Black Pearl – Cold Sweat
Black Pearl – Uptown
Black Pearl – People Get Ready

Might revise this tomorrow, but wanted to get something up tonight before my radio show at KCRW. Best I can gather, Black Pearl was a Los Angeles based group, who put out a couple of records in the rock’n’soul vein (the other being a self-titled record on Atlantic with some really great artwork). They were led by B.B. Fieldings and featured not one, or two but three…count ’em up, three guitarists (or four if you include the bass player).

Recorded live at the Fillmore West in Frisco in 1968, this record is fairly highly prized because of a pretty solid breakdown in “Cold Sweat.” Overall the record is a solid showcase for the group and for Fieldings’ sincere appreciation of black music. “Cold Sweat” shows off the best parts of the group, solid groove, nice and funky, mostly based off the James Brown original, but with other bits thrown in, particularly at the breakdown as B.B. calls out each member of the band “Memphis Soul Stew” style beginning with the drummer who he implores to do it “dirty” and “nasty”.

“Uptown” is similar in style and feeling to “Cold Sweat,” though with some “mildly” racist essentialism associated with white folks going to the “darker” side of town to let it all hang out, though I think B.B.’s sincerity makes it seem more endearing (especially when he’s talking about soul food) than totally ignorant (A fine line admittedly, and maybe it’s just me, but since I’ve been doing cultural studies research on race and representation, I feel like I hear this trope a lot in the 50s and 60s).

B.B. certainly was attempting to do his part to bridge the Soul / Hippie divide, this especially comes out during his version of “People Get Ready” which contains these pearls of wisdom towards the end.

What the fuck good is it to live
if you don’t know what you’re alive for,
So I ask you,
I ain’t talkin’ hippy talk,
and I ain’t talkin’ freak talk,
I’m talkin’ bout life,
I’m talkin’ about the way it was,
the way it is and the way it always will be…

Not much else to say other than that…enjoy the music.

Cheers,

Michael

Barry Goldberg – Sittin’ In Circles
Barry Goldberg – Strung and Young
Barry Goldberg – Another Day

Back in my early college days I hosted a blues show called Crossroads on Album 88 in Atlanta. In learning about and searching for music I started to gain a big appreciation for the revivalist sound of the 60s out of Chicago, including white artists from the windy city like Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield, Charlie Musselwhite, Harvey Mandel, Nick Gravenites and Barry Goldberg. I’ve already featured one record that features many of these players, Harvey Mandel’s debut, of the records of that period I think this one from Goldberg is my favorite, just because of the sound. Partially it’s the diversity of sounds on this album, the group is allover the map, performing Dylan meets the Velvets numbers, bloozy Southside strutters, wah-wah heavy rock and even a couple of country psych joints.

Mainly my love for this record is all about the way it’s produced. The sound on this record is big, so big I like to call it the Chicago Wall of Sound record. Everything just washes over you on the better tracks, the slightly echoed drums from a mellowed “Fast” Eddie Hoh, slightly reverbed bass, gorgeous clean lines from Mandel (or groovy wah-wah psych outs), floaty horns and organ. You can hear this especially on the slow burners like “Sittin’ In Circles,” “Another Day,” and the instrumental “Strung and Young” and the mostly instrumental “I Think I’m Gonna Cry.”

Of that bunch, “Sittin’ In Circles” has to be one of my favorite songs from this period of time. One of the other groups Goldberg was associated with, The Electric Flag, also recorded a version of this song, but this one is light years away from that one, sounding like a hazy drugged out summer night of sound once those drums shuffle the whole group in and Goldberg lazily sings his lines…just slays me every time.

Cheers,

Michael

Philip Cohran – Unity
Philip Cohran – On The Beach
Philip Cohran – The Minstrel

Now that this record has found a new home, in Japan no less, I figured I’d I throw it a going away party, in the form of a dig deep post. Phil Cohran is a Chicago area musician who performed in a number of groups including the Sultans of Swing and Sun Ra’s Arkestra, in addition to being a member of the A.A.C.M. His legacy lives on in the form of his 8 sons who perform in the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. I’d seen reissues of this record in the last couple of years and admired the sound so when I ran into a copy at Groove Merchant, even though it wasn’t in the greatest of condition, I was more than happy to snatch it up.

This record has some of the style and similar sound of Sun Ra, but it’s also got this entirely different quality to it. Soulful, spiritual and very very deep. On my recent post about the auction that this record is apart of I included one of the 4 tracks “The Minstrel” (reposted above, in addition to all the amazing things about that song musically, I love the phrasing on the lyric “Got to get myself away from here,” that makes “here” sound like “Her”), here I’ll include a couple others (all that’s missing is the short, sweet vocal track “Motherhood”).

“Unity” is a spiritual soul-jazz groover with African melodies and some odd instrumentation and sounds, either coming from Pete Cosey using a bow on his electric guitar or from what’s called a “Violin Uke” that Cohran is responsible for. It’s pretty stunning and there’s few things I’ve heard as thrilling as this piece.

You would think that a song titled “On The Beach,” would be all about the sunshine, but instead the group opts for almost the exact opposite tone, slow, careful, slightly mournful, almost dirge like, with explosive pockets of sound (it’s also where you can hear much more of the “poppin’ popcorn” associated with the lower grade on this record, though it adds to it’s charm if you ask me). “Beach” is a gorgeous piece of music, dedicated (according to the liner notes) to the “Brothers and Sisters” who attended workshops and concerts put on by the Ensemble at the “64th Street Beach House” in 1967.

Soon enough this record will find a new home, Melting Pot will get some funds for the new year and I’ll be on the hunt again for a copy of this and the other very rare records put out by this exceptional group.

Cheers,

Michael