Farewell to 2012...Part 1

2012 was a strange year.  Tough times, and such is life, but also some remarkable peaks of creativity, happiness, love, togetherness.  I am leaving 2012 behind feeling more optimistic than I've been in quite some time, excited about what the future holds for Dolly and I, our family, our friends, my comrades-in-song in the band No Hero, all the joy and beauty that surrounds us every day, even as the world roils wildly.  I hope everyone out there is enjoying peace, love and happiness as we welcome 2013 into our hearts and minds, and meanwhile, here's my "Best Of 2012" list, part 1 of 2...the soundtrack for a complicated yet wonderful twelve months...

Maybe my favorite album this year.  Hard to say for sure.  Turned my head around in a big way...Bobby's voice is older and more weathered than it once was, but the rasping, life-lived-full vocals imbue a weight in the songs that a lesser singer could never fathom.  The Richard Russell/Damon Albarn production is spare but funky, hushed but reverent, dark but seeking.  This is a modern groove classic, people will be catching up to this one for a while yet to come.

Much hyped, and so what do I really need to say about this one?  It lived up.  This could only very loosely be categorized as "hip-hop," as it was in record stores, for what it really is is something much more unique and unable to be categorized; there are strains of everything from Prince to Kanye to Morricone to the Delfonics to Aphex Twin on this album, and more.  Frank is doing things differently, can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

The comparisons to J Dilla's "Donuts" are not exaggeration, they are completely accurate.  This is an astonishing 34 tracks of experimental hip-hop, jazz, funk, rock, you name it.  Hard to imagine how somebody would have the discipline to put this together; it's an exercise in patience even for the listener, however, the rewards upon repeated spins are infinite.

More solid, slightly avant-garde R&B from one of my favorite ATL singer-songwriters.  Anthony David's voice is its own creature entirely; his croon has the kind of scratchy-but-brilliant tone in it reserved for the greats a la Otis Redding or David Ruffin, though his spin on R&B is thoroughly modern, with progressive political lyrics and a diverse range of influences.

Speaking of left-field R&B...another great record in that same vein from Detroit visionary Dwele.  I remember when I first heard Dwele I was taken aback and even confused by the sound...it was like J Dilla had met up with Maxwell and D'Angelo outside the studio and they just decided to go make a record together.  Except, in reality, it was one guy, plus he was playing trumpet and flugelhorn as well as singing atop these blurry-eyed smooth soul beats.  This new album focuses less on the jazzier side of what he does and instead plays more like a tribute to the bounce of '80's R&B.

Waited a long time for this one.  Ten years, to be exact, and it sounds nothing like his first record, 2002's "The Headphone Masterpiece."  Well, almost nothing.  ChesnuTT's warm, soulful vocals are still in place, but the music is bigger, played by a full band and sounding a bit like early '70's albums by Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, with a few modern touches to give the songs a current grit and/or edge.

June/July 2012: Cadet, Ter-Mar Studios and the joy of music.

The summer is beginning to shape up nicely, as I sit here writing this on a gorgeous and archetypal June afternoon in the Pacific NW.  I decided it was finally time for me to address my obsession with all things related to the Chess/Cadet label, and it seemed to me that there was no more appropriate time in which to do so than now, as I stand on the verge of a return to Chicago, a city I have not seen since I was 13 years old but which has always weighed on my mind as a place of wonder, excitement, power, creativity.  When I saw it as a child just entering adolescence, it seemed so vast, so dense with possibility and danger.  This ignited fires in my young mind that I never knew existed before, this idea of a CITY in which anything and everything had potential, not the small-town city feel of my hometown in Omaha but a big, endless, urban wilderness that stretched out before me like some multi-faceted hydra constructed of steel, pavement and people.  I saw what I could in the short time my family was there—the Art Institute, the restaurants, the El trains, the skyline—but we of course had not even scratched the surface.

Years later and well into my ‘20’s, a similar felling of ignited fires took hold of me as I slowly and inexorably was drawn into the sound of the Cadet label circa ’65-’75, a sweeping, majestic, inimitable sound that absorbed music of the past while creating music of the future.  Jazz, funk, soul, blues, folk, rock, psychedelia…it was all there, sometimes on the same song even.  With arrangers Charles Stepney and Richard Evans working behind the scenes to establish this unique new sound, and with the warmth of Chicago’s Ter-Mar Studios serving as the primary setting for much of what transpired, the framework was created in which a whole new renaissance movement in the world of music would come to the fore.

Now, however, this period in the Chicago scene has become a mere footnote when it should be a novel unto itself (at least!), and so I am one of many who are working to revise what history has either overlooked and/or outright ignored.  This time out, loyal readers—CADET is what’s happening!!

The Ramsey Lewis Trio: "Another Voyage"

This was my first foray into the expansive world of Cadet, purchased years ago for $2 while I was a student at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA.  This album gave me a sense, even then, that there was a certain quality present in the recording sessions themselves that was extremely individualistic, and defiantly so.  Ramsey Lewis, of course, was already one of the Cadet label’s big stars by the time he made this masterful album, having charted such monster hits as “The In-Crowd” and “Wade In The Water,” songs that insured him employment and creative control with said label for as long as he wanted.  What makes this LP so crucial, however, is the presence of some very key players in the studio.  Charles Stepney manned the boards and did the arrangements, while Ramsey’s rhythm section of the period (Maurice White on drums and Cleveland Eaton on bass) drove the music in the direction of hard-hitting funk and R&B, with most of the jazzier elements confined to Lewis’ piano fills and solos.  The two-part “If You’ve Got It, Flaunt It” that bookends the record is a statement of purpose, a cooking funk-jazz number that sets the live-in-the-studio-party tone perfectly.  Other highlights are the pre-hip-hop-groove meditation on Stevie Wonder’s “My Cherie Amour” and the grooved-out, laid-back take on the Eddie Harris classic “Bold And Black.”  There are even moments that take clear, defined steps directly into R&B’s further evolution, such as Maurice White’s use of the kalimba on “Uhuru.”  The title of this LP—“Another Voyage”—seems deliberate and intentional on the part of Lewis, Stepney, White, etc…they were announcing the arrival of a new sound and a new generation, made even more potent by the presence of Lewis.  The man was a veteran of the scene, yes, but one willing to take chances and push his art in directions that many of his peers were afraid of, or simply didn’t understand.

Rotary Connection: "Songs"

Rotary Connection was Stepney’s answer, and challenge, to psychedelia.  As the late ‘60’s wore on and the music of many bands seemed to float even further out into the ether, Stepney used Rotary Connection as a vehicle for his feelings on the movement and the time period itself.  The sound contained within their albums ranged from placid, folky musings to acid-rock freakouts to hardcore R&B to early funk-fusion, all the while addressing the musical and cultural mutations that were occurring throughout the world in the swirling turbulence that was the second half of the 1960’s.  On “Songs,” Stepney speaks directly to certain musicians and bands by taking their songs and turning them inside out.  Employing the staggering, height-scaling, dove-tailing vocals of Minnie Riperton and the rich, worn, soulful voice of Sidney Barnes, Stepney takes such ‘60’s staples as “Respect,” “Sunshine Of Your Love,” “The Weight” and “Salt Of The Earth,” and molds them into creations all his own, often making the more famous composers and/or performers of the original tunes look rather tame by comparison.  Riperton is simply astonishing; anyone who is a fan but only knows her from her ‘70’s material MUST investigate her work with Rotary Connection, as she rocks harder and takes more risks than she ever would again.  She pushes her vocals to the brink many times over, displaying an edge and ferocity uncharacteristic in her later work.  The other star of this recording is the band, uncredited on the LP but likely made up of the usual Cadet studio suspects—Phil Upchurch, Pete Cosey, Cleveland Eaton, Maurice White, Morris Jennings.  The guitars are particularly crunchy, with Phil Upchurch in full-on heavy metal mode, taking on Hendrix, Page, Clapton, Townshend, etc., and winning.  Throughout this record there is a distinctly evident vibe, as there was on so many of the other Cadet projects from this time, allowing the listener to lose themselves and be overwhelmed (in a good way) by the stark beauty, sprung from deep inside the genius mind of Charles Stepney.

Minnie Riperton: "Come To My Garden"

A Cadet release in everything but name, put out by the GRT label, Cadet’s parent company.  The natural outgrowth of Stepney’s work with Rotary Connection was to collaborate on a Minnie solo album, although I was never sure why they only did this one together, as it was brilliant and certainly left the door open for future possibilities.  Another important piece of the puzzle was the involvement of Riperton’s husband Richard Rudolph, a long-time songwriting partner of Stepney’s for Rotary Connection and Riperton’s co-writer for the remainder of her career.  Rounding out the equation was the ’69-’70 version of the Ramsey Lewis Trio, the same one that recorded “Another Voyage” as discussed above.  Together these potentially disparate factors created vivid, breath-taking music, with my favorite moments found in the epic, symphonic-funk grandiosity of opener “Les Fleur,” the folk-jazz melancholy of “Rainy Day In Centerville,” and the Rudolph-penned title track.  Stepney and the Lewis trio crafted a musical backdrop for Minnie’s dazzling vocals that is now defined as “baroque soul” or “chamber soul,” but at that time had no terminology associated with it, as it was so completely and refreshingly new, the end result of which was (and still is) a wondrous, beautiful record.

Terry Callier: "Occasional Rain"

The flipside to the Stepney/Riperton collaborations was Stepney’s work with Terry Callier.  This meeting of the minds occurred right around the same time Minnie sought greener pastures on the Stevie Wonder-produced “Perfect Angel” LP, and greener pastures she did indeed find with the smash “Loving You.” Nothing that Callier did even approached that level of commercial success, but I’m not necessarily sure that’s what he was going for either.  Callier had a different history than Riperton in that he had been a songwriter on the Chicago scene for quite some time before his Cadet solo career, shopping material to the Dells, Jerry Butler, Rotary Connection, etc.  What Charles Stepney did with Callier was flesh out his sparse, folk-soul songwriting style and add textures and layers that didn’t inherently exist in the original creations.  Songs like “Ordinary Joe” and the segue-connectors “Go ‘Head On” practically leap out of the speakers with a joyful yet meditative bounce, the former in particular being a Callier anthem, all blues-shuffle-rhythm and eerie Stepney keyboards.  Then there are the distinctly Chicago-sounding, almost haunted ruminations that Stepney was so effective at, like “Do You Finally Need A Friend” and “Trance On Sedgewick Street.”  The album closes with the dramatic, tension-releasing “Lean On Me” (not the Bill Withers cut), followed by one final “Go ‘Head On” segment, leaving the listener with a sense of conceptual closure.  These Callier/Stepney records can be somewhat of an acquired taste for the uncertain, but anyone seriously interested in immersing themselves in the Cadet sound and era will need to check them out.

Dorothy Ashby: "The Rubaiyat Of Dorothy Ashby"

Wowie zowie.  Here it is.  Maybe the single rarest LP in my collection, though I’m not one hundred percent sure on that.  Certainly one of them.  Here we transition from the arrangements of Charles Stepney to those of bassist/arranger Richard Evans, a figure from Chicago who has received an equal amount of cult-like devotion in the era of “crate-digging as archaeology.”  Evans definitely has a different feel than Stepney—while still dramatic, his sensibility was also more exotic, a kind of world-music perspective considerably futuristic in its approach.  In working with Dorothy Ashby—the world’s foremost, and likely one of its only, jazz harpists—he found a kindred spirit, and met her challenge on creating a set of sounds to match Ashby’s near-spoken-word readings of the 11^th century Persian philosopher and intellectual Omar Khayyam.  Ashby doubles on harp and its distant relative the koto (from Japan), creating a hypnotic, mystical energy that swirls around the dense yet funky arrangements from Evans and the session band.  Her singing/speaking, while not revolutionary or technically versatile, fits the otherworldly vibe perfectly.  My favorite cuts are the opening “Myself When Young,” the dreamy, very ’60’s-sounding “Drink,” and the edgier, more forward-thinking acid-funk workout “The Moving Finger.”  I can see why this album is so rare now, along with Ashby’s other records…even in the unpredictable music business of the late ‘60’s/early ‘70’s, it is hard to imagine a specific market that would appreciate something so lovely and bizarre.