackle & Bop when in Reckless (yes, same time I found Two Much!) and feared for the worst – a previous owner had not treated it kindly. But it plays well. I recall hearing Beasley Street and Evidently Chickentown as a teen but never owned the album – listening today I’m struck by both JCC’s fierce description of sour poverty (could be Sunak’s Britain he’s describing) and Martin Hannett’s remarkable production. Was anyone else then using drum machines to such fluid effect? Have many since? £2 well spent.
JIMMY SMITH & WES MONTGOMERY – Milestones
My prior visit to Dash The Henge saw me purchase the lush 1966 album Further Adventures of Jimmy And Wes – two noted jazz musicians in Rudy Van Gelder’s studio with Creed Taylor producing: what could go wrong? Nothing. Most of the album finds Jimmy and Wes trading licks with a rhythm section behind them (finding Ray Barretto was percussionist impressed me) but Milestones finds Oliver Nelson’s big band adding density. A tenner well spent.
JOHNNY CASH – San Quentin
I mentioned Johnny Cash’s performance in Folsom Prison in my recent Los Tigres Del Norte post, so when in Lorenzo’s Records Wanted (Brockley), I was happy to find JC’s other seminal prison concert LP. What a song and performance this is! Lorenzo runs a wonderful shop and, while there, I picked up a fine selection of blues LPs. Johnny Cash cost £5.
WEST AFRICAN RHYTHM BROTHERS – Iwa D’Arekeke
In my January I travelled to Margate with my pal John Williams we hit various record shops en route. In Rainham we stopped at Magic Discs and there I found two 78s by the West African Rhythm Brothers on Melodisc. Both Melodisc’s founder Emil Shalit and the WARB’s leader Ambrose Campbell lived extraordinary lives – one day I’ll aim to celebrate such here – and this is a wonderful highlife tune and one of the first British African recordings. £5 for this and another WARB 78.
LORD KITCHENER – Alec Bedser Calypso
Trinidad’s calypso music is largely overlooked these days but, in the post-WW2 era, it enjoyed international popularity and Lord Kitchener, who landed in England on the Empire Windrush (and sang his freshly composed ditty London Is The Place For Me to the waiting media), was its greatest trickster, his witty wordplay and gentle, jazzy tunes holding wide appeal. Predictably, I love calypso and look out for such - as calypso’s not venerated in the way ska/reggae is its more affordable. This 78 is on the Lyragon label – turns out it was a short lived indie set up by Petula Clark’s father to release his talented daughter’s records when no British label would sign her. He also signed calypsonians, realising they commanded a new market, and this witty homage to an English test cricket bowler is a gem. I bought it at a West London record fair for £10.
HAROLD LAND – The Fox
Harold Land was an American hard bop saxophonist and this 1959 album is considered his finest effort – its produced by David Axelrod (a fascinating figure who, again, deserves an entire post) and features trumpeter Dupree Bolton, a very gifted but self destructive heroin addict whose finest work is considered to be here. Original copies of The Fox go for large sums so I was happy to purchase the CD for £6 in Reckless Records.
WANDA “STAR” WILLIAMS – Mr U.F.O.
This 1980 disco tune was co-written and produced by Clarence Reid, a maverick genius of the Miami soul/funk/disco/proto-rap scene – his own records are great (and those he released as Blow Fly are amusing and “entertaining”). I know nothing of Wanda and think this might be her only recording – what happened to her? No idea, but this a brilliantly offbeat dance tune. On my aforementioned road trip with John, I found a US 12 inch 45 of this in Rochester’s Analogue Music – I’d been made aware of it on a compilation of T.K. Disco – and it is a £3 delight.
I hope something here takes your fancy. Or encourages you to go out and dig. If you did engage in Record Store Day then let me know what you got. Music and food are enjoyed most when shared.
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