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A new SMACKDOWN – the Battle for Middle Earth

January 2, 2013 in Photos, Smackdown, Songs | 26 comments

Seems like ages since we’ve presented a good smackdown, and our last was the totally-lopsided Herb Alpert’s 9th vs. Beethoven’s 9th. Here’s a bizarre pair of fairly obscure records that were in a large collection of 60s rock this winter.

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Which one is our daughter Nova and which one is Bilbo Baggins?

Hobbits are the fictional inhabitants of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth, first appearing as the titular character in his 1937 novel, The Hobbit, as a reluctant hero named Bilbo Baggins. The Hobbits were a late 60s psychedelic band led by a sporadically successful, enigmatic pop singer Jimmy Curtiss. He wrote and sang songs with doo wop groups early in his career (the Enjays, the Regents) before branching out into psychedelic music for Decca Records, including not only the Hobbits but also the soul-heavy Bag, who recorded an LP and a couple singles, and a few other even less prolific bands.

The Hobbits’ first album – Down to Middle Earth – is fairly uncommon, but not as rare as Gandalf, the only LP released by another 60s psych band apparently really into Tolkien’s epic novels, having named themselves after the wizard who intitiates Bilbo Baggins’ adventurs, himself an enigmatic figure. Gandalf was sort of a doomed band – Capitol Records not only didn’t promote their album, but originally issued it with the wrong LP inside the jacket! – but has become a collector’s favorite. Their 1969 album often sells for over $200, or nearly ten times the average price on a copy of Down to Middle Earth.

We’ve got copies of both albums – although not very nice ones – and today we’re going to put them against one another in our latest “smackdown”:

The Hobbits vs. Gandalf – so it’s come to this

Round #1: Awesome-est cover

The Hobbits sort of win this one by default, because the copy of Gandalf I found doesn’t even have it’s cover. That’s not really fair, because if you search for it online (here, for instance) you’ll find one of the cool-est looking 60s psych records. Presently, our copy of the Gandalf LP is being stored in an empty Mother Goose jacket.

As with many LPs that turn up without their original jacket, I’m guessing that somebody tacked Gandalf up on their dorm room wall. This is often the case with classic LPs that have awesome stuff life dragons on the cover, and most often when there are boobs (Blind Faith, Electric Ladyland, Supertramp’s Indelibly Stamped, etc) although in some cases we can assume that somebody’s mom threw the jacket away.

Round #2: Best Tolkien references

This is another round that the Hobbits win outright, because the title track on Down to Middle Earth is really the only place I recognize any references at all. And the lyrics in this track are pretty stupid, to be honest. Allmusic.com points out that the Hobbits’ Curtiss wrote his own lyrics “admirably,” but I think we could simply say that he wrote his own lyrics.

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“Down to Middle Earth”

Neither album contains the sort of awesome LOTR stuff on Led Zeppelin’s fourth album (“Misty Mountain Hop” and “The Battle of Evermore”) or Baklava the second Pearls Before Swine which features the theatrical “Ring Thing.”

Round #3: Which record is actually in the worst shape

Down to Middle Earth: Sort of torn up jacket; scuffs and scratches on both sides of the LP; even some paint on side two. Who the hell gets paint on their records? (oh yeah, apparently I do)

Gandalf: No jacket; scratches on both sides.

Gandalf actually plays better, and in the end I’ll take a listenable LP with no jacket over one that skips so badly as Down to Middle Earth. Captiol recently reissued Gandalf, so you can get nice copies of it, now. Decca Records, who released the Hobbits LPs, had not reissued them yet.

Round #4: Best psych rock moment

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“Let Me Run my Fingers through your Mind”

The Hobbits’ album has some pop songs that border on novelty (especially the sunshiny, silly “Daffodil Days”) but also a few trippy moments. “Down to Middle Earth” starts out right, but Jimmy Curtiss’ crooning is about as inspired by Bobby Vee as by LSD, and nothing in the track is really going to blow your mind.

About half of Gandalf is covers, but the band approaches each song with an original sound, especially the three songs by psych-friendly folky Tim Hardin. Peter Sando’s whispy lead vocals are more suited to the genre, and the album’s heavier lyrics are more rewarding.

With its swirling organ and lush, almost doo wop vocals, Gandalf’s “Me About You” is the standout track on either of the two LPs. It probably helps that their album is the one that plays with the least clicks, pops and skips, but the album is also considered a cult classic for good reason.

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“Me About You”

Round #5: Really the only question that matters is Which album would J.R.R. Tolkien prefer?

Assuming the author has kept up on popular music until he passed away in 1973, there were probably far more successful works that caught his ear. Led Zeppelin’s “Battle of Evermore” was and still is probably the coolest Tolkien-inspired pop record.

Even that was probably not Tolkien’s taste. The music of Middle Earth (at least in the songs and poems included in the Lord of the Rings books) seems to have more to do with the middle ages than music like Led Zeppelin or American psychedelic rock. It is often argued that his novels were inspired by Richard Wagner’s epic operatic cycle, Der Ring des Nibelungen. Tolkien took offense, once writing “both rings are round but that’s where the comparisons end!” Given the Third Reich’s co-option of Wagner’s masterpiece, and the composer’s own controversial views, it is not surprising that Tolkien, a veteran of the first World War and as early as 1938 an open opponent of Nazism, would be upset by comparisons.
If a friend gave Tolkien a copy of the Hobbits’ Down to Middle Earth as a gag gift he likely would have taken it as little more than that, a novelty item. So while he was unlikely to have heard of Gandalf, given the disastrous release of their only album, I’m guessing they’re the one he’d like the best.

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“Golden Earrings”

Herb Alpert’s 9th vs. Beethoven’s 9th

May 1, 2012 in Photos, Smackdown, Songs | No comments

Our popular “Smackdown” series has been long overdue for a revival, but candidates for a worthy battle are few and far between. In fact, the reason there hasn’t been a good smackdown in a while is that this past one was hard to put together after I found these two albums next to each other when I was moving records after one of our 50¢ sales (It’s amazing what people will pass up, even for a buck). It’s a fun idea but entirely lopsided, given my well-documented admiration for one of the two. Still, I took the records from the 50¢ bin home, listened to them and thus began the legendary smackdown to be known as…

THE BATTLE OF THE 9′S

Herb Alpert vs. Beethoven

Let’s get to know our contestants:

About Beethoven’s 9th - Composed in 1825. The composer was fifty-five years old. He passed away only two years later, making the 9th Symphony the penultimate piece in his storied career.

Length: An hour. Ugh.

Instrumentation: Thirty some people. Plus a whole choir. Ugh

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(Allegro me non troppo, un poco maestoso)

About Herb Alpert’s 9th – Composed in 1967. Age of composer thirty-two. In fact, by the age of fifty-seven Herb Alpert had recorded thirty-two albums. At seventy-seven years old, Alpert has outlived the so-called “great maestro” by twenty years.

Length: A lean twenty-eight minutes.

Instrumentation: The Tijuana Brass. How awesome are these guys? Just the year before they had five albums in the Billboard Pop Chart’s top twenty. A quarter of the top twenty was Tijuana Brass. Nobody, not even Beethoven, has accomplished that before or since! Dude’s so old they didn’t even have a top twenty.

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(“My Heart Belongs to Daddy”)

(Point for this first round goes to Herb Alpert.)

Whose music was more memorable?:

Beethoven’s 9th symphony is widely considered not only the composer’s greatest work but one of the greatest achievements in all of western art. The “Ode to Joy” passage from the fourth movement is one of the most instantly recognizable and universal melodies in all the world, and has adopted as an anthem by various nations over the years since the composer’s death.

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(Finale – Allegro ma non froppo – allegro assai)

Herb Alpert’s Ninth was the last Tijuana Brass LP to be issued in mono and stereo. It featured a bust of Beethoven wearing a Herb Alpert t-shirt on the cover.

(The point for this round goes to Ludwig van Beethoven.)

Which album has more unwanted copies sitting around the record store?

Today’s recordings of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony come from the 1958 Charles Munch/Boston Symphony recording. We have a couple copies around the shop. We have more than a dozen various other recordings of Beethoven’s 9th, including Bruno Walter’s subdued recording from the following year (one of my favorites).

There are about ten copies of Herb Alpert’s 9th kicking around the shop, excluding the inevitable few in the junk record shelves in the bathroom and the 50¢ bin in the entryway.

(The point for this round goes to Ludwig van Beethoven)

Lasting influence:

Beethoven’s 9th symphony has been recorded hundreds of times, dating back to the introduction of recorded sound (the first was conducted by Bruno Seidler-Winkler, and issued by Grammaphone in 1923). Neither of the two original songs introduced on Herb Alpert’s 9th - “A Banda” and “Bud” – were recorded again.

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(Adagio molto a cantible, excerpt)

“Bud” was a tribute to Ervan “Bud” Coleman, who had written “Tijuana Taxi” for the group and also played guitar and mandolin on some of their records. Herb Alpert’s tribute is touching, but a more moving recording was made by the Baja Marimba Band (“For Bud” on Do You Know the Way to San Jose?).

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(“Bud”)

(The point for this round goes to Ludwig van Beethoven)

It’s clear this is going to turn into a rout. I was on a baseball team as a kid that had to invoke the “10 run” rule pretty often (ten runs meant the inning must end, regardless of the number of players who were out). We’ll let Herb Alpert enjoy the same mercy, and next time we put him into a fairer fight. Maybe with, oh I dunno, Hugh Masekela…

Best of the smackdowns

April 15, 2012 in Smackdown | No comments

The smackdown is a Hymie’s blog tradition, as tried and true as posting novelty songs and making fun of John Maus.

(Hey by the way, the guy who said in this interview that he was “happy that the days of the record store are coming to an end” now has a Record Store Day release (check it out here) … That’s chutzpah folks.)

Today’s post is smackdown retrospective, although it doesn’t include any of the primitive posts from the pre-streaming music era of the blog (those terrible dark ages when I had to find a way to describe the music instead). It only includes one song smackdown and steers entirely clear of unsuccessful experiments like the battle of the southern state rainy day song. These are the fun ones, the ones that remind you why you started collecting records in the first place.

TOP FIVE HYMIE’S SMACKDOWNS

#5 Dr. Lonnie Smith vs. Lonnie Liston Smith

Actually, this smackdown between the great 60s/70s jazz keyboardists sort of became about mid-level baseball player Lonnie Smith, who blew the 1991 World Series for the Atlanta Braves. As a Twins fan I’ve always been okay with that.

The Lonnie laydown was the first smackdown to put two favorites against one another. In fact, I think all of the tracks in this post came from our collection at home. I still don’t think I could pick a winner.

#4 Battle of the Byrds

This is my personal favorite smackdown. I felt like I discovered a lot of things about the music of Jerry Byrd and Charlie Byrd in researching and writing it, and in the end I kept one of the Charlie Byrd albums (Blues Sonata) in my collection because it was just soooo good.

#3 Lockjaw vs. Cleanhead

Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis and Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson actually performed and recorded together with Cootie Williams’s big band in 1944, which I though was the most interesting thing about this smackdown. A compilation of the Cootie Williams band that included both nicknamed Eddies came into the shop only weeks after this post went up, offering an opportunity to compare the two solo vs. solo just a little too late.

#2 “Sunny” vs. “Sunshine Superman”

The quintessential song smackdown, and also probably the longest yet – eighteen rounds for sure. My favorite part was speedy little medley of so-so “Sunny” covers, which take on a new life placed back-to-back. It’s right at the end of the post.

#1 Boston vs. Chicago

I received a number of angry emails after Chicago bested Boston in this early smackdown, but I stand by my decision. The truth is there’s nothing on that third or – ugh – fourth Boston album worth remembering, let alone taking the time to record it and post it on a website, and Chicago’s albums featured at least one good song all the way up to XI or so (which had “Baby What a Big Surprise”). Chicago is better than Boston.

And in the end that’s what the smackdowns have been all about: the arbitrary opinions of a man who posts records on the internet. Next week I promise a new and long-overdue smackdown. Perhaps we’ll finally visit Europe vs. America (which of course is going to turn into a Europe vs. America vs. Asia three-way pretty quickly). Perhaps we’ll finally put Beethoven’s 9th up against Herb Alpert’s 9th. Lord knows I’ve been working on Jon Anderson vs. John Anderson long enough. Next Monday, I promise, a new smackdown.

and ever since that night…

October 19, 2011 in Smackdown, Songs | 52 comments

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(Peggy Lee)

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(Leroy Smith and the Mello’tones)

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(Frank Sinatra)

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(Stan Freeman)

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(Mrs. Miller)

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(Jim Nabors)

“Strangers in the Night” was written by Bert Kaempfert in 1966 for the movie soundtrack to A Man Could Get Killed. The lyrics are by Charles Singleton and Eddie Snyder.

It’s a pretty widely recorded song and these here represent just a small sample. It’s one of my favorite songs to sing although you are probably better off if I haven’t done that for you.

I really love them all, but my favorite is the Jim Nabors recording. And on that note I think I’ll start keeping some of these things to myself.

Second SONG SMACKDOWN: Sunny vs. Sunshine Superman!

August 14, 2011 in Photos, Playlists, Smackdown, Songs | 1 comment

You can find our original song smackdown “Battle of the Southern Rainy Day Songs” by clicking here or you can find all of them by clicking on smackdowns just under the title above.

SUNNY vs SUNSHINE SUPERMAN

Bobby Hebb wrote “Sunny” in 1963 shortly after the assassination of his President Kennedy. Harold Hebb, his brother, had just been killed in a knifefight in Nashville. He wanted a song that would express feelings of optimism over “lousiness”. It has become one of the most popular songs in popular music, having been recorded by hundreds of artists in nearly every genre.

Hebb was not a successful performer at the time but a studio musician working for pop producer Jerry Ross. “Sunny” was a #2 hit but quickly a number one favorite for pop singers – Everyone from Cher and Sinatra to Stevie Wonder and rockers like the Electric Flag. “Sunny” also led Hebb to stardom, and he was opening for the Beatles within a year, earning as lusty applause as the famous Liverpool songwriting team.

Never again did Bobby Hebb hit so high on the charts, and he essentially retired after the unpopular, always-in-stock-at-Hymie’s album Love Games in 1970. He did not record another album for thirty-five years although he did release some singles in the 70s. One of them was the unsuccessful disco remake, “Sunny 76″. Fortunately, his royalties from “Sunny” allowed Bobby Hebb to enjoy a life in his hometown, Nashville, up until he passed away in 2000.

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“Sunshine Superman” was recorded at time when Donovan was growing out of Bob Dylan’s shadow, which has characterized his early career as a folk singer. He had also just signed a contract with Epic Records, and probably had a lot more money to work with while recording than he ever imagined he would. A little bit of everything but the kitchen sink turns up in the album, also named Sunshine Superman, including Donovan’s interests in jazz and Indian music and various references to marijuana and LSD. It’s a psychedelic masterpiece, although that sort of music is not as reliably popular as Bobby Hebbs easy-going soul.

And its been a popular song, too, although not as popular as “Sunny”. A different cast of artists have taken to “Sunshine Superman”, in particular jazz artists, who I suppose like the songs unusual melody and chord changes. Bands with often-overlooked psychedelic elements also seem to like it. Hüsker Dü recorded it along with another psych rock classic “Eight Miles High”.

Donovan, living today in Ireland, remains popular in U.K. clubs. And now that Hymie’s has been DJing at the Turf Club for a couple months I can tell you that “Get Thy Bearings”, from his Hurdy Gurdy Man LP, kills. Man, I love that song! I think I’ll post it later this week.

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AND THE SMACKDOWN

Can we compare these very different, very popular pieces? Sure. Let’s drop a couple recordings into the pit and see who comes out the winner…

Round 1: Jazz First Take

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vs.

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The first round is complicated because I threw all of my favorites into it – I let “Sunshine Superman” have two entries because I love the Herbie Mann/Tamiko Jones LP. Gabor Szabo’s “Sunshine Superman”, however, is so good I chose it over several other jazz guitarist’s recordings.

And the Lonnie Smith LP Move Your Hand is a favorite, and well represented by the organ heavy soul jazz “Sunshine Superman”. I don’t really remember how he fared in the Lonnie Smith/Lonnie Liston Smith smackdown a few months ago, but I love his records. And the thing is, if this were any other track from Move Your Hand, Dr. Lonnie would take this round for Donovan hands (moving) down.

And while Larry McGee (Guitar on Move Your Hand) cooks through “Sunshine Superman” and Szabo shreds through it, I really like Tamiko Jone’s take on the tune. She didn’t make a lot of great records, but when she was on she was on. Personally, I think she should have replaced Eartha Kitt as TV’s Catwoman instead of Lee Meriweather. Of course, the fact that I thought of that makes me weird and probably negates this entire contest.

I would really like to hear how differently Herbie Mann would have approached “Sunny” a year later – In his Push Push, Memphis Underground era – and I’ll bet he played it in some club somewhere with those groups in 1969-70.

Round 2: Rockers

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vs.

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The first time I heard “Sunshine Superman” was on this Hüsker Dü record.

“Sunny” may have been pop gold, but there is a very good reason why it was so seldom done by rock groups. The Electric Flag tried, and I’ll salute them for that (Ha), but I have to add that their hammy, would-be hippy anthem “With Time There is Change” loses something by coming after a song also done the same year by Andy Williams.

Round 3: The Pop Singers

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vs.

Francis A. and Edward K., the 1968 Sinatra-Ellington collaboration, is characterized by it’s song selection. Ellington was in one of several periods where his prodigious output briefly slowed, and had just finished what must have been one of the most difficult sessions of his career, his heartfelt and beautiful tribute to the late Billy Strayhorn (…And His Mother Called Him Bill, 1967). An LP of original material would have been unlikely, but an album so heavy on 60s pop songs? Unexpected.

Sinatra sounds great on the session, but I suppose the label was hoping for something more like his collaboration with Antonio Carlos Jobim the year before. “Sunny” really is a sharp pop tune, but not so well suited for Sinatra & Ellington as “Follow Me” (from Camelot) or “I Like the Sunrise”. If this version of “Sunny” were by any other singer and bandleader, it would maybe be remarkable, but fro these two its just another version of “Sunny”.

Round 4: Disco Dancin’

Here Hebbs got the edge, having recorded a disco remake of Sunny himself.

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But this was not until after it had already become an established dancefloor hit by Yambu and then, more so, by Boney M. Hebb hedged his bets, I guess, maybe hoping for the same kind of disco resurrection enjoyed by a variety of 60s soul singers.

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Donovan may have been influential on dance music but there have not been as many covers of Sunshine Superman as you may expect. I couldnt even find many samples of the song, excepting in this one by Imani Coppola.

I don’t know where this round should go. I like the Imani Coppola track, but I usually like songs that sample songs I already like. The various disco “Sunny”s, on the other hand, I really don’t care for. I don’t blame Bobby Hebb for re-recording his own signature hit after it bacame a dancefloor favorite, but the finished product does smack of desperation. I suppose in the end this is a “Sunshine Superman” round, if not for these reasons then because I do like cowgirl songs.

Round 5: Jazz, second take

Let’s put it all on Les McCann this time around – He recorded both songs on my favorite of his many great albums, Les McCann Plays the Hits. Here they are, “Sunshine Superman” and both parts – 10 minutes – of his epic study of “Sunny”:

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Clearly Les found something special about Sunny, having put so much work into arranging such an elaborate version of it and to have chosen to start his mostly-pop covers album with it. Sunshine Superman fits well with the late-60s McCann style, but not as successfully as “Sunny” or “Guantanamara”, or about half of Les McCann Plays the Hits.

Round 6: the Instrumental Smackdown

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“Sunny” gets burned on Sunpower, a concept album by mid-level instrumental group the Marketts (best known for the hit “Out of Limits”). A dozen “sun songs” are collected – “California Sun”, “House of the Rising Sun”, etc – but missing is the recent Bobby Hebb hit that had become a favorite of everyone from Atlantic City crooners to soul and rock artists. Why?

I don’t know but I think it was because the Marketts wanted to market themselves as young and tuned-in. Old-timey (“You are my Sunshine”) is okay but a contemporary pop song wouldn’t fit the image.

Jazz, on the other hand, has always been cool with contemporary pop songs, so it’s easier to find a good example. I couldn’t come up with an instrumental rock version of “Sunny”, but I would like to hear one. I was genuinely surprised after I went through at least 15 Ventures albums in the shop and couldn’t find “Sunny”!

Round 7 Into a New Era?

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vs.

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Well that’s the thing – The best version of “Sunshine Superman” I could find was by Rickie Lee Jones and it came from the Party of Five soundtrack Sunny has aged even worse In fact I couldn’t find a contemporary recording of it without buying one on iTunes (Not likely to happen)

Consider then this little compendium of “Sunny” recordings I have compiled and marvel at just how fleeting it all is Sunny reigned supree for a tie and well let it win this little smackdown although neither song as proved enduring

Tomorrow: Maybe Donovan? I think so.

Another Smackdown: Battle of the Byrds

June 28, 2011 in Photos, Playlists, Smackdown, Songs

These guys?

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Um, nope. Maybe this guy then?

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No, I’m actually thinking about these guys…

CHARLIE BYRD vs. JERRY BYRD

This SMACKDOWN, one of our best yet, features two fine-fingered Byrds known for their work on strings – Charlie Byrd who played a classical guitar and Jerry Byrd who played a lap steel guitar.

Each performed and recorded for decades but hit a peak of fame in the sixties, and were fortunate to enjoy performing regularly during their golden years. Charlie and Jerry Byrd, no relation, were both down-to-earth, accessible guys known for their enthusiasm to pass knowledge and experience on to the next generation.

Both famous Byrds discovered and explored music beyond this continent. Jerry Byrd left Nashville and a lucrative career as a session man to pursue a career playing Hawaiian music, a decision that left the one-time Grand Ole Opry regular ostracized by country purists. Charlie Byrd discovered bossa nova through famous disc jockey Felix Grant and while on a State Department tour of Latin America. Each of them became superstars in their respective explorations, setting the standard for a generation of peformers to follow., although neither took on the trappings and pretensions of stardom.

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That’s Jerry Byrd’s “Pa’au’au Waltz”, a fair example of the laid-back Hawaiian style he rocked for decades. Jerry was a native of Lima, Ohio, although by the time he passed away in 2005 he had spent more than a third of his life living in the Aloha State. In his career as a sideman, Jerry played with a remarkable list of country artists – Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Ernest Tubb, and he also taught Jimmie Vaughn and Jerry Garcia to play lap steel.

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And this was “Conversation Piece” by Charlie Byrd, a piece he wrote in collaboration with bassist Keter Betts. Charlie’s best work was collaborative, and he always seemed comfortable to share the spotlight, playing the good host to guests who sat in on his sessions. That may be why so many great artists recorded some of their best solos backed by Charlie (Like Clark Terry and Stan Getz). He also owned a sailboat called “I’m Hip”, and you really can’t beat that.

BEST PLUMAGE

Jerry Byrd was the #1 inductee into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in St. Louis, Missouri. This was in 1978, and there are today more than 50 other performers honored there.

And I’ve already told you about Charlie Byrd’s sailboat. It was called “I’m Hip”. There really isn’t a jazz hall of fame out there somewhere into which Charlie could be inducted. Several states have their own, but not the Commonwealth of Virginia, where Charlie was born. The closest thing to a jazz hall of fame is the unreasonably conservative and neo-classical one at Lincoln Center, where it seems unlikely a white Virginian who studied the music of Latin America will ever be recognized as “jazz” enough.

You can probably tell I’m pretty excited about the sailboat (Its called “I’m Hip”!), but this round was fairly won by Jerry.

BEST ROOST

Jerry Byrd’s weekly gig at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel lasted for more than 25 years! The Pink Palace of the Sea was once called the “Western White House” because Franklin Delano Roosevelt often stayed there. It also appeared in an episode of Charlie’s Angels.

Charlie Byrd lent his name to a jazz supper club in Georgetown, but it was at the King of France Tavern in Anapolis’ Maryland Inn that he could be found performing. According to Joe Byrd’s official website, the Charlie Byrd Trio enjoyed a 25 year residency in the famous 18th century location.

Sorry Charlie, there’s just no contest…I mean, just at those pictures. And where would you rather be right now, Oahu or Annapolis? That’s two rounds for Jerry already.

BEST ORIGINAL BYRD SONGS

Jerry Byrd’s classic Country Steel Guitar Hits album on Mercury’s Wing label is usually hunted down because its the best collection of his Nashville-era instrumental work, but the man of steel lends his own voice to an original on the second side. “Steelin’ the Blues” is a genuine honky tonk romp, even if there is too much steel guitar.

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The most interesting of Charlie Byrd’s many albums is Blues Sonata, the two sides of which seem almost to have come from different artists. On the A side is Charlie’s “Sonata”, true to a three part form with a polonaise, a ballad and a scherzo. Charlie’s original piece follows the classical form somewhat faithfully – The polonaise introduces dominant and secondary themes, the first of which being boldly restated in a coda at the end of the scherzo. The ballad is evocative of Chopin. The scherzo is titled “Scherzo for an Old Shoe”, and it captures the lively interactions of Byrd’s trio, and Keter Betts’ great solo is on the same level as Scott LaFaro’s last recordings from the same year (Well, okay, maybe not that good, but good).

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The second side of Blues Sonata finds Charlie switching to electric guitar, something he rarely did, and his trio augmented by soulful pianist Barry Harris. Here and there its a hot session, but its Charlie’s “Sonata” that makes this album unique. Its also Charlie’s “Sonata” that wins him this round.

BEST FLIGHTS OFF A STANDARD

Country Steel Guitar Hits, the album above, opens with a lively “Steel Guitar Rag”. Unfortunately, its also about the best take on a country standard from Reed’s pre-Hawaiian records. Most of the time Jerry turns genuine chestnuts into AM radio camp. Here’s Jerry’s “Steel Guitar Rag” followed by his hammy “Harbor Lights”:

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Of course, Jerry’s Hawaiian albums introduce a new set of standards, and he was a major figure in tumultuous rise and fall of Hawaiian music on the popular charts. He approaches the material with devotion at a time when there were a lot of hacks. Here, for instance, is his recording of “Jesu Meke Kanaka Waiwai” (“Jesus and the Rich Man”).

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My favorite album by the Charlie Byrd Trio is Byrd at the Gate, which captures the Trio with guests Clark Terry and Seldon Powell at the Village Gate in 1963. Terry appears only on two numbers, absolutely the highlight of the album and one of the best things in the Trio’s Riverside catalog. Here’s one, the Charlie Byrd Trio and guest Clark Terry playing the old-time Dixieland standard “Butter and Eggs Man”:

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Really, though, this round is a KO for Charlie Byrd, because it was his 1962 arrangement of this Antonio Carlos Jobim song that made it a standard. In fact, you can hear just about everything that drew American jazz artists to Brazilian music in this six minute masterpiece.

The story is that Getz and Charlie first proposed the project to Verve Records producer Creed Taylor without any arrangements. After it was approved they started working together but no one was happy with the arrangements and the project was set on a back burner while Byrd put together a trio to workshop arrangements in DC. The finished product is pure Charlie Byrd and a jazz classic. Unfortunately conflicts over the credit for the album’s arrangement kept the two from recording together ever again. Charlie had to sue Getz and MGM to get credit, and royalties, for his work (And he won). Getz made a sequel album with the decidedly less enjoyable Luis Bonfa, as well as his more well-known collaboration with Joao Gilberto, but his best work in bossa nova was on this fine disc.

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BEST EGGSHELL

Truthfully, most of Jerry’s records look like Country Steel Guitar Hits (Above). It doesn’t get a lot better when he trades in the string tie for a Hawaiian shirt.

Charlie’s Riverside albums feature designs by Ken Deardoff, whose work is probably on your shelf at home if you listen to a lot of 50s and 60s jazz (My favorite Deardoff jacket design is Bill Evans’ Waltz for Debby). Still, my favorite of Charlie’s record jackets is Onda Nueva, his 1974 collaboration with Aldemaro Romero for Columbia Records. The half-naked hot chick always wins.

BEST MATING DANCE

Jerry performing with Dolly Parton:

(I also came across this video of Jerry Byrd performing with Marty Robbins on television in 1965. Sweet!)

And Charlie performing “Shiny Stockings”:

I guess any comparison isn’t fair, with the setting of each video being so different. Plus Dolly’s in Jerry’s clip. Still, if you were going to compare mating dances it seems pretty clear Jerry won the round.

COCK O’ THE WALK

A winner? I don’t know. This is one of the most enjoyable posts I have ever written for this blog, simply because its so easy to get lost in the music of these two great artists. Personally, I have always preferred Charlie Byrd, but you know his records don’t sell all that well here at Hymie’s so I must be wrong. Jerry Byrd’s albums pass through the shop pretty quickly, and we often have none at all in stock. If anyone really is the winner, its me because I spent a couple of days listening to the records these guys made.

Song Smackdown

March 28, 2011 in Playlists, Smackdown, Songs | 1 comment

So our smackdowns are usually centered around artists whose names you may have noticed are similar. I think the most recent was Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson vs. Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis. You could click on the “smackdown” tag attached to this post to see them all. This one is special because we’re going to put some songs into the ring…today we present

BATTLE OF THE SOUTHERN STATE RAINY DAY SONGS

Let’s just get right into each contestant because by now everyone knows this is all arbitrary. Here they are…

“Alabama Rain” by Jim Croce

Jim Croce’s “Alabama Rain” is a bittersweet stroll down the dirt road past memory lane. Its full of the carmel sandstone custom cut bullshit on which baby boomer memories of the world are founded – Croce sings about things like drive-in movies and weeping willows, creating an idyllic world he would find alienating and unlivable today. “Alabama Rain” is Jim Croce’s “Brown Eyed Girl” saved only by the fact it wasn’t sold to a television commercial. Here is, like so many songs of the early 70s, an idyllic portrait of something that was lost. Like Phil Och’s “Boy in Ohio” or John Hartford’s best sentimental songs (“The Girl with the Long Brown Hair” or “The First Girl I Loved”) it’s simple, unspecific and heartfelt.

The thing is, we’re talking about the guy who wrote “Time in a Bottle”. In his all-too-short career Croce crafted such masterpieces as to leave us wishing for a well of unreleased material to dip into (Not there, sorry. But Jimi’s still putting out records). “Alabama Rain”, lovely as it is, falls far short of his best work.

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“Kentucky Rain” by Elvis Presley

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“Kentucky Rain” has become a popular early 70s Elvis tune, but it was not a particularly big hit when it was originally released. Through a simple, vivid narrative Elvis tells of searching for a lover who has run away. His delivery is emotional and expressive, characteristic of the January/February 1969 recording sessions at American Studios in Memphis.

His performance is accented by the rumbling piano of Ronnie Milsap, then an unknown session musician, and evocative backing vocals. The decision to not record with the ubiquitous Jordanaires but rather a group of unknown Memphis session musicians led to a grittier, authentic sound lacking on most Elvis records of the 60s. “Kentucky Rain”, for instance, is soulful and undeniably southern.

Interestingly, the song was not issued on any of the albums that came out of these productive sessions – Back in Memphis and the classic From Elvis in Memphis. So far as I can tell its first appearance at 33 1/3 was more than fifteen years later, on the double LP collection The Memphis Record, which ostensibly collected all of the January/February 1969 American Studios sessions. Regardless, the song has become a classic rock staple and a favorite of many Elvis fans.

“Louisiana Rain” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

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I guess nobody writes about the rain in the state where they were born, because Gainsville, FL native Tom Petty’s classic southern rain song is “Louisiana Rain”. On a first listen it seems as though “Louisiana Rain” is telling a very similar story to the one in “Kentucky Rain”, but in fact the similarities stop where the stories begin. While Elvis has gone after his lover, trudging from town to town under a heavy downpour, Tom stays at home and drinks. “Louisiana Rain” is a great example of the deceptively upbeat pop sound the Heartbreakers cultivated, a style which often hides the weary desperation of Tom Petty’s lyrics. In fact, “Louisiana Rain” is one of his darkest songs to date, including lines like:

I pour whiskey down my soul but nothing ever seems to change
‘Cause this pain keeps pourin’ down like Louisiana rain

Petty hit paydirt years later with records like Wildflowers and the She’s the One soundtrack, but Heartbreakers-era tracks like this one (And, my favorite “Rebels”) are his best material.

“Rainy Night in Georgia” by Tony Joe White

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“Rainy Night in Georgia” was written by the great genre-bending singer Tony Joe White, but the most familiar recording was made eight years later by Brook Benton on his “comeback” album Brook Benton Today. Benton’s #4 hit is the first track here, and the second is a nice instrumental version by the Jazz Crusaders.

If you could put together a single story “Rainy Night in Georgia” would fit inside or next to “Kentucky Rain” and all these other songs. There seems to be a common narrative. “Rainy Night in Georgia” is distinct in only that is soul-bearingly sincere. That seems to be a hallmark of the 70s country soul genre that songwriter Tony Joe White fit into – Like his contemporary Joe South, Tony Joe White wrote songs reluctantly chosen by the King (Elvis recorded a beat-driven version of White’s “Got a Thing About You Baby” eventually) but ones that also deserve more recogniton.

“Rainy Night in Georgia” is a great song if only because its got a great story. There’s something that we don’t know (Every great story should have a back story we have to infer) – This is what brings all of these songs together. I don’t think I could choose a winner if this were a smackdown, if only because each of the fighters brought so much to the match.

Best of Bobbi Humphreys vs. Best of Bobby Hutcherson

February 6, 2011 in Photos, Smackdown, Songs

For today we’ve prepared a long overdue smackdown, one which will feature only one record to represent each side rather than culling together a stack of tracks as per our tradition. Today will decide once and for all who has the greatest Best of album, Bobbi Humphreys or Bobby Hutcherson…

Incidentally, you may have noticed that their names are very similar. Also, you may have noticed that these albums have very similar designs. The run of early 80s jazz collections with these jackets designed by Paula Scher include everything from artists who’ve remained fresh and interesting (Lonnie Liston Smith) to records we just can’t seem to give away (Steve Khan, Eric Gale). Artist Paula Scher has pieces in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art, and her own website here. Her website is nothing but a blank white page, which is a bold statement about the pervasive role that the internet is playing in the fine arts today. Deep.

BEST PICTURE ON THE JACKET:

We should get this one out of the way before you scroll down away from the pictures. Clearly, Bobby is having a lot more fun than Bobbi. As we listen to some tracks from the albums we’ll find this is sort of ironic, but nonetheless Bobby wins the first round.

MOST OUTLANDISH LINER NOTE HYPERBOLE:

Jazz liner note hyperbole is a fine art, crafted by pioneers like Ira Gilter and Gary Giddins years ago.

In the notes by Pablo “Yoruba” Guzman, Bobbi is described as part of a “generation of musicians who are building upon a legacy of cross-stylistic improvisation,” which began with innovators such as Sly Stone, Miles Davis and Sun Ra. Most of Guzman’s notes refer to the “extra nuts” Bobbi had to crack, both as a flautists and as a woman. Guzman is presumably unfamiliar with a great jazz flautists ranging from James Moody, to Rahsaan Roland Kirk (Surely one of the era’s finest “cross-stylistic improv[isors]“), to Frank Wess. He is also apparently unaware that a variety of female jazz artists, including Mary Lou Williams and Mary McPartland, had long ago blazed the trail he credits to Bobbi.

Guzman does fairly discredit “fuzak”, bland background music in the vein of the aforementioned Steve Khan and Eric Gale, and place Bobbi’s in the ranks of fusion’s best. Elsewhere he goes over the top by suggesting that Bobbi’s “physical being, [her] spirit within, and the talent she posesses confront ‘convention’ at every turn.”

Jim Reynold’s notes for Bobby’s album, on the other hand, offers only a modest summary of the record’s seven tracks and of Bobby’s early career. A long passage is in Bobby’s own words, describing his interest in “a new way of playing bebop”. The closest to genuine hyperbole that Reynolds gets in his notes is to call Bobby “the contemporary manifestation of an historical line that began with Red Norvo and Lionel Hampton in the 1930s and was passed to Milt Jackson.”

Bobbi wins this round, evening up the score!

LEAST NUMBER OF RECORDS REPRESENTED BY THIS “BEST OF” COLLECTION:

Its kind of a tie. Bobbi’s Best of highlights tracks from three Epic albums recorded between 1977-9, and Bobby’s Best of collects tracks from three Columbia from 1978-9. Bobby’s album includes tracks from only two years, so he wins this round.

BEST TRACK:

From Best of Bobbi Humphrey I chose “Home-Made Jam”, a Ralph MacDonald-produced party track.

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And from Best of Bobby Hutcherson the best track was a cover of Bud Powell’s “Un Poco Loco”, which highlights Bobby’s high-energy approach to bebop. In addition to Hutcherson it features solos by John Abercrombie and George Cables, as well as Weather Report’s drummer Peter Erskine.

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Both are great tracks but Bobbi’s is far more fun. She wins another round!

WORST REPRESENTATION OF A LARGER CAREER:

Each album features a handful of tracks from a short period of the artist’s career, even though they are billed as Best of collections. Bobbi’s earliest best work was on six Blue Note albums recorded in the early 70s, the most famous of which is Blacks and Blues. Bobby, meanwhile, recorded more than 30 albums as a leader beginning in 1965. He also recorded for the Blue Note label, but his work both as a leader and as a sideman includes some of the label’s best releases of the sixties. One of my favorite records to feature Hutcherson is Grant Green’s great Idle Moments LP. Hutcherson also appeared as a bandleader in the depressing Depression drama They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?

This round is won by Bobby, who is very poorly represented by this Columbia Best of collection.

AND THE WINNER IS:

Certainly not the consumer who bought these so-so collections. There ought to be a rule that anything labeled Best of or Greatest Hits must represent at least 20% of an artist’s career. Or be awesome.

If you’re keeping score Bobby Hutcherson won this smackdown, but if you’re interested in listening to these records Bobbi Humphrey’s is a better collection of songs. Here are a couple more tracks:

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“Sweet n Low” by Bobbi Humphrey.

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“Nosiree Bob” by Bobby Hutcherson.

Incidentally, you might have noticed I added a new “tag” category to the posts, so by clicking “smackdown” under the title above you can see all of our past smackdowns, from our recent Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis vs. Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson to the highly controversial Boston vs. Chicago.

SMACKDOWN: Dr. Lonnie Smith vs. Lonnie Liston Smith

December 29, 2010 in Photos, Playlists, Smackdown, Songs | 1 comment

You may notice that the contestants in the last SMACKDOWN of 2010 have very similar names. In fact, keyboardists Dr. Lonnie Smith and Lonnie Liston Smith are often mistaken for one another, given their similar styles and the coincidental timing of their successful careers. Just yesterday I credited a track by Dr. Lonnie Smith to Lonnie Liston Smith, and I’m supposed to know what I’m doing.

If you are a baseball fan, you may be disappointed that we’re not going to include journeyman outfielder and base stealer Lonnie Smith, most famous for the drug problems that often sidelined his career and for being traded by the Cardinals only to play on the team that beat them in a contentious World Series the very next year.

Locals may also remember Lonnie Smith as the dumb bastard duped by Greg Gagne and Chuck Knoblach in the seventh game of the 1991 World Series, costing Atlanta the winning run.

That Lonnie Smith is alive and well and living in Atlanta, so they must have forgiven him at some point.

Who are these Lonnie Smiths, and why are there so many? I can’t tell you how many letters we get asking questions like this. As soon as we get one I’ll let you know.

The interactive Baby Name Voyager graph shows a precipitous drop in the name Lonnie after a peak around 1940. Click on its name to visit the Baby Name Voyager, but if you’ve never tried this before be ready to waste the next hour of your time typing every name you’ve ever thought was funny. Maybe its from the old German Alonzo (“Ready for battle”) or the old Alsatian name Alonicycle (“You better leave my bike alone”), or maybe its the result of actor Lon Chaney’s popularity, but there were once a lot of Lonnies. There are already a lot of Smiths, so I don’t have to explain the rest to you. The only remaining question is whether they’re all going to be famous black guys with sideburns, and the answer is yes. Yes they are.

BEST RECORDING AS A SIDEMAN:

Tough competition here. Lonnie Smith started his career with the George Benson Quartet, playing piano on Its Uptown and The George Benson Cookbook – The two soul jazz classics Benson recorded for Columbia in 1966. Columbia was a little behind its competitors in terms of quality soul jazz records but made up for lost time by signing the young guitarist Benson for his second and third albums. You have probably overlooked these records because your Mom likes George Benson, but they’re still great.

Here’s “Benson’s Rider” from The George Benson Cookbook, complete with an especially great Hammond B-3 solo by Dr. Lonnie, followed by “Clockwise” from Its Uptown:

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These two great records with Benson’s group on Columbia earned Dr. Lonnie a deal to record his 1966 debut with the label, so his career as a sideman was brief.

Lonnie Liston’s first appearance on wax may be on Roland Kirk’s Here Comes the Whistleman, the first of many albums Rahsaan would eventually record for Atlantic. Here’s the title track from that gem:

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Lonnie Liston continued to perform and record with Kirk and appeared on an instrumental track tacked to the end of the peculiar Roland Kirk/Al Hibbler collaboration A Meeting of the Times.

The very best work Lonnie Liston did with Rahsaan was that same year on the Verve album Now Don’t You Cry, Beautiful Edith. Here Kirk laid out the high energy exploratory soul jazz style that was going to define his work for years, and Lonnie Liston was an essential component. Listen to how Lonnie Liston supports Kirk’s exciting solo on the first track, “Blue Rol”:

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Unfortunately, these records are relatively obscure (If nonetheless great). I don’t even know if these three Roland Kirk titles are in print anymore. Lonnie Liston’s career as a sideman took off in 1968, when he was working in Pharaoh Sanders’ band. Read an interview here to learn about the day he discovered the Fender Rhodes piano, which he would play in the opening to one of Pharaoh’s finest Impulse! album, Thembi. Here’s “Astral Traveling”, written by Lonnie Liston Smith:

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Lonnie Liston continued to play with the Pharaoh Sanders group, appearing on the acid jazz classic “The Creator Has a Master Plan”. On Pharaoh’s 1970 album Summun, Bukmun, Umyun Lonnie Liston arranged a side-long adaptation of the gospel standard “Let Us Go Into the House of the Lord”.

The Winner: Lonnie Smith was out of line for claiming it was the Metrodome’s white roof that faked him – You can tell he was taken by the Gagne/Knoblauch fake. As for the records, Lord knows I love those George Benson albums but you can’t beat Now Don’t You Cry, Beautiful Edith and “The Creator Has a Master Plan”. Play the whole stack of albums this afternoon and the Rahsaan and Pharaoh albums make the George Benson records look like Lonnie Smith stumbling at second base.

This round goes to Lonnie Liston!

GREATEST HIT:

Dr. Lonnie and Lonnie Liston are, of course, jazz musicians. They don’t really have hits. Both are most heard in the form of samples. One of the most-heard Dr. Lonnie tracks in its original form is “Move Your Hand”, the groovin’ title track from his fourth Blue Note album – As a Blue Note, its going to get a lot more play than his other records no matter how bad it is, but this is actually a whole lot more original and exciting than your average late 60s Blue Note. A bonus, Dr. Lonnie’s wispy vocals:

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Lonnie Liston’s “Expansions” is so well known that its featured in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, a video game that features (Because I believe everything I read in the newpaper) raping, prostitution and junkies. Sometimes even raping prostitutes and junkies, I assume. Seems a fitting feature for a song in which Lonnie Liston pleads for us to expand our minds “to understand / We all must live in peace.”

Aside from this auspicious notoriety, “Expansions” is a favorite of late-night acid jazz radio programs. Its a great introduction to this loosely defined genre and the highlight of the albums by Lonnie Liston Smith and the Cosmic Echoes.

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“Space Princess” by Lonnie Liston Smith and the Cosmic Echoes from the album Exotic Mysteries was a minor dance floor hit. Its a pretty great track:

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And the winner is: Lonnie Smith played in the World Series four times (Four different teams, the last being Atlanta) and in the ’91 series hit three home runs. If he hadn’t lost game seven he might have been the series MVP instead of its goat. The truth is, while he had a greatest blunder he never had a greatest hit, and neither did Dr. Lonnie or Lonnie Liston.

I do love Lonnie Liston’s recordings on the Fender Rhodes, however. He’d win the round if I didn’t sing “Move Your Hand” far more often. We’re going to have to split this round 50/50.

GODDAMN CRAZIEST HAT:

The winner: He really made it a lot worse by trying to blame his mistake on the Metrodome’s white roof. You could tell he didn’t lose track of the ball but was faked by Chuck Knoblach’s clever ruse. Sure, its not a Bill Buckner moment but its awfully close, and there’s no shame in admitting your mistakes. Knoblach was rookie of the year, after all. A genuine star. Maybe Lonnie Smith wouldn’t have had to change hats a few more times if he’d had the courage to take responsibility for his mistake. This round of our smackdown, meanwhile, is going to come down to Dr. Lonnie’s Sikh headgear or Lonnie Liston’s seed stitch knitted caps. I’m going to ask Laura to make me this exact rainbow striped skull cap, but Dr. Lonnie’s is altogether weirder.

BEST WEBSITE:

Take a look. Here’s Dr. Lonnie Smith and here’s Lonnie Liston Smith.

The Winner: There are a few people who have benefited more from Major League Baseball’s bizarre non-presence on the internet. They won’t let us watch Bill Buckner miss that grounder on Youtube and we can’t see Lonnie Smith blow the winning run of the seventh game of the 1991 Series either. Christ, its only the greatest World Series of all time. Wouldn’t it be nice if Major League Baseball would use its website to let us watch game seven of the best ever World Series, instead of another tedious interview with a so-so pitcher renewing his contract with an overpaid expansion team?

The other Lonnies? Dr. Lonnie womps Lonnie Liston in this round. He gets an extra point for funkiness.

BEST SIDEMAN TO APPEAR ON HIS RECORDS:

Dr. Lonnie’s album Afro-Desia features horns by Joe Lovano and Greg Hopkins, as well as bassist extraordinaire Ron Carter and Ben Riley, the subtly expressive drummer most known for his great work in the middle-60s Thelonious Monk Quartet.

Lovano and Hopkins have great solos on the title track, although its really a showcase for Dr. Lonnie’s keys.

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Anything else special about this album? Yes, it also lists as guitarist that’s been keeping the groove together as “compliments of a friend”. Who, oh who, could this friend be? Whose guitar playing swing and rocks so delightfully? Its none other than George Benson!

Lonnie Liston spent years recording as Lonnie Liston Smith and the Cosmic Echoes, so he was saddled with a pretty consistent group. At first the Cosmic Echoes featured expatriates of Pharaoh’s early Impulse! group, top drawer out there jazzmen like Cecil McBee and percussionist James Mtume. The Comic Echoes never became the new Jazz Messengers, however, and talent didn’t stream through the band readily. The overlooked virtuoso bassist Marcus Miller, however, passed through the group before going on to perform with everyone from Grover Washington Jr. to Luther Vandross. He also wrote “Tutu” for Miles Davis when he wasn’t busy.

Here, for instance, is Marcus Miller rounding out a smooth jazz supergroup of Grover Washington Jr.’s 1980 album Skylarkin’. With him on this hip shakin’ session are Washington, Eric Gale, Richard Tee, Idris Muhammed and Ralph MacDonald. The track is “Snake Eyes”:

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The winner: You could argue its all a moot point anyway, because eventually the Twins won. Maybe Lonnie Smith blew the Braves’ best chance in the 9th inning, but its not his fault they choked in the 10th. Still, there he was, the winning run, waiting on 3rd base when he should have scored.

Marcus Miller is awesome enough, but you can’t beat having George Benson on your record.

MOST LAME SAMPLES FOUND ON “WHO SAMPLED?”:

For a guy who played on three teams that won the World Series you’d think he could just own up to his mistake. So he didn’t play on four World Series winning teams – Its his own fault.

Take a look at their listings on “Who Sampled?”. Here’s Dr. Lonnie and here’s Lonnie Liston. Lonnie Liston wins, but the samples of Dr. Lonnie’s “Spinning Wheel” are better.

The winner:

Another upset as Dr. Lonnie takes more rounds than the often sampled, often played Lonnie Liston. Both have made a stack of records I’d gladly spend all day playing, so I suppose the real winner is all of us.

AND THE WINNER OF THIS SMACKDOWN IS…

Seriously, were you paying attention just now? – The real winner is all of us. Dr. Lonnie and Lonnie Liston each made a big pile of great records and its wrong to make this into a competition of any kind. What’s wrong with you people?

As for Lonnie Smith, let’s try to forget the fact that he cost his team the World Series and remember some of the other humorous highlights of his career, like his drug problems or his aborted plan to murder Kansas City Royals General Manager John Schuerholz. Like Lonnie Liston sang, “We all must live in peace”.

Lockjaw vs. Cleanhead

October 15, 2010 in Photos, Smackdown, Songs

Sorry folks, the proposed America vs. Europe smackdown has been canceled due to a complete lack of interest. What’s the fun in a smackdown if I won’t get any angry emails about the outcome?

(Garsh, you wouldn’t believe how many Boston fans came out of their basements just to complain about the results of Boston vs. Chicago!)

Instead we’re going to tread confidently into less controversial territory and present another jazz smackdown – This time comparing two artists whose names, you may have noticed, are similar in some way…

EDDIE “LOCKJAW” DAVIS vs EDDIE “CLEANHEAD” VINSON

They performed together on 11 tracks recorded by Cootie Williams’ big band in 1944. Later that year Davis left the band, and Vinson recorded a couple more numbers with them as a vocalist, launching his own career. Davis, a tenor, and Vinson, an alto, both developed distinctive styles and enjoyed active careers into the 80s.

So we can get it out of the way, the first category is…

Best Nickname:

Davis became “Lockjaw” because of the way people noticed he clamped down on his mouthpiece. Vinson became “Cleanhead” after an accident with a lye-laced straightener destroyed his hair. This is a 1977 recording of his song “Cleanhead’s Blues” with Johnny and Shuggie Otis:

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Winner: Vinson. Its just a better story.

Best Band Played In:

Davis played with Count Basie’s band for more than a decade, working alongside a whole cast of jazz legends.

Previously, he had performed in big bands led by Louis Armstrong, Andy Kirk and Cootie Williams.

In the late 50s, Davis led a group featuring which you could say set the standard for the organ/tenor sound that became widely popular in the coming decade. Later still he recorded with several “all star” groups for Pablo Records, performing with Oscar Peterson’s trio, Zoot Sims, and the Tommy Flannagan trio.

Meanwhile, Vinson led a 1952-3 group that included a young John Coltrane, but prior to his breakthrough R&B hit “Old Maid Boogie” had not played in a lot of the great big bands. As mentioned before, he did perform in Cootie Williams’ band at the same time as Davis (1941) on a number of cuts, giving him his first opportunities as a vocalist. Vinson’s extensive catalog includes a variety of groups that suggest his flexibility as a performer – In the 70s, he performed with T-Bone Walker and Jay McShann on one session, Johnny and Shuggie Otis on another, and Larry Coryell on a third. Never one to rest, a short time before he passed away he played on a great session with Etta James issued in two volumes by Fantasy in 1986.

Winner: It’s close but Davis wins. I recognize that Vinson played with a wide variety of great musicians including a variety of my personal favorites, like blues pianist Jay McShann, but Davis’ various bandmates are pretty consistently regarded as legends. I may prefer McShann to Oscar Peterson but most people wouldn’t agree.

Best Original Composition:

I could not find a lot of tracks credited to Davis on the records we have in the shop – He seems to stick to standards when recording as a leader and toss in the occasional original, like “Squattin’” from a 1950 quintet session with Wynton Kelly and a relatively unknown rhythm section.

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This stomper titled “Telegraph” is from his Montreux ’77 recording on Pablo with the Oscar Peterson trio, and was composed by him:

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This next track is from another Pablo album, this one with Tommy Flannagan’s trio. Here’s “The Chef”:

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Vinson is credited with writing “Tune Up” and “Four” which are commonly attributed to Miles Davis. Gosh, hard to imagine Miles taking credit for somebody else’s work…

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The track you heard above was the biggest hit from Vinson’s R&B years, “Old Maid Boogie” (It topped the R&B charts for two weeks). Its flip side was “Kidney Stew” which became his signature tune – Its heard here not from that original single, but from an album Vinson made years later called Kidney Stew is Fine. This recording on Delmark (From the early 70s?) features a great blues band with legends Jay McShann and T-Bone Walker.

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Winner: Davis’ originals are some of the swingingest tracks on his Pablo albums, but not particularly memorable. Vinson wrote several great R&B tracks early on, and also managed to include at least a few new jazz arrangements on his 70s albums, like “The Clean Machine” and “Non-Alcoholic” from his 1978 album on Muse named for the first song. Its pretty clear Vinson was more prolific and more versatile a composer.

Most Facebook followers: Vinson, with 69. Sadly, in a world where “Weird Al” Yankovic has nearly 38,000 followers on Facebook, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis has only 32.

Best adjective used by allmusic.com: Vinson is described as an “advanced stylist” and Davis as “the possessor of a cutting and immediately identifiable tough tenor tone”. Certainly Davis gets more adjectives, and its safe to say they’re cooler.

Vinson won the first internet round, but Davis took the second washing it all out.

Most resemblance to Dave:

Winner: Vinson. Bald head and (Sometimes) big beard beats Davis’ look which usually featured a moustache. Davis got pretty round, too, whereas Vinson looks pretty lean even in his later years.

Best recording of a standard:

Davis is likely to win this round – His records lean heavily towards standards, from this 1950 version of “Sweet and Lovely” from the same session with Wynton Kelly heard earlier to this great arrangement of “On A Clear Day (You Can See Forever)” (One of my favorite standards from the stage) a quarter century later:

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Vinson is more likely to have written a standard than recorded one – He has recorded the Mercer Ellington standard “Things Ain’t What They Used to Be” a few times but he’s been singing that one since the 40s, making him part of the reason it became a standard.

Here’s “Straight no Chaser” from a live album Vinson made with Larry Coryell in 1971. The band jumps right into Vinson’s own “Cleanhead Blues” at the end.

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Winner: Davis, although its not entirely fair because so many of Vinson’s originals are standard-worthy. The Pablo albums Davis recorded with Oscar Peterson and Tommy Flannagan feature great quartet performances of jazz standards from Rogers & Hart’s “Lover” to lesser-played but good songs like James Moody’s “Last Train from Overbrook”.

AND THE WINNER IS…

I’m too much of a Cleanhead fan to let him lose, honestly – This has been a rigged match from the start. Lockjaw is a great tenor but easily outshadowed by a dozen contemporaries (Especially Johnny Griffin), whereas Cleanhead carved out a unique niche during his long career which allowed him to shift comfortably from rhythm and blues, to jump blues to jazz, even within a single session.

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In fact, here at Hymie’s I usually file his records under blues, rather than jazz. Both Davis and Vinson are such great artists that we usually only have a few by each in stock. Hope you enjoyed our little smackdown, even if the winner was decided from the start. Next time around I promise a more fair fight.

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Smackdown

The Hobbits vs. Gandalf – so it’s come to this

Round #1: Awesome-est cover

Round #2: Best Tolkien references

Round #3: Which record is actually in the worst shape

Round #4: Best psych rock moment

Round #5: Really the only question that matters is Which album would J.R.R. Tolkien prefer?

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