Funkadelic – Maggot Brain

Maggot Brain

Funkadelic – Maggot Brain Westbound WB 2007 (1971)

Maggot Brain is Funkadelic’s most brilliantly executed album. It is a grab bag of styles, each skillfully employed for the desired effect. There is psychedelic balladry (“Maggot Brain”), trippy soul (“Hit It And Quit It”), folky gospel (“Can You Get To That”), dark blues-rock (“You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks”), heavy metal (“Super Stupid”), zany pop (“Back In Our Minds”), and sound collage (“Wars of Armageddon”). Eclectic to say the least, Maggot Brain is one of rock’s most durable recordings.

When Maggot Brain came out, “Funkadelic” and “Parliament” were conceptually different. Both were the brainchildren of George Clinton, and the exact same group of musicians played in both. The two heads of the beast seemed to each have a mind of their own. “Funkadelic” was the rock band while “Parliament” was the funk band. Over time the distinction lost all meaning (the names actually used gets quite confusing), especially after Bootsy Collins later joined.

This is an Eddie Hazel album. Even on great P-Funk albums, the glue sometimes came apart.  Though “Wars of Armageddon” tests the limits, Maggot Brain stays together. George Clinton was the ringleader, but Hazel is the “glue” that sticks here. The title track features one of the great psychedelic rock solos of the Vietnam war era. Hazel’s aching and languishing feeling on that song is diametrically opposed to Jimi Hendrix‘s fiery style, though in general Hendrix comparisons are in order.

The drumming from Ramon “Tiki” Fulwood is another highlight. While forceful and snappy, his drumming is simple. However, the percussion is ingrained in the music, right in step with the solos from Hazel and the amazing keyboardist Bernie Worrell. The echo effects on “You and Your Folks, Me and My Folks” bring back a trick from old sides by blues shouters like Big Maybelle. The rough feel gives give this record’s constant inventiveness some firm roots.

“Can You Get to That” returns to the very ancient concepts of love and equality. This crew believes in those things even if they aren’t commonly witnessed. Funkadelic handles this song is such a way that these ideals never seem futile.

Maggot Brain has empowerment on Funkadelic’s agenda. It’s not happy Sixties soul. The record points out some of the biggest mistakes society has brought upon itself. Yet, Funkadelic seem immune. They have the inside track laid out inside their social commentary, and are willing to share it.

When Gospel Was Gospel

When Gospel Was Gospel

Various Artists – When Gospel Was Gospel Shanachie SH 6064 (2005)

A nice collection of gospel from 1946-1969 produced by Anthony Heilbut, the author of The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times.  Eight of the selections are previously unreleased live recordings, which may make this interesting to those already well familiar with the artists represented here but also less interesting to those looking for just a general introduction to gospel music.  There are plenty of great female gospel singers and groups on display here.  If this set does have a theme, it is a focus on the kinds of acts that emphasized very disciplined singing and very traditional lyrics with generally biblical tones.  That is to say, this collection steers clear of more modern gospel with more emotional, unhinged vocals.  So the title “When Gospel Was Gospel” seems to reflect a context of a lecture by an old timer to a younger “kid” about days gone by when things were good, serious, dependable, meaningful, and, from the point of view of the “kid” being lectured, entirely boring and out of date.  Well, I’m being harsh.  All the music here is really good, even the obscure live recordings.  The thing is, this set has a tendency toward the kind of dour, serious material that threatens to take all the fun out of listening to the whole thing front to back.  It would have gone a long way if different artists, or even different songs by the artists already represented here, were selected to place a few more up tempo, lively numbers here and there.  Fans of gospel music won’t be bothered by the dour seriousness, of course.  There are so many great performances, from Mahalia Jackson‘s soaring “Power of the Holy Ghost” to Marion Williams‘ “Traveling Shoes”, that there is bound to be at least something for everyone to love.  But, this set might be a little too disciplined and straight to win over many new fans of the genre.  I hesitate to add this, but felt like I should: the sound quality of this disc is a bit muffled, so you don’t hear all the great voices as clearly and crisply as you might like.

Lee Morgan – Infinity

Infinity

Lee Morgan – Infinity Blue Note LT-1091 (1981)

It’s pretty amazing that Lee Morgan’s Infinity album sat in the vaults for so long before seeing release.  In an effort to duplicate the success of The Sidewinder, Lee Morgan was making a lot of recordings in the mid-1960s.  His reputation is that he was something of a hard bop reactionary.  And I suppose that the 60s were a unique time in that there was never again to be such a large number of musical giants performing jazz at the peak of their careers combined with a comparable level of commercial interest in the music.  The commercial decline of jazz music had a profound impact on how many young musicians chose to play jazz (rather than rock or something else) and what labels and venues were willing to support.  So, for a brief moment in the 1960s, Infinity many have seemed like “just another hard bop album” and therefore not commercially viable enough for release.  And to a certain extent that might have been true.  This might have been lost in the shuffle around the time it was recorded.  But it’s also another pretty good hard bop album.  The songwriting is above average, there are some top players here, and it all comes together in some commendable performances.  While I don’t want to make it seems like this is some groundbreaking lost classic, this album does certainly hold its own with the better hard bop albums of its day.  Particularly thanks to Jackie McLean, I think this is even a bit more rewarding than some of the better-known, though overrated, hard bop albums of the period.

Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis – Two Men With the Blues

Two Men With the Blues

Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis – Two Men With the Blues Blue Note 50999 5 04454 2 4 (2008)

Two Men With the Blues pairs Willie Nelson with Wynton Marsalis at two live appearances at The Allen Room, Lincoln Center, New York City, where Marsalis is musical director.  Willie has always demonstrated a fondness for jazz, and he has recorded in that setting before, so an outing backed by a jazz combo for some bluesy vocal jazz-pop is well within his range.  He doesn’t have to reach for any of this.  Although Willie just does his usual thing, it happens to suit the music fine.  The only thing Marsalis and his band bring to the table is endless showboating.  But the problem is the showboating isn’t very impressive (perhaps only appearing so to the jazz novice).  It’s actually Willie Nelson on guitar who brings more adventurousness to bear, with much more affinity for dissonant chords than Marsalis’ hard-bop puritanism permits.  Perhaps more time playing together would have allowed a better rapport amongst the musicians.  As it stands, this is adequate, but falls well short on creativity.  A pairing of Nelson with someone like saxophonist James Carter might be more interesting.

Preservation Hall Jazz Band – New Orleans’ Sweet Emma and Her Preservation Hall Jazz Band

New Orleans' Sweet Emma and Her Preservation Hall Jazz Band

Preservation Hall Jazz Band – New Orleans’ Sweet Emma and Her Preservation Hall Jazz Band Preservation Hall Records VPH/VPS-2 (1964)

They call Dixieland jazz made after its time “moldy fig” music.  The Preservation Hall Jazz Band played their first touring gigs in Minneapolis, and Sweet Emma is a recording of one of them.  The band was started to provide jobs for aging musicians who played a style of jazz that had long since fallen out of commercial favor.  A venue named Preservation Hall was opened as a kind of museum and tourist attraction to showcase Dixieland jazz.  The band has featured a rotating cast of local New Orleans musicians through the years.  If you’ve listened to old, first-generation Dixieland records, this will probably not impress you much.  But it’s all still good fun.  This is unpretentious music that is exactly what it claims to be, no more, no less.