Natural Sources

Ronald Snijders - Natural Sources Private Pressing 6812 245 (Holl) (1977)

Ronald Snijders is considered to be the most swinging flutist in the Netherlands (Jazz magazine Jazz nu), and the inventor of African Surinam kawinajazz. He was born in Paramaribo, Suriname in 1951 and started to play the flute at the age of seven, influenced by his professionally flute playing father. In his youth he also practised guitar, sax, some piano and percussion, playing popular music, classical music, Brazilian music plus jazz.

In september of 1970 he settled in Delft, the Netherlands to study civil engineering, but about five years later he was a professional selftaught musician. Among his awards shines the Press prize at the prestigious NOS jazzconcours of 1973 in Laren, won with a flute solo. The legendary bandleader Boy Edgar who was presiding the jury said: Ronald Snijders has extreme skill and creativity. Jazz pianist Chick Corea wrote of him in 1976: You're a great flutist and an excellent composer…I'm sure people here in the United states will like your music a lot. And as jazz journalist Rudy Koopmans put it some years later: the most brillant fluteplayer in the field of improvised music in the Netherlands (Volkskrant).

Ronald Snijders produced and released twenty albums with innovative compositions of his own, varying in style from North American jazz and fusion to new African Caribbean jazz (among which Surinam kasekojazz and kawinajazz), Brazilian grooves and other worldjazz. Furthermore he played on albums of the Dutch Willem Breuker collective (in which he worked between 1974 and 1976), the partly Surinam Fra Fra big band and the Moroccan Weshm.

This, his debut release on his own Black Straight Music label, is a true collectors item. Not only does he play every instrument on the album, he is composer, producer and album art designer! Smooth, dense and spacey funky jazz with an exotic Brasilian-tinged flavour is order of the day. The man ticks every box here...enjoy!

1) Skin Source
2) Seven Wings
3) Galibi
4) Exchanged
5) Dagoe Sji Jorka
6) Busy Street
7) Todo Bere
8) Roseille
9) Temple Of Faith
10) Brazilian Blue

Explosivo!

Nelsinho e Sua Orquestra - Explosivo London LLB-1060 (1970)

An ultra-hip and incendiary big band bossa and samba blast courtesy Maestro and trombonista Nelsinho with suitably exploded cover art!

Lots of groovy uptempo and well selected tracks makes this a very solid listen. Dance orientated beats with punchy horns and slick rhythm guitar in the mix, punctuated by vocals on some tracks. Light the fuse, stand well back and enjoy...

1) Fumace
2) Essa Moça Tá Diferente
3) Coqueiro Verde
4) Samba Sem Viola
5) Um Samba Só Não Dá
6) Pigmalião
7) Fotograma
8) Aqui É O País Do Futebol
9) Se Voce Quiser Mas Sem Bronquear
10) Morte Do Amor
11) Comunicação
12) Vou Deitar E Rolar

Melvyn Price

Melvyn Price - Rhythm and Blues Mel-Dor PR-1003 Sweden (1974)

"Melvyn Price? Sounds familiar but I can't quite place him". Not surprising really as Detroit born Price is virtually unknown outside of Sweden where he made his home in the late sixties.

His debut LP release in 1970 entitled "Jazzbalettrytmer" or Jazz Ballet Rhythms was pressed on his own private label "Price" after requests from Jazz Ballet students. However this album, his third, a totally obscure Swedish only release is his finest effort. A percussive and funky jazz belter!

Joining Price on congos and bongos is an all Swedish rhythm section and includes Björn Alke & Guy Roellinger on bass, Björn Wolff on piano, Fredrik Norén & Gunnar Nyberg on drums, Ed Epstein on tenor sax and Jon Dill & Luis Agudo helping out on persussion. Melvyn Price can also be heard (obviously) on trombone.

I think you'll like this one, let me know what you think...

1) Voodoo Love Dance
2) Toward Brazil
3) Behind Kungsträdgården
4) Happiness Is...
5) Five O'Clock Traffic
6) Last Train

Now available at Wax Poetics Digital

http://digital.waxpoetics.com/search/?artist=Melvyn+Price

The Brazilian Suite

Rogerio Duprat - The Brazilian Suite KPM-1071 (1970)

"A modern theme suite written in filmic style by the highly acclaimed Brazilian composer Rogerio Duprat".

Mainly notable for forging the Tropicalia movement and his associations with Caetano Veloso, Gilbert Gil, Tom Zé, Gal Costa, Nara Leão and Os Mutantes. Rogerio Duprat was to abandon the commercial market following problems with deafness caused by interminable hours of studio time, and began to dedicate himself to the production of library music.

This early example for the legendary London based KPM library was never to be bettered in my opinion. A melting-pot of percussive and funky rhythms and moods, imagine a movie score to a spy flick set in Rio that never was - and you'll have some idea.

1) Theme Montage
2) Setting The Scene
3) Spotlight
4) Commerce In Rhythm
5) Percussion Highway
6) Tropical Green
7) Meeting In Brazilia
8) Rio Back Street
9) Flute Formula
10) Skilful Manoeuvre

Hora Time

Rildo Hora - A Vez e A Hora De Rildo Hora RCA Victor SBB-0435 (1971)

If you find Brasilian choro and frevo a little too ethnic or hardcore for your tastes, may I suggest this small offering as a way in. Samba legend Rildo Hora constructs this perfectly realised album of styles that for me encapsulates the sound of Brazil. The sound may derive from homegrown and regional musical styles but in Rildo's hands we have something greater than the sum of its parts. Be sure, this album rocks.

Virtuoso harmonica player, guitarist and composer Hora lets loose a cracking batch of party driven tunes - groovy and danceable, vocally stirring and percussively infectious, a real winner and a musical education.

1) Leonor
2) Panorama, Segundo Rodrigo
3) Assim Na Terra Como No Céu
4) O Pião
5) O Empanador
6) O Saci-Pererê
7) A Canoa
8) Tantas Ruas Namorei
9) Canção Que Nasceu Do Amor
10) Ciranda, Terezinha E Passaraio
11) O Contador De Estórias
12) Chorar Pra Quê

Tokyo Union's Scandinavian Suite

Tatsuya Takahashi & The Tokyo Union - Scandinavian Suite TBM-1005 (Jpn) (1977)

Big band pyrotechnics by the 20-piece Tokyo Union. This is no sleepy Scandinavian voyage, more a groovy collection of orchestra and electronics in the shape of six varied stormers written by legendary Japanese bandsman Bingo Miki and perhaps a little more accessable and funky then some of the big band outings released under his own name around the same period.

Familiar orchestral colours are melded with more progressive and funky arrangements and styles of the period culminating with the monstrous cop-show theme sounding "Children At Play". A surprising and original jazz album that's a pleasure from start to finish.

Yoshifumi Tada, Hiroshi Abiko, Motoharu Suzuki & Tomokazu Saio - trumpets
Eijiro Miyazaki, Kiyotaka Uchida & Koichi Okada - trombones
Kenichi Sudare - bass trombone
Keiji Hori & Hiroshi Yaginuma - alto saxes
Seiji Inoue - tenor sax
Takemi Ishikane - baritone sax
Masahiro Kanayama - piano
Yoshinori Ishida - bass
Kazuhiro Ebisawa - drums
Kenichi Araya & Takao Naoi - guitars
Yuji Imamura - percussion
Mickey Yoshino - synthesizer
Tatsuya Takahashi - leader & tenor sax

Part I Midnight Sunrise
Part II Sketches Of Munch
Part III The Legend Of Garbo
Part IV Anderson Fantasia
Part V Sibelius' Testament
Part VI Children At Play

London All Stars

Le London All Star - British Percussion Barclay BB-86 (1965)

It's always nice to share a rare record but what about an album that many cite as not existing at all!

Picture the scene, February 1965 and Eddie Barclay, the millionaire playboy owner of Eddy Mitchell's label, the eponimous French Barclay asked Bob Graham, the most prolific and often uncredited session drummer to emerge from the UK pop scene, to produce an album for the French market. Credited to Le London All Star, "British Percussion", released in September 1965, was a stereo showcase, and featured a stunning array of British musicians.

The higher calibre of studios and musicianship in London attracted many acts from abroad. The French pop star Eddy Mitchell was a regular visitor, recording at least eight EPs in London. For Mitchell's releases the session men were dubbed "The London All Stars". Graham recalls: "Charlie Katz rang - 'please be at Pye records, don't ask who the artist is'. I plodded along there, said to (engineer) Bob Auger 'who is it tonight?' - 'Eddy Mitchell', 'who the hell is Eddy Mitchell?". Every record on the Barclay label credited to The London All Stars features Graham, Jimmy Page and Big Jim Sullivan. Other French acts like Francoise Hardy, Michel Polnareff, Eric Saint-Laurent and Sylvie Vartan would also record in London.

Graham used his session colleagues - guitarist John McLaughlin, bassist Alan Weighell, drummers Andy White and Ronnie Verrall. Jimmy Page's contribution was significant. He played lead on every track and co-wrote three with Graham. Before the album's release, Barclay offered Graham a job. "I was taken on as the head of Barclay Records UK. I didn't speak much French, I had an interpreter with me all the time. My job was to produce English artists for the French market. When I joined Barclay I began to stop playing, I just got so tired from the work load. I was tired of playing music I didn't like. Clem Cattini took on a lot of the drumming when I moved from session work".

Finding English language acts for the French market was a somewhat random process. "We put ads in the trade papers - 'artists wanted for auditions'. I produced the In-Betweens (the precursors of Slade) for Barclay at Pye Number 2. I also produced an EP from the singer from Billy Gray and the Stormers, he was called Le Frizzy One. That was Carter, Lewis and Jimmy Page". Ultimately, the French didn't take to the British acts: "You could not get anything English off the ground in France. I got pretty fed up flying backwards and forwards twice a week and I decided to call it a day with Barclay".

But what of the music I hear you ask. Well, it's a joy from start to finish. A bombastic blend of mod groovers that's hard to match - a supreme and swinging blend of jazz and R 'n' B. Banks of trumpets, trombones and french horns blare to the incessant "Mohawk" meanderings of Kenny Salmon's organ. Not only do we have Led Zep's Page on lead but an early outing for John McLaughlin on rhythm guitar makes this an important date. Mr.Page himself once stated,”No such record was made”, and numerous other collectors have also declared this record as myth.

Recorded in Pye Studios, London in a single session - this is history in the making. Their version of 'Image' is perhaps the finest I've ever heard. The real sound of "Swingin' London".

1) Stop The Drums
2) Mexican Shuffle
3) Coming Home Babe
4) Drum Stomp
5) Watermelon Man
6) More (Theme from Mondo Cane)
7) Beefeater
8) Image
9) Night Train
10) Spanish Armada
11) Lord Byron Blues
12) Salvation