On the final day of the first month of 2019, I finally get to my final “Best Of” post, looking back at the best vinyl I dug up in 2018, in this case looking at 12″ records, since this time around, not all of these are actually LPs.
Tobruk – Heart Of A Sound Spirit
After three years of Tropicalia In Furs pop-ups in LA at Rappcats, I’ve checked off a lot of the Brazilian records that I knew I wanted. But there is so much quality music from the 1960s and 1970s out of Brasil that there will likely never be an end to discovering records from that country. In this case, Tobruk is “just” a group who lived in and recorded in Brasil. They probably would have found a home on a number of American labels, since their sound is perfectly in line with funky and psychedelic music of the time. But being a Brasilian record meant that Joel had a copy and thankfully I had just enough in the record budget to grab it when I saw it up on the wall. Expect to hear much more from this record soon enough here on Melting Pot.
As with the 45s, most of the LPs here came from Pop-Up sales at Rappcats, which really was where I spent most of my past year buying records. This one came to me during the Summer, when I realized that I would not be able to take a planned trip to Cuba, despite having saved quite a bit of money for the trip. I’d actually considered splurging for this record, which I only ever see listed online and in some far flung place across the globe. But fate was kind after the disappointment of not being able to go to Cuba, and this album was sitting pretty on the wall at Burbank’s Atomic Records on the very day my Cuban plans fell through. A gorgeous 2-lp sonic spiritual excursion with Don Cherry leading a large and varied ensemble that is on-par with the work he did around the same period of time with Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra or the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra.
I first ran into the music on this album when I still lived in Atlanta, in the late 1990s. During that time I was becoming obsessed with Booker Little, who still remains one of my favorite Jazz musicians, composers and trumpet players. In those pre-Internet days, it was very difficult to find information if it wasn’t printed on the album, and the reissue of this material, put out on a label called TCB, gave virtually no info, except that both Donald Byrd and Booker Little were associated with the album. The album faded largely from memory as the years passed until I came across the original release at Rappcats. Being able to read the liner notes finally solved the mystery of which tracks featured both Booker and Byrd, and which featured one or the other player by themselves. Thrilled with my discovery, I actually gave my reissue to another patron, who enjoyed the music when I was testing out the sound quality on the house speakers. What I didn’t realize until recently was that “Quiet Temple,” one of the most beautiful themes I’ve ever heard, was actually edited slightly on that reissue, as the original copy included a full 30 seconds of material at the start that I had never heard before. At first I thought there was a mistake, like it was a part of the previous song, or somehow I’d forgotten the way it began, but no, it was a surprise and one of the most welcome surprises I’ve had in quite some time. Part of the reason why it’s always a good idea to track down every version of a cherished release, just in case there is something special to behold.
One of the first albums I bought in 2018, and one of the rarest and most cherished in my collection. I’ve talked quite a bit about this album already in a separate post about it, but now reflecting on it again, I’m still kind of surprised that someone put this back on the wall at Rappcats during Cool Chris’ Groove Merchant pop-up…Surprised, but eternally thankful. A fascinating dive into the early career of Alejandro Jodorowsky, before the world realized just what a talent he truly was.
Okay, okay…technically this is not an LP, it is a 12″ record, but it’s a one-off Presto 78. Given that this is the only 78 I even own, it doesn’t make sense to create another category for it, so here it is. I’ve already discussed how this one came into my collection and the experience of slowly discovering that it might be a one of a kind record. All I’d like to say here is just reiterate something I mentioned in the Melting Pot Radio Hour (where I also played this at 33rpms, just to give y’all a feel of what it was like when I first heard it), and that is that when you have the opportunity to check out a record that has no information, not even a label, ALWAYS take that chance, because you NEVER know what it could be.
biutifull