They reminisce over youth...

Remember 'Pebble Mill'? What about 'Radio Victory'? If you're younger than thirty you probably won't be familiar with either. And if you've never lived in or around Hampshire then the answer to the latter is more than likely 'no'. To be honest though, you didn't really miss much...

Pebble Mill was an early afternoon chat show which ran through the 1970s up until the mid '80s on BBC1 or BBC2. I suppose the closest we've got to it now is 'This Morning' (which is only worth watching for Holly Willoughby, if you're lucky enough to have the day off work). The faint recollections I have of the show are from spending time round my Grandparents' house as a kid. Nan and Pops loved the show but for a young lad there wasn't really much going on to grab your attention. I'd usually head out to the garden for a kick about when it started, sometime just after lunch.

Radio Victory was your typical regional Radio Station that played little more than the average run-of-the-mill Pop cr*p. The only time I ever listened to it was with my Dad and Uncle on the way home from Fratton Park on Saturday afternoons. The jingle they used to play before reading the Football results was a favourite in the car. A good old sing along was guaranteed if Pompey'd had a good win.

The other memory I have of Radio Victory is from around fifteen years ago when they sold off their entire library of vinyl. Barry Styles, Nic Bossa and myself headed over to Portsmouth (maybe Gosport or Fareham, can't remember) on the day of the sale and after queuing up for an hour or so were told we had a fifteen minute limitation on digging time. So many people had turned up it was the only fair(ish) way they could handle the numbers. Once in, it was all a bit overwhelming with around twenty other record fiends scrambling around a room full of uncatergorised vinyl - the clock quickly ticking away in the background. Everything was 50p and I dis pull out some nice James Brown albums and a couple of Hip-Hop bits but I think we'd probably been beaten to most of the real gems that day. Still, a great experience which I wish I could relive all these years later.

Anyway, about a year ago I picked up this album - "Down At The Old Pebble Mill". I can't remember where from, which is unusual for me as I can normally recall where I bought, and how much I paid for, pretty much every record I own. I don't even know why I picked it out in the first place but ended up buying it for Elaine Delmar's version of "Alone Again (Naturally)". It was only a few days ago though that the lovely certificate from Radio Victory (below) popped out whilst removing the vinyl from the sleeve. I'd not noticed it before. Apparently Barbara Pryce won the 'Vintage Competition' on Dave Carson's Victory Vintage show back in 1978. This record was obviously her prize. Now I'm pretty sure the station folded a few years ago, I definitely haven't heard the name for some time anyway, but the sight of this certificate sparked off the memories I wrote about above and the reason I decided to post it here. It also reminded me of the one and only prize I have won in a competition of this type, which must have been in 1989 - the prize being De La Soul's "3 feet High And Rising" on cassette. Winners could choose any title from the U.K. Top 40 Album Chart at the time. I can't remember exactly how you won but I was pleased as punch when the tape arrived in the post a few weeks later. I wish I'd kept my own congratulatory certificate and also, not leant the cassette to Stuart Potts - his two year old brother pulled it to pieces leaving it long past any state of repair. Little b*stard.

All these memories, that were pretty much buried and lost along with a million others, have all come flooding back, thanks to a record and piece of paper that lay tucked inside it's sleeve for just over thirty years. Thank you Barbara, for either selling me this album at Boot Sale or donating it to a Charity Shop that I might have bought it from. I've had a lovely afternoon reminiscing over my youth.



So I guess you're wondering about the music on the record then? After all, this blog is meant to be about vinyl and the wonderful sounds some of it creates. Well like I said, I bought the album for the Elaine Delmar song. I already had the original pressing of her self titled album, which includes this track, and was hoping for a live version with alternative drum break intro. Alas, it's exactly the same, only slightly shorter. Still, nice to have doubles of a dope drum break. The fact that one of them appears on an album celebrating 1000 editions of a crappy British TV program gets bonus points from me for novelty value alone. There's f*ck all else on the record but if you like theses drums and wanna save yourself a few quid, keep an eye out for it on your travels. The Elaine Delmar LP goes for considerably more money, with not a great deal else warranting the extra cash you'd need to spend. Do yourself a favour and grab the BBC product for pennies instead of pounds. Having said that, there is a nice moody version of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" which makes for good sample material, and the entire album is arranged and conducted by Nick Ingman so it's worth picking up if you see it for a fiver or so, just don't get drawn into eBay prices . If I didn't already own the original I'd be more than happy having this one track on the Pebble Mill LP.


Elaine Delmar "Alone Again (Naturally)" (1972, MCA Records UK)*




*I recorded this from the original album but the Pebble Mill version is EXACTLY the same, just fades out a little earlier.

Esther Phillips and The Private Investigators

A couple of Saturday's ago my kids were away for the weekend with their Mum so I took the opportunity to hit a few charity shops in the morning before lunchtime kick off at Fratton Park. I took the camera out to document the days digging but haven't yet got round to finishing the post (dragging those damn pictures about drives me mad). Anyway, one of the records I picked up on that day was Esther Phillips's 1975 Kudu release "Esther Phillips With Beck". It's an OK LP with a few decent tracks but nothing particularly outstanding. It does however feature a song which I immediately recognized as being sampled on a Hip-Hop record that I've been trying to track down for ages.

I first heard "Mom Dukes" a year or two ago on a DJ Premier radio show from 1993 and although I'd asked quite a few people about the song nobody seemed to know who it was by. I'd pretty much given up on it until the sample popped up on this Esther Phillps LP. Now, I'm not really a great fan of 'The-Breaks' or any other similar website that straight up 'snitches', as Primo would say, but in this case I must say I'm quite grateful for the info. A quick 'artist search' for Esther Williams revealed that "Hurtin' House" was sampled by a group called 'Private Investigators' on the track "Mom Dukes". Bingo! Problem solved! I'd never heard of 'Private Investigators' before so next stop was Discogs, and luckily for me there was a plentiful supply of cheap copies available for sale. A week later and the record was finally in my hands.

So who exactly are the 'Private Investigators'? Well, it turns out 'they' were in fact The Redhead Kingpin (and his crew), which probably explains why I must have overlooked it in the racks at the time. 1993 was pretty much the peek of my Hip-Hop buying habits when I'd spend just about every penny I earned on vinyl. There wasn't much at the time that I didn't buy and even some fairly average records (in hindsight) were snapped up. Still, I don't remember seeing this about. Maybe I did, and maybe it was the Redhead Kingpin tag that put me off. I'm surprised I didn't at least give it a listen though - there's Diamond D remix on here for G*d's sake! Anyway, thanks to Esther Phillips (and the Scope Charity Shop it came from) "Mom Dukes", or the 12"s' A-Side title "Who Am I?", sits happily in the shelves alongside all the other classics featured on that DJ Premier radio show.

The record as a whole is pretty decent for a cheap pick up. You get three different mixes (and album Instrumental) of "Who Am I?" plus the album versions of "Mom Dukes" and "Mash Up The Mic". The latter is a typical party style tune from that era - think "Igpay Atinlay" by Black Madness or KGB's "Pick Up The Pace" - pretty cool for occasional play but slightly irritating after repeat listening. The title track in it's LP form features a hard, sinister beat but is let down by the rappers who sound like they wanna be the bastard sons of Onyx and Leaders Of The New School. Thank god for the instrumental. The Diamond D remix is vintage early '90s DITC production - deep bassline, screaming horns and hard hitting drums - Lord Finesse or Big L would have been so dope on this but unfortunately there's no vocal-less version to put their accapellas over. Shame. Anyway, all of these tracks are kind of a bonus for me since I only bought if for the timeless ode to mothers across the world, which I love. To hear DJ Premier cutting up doubles live on radio click here. Listen to the whole show and weep at the state of current Hip-Hop compared to the classics that were getting dropped weekly back then. At the same time remind yourself that not only is DJ Premier the best Hip-Hop producer to ever do it, he is arguably the greatest DJ too.


Private Investigators "Mom Dukes" (1993 Virgin U.S. 12")



Esther Phillips "Hurtin' House" (1975 Kudu U.K. L.P. track)

Southern Freeez

It's definitely very cold down here on the South Coast at the moment but this post doesn't revolve around today's shivering weather conditions. Nope, it's just more obsessive talk about obscure vinyl...

On the way home from work this Friday I payed a visit to my local record shop which I hadn't managed to do for a couple of weeks. Plenty of new stock to browse through and after an hour or so I left with a nice bag of goodies for just under twenty five quid. Amongst the batch of fifteen or so records I bought, were sealed copies of The Cyrkle's "Neon" LP (Tribe sample) and Central Nervous System's "I Could Have Danced All Night" (OK-ish Bluesy Psych Rock). Copped a nice Ahmad Jamal album which includes a cool semi-instrumental version of Steeley Dan's "Black Cow" and also upgraded my copy of The Gap Band's "Outstanding" 12". The best 'known' buy though, was a mint, original U.S. pressing of Le Pamplemousse's "Gimmie What You Got" 12" for £2 (classic disco break). The rest of the money was spent on blind punts from the pound crates, which turned up the following L.P...

Now I always have a quick look over the sleeve credits on any oddity that appears half interesting and although this features one of the ugliest covers I've ever come across, the inclusion of "Southern Freeze" within the track listing was enough to intrigue me into buying it. Besides that, the album was released by a local record label called Airship who's studios were based six miles down the road from me in beautiful Bognor Regis. I've had a few records on Airship over the years but none have been keepers. I did get very good money for a couple though - a female Folk LP that topped the £100 mark and another by some Heavy Metal group which went for £80 or so. There's a fair few highly collectible releases on the label - this however, is NOT one of them!

'After Eight' it appears were a Cabaret act, of sorts, who played various venues across the South Coast during the late seventies and early eighties. As it states within the sleeve notes, they were the amalgamation of two previous bands - 'Mayfair Suite' and 'Gone Cheese Band' (what a great name!), forming in 1977. You can read the rest of the brief biog by clicking the scan if you want but I'm gonna crack on with the track I mentioned earlier - "Southern Freeze".

I've always had a soft spot for U.K. Jazz-Funk. Groups like Atmosphere, Incognito, and Freeez released some great records in the late seventies / early eighties and the track "Southern Freeez" is a particular favourite of mine, so when I noticed the inclusion of "Southern Freeze" (sic) on After Eight's album I was really hoping for a cover of the classic Freeez track instead of some god awful, self-penned, local band tripe. I'm sure by the fact that I've written this far, you've already guessed that it is in fact a cover of "Southern Freeez" and, a rather good one at that.

I very much doubt there's any other versions of this song out there, if there is, I haven't heard them, so I've only got the two to draw comparisons between. The original is widely known anyway, appearing on many compilations over the years and I'm sure at one point was used on a T.V. advert in the U.K. There's no need for me to get into some deep analysis or review it in anyway, in fact there's no need for me to do that with the After Eight version either, you can simply click on the players below and listen for yourself. One thing I will point out though is; although the cover version lacks slightly in production and suffers from a far weaker kick than the original, it does contain elements which I actually prefer. Rimshots replacing the clapping snare sounds add a new dimension and the breakdowns on After Eight's version hit far harder than on Freeez's.

Anyway, draw your own conclusions. It might be another one of those records, that unless you actually own, you aren't that bothered about. Me? I love it. Probably because I discovered it first hand. I guess that's half the enjoyment of records like these.


After Eight "Southern Freeze" (1981 Airship Records)





BONUS



Freeez "Southern Freeez" (1980 Beggars Banquet)

Creed Taylor, Inc

OK, so I'm probably not breaking any new ground with a post about C.T.I. Records. In fact, I know I'm not - there's tonnes of great sites on the internet dedicated to the label and probably loads of blogs with individual album reviews and downloads. I couldn't, however, find anywhere else which includes what I have here - a nice little label catalogue from 1975. Initially I was only gonna post up the scans, but then decided it wouldn't hurt to delve into the crates and include some of my favourite albums as well.

I can't for the life of me remember where this catalogue, or 'katalogus' came from because I don't own any C.T.I. releases which aren't either U.K. or U.S. pressings, and as the spelling suggests, this must have been included in an Hungarian or perhaps German release? I've had it in my collection for around ten years now and no matter where it came from, it's a nice little reference point that I find myself going back to from time to time.

The booklet features a full list of releases up until 1975, on Creed Taylor's C.T.I. imprint as well as the subsidiaries 'Kudu' and 'Salvation'. It also includes photos of all the covers, which is what, for me, makes it something special. Although it is only reproduced in black and white the stunning graphic design and photography still translate well - a testament to the artists responsible, in most cases Pete Turner (Photography) and Bob Ciano (Design). In doing a little research for this post I've only just found out that Pete Turner had a book of his photography published in 2006 called "The Color Of Jazz". Looks like a 'must have' that I'll be adding to this years birthday present list.

So anyway, here's the scans...




Front cover



Inside pages (click to enlarge)


Back cover (click to enlarge)


So that's the catalogue, now for a few records.

C.T.I. is one of my favourite non Hip-Hop labels that consistently turned out top notch Jazz throughout the seventies after Creed Taylor split from a production deal with A&M in the sixties to set up his own independent imprint. Finding a C.T.I. record in the wild is always really nice for me. Sure, you can probably pick up a good deal of the catalogue on eBay with great ease, but to find them at Bootsales and Charity shops in the U.K. is quite a struggle - when they do turn up it's a real bonus.

I'd say I've got around thirty or so albums (including releases on A&M and the two subsidiaries) and pretty much everything I've ever bought has been pure quality. From the heavyweight, high gloss, gate-fold sleeves, through to the lush production and arrangements, a record on C.T.I. near enough always guarantees a great package throughout.

Here's my top five tracks from the collection...


Bob James
'Nautilus'

Thought I'd start with what I consider to be the ultimate release on the label, Bob James' classic, 'Nautilus'. Recorded at the tale end of the 'Golden Era', featuring the staple line up of session kings (including Steve Gadd, Idris Muhammad, Ralph MacDonald, Grover Washington, Jon Faddis, Thad Jones, Hugh McCracken, Eric Weissberg, Gary King, etc...) as well as a full orchestra, all six tracks on this album are 'epic' scores of the greatest proportions.

I won't babble on too much about each individual song, who sampled what off them, etc, because like I said before, I'm not breaking any new ground, these are just my personal favourites. If you're into Jazz or collecting breaks it's more than likely you already own this album anyway. If you don't, you really should.

I can honestly say, I never tire of listening to 'Nautilus'. Play it back to back for an hour and it never drains - musical arrangements just don't come much better than this. As for samples? The list goes on and on...

'Nautilus' (1974 C.T.I. Records)





Stanley Turrentine
'Sister Sanctified'

Next up is an album that includes another 'ultimate break and beat' - 'Sister Sanctified' by Stanley Turrentine featuring Milt Jackson on Vibes. You should all know this track anyway with it's classic break, most notably made famous by Boogie Down Productions on 'My Philosophy'. Billy Cobham is rocking the funky drums with Ron Carter on bass. Bob James blesses the keys and Cornell Dupree does his thing plucking away on the guitar. This particular song was written and arranged by the late Weldon Irvine Jnr, and much like 'Nautilus' is a track I never tire of listening to. Many of Stanley Turrentine's albums can be kind of hard work unless you like cheesy Sax solos, but they seemed to have found a nice balance on this one.

Unfortunately I only own a re-issue of this L.P. from 1982 and as much as I avidly avoid them, the year of re-release sort of allows forgiveness in my eyes. Until I find an original that is.

'Sister Sanctified' (1972 C.T.I. Records)





Deodato
'September 13'

In much the same fold as Bob James, Eumir Deodato was a prolific arranger and keys man throughout his career and worked on a whole wealth of classic albums, like wise supplying many a 'break' or 'sample' for producers of later years. 'Prelude' was his debut L.P. on C.T.I. and produced a cross over hit in the shape of his arrangement of 'Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001)'. The track was released as a single and is the only 45 on the label that I have ever come across whilst out digging. I've had quite a few copies of this album over the years - I should imagine, thanks to the success of the single, it was the label's biggest seller.

Like most C.T.I. releases, there's a good load of sample material on the L.P. which you can check over at 'The-Breaks' or wherever, but I did recently notice the use of the drums from 'September 13' layered (I think) into Black Sheep's 'Try Counting Sheep'. Very subtle I know, but I'm pretty sure they're in there.

By the way, this is probably my favourite C.T.I. sleeve.

'September 13' (1972 C.T.I. Records)





Grover Washington, Jr.
'Knucklehead'

From the saxophone superstar's Kudu released album 'Feels So Good' I was hard pressed to pick a favourite between 'Knucklehead' and 'Hydra'. Most would probably choose the more obvious 'Hydra' as it features the instantly recognisable break that Black Moon used for their classic single 'How Many Emcees'. After weighing them up I eventually settled on 'Knucklehead' as I've always loved the remix of Yvette Michell's 'Everynight And Everyday' (featuring Doo Wop), which used a loop or two from this.

The album features pretty much all the same musicians I've already mentioned but it's worth noting Jimmy Madison hitting sticks hard on 'Hydra'.

I never noticed the halo round Grover's head until i scanned in the cover today. The glow is far more subtle in the flesh.

'Knucklehead' (1975 Kudu Records)





George Benson
'The Changing World'

Another great cover and another great album. Recorded during George's transitional period, there's hints of some of the cheese he was later to release, but still plenty of quality material on 1974's 'Bad Benson'.

I remember finding this album in an Antiques shop somewhere in South London about thirteen years ago with my mate Si. Can't remember the name of the town. Near Croydon somewhere. Doesn't really matter anyway but I do specifically remember getting goosebumps though the first time I played 'The Changing World' and the sample for Common Sense's 'I Used To Love H.E.R.' dropped in. I love finding breaks I don't know about, especially on songs that are quite emotive anyway, which 'The Changing World' definitely is.

If you haven't heard this track before, and have a short attention span you'll wanna skip to the 4min mark. If you like good music in general just hit play, sit back and relax - it's a beautiful piece of music.

'The Changing World' (1974 C.T.I. Records)





And before I go, thought I'd leave you with this "definition of a holy-grail"! Word to Soulman Phill...

Bob James 'Take Me To The Mardi Gras (Live)'