Day 0367 - Songs in the Key of Life

Stevie Wonder "Songs in the Key of Life" (1976) - got it

Stevie had parted company with synthesizer wizards Robert Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil who had left him with a stockpile of some 250 songs (of which only a handful have since been released).  Rather than fall back on those tracks, Stevie set about recording new songs.  Now, this is where the role of a producer can show its merit.  When RM and MC were on board with Stevie they'd give him the tools to explore his ideas, but they would also make sure he finished songs and got albums out into the world, instead of constantly starting new things and not seeing them through.

"Songs.." took 2 years of Stevie constantly telling Motown that he was ready to deliver the album (at one point they even put up huge billboards advertising its release... a year or so before it finally got delivered). He recorded a further 200 songs with various guests, involved including Herbie Hancock, George Benson, and one or two of Stevie's exes on vocals. I feel as though after his death there will be a giant stockpile of songs that could be released if he hasn't destroyed them or they don't get stymied in a legal quagmire (at the time of writing, that's what seems to have happened to most of Prince's unreleased stuff.)

When the album finally came out, a few songs followed soon after release on an EP.  It suggests to me that Stevie, left to his own devices, just couldn't bring himself to 'close the loop' on the album.  In that respect, he'd probably fare quite well in the current music world where he could just drip out tracks via bandcamp or iTunes or something.

There are tons of brilliant tracks here ('Sir Duke', 'I Wish', 'Pastime Paradise', 'As') and of course there are.  This is 1970s Stevie: he was untouchable at this point.  That said, the album does suffer from the same 'track exhaustion' found in a lot of double albums.  I couldn't pick any 'bad' tracks per se, it just feels like a lot of work listening to the whole thing and could have been better presented or experienced as 2 or 3 separate albums.

Day 0068 - Midnight Ride

Paul Revere and the Raiders "Midnight Ride" (1966)

According to the book this bad were somewhat reviled at the time, due to being a bit theatrical in their stage costumes and performance. They regularly featured on one of Dick Clark's tv shows, which did nothing to add to their 'cool'.

It's odd though that they were dismissed, because this is really good music! The album seems to veer between sounding unbelievably 60s and sounding totally fresh and like it could have just been released. One of the songs sounds vaguely like Ween, to my ears. At times it's garagey and punky, at other times it's perky and poppy... either way I would say it doesn't manage to be boring at all.

Day 0010 - Brilliant Corners

Thelonious Monk "Brilliant Corners" (1957) got it

Monk is an important jazz artist for me personally, because the first jazz album I ever owned was a compilation of his work ("This is Jazz: Thelonious Monk").  After hearing Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers rave about how great Monk was, I went and listened... and had to agree.

The Ken Burns Jazz documentary series outlined what a maverick and weirdo Monk was: getting up and dancing to his own band in the middle of sets, intentionally throwing in crazy discordant notes that sounded like mistakes here and there, and coming in with some odd little wardrobe choices.

Monk helped develop the bebop sound alongside greats like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, but after getting done on a bogus drugs bust and having his cabaret card revoked, he wasn't able to do much professionally in the music world, until he got in signed by Orin Keepnews.  Keepnews released a couple of his albums (covers of Ellington compositions and then an album of standards) before letting Monk pursue his own compositional id.

One thing that I always love about so many of the jazz records from this era is how many great players are all over each others' records, John Coltrane playing on Miles Davis albums early in his career, Davis himself getting his start with Bird and Diz etc.  Similarly on brilliant corners you get Sonny Rollins (the 'saxophone colossus' himself), Max Roach on drums, and Oscar Pettiford on bass.

There's a nice mix of sounds on this album, with the long and laidback "Ba-lue bolivar ba-lues-are" ,the skittish, quirky "Bemsha Swing" (one of my favourites) and the gargantuan title track that gives everyone a chance to shine.  Roach's drum solo is understated but brilliant. 

Day 0006 - Ellington at Newport

Duke Ellington "Ellington at Newport"

The Duke had suffered the fate of most big jazz bandleaders in the second half of the 20th century a major drop in popularity despite the fact that he continued to tour solidly.

Despite swing's fall from grace, Duke's band's set at Newport ending up being a raging success.  The record company (as record companies are wont to do) rushed to capitalise on it and release this album... only to find that recordings of the show were pretty damaged.  Columbia dealt with this by getting Ellington into the studio to re-record the set.  The album was then patched together using the studio recordings, surviving pieces of the live recordings, and assorted canned applause.

Apparently there has since been a recording pieced together of the original show and it is something special... to be fair though, this version is great too; just a tight band playing some hot music!