The most exciting, warm, vibrating, giving, loving man.

Blossom Dearie - Blossom Dearie Sings (1974)


Summer days should be more like this song. Bright, shiny, and with rubbery bass lines. This is a song that continues my love affair with women who have singing voices like children. Dearie had made a name for herself throughout the '60s with great recordings that put her in small jazz combo settings and gave plenty of space for those sublimely sweet vocals she did. Those records are pretty awesome, like a female counterpart to the Chet Baker records of the same era. Many people of my age and grace and fortitude found out about her through her Schoolhouse Rock jam, "Figure Eight." Anyway, like any smart person, Dearie created her own vanity label (Dandelion) and put this record out. It's seemingly inspired by the singer/songwriter explosion but with her jazz background making sure she is always firmly grounded in rhythms. "Somebody New" is seriously funky - but completely airy and dreamy. Another key track from this fine album is the John Lennon ode where it sounds like she's literally sitting on my earlobe singing.




Blossom Dearie - "Somebody New"

Blossom Dearie - "Hey John"

Fermit the Krog

Karin Krog - We Could Be Flying (1974)


Norway's Karin Krog has a crazy voice. It has this grown-up/child hybrid sound that makes her songs seems less grounded in reality. She's a jazz singer, and an accomplished one, but here she's working in elements of breezy funk and the singer/songwriter style of Joni Mitchell - but not letting go of the improvisational jazz she is more well known for. The track is written by pianist Steve Kuhn, who was an American ex-pat in Norway at the time. Everything on this album is understated, though. It's as if she's off in some perennial la-la land. And you know, la-la land is always the place to be. "Meaning of Love" is one of those songs where you can't really believe it was recorded when it was. It seems so . . . current. The spacey effects . . . the nebulous, airy quality. It's very much the sound of a post-modern club. But fear not the Zero 7 remix, friends - this is a stone cold Norwegian killer from the 1974 album We Could Be Flying.




Karin Krog - "Meaning of Love

It's A Righteous Life We're Leading, Friends

Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66- Stillness (1970)


One of my pet peeves is when someone doesn't acknowledge something that is blatantly obvious to those around him/her. The white elephant, as it were. Like there was this one time I was talking through the Mission here in San Francisco and this guy was walking down the street with a parrot on his shoulder. One of those guys. A little boy and his mother were in front of me and the boy was sort of wide-eyed and pointing at the bird, slowing down, hopefully to get a closer look. And this guy, this bird man, didn't even acknowledge the kid. He just kept on walking by, completely stone-faced. If you've got a bird on your shoulder, I'm sorry, but you've got to be prepared to do some kind of stop and chat.

That said, it's been a long time since I've posted and I acknowledge that and I feel I'm ready to get back and do this thing right. This track was meant to go up right after that last post about Lani Hall. She is the vocalist here and I love this album. It's a folk-rock record, with a more melancholy tone than anything else they ever did. It also contains a Caetano Veloso cover ("Lost in Paradise" from his third self-titled album, the white one), amidst the Joni Mitchell and Buffalo Springfield. So it's good to know that they were listening to what was happening back home. But more importantly, it's got this cut - "Righteous Life." A reflective little bit of folk-ified funk.

This tune, as well as the moody title cut, were written by Paula Stone. Having trouble finding out more about her, but she appears to have also written songs for Edu Lobo and Richie Havens. Enjoy!



Righteous Life

Until You Give Your Love, There's Nothing More We Can Do

Lani Hall - Sundown Lady (1972)


Lani Hall was the main vocalist for Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66 on the record of theirs that I like the most - Stillness. It's their folk-rock record and it has the standard covers that you would expect ("For What It's Worth" e.g), but as a fan of summery folk and the bossa sound - it's good stuff and the song "Righteous Life" is a stunner. But nobody really liked this direction for them at the time and they went back and returned with País Tropical, without Hall. By then Hall had hooked up with Sergio Mendes tourmates Herb Alpert and his Tijuana Brass and began seeing (and eventually marrying) Herb Alpert. I have often wondered if Herb Alpert and his Tijuana Brass and Sergio Mendes and his Brasil '66 ever got together to play soccer or basketball or if they were more like vicious rivals, often engaging in chain fights. I prefer the latter scenario.

Lani's strong, intimate way of singing made her a prime candidate for a solo career, which she began with Alpert at the console. Out comes Sundown Lady in '72. The lead-off track is "Love Song", a slinky, funky reworking of the Lesley Duncan song that Elton John also thought to cover on Tumbleweed Connection. Hall's version is soft, braced by a light funk rhythm and brightened up by some gentle work on the keys and some slick bass style. It really has a great, breezy funk-folk feel that you don't find often enough. Ease back a bit. Take a look out towards the horizon. Imagine kicking a beach ball across the sand . .. then tripping and falling on your face and cutting your chin on a rock, and then just standing up and laughing and pretending like it's all good, but really you're very dizzy and should probably go to a doctor. Actually, just imagine the beach part. Forget the rest. Hope you don't mind the crackles - this one's hot off the hi-fi. Have a listen.

Love Song

You could say that we are like porridge.

Turid - Bilder (1973)



Turid was a singer/songwriter often written up as "the Swedish Joni Mitchell" by anyone who has tried to write about her (admittedly not that many). That's how I was introduced to her in the film Together - one of the characters in the film gives that description before placing one of her records on a turntable. Being who I am, and given my obsession with finding things like "the Turkish Bob Dylan" and "the Sudanese Nick Drake", I set out to find her records upon seeing this scene and hearing her music. There are similarities (namely her cover of "I Had A King."), but I am more caught up in this spectral world that exists around her music. Joni was a heavy-hitter - she plumbed some emotional depth that most singer-songwriters aren't going to be able to touch. But I don't know a lick of Swedish, so I don't know how Turid ranks up there, but she has some great songs. Like I mentioned - spectral, earthy, very elfin. "Tintomara" sounds like it was recorded in the middle of a forest, with ol' Turid perched up on a toadstool. "Låt mig se dig" is a more of a jam, an 8 minute space-out with Turid hitting all the high notes perfectly while the band play this really restrained, swirling mood piece. It's really set back in the mix which is a nice touch. Get ready to feel the magic! Or something.


Tintomara

Låt mig se dig

Everybody That You Knew Was Wrong

The Velvet Underground - Squeeze (1973)



Okay, I really think this record gets a bad rap. I guess the most obvious complaint is that it is not the Velvet Underground, or more specifically, Lou Reed isn't anywhere near this thing. There's no getting around that. But it does have Doug Yule. I happen to love the post-Yule Velvets, love the live bootlegs with him in the band, and love what he brought to the sound. If this was labeled fairly and released as a Doug Yule solo record, I think people would talk about it more. But they don't. So he released an album under the name of one of the most critically lionized bands in pop culture history, so what? (Eh...well, that IS pretty lame, but that isn't Yule's issue, that was manager Steve Sesnick's issue) So anyway, is there anything salvageable on here? I'm hearing some streetwise country rock, some ruff 'n' ready pub-rock. But it's soft, yet wiry version of these things with a heavy '50s influence. It's not authentic, it's weary and very much the sound of a city band. And some songs are pretty lightweight, but "Friends" could have easily been a song off of Loaded and "Jack and Jane" is a bit stilted at first, but the chorus is great. Just try to think of them as a cousin to Hackamore Brick, not a cash-in on the VU name.

Friends


Jack and Jane

I Am More than a Fool

Linda Lewis - Lark (1972)

Linda Lewis was one of those great little boy soul voices. Like Michael Jackson used to have. Like the Five Stairsteps. But Linda Lewis is not a little boy at all. In fact she was about 22 years old when she recorded Lark. Lewis is very much the British equivalent of Minnie Riperton, with her band Ferris Wheel in the place of Riperton's Rotary Connection. If we're going to further the comparison, Lark is her Come to My Garden. They really do sound very similar and both vocalists reportedly have the five-octave range, but whatever. This album rules and is really filled with post-Joni Mitchell brightness and arrangements. The acoustic guitar is mic-ed really well and save for some bongos here and there, she doesn't go overboard with the arrangement and that voice, she doesn't use it to show off - it's just a good thing. Looking for some blissed-out, macramé-friendly folk-soul? Here's two tracks from this fantastic record.

Its the Frame
Lark