Saturday, February 6, 2010
Gil and Al Just After the Double Lives
In a wide variety of ways, Wolfgangs Vault is serving us well on the web. Their release of hours and hours of Newport Jazz Festival is one of the reasons why I love going to this site. As I have written once before, listening to those tapes gives one an experience of truly being there, almost as though you were laying on the floorboards. I also appreciate their massive releases of Bill Graham Archives and King Biscuit Flower Hour programs in a complete fashion. It is a wonderful opportunity for music lovers to compare their favorite bands as they evolve from tour to tour or even evening to evening on the same tour. And what about the opportunity to listen to the entirety of The Band's Last Waltz, warts and all? I found it to be wonderful aural wallpaper to dealing with a bunch of grading I had to do last fall.
Recently, I have been appreciating the Vault for being able to provide extensible opportunities for two of my favorite live record albums of the seventies. The seventies, of course is the era of the live album, but the purpose of this post is certainly not to expand on the virtues of Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains The Same or Frampton Comes Alive. I am actuallly pleased to say I I have never owned a copies of either.
Two double lives from the seventies that still mean a lot to me are Gil Scott Heron's It's Your World and Al Jarreau's Look to Rainbow, which were both recorded and released during 1976-77. Both of these records opened up new worlds to me. I had been exploring Gil Scott's music and poetry for some time prior, but the power of the Midnight Band ripping through a quarter hour versions of Home is Where the Hatred Is and The Bottle were revelations of what jazz and funk could be when they are pulled together in a full force gale. I first heard Jarreau's live recording on a August evening when the sun was going down and was dumbfounded by his energy. This was Al Jarreau long before the goes down easy Breaking Away album that helped define the smooth jazz era. He didn't just sing songs back in those days. They were more like propulsive excursions of joy.
I played the hell out of both of these doubles. And I secured them on CD as soon as I was able. Now fast forward to our current download demand wonderland and Wolfgang's has released the equivalent of the sequel to Its Your World, capturing Gil Scott Heron, Brian Jackson and the Midnight Band a year after It's Your World and a concert six months after Jarreau's pyrotechnics on Rainbow. Unlike the conditions of their predecessors, these are not scrubbed and sanitized concert records but broadcast quality boards that feel a little more like being there.
Full disclosure. My main motivation to create this post was to include the embeds so they were more easily accessible, but I hope you might take time to connect with them as well. I love these performances, both from the summer of 1977. And listening them takes me back to my early twenties and the possibilities those years had in store.
Here's a full workout by Gil Scott and the band taking us to Vidgolia. "Step Right Up...It is very close to San Clemente."
And here is Jarreau bursting in with the dawn with even more energy than he did on the Rainbow recording. His voice may not be in great shape, but the energy is still there big time.
posted by well-executed buffet at 8:16 PM
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