Prince Lasha Quintet featuring Sonny Simmons - The Cry!

The Cry was kind of a blind buy, but I'm pretty happy with it. Recorded in 1962 and released in 1963, the record has some good tunes, though there are parts in the album where I just think "Man, this is so 60's" - particularly where Prince Lasha is playing his flute.

Fun Fact #1: Prince Lasha grew up in Fort Worth, TX with Ornette Coleman and they played together for about 9 years. This should also tell you a little about the jazz that Lasha and Simmons are making on this album - described as "free-flowing" and spontaneous by Simmons on the back of the record - focused less on chord changes than other jazz is.

"Lost Generation", is probably my favourite track. It's pretty much just one long sax solo by Sonny Simmons, and eventually the bassists pluck a couple of notes and then the drums come in about halfway through the song. I also liked "Congo Call" and "Bojangles" and "Juanita" a lot. "Congo Call" has some pretty sweet sax going on over the other instruments, and the sax-flute duets aren't bad either, even though I don't really like the flute. Related to this is Fun Fact #2: Sonny Simmons says that he pictured Bojangles dancing as he played "Bojangles". Erotic? Fun Fact #3 would have to be that the two bassists are each playing separately in each of your ears - Peacock on the left and Proctor on the right. Fact #4: A.Y. = Affectionately Yours

RIP Prince Lasha (Dec. 11, 2008 - Age 79) - a nice memoir

Lineup: Prince Lasha, Flute; Sonny Simmons, Alto Sax; Gary Peackock & Mark Proctor, Basses; Gene Stone, Drums

Track Listing:
Side One
1. Congo Call
2. Bojangles
3. Green and Gold
4. Ghost of the Past
Side Two
5. Red's Mood
6. Juanita
7. Lost Generation
8. A.Y.

Prince Lasha Quintet featuring Sonny Simmons - The Cry! - 128kbps

Klaus Schulze - Moondawn

Klaus Schulze is often called the "Grandfather of Electronic Music", and once "Moondawn" begins, it is easy to see why - as it starts off with a kind of cheesy, 60's "this-is-a-computer-making-noise" sound. How primitive. It's a great album, though, and the primitiveness makes sense - the album was created in Germany in 1976 - a time in which the synthesizer was just making it big.
Once you get into "Moondawn" (this will probably happen late one night), you'll notice that the drums aren't synthesized, which may put you off a little, but is actually really cool once you get past that first bit of retro culture shock. Actually, now that I mention drums, I should also mention that Klaus Schulze played drums for Tangerine Dream's first album, "Electronic Meditation", and then went off to start Ash Ra Temple with his comrades. Somewhat surprisingly, though, Shulze isn't playing drums on "Moondawn", just everything else. Anyways, "Moondawn" is only two songs long, and each of the songs are over 25 minutes long, so you get a good amount of time to see what ole Klausey-poo is going for: epic build-ups.
I also have to admit that there is a skip around 8 minutes, which lasts for a few seconds (but could almost go with the song). I'll get a new version up sometime - with the needle going up and down cut out.

Lineup: Harald Grosskopf, Drums; Klaus Schulze, The Big Moog, ARP 2600, ARP Odyssey, EMS Synthi A, Farfisa Professional Organ, Farfisa Syntorchester, Crumar-keyboards, Sequenzer Synthanorma 3-12

Track Listing:
Side One
1.Floating
Side Two:
2. Mindphaser

Klaus Schulze - Moondawn - 192kbps

Big Star - Live (at Max's Kansas City, 1973)

Big Star, often cited as the group that created the "power pop" genre, and possibly my favourite band, recorded their Live album at a club in New York City (despite the name of Max's Kansas City) over two nights shortly before the release of their second album. Admittedly, I got this album off of Ebay, and it was advertised as being one of the originals given out by the Big Star Fan Club at some point (who has fan clubs anymore?). The first couple of the songs are mixed a bit poorly, but after that, the sound gets a lot clearer - the bass isn't as blaring, mostly. The version of "Don't Lie To Me" on Live is more rockin than the version on #1 Record, and is a lot more fun to listen to. There is also an interview with Alex Chilton towards the end of Side One, and some other commentary in between his other songs that are interesting to hear. For example, he talks about how miserable it was to be in The Box Tops, and he reveals that he wrote "Thirteen" when he was 13. Who knew? But, it's a pretty sweet album altogether.

Track Listing:
Side one
1. September Gurls
2. Way Out West
3. Mod Lang
4. Don't Lie To Me
5. O My Soul
6. Interview
7. Ballad of El Goodo
Side Two
8. Thirteen
9. I'm In Love With A Girl
10. In The Street
11. You Get What You Deserve
12. Daisy Glaze
13. Back Of A Car
14. She's A Mover

Big Star - Live - 128kbps

Boule Noire - Les Annees Passent

After first buying this album, I thought it was only some catchy francofunk that fell through the cracks. But happily, after some research (allmusic.com), I found out that Les Annees Passent is actually the second album of Quebec funk icon George Thurston aka "Boule Noire". Released in 1977, the album is sung mostly in French, interspersed with a lot of sexy, sexy "baby"s and other Englishisms in typical Quebec style. The best tracks are "(Shalala) Je T'aime" and "Entre Nous" - showing Thurston's tender, yet funky, side. Also interesting is that "1254 Rue Stanley" is an address in downtown Montreal. I haven't had the chance to go down there yet, but it would be kind of interesting to see what's there. Of course, looking at Google Maps, it says that's where "Club La Boom Montreal" is located. Interest wanes. Unfortunately, we lost our "Quebecois Stevie Wonder", as he was named by Quebec minister of culture, in 2007 to colorectal cancer. On a side note: I wonder how many times it is possible to drop a form of "Quebec" in one paragraph. We will see.

Track Listing:
Side One
1. Loin D'Ici
2. (Shalala) Je T'aime
3. Les Annees Passent
4. Entre Nous
Side Two
5. Rencontre
6. Bebe Lady
7. 1254 Rue Stanley
8. Sexy Mama

Boule Noire - Les Annees Passent - 192kbps