First Flight To Tokyo features the great Art Blakey with Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Timmons & Jymie Merritt.
Here's the scoop from Blue Note...
On December 10, Blue Note Records will release First Flight to Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings, a thrilling previously unreleased live recording of Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers captured at Hibiya Public Hall in Tokyo on January 14, 1961 during the band’s first-ever tour of Japan. The Jazz Messengers were among the first modern jazz groups to tour the country, and adoring Japanese audiences were enthralled by one of the band’s all-time great line-ups featuring the legendary drummer with Lee Morgan on trumpet, Wayne Shorter on tenor saxophone, Bobby Timmons on piano, and Jymie Merritt on bass. The concert featured soaring performances of well-known jazz staples including Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night In Tunisia,” Charlie Parker’s “Now’s the Time,” Thelonious Monk’s “’Round About Midnight,” and Jazz Messenger hits including “Blues March,” “Dat Dere,” and “Moanin’.”
First Flight to Tokyo was co-produced by Zev Feldman and David Weiss and will be released in deluxe 2-LP vinyl and 2-CD editions, both of which come with elaborate booklets featuring rare photos by Japanese photographers Shunji Okura and Hozumi Nakadaira; an historical essay by acclaimed jazz critic Bob Blumenthal; plus new interviews with Wayne Shorter, celebrated saxophonists Lou Donaldson and Donald Harrison, Japanese jazz star Sadao Watanabe, renowned Japanese music critic Reiko Yukawa, Blakey’s son Takashi Blakey, and a trio of drum greats: Louis Hayes, Billy Hart and Cindy Blackman Santana. Audio was newly transferred from the original ¼” tape reels, and the vinyl edition was mastered by Bernie Grundman and pressed on 180g vinyl at Record Technology Inc. (RTI).
“The performances were captured at the end of a tour that resulted after Blakey was crowned in a Japanese magazine poll as the American musician that the country’s jazz fans were most eager to experience in person,” writes Blumenthal in the liner notes. “Over the first two weeks of January 1961 the Messengers performed in several major Japanese cities and were received as artistic heroes wherever they appeared. This outpouring by the Japanese public, plus the concert and broadcast settings in which the band was presented, were a far cry from the treatment and working conditions commonplace in the USA and made a great impact on Blakey, who responded with a keen appreciation of his newfound role as international representative of his art form. If the Blakey/[Horace] Silver partnership had established the Jazz Messengers style, and the tour [Benny] Golson’s edition undertook at the end of 1958 introduced the band to European audiences, then this first visit to Japan made the Messengers a worldwide phenomenon and cemented what would prove to be its most loyal fan base.”
Pre-order Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers' First Flight to Tokyo right here. Listen to a clip of "A Night In Tunisia" after the track listing below.
First Flight to Tokyo: The Lost 1961 Recordings track listing:
John Showman, Max Malone & Chris Coole are putting out a 14-song live album recorded at Vancouver's Anza Club back in 2019.
Here's the scoop...
"Lively Times - Live at the Anza Club – out November 26 – is a collection of 14 songs and tunes taken from a show we did in Vancouver in November 2019 for The Pacific Bluegrass & Old-Time Music Society Community Group. We had the show filmed by Approach Media, and luckily, we got Andrew Smith at Vancouver Live Sound to multi-track record the show so we had some mixing capability.
"We weren't planning to do a live album and had sort of forgotten about the show until earlier this year. When we did get back to it, we loved what we heard and realized we'd captured a special night. We choose our favourite tracks from the two sets, John Showman mixed them, then Andrew Collins mastered the whole deal. Now, we have an album that we're really proud of, and we think you're going to like!
"The 14 tracks cover some of our favorite songs from our first 4 albums. Over the next 6 weeks we will release 6 videos of tracks from the album as they were played the night we recorded it!"
1. The Hills of Mexico – We’ve been playing this tune since the very beginning. In fact, it’s the very first tune on our first album. There are many versions of this classic folk song, but this version owes its roots to the great KY banjo picker and singer Roscoe Holcomb. We first heard it on a recording by The Renegades which featured the wonderful singing of Carol Elizabeth Jones.
2. Laketown Blues - Richard Inman is one of Canada’s great contemporary songwriters. Everyone in the band is a big fan. Laketown Blues is just one in a vast catalogue of moving songs he’s written.
3. Long Hot Summer Days – John Hartford’s style of stringband music, especially his “windows approach” has had a very big influence on the way we play as a band. We also love his songs, which has prompted us to record quite a few of them. Although Coole was utterly aghast to have flubbed one of the first words of this song (“towboats” should be “empties”), we thought the crazy spirit of the performance more than made up for it! Watch a performance of "Long Hot Summer Days" below.
4. The Only Other Person in the Room – Who says you can’t honky-tonk with just a banjo, fiddle, and bass? This song comes from the great Texas duo Noel Mckay and Brennen Leigh. It may not be that old, but it’s already a classic to be sure.
5. Black Lung – A moving piece from the great W.V. songwriter and singer Hazel Dickens about the trials and tribulations of life in the coal mines. This piece was originally recorded (by Hazel) as acapella, but we have taken some liberties and interpreted some chords. Watch a performance below.
6. Cluck Old Hen – This version is based on the playing of the great KY (or WV, depending on who you talk to) fiddler Ed Haley.
7. Stone Walls and Steel Bars – Originally recorded by The Stanley Brothers, this song was written by Ray Pennington and Roy Marcum. We’ve changes the chords here a bit from the Stanley’s version to make it even more dark sounding. This is a great example of a song that paints a vivid picture with very few words! Watch a performance below.
8. Highlander’s Farewell/Monroe’s Farewell to Long Hollow – The first tune in this medley comes from fiddler Emmet Lundy (1864-1953) from Galax, Virginia. The second tune is one that Bill Monroe wrote but never got around to recording. Thankfully, James Bryan save this amazing piece from obscurity by putting it on his album “Lookout Blues” back in the early 80s.
9. Damned Old Piney Mountain - Craig Johnson was an amazing fiddler and banjo player who performed with The Double Decker Stringband in the 80's and early 90's. He was obviously also a great songwriter as he wrote this song based on a conversation he had with an old logger he met in West Virginia.
10. Going to German – This song comes from the repertoire of Gus Cannon who recorded widely in the 20s and 30s with his band “The Jug Stompers”. Apparently, the German in this song was referring to a prison.
11. Big Iron – It’s easy to overlook what an amazing songwriter Marty Robbins was. Even if he’d never sung a note, his catalogue of songs would still immortalize him. This is one from his classic 1959 album “Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs”.
12. Too Much Water – Speaking of great songwriters whose singing overshadowed their songwriting ability, this under-known honky-tonk classic comes from George Jones.
13. Cherry River Live/Gauley Junction – The song in this medley comes from West Virginia banjo picker and singer Jenes Cottrell. Fun fact - apart from being a powerful singer and player, Mr. Cottrell was known for making banjo rims using the aluminum torque converter rings from 1956 Buicks. The second tune in the medley was written by John and named for the beautiful confluence of The Gauley River and the New River in Fayette County, West Virginia.
14. Mississippi Dew – We wind things up with another great John Hartford song played in high-gear!
Congrats to Alejandro on the ACL honour, it's just surprising that the Austin icon wasn't in already.
Here's the scoop on the event from Austin City Limits...
Austin City Limits is proud to announce the newest class of Austin City Limits Hall of Fame inductees, recognizing a pioneering trio of music’s great live acts: Alejandro Escovedo, Lucinda Williams and Wilco. Music greats Jason Isbell, Margo Price, John Doe, Sheila E., Lenny Kaye, Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner, Rosanne Cash, Bill Callahan, Terry Allen and Del Castillo’s Alex Ruiz will take part in saluting the newest class of inductees with one-of-a-kind music performances and tributes.
The 2021 Austin City Limits Hall of Fame inductees will be saluted at a star-studded ceremony to be held October 28th, 2021 at ACL's studio home, ACL Live at The Moody Theater in downtown Austin. Musical highlights and inductions from the ceremony will air as a special on PBS stations across the country in January 2022.
Alejandro Escovedo
Called a “rock and punk godfather” by Rolling Stone, Alejandro Escovedo first debuted on Austin City Limits in 1983 with his seminal band Rank and File, and has made five indelible appearances. The San Antonio-born, California-raised trailblazer has been a punk of the rebel kind in early band The Nuns, a cowpunk of the non-Western variety in Rank and File, commander of a guitar army in The True Believers, an orchestral conductor in his solo work, and a sensitive boy who has outrun death, demons, lust, and lost love in his songs. Crossing borders, jumping barriers, taking risks, betting it all: that’s the path Alejandro Escovedo has taken in his lifelong search for the heart of rock ‘n’ roll. No Depression magazine declared him the Artist of the Decade at the onset of the millennium. His 12th studio album, 2018’s The Crossing, is a testament to his enduring power as a uniquely talented artist and collaborator. Escovedo has appeared on ACL five times - in 1983 (as part of Rank and File), 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2017.
Lucinda Williams
Louisiana-born Lucinda Williams has traveled a long road since her 1979 debut, Ramblin’ on My Mind, followed by Happy Woman Blues, her first album of originals released over forty years ago in 1980. (She says that she’s still “the same girl” except that now “I have a bigger fan base and I can afford to stay at better hotels.”) Over the course of fourteen remarkable albums, three Grammy awards, and countless accolades, including Time’s Songwriter of the Year of 2001, Williams is one of music’s most revered artists, beloved for her singular vocals and extraordinary songs. In 2018, she celebrated the 20th Anniversary of her watershed Americana album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road with a sold-out milestone tour. The pioneering artist returned to the gritty blues foundation that first inspired her as a young singer-songwriter in the late 1970s, releasing a career highlight, 2020’s Good Souls Better Angels, to critical raves and a pair of Grammy nominations, hailed “one of the most searing, potent and passionate albums you’ll hear” by American Songwriter. Williams has appeared on Austin City Limits four times, in 1990, 1992 (as part of a songwriters special), 1999 and 2008.
Wilco
In their over two-plus decades as a band, Wilco has won multiple Grammy Awards, released 11 studio albums, as well as a trio of acclaimed albums with Billy Bragg penning music to lyrics by Woody Guthrie. Led, as always by singer/songwriter Jeff Tweedy, the influential Chicago band have founded their own record label (dBpm Records) and festival (Solid Sound). Wilco continue to be regarded as a live powerhouse, as described by NPR, “To see Wilco on stage is to hear the best of the best.” Rolling Stone hails their most recent album, Ode to Joy, “Their best in years, a beautiful exercise in downhearted uplift,” while New York Magazine raved “[Ode to Joy] is Wilco’s best album in over a decade, and solid proof there’s room for bands to grow even when they’re already ten albums in.” Wilco has appeared on the ACL stage four times, in 2000, 2005, 2007 and 2012.
Austin City Limits 2021 Hall of Fame Induction & Celebration
Thursday, October 28, 2021
ACL Live at The Moody Theater
310 W Willie Nelson Blvd, Austin, TX 78701
6:00 pm gates and will call open
6:45 pm doors open
7:30 pm showtime
VIP Party Begins at 6:00 pm
Get tickets right here. Watch Alejandro Escovedo perform "Johnny Volume" with Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey and Kurt Bloch which wasn't originally televised as part of the ACL broadcast.
VP Records has just put out Keith Hudson's 1974 roots gem Flesh of My Skin, Blood Of My Blood. Hear "Fight Your Revolution"
Here's the scoop...
Flesh Of My Skin, Blood Of My Blood, Hudson’s fourth LP, was released in 1974 to critical reception in London, paving the way for his future success and setting a foundation for his creative legacy, which was cut tragically short when he died from cancer in 1984. Hudson’s original records are to this day some of the most sought after by reggae vinyl collectors.
In Jamaica, Hudson is best known known for his standout hit record with Big Youth, “Ace Niney Skank” and his debut production with singer Ken Boothe “Old Fashioned Way.” From there, Hudson’s output maximized the use of remix and versions that were the hallmark of early dancehall and sound system culture.
VP’s meticulous remaster of the original Mamba pressing of Flesh Of My Skin, Blood Of My Blood includes three tracks not on that original, plus extensive liner notes from Hudson biographer Vincent Ellis, combining to make this the definitive release of an obscure reggae classic.
The track "Fight Your Revolution" is avant-guarde reggae from one of the genre’s most innovative producers.
Given an original animated visual treatment from graphic artist and illustrator Costantinos Pissourios, the song features guitars (and a bass) panned into full stereo, with Hudson and his harmony singers imploring “black man, fight your revolution.” The statement of black empowerment is enhanced by the dignified portrayal of Hudson mixed with psychedelic Afrocentric iconography. Watch the video below.
Get Keith Hudson's Flesh Of My Skin, Blood of My Blood right here.
