Fifty four year old Thelonious Monk was considered “washed up” by many when this European session was recorded in 1971. He’d ended his association with Columbia Records and while he made some good records for the most commerical label with which he’d be associated, he’d not written much new material during that period.
Here’s one you don’t often see in the bins. Mary Wells auditioned for Berry Gordy when she was 16 and not long afterward had a monster, world-wide hit with “My Guy” back in 1964. It hit #5 in England and The Beatles asked her to tour with them.
Back in “the day,” budget labels like Seraphim (Angel), Cardinal (Vanguard) Victrola (RCA) and Odyssey (Columbia) usually released old recordings at low prices. Many of these were great performances from either mono recordings (sometimes foolishly "reprocessed for stereo") or transferred from 78rpm parts.
Spoon’s latest is an introspective affair that trades the group’s usual tuneful exuberance for something more contemplative. But don’t be aFreud! It’s got all of the group’s signature moves, from deep, behind the grooves beats to catchy melodies set against vast empty spaces punctuated by exclamatory soundscapes.
You gotta thank Sundazed for digging out and reissuing raw, vital stuff like this and not charging audiophile prices. For one thing, they wouldn’t be able to sell it for $30.00 and it wouldn’t be worth lavishing such care on it anyway. But that doesn’t mean stuff like this is any less worthy.
With the rhythm section of McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones and Sonny Rollins’ bassist of choice Bob Cranshaw behind him, the long underappreciated Grant Green’s take on Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “My Favorite Things” superficially sounds like a transcript lifted from Coltrane’s 1961 Atlantic album of the same name from a few years earlier. It’s even taken in the same 6/8 time.
Whenever a record shows up I like to look at the lead out groove area to see who did the lacquer cutting. Sometimes there’s nothing to be found and that’s annoying, but with this double set I thought I was hallucinating because in plain view was “TML-M” a stamp not seen on a slab of new vinyl in decades. TML is the acronym for “The Mastering Lab” and the “M” means the main lathe at Doug Sax’s place.
This “supergroup” trio side project featuring Foo Fighter Dave Grohl, Queens of the Stone Age Joshua Homme and Led Zep bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones is sure to please lovers of classic rock and heavy metal, not to mention Led Zep fans of all ages. They’ve even got a logo.