Japan Dulce: Terumasa Hino 80

Terumasa Hino Quintet - Rock for Altena II (excerpt)

Has it really been 9 years? It's been a long, long time... hasn't it?

If you'd have told me when I started this thing I'd still be at it almost a decade hence, I'd have asked you to pass whatever you were puffing upon.

I share a birthday with quite a few superstars of the musical firmament, but there aren't any more luminous than today's milestone guy.

One of the touchstone figures of Japanese Jazz, he's been on my playlist for many's the moon.

If I had to describe him, I'd say he was sort of like the Japanese equivalent to Herb Alpert, if that makes any sense.

He started at the beginning of the 1970s in a sort of free-funk, hard-bop energy music bag, and then progressed into smoother and more accessible stuff as his career developed.

His records from his first phase are among the hottest and wildest of any that exist, anywhere.

Born this day in 1942, he's turning the big 8-0 today and is, thankfully, still around to enjoy it.

Let's commemorate another great from the slate with this, his burning quintet set from one of those famous New Jazz festivals they used to hold at that castle in Germany back in the days, can we?

This comes from a giant box set that's one of a series of them dedicated to this festival's long run... I don't think it's official because B. Free is a notoriously awesome bootleg reissue label out of Luxembourg.

This 64 minutes of wtf sounds just as much like some sort of sacred musical ritual than it resembles your run-of-the-mill concert, and whoever the percussionist is is operating on another plane of existence entirely.

Terumasa Hino Quintet

International New Jazz Meeting 1973

Altena Castle

Altena, Germany

6.24.1973

01 Akubai

02 Rock for Altena I

03 Rock for Altena II

Total time: 1:03:54

Terumasa Hino - trumpet, cornet & percussion

Yoshi Ikeda - bass

Motohiko Hinio - drums

Yuji Imamura - percussion

Mikio Masuda - piano

mixing desk recording, sourced from the 2016 grey area 8CD box set "International New Jazz Meeting Burg Altena 1972-1973" on the B. Free label

Track 02 on the CD was actually performed as two distinct tracks, and was split by EN, October 2022
416 MB FLAC/direct link

That should be it from me for the month of October, but November is only a click away.

Happy 80th to Mr. Hino here, and a hearty hug of happythanks to everyone who's read this page over these last 9 (!) years! I go celebrate my 56th now.--J.

Birth Stoned Soul: Laura Nyro 75

Laura Nyro - Poverty Train

Last call for the poverty train

Last call for the poverty train

It looks good and dirty on shiny light strip

And if you don't get beat you got yourself a trip 

You can see the walls roar, see your brains on the floor 

Become God, become cripple, become funky and split

Why was I born?

No-no-no-no

whoa-oh no-no-no-no no no no, no

Oh baby, I just saw the Devil and he's smilin' at me

I heard my bones cry,

Devil why's it got to be?

Devil played with my brother,

Devil drove my mother

Now the tears in the gutter are floodin' the sea

Why was I born?

No-no-no-no

whoa-oh no-no-no-no no no no, no

Oh baby, it looks good and dirty, them shiny lights glow

A million night tramps, tricks and tracks will come and go

You're starvin' today

But who cares anyway?

Baby, it feels like I'm dyin' now

I swear there's something better than

Getting off on sweet cocaine

It feels so good

It feels so good

Gettin' off the poverty train

Mornin'...

Laura Nyro

Fillmore East

New York City, NY USA

12.22.1970

 

01 introduction

02 He's a Runner

03 Brown Earth

04 When I Was a Freeport and You Were the Main Drag

05 poem: Christmas In My Soul

06 Poverty Train

07 Emmie

08 Gibsom Street

09 Captain for Dark Mornings/Map to the Treasure

10 Up On the Roof

11 And When I Die

12 Time and Love/Save the Country

13 Walk On By

14 It's Gonna Take a Miracle

15 Tom Dooley/California Shoeshine Boys

16 Timer

Total time: 1:17:03

Laura Nyro - piano & vocals

mono soundboard capture of unknown origin, the first hour of which may have been broadcast on FM radio

possibly recorded on 8-track reel under the Fillmore stage by the crew, or a radio team for broadcast, or Bill Graham on B&W videotape in the venue

some dead air edited, several dropouts repaired, slightly retracked and remastered, with volume boosted -- and the tape flip 

in Track 09 patched with an unknown gen FM (could be audio from that aforementioned video) bit from Wolfgang's Vault -- by EN, October 2022
322 MB FLAC/direct link

We'll creep one post closer to the 9th anniversary of this page next week with a milestone birthday of a songstress for the ages.

If you don't know who Laura Nyro is, I'd be for denying you the right to vote or sentencing you to 10 years hard Nickelback, but lucky for you she'd have been 75 today so you get another chance to enjoy your new favorite singer/songwriter.--J.

10.18.1947 - 4.8.1997

Ethos, Pathos & Lagos

Fela Anikulapo Kuti & Africa '70 - Pansa Pansa

Here goes a Saturday Night Special with which to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

I have covered him before, but a timeless figure such as this deserves his own blog, dedicated exclusively to him, anyway.

Perhaps the ballsiest musical figure in human history, the Nigerian authorities savagely beat him to the point of near death after just about every single release.

They didn't appreciate the full-length LPs very much either.

To describe him as "fully committed" would be a sad undersell.

In addition to his revolutionary status, and him being the singlemost recognizable musician in African history, he also smoked herb which caused the likes of Paul McCartney to broadly hallucinate.

There is almost no one like him in the vast history of Music, when you get right down to it.

If there were 10 such as he today, outright, primordial fascism might not be making such an unprecedented comeback.

Oh yeah, I forgot: all of the above plus he invented an entire genre of music called Afrobeat that still wields a huge global influence decades after his demise.

He was born in 1938 on this day, so he'd have been 84 today.

To celebrate this monumental figure of all music, we'll break out an audio transfer of one of his most famous performances, up to now only available on a DVD in a German box set.

This is his last show with the original Africa '70, who all summarily quit when he announced after the performance that all revenue from his career would now go into political initiatives.

They didn't call Fela Anikulapo Kuti "The Black President" for nuthin'.

Fela Anikulapo Kuti & Africa '70

Berliner Jazztage

Philharmonie

Berlin, Germany

11.14.1978

01 Berliner Jazztage introduction

02 band introductions by Kwesi Yope

03 V.I.P. (Vagabonds In Power)

04 Power Show 

05 Pansa Pansa 

06 Cross Examination of the African Colonial Soldier

07 Ginger Baker & Tony Allen drum duet (bonus track)

08 Mistake (bonus track)

Total time: 1:56:54

disc break goes after Track 04

Fela Anikulapo Kuti - organ, tenor saxophone, percussion & vocals

Tony Allen - drums

Lenkan Animashaun (Baba Ani) - baritone saxophone

Christopher Uwaifor - tenor saxophone

Ogene Kologbo - guitar

Shegun (Leke Benson) - guitar

Oye Shobowale - trumpet

Tunde (Baba Tunde) Williams - trumpet

Franco Aboddy - bass

Henry “Ojo” Kofi - congas (Gbede)

Shina Abiodun - congas

Addo Nettey - congas

Ayola Abayomi - sticks & claves

Isaac Abayomi - shekere

Bernadette Oghomienor - vocals

Tejumade Adebiyi - vocals

Sade Shehindemi - vocals

Regina Osundor - vocals

Felicia Idonije - vocals

Suru Eriomila - vocals

Ginger Baker - drums on Track 07

192/48k mono HD audio (spectral analysis goes past 22k!) sourced from the DVD contained in the 2009 "Anthology 2" box set on Label Maison

Tracks 07 & 08, which are stereo, are sourced from the 2016 box set "The Complete Works of Fela Anikulapo Kuti" on the Knitting Factory label

DVD portion extracted, converted to CD Audio 16/44, tracked and very slightly remastered by EN, 2018
651 MB FLAC/direct link

I've taken the liberty of placing a few extra goodies in the folder with the Berlin concert, which -- taken together with this little compendium from a few years back -- constitute all the many hours of Fela I have in my phone.

There's a couple more killer birthdays I have slated for the remainder of October -- including a sweet 9th anniversary post for this page! -- but if you're prescient you'll not miss out on The Black President!--J.

10.15.1938 - 8.2.1997