Tuesday, November 22, 2011

period MICHAEL YONKERS with the BLIND SHAKE



also picked up a brand spanking new copy of this LP today at End of an Ear...this LP is top notch! dirty, psych tinged garage rock from a legend and a great younger band from Minneapolis. S.S. Records released this beauty and continues to amaze me with some of the best releases lately! (if you don't have a copy of S.S. Records reissue of Prisoners Go-Go Band go to their website now and buy it, thank me later).

Michael Yonkers with the Blind Shake - Carbo Hydro by S. S./ Sol Re Sol Records

check out the track above for a little sample and then head over to the S.S Records catalog and get your copy! I'm sure there are only 500 or some small amount of these pressed so go get it!

song for JOSEPH JARMAN



picked up a real clean original copy of this LP today at End of an Ear. totally stoked. i've really been digging on a lot of Art Ensemble of Chicago and related material. picked up a copy of Roscoe Mitchell's Solo Concert recently reissued by Tizona Records and it is killer. but back to the LP at hand. i had a CD copy of "Song For" back in college and loved it but kinda forgot about it once I got rid of all my CD's. so it is a very welcome surprise to hear this again on vinyl.

the other really great thing about this LP is that it features some of the lesser heard from AACM dudes...Steve McCall and Thurman Barker on drums, Christopher Gaddy on piano and marimba, Charles Clark on bass (who really holds it down. seriously awesome bass playing) and the best surprise is getting to hear a young Fred Anderson (!!) and Billy Brimfield. the LP starts off with "Little Fox Run" which is a great mix of AACM style improv with Ayler style fire music of the time. the mix seems a little more ahead of it's time than a lot of jazz from this era. it was recorded in 1966 after all. "Non-Cognitive Aspects of the City" is a total slow soundscape/poetry tune in the style of future Art Ensemble of Chicago pieces. The B-side starts off with "Adam's Rib" which moves at a dirge like pace but has some really amazing solos (especially from Brimfield) and Clark's bass playing is incredible and seriously holds the entire track and band together. "Song For" closes the album on a really graceful and beautiful note...in the words of Jarman himself:

"SONG FOR is made of sound and silences from musical instruments, controlled by seven men; it's music that lasts 13 1/2 minutes, it's for itself, for love, for hate, & for the God within us all--it has no "meaning" outside of itself, the MUSIC."

this is a must have for any fan of AACM, Art Ensemble of Chicago or even Fred Anderson fans who want to hear some of his earliest recorded playing. listen to it here.