Albert King - Born Under A Bad Sign (1967)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 2013 remaster with 5 previously unreleased bonus tracks.

If you've ever been hurt by your main squeeze, deceived by your best friend, or down to your last dime and ready to call it quits, Albert King has the solution if you have the time to listen.

-from the original album liner notes by Stax’s original Director of Publicity and Grammy award winner Deanie Parker.

My listening habits developed over many years, of course, so I can't pinpoint when I started listening to classical music almost exclusively in the fall/winter months and blues music almost exclusively in the spring/summer months, but it happened at some point, here we are in spring, so it's time to start spinning some blues discs. And here we've got a blues legend cutting tracks with the Stax house band a.k.a. Booker T & the MGs. What's not to like? Widely considered King's best (and breakthrough) album, these songs introduced many to both the note-bending guitar work and gritty vocals of Albert King, firmly establishing his place in the blues revival of the '60s. If you like your R&B with a heavy emphasis on the B, this album is highly recommended.

Reviews/ratings:

• Billboard: "a realistic, soulful style which hits the mark"
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (★★★★★): "a blues monument"

While the album failed to chart upon release, it has since been given many accolades, including the following:

• In the 2012 edition of Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Albums list, the album ranked at #491 (in the 2003 edition, it ranked at #499): "King’s first album for the Stax label combines his hard, unflashy guitar playing with the sleek sound of the label’s house band, Booker T. and the MG’s. Hits such as 'Crosscut Saw' and 'Laundromat Blues' earned King a new rock & roll audience."
• In 1985, the album was added to the Blues Hall of Fame as a Classic of Blues Recording.
• In 1999, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which honors recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance
• In 2020, the album was added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress.

Tracks: Not a bad track to be found. My favorites are Crosscut Saw, Kansas City, Down Don't Bother Me, and Laundromat Blues.

Bonus tracks: alternate takes of Born Under A Bad Sign, Crosscut Saw, The Hunter, and Personal Manager along with an untitled instrumental which was certainly good enough for inclusion on the original album.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Several years ago I was visiting the Stax website, as one does, and they were having a sale: this CD plus a Stax t-shirt for $29.99. I was on that like gravy on biscuits.

I'm currently in the early stages of planning a trip next year that will not only include a trip to the Stax museum (again), but also take us to Clarksdale, Mississippi and as much of the Mississippi Blues Trail as we can possibly fit in. Hopefully, that will include a drive through Indianola to see the Albert King marker.

Joe Henderson - Mode For Joe (1966)

Note: the CD I listened to was the UK import 2003 Rudy Van Gelder Edition with a bonus track.

I'm not the biggest fan of Joe Henderson's playing, but I'm certainly a fan of the remainder of the band - in particular Lee Morgan, Bobby Hutcherson, and Ron Carter - plus the tunes here are well-written. While I don't like the album as much as the critics, it is still an enjoyable, worthwhile hard bop disc for me.

Original album liner notes by Leonard Feather.

Henderson - tenor saxophone
Lee Morgan - trumpet
Curtis Fuller - trombone
Bobby Hutcherson - vibes
Cedar Walton - piano
Ron Carter - bass
Joe Chambers - drums

Reviews/ratings:

• Downbeat (★★★★): "Henderson is out on his own now; this record proves he is ready."
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★½
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: My favorite cut today is the title track which is described in label press as "the standout of the set, a modal masterpiece where the leader summons one of his most transcendent and visceral solo statements." And don't sleep on the stellar solo turns from Hutcherson, Fuller, then Carter. Also track 3, Black, with great solos from Morgan and Walton. I like the Latin groove of Caribbean Fire Dance, but I think it has the least enjoyable soloing.

Bonus track: An alternate take of track 3, Black.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

The Sound Of Music Soundtrack (1965)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 2015 reissue on the Craft label.

If you like Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals (I do) and are a fan of Julie Andrews (she's a treasure), you can't do any better than this album.

Press of the time:

• Billboard: "outstanding soundtrack package"
• CashBox: "an unforgettable experience"
• High Fidelity: "much more palatable in its individual parts than as a whole"
• Record World: "RCA Victor must have one of the all-time top-selling soundtrack albums"
• Stereo Review: "The burden of the singing falls on Julie Andrews, and she almost succeeds in putting some spice into this overcooked stew of sentimentality."

For the record, the five Academy Awards won were Best Picture, Best Director (Robert Wise), Best Sound (James Corcoran & Fred Hynes), Best Film Editing (William Reynolds), and Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment (Irwin Kostal).

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #1
• CashBox: #2 (kept out of the top spot by another Julie Andrews soundtrack, Mary Poppins)

In 2015, Billboard named this soundtrack album the second-best charting album of all time, behind Adele's 2011 album, 21.

Tracks: I know it's an easy cliché to claim that My Favorite Things is one of my favorite things, but it's true so I'm gonna go ahead and claim it. Other favorites include Sixteen Going On Seventeen, The Lonely Goatherd, and Edleweiss. But I'll happily listen to the whole thing.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I've seen both the stage musical and the 1965 movie multiple times; I always enjoy the show. I've never been in the cast of the show - my lone R&H cast experience was as Lt. Cable in South Pacific - but I once worked on the backstage crew of a touring company production when they passed through town back in the '90s.

When I was in high school, I received a Walkman knock-off for Christmas (probably 1983) and, for reasons unknown to me all these years later, opted to listen to my father's pre-recorded cassette of this album more than once that Christmas Day instead of any of my own tapes.

Herbie Hancock - Empyrean Isles (1964)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 1999 Rudy Van Gelder Edition with an 2 bonus tracks.

This was Hancock's fourth album release as a leader; a weak attempt at a concept album about the Empyrean Isles, described in the original, atypical liner notes written by Nora Kelly as "elusive and said to vanish at the approach of ordinary mortals" and "that incense-bearing trees blossom there," etc. You get the point. Needless to say, it fails in its task of being a concept album, but there are a couple of destinations here I don't mind visiting, especially Cantaloupe Island.

In 2017, Pitchfork ranked this album at #177 on their list of The 200 Best Albums of the 1960s with the following blurb:

Pianist Herbie Hancock was already an elite jazz session player when he led this set for Blue Note...But Hancock was also hard at work on his compositional craft. His four original pieces on Empyrean Isles prompt motifs based on brisk chord changes as well as scale-based improvisation. Nearly two decades before his embrace of turntablism on “Rockit,” Hancock was already signaling his intention to swing between radically different formal designs. –Seth Colter Walls

So they obviously like the album more than I, as does the uDiscover Music website, where this albums was ranked at #34 on its list of The 50 Greatest Blue Note Albums.

Hancock - piano
Freddie Hubbard - cornet
Ron Carter - bass
Tony Williams - drums

After recording this album, Hancock, Carter, and Williams (plus Wayne Shorter) would soon join Miles Davis to become what is commonly known as his "Second Great Quartet."

Reviews/ratings:

• Stereo Review: "Lacks cohesion"
• CashBox: "Jazzophiles should dig this session."
• Downbeat (★★★★): "the tunes come off well"
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★★
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: As I mentioned earlier, Cantaloupe Island is the star here and yes, I was familiar with the tune before it was famously sampled by Us3 in 1992. My other top pick is Oliloqui Valley, which swings harder than it should and features a killer solos from Hubbard and then Carter. That doesn't mean the other two tracks (One Finger Snap and The Egg) aren't good, simply that I much prefer the first two I mentioned. Both One Finger Snap and Cantaloupe Island were chosen for the 1988 CD release, The Best of Herbie Hancock: The Blue Note Years.

Bonus tracks: Alternate takes of One Finger Snap and Oliloqui Valley. All tracks, including the bonus tracks, were recorded at the Van Gelder Studio on Wednesday, June 17, 1964.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
The Best of Herbie Hancock: The Blue Note Years (1988)
Round Midnight - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1986)
Lite Me Up (1982)
Sunlight/Feets Don't Fail Me Now (1978/1979)
Head Hunters (1973)
Speak Like A Child (1968)

Various Artists - Billboard Top Rock'n'Roll Hits 1963 (1993)

Not sure about rock'n'roll hits, but there's healthy helping of R&B plus a couple of surf rock classics. Or maybe that simply illustrates how much rock'n'roll owes to rhythm and blues. This CD ("compiled" by Joel Whitburn and released by Rhino) is first-rate; my only complaint is the 24 minute running time.

This disc is part of a 20 CD compilation series spanning 1955 to 1974, with one 10-track album for year; each track made the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. All the Billboard Top Rock'n'Roll Hits discs for years 1960 through 1969 were originally released in 1988 or 1989, and rereleased in 1993 with revised track listings, due to licensing restrictions. This 1993 reissue replaced Fingertips Pt. 2 by Little Stevie Wonder with If You Wanna Be Happy, and Walk Like A Man by The Four Seasons with Deep Purple.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks, including Billboard chart peaks:

Title	Artist	Pop	R&B
Sugar Shack	Jimmy Gilmer & The Fireballs	1	1
Surf City	Jan & Dean	1	3
He's So Fine	The Chiffons	1	1
It's My Party	Lesley Gore	1	1
If You Wanna Be Happy	Jimmy Soul	1	1
Louie Louie	The Kingsmen	2	1
Easier Said Than Done	The Essex	1	1
Deep Purple	Nino Tempo & April Stevens	1	4
My Boyfriend's Back	The Angels	1	2
Surfin' U.S.A.	The Beach Boys	3	20

Several of the tracks are new to my CD shelves but not new to my ears. Since I was born in 1966, these tunes have always been around, right? All ten cuts are fantastic.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: Except for The Beatles and Stones, I wasn't much for '60s tunes until my college years (1984-88), but then I was in deep and have never looked back.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Billboard Top Rock'n'Roll Hits 1968
Billboard Top Rock'n'Roll Hits 1962

Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd - Jazz Samba (1962)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 1997 Verve Master Edition.

I wasn't around in 1962, but from what I read, it appears this thing was unexpectedly huge. Guitarist/arranger Charlie Byrd had fallen in love with the bossa nova sounds coming out of Brazil in the late '50s, most notably Chega de Saudade by João Gilberto and Antônio Carlos Jobim's soundtrack to the 1959 film Black Orpheus. Byrd brought in Stan Getz to record these songs on Tuesday, February 13, 1962 in Pierce Hall at the All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington, D.C. Two hours later, the album was finished and the bossa nova craze would hit the U.S. The term 'bossa nova' was simply created to described the merging of the traditional Brazilian samba with jazz music. So, the title Jazz Samba is synonymous with term bossa nova. Not bad for a day's work. This album became the only jazz album to ever hit #1 on the Billboard 200 and Getz would then record four more bossa albums in 13 months, including Getz/Gilberto.

The instrumentation includes two percussionists and, on some tracks, two bass players, both taken from the Brazilian samba tradition. The lead track and lead single, Desafinado, won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year, eventually losing to Tony Bennett's I Left My Heart In San Francisco. The album itself was nominated for Album of the Year, bowing to the comedy album The First Family. In 2010, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Not a bad place to start a journey into bossa nova (but I'd say the same about Getz/Gilberto). As for my journey, I've just checked out the following book from the local library: Bossa Nova: The Story of the Brazilian Music That Seduced the World by Ruy Castro.

Speaking of books...for its inclusion in the 2005 book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Andrew Gilbert wrote, "the album is a perfect melding of swing and samba, with Getz's velvet tenor flowing semlessly from one track to another."

Original liner notes by Dom Cerulli.

Reviews/ratings:

• Downbeat (★★★★½ ): "beautifully turned little gems played by a pair of brilliant jazz musicians who seem very much in rapport."
• Stereo Review: "a surprisingly varied listening experience."
• High Fidelity: "The playing is unpretentious and thoroughly delightful."
• Billboard: "Another beautiful set"
• CashBox: "The wax marriage of these two jazz names, should in itself bring out a host of fans."
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★★
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★★
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★½

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #1
• CashBox (Stereo): #1

Tracks: The two singles from this album, Desafinado (#15 pop, #4 easy listening) and Samba de Uma Nota Só (did not chart) were written by Jobim. While I prefer the latter to the former, all the the tracks are great and with a running time of under 35 minutes, there's no reason to play the whole thing through (maybe twice).

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Verve Jazz Masters 53: Bossa Nova (1996)
Getz/Gilberto (1964)

Jimmy Smith - Home Cookin' (1961)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 2003 Rudy Van Gelder Edition with 5 bonus tracks.

The advertisement below lists this album as "an 'all blues' date" and that's the best way describe it: blues and/or bluesy bordering on soulful R&B. And lots of it. It always amazes me to hear Smith play the bass lines with his feet (just listen to Sugar Hill or Gracie, for example, literally a walking bass lines!). The other outstanding performance here comes from guitarist Kenny Burrell - nothing but quality solos throughout. Pair with any of Smith's other early '60s Blue Note releases such as Midnight Special and Back At The Chicken Shack (1963)

The tracks were compiled from three recording dates:

• Tuesday, July 15, 1958
• Sunday, May 24, 1959
• Tuesday, June 16, 1959

All in the infamous Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

Original album liner notes by Ira Gitler.

Smith - organ
Percy France - tenor saxophone
Kenny Burrell - guitar
Donald Bailey - drums

Reviews/ratings:

• Stereo Review: "his most listenable album to date"
• CashBox: "One of the most evocative of jazz organs."
• Downbeat (★★★★): "one must admit that the album is a cooker (no pun intended) from start to finish."
• The Penguin Guide to Jazz (5th ed., 2000): ★★★
• The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide (1999): ★★★½
• The Virgin Encyclopedia of Jazz (1999): ★★★★

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: My top tracks are Sugar Hill, a cover of the Ray Charles hit I Got A Woman, Messin' Around, and Come On Baby (which contains Smith's best solo on the disc).

Bonus tracks: An alternate take of Motorin' Around, plus four cuts that didn't appear on the original 1961 release: Apostrophe, Groanin' and two takes of Since I Fell For You. All fit perfectly in this bluesfest. Apostrophe is particularly a great listen because it sounds like the musicians are having a blast.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:

The Best of Jimmy Smith (1988)	Midnight Special (1961)
Keep On Comin' (1983)	Houseparty (1958)
Back At The Chicken Shack (1963)	The Sermon! (1958)