2015 - Ain't I'm Clean?

Breakdown Children!

Love one another!

James Brown's message of Christmas peace.

Let's get together and love one another!

Can you feel it?

Don Nix wrote it, Freddie King busts it wide open.

Go down y'all!

Live at the Sugarbowl, September 22, 1972.

Backlash Blues

Nina Simone performing the Langston Hughes penned, Backlash Blues at Montreux, 1976.

Simone first released the song on Nina Sings the Blues  in 1967, a year that also saw Hughes' passing at age 65, and the publication of his final book of prose, The Panther and the Lash. The collection includes Justice, a nearly fifty year old poem that could have been written this afternoon.

Justice

That justice is a blind goddess

Is a thing to which we black are wise:

Her bandage hides two festering sores

That once perhaps were eyes.

 - Langston Hughes

Waylon TV Special!

Waylon Jennings with special guest the late, great, James Garner!

Many thanks to uploader Frank Hebner.  Dig.

Cookin' in Venezuela

Ray Barretto doing his thing.  You know what it is.

'Umble Pie

Humble Pie in 1971.  

A clueless introduction sequence followed by a thoroughly smoking run through Muddy Waters', Rollin' Stone.

Tunnel of Transcendent Love

"Kazuko" 

(harmonious child)

 

Pharoah Sanders performing in a Marin County tunnel circa 1980.

Healing vibes for my brave and beautiful son, Jack. 



The People's Choice!

"Do It Any Way You Wanna"
 

Frankie Brunson -keyboards
Dave Thompson - drums

Guy Fiske- guitar
Roger Andrews- bass

 

People's Choice deliverin' some funky Philadelphia disco-soul!  A Gamble and Huff/Philadelphia International production.  Buffalo born Frank Brunson's band had an organ driven, #9 R&B hit on  Phil-LA of Soul with the  "I Likes to Do It"(1971) single when old friends Leon Huff and Kenny Gamble signed People's Choice to the PI/TSOP label for a series of mid-70's releases.  "Do It Any Way You Wanna" reached the top of the 1975 R&B, disco, and club charts and was just shy of  the pop top ten (#11).

 

"I Likes To Do It"

A nearly universal sentiment. 

 

 

"Do It Any Way You Wanna"

A little bump on the Death Journey soundtrack.

 

Dillinger pinched "Do It Any Way You Wanna" for "Cocaine In My Brain" (1976)

 

 

Bobbi Humphrey

Bobbi Humphrey in a Montreux pocket. 

It must be Thursday July 5, 1973.

 

Bobbi Humphrey at the 2012 Mount Vernon Summer Breez. 

Norman Connors is in the house!

 

Marlena at Montreux

Marlena Shaw lets loose on Woman of the Ghetto.

Thursday, July 5, 1973 at the  Montreux Jazz Festival.   
What a lineup!

Alphonse Mouzon

Barney Kessel

Bobbi Humphrey

Bobby Hutcherson

Donald Byrd

Marlena Shaw

Ronnie Foster

 



Dr. Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II

Blackbyrds take flight at Montreux, 1973.

 

Donald Byrd: trumpet and flugel horn
Nathan Davis: Soprano Sax
Allan Barnes: Tenor Sax and flute
Kevin Toney: electric piano
Barney Perry: guitar
Keith Killgo: drums
Ray Armando: percussion
Larry Mizell: synthersiizer
Fonce Mizell: Trumpet

 

This is the first in a series on the subject of the 1973 Montreux Jazz Festival.  More specifically the lineup for Thursday, July 5, 1973, which was unreal n' full of feel.   The 1973 festival was held at the Montreux Convention Center due to the fact that two years earlier, "some stupid with a flare gun" burned the Montreux Casino to the ground.  

 

More Byrd, ya heard?



If You're Gone

Gene Clark layin' it on the line in 1965.

Land of Make Believe

Chuck (arranger, conductor & flugelhorn) is accompanied by The Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Esther Satterfield (vocals), Alphonso Johnson (bass [electric]), Cathie Lehr (cello), Joe La Barbera (drums), Gerry Niewood (saxophone [Soprano]). Recorded in concert at Massey Hall, Toronto, Canada, 1973

Jackie Mittoo!

Keep on Dancing, 1969

 

 

 

 



Baby Come Close

Smokey Robinson's second solo single from 1973.

Bumpschool is your marital aid. 

 

Munchies For Your Love

I'm hooked on your chocolate star, I got the munchies for your love.

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

 



Nobody Beats The R

"My Melody"

 

Eric B. and Rakim, Paid in Full, 1987 

Some Black History for your boombox, listen up.
 

 

 

 



 



Rory Gallagher

Rory Gallagher, The Beat Club Sessions

 

Smoking performances from three 1971-72 Rory Gallagher appearances on the German television show, Beat Club. .  You need to watch this.

 

 



Peace to Pete Seeger

 

Pete Seeger's "The Ballad of Martin Luther King"  by Reverend Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick from Pete Seeger and Brother Kirk Visit Sesame Street (1974).  Pete Seeger brought the struggle to the little ones and we are all better for it.  Rest in Peace brother Pete.

 

 

The early 19th Century Silesian folk song, "Die Gedanken sind frei," recorded by Pete Seeger for his 1965, Dangerous Songs!? record.  Four years earlier Seeger was convicted in a jury trial of contempt of Congress and sentenced to 10 years in jail, an appeals court ruled the indictment to be flawed and overturned his conviction. 

Thoughts Are Free!

Die Gedanken sind frei, wer kann sie erraten, sie fliegen vorbei wie nächtliche Schatten. Kein Mensch kann sie wissen, kein Jäger erschießen mit Pulver und Blei: Die Gedanken sind frei! Ich denke was ich will und was mich beglücket, doch alles in der Still', und wie es sich schicket. Mein Wunsch und Begehren kann niemand verwehren, es bleibet dabei: Die Gedanken sind frei! Und sperrt man mich ein im finsteren Kerker, das alles sind rein vergebliche Werke. Denn meine Gedanken zerreißen die Schranken und Mauern entzwei: Die Gedanken sind frei! Drum will ich auf immer den Sorgen absagen und will mich auch nimmer mit Grillen mehr plagen. Man kann ja im Herzen stets lachen und scherzen und denken dabei: Die Gedanken sind frei! Ich liebe den Wein, mein Mädchen vor allen, sie tut mir allein am besten gefallen. Ich sitz nicht alleine bei einem Glas Weine, mein Mädchen dabei: Die Gedanken sind frei!

Thoughts are free, who can guess them? They fly by like nocturnal shadows. No man can know them, no hunter can shoot them with powder and lead: Thoughts are free! I think what I want, and what delights me, still always reticent, and as it is suitable. My wish and desire, no one can deny me and so it will always be: Thoughts are free! And if I am thrown into the darkest dungeon, all these are futile works, because my thoughts tear all gates and walls apart: Thoughts are free! So I will renounce my sorrows forever, and never again will torture myself with whimsies. In one's heart, one can always laugh and joke and think at the same time: Thoughts are free! I love wine, and my girl even more, Only her I like best of all. I'm not alone with my glass of wine, my girl is with me: Thoughts are free!



The King of Love is Dead

Nina Simone perfoming, Why? (The King of Love is Dead) at the Westbury Music Fair on April 7, 1968, three days after the murder of Martin Luther King.  The song was written by bassist Gene Taylor.  An edited version would be released later in 1968 on Nina's  'Nuff Said album.

 





Lonesome, On'ry and Mean

Ol' Waylon performs, Steve Young penned classic on the Cowboy Jack Clement Show, 1973

The Lonesome, On'ry and Mean album deserves heavy rotation  for Superbowl XLVIII as the reissue includes both  Johnny Cash's, "Gone To Denver", and Waylon's, "The Last One to Leave Seattle".  Dig in.
 

 

Gone to Denver



Love Is Everywhere

Pharoah Sanders from, Wisdom Through Music