Jefferson Airplane Takes Off is the debut album of American rock band Jefferson Airplane, released in August 1966 as RCA Victor LSP-3584 (stereo) and LPM-3584 (mono). The personnel differs from the later “classic” lineup: Signe Toly Anderson was the female vocalist and Skip Spence played drums. Both left the group shortly after the album’s release and were replaced by Grace Slick and Spencer Dryden, respectively
RCA executives found some of the lyrics too sexually suggestive. They had the band change the lyrics in “Let Me In” from “I gotta get in, you know where” to “You shut your door, now it ain’t fair”, and “Don’t tell me you want money” to “Don’t tell me it’s so funny”. In “Run Around” they had the line “Blinded by colors come flashing from flowers that sway as you lay under me” altered to “that sway as you stay here by me”. With “Runnin’ ‘Round This World” the executives insisted that “trips” in the line “The nights I’ve spent with you have been fantastic trips” referred to taking LSD, though the band insisted it was merely common slang. Even replacing the word “trips” with a guitar apreggio did not placate RCA’s concerns with the line’s sexual connotations and refused its inclusion on the album, and the recording remained unreleased for the next eight years.
The album’s release drew little press attention at a time when mainstream newspapers did not normally cover rock releases and the rock press was yet in its infancy. Crawdaddy! highlighted the album on the cover of its January 1967 issue, which included a three-page review by the magazine’s assistant editor Tim Jurgens, who called the album “faulted” yet “the most important album of American rock” of 1966. (by wikipedia)
The debut Jefferson Airplane album was dominated by singer Marty Balin, who wrote or co-wrote all the original material and sang most of the lead vocals in his heartbreaking tenor with Paul Kantner and Signe Anderson providing harmonies and backup. (Anderson’s lead vocal on “Chauffeur Blues” indicated she was at least the equal of her successor, Grace Slick, as a belter.) The music consisted mostly of folk-rock love songs, the most memorable of which were “It’s No Secret” and “Come up the Years.” (There was also a striking version of Dino Valente’s “Get Together” recorded years before the Youngbloods’ hit version.) Jorma Kaukonen already displayed a talent for mixing country, folk, and blues riffs in a rock context, and Jack Casady already had a distinctive bass sound. But the Airplane of Balin-Kantner-Kaukonen-Anderson-Casady-Spence is to be distinguished from the Balin-Kantner-Kaukonen-Casady-Slick-Dryden version of the band that would emerge on record five months later chiefly by Balin’s dominance. Later, Grace Slick would become the group’s vocal and visual focal point. On Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, the Airplane was still Balin’s group. (by William Ruhlmann)
Personnel:
Signe Toly Anderson (vocals, percussion)
Marty Balin (vocals, guitar)
Jack Casady (bass)
Paul Kantner (guitar, vocals)
Jorma Kaukonen (guitar)
Skip Spence – drums)
+
Spencer Dryden (drums on 15., 18. + 19.)
Tracklist:
01. Blues From An Airplane (Balin/Spence) 2.13
02. Let Me In (Balin/Kantner) 2.59
03. Bringing Me Down (Balin/Kantner) 2.24
04. It’s No Secret (Balin) 2.39
05. Tobacco Road (Warnick[n) (*) 3.30
06. Come Up The Years (Balin/Kantner) 2.32
07. Run Around (Balin/Kantner) 2.40
08. Let’s Get Together (Kantner/Anderson/Balin/Powers) 3.35
09. Don’t Slip Away (Balin/Spence) 2.34
10. Chauffeur Blues (Melrose) 2.28
11. And I Like It (Balin/Kaukonen) 3.20
+
12. Runnin’ Round This World (from Early Flight) (Balin/Kantner) 2.25
13. High Flying Bird (from Early Flight) (Wheeler) 2.17
14. It’s Alright (from Early Flight) (Balin/Spence) 2:17
15. Go To Her” (from Jefferson Airplane Loves You) Kantner, Irving Estes 4:09
16. “Let Me In (from Jefferson Airplane Loves You) (Balin/Kantner) 3.31
17. Run Around (uncensored version) (Balin/Kantner) 2.35
18. Chauffeur Blues (alternate version) (Melrose) 2.49
19.1. And I Like It (alternate version) (Balin/Kaukonen) 8.16
19.2.. Blues From An Airplane (instrumental; hidden track) (Balin/Spence) 2.10
Cool Struttin’ is a 1958 album by jazz pianist Sonny Clark. Described as an “enduring hard-bop classic” by The New York Times, the album features alto saxophonist Jackie McLean, trumpeter Art Farmer and two members of the Miles Davis Quintet, drummer Philly Joe Jones and bassist Paul Chambers. According to The Stereo Times, the album enjoys “a nearly cult status among hardcore jazz followers”, a reputation AllMusic asserts it deserves “for its soul appeal alone”.
Fender Musical Instruments Corporation (FMIC), commonly referred to simply as Fender, is an American manufacturer of stringed instruments and amplifiers. It is famous for its solid-body electric guitars and bass guitars, such as the Stratocaster (also known as the “Strat”), Telecaster (also known as the “Tele”), Precision Bass (also known as the “P-Bass”), and the Jazz Bass (also known as the “J-Bass”). Its headquarters are in Scottsdale, Arizona. The company, previously named the Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, was founded in Fullerton, California, by Clarence Leonidas “Leo” Fender in 1946.
In 1950, Fender introduced the first mass-produced solid-body Spanish-style electric guitar, the Telecaster (originally named the Broadcaster for two-pickup models and Esquire for single-pickup).[8] Following its success, Fender created the first mass-produced electric bass, the Precision Bass (P-Bass). In 1954, Fender unveiled the Stratocaster (“Strat”) guitar. With the Telecaster and Precision Bass on the market for some time, Leo Fender was able to incorporate input from working musicians into the Stratocaster’s design. The Strat’s comfortable contoured edges and in-built vibrato system led to its soaring popularity.
In the late 1940s, Leo Fender began to experiment with more conventional guitar designs. As early as 1949, the familiar shape of the Telecaster can be made out in some of Fender’s prototypes. Early Telecasters were plagued with issues; Leo Fender boasted the strength of the Telecasters one-piece pine neck while early adopters lamented its tendency to bow in humid weather. Fender’s reluctant addition of a metal truss-rod into the necks of his guitars allowed for the much needed ability to fine-tune the instrument to the musician’s specific needs. With the design of the Telecaster finalized, mass-production began in 1950. The key to Fender’s ability to mass-produce an electric guitar was the modular design of the Telecaster. Its bolted-on neck allowed for the instrument’s body and neck to be milled and finished separately and for the final assembling to be done quickly and cheaply by unskilled workers.
Arvo Pärt (Estonian pronunciation: [ˈɑrvo ˈpært]; born 11 September 1935) is an Estonian composer of classical and religious music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs his self-invented compositional technique, tintinnabuli. Pärt’s music is in part inspired by Gregorian chant. His most performed works include Fratres (1977), Spiegel im Spiegel (1978), and Für Alina (1976). Since 2010 Pärt has been the most performed living composer in the world. (by wikipedia)
Mick began his solo career in the early 80s and has become an established name on the European scene, touring regularly in every country from Finland down to Italy. Praised for his fiery “straight from the wood” guitar sound, he has appeared on numerous festivals with artists such as Robert Cray, Johnny Winter and Rory Gallagher. Mick has released fifteen solo albums so far.
In the mid 70s Mick co-formed SALT a powerful blues-rock act who were a big hit on the London scene in the 70s playing regularly at the Marquee and other top venues. The band played at the Reading Festival and also opened for Muddy Waters at two major London concerts. SALT has also reformed for occasional re-union tours.
One of the best blues singers… soul singers… hard rock singers… Mike Harrison, who passed away today, March 25th, at the age of 72, was as impossible to pigeonhole as SPOOKY TOOTH, the band he used to front, were. But when Mike delivered the likes of “Better By You, Better Than Me” nobody cared for categorization – being carried away with the sheer emotionality of Harrison’s voice. Either stood at the microphone or sat at the piano, he seemed to symbolize any group, though, despite the presence of great instrumentalists such as Keith Emerson, a fellow member of THE V.I.P.s in the ’60s, and “Supernatural Fairy Tales” – which he recorded when that ensemble became ART – is a minor psychedelic classic. Still, it’s the TOOTH that the vocalist found fame with.
Following the release of 1970’s aptly titled “The Last Puff”, Spooky Tooth called it quits with singer Mike Harrison striking out in pursuit of a solo career. Signed by Chris Blackwell’s Island Records (which had been Spooky Tooth’s label), Harrison made his solo debut with the release of 1971’s cleverly-titled “Mike Harrison”. Self-produced, the album found Harrison teamed with the band Junkyard Angel (who were from his hometown of Carlisle), showcasing the talents of bassist Peter Batey, guitarist/keyboard player Ian Herbert, drummer Kevin Iverson, and lead guitarist Frank Kenyon.
Two years ago, Fabrizio Paterlini asked his friends to describe their impressions of the word melancholy. Their responses inspired him to write the track, “If music were melancholy”. But it didn’t end there. In his free time, he wrote piano miniatures and posted them on his Soundcloud page. After 250,000 hits, he knew he was onto something. Now these tiny tracks are collected in the form of an album (on white vinyl!). A follow-up to the wintry Now (which was selected as one of our Best Winter Albums of 2013), The Art of the Piano encapsulates a sense of forlorn nature, stillness in the midst of white, peace in the middle of a swirling world. It’s a perfect panacea to wintry woes. Even before playing these tracks, one intuits the theme. With titles such as “Empty room”, “Conversation with myself” and “Broken”, the album seems to address seasonal affective disorder with an empathetic ear. Yet while The Art of the Piano may be melancholic, it’s not sad. A certain dignity can be found in these grooves, the dignity of discovering beauty when color has faded all around. It’s a sweet irony that the vinyl is white, while the cover includes brighter hues, like a cardinal seen in snow.
Grateful Dead slipped the shores of America and crossed the pond for its first-ever major European tour in April 1972. The legendary 22- show run spawned Europe ’72, a live triple album that remains one of the band’s best-selling and most beloved releases. A tour this momentous deserves a boxed set of historic proportions and Dead.net has stamped your passport to relive every note from the European tour with Europe ’72: The Complete Recordings, an individually numbered, limited edition collection that includes more than 60 discs with over 70 hours of music featuring every show from what is arguably the Grateful Dead’s greatest tour.
After an absence of nearly ten years from the scene, singer Agneta Baumann makes a welcome come-back. This is a musical self-portrait of artistic stature which is at the same time an open personal statement, as revealing as though the words were spoken in confidence. She presents such standards as “More Than You Know”, “The Party’s Over” and “The Best is Yet To Come”
But it was not until after some years spent in other working activities that music took a central role in her life. During a period in the travel-agent business in Copenhagen 1965 she began to sing with The Golden Girls, a popular group in the style of The Supremes, and after an engagement in Stockholm 1968 she decided to stay and branch out on her own. During the following years she toured throughout the country and abroad with her own constellation “Agneta Baumanns Orkester”. From the later part of the 70’s she also often sang together with the jazz pianist Knud Jörgensen, who taught her what is perhaps the most important thing of all, that the space between phrases is also music, and that you have to mean what you sing.
Pianist Carl-Fredrik Orrje, bass player Per-Ola Gadd and drummer Bengt Stark are all born in the 1960’s. As a rhythm section they distinguish themselves as one of the most vital in Swedish jazz of the 90’s. Carl-Fredrik and Per-Ola are heard as soloists in “That’s All” while each make personal contributions to “I Fall In Love Too Easily” and “Everything Happens To Me”, respectively. Each number receives the finishing touch by way of the subtle embellishment, which characterises Bengt’s sensitive brushwork.
ManyFantasticColors 