Return to Vinyls: Golden Age and New Jazz, Classic Soul, RnB and Blues

The song Green Onions by Booker T and the MGs is without doubt one of the major rock and soul instrumentals to come out of the 1960s. According to a review on AllMusic.Com it is “one of the most popular instrumental rock and soul songs ever.” The song is based on a classic twelve-bar blues progression fused with jazz and features Booker T. Jones on Hammond organ, Al Jackson Jr. on drums, Steve Cropper on Fender Telecaster guitar and Lewis Steinberg on bass guitar. The four, particularly once Donald "Duck" Dunn took over bass duties, they were the classic Booker T and the MGs. Add the Memphis Horns and they were the Mar-Keyes. But more often than not, they were the uncredited house band. But together or individually they were the backbone of Memphis soul music. They were not just the musicians playing behind the soul stars — they helped write, arrange and produce many of the Stax hits. They cooked with more than just Green Onions. If it was on Stax Records they were probably there playing.

Return To Vinyls Season Two is coming in January with more R&B, more soul and more musicians that defied easy categories. And of course more great stories behind the music and the creative music makers. Look for us on your favorite podcast host.

She’s been called the godmother of rock and roll. Rolling Stone Magazine named her the 6th greatest guitarist of all time in 2023. If you saw the Elvis movie. Yep, she was in there. The British singer Yola played her singing Strange Things Are Happening Every Day at a club. Elvis was a fan, as the movie depicted. Keith Richards of the band the Rolling Stones has talked about how her European concert tours in the early 1960s influenced British guitarists. She was often called the Swinger of Spirituals — yes she did gospel songs. But it was her electric guitar playing that revolutionized music. Oh and by the way she was featured on a US postage stamp in 1998 from a series honoring early gospel singers. Of course she is clutching her electric guitar on the stamp. Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

Humans have been transfixed by the night sky, well, since the beginning of human existence. There’s ancient rock art and cave art that depicts celestial events and structures that align with the solstices or equinoxes. The stars in the sky tell stories from the American Indian and Australian Aborigine oral traditions, to the ancient myths from Greek, Roman and Arab cultures. They at times overlap from cultures separated by thousands of years and thousands of miles. 

There are monsters, Cassiopeia, a queen held captive by the sea god Poseidon, her daughter Andromeda was chained to a rock and only saved at the last minute from being killed by Cetus the sea monster when Perseus cuts off the snake filled head of Medusa and used it to stop the monster. Yep, some strange stuff. 

No wonder the sky has attracted artists and storytellers. But of all of the musicians who have written or sang songs about the sky, and there have been hundreds, only one is actually from outer space. His name is Sun Ra and he is from the planet Saturn. And even if his coming from another planet is a bit debatable, this stuff really is pretty out there.

Do you ever wonder why a particular song becomes a hit? Or a best selling book, blockbuster movie, or why a newly emerged visual artist will have work on display or one person shows at major museums all around the world at the same time? As you might guess people have studied that phenomenon. 

If you are going to study creative success, music is a good place to begin and we will look at a recent study that does just that. There are a known number of record companies that have produced hits. There are databases like Discogs that list virtually ever record and CD ever made, and of course Billboard magazine quantifies hits each week with the Hot 100 as well as Jazz, R&B, Easy Listening and Country Western songs on dedicated charts. Originally using record store sales, radio and jukebox plays, these days downloads and streaming are added to the mix. Although getting on the top 100 matters a lot and makes it a hit. People following Billboard look even closer at the top 30 and that all important top 10. If you are in the top ten you have made it to the big time. You are in that rarefied world where only the top 20% of hits go. 

It is not uncommon for a song to “cross over” from one chart to another. So it may be a hit on the Country chart and also the Hot 100 popular chart. But rarely does it place as high on the second chart. It is very rare indeed, but sometimes you get a Jazz record that crosses over to R&B and also the Hot 100. The Ramsey Lewis Trio did just that by covering a successful R&B record and actually made it into an even bigger hit. 

As WWII was drawing to a close in the mid 1940s America’s musical taste was changing and along with it musical venues were going through an upheaval. Dance halls and ballrooms saw audiences abandon once crowded dance floors for a listening experience. But by the 1950s music and venues were changing again. Music in general, and jazz in particular was seen as more sophisticated thanks in part to magazines like Esquire. Therefore jazz stated moving to college campuses and even the most discerning and storied classical music halls.

The jazz pianist Dave Brubeck and his wife Iola Brubeck were amongst those driving that change. But it was not always a smooth road ahead. There were few places in America that were more integrated than jazz groups in the 1940s and 50s. And therefore that road had more than a few speed bumps and potholes. The Brubecks found that out when they tried to schedule a concert tour of 25 Southern colleges in 1960—with an integrated band.

A recent album from Brubeck Editions, Live From The Northwest, 1959 recorded in Portland Oregon added another college concert to the four college concert albums the Dave Brubeck Quartet had previously released. Ironically this concert was in effect a rehearsal for that Southern colleges tour. Additionally from Brubeck Editions there is Live From Vienna 1967 from the Quartet’s final European tour featuring the Dave Brubeck Trio at the famed Vienna Konzerthaus. Trio? I bet you thought they were a quartet? It created a unique concert experience. And both albums are part of really interesting stories that tell us a lot about jazz, culture and history.

The Late Brazilian jazz pianist and band leader Sergio Mendes, who passed away this month, was best known for fronting the Bossa Nova group Brazil 66 who had there first big hit with the Brazilian song Mais Que Nada sung in Portuguese it more or less translates as "Much of Nothing." It was great to see and hear all the tributes to Sergio Mendes and his music. But I was flummoxed that there was never any mention of his truly breakthrough group Brasil 65. Yes before Brasil 66 there was Brasil 65 and for me they were the most exciting and authentic musicians doing Brazilian jazz at that time.

This is a special episode of Return To Vinyls. Remembering Sergio Mendes. Before his breakout recordings with Brazil 66 there was Brazil 65 and it is every bit as good.

This episode is dedicated to James Green, audio artist and friend who also was a fan of Sergio Mendes. We saw Brasil 66 in concert together. My experiences with Jim have been a constant flow throughout much of this series of podcasts. Rest in peace brother.

You need to look no further than the album cover from a new release from British jazz musician Matthew Halsall to know that art and nature both play a critical part in his work. His LP An Ever Changing View has to be one of the most beautiful vinyl packages ever produced. The two record set doesn't stop there, it also contains some really interesting music as well. 

Along with art his other non-musical influence is the natural world. His music is a blend of jazz and deeply meditative influences that’s in tune with the natural world. In fact he wrote much of the album while staying in a house overlooking the North Sea in England.

There are artists and writers that create works about nature but there are also others who use nature as a jumping off point. But what about musicians? We can go back 300 years and see, how yes even then, nature played a part in the creation of music. And it still does today.

Do we need yet one more album of someone playing their favorite Beatles hits? When it is Brad Mehldau yes we do. One of the world's top jazz pianists — rated among the top five  on National Public Radio and winner of the Downbeat Magazine Reader's Poll eight times, has delved into a few Beatles songs in the past. But this time he jumps in with both feet and the results will surprise and impress you. So what is it about the Beatles and their songs anyway? We will find out from someone who was there. At least in front of the TV during their first American visit and in the stadium during a concert —  the only American Beatles concert to not sell out. They hated the town and said they would never come back! Let's look at Your Mother Should Know: Brad Mehldau Plays The Beatles.

Marvin Gaye is certainly a well known Motown star. You may know a bit about the tragic story of his life and death. But you probably do not know all the details and the struggles he went through. Nor the vast catalogue of his many hit records. Add to that all the changes Gaye’s music went through as American society changed in the 1960s and 1970s. 

And I bet you have never heard any of R&B singer David Porter’s albums on Stax records. Which is amazing because you no doubt do know his songs. But the man could do much more — he could turn bubble gum into soul! We look at exclusive releases of a classic David Porter from Vinyl Me Please and a new release of a complication of Marvin Gaye’s best sellers from Target