After my afternoon shift today, I parked up beside St. Mary’s, Denver. And after thatI drive around Denver a bit, to explore. Doing that lead me to discover an old guy selling books (and other stuff) from his garage.
I’d stopped to photograph a few particularly lovely gardens, ripe with poppies and hollyhocks. Then, as I drove off, slowly, I saw an open garage, with signs saying ‘all books 50p’. Worth investimigating, methought.
So I did. The proprietor, Barry, also showed me round his garden. Which is absolutely gorgeous. The hollyhocks are huuuge…Probably about 10 feet tall!
Well Creek, Upwell.
A wee bit later on, having been into Downham Market, and bought yet another Napoleon biography, I stopped to enjoy the glorious weather, beside Well Creek, back in Upwell.
After reading the intro, and first chapter, of my new Boney biog’, I drove home. And when I got back, Teresa and I went for a wander down the garden. That’s when I took the following pics:
Roses by the pond.
For one thing I wanted to check that the pond isn’t draining. And it isn’t. Fab! I sat beside it for a brief spell. It’s lovely to do just that, and it’s far from finished.
Teresa beside my, dans le jardin.
Having reassured myself that the pond isn’t leaking, we toddled up and doon our wee patch. And I took all the snaps that follow:
The garden is looking pretty ace. And it lifted my rather gloomy spirits to spend some time in it. It’s especially lovely in the bright sun of a summer evening.
And I’m massively gratified that my efforts to cultivate poppies and white umbellifers appear to have finally succeeded.
Teresa’s lovely gift of this little Bagpuss soft toy really made my day. He’s now been out with me, to work. Every time I look at him, I think of Teresa, Chester, and of course also all the wonderful Postgate/Firmin stuff from childhood.
Couldn’t pass up this photo op’!
Amazingly, on our first day out delivering together, where did we go? Cats Lane, no less! Had to hop out and get a snap
Thanks, sweetheart, for a lovely cheerful present.
I finished work near Great Barford, where there’s a beautiful bridge, over the river (?). And a nice pub, The Anchor, perfectly placed. I had to stop and admire the view.
Gorgeous!
The river is wide. The bridge is pretty. And there were lots of folk canoeing and swimming.
Why dangle?
I photographed my shots in such a way as to leave the folk – and there were plenty – out of picture. You can just see a few, in the waters’ edge pano’, above.
The Anchor.
There are benches across the road from The Anchor, nicely situated, on the riverbank. On a day like today it’s very, very idyllic.
I got home just after the 8 o’clock kick-off, of the England vs Slovenia Euros match. I would’ve watched the Denmark vs Croatia game, to be honest. But Teresa vetoed that… so… 90 minutes of torture it is, then.
Every now and again I get very passionate about an artist or group. One that I often think of very fondly, is the funky instrumental jazz fusion band, Dr Strut, out of L.A.
My passion for this group is (so far at least) based solely on their 1979 eponymous debut, on Berry Gordy’s Motown label. They were to be the star act on his newly launched Jazz Division of the famous label.
I don’t know how or even on what format we had this album – was it a cassette, or vinyl? – but we had it. And I loved it. Still do!
Dr Strut… but who’s who?*
* At the time of starting this post the only one I could confidently name was guitarist Tim Weston, at left, with specs. I’ve subsequently discovered that the third in line, in the top row (or the fifth if you count them all as one row), also wearing glasses, is percussionist Everett Bryson. Is the guy to Tim Weston’s lower left Claude Pepper? Hmmm…
I think it was due to looking into the provenance of the track ‘Canadian Star’ (more on that shortly) that I knew their guitarist was called Tim Weston, and that he had some sort of connection with Steely Dan.
I’d also picked up that their drummer, Claude Pepper, would go on to run a successful L.A. based funk’n’soul covers type band, Jack Mack & The Heart Attacks.
The Dr Strut discography.
Having mentioned them a few times recently, I thought I’d like to try and find out more about them. The first thing I dug up is the following:
Dr. Strut was formed in 1977. They were originally called “The Legendary Groovadelics” when Berry Gordy signed the band to Motown. Berry insisted on a name change and referred to them as “the flagship of the new jazz division”. The first two albums sold well (they placed high on the Billboard Jazz Charts). Most cuts were first or second takes with minimal overdubbing. The day before the band was to record the third album, Berry Gordy closed the jazz division of the label. Engineer Barney Perkins insisted that they record the album so they could shop it to American labels. Unfortunately, they found no takers. Due to the band’s popularity in Japan, Agharta/Canyon agreed to release it.
Further searching turned up the perhaps rather odd/surprising fact that they were the backing band for Japanese singer, Miki Matsubara, on two of her albums, Cupid (1981), and Myself (1982).
The images above were culled from discogs.com. And aren’t terrifically hi-res. But careful scrutiny of them and cross referencing with other Dr Strut album cover stuff (also off discogs.com) means I can now list the band members:
Sax – David Woodford
Guitar – Tim Weston
Bass – Peter Freiberger
Keys – Kevin Bassinson
Drums – Claude Pepper
Percussion – Everett Bryson
At some point soon I’ll try and match names and faces.
In addition to the band-members themselves, other key names in the Dr Strut story I’d like to perhaps look into a bit more would include Motown label impresario Berry Gordy, sound engineer Barney Perkins, and Japanese singer Miki Matsubara. I’m sure others will be added to this roster as I learn more.
Bryson is on a number of other recordings around the same time as he plays with Dr Strut, including Walk On, by Ozone, More Than Magic, by Bili Thedford, and Street Player, by Rufus & Chaka Khan.
Saxophonist David ‘Woody’ Woodford, seems like perhaps the most succesful and high profile of the Dr Strut alumni. I found the following on saxontheweb.net
Dave “Woody” Woodford has been playing R&B, rock ‘n’ roll, and jazz saxophone since he was twelve years old. In the 1960s he played with The Shirelles and The Drifters. In the 1970s, he worked with Aerosmith, David Sanborn, and Yvonne Elliman. In the 1980s, he toured with Bonnie Raitt and Stevie Ray Vaughn, recorded with Rod Stewart, and arranged for and played in the Star Search studio band. In the 1990s, he played at Woodstock ’94 with the Band, toured and recorded with Little Feat, played in the Broadway hit Smokey Joe’s Café, and toured the world with Bruce Willis’s band, The Accelerators. After watching him work in a Hollywood recording studio back in 1978, TV’s Valerie Harper gave Woody the moniker “Rock ‘n’ Roll Gunslinger!”
Woodford was born and reared in the Boston area. He started playing tenor sax professionally in 1960, playing “live on the air” for the Ken Carter Pepsi Dance Party on Boston radio station WCOP, and worked constantly through his high school years. He graduated with a Bachelor of Musical Composition from Berklee College of Music in 1970, and from 1969 through 1970 Woodford created and taught Berklee’s first course in rock ‘n’ roll and R&B horn arranging. He remained in the Boston area until 1977, recording and playing with various local and national artists, including Aerosmith, Tom Rush, Martin Mull, and Livingston Taylor. From 1967 to 1972, Woodford was co-leader, B3, and sax player for a popular eleven-piece Boston band, Swallow, and was a songwriter, arranger, and co-producer for the band’s albums (recorded for Atlantic and Warner Brothers records in 1970 and 1971). From 1967 to 1971, and from 1972 to 1977, he recorded and toured with Aerosmith, as well as the British singer Dana Gillespie, jazz artist Ben Sidran, and blues greats James Cotton and Howlin’ Wolf.
In 1977, Woodford moved to Los Angeles, where he co-founded the contemporary jazz group, Dr. Strut. The band was the flagship of the now-defunct Motown Jazz division and recorded two albums for the label that hit the top of the Billboard Jazz charts. The band also released a very successful self-produced album for Japan’s Canyon Records and toured Japan several times in the early 1980s.
Woodford toured and recorded as a featured performer with Bonnie Raitt from 1979 through 1985. He then left Raitt to work as an arranger and the entire sax section for the popular television show Star Search. He remained with the show for five years, while building a reputation as a session player, playing on the hits like “The Heat is On” (Beverly Hills Cop), “Ain’t Even Done with the Night” (John Mellencamp’s first hit), “Fallen” (Pretty Woman), and “Danger Zone” (Top Gun). He spent several years working as one of Giorgio Morodors’s “resident humans” at Giorgio’s Oasis recording studio. During this time, Woodford worked on the soundtracks to the motion pictures Beverly Hills Cop I & II, Top Gun, Over The Top, and Quicksilver, as well as the music for the 1984 Olympic Games, held in Korea. In 1985, Woodford found himself flying to New York City frequently, after being asked to take over David Sanborn’s sax chair in the band Who It Is, with Richard Tee, Cornell DuPree, Dave Weckl, and Will Lee.
Woodford has played on hundreds of albums, radio and TV jingles, and movie scores, as well as several French and Japanese recordings. His arrangements can be heard on television show Happy Days, the movie Top Gun, and many other projects. He played in the stage band in the musical Smokey Joe’s Cafe, worked on the under-score to Bruce Willis’ movie The Whole 9 Yards, and co-wrote the horn arrangements with Rick Braun for contemporary jazz artist Jeff Golub’s latest CD. The end of 1999 found Woodford recording with Elton John for a new Disney animated movie, working on the Michael Hutchins’s (former INXS lead singer) posthumous solo CD, and playing sax and flute with legendary blues band Canned Heat on New Year’s Eve. In 2000, Woodford was recording with French superstar Vanessa Pradis, Aaron Neville, and Australian rock hero Jimmy Barnes, as well as touring Australia with Barnes. Dave Woodford is still very much in demand as a player, producer, arranger, and horn contractor, working with artists from Johnny Mathis and Bobby Vinton to Tower of Power and Elton John. He is a true “Rock ‘n’ Roll Gunslinger!”
Live performance credits:
Aerosmith, Gregg Allman, The Angels, Brian Auger, The BAND, Jimmy Barnes, Bobby Bland, Gary “US” Bonds, Bonnie Bramlett, Rick Braun, Randy Brecker, Jackson Browne, Billy Burnette, Canned Heat, The Coasters, James Cotton, Cheryl Crowe, Billy Crystal, The Drifters, Dr. Strut, Cornell DuPree, Yvonne Elliman, Victor Feldman, Mick Fleetwood, Flo & Eddie, Robben Ford, Steve Gadd, Jeff Golub/Avenue Blue, Emmy Lou Harris, Don Henley, Howlin’ Wolf, Etta James, Rickie Lee Jones, Chaka Khan, Nicolette Larson, T. Lavitz, Albert Lee, Will Lee, John Mayall, Sam Moore (Sam & Dave), Graham Nash, Ivan Neville, Bonnie Raitt, Johnny Rivers, Tom Rush, David Sanborn, Sha Na Na, Boz Scaggs, The Shirelles, Ben Sidran, Jimmy Smith, Bruce Springsteen, Steven Stills, Sting, Stuff, Supertramp, Richard Tee, Tower of Power, Phil Upchurch, Billy Vera, Joe Walsh, Tony Williams, Bruce Willis, and Edgar Winter.
Gold and Platinum Record Credits:
The Heat is On (Glenn Frey), Danger Zone (Kenny Loggins), Ain’t Even Done with the Night (John Mellencamp), Long Distance Lover (Sheena Easton), Get Your Wings (Aerosmith), Live Bootleg (Aerosmith), Top Gun (Soundtrack), Beverly Hills Cop (Soundtrack), Beverly Hills Cop II (Soundtrack), Over The Top (Soundtrack), The California Raisins Album, The Best of Rod Stewart, Camouflage (Rod Stewart), Foot Loose and Fancy Free (Rod Stewart), Downtown Train (Rod Stewart), If We Fall in Love Tonight (Rod Stewart), and Pretty Woman (Soundtrack).
Drummer Claude Pepper:
My researches appear to indicate that Claude Pepper, bassist Peter Freiberger, and guitarist Tom Weston, were all doing session musician type spots on albums by a variety of artists. Sometimes just one of them, but often two, or even three, on the same projects.
And it seems that once Dr Strut (or The Legendary Groovadelics, as they were) came into being, they continued to work as guns for hire, sometimes even making appearances as an entire unit, backing several artists in a variety of styles. An example already cited being their work with Miki Matsubara.
Sound advice!
Ollie Mitchell’s Sunday Band
Most of Dr Strut – Pepper, Freiberger, Weston – appear on one or both of two fairly obscure private-press recordings by another L.A. group, Ollie Mitchell’s Sunday Band…
1981.
Ollie Mitchell was a trumpeter with a long and very impressive CV, which includes being part of the legendary L.A. Wrecking Crew, and stints with such big names as Harry James, Buddy Rich, and Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass.
1983.
The Sunday Band was one of Mitchell’s many projects, which, as the name suggests, got together every Sunday, to rehearse, gig, or both. A mostly instrumental big-band (with occasional guest or featured vocalists), in an era when big bands were generally assumed to be a thing of the past, a keynote was fun!
Not the early ‘80s futuro-tastic space-age theme! The records are dedicated to space shuttle voyages and crews.
Ok, so I did the biggest and most noticeable bit of work – aside from diggin’ out the ol’ ‘ole – yesterday. Buying a new liner, installing it, and filling the pond. Aye, by gum, it felt good to accomplish that!
Looking more pond like.
Today I just trimmed the pond liner, to approx’ 30cm (or 1’), around the border. I even cut a hole for the Laurel bush to poke through. I wanted rid of the damn thing! But it proved too Hardy a Laurel for me… Teresa’s happy it’s still there and still alive.
Laurel poking throo.
I think I want to edge the pond with gravel, initially. This may entail lifting the edges of the liner up, temporarily, and digging a wee scoop, or trench, around the whole thing, with the spoil from said ditch forming a very low wall right on the lip of the pond. The idea being that that way, gravel won’t get into the pond.
Today I bit the proverbial projectile, and bought us a new pond liner. Trying to make a silk purse from a sow’s ear was going to cost almost as much, and might’ve failed anyway.
So I bought a 3m x4m liner, which has proven much more than enough. As these pictures attest, there’s still a long ways to go. I need to trim all the excess liner, and then cover it. To ‘bed it in’.
Filling the pond was quite an Odyssey! Prob’ took the best part of two hours, poss’ longer? At one point I thought it must have a leak. But patience and Percy de Vere-ence paid off. And she’s now full.
Is this acorus?
I got some free pond plant(s) from a lovely lady, Patricia Vere, who posts a lot on nextdoor.co.uk. I’m not 100% sure how we should plant them though?
So…. Trimming, covering (gravel, turf, rocks?), adding plants… there’s plenty more to be done. Also the tap water will need time (or treatment) to naturalise.
Sitting by the pond, looking up…
The ‘green room’ is coming along nicely. Sitting beneath it, the wisteria is nearing the point where it’ll give us shade. Like me and the pond, tho’, it’s still got a ways to go!
After my first shift, and our picnic lunch by the river, Teresa and I went and sat in the shade of a tree just outside St James. In the gallery below I love the unusual stonework.
The graveyard is very extensive, and quite charming. The outside doesn’t quite prepare you for the inside. There are some great windows. Not super special, but very nice.
As the images of the roof show, this is an odd church. With a flat wooden white ceiling at the further side. There are numerous ‘chapel’ type areas, off the main nave(s). And there’s a pulpit side on in the middle. Weird!
Rather an odd church, this one. Asymmetrical, and kind of wonky, with it. Not altogether winning or charming. And yet – as ever – still interesting.
Stopped for a quick look at StGuthlac’s, in Market Deeping today.
Nice porch, and graveyard. The latter quite overgrown. Once inside, there’s a lot of pretty nice stained glass.
There’s some nice flooring, a few interesting corbel gargoyle types, and sunders other small notes of interest. Some of the ornamental stuff carved in stone is lovely. I particularly like some birds at the base of columns.
The final chunk of pictures are mostly up at the altar end.
A great church. Glad we stopped for a look. Oh, and they had some free strawberries and acanthus plants in the porch.
This arrived yesterday. And went straight into the car CD-player. I like Ike! I’ve heard him before, as a sideman. But in my quest to build and enjoy a bigger Blue Note collection, I acquired these albums.
Words like gutsy, rich, louche, all spring to mind, regarding his tone. He has a sound and feel – languorous and throaty – that works most potently, for me at least, on mid-tempo and slower material. He’s great on ballads.
And as with all Blue Note recordings, he’s part of a stellar cast. I love drummer Al Harewood, who often played with Grant Green. And, speaking of Green, Grant is on the first album included here, Blue & Sentimental, sounding fab’, as ever.
One interesting and slightly unusual thing is that percussionist Willie Bobo plays drums, on the latin/bossa-flavoured Soul Samba.
These are all excellent albums. Grant Green’s contributions to B&S make it essential for me, and I love the mood on both Heavy Soul and It Might As Well, which both feature the same line-up, with Freddie Roach (new to me) on organ, and Milt Hinton and Al Harewood on bass and drums.
It’s pretty astonishing how much terrific music Blue Note put out in this era. The whole hard-bop and soul jazz period is, for me, a purple patch I simply can’t get enough of.
