Gunter Hampel, Jeanne Lee, Perry Robinson
Spirits
Birth 007

Engineered by Fred Seibert
…..
Our regular readers/listeners will probably like this even less than the Cecil Taylor post, but that’s OK with me. It’s my first released recording, and I have a certain nostalgic feeling for Gunter, who helped introduce me to avant-garde, free jazz.

And, unusual as the sonics are, I like them too. The radio booth we recorded in was less than 20′x30′, low ceilings, only a little baffling on the walls. The tape machine was anAmpex two track, and the board only had hard left, right, and center inputs, no echo. The mikes were classic RCA ribbons. Somehow, with this music, it all sounds right. To me.

…..
MP3 transfers from LP

1. No. 90 26871-02 NY

2. No. 88 26871-02 NY

3. No. 92 26871-02 NY

…..
From the LP jacket:

Birth stereo 007
The Music of Gunter Hampel

JEANNE LEE voice
GUNTER HAMPEL piano, flute, vibrafon, bassclarinet
PERRY ROBINSON clarinet

Photos by (JL) Wilfried Bauer, (GH) Billy Maynard, (PR) Jeanette Hamblin

SPIRITS are excerpts from a live-radio-performance at the WKCR Columbia University Radio Station in New York, August 26, 1971, the program was engineered by FRED SEIBERT

MAILORDER
we record the music in the best studios, but without commercial producers. we have no distribution. you will not find our records at your record dealer! we sell by mailorder and send to the u.s.a., canada, belgium southamerica, england, sweden, danmark, the netherlands, france, austria, switzerland, africa, india, japan, and others.

each album 30 cm stereo $6 inclusiv mail, please send sheque to 34 Gottingen, Philipp-Reis-Str. 10 West Germany
USA: 1370 Prospect Ave, Bronx 59 NEW YORK CITY.

also contact addresses for performances!

…..
Copyrights and masters are owned by their respective owners. I’m posting many of my out-of-print record productions from the 1970s. If any of them are re-released, or the copyright owners object, I’ll delete the posts.

It’s been confusing to some that rather than the individual tracks from my collection I usually post, lately I’ve been putting up whole albums (and bonus tracks) from records I produced for Oblivion Records, the indie label I started with Tom Pomposello, in the 70s (here, here, here, here, here, and here). There’s a blog that sporadically tries to explain everything over here.

–Fred

Mississippi Fred McDowell
Live In New York
Oblivion Records OD-1 [Bonus tracks here]

November 5, 1971, Live at the Village Gaslight, 116 MacDougal St., New York City
Engineered* by Fred Seibert, assisted by Roy Langbord
Produced by Tom Pomposello, Fred Seibert, & Dick Pennington 
Reissue produced by Tom Pomposello

Click the titles to play.
2nd edition, Spring 1972

1. Shake ‘Em On Down
2. I’m Crazy About You Baby
3. John Henry
4. You Got To Move
5. Someday
6. Mercy
7. The Lovin’ Blues
8. White Lightnin’
9. Baby Please Don’t Go
These MP3s are CD quality, 320kpbs

(Sixteen bonus tracks, and digitally remixed original tracks, are available on the 2000 edition here.)
All songs written by Fred McDowell and published by Tradition Music Co. (BMI) except where noted.

Mississippi Fred McDowell: vocals, guitar
Honest Tom Pomposello: bass guitar
……
When I was young and naive, my friend Tom Pomposello and I thought it would be cool to be incredibly successful with a record company that recorded obscure blues and jazz. We named it Oblivion Records.

Click here to read some of the stories behind this album.

And click here for covers, photographs, and other printed ephemera from Mississippi Fred McDowell: Live in New York.
…..
Credits from the original releases:

MISSISSIPPI FRED MCDOWELL
Live in New York
Oblivion Records
OD-1

Fred McDowell: vocals and electric bottleneck guitar
Tom Pomposello: bass guitar (2nd guitar on “Shake ‘Em On Down”)

§ Recorded on November 5, 1971, at the MacDougal Street Gaslight II, in New York City.

Produced by Fred Seibert
Executive Supervision by Richard H. Pennington, Jr.
Liner Photo: Valerie Wilmer
Logo Design: Lisa Lenovitz
Graphics: the Oblivionettes with Lisa Lenovitz
Typesetting: Bridget Deal and the Bridgettes
Thanks much to David Reitman, Steve Heller, Ruth Rock, Billy M. and Slim Langbord. Really.

Sidebar box:

If this disk is not available at your local superior record store, mail the tidy sume of $4.98 (foreign customers use I.M.O.) to:

Oblivion Records
P.O. Box X
Roslyn Heights, New York 11577

Dealer inquiries invited –
…..
LP Liner notes:
1st edition, Spring 1972
 

In 1959 folklorist Alan Lomax ventured into northwestern Mississippi during a recording field trip of the Southern USA. He passed through the town of Como, situated between Highways 51 and 55. Lomax explained that he was from a record company and asked whether there were any local musicians that he should hear. Among the first names given was Fred McDowell. Lomax found Fred at home that evening and proceeded to record him. Fred played well into the night for Lomax (the session lasted from 8 p.m. until about 7 a.m. as Fred recalls it). When Lomax finally departed, he left Fred with promises that these recordings would bring him world repute and a great sum of money. Lomax was at least half right. Despite the fact that the payment was nominal, the recordings were greeted with abundant enthusiasm. Even though only eleven songs were released (on two Prestige LPs: Deep South-Sacred and Sinful; and Yazoo Delta-Blues and Spirituals; and two Atlantic LPs: Sounds of the South; and Roots of the Blues), the reaction was immediate. The blues world had discovered Fred McDowell.

Subsequent to the Lomax recordings things began happening and Fred found himself in the middle of a new career. There was a whole new audience anxious to hear his brand of the blues. In 1964 both Arhoolie and Testament issued solo LPs by Fred. In July of that same year Fred was a featured artist at the Newport Folk Festival (selections from his performances were issued on three separate Vanguard albums). Then, in 1965, Fred visited Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival. He was enthusiastically received wherever he played.

In 1966 he recorded a second album for Arhoolie. This contained the song that the Rolling Stones were soon to “borrow” – “You Got to Move” (incidentally, if Fred is ever paid the royalties for this song, he should earn more than he did on any of his own albums). More releases followed on Testament, Biograph, Polydor International, and Milestone.

Then in 1969 came a second tour of Europe. In Britain he recorded his first solo album using electric guitar – Mississippi Fred McDowell in London (Volumes I and II on Sire and Transatlantic). The reaction was a mixed one. Everyone loved the music. But Delta blues on an electric guitar…? One critic commented that he thought some of the “subtlety” of the acoustic bottleneck’d high E string was lost with the electrified instrument. But the new sound was so compellingly ominous that its beauty was irresistible.

More electric albums followed. Blue Thumb’s Memphis Swamp Jam featured three cuts with Fred on electric guitar and accompanied by Johnny Woods on harmonica (later a full album by the two was issued on Revival Records). Arhoolie followed suit with Fred McDowell and his Blues Boys which featured Fred accompanied by acoustic guitar, electric bass, and drums. Then came the now legendary I Do Not Pay No Rock and Roll album on Capitol. Most reviewers of contemporary music were astounded. Blues Unlimited called it “…a perfectely fine LP, beautifully recorded in stereo and and performed with the usual McDowell power and verve. Hmmm.” Rolling Stone went so far as to say: “Well, do you have to hear any more – this is one mother of a record.” I’ll never forget one of my musically naïve friends saying: “I never thought blues music could sound like that.” Still, there were some holdouts. Bob Groom, a great fan and admirer of Fred’s and the editor of Blues World magazine wrote: “…not the best McDowell LP, but nevertheless recommended to all his fans… and for the first (and I hope lat) time Fred is accompanied by a heavily electrified rhythm group.”

I never could understand such criticisms for a variety of reasons. Perhaps, though, the best reply is by Bob Groom himself who wrote in his book, The Blues Revival: “Old and new blues cannot be compared, only contrasted…” Which brings us to this album – it’s electric, it’s heavy, and most important, it’s Fred McDowell, the way he likes it, today. Viva!

– Tom Pomposello

Now I want you all to know that Honest Tom is the boy who plays bass and 2nd guitar on “Shake ‘Em on Down” with me on this album. You know he first came to me and said, “Fred, can I come up and see you, you know where you’re staying?” Well, I wasn’t doing anything up there alone and I told him to come up. When he got there, he brought three instruments with him – a guitar, a harmonica, and a bass, and he asked me to say which one he was better at. Well, I carried him over on the harmonica. Alright, I said, let’s got to the guitar. Next the bass – I said, “hold it right there baby, that’s the one.” Tom, it’s been a real pleasure to have you play with me. Roll baby.

– Fred McDowell
…..
LP Liner notes
2nd edition, March 1973
  

Well, as this album is about to go into its second pressing, and I sit here and read back the notes that I hastily put together for the liner about a year ago, it all seems strangely inappropriate – I say ‘strangely,’ but not really, I guess. Fred McDowell passed away on July 3, 1972. The details and circumstances are known to those of you waho are interested, I’m sure. You know, there is really no tactful way for me to express my thoughts now when I think about Fred, not withour making trhese notes sound like some kind of testimonial. And I don’t like that idea at all. Record liner notes never make good testicmonals anyway. The thinks Fred accomplished as an artist, those people whom he touch through his music, those of us who were lucky enough to know him personally and be taken under the spell of his Misssissippi myustique; thse are things which account for a far greater testimonial than anyone can ever put down on paper, because they’re written in people’s hearts.

So here I say I’m not foing to do it, and I do it. But I hope you’ll understand. As a student and an admirer of Fred’s music, I’m gratified in knowing that his legacy I s adequetly represented on disc. As a musician I take real pride in having been a small part of this msuci. The way it turned out, this album represents the last material that Fred was to record. I think that this album is an important one (although I do not feel it’s his most important) in that it presents a side of Fred McDowell that so many people will always remember.

The years 1968-1971 were the most rewarding for Fred in many ways. From a financial standpoint, he finally began to make a living from his music. He was well over sicty years of age when he was ultimately able to quit farming and devote his energies to music and his concert appearances. He purchased a mobile home for himself and his wife in Como, Mississippi. Later he even bought a new car, the first new car he had ever owned. From an artistic standpoint, these were the years that most people were exposed to Fred’s brand of blues. He was constantly in demand for convert dates, so much so that Dick Waterman, his manager and booking agent, couldn’t keep up with them all. He played all the American cities that had blues enthusiasts: Memephis, Chichage, Boston, Philadelphia, Ann Arbor, Portland, Notre Dame, Berlely, and of course, New York, He also frequented Canada, and twice toured Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival.

These were also the years he began plahing with electric guitar. It was different alright: electric delta blues, bottleneck style no less. But audiences and critics loved it. The editors of the Official Programme of the 1970 Ann Arbor Blues Festival wrote of him:

“Fred McDowell is undoubtedly the finest bottleneck guitarist alive, and many people believe his is the best who ever lived. (Bottleneck style guitar playing is done by placing either a broken off bottleneck or a highly polished pieve of pipe on the small or ring finger of the chording hand. This technique enables the guitarist to make the guiar sing with the tone incredibly similar to an anquished human voice.) He learned bottleneck from his unclue, who used a ground bone on his finger, and Fred McDowell perfected the stule that made him the legendary guiarist he is today. If one listens carefully to Fred it soon becomes apparent the guitar sings every word he sings. This is Mr. McDowell’s style,and in the performance of it he has no equal.”

This album was recorded live in concert, and as such is indicative of the type of performance that audiences came to excpect from Fred. His raps. His deliberate and forceful slide work combied with those spontaneous lyrics. His uncompromoissing renditions of his “greatest hits,” never playing them exactly the same twice. Yet, in another way, whether he was playing for a handful of loyalists at one o’clock A.M. in the Village Gaslight or to an exurberant blues audience ar the Ann Arbor Festival, he did play it all the same – from his heart. I know that may be a bit of an overworked phrase, but I also know that it was really true of Fred McDowell. I used to watch him from the side where I sat next to him, where only I could see hehind those sunglasses. He’s be playing one of those slow blues and he’d have his eyes closed, nodding his head in rhythm. And at the same time he’s be planning the next stanza, maybe deliberately leaving off a word or two at the end of a line so he could let the vocalized slide fill the missing syllables. Anyhow, all this is to say what Fred said so much more concisely the night these recortdings were made: “I hope you’re all enjoying my type of playin’. That’s my type of playin’ y’all. And that’s the blues. ‘Cause you know know a lot of people don’t know what the blues is. But I do. Blues is a feelin’, you understand. And I really fell what I’m playin’.”

SHAKE ‘EM ON DOWN was Fed’s showpiece. As he admitted, this is as close as he got to rock and roll. The folks down in Mississippi nicknamed him “Shake ‘Em” for this number. In fact, there probably never was a country barbeque that Fred attended where he could get away without perfomrning it. I remember that sometimes when he did this in concert he used to get up and dance while playing it full out. It’s don here with two fuitars, both bottleneck, with alternating and simultaneous leads.

I’M CRAZY ABOUT YOU BABY is one of those spontaneouls, off the cuff things I was talking about. When Fred says, “Tom, we haven’t play that yet,” he means it. Pete Welding in his review of this album for Living Blues commented that this number is “by far the best performance on the album and especially lovely, resilient, stunning, slow blues played and sung with great feeling, even the tubby distant sound of Pomposello’s bass guitar adding to the muisc’s effectiveness by giving it a vaguely ominous quality.” (Hmm.)

JOHN HENRY has got to be the oldest folk blues in existence. Some musicologists trace it back as far as the 1880’s. Fred heard it as a boy, learned it, adapted it, and even re-adapted it with his own arrangement. The long instrumental intro is meant to convey the idea of something picking up steam.

YOU GOT TO MOVE is the hardest song for me to comment on objectively for a variety of reasons. It always seems ironics tome that if it weren’t for the Rolling Stones’ rendition of this number, Fred’s name might not have been known to a lot of people. However, the real irony lies in the fact that once the Stones credited Fred with the authorship they remained true to form and made use of an unfortunate legal loophole which held up Fred’s royalty payments. Look, it was Keith Richard who said in a Rolling Stone interview that “Maybe once every six months someone’ll come through with an album. An Arhoolie album of Fred McDowell. And you’d say: There’s another cat! That’s another one. Just blowin’ my mind…” Actually, all you need to do is listen to the Stones’ verision on their Sticky Fingers LP, compare it to Fred’s version, and you’ll know immediately frojm where their arrangement is copped. I think a further or more precise explanatin seems rather pointless and unnecessarily maudlin and would fuel to a fire that is only now beginning to die down. But I guess you should know that Fred wasn’t paid anything that even approximated a partial royalty payment until just days before he died. OK, enough of that. Let me tell you what Fred used to say about this song: “A lot of people whoever hear me sing this song would ask me, ‘What does it mean, you got to move?’ Well, this is a true song and one that has two meanings. Now you know why I say that? You know, a lot of people don’t own their own homes. So you pay so much a month for rent. Now when you get hehind, well,maybe the landlord’ll allow you to skip the first month or so. But when the third one comes, if you ain’t paid up you comehome one evening and you find your things sittin’ out on the street. You see, you got to move… And not only that, but here’s the more important meaning. We’re all sittin’ back listenin’. When this is over, maybe you plan to go out to next door. But you know, you may not live to walk out that door. If you fall dead, if you happen to die, you done moved. That’s one debt you can’t dodge. When the Lord gets ready, you got to move.”

SOMEDAY IS A BLUES that a lot of people have recorded thematic variants of. Muddy Waters calls his “Trouble No More” and Big Maceo Merriweather titled his version “Worried Life Blues.” Be that as it may, like Fred’s they all derived from Sleepy John Estes 1935 clasic “Someday Baby Blues.” The thing to watch for here is the patented McDOwell syncopation. Listen to the way he plays slightly off the beat while singing on it. Yeah, it is rather difficult.

MERCY is a really powerful slow blues especially in terms of Fred’s vocal work. The melody rigg was one that Fred used quite often, but the lytics were almost always improvised in accordance with his “mood.” The result is seem immediately in the opening stanza, which consists of some unusual lyrics (unusual for Fred that is) and lines which are of uncertain origin. “Everyone’s cryin’ mercy, Lord what do mercy mean? Well, if it means anything, Lord have mercy on me!”

THE LOVIN’ BLUES is a song with a universal meaning. The lady in question is a delta woman. Fred’s delta woman. The song deals simply with the joys and sorrows of being in love. “You know you got a home little firl, so long as I got mine.”

WHITE LIGHTNIN’ was not included on the first editin of this album, but nonetheless we chose to substitue it for “Goin’ to the River” which already has been issued a number of times on some of Fred’s other albums. I know this is bound to annoy some people as well as foul up the annotations of discographers everywhere, but I assume the responsibility based on the fact that this song is important as one of Fred’s last compositions. In some ways it’s related to “Smokestack Lightnin’,” but not really. Adter due consideration we also decided on the substitution because it’s a song not too many of Fred’s fans got to hear. (Althought one of Fred’s Arhoolie albums contains a similar piece titled “You Ain’t Treating Me Right.”) Besides, where are you gonna find lyrics like: “Wake up baby, get you big legs off of me. Put your left left leg baby, where you right ‘un oughta be.”

BABY PLEASE DON’T GO was written in the 30’s by Big Joe Williams and has always been a popular tune with bluesmen and audiences alike. The version here somes off as uniquely McDowell with shades of “Shake ‘Em On Down.” This one’s another rocker, and was likewise on of Fed’s most requested pieces in later years. If you listen carefully you’ll hear another Fred McDowell trademark: See if you can count how many tempo accelerations the song contains.

– Tom Pomposello, March 1973

[Library of Congress Number 73-760456 applies to this record.]

The record you are holding is different from the original press run of od.1: on side two, “White Lightnin’” has been substituted for “Goin’ to the River”: the tapes have been remastered and a high quality pressing plant has been employed for an improvement of technical quality; and, the back liner has be rewritten. We hope you enjoy the improvements. If this disc is not available at your local superior record store, send $4.98 (foreign customers use I.M.O.) to:
OBLIVION RECORDS, BOX X, ROSLYN HEIGHTS, NEW YORK, 11577.
…..

* Producer’s note:

Originally recorded for broadcast on WKCR-FM, Columbia University, using a high quality, one track Nagra recorder intended for film and field recording. Microphones were Shure and Electro-Voice, the mixer was a Shure M68.

I asked my great friend Roy Langbord to split the taxi fare, lug half the equipment, and help with the (easy) set up at Greenwich Village’s Village Gaslight. We were both rewarded with not only the great performance by Fred and Tom, but by the first New York appearance of Bonnie Raitt, who shared Fred’s manager (Dick Waterman). The equipment was improperly borrowed, my rationale was that the recording was only to be played on my weekend blues show on college radio. Within a few months Tom Pomposello and I decided to start Oblivion Records with the Fred McDowell sessions.

–Fred Seibert, 2007
……
I’m posting many of my out-of-print record productions from the 1970s. Travis Pomposello and I are the owners of these master recordings.

Tom Pomposello never wanted the first Oblivion release to go out of print. After all, it was his first professional recording, playing alongside of his hero and teacher, Mississippi Fred McDowell.  And my debut as a record producer, I should add. In late 1999, he arranged for a small Boston label, Live Archive (defunct within months of this release, by the way) to release a two CD set. He remastered my original, crude, live recording, added 16 bonus tracks and an addendum to the liner notes.

So, this 2000 release has 23 tracks from Fred’s performances at the Gaslight in New York City, November 5, 1971. Completely remastered for your listening pleasure.

…..

Mississippi Fred McDowell > Live in New York
2000 edition; released as “Live at the Gaslight” by Live Archive Music.
(Listen to the original release here.  Read the stories behind the record here. And click here for covers, photographs, and other printed ephemera from Mississippi Fred McDowell: Live in New York.)

Click the titles to listen to MP3s.
Disc 1
1. Shake ‘Em On Down ∞
2. Fred’s Worried Blues *
3. Mercy
4. Jesus is on the Mainline *
5. When The Saints Come Marchin’ In *
6. Someday Baby
7. The Lovin’ Blues
8. White Lightnin’
9. You Got To Move
10. Louise *
11. Baby Please Don’t Go
Disc 2
1. Goin’ To The River (Carry My Rocking Chair) **
2. Shake ‘Em On Down **
3. 61 Highway *
4. John Henry
5. My Babe *
6. I’m Crazy ‘Bout You Baby **
7. Red Cross Store *
8. Levee Camp Blues*
9. Good Mornin’ Little Schoolgirl *
10. Don’t Mistreat Nobody (Cause You Got A Few Dimes) *
11. Get Right* 
12. Good Night (Spoken Outro) *
* Not included on the original editions
** From the original editions

All songs written by Fred McDowell and published by Tradition Music Co. (BMI) except where noted.

Mississippi Fred McDowell: vocals, guitar
Honest Tom Pomposello: bass guitar & 2nd guitar ∞

November 5, 1971, Live at the Village Gaslight, 116 MacDougal St., New York City
Engineered* by Fred Seibert, assisted by Roy Langbord
Produced by Tom Pomposello, Fred Seibert, & Dick Pennington 

Reissue produced by Tom Pomposello

……
2-CD set Liner notes
Last release, 2000

It is not the easiest task for me to write the liner notes to a Mississippi Fred McDowell album, not without having them read like some kind of testimonial. It is especially difficult because this particular record turned out to be Fred’s last recorded album, although it was never intended that way. Fred died as a result of serious abdominal ulcers on July 3, 1972. This recording was made during the end of his last tour during the winter of 1971. As a student and occasional bass player with Fred McDowell, my life became so entwined with his, that I suppose for me to write an impartial evaluation of his music would be nearly impossible. But then, no one said that these were to be impartial. The funny thing is that record liner notes never make good testimonials. The things Fred achieved as an artist, those people whom he touched through his music, those of us who were lucky enough to know him personally and be taken under the spell of his “Mississippi mystique”- these are the things which account for a greater testimonial than anyone can ever put down on paper, because they’re written in peoples hearts.

Nonetheless, this album becomes a tribute, of sorts, to one of America’s greatest bluesmen. Personally, I would like to devote a majority of this space to a discussion of his accomplishments during his later years. (For those who are interested in an in-depth profile of Fred’s life, personal recollections, biographical background, and analysis of his bottleneck guitar style, I would like to refer you to an article which I wrote for the November 1977 issue of Guitar Player Magazine, which is posted at www.livearchive.com).

I will say that Fred McDowell was one of the most remarkable men I ever met. A more “giving” musician I cannot imagine. He was the kind of man who would take the time to discuss his experiences and share his music with anyone who was interested enough to ask. I believe that this album captures one facet but enthusiastic audience, working for them and playing to them.

The years 1968-1971 were the most rewarding to Fred in many ways. From a financial standpoint he finally began to make a living from his music. He was well over sixty years of age when was ultimately able to quit farming and devote his energies to music and his concert appearances. He purchased a mobile home for himself and his wife in Mississippi. Later, he even bought a new car, the first new car he had every owned. From an artistic standpoint, these were the years that most people were exposed to Fred’s brand of the blues. He was constantly in demand for concert dates, so much so that Dick Waterman, his manager and booking agent, couldn’t keep up with them all. He played all the American cities that had blues enthusiasts: Memphis, Chicago, Philadelphia, Ann Arbor, Portland, Notre dame, Berkeley, and of course, New York. He also frequented Canada, and twice toured Europe with The American Folk Blues Festival.

These were also the years he started playing electric guitar. It was different all right. He played electric delta blues, bottleneck style no less, and the audience and the critics love it. The editors of “Official Programme of the 1970 Ann Arbor Blues Festival” wrote of him: “Fred McDowell is undoubtedly the finest bottleneck guitar player alive, and many people believe that he is the best that ever lived. (Bottleneck style is done by either placing a broken off bottleneck or a highly polished piece of pipe on the small or ring finger of the chording hand. This technique enables the guitarist to make the guitar sing with the tone incredibly similar to an anguished human voice.) He learned bottleneck from his uncle, who used a ground bone on his finger, and Fred McDowell perfected the style that made him the legendary guitarist he is today. If one listens carefully to Fred it soon becomes apparent that the guiar sings every word he sings. This is Mr. McDowell’s style, and in the performance of it he has no equal.”

This album was recorded live in concert, and as such is indicative of the type of performance that audiences came to expect from Fred. His raps. His deliberate and forceful slide work combined with those spontaneous lyrics. His uncompromising renditions of his “greatest hits,” never playing them exactly the same twice. Yet, in another way, whether he was playing for a handful of loyalists at one o’clock AM in the Village Gaslight or to an exuberant blues audience at the Ann Arbor Festival, he did play it all the same — from his heart. I know that that may be a bit of an overworked phrase, but I also know that it was really true of Fred McDowell. I used to watch him from the side where I sat next to him, where only I could see behind those sunglasses. He’d be playing one of those slow blues and he’d have his eyes closed, nodding his head in rhythm. And at the same time he’d be planning the next stanza, maybe deliberately leaving off a word or two at the end of the line so he could let the vocalized slide fill the missing syllables… Anyhow, all this is to say what Fed said so much more concisely the night these recordings were made: “I hope you’re all enjoying my type of playin’. That’s my type of playin’ y’all. And that’s the blues. ‘Cause you know a lot of people don’t know what the blues is. But I do. Blues is a feelin’, you understand. And I really fell what I’m playin’.”

……
Tom Pomposello wrote these liner notes for the original vinyl release of the Gaslight recordings. By restoring the entire concert, we have added eleven songs to the program. Unfortunately, Tom passed away before he was able to update his notes.

THE SONGS:

SHAKE ‘EM ON DOWN was undeniably Fred’s showpiece. “I do not play no rock’n’roll,” he used to say. Then he’d chuckle. “But this one kinda sound like it.” In his hometown, Como, Mississippi, his friends and neighbors even nicknamed him “Shake ‘em” in admiration of his ability to get even the most tired feet jumping when he played his guitar, was probably invited to more than his share of sown-home Sunday barbeques. I can remember evenings when Fred would end his sets with rollicking renditions of this number. I even remember occasions when hie would jump up and start dancing while he was flailing away on the guitar full speed ahead. This version is performed as a bottleneck guitar duet.

I’M CRAZY ABOUT YOU BABY is a spontaneous, improvised blues. When Fred says, “Tom, we haven’t played that yet,” he means it. Pete Welding, in his review of this album for LIVING BLUES, commented that this number is “by far the best performance on the album and especially lovely, resilient, stunning, slow blues played and sung with great feeling. Even the tubby, distant sound of Pomposello’s bass guitar adding to the music’s effectiveness by giving it a vaguely ominous quality.” (Hmm.)

JOHN HENRY is perhaps one of the oldest folk blues in existence. Some musicologists trace it back as far as the 1880’s. Fred heard it as a boy, learned it, adapted it, and even re-adapted it with his own arrangement. The long instrumental intro is meant to convey the idea of something picking up steam.

YOU GOT TO MOVE has come to be regarded as Fred’s best known song. The irony of that statement of course lies in the fact that more people are aware of it as a song on the Rolling Stones’ album STICKY FINGERS, than those who know it as a Fred McDowell composition. Stones’ guitarist, Keith Richards, in an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine said: “Maybe once every six months someone’ll come through with an album. An Arhoolie album of Fred McDowell. And you’d say: There’s another cat! That’s another one. Just blowin’ my mind…” Well, the song certainly survives Fred, and that’s fitting. It is always so sad that many an artist’ recognition must come postumously. Fred never got to enjoy the royalties he should have, and would have received for “You Got To Move.” Let me share with you the explanation he once gave me of the song. “A lot of people whoever hear me sing this song would ask me, ‘What does it mean, you got to move?’ Well, this is a true song and one that has two meanings. Now you know why I say that? Y’know a lot of people don’t own their own homes. So you pay so much a month for rent. Now when you get behind, well, maybe the landlord’ll allow you to skip the first month or so. But when the third one comes, if you ain’t paid up you come home one evening and you find your things sittin’ out on the street. You see, you got to move… And not only that, but here is the more important meaning. We’re all sitting right here tonight. I’m sitting up here playin’ for you all, and you’re all sitting back listenin’. When this is all over, maybe you plan to go out to next door. But you know, you may not live to walk out that door. If you fall down dead, if you happen to die, you done moved. That’s one debt you can’t dodge. When the Lord gets ready, you got to move.”

SOMEDAY is a blues upon which many thematic variants have been based. Muddy Waters calls his “Trouble No More” and Big Maceo Merriweather titled his version “Worried Life Blues.” Be that as it may, like Fred’s they all derived from Sleepy John Estes’ 1935 classic “Someday Baby Blues.” The thing to watch for here is the patented McDowell syncopation. Listen to the way he plays slightly off the beat while singing on it.

MERCY is perhaps one of the most powerful performances on this or an Fred McDowell record. This piece was crafted with such intensity that I still feel the chills when I listen to it. “Everyone’s cryin’ mercy. Lord, what do mercy mean? Well if it means any good, Lord have mercy on me.”

THE LOVIN’ BLUES is an obvious blues title for a song with a universal meaning. “You know you got a home little girl, so long as I got mine.”

WHITE LIGHTNIN’ is a moonshine whiskey. This is a fascinating piece of music. I heard Fred perform this song many times in later years. Each time with a new set of lyrics. (One of his albums for Arhoolie Records contains a great rendition titled “You Ain’t Treating Me Right.”) The riff –or melodic motive– over which the lyrics are sung is very reminiscent of Howlin’ Wolf’s theme song, “Smokestack Lightning.”

BABY PLEASE DON’T GO was written in the 1930’s by Big Joe Williams, and has always been a popular tune with musicians and audiences alike. This version is uniquely McDowell with shades of “Shake ‘Em On Down.” One of the most fascinating things about this and several other of Fred’s performances can be heard in Fred’s very personal approach to rhythm and time. As you listen to McDowell’s playing, observe the sudden tempo accelerations, an uninitiated listener might find this quite unorthodox, but when you realize that Fred was totally in control — these tunes he played his whole life — and tha these tempo shifts were his way of building excitement, of skillfully creating a musical “tension and release,” then you will understand the very special signature of a great artist: Mississippi Fred McDowell.

–Tom Pomposello, 1999
…..
* Producer’s note:

Originally recorded for broadcast on WKCR-FM, Columbia University, using a high quality, one track Nagra recorder intended for film and field recording. Microphones were Shure and Electro-Voice, the mixer was a Shure M68.

I asked my great friend Roy Langbord to split the taxi fare, lug half the equipment, and help with the (easy) set up at Greenwich Village’s Village Gaslight. We were both rewarded with not only the great performance by Fred and Tom, but by the first New York appearance of Bonnie Raitt, who shared Fred’s manager (Dick Waterman). The equipment was improperly borrowed, my rationale was that the recording was only to be played on my weekend blues show on college radio. Within a few months Tom Pomposello and I decided to start Oblivion Records with the Fred McDowell sessions.

–Fred Seibert, 2007
……
I’m posting many of my out-of-print record productions from the 1970s. Travis Pomposello and I are the owners of these master recordings.

Johnny Woods
Mississippi Harmonica

Produced by Tom Pomposello and Fred Seibert

MP3 digital transfer from original masters.* Click the titles to play.
1. Long Haired Doney 
2. Three O’clock in the Morning
…..
Oblivion Records
O#2 (1972) [45 rpm single]

Click here to read some of the stories behind this record.

And click here for covers, photographs, and other printed ephemera.
……
Original credits

Johnny Woods: harmonica

Recorded Thursday, April 27, 1972, Olive Branch, Mississippi, by Tom Pomposello

Remastered by Fred Seibert

Graphics by the Oblivionettes featuring Susan DeLaney

Cover photo by Tom Pomposello

This recording was made possible by a special grant from the Dick Pennington Blues Foundation

Addition copies of this disc can be had by sending $1.00 (plus 25 cents for postage and handling) to:

Oblivion Records
P.O. Box X
Roslyn Heights, New York 11577

©(P) 1972
……
Original liner notes

During the spring of 1972, I spent some time in Mississippi visiting with my friend and teacher Fred McDowell. Now Fred had promised to show me around and introduce me to a few of his musical cronies, and I told Fred that I’d especially like to meet his old harminica playing sidekick, Johnny WOoods. I had know about Johnny first form the way Fred, whenever the subject turned to harp players, would say, “backhome we got a boy named Little Johnny Wooodsman, that boy is a harmonica playin’ fool, sure as you’re born.” I had also known about him from the appearance he made with Fred at the 1969 Memphis Blues Festical (subsequent to which studio material was released), and also from some field recordings made by George Mitchell. A lot of people might remember Jojhnny solely for an Ann arbor Blues Festical “appearance-fiasco” in which he kind of screwed up the McDowell-Woods set. Johnny doesn’t have the best reputation for holding his liquor. After that he sort of drifted in oblivion (yeah).

Locating Mr. Woods was not the easiest task. Jojhnny used to live in the town Senatobia, which is about ten miles north of Como, Fred’s hometown. But Johnny is a farmer, and as such he must go where the work is. Word had reached us that he had re-located in the town of Olive Branch, just south of Memphis. Try as we micht we just couldn’t find him that April morning. Whenever we got to the place where he was supposed to be for sure, for sure he wasn’t there. Until finally acting upon a tip from a person who was acquatied with Johnny’s employer, we tracked him down to a farm on the proverbial outskirts of town.

It was about noon when we pulled up into the dirt driveway and headed up the long path towards an old shack. There on the proch I could make our the figure of a small gray-haired man peering primly at our approaching vehicle. Fred smiled, “That’s him, Tom.” Then I watched as Johnny’s face lit up when he realized it was Fred. The two hadn’t seen each other in months. Johnny called inside to his wife. “look who’s here. It’s Fred. Freddy McDowell!
We got out of the car. Fred made the introductions and Jojhnny invited us inside. We were fortunate to have caught Johnny during his lunch b reak. While we talked, Fred told me to play the tapes of the session that he and I had done in New York. And as the subject shifted to music, Joohnny confided that he hadn’t been playing much lately and besides he’s had to payn his last harp when things got tough. Luckily Fred had anticipated that this might be the case and before we started out he had told me to bring along a couple of my harmonicas. Well Johnny, I fuess it’s time for us to hear some of your sutff,” Fred smiled again at me as if to say ‘wait’ll you hear this,’ then he looked at Johnny, chuckled, and said, “Go on boy.” And Johnny blew, tapped his foot in rhythm and sang, “Well, gonna see my long haried do-o-ney…” I don’t exaggerate when I tell you that I was overwhelmed. When he finished, and I had expressed my entusiasm to him Johnny grinned as he said, “You know, it don’t sound like much to me.” Fred and I grinned too and I asked for an encore. Johnny came outside and I snapped a few pictures while he posed in front of Fred’s new Ponitac. An interesting contrast indeed. We shook hands and make our good-byes for it was about time fot Johnny to get back up on his tractor (note hard hat in cover photo).

Here then are the two harmonica solos exactly as Johnny Woods played them that day during his lunch break complete and unedited from the time I turned on the tape recorder.

– Tom Pomposello
…..
I’m posting many of my out-of-print record productions from the 1970s. Travis Pomposello and I are the owners of these master recordings.

…..
* Update, September 2010: After a long wait, I’ve finally been able to digitally transfer the original quarter inch master tapes, and replace the cruder transfers we’ve had that were made from a clean copy of the vinyl 45rpm single. The digital transfers are up at the top of this post, but for comparison, you can listen to the vinyl MP3’s here:

1. Long Haired Doney (MP3 from the vinyl single)
2. Three O’Clock in the Morning (MP3 from the vinyl single)

Friends > Marc [Cohen] Copland, John Abercrombie, Clint Houston, Jeff Williams

Produced by Marc [Cohen] Copland & Fred Seibert

[2008 note: Marc Cohen now performs on piano as Marc Copland]

Original LP. Click the titles to play.
1. 5/8 Tune †
2. Black Vibrations *
3. Nursery Rhyme
4. Loose Tune ††
…:::UPDATE, Feb 08: These MP3s are CD quality, 320kpbs:::…

Marc Cohen: electric alto sax, ††add tenor sax
Jeff Williams: drums
Clint Houston: fretted bass, †acoustic bass
John Abercrombie: 6 string guitar, *12 string guitar, ††no guitar

Click here for covers, photographs, and other printed ephemera.
…..
Friends
Oblivion Records
OD-3 (1973)

Click here for covers, photographs, and other printed ephemera.

CREDITS, from the original LP cover:

Recorded December 1972, by successful exploitation of Columbia University’s WKCR. To everyone who has ever been there, thanks folks.

Produced by Marc Cohen and Fred Seibert
Engineering: Fred Seibert
Brains behind the engineering: Don Zimmerman
Microphones behind the brains: Marc Seiden
Pal: David Reitman
Graphics: the Oblivionettes co-starring Sue DeLaney
Photography: Trebor Trepla, Fred Seibert, and Robert Alpert (Mark Focus Jr.)
Advice: Don Grolnick, Michael Altshuler, and Lisa Lenovitz

This record was made possible with the assistance of the Dick Pennington Electric Saxophone Foundation. Tubby wisdom given by Tom Pomposello.
…..
LINER NOTES, from the original LP cover:

Marc Cohen is from Philadelphia home of all good saxophonists. He has played with Chico Hamilton and was with Dreams for a short time. His alto saxophone is modified by an octave divider, two wah-wah pedals, a fuzz-tone, and a tape echo box. His tenor sax is quite ordinary.

Clint Houston has been the bassist for numerous groups including those of Roy Ayers, Woody Shaw, Herbie Mann, Sonny Greenwich, Charles Tolliver, and Art Blakey (whew) and is now playing with Jack DeJohnette’s new group.

Jeff Williams comes from (now don’t all swoon girls) Oberlin, Ohio. He played for a time with Stan Getz and is currently the drummer with tenor saxophonist Dave Liebman.

John Abercrombie has played and recorded with Dreams, Chico Hamilton, Barry Miles, Gil Evans and is along with Clint in Jack DeJohnette’s band. On side one his guitar sounds from the left channel. He is on the right channel for Nursery Rhyme and on Loose Tune he isn’t.
…..

About the cover artist: By Peter Frank

Sam Steinberg is the unofficial artist-in-residence at Columbia University and the Brox’s contribution to the Art Brut quasi-movement of Jean Dubuffet. The 70 year old former ice cream vendor (he still sells candy bars) work prolifically in magic-marker-on-cardboard, with occasional forays into magic-marker-on-cloth, and is popular with the Columbia community for his boids, snakes, moimaids and low prices. His sister Pauline colors them in.
…..
I’m posting many of my out-of-print record productions from the 1970s. Travis Pomposello and I are the owners of these master recordings.

 
Click on the titles to play MP3s transfered from the original analog session tapes.
1. Suite One (Cohen, Moore, Williams)
2. Three Step Dance (Glen Moore)
3. Medley: 5/8 Tune & 7/4 Tune (Marc Cohen)
4. Tern (Ralph Towner)
5. Loose Tune (Marc Cohen)
6. Blues Jam (Cohen, Moore, Williams)

Marc [Cohen] Copland: electronic alto saxphone, tenor saxophone
Glen Moore: electric & electricfied acoustic bass
Jeff Williams: drums

Recorded May 3, 1972, in Studio 3, WKCR-FM, Ferris Booth Hall, Columbia University, New York for David Reitman’s “Journey to the End of the Night,” by Fred Seibert & Don Zimmerman
……
I finally was able to digitally convert these Marc Cohen tapes, and listen to the sessions that inspired me to record Marc and “Friends.”

Get the whole story here.

Charles Walker & The New York City Blues Band
Blues From The Apple

Produced by Tom Pomposello with Fred Seibert
Engineering. Fred Seibert

1. Scratch My Back

2. Black Cat Bone

3. Gladly

4. Decoration Day

5. I’m A Good Man But A Poor Man

6. Juice Head Woman

7. Bluebird’s Blues

8. Fast, Fast, Women and A Slow Race Horse

9. It’s Changin’ Time

10. Meeting You

……
CHARLES WALKER & THE NEW YORK CITY BLUES BAND
Blues From The Apple
Oblivion Records
OD-4
1974

Click here for covers, photographs, lyrics, and other printed ephemera.

LINER NOTES:

New York City blues has been one of the Big Apple’s best kept secrets for the past decade and a half. While many local bluesmen have remained “active” at house parties with an occasional gig at a small club, many others, veterans of a by-gone R&B era, have pawned their instruments and abandoned hopes of continuing a career that long ago abandoned them. In short the New York City blues scene has been so far underground that even to the avid aficionado it has remained invisible.

One of the principal reasons for the decline of much of New York’s music scene has no doubt been the gradual exodus of the industry from the East to the West coast. In the case of the blues, however, there are a few other less obvious but crucial factors. On one level, blues, which used to have massive appeal to black audiences, has been replaced in the popular genre by contemporary soul music. On another level, New York is indisputably the center of modern jazz, with much of a potential blues audience absorbed in listening to newer black music. And so while pop audiences stand on mile-long lines outside the Apollo, and the musical “intelligentsia” flock to the city’s jazz clubs, blues has become the forgotten fore bearer of the idiom. Combine all this with the fact that public taste is dictated to a large extent by music entrepreneurs, who see little merit in booking anything besides the big draw rock groups and you’ve got some idea of New York. (There are exceptions, of course.)

You might say Blues from The Apple has been fifteen years in the making. It is the first album featuring New York City’s own urban blues artists issued in that length of time. While the recording sessions were a year long study in frustration for all involved, this album more importantly settles for the artists more than a decade of the proverbial dead ends and rip-offs prevalent in the New York scene. It hopefully will bring Charles Walker and members of the band part of their deserved recognition.

CHARLES WALKER, 51 years of age, was born and raised in Macon, Georgia. He began his professional music career when he moved from Newark, New Jersey to New York. During the late fifties, Charles became one of the city’s best known blues musicians. Those were the days when you could walk into a club in Harlem and expect to hear a blues band fronted by Charles or Tarheel Slim or Hal Paige or Buster Brown or maybe even Wilbert Harrison if you went on the right night. You could go into Bobby Robinson’s Record Shack on 125th Street and expect to come out with the latest blues releases on labels like Fury, Fire, Vest, Holiday, Atlas or a score of others. Charles can tell you, he recorded for them all back then. For a city that was once bustling with blues, things sure seemed to change overnight. Charles weathered the “dry” period nicely however, and still kept trying to hold a band together through all those years.

One of the men who has played with Charles fairly regularly since 1959 is LEE ROY LITTLE, a 48 year old Virginia born and bred piano player and composer. Everybody knows him as “Bluebird” after his song of the same title. The name stuck when both Brownie McGhee and B.B. King picked up on the tune. Beside his records with Charles, Lee Roy has also recorded under his own name for the Cee Jay label. Together Charles and Lee Roy wrote and arranged much of the material on this album, with Charles providing the impetus for everything (including Bluebird’s solo numbers).

The credit for bringing Charles to our attention in the first place must go to LARRY JOHNSON, New York’s contribution to the country blues. Although Larry is best known for his fast, finger-picking guitar work (he currently has solo albums on Blue Goose and Biograph), here he backs Charles with some nice, understated acoustic harmonica on Decoration Day. The tune was recorded quite spontaneously one evening when Larry had come up to do an interview for Honest Tom Pomposello’s blues show on WKCR-FM and he brought Charles along. Charles in turn reverted to his roots with some down home acoustic guitar work on Larry’s Martin.

All the other harp work on the album is handled by BILL DICEY and GOODY HUNT. Dicey has been playing since 1950. He met Charles in the late sixties and has played with him in between gigs with Louisiana Red and john Hammond. He’s done local club dates with Johnny Winter and Muddy Waters and just about anybody else who comes to town in need of a strong harp man. He currently fronts his own group, and the fact that he is not a name familiar to many people really baffles all of us who know his musical abilities. Listen to his forceful solo lead work and beautiful phrasing on ‘Scratch My Back’ as just one example.

GOODY HUNT, the man with the big smile and the star-studded tooth, is a harp novice on the other hand. He’s been playing only a short while under the watchful eye of his crony, Charles Walker.

Charles always had an eye for the women and this has to be the first blues LP where female sidemen (how’s that for ambiguity: female sidemen) play a major role. FOXY ANN YANCEY is a guitarist who has gigged with many local bluesmen over the years. She co-authored one of the albums instrumentals, ‘It’s Changin’ Time’, and she contributed to the sessions in the early stages. OLA MAE DIXON runs a record store in the Bronx, and plays drums on the side. To say that her playing epitomizes the term “backbeat” would be an understatement.

Also appearing on drums is BOBBY KING. Originally from New Orleans, Bobby has spent a good deal of time n the road always looking for a gig. He has previously recorded with Charles and nowadays is associated with Larry Johnson. The fact that he works with a single instrument is as much a statement of the financial plight of a musician who makes his living from playing blues as it is a tribute to a percussionist who can create as much sound with a rigged snare and brushes as many drummers do with full paraphernalia.

Finally, there are the three men who shared the bass playing. SONNY HARDEN is a friend of Charles’ from the Bronx. His primary musical interest lies in helping to promote his son’s soul band. But he still finds time to fill in for Charles when the situation warrants. DAVID LEE REITMAN is a rock musician and former DJ, who has also written a number of articles on blues and rock for various music publications. Known as “Scarsdale Slim” to his friends and enemies alike, David just happened to be in the studio one night when we needed a bass player. HONEST TOM POMPOSELLO was on hand to produce the album and coordinate the whole project. Tom was drafted into service when a snafu arose at the final session and we were left bassless, but he is not inexperienced in these matters having played and recorded with the late Mississippi Fred McDowell.

Perhaps Charles voiced the best summation for this whole endeavor: “All I know is that I want the world to hear me now, ‘cause I’m deeper in the blues now than I’ve ever been before.”

¿Comprende?
– Richard H. Pennington, Jr.
………………………………….
BLUES FROM THE APPLE
CHARLES WALKER
AND THE NEW YORK CITY BLUES BAND

Side One

1. Scratch My Back (3:23)
(J.Moore [Slim Harpo]; Excellorec Music Co., BMI)
Bill Dicey. Harmonica
Charles Walker. Guitar
Ann Yancey. Guitar
Goody Hunt. Harmonica
Sonny Harden. Bass guitar
Ola Dixon. Drums
Recorded July 29, 1973

2. Black Cat Bone (2:36)
(L.R.Little; By Full Co., BMI)
Lee Roy Little. Piano and vocal
Recorded April 6, 1974

3. Gladly (2:40)
(C.Walker; By Full Co., BMI)
Charles Walker. Vocal and guitar
Ann Yancey. Guitar
Bill Dicey. Harmonica
Goody Hunt. Harmonica
Sonny Harden. Bass guitar
Ola Dixon. Drums
Recorded July 29, 1973

4. Decoration Day 3:10
(Sonny Boy Williamson; Arc Music, BMI)
Charles Walker. Vocal and acoustic guitar
Larry Johnson. Acoustic harmonica
Recorded April 25, 1973

5. I’m A Good Man But A Poor Man (2:18)
(Cecil Gant/L.R.Little; By Full Co., BMI)
Lee Roy Little. Vocal & piano
Charles Walker. Guitar
Foxy Ann Yancey. Guitar
David Lee Reitman. Bass guitar
Ola Mae Dixon. Drums
Recorded May 17, 1973

6. Juice Head Woman (4:09)
(E. Vinson, L. Zito; Pamco/LZMC, BMI)
Charles Walker. Vocal and guitar
Bill Dicey. Harmonica
Lee Roy Little. Piano
Tom Pomposello. Bass guitar
Bobby King. Rigged snare drum
Recorded May 5, 1974

Side Two

1.Bluebird’s Blues (Medley) (7:23)
(L.R. Little; By Full Co., BMI)

a.Bluebird
b.Don’t You Ever Get Tired of Hurting Poor Me
c.Your Evil Thoughts
d.Hurry Baby, Please Come Home
Lee Roy Little. Vocals and piano
Recorded April 6, 1974

2. Fast, Fast, Women and A Slow Race Horse (3:43)
(C. Walker/Sonny Moore; By Full Co., BMI)
Charles Walker. Vocal and guitar
Bill Dicey. Harmonica
Lee Roy Little. Piano
Tom Pomposello. Bass guitar
Bobbby King. Rigged snare drums
Recorded May 30, 1974

3. It’s Changin’ Time (4:32)
(A.Yancey and B.Dicey; By Full Co., BMI)
Arranged by Tom Pomposello
Bill Dicey. Harmonica
Ann Yancey. Guitar
Charles Walker. Guitar
David Lee Reitman. Bass guitar
Ola Dixon. Drums
Recorded May 17, 1973

4. Meeting You (5:40)
(C. Walker; By Full Co., BMI)
Charles Walker. Vocals and guitar
Lee Roy Little. Piano
Ann Yancey. Guitar
David Lee Reitman. Bass guitar
Ola Dixon. Drums
Recorded May 17, 1973
………………………………….

Production Credits:

Produced by Honest Tom Pomposello with Fred Seibert
Recorded at WKCR.FM. Columbia University. NYC
Engineering: Fred Seibert
Rerecording: Kevin Behrman. Echo Sound Studio. Levittown.NY
Editing. Fred Seibert and Tom Pomposello
Cover Design. Frank Olinksky
Graphics. The Oblivionettes
Photography: Christine Pomposello, Tom Pomposello, Roy Langbord, John Dunn and Fred Seibert
Photo processing. Dave Cicale

The producers would like to acknowledge the special assistance of Rob Witter, Mike Bifulco and Ms. Josephine Walker who “made our burden so much lighter and our future so much brighter.”

Should this disk be unavailable at your local superior record store, send $5.98:

OBLIVION RECORDS.incorporated
P.O. BOX X. ROSLYN HEIGHTS.NY.11577

(P)1974, Oblivion Records, inc.
Printed in the USA
…..
I’m posting many of my out-of-print record productions from the 1970s. Travis Pomposello and I are the owners of these master recordings.

Joe Lee Wilson
Livin’ High Off Nickels and Dimes

1. The Theme/Aquarian Melody

2. It’s You Or No One

3. Strollin’

4. Jazz Ain’t Nothin’ But Soul

5. God Bless The Child

6. You Make Me Want To Dance

Click here for covers, photographs, and other printed ephemera.

…..

Original LP credits and liner notes:

Arranged by Joe Lee Wilson

The selections on this record are excerpted from a live radio concert on Columbia University’s WKCR.FM.NYC.
Recorded on July 16, 1972.

Joe Lee Wilson. Vocals
Ray McKinley. Piano
Bob Ralston. Tenor saxophone
Stafford James. Bass

Napoleon Revels. Drums

Oblivion Records OD-5

Joe Lee Wilson
Livin’ High Off Nickels and Dimes

Joe Lee Wilson. Vocals, Ray McKinley. Piano, Bob Ralston. Tenor saxophone, Stafford James. Bass, Napoleon Revels. Drums

Produced by Fred Seibert

Production Consultant. Honest Tom Pomposello
Advice and Consent. Richard H. Pennington, Jr.
Engineering. Don Zimmerman
Editing. Fred Seibertt
Rerecording. Bob Blank. 3.26.74
Mastering. John Bittner
Pressing. Wakefield Manufacturing

Cover design. Susan Rivoir
Graphics. the Oblivionettes
Photography. Bridget Deale, Fred Seibert, and Enea Cairati
Confucius, Nick Moy and Sherry Wolf*
*courtesy of Bonitza Melodies

Should this disk be unavailable at your local superior record store, send $5.98:

OBLIVION RECORDS. incorporated
P.O. BOX X. ROSLYN HEIGHTS. N.Y. 11577

(P)© 1974, Oblivion Records. inc.
Printed in the USA
…..
Jazz is makin’ do with taters and grits
Standin’ up each time you get hit
Jazz ain’t nothin’ but soul.

Jazz is livin’ high off nickels and dimes
Tellin’ folks ‘bout what’s on your mind
Jazz, it ain’t nothin’ but soul.

Trumpets cussin’, saxophones, rhythm makin’ love,
Hustlers wearin’ fancy clothes
The voice of my people.

For me, it’s all the truth to be found
Never mind who’s puttin’ it down
Jazz ain’t nothin’ but soul.

© by Norman Mapp, Brian Music, BMI
…..
This recording of Joe Lee Wilson Plus Five (actually plus four here, due to a previous engagement on the part of percussionist Rashied Ali) grew out of a series of events comprising the first New York Musicians Jazz Festival. The Festival responded to the urgent need for presenting newer and more positive music and musicians in an organized context: a need which the Newport Jazz Festival in New York had largely failed to satisfy. To assist the New York musicians in their self-help effort, radio station WKCR-FM sponsored several live radio broadcasts; from one of those broadcast, these performances emerged.

The session took place on an extremely hot and sticky July evening, in a room that more resembled a steambox than a studio. But as you can hear, nothing – not even the sweltering heat – bothered Joe Lee Wilson and his group. Joe’s broadcast sparked a groundswell of calls and letters from astounded listeners – ample testimony, we think to the stature he has earned among knowing observers of new music.

Joe Lee Wilson truly represents an outstanding case of a musician whose original and considerable talents never found true recognition in more commericial media. In this respect, he is one among many. This recording attempts to support Joe and musicians like him in their efforts.

All praise is due to the Creator and the credit belongs to the musicians.

Ed Michael (aka Sharif Abdul Salaam)
WKCR.FM Columbia University
…..
I’m posting many of my out-of-print record productions from the 1970s. Travis Pomposello and I are the owners of these master recordings.