THE GRAMOPHONE WIRE
ARTISTS FEATURE NO. 1
JONI MITCHELL. MILES DAVIS. JAMES BROWN. Three artists that have shaped popular music today with not only their music, but their passion. Read further for the history behind their greatest albums and hits.
JONI MItchell’s blue: AN EMOTIONAL MASTERPIECE
LET MILES DAVIS HELP BUILD YOUR JAZZ COLLECTION
JAMES BROWN LIVE AT THE APOLLO AND THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS
JUST A REMINDER
See (or hear) an album you like? Gramophone can order any 180 gram vinyl record to the store for your convenience.
JONI MITCHELL'S BLUE
AN EMOTIONAL MASTERPIECE BY KEN SWAUGER
In June of 1971 Joni Mitchell released her fourth album, Blue, a deeply personal work that marked her return to a recording studio after nearly two years of introspective absence.
Accompanied by such luminaries as Stephen Stills and James Taylor it has become one of the most revered records in popular music. Rolling Stone magazine awarded her the highest ranking for a female artist by placing it as number 30 in its 500 Greatest Albums of all Times listing. It contains songs that are anguished laments about her failed love affair with Graham Nash as well as examinations of her bittersweet relationship with James Taylor. After hearing it for the first time, her friend Kris Kristofferson warned her that she was revealing too
FIRST OF ALL I'LL WRITE SOMETHING DOWN AND THEN I THINK: 'OH, I LIKE HOW THE WORDS SOUND TOGETHER BUT IT DOESN'T SAY ANYTHING.' WHEN I FINISH A NEW SONG I TAKE IT AND PLAY IT FOR MY FRIENDS WHO ARE FINE MUSICIANS AND WRITERS. I'M VERY IMPRESSED BY THEIR REACTION TO IT. IF THEY LIKE IT, I'M KNOCKED OUT. I GUESS I WRITE FOR THOSE PEOPLE. JONI MITCHELL ACCOLADES FOR BLUE: • "500 Greatest Albums of All Time." Rolling Stone • "All Time 100 Albums." Time • "25 Albums that Represented Turning Points and Pinnacles in 20th Century Popular Music." New York Times • "100 Greatest Albums of All Time." VH1 • "Greatest Albums of All-Time by a Female Artist." Q 1999 • Grammy Hall of Fame inductee
Joni Mitchell’s Blue is available on CD, HDCD, hi res digital, and 180 gram vinyl formats. Get your Joni Mitchell vinyl from us at Gramophone!
much of her inner self. But this kind of soul-scraping was exactly what she wanted to share with her listeners. For Mitchell the act of creating is predicated on experiencing a situation, recognizing its effect on her life and then expressing her feelings through song. Living in Los Angeles she had felt stifled by her notoriety and her inability to be an anonymous observer. She had confided to author Sandra Shevey, “I’ve always been plagued by a fear of success: that it would be a fishbowl”. When she and Nash lived in a small house in Laurel Canyon, the New York Times had sent a reporter to catalogue all the antiques they had in the house, giving readers a detailed look at the couple’s “flower children” lifestyle. This kind of scrutiny drove her to cancel concerts at both Carnegie Hall in New York and Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. and pushed her to escape to Europe. At this early stage in her career she told a reporter “When I retired I felt I never wanted to play in front of people again – ever.” To be on stage and perform a song that plumbed the depth of her feelings and then have an audience applaud seemed strange and unacceptable to her. She was earning a very good living composing and letting other people record her work, tempting her to give up concerts and recording altogether. Fortunately for us, her decision to get away and spend time living a less hectic life such as living in a hippie cave commune in Crete and helping sail a friend’s boat through the Panama Canal, renewed her enthusiasm for the performing life. She felt revitalized and went on to compose some of her most mature and confident songs. The result is Blue, a recording that gives the attentive listener a true window into the artist’s soul. It is an artistic effort that The Atlantic called “The greatest relationship album ever.” This is musical communication at its highest level, one person writing and singing about missed opportunities and collapsed dreams giving listeners an opportunity to process the lyrics within the context of their own lives. For this symbiotic exchange to work best the audio system must be able to faithfully reproduce the nuance of Joni’s voice, allowing you to feel all the emotion packed within the song. Like a poor language translator an audio system that veils inner details or adds coloration robs the listener of the ability to accurately understand Mitchell’s emotional intent. When you listen to Blue’s first track, “All I Want” on your Gramophone system you’ll hear all her wonderful vocal overtones clearly displayed for you. As her voice soars and sweeps through each melodic line the complete freedom of coloration will allow you to hear this historic performance exactly as it was intended. The other important contribution accomplished by your system is the creation of a lifelike soundstage in front of you. On “California” you can hear each instrument clearly arranged on a stage in front of you. The best version to find is the superb reissue done by Warner Bros on 180-gram vinyl. Mastered by Steve Hoffman and cut by Kevin Grey, using the original tapes recorded by master engineer Henry Lewy, it does complete justice to a rare moment in the life of one of the most influential artists in music. It’s a must-have record for any serious music lover and/or audiophile.
LET MILES DAVIS HELP YOU BUILD YOUR JAZZ COLLECTION BY KEN SWAUGER
ONE OF THE MOST SATISFYING THINGS ABOUT owning a high quality sound system is that it allows you to explore different musical genres. Maybe you grew up listening to one type of music, but now you are curious about others, Jazz for example. But what’s good to listen to? Not everything is going to appeal to the first time listener. What’s a good way to get your ears "wet?"
One approach is to pick a well-known recording and listen to it a few times. After you are familiar with what each of the performers sounds like, look for other recordings by each musician. For example, let’s take the quintessential Miles Davis recording, Kind of Blue. It was released in the spring of 1959 and has become the best selling jazz record of all time, going platinum four times over. With Miles playing trumpet he is joined by saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian “Cannonball” Adderley. The rhythm section is Bill Evans on piano, Paul Chambers plays bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums. Miles believed in giving his fellow musicians a minimum of rehearsal time and only sketches of what the musical structure and melody lines should be. Using this bare outline Davis encouraged his fellow musicians to improvise, creating instantaneous impressions of musical thought. It can be helpful to think of this record as a kind of conversation between two old friends: Coltrane and Adderley. Coltrane’s playing is more cerebral reflecting the new style of saxophone playing. Cannonball, on the other hand, seems rooted in the old blues style, answering Coltrane’s intellect with emotion and feeling. Once you have begun to appreciate this record use it as a platform to explore other works. Listen to John Coltrane with Johnny Hartman next as a way to hear how the tenor master lends melodic support to the superb vocalist Johnny Hartman. Here Coltrane keeps his powerful improvisational technique under control and compliments Hartman’s warm, inviting voice. For a change of pace listen to Cannonball Adderley’s soulful record, Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! Here is a fine example of the “deep-in-the-blues” quality that is the foundation of so much in jazz music. His masterful playing is fully on display on this Capitol label recording. The next person to investigate is Bill Evans. I highly recommend his early recording Portrait in Jazz not only to hear Evans but also the work of short-lived bassist extraordinaire Scott LaFaro. The interplay between piano and bass is amazing and deserves several hearings. Paul Chambers, the bassist on Kind of Blue, is recognized as an important exponent of high-register fills and contrapuntal bass lines, which are now part of every bass players stock and trade. Try and locate his Blue Note recording: Bass on Top for prime examples of his skill. The last surviving player from the original sextet is Jimmy Cobb who continues to honor the music from Kind of Blue in concerts all around the world. He can be found on: Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane on the Prestige label. Also Miles Davis’ superb Sketches of Spain, another not to be missed record. By examining a single seminal record, you can create a branching tree of musical enjoyment. Once you have done this, re-listen to Kind of Blue with a new appreciation of what each performer brings to it.
THE THING TO JUDGE IN ANY JAZZ ARTIST IS, DOES THE MAN PROJECT AND DOES HE HAVE IDEAS. MILES DAVIS
JAMES BROWN
LIVE AT THE APOLLO
& THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS BY KEN SWAUGER
In late October of 1962 it really looked like the world was going to change, and not for the better. The cold war was definitely getting hotter and the Soviet Union and the United States were dangerously close to button pushing time. In the middle of all this superpower huffing and puffing a young R&B recording artist was trying to start Act II of the rest of his life. The fates weren’t going to let a little thing like the Cuban Missile Crisis get in his way. James Brown was 29 years old and reasonably successful in the music business. His singles had sold well and he was considered one of the top four or five performers under contract with King Records. But that was not enough for the ambitious Brown. He wanted to become a pop superstar and believed he understood how to make that happen. His strongest musical attribute was his live performances where his charged personality could connect with an audience and explode. For years he and his backup singers, The Famous Flames, had played to predominantly black audiences in what was known as the “chitlin” circuit. These concerts, called revues, would include an amateur dance contest, a male and female singer, a comedy act and end with Brown’s vocal fireworks and his gravity defying dancing. When he approached his boss at King Records, Syd Nathan, with the idea of making a live recording he was turned down. Nathan didn’t believe a recording of a live concert would yield any three minute long singles, which were the backbone of the record business in those days. Undaunted, Brown took $6,000 of his own money, rented the Apollo Theater in Harlem and hired an on location recording crew to capture a new kind of pop record: James Brown, Live at the Apollo.
“IT SEEMED NOBODY WANTED TO MISS WATCHING THE END OF THE WORLD.” NEW YORK CITY WAS COLD ON THAT OCTOBER 24TH NIGHT, suiting the mood of
most New Yorkers who believed their city stood a good chance of being nuked before the end of the week. Earlier that day newspaper headlines had proclaimed the start of the US naval blockade of Cuba, threatening to fire on any Russian ship that didn’t comply with the embargo. In Moscow the state run radio station had been broadcasting, every half hour, a dire warning, claiming that the U.S. threats would “unleash nuclear war”. All week people had been stockpiling groceries and bottled water and even TV sets. It seemed nobody wanted to miss watching the end of the world. Tickets for the James Brown concert sold for $2.00 each and the line stretched around the corner guaranteeing a sold out crowd in spite of world events. In an attempt to get the audience in a better frame of mind, Brown had members of his road crew bring hot coffee to the waiting people. He had all of the Apollo ushers dressed in rented tuxedos so that they looked as sharp as he did. During the day’s afternoon performance people who were especially vocal were asked to remain for the late show and moved closer to the front of the stage. Brown wanted to be able to count on these people to add to the excitement of the record. It can be helpful when you listen to Live at the Apollo to think of your sound system as a kind of time machine and the clarity of your system as a window letting you “see” what happened on that night. The performance begins with the famous phrase, “Are you ready for star time?” delivered by Lucas Gonder who besides being
the emcee is the band’s organist. Following the introduction and listing of Brown’s hits the band kicks off with a rousing number and James Brown takes the stage. Throughout the entire concert listen to how the band is almost letter perfect in the way it supports Brown’s wild exuberant interplay with the screaming audience. Nowhere is this excitement more evidenced than tracks six and seven of the 2004 re-released CD on the Polydor label. Your audio system will place the muted trumpets firmly to the left of the stage with the tenor and baritone saxophones flowing to the right. The drums seem to be slightly elevated in the center and the sounds produced by the organ and guitar seems to float from the right side of the stage. The Famous Flames are left of center and Brown is firmly planted in the center. If you listen carefully to the apparent distance between his voice and the microphone you’ll get a sense of how he manipulated the ebb and flow of the building emotional connection with the audience. Sometimes he’s purring into the mic pulling it close and vocally stretching syllables like a color smeared across a canvass. Other times his voice almost fades to inaudibility letting you see him bending down touching outstretched hands from people standing in front of the stage. The audience participation now becomes an equal partner to the singer with single voices call out from the surging crowd extolling Brown to “go on and sing the song!” If Brown is the backwoods preacher then they are the willing converts allowing him to lead them beyond this loveless world. It is the tremendous dynamic range capability of your Gramophone system that allows you to accurately retrieve this seminal musical event. The best audio systems can simultaneously produce the loudest transients without masking the subtlest inner details. Without their ability to portray this wildly changing scene with all of its dynamics intact you wouldn’t be able to hear exactly how it was recorded. All of this raw emotion with its give and take between performer and audience registered with the record buying public. The album remained on Billboard’s best selling album list for 66 weeks and has been included in the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry. Rolling Stone magazine has listed it as number 24 in its list of 500 greatest albums. Now you can revisit that tumultuous time in the world’s history and find how one person’s indomitable spirit triumphed and created lasting art.
I USED TO THINK LIKE MOSES. THAT KNOCKED ME DOWN FOR A COUPLE YEARS AND PUT ME IN PRISON. THEN I START THINKING LIKE JOB. JOB WAITED AND BECAME THE WEALTHIEST AND RICHEST MAN EVER 'CAUSE HE BELIEVED IN GOD. JAMES BROWN
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