{"id":6493,"date":"2022-09-06T11:07:18","date_gmt":"2022-09-06T11:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=6493"},"modified":"2022-12-22T05:09:21","modified_gmt":"2022-12-22T05:09:21","slug":"music-1969-gabor-szabo-1969","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=6493","title":{"rendered":"MUSiC: 1969, Gabor Szabo, 1969"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Phew!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Out of the blue, after a long of spell of excellent sleep, I\u2019ve just had a pretty awful night of insomnia. And, ironically, I\u2019ve finally gotten around to starting to read Robin Walker\u2019s Why We Sleep<\/em>. So I\u2019m more than usually aware of how bad losing sleep is!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, after several hours of just lying in bed, fully awake, I figured I might as well do something, since I wasn\u2019t apparently able to sleep. So I wrote a bit, for the blog, and I listened to 1969<\/em> (and some other stuff, inc. Mizrab<\/em>), by Gabor Szabo. Holy guacamole, 1969<\/em> is really<\/em> good!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A glowing accolade from Leonard Feather!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Before getting into it track by track, here\u2019s the track list and personnel credits:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear Prudence
Sealed With A Kiss
Both Sides Now
Walk Away Renee
You Won\u2019t See Me
Michael From Mountains
Stormy
In My life
I\u2019ve Just Seen A Face
Until It\u2019s Time For You To Go
Somewhere I Belong<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Gabor Szabo - guitar
Francois Vaz - guitar
Mike Melvoin - keys
Louis Kabok - bass
Randy Cierly-Sterling - bass
Jim Keltner - drums\/percussion
George Ricci- cello
Gary McFarland - arranger<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s pretty stunning to think that stuff like this is how drummer Jim Keltner, who I first grew to know and love through his long term associations with Bob Dylan and Ry Cooder, got started! And everything about the whole musical package is so great I want to know more about all concerned. Didn\u2019t keys man Mike Melvoin play with Tom Waits, on Nighthawks At The Diner<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of the other names – Francois Vaz, Louis Kabok – are new(-ish) to me. Gary McFarland I\u2019d heard of. Along with promoter Norman Schwartz and Cal Tjader, Szabo and McFarland founded the short lived Skye Records, for which label this absolute gem was recorded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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They used the Isle of Skye\u2019s coat of arms for the label!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Having dipped into this album frequently recently, I\u2019d still not listened the whole way through. That is until my recent bouts of insomnia. The night before last, during which I didn\u2019t sleep at all – until I caught up a bit during the day* – I listened to the entirety of 1969<\/em> in one sitting (or, to be more accurate, one laying<\/em>!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* As a teacher on school holidays I\u2019m lucky I can do this!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The version I listened to, a full-album rip on YouTube, doesn\u2019t have the best audio quality. I\u2019m hoping when I get this on CD it\u2019ll be better! This YouTube version is rather muddy, sonically. And most Gabor Szabo stuff is immaculately recorded. But that aside, the quality of the performances is superlative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Still from film or video of Szabo with Kabok.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
The group is an interesting one, as all the players have jazz chops, but are also very comfortable with and attuned to pop\/rock sensibilities, such that they can play with a stripped down minimalism most out and out jazzbos very rarely manage. Although Gary McFarland isn\u2019t a player here, it strikes me that perhaps his arranging and producing skills are instrumental in achieving the sounds and the, er\u2026 vibes<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Gary McFarland, feelin\u2019 those vibes!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m going to come right out and say it; I do<\/em> believe this one of Szabo\u2019s greatest records. Oft times it\u2019s belittled (albeit not as much as his late \u201870s stuff; Doug Payne calls much of Faces<\/em> \u2018disco trash\u2019!), particularly by those who prefer his more overtly trad\u2019 jazziness. (I don\u2019t mean Dixie!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Part of the charm of this particular album is the material. There are four Beatles numbers, two of which – You Won\u2019t See Me and In My Life – are from Rubber Soul <\/em>(possibly my favourite Fab Four album?). And, as well as several more obscure choices, there\u2019s the oft-covered Stormy.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what\u2019s this? Two Joni tunes<\/em>!? Both Sides Now has been covered umpteen times. And Szabo\u2019s version is brilliant. But Michael From Mountains? This latter ranks with Mark Murphy\u2019s Barangrill, and Don Sebesky\u2019s Song To A Seagull. Simply having the good taste to pick such wonderful material, never mind the required skill to make such a unique artists\u2019 unusual music one\u2019s own\u2026 fab!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ultimately 1969<\/em> hits that eargasmic G-spot for me: musical perfection. Everything is just so<\/em>. You could try to label it: it\u2019s partly jazz, partly pop, partly rock, bossa, easy-listening, psych, etc. The joy and the magic lies precisely in rendering such categorisation efforts totally footile*. It\u2019s just great music. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
* The Fenland yod-dropping way!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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I\u2019d love to get this Cherry Red comp. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Whilst writing this post I discovered that Cherry Red did a reissue\/compilation called Sketch For Summer<\/em>, which focussed on McFarland and Szabo\u2019s richly creative partnership. Like almost all the music I\u2019m getting interested in lately, this is OOP and hard\/expensive to find! It only covers their 1964-\u201868 collaborations, so nothing off 1969<\/em> is included. Interesting to see two tracks are with Brazilian maestro Tom Jobim!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But to round off, back to \u201869<\/em>! The album starts with Dear Prudence, and ends with the only Sabor original in this particular set,  Somewhere I Belong. I\u2019m giving this disc my rare accolade of six stars. That\u2019s a bit like Spinal Tap\u2019s amps going up to eleven: the normal range is 0-5 stars. Only the cr\u00e8me de la cr\u00e8me attain the hallowed six!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Phew! Out of the blue, after a long of spell of excellent sleep, I\u2019ve just had a pretty awful night of insomnia. And, ironically, I\u2019ve finally gotten around to starting to read Robin Walker\u2019s Why We Sleep. So I\u2019m more than usually aware of how bad losing sleep is! Anyway, after several hours of just … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “MUSiC: 1969, Gabor Szabo, 1969”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[89,188,130,176,133,77,10,58,139,140],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-1GJ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6493"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6493"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7560,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6493\/revisions\/7560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}