Deodato - Preludes and Fugues - Raven RVCD117

Deodato’s Prelude has been reissued as a single CD by CTI; however this CD, made in Australia, also contains Deodato 2. Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001) from Prelude represents the start of Disco; its lush orchestration over nine minutes of funky Latin rhythms were the template for almost everything that followed. The beginnings of anything are of interest but this CD has actually got solos which, after thirty years, still sound interesting. And the sound, particularly played very loudly, as it was supposed to be in 1973, is fantastic. Of course, it’s a Rudy Van Gelder job.

Disco is generally reckoned to be dead naff nowadays, but a lot of good jazz musicians made a lot of money out of it. At the peak of the movement, 85 jazz albums made the Billboard Pop or R&B album charts in 1975; 92 in 1976; and 82 in 1977; most of them Disco albums. Jazz hadn’t been so popular since the swing era - AM

Ernie Payne – Coercion Street – Black & Tan B&T019

Unsung singer....

Ernie Payne has apparently gone unheard and unrecognised for most of his long career but he seems to have put that to rights with this album and his recent performance on Andy Kershaw’s programme will have won him even more fans.

He comes from Louisiana and he plays and sings the blues. His voice has just the right blend of edge and depth and his guitar and dobro playing employs rock and country influences. His performance on this album is effortless and intimate and draws you in from the first track, from the slower, gospel-tinged numbers to the rocky Nothing Wrong With Texas (that leavin’ won’t fix). I’d say he’s gone from unheard to unsurpassed.

Duke Ellington - Piano in The Foreground - Columbia/Legacy 512920

I heard this album in the mid-sixties, but it was already deleted. I’ve waited forty years for its reissue.

I can’t be bothered with Duke’s big band stuff, except for some commercial records, such as Main Stem, which spent four weeks at number 1 on the R&B charts in 1944. But when he plays in a small group, there are few funkier pianists. The standout tracks here are Summertime and So, from the original 1961 LP, and Piano Improvisation no 1; a 1957 bonus track which is nearly ten minutes of slow, funky blues playing. (Of course, there are a few Debussy-style tracks as well.)

James Brown is the only other pianist I’ve heard who can pull down strange chords from the outermost reaches of the galaxy into a twelve bar blues and keep the groove as low down and dirty as Ellington. This is NOT what we’re told about Ellington! (It’s not what we’re told about Brown, either.)- AM

Wild Bill Moore - Bottom Groove - Milestone MCD47098

According to Bill Haley, and generally accepted by historians, Moore made the first Rock ‘n Roll record, We’re Gonna Rock, We’re Gonna Roll, in 1947. Apparently, he was the first tenorman to gyrate so much he split his trousers. Moore was a Texas tenor player, involved in Bebop in LA in 1946, who moved to Detroit in 1947 and recorded his hit single. Later, he played the solo on Marvin Gaye’s Mercy Mercy Me, and even later, sitting in with Houston Person at Watts Club Mozambique, blew Person right off stage!

This CD contains both LPs he made for Jazzland in 1961. The first, Wild Bill’s Beat has Jr Mance on piano; the second, Bottom Groove, Johnny “Hammond” Smith on organ. There is only one ballad but a lot of blues and funky jump numbers. And Moore’s playing is as gut-rending as anything I’ve ever heard. After decades of mono, it’s nice to hear this in stereo - AM

The Concretes - The Concretes - ASW 71126

The first album from this Swedish outfit and they start off sounding strangely like Throwing Muses. Then you realise there's a lot more to them and a good thing too. They've got real pop sensibility and they avoid the dreariness of the Muses with some nice changes of pace and a wide variety of instruments, from organ to brass, never used gratuitously. On Warm Night they show they're not afraid of taking the obvious and making something of it.

You get the feeling someone really knew what they were doing when they made this record and the rather classy cd cover and video confirms that they're going for a distinctive sound,look and feel. But they're not pretentious and the songs are fresh and catchy.