Shock - Waves (1982)

Shock was "the other" funk band from Portland, Oregon - Pleasure being the first. They released their first album Electrophonic Funk on the local Nebula Circle label in 1980. After that they were signed on Fantasy Records, where they released 3 more albums.

Shock's third album Waves starts off promising with 'Electrophonic Phunk', an aptly titled funk manifesto. Nothing really original here, and that goes for the rest of the album aswell (the George Clinton / p-funk influence is obvious, as it was on their earlier albums), but Shock manages throw in some nice funk jams to spice up your party. The Pleasure connection is also there, as Pleasure's Marlon McClain gives a helping hand on the guitar and production department.

After Shock keyboard player / leader Roger Sause, bassist Joe Plass and Marlon McClain teamed up to write songs, tour and record with smooth jazz criminal Kenny G. Some of the members united in 2000 for another Shock album called 'Retroman', which - despite it's title - sounds pretty contemporary.

The main core of Shock are still more or less involved with funk and r&b music; Roger Sause runs Perfect World Entertainment booking agency specialized in funk and disco, Joe Plass released a single last year, and singer Malcolm Noble is still performing live.

Personnel:

Roger Sause: keyboards, percussion

Billy Bradford: lead and background vocals

Johnny Riley: drums, percussion

Scott Boyd: guitar

Steve Snyder: saxophones

Steve Sause: keyboards

Malcolm Noble: lead and background vocals

Ricky Ollison: trumpet, flugelhorn, lead vocals

Steve Liddle: trombones

Joe Plass: bass, percussion

 Marlon McClain: guitar, percussion

Bruce Smith: percussion

Mike Demmers: bass, trombone

Brad Maracich: trumpet

Radar - Trofee (1985)

Radar was a soviet-era estonian fusion jazz band, which recorded one EP and 2 albums on the USSR state owned label Melodiya. In the beginning of their career Radar had been working as a backup band for pop singer Jaak Joala, and their first release from 1981 is basicly a 7" pop EP with Joala singing on every track. But these musicians were talent of a different scope and eventually wanted to do something more ambitious. Gone was Joala and pop songs in 1984 when Radar recorded their first album Trofee ("Trophy"),  but some of the pop sensibilities remained, as most of the songs have memorable themes. Trofee was released the next year, and already by then Radar's constantly changing lineup was drasticly different from the one playing on the album.

Their second album 'Baltic Coast', released in 1987, lacks the energy present on Trofee. Keyboard player Sergei Pedersen, who composed most of the material on Trofee and was the leader of the band, was in every incarnation of Radar. On Trofee we have Pedersen and Aare Põder on keyboards, Nevil Blumberg on electric guitar, Paap Kõlar on drums and Raul Vaigla on fretless bass, who was 22 years old then and already a master of his instrument.

Here's a music video for the first track, 'Tipptund Kesklinnas':

Instinct - Instinct (1986)

Instinct was a fusion jazz band lead by guitarist Ilkka Niemeläinen. He had been playing acoustic guitar in the fantastic world fusion band Wasama Quartet some years earlier. Here he plays all electric. Niemeläinen also composed all the material - apart from the last track, for which he shares the credit with Esa Kotilainen (they also produced the album together.) All of the songs are more or less twisted in their melodic and harmonic nature, which comes apparent after 5 seconds of listening. Take the song title 'Avant Rock' as another hint. Nevertheless the songs are strangely appealing, especially after a few listens. 

Niemeläinen plays most of his solos with a somewhat blurry tone, that sometimes tends to disappear in the mix. I can't say he's as convincing here as he was on the Wasama Quartet's album. Niemeläinen leaves most of the solo space to saxophonist Pentti Lehti, one the of most prolific session musicians in Finland. The rest of the lineup is also interesting. Keimo Hirvonen was on the drummer's seat on several albums of Pekka Pohjola in the 1980s and would later play in Cool Sheiks; a band of groove refugees in the musically depressing 1990s. Jussi Liski is an occasional bass player (like on this album) but he's mainly a keyboard player. He used to play keyboards in Pekka Pohjola's band aswell. Esa Kotilainen, a finnish synth music pioneer and a member of the cult band Wigwam, is not really a jazz musician, but has ventured into various jazz rock and prog projects during his long career, and has been the man to hire whenever credible synth backing is needed. Same is the deal on Instinct, as Kotilainen is not there to play solos, but rather to create a contemporary audial backdrop ranging from synth "brasses" to strange soundscapes. He's constantly present, but never takes the lead. (Take a peek at the man and (some) of his gear in the late 70s.)

Instinct cut 2 more albums over the next four years, External Loop in 1988 and We Dance the Skube in 1990, both of which were released on CD.

Jimmy Castor Bunch - E-man Groovin' (1976)

I have a faint recollection of finding this funky beast among my parents' braindead schlager LPs when I was a little boy. E-man Groovin' came with the stereo equipment my parents had bought in late 1970s and undoubtebly they had never listened to it. But I did, and so Jimmy Castor was my exposure to funk. It would take 13 unlucky years before we met again, and the LP was still there right in-between of couple of atrocious schlager LPs. I gave it a better home. For few times it served as background music at some drunken meetings with my friends. This year I had the LP cleaned. It was still in surprisingly good condition considering how I manhandled it when I was a kid.

How does it sound today? At first I noticed how the production and arrangement was much better than on Castor's previous albums. Castor produced the album himself along with Johnnie Pruitt. All the songs are full of carefully layered details, especially Jeffrey Grimes' great rhythm guitar playing and Gerry Thomas' keyboard work. Paul Forley's bass playing (and sound!) is something I really like. He even makes 'Dracula', Castor's a bit tired novelty song, sound interesting with his bubbly bass. The whole band is in great shape and their grooves never fail. They're in kind of a transitional mode, with another foot still in funk's dirt bucket and another tapping to the latest disco junk.

 The album itself is pretty uneven. Side A is mostly gold material, but on side B the tempo starts to slow down, gets Ted Lange to serve some sweet drinks ('Super Love'), turns overly sentimental (mostly instrumental cover of 'I Don't Want To Lose You') and finally lands on 'Dracula pt. 2', which is a reprise of the Dracula song on side one, and thus a pointless filler. But all and all there's enough first rate material to make this album a (forgotten) classic.

Track Listing:

Side A: 

E-man Groovin'

Space Age

I Love A Mellow Groove

Dracula, Pt. I

Side B:

Everything Is Beautiful To Me

Super Love

I Don't Want To Lose You

Dracula, Pt. II

Personnel: 

Jimmy Castor: Tenor & alto saxophones, timbales, all lead & background vocals

Gerry Thomas: All keyboards

Jeffrey Grimes: Guitar

Paul Forney: Bass

Lenny Fridie, Jr: Conga

Ellwood Henderson, Jr: Drums

Evaldo Montenovo And His Group - Tristeza (1977)

There's not much I can say about Evaldo Montenovo. He released two albums on the german Telefunken label, Tristeza in 1977 and Cataratas in 1979. That's where my internet detective work ends. (My guess is that Evaldo and his group were touring in the small venues of Europe and caught the ear of swiss producer Otto B. Hartmann, who had already produced some funk and jazz albums prior to this release.) No biographical info on Montenovo could be found. What he's been up to since the late 70s is a mystery. Please contribute if you have more info about him. It would be nice to know about the rest of the band aswell, as they're not listed on the LP cover.

Like the album page at discogs.com sums the genres up, it's something in the samba / bossa nova / mpb / latin jazz vein. Nothing revolutionary, but Montenovo and his band band avoid the many sins of late 70s latin jazz. There are no gimmicks, no cheesy synths or heavy overdubbing - just a groovy brazilian band playing on tape somewhere in Munich. Montenovo is definately on the front as the slightly unusual line-up suggests. He handles all soloing, and not only he's a skillful acoustic guitar player, but also a capable composer and singer. 

This is one of those fortunate findings. I got it from a flea market for 1 euro. I wasn't that much into brazilian music back then and the cuddly album cover suggested I'd better leave the LP to someone else's hands. I think it was the track title 'Funky Experience' that won me over, and I'm glad it did. I had a similar experience  few years earlier with the Sergio Mendes Presents Edu Lobo album, which I knew nothing about and almost reluctantly bought from a flea market for 20 cents. It's been one of my absolute favourites ever since. Ironically the least interesting track on the Montenovo album is the title track - a cover of an Edu Lobo song. It's easy to see why this catchy frevo was included. It must've been a small hit among german schlager-loving audiences.

OBH (Otto B. Hartmann's label) released Tristeza on CD as 'Samba & Bossa Nova, vol 1' in 2005. (While making this blog entry, I found out that the album is on sale as mp3 files on various netsites.) They also released Montenovo's Cararatas album as 'Samba & Bossa Nova, vol 2'.

George Muribus - Brazilian Tapestry (1976)

George Muribus is a classically trained pianist who studied under Soulima Stravinsky (son of Igor Stravinsky) and Adolph Baller before being drawn into the world of jazz though the influence of pianists like Bill  Evans and Oscar Peterson. He played in various San Francisco jazz clubs during the 60s and on The Pat Britt Quartet's album "Jazz From San Francisco" in 1966, which was released as late as 1971. Muribus also played electric piano on the Escovedo brothers' latin jazz rock band Azteca's self titled album in 1972.

'Brazilian Tapestry' is the first of the two albums George Muribus recorded for the short lived Catalyst jazz label, the second one being 'Trio '77' (1977). There's also a third album called 'Introducing George Muribus', that might've been released on Catalyst, but I couldn't find it on their catalog - or any more info about it in general. I'm guessing it's a compilation album Catalyst released for the japanese market.

Side one consists of the wild uptempo title track, a cheesy Paul Williams song made into a hit by The Carpenters couple of years earlier ('I won't last a day without you') - another failed attempt to appeal a wider audience? - and a light bossa nova ('The dolphin'). Side one sounds more contemporary, or should I say more commercial, than side two, but it's a good vehicle for Muribus to showcase his skills on Fender Rhodes.

On side two Muribus teams up with Len Lasher and Vince Lateaeno as an acoustic jazz trio and shakes off the slight cheesyness of side A.

Japanese P-Vine label released Brazilian Tapestry on CD in 2003, but naturally their CD is hard to obtain.

Track listing:

Side one:

Brazilian Tapestry

I Won't Last a Day Without You

The Dolphin

Side two:

Pocrasni

Dimishing Returns

Night Flower

Alon

Personnel:

Side One:

George Muribus: Electric piano

Dave Dunaway: Bass

Vince Lateano: Drums

Willie Colon: Congas

Michael Howell: Guitar (tracks 1 & 2)

Vince Denham: Tenor saxophone

Side Two:

George Muribus: Piano

Len Lasher: Bass

Vince Lateano: Drums