Day 0029 - Muddy Waters at Newport 1960

Muddy Waters "Muddy Waters at Newport 1960" (1960... obviously)

Apparently the album that introduced Page and Clapton to America's "urban sound"... or so says the book.

I'm not usually a huge blues fan... I like the genre well enough, but a whole album of it is usually too much; this one isn't bad though.  The extra groove from Waters' band and the energy of their performance definitely help.

Day 0028 - Back at the Chicken Shack

Jimmy Smith "Back at the Chicken Shack" (1960)

According to the book, the Hammond organ was seen as a bit of a 'square' instrument that you might hear at church or in an elevator; until Jimmy Smith picked it up and showed you how it is!

A Bluenote jazz album, but Smith's laidback organ grooves add a touch of funk and soul to proceedings. This album definitely has a foot in the straight jazz camp, but you can also hear how someone like Ray Charles would have looked at it and thought "hmm this piano is all well and good, but it's time to get myself a Hammond!"

Day 0027 - Miriam Makeba

Miriam Makeba "Miriam Makeba" (1960)

I was first introduced to this album through the electrifying and lively "The Click Song", and much of the album follows suit in providing African musical harmonies and rhythms in a form that is pretty recognisable to a western audience while retaining its spirit and vitality.

There are one or two, slightly twee 'pop' songs here that maybe don't sit as well with the much more exciting traditional African music.  In that way, Miriam kind of reminds me of Harry Belafonte, because he always interspersed his native Caribbean music with easy listening crooner tracks for the pop market.

Day 0026 - A date with the Everly Brothers

The Everly Brothers "A date with the Everly Brothers" (1960) - got it

Tight little album with great harmonies and strong songwriting.  It's especially impressive, considering they chucked this together just a few months after their "it's Everly time" album which they had in turn put together to combat Elvis who'd returned to the music world (see yesterday's post).

 Listening to it, it seems like this album MUST have been an influence on Orbison and the Beatles.
After listening to this, I picked up a set of 5 of their albums.

Day 0025 - Elvis is Back!

Elvis Presley "Elvis is Back" (1960)  - got it

Oh yeah, still the king.

Elvis was back after 2 years in the army, and RCA were itching to get him in the recording studio as soon as possible.  Colonel Tom tried to hold off to negotiate a really good deal, but for once, he didn't get his way.

Elvis was reunited with a bunch of musicians he'd worked with on his early albums and they very quickly churned out this 'comeback' album.  It's almost like the essence of Elvis distilled: you get his raunchy 'sexual' (for the time) sound, his 'soda-pop at the diner' style of pop, his sense of fun, his sensitive ballad crooning and the smooth warm vocal on "Fever" gives me funny feelings in my tummy.

I know that the Beatles often get credited as the artist that really opened things up as far as mixing sounds/genres, but Elvis got in a little ahead of them here.

Day 0024 - Joan Baez

Joan Baez "Joan Baez" (1960)

I'll have to admit that I know little about Joan, though she's always been on my radar to check out.

This album is pretty powerful stuff, particularly as it's mostly just guitar and voice.  I can hear her influence stretching down the way to artists from Cat Stevens to Laura Marling.

I love this interview quote from her about making the album:

It took four nights. We were in some big, smelly ballroom at a hotel on Broadway, way up by the river. We couldn't record on Wednesday nights because they played bingo there. I would be down there on this dirty old rug with two microphones, one for the voice and one for the guitar. I just did my set; it was probably all I knew. Just put 'em down. I did "Mary Hamilton" once, that was it. That's the way we made 'em in the old days. As long as a dog didn't run through the room or something, you had it.

Day 0023 - Time Out

Dave Brubeck "Time Out" (1959) - got it

 Last entry from the 1950s; Brubeck had been studying music abroad, and having heard some interesting time signatures on his travels wanted to experiment a bit on an album using different time signatures himself.   The head of the record company agreed to take a risk on it if Dave and his band first recorded an album of standards.

The Time Out album ended up being panned by critics but loved (and bought) by the public... which led to it being panned further by other critics later on!

For an album of 'odd' time signatures it's pretty smooth sailing, one track is seemingly entirely in the standard 4/4 timing and one in the almost equally common 3/4 (or waltz) time. Even tracks in 6/4 timing make pretty nice, laidback jazz, perfect for those suburban dinner parties. Take 5 is obviously the big success story on the album, the track that saxophonist Paul Desmond wrote, originally intending it to be a drum solo/showcase for Joe Morello, rather than a single. My favourite though is the exciting opener "Blue Rondo a la Turk" with it's somewhat unconventional 9/8 timing (occasionally breaking into 4/4 for the solo sections) making for some really exciting, tight, exotic jazz that feels like it's in constant motion.

I also love how a lot of the jazz albums from this period have interesting paintings as their album covers.