Jimi Hendrix/Band of Gypsys - Fillmore East 12/21/69-1/1/69
If you count “Them Changes” as a pee break, then you could probably consider these landmark Band of Gypsy Fillmore East sessions as one of the umpteenth wonders of the live music world. I wasn’t quite sure why I even had this, as I’ve got the Hendrix Family versions of the Band of Gypsys disc and the Live at Fillmore East sets, both which probably comprise this entire show, except, that this was the first time I’d heard the whole thing in order. Hendrix and his new band pretty much showed they were the bidness at this point, with monsters like “Machine Gun” shaking the crowd to their foundation. In some ways it could be argued that these are some of Hendrix’s best moments. Sure, it’s not the jazzy Nine to the Universe jams nor the finely crafted pop of the early years, or the psychedelic and wildly creative Electric Ladyland, but it’s earthy, funky and Hendrix clearly liked playing along as he’s lava at this point.
Vietgrove - The Little Apocrypha
This is a neat disc covering a little, largely uncharted area of music that lies betwixt Manuel Gottsching, Achim Reichel, Mike Oldfield, Richard Pinhas and Michel Moulinie. A British group, I would have said Germany for the spacey sound and French for the almost crystal delicateness of the guitar playing, a mix of Grant Green touch and Anthony Phillips patterning. Musically we start in gentle krautrockish areas, although the melodic sense of Vietgrove begin to weave in complexities rather unlike German kosmische music, with a sense of fragile beauty similar to Hergest Ridge Oldfield or early Steve Hackett. Guitars pattern themselves often with the backdrop of synthesizers and a very spare sense of percussion at times. It’s all so gentle and restrained, it gives me the sense of a drop of rain in mist, a small splash. Occasionally a fuzz guitar outburst will catapult out of the intricate texturing and just the sense of timing and dynamics of the whole thing make it somewhat impossible to categorize. It’s like a flash back to the days of Wapassou and Azahar, two bands who played progressive, symphonic rock without a drummer at all, artists who will make you look at progressive rock in an entirely different way. The electronics, in particular, seem well thought out and some tones are so fat they make my jaw ache (partially from grinning).
Donald Byrd - Byrd in Hand
The Blue Note Three Listening Minimum rule, the one where I know I’m gonna like the album a lot better after warming it up, is still in effect, but even so, after number 2, I’m finding this one a bit moody for my tastes. It starts with “Witchcraft,” almost 8 minutes of it, which tends to evoke really bad singers covering it in my brain. I’ll give it to Donald, he was much better. The rest of the tracks stay pretty dour, slow bop that doesn’t aim for a whole lotta shakin, so I’m heading down to a 9 and possibly a point lower. Interesting to see Charlie Rouse on board here, though, I think he had an early solo album on Cuneiform if I remember right.