A very young Joey DeFrancesco

 

Joey DeFrancesco live at The Blue Note with Byron Landham on drums.  

Joey DeFrancesco “I Put a Spell on You” (solo) @ St.Louis Jazz 2012

 

This week's Sunday Special.  

Joey DeFrancesco “I Put a Spell on You” (solo) @ St. Louis Jazz 2012 Jeremy Thomas - Drums Paul Bollenback - Guitar

🥬 Lettuce - "Pocket Change" Live at The Vogue - Indianapolis, IN (1.15.19)

 

🥬 Lettuce - "Pocket Change" Live at The Vogue - Indianapolis, IN (1.15.19) From the album 'Crush' All Things Lettuce: https://ffm.bio/lettuce * * *

🥬 Lettuce - Live at First Avenue - Minneapolis, MN (11.8.19) [Full Show]

 

Full Concert Friday this week takes me back, as I attended this concert with my brother Charlie, in person, on November 8th, 2019, at First Avenue in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Lettuce, funk band from Boston, Massachusetts.  This was a fun show to witness, and I will always remember it.  The band lineup is:

Eric "E.D." Coomes: bass

Adam Deitch: drums, percussion

Adam "Shmeeans" Smirnoff: guitar

Nigel Hall: vocals, keyboards (Hammond B3 organ, Rhodes & Wurlitzer electric pianos, Hohner Clavinet, synthesizers)

Ryan Zoidis: alto & tenor saxophones

Eric "Benny" Bloom: trumpet

The set list (mostly instrumentals):

1. Blaze

2. Shmink Dabby Kane

3. Nyack

4. Let's Straighten Out (O.V. Wright cover, feat. Nigel Hall: vocals)

5. Royal Highness

6. Gang Ten

7. Trillogy

8. Trapezoid

8. By Any Shmeeans Necessary (feat. Adam "Shmeeans" Smirnoff: guitar)

9. Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Tears for Fears cover) (feat. Nigel Hall: vocals)

10. Sam Huff's Flyin' Ragin' Machine (feat. Ryan Zoidis: alto saxophone, Eric "Benny" Bloom: trumpet, & Nigel Hall: Hammond B3 organ)

11. Sounds Like a Party (feat. Nigel Hall, Eric "E.D." Coomes, and Adam "Schmeeans" Smirnoff: vocals, Eric "Benny" Bloom, trumpet, & Robert "Sput" Searight: electric piano)

Encore:

12. Do It Like You Do (feat. Nigel Hall: vocals, Robert "Sput" Searight, Hammond B3 organ & Clavinet, & Xavier Taplin: Wurlitzer electric piano)

Funk band Ghost Note were the opening act.

Jethro Tull "Song for Jeffrey"

 

Here is an offbeat and interesting performance.  It is rock band Jethro Tull with their lead vocalist and flautist, Ian Anderson, playing the blues on "Song for Jeffrey" as part of the 1968 "Rock and Roll Circus" concert put on by The Rolling Stones that was released as a movie in 1996.  The music was recorded specifically for a lip sync for the show.  That is what makes it zany.  Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath fame is featured on guitar in the video.  But it is clearly the band's original guitarist, Mick Abrahams who is playing the slide guitar part we hear in the song itself.   

James Brown - Baby, Baby, Baby, Baby / Please, Please, Please (live) - 11/07/1981 • World of Jazz

 

From a performance at the 1981 Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, on July 11th, 1981, James Brown and his band bring the soul and the funk playing a medley of "Baby, Baby, Baby" and "Please, Please, Please".  Give a big round of applause to Soul Brother Number One, Mr. Dynamite, the King and the Living Legend of Soul.  The one and the only... James Brown!

  

Lee Morgan and John Hicks - Theme for Stacy

 

From Bret "Jazz Video Guy" Primack.  

Theme for Stacey (Morgan) Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Jazz 625, BBC, 1965 featuring Lee Morgan, trumpet; John Gilmore, tenor saxophone; John Hicks, piano; Victor Sproles, bass and Art Blakey on drums.

My Funny Valentine Live at the Mt. Fuji Jazz Festival - Herbie Hancock

 

From Bret "Jazz Video Guy" Primack.  Herbie Hancock, piano; Ron Carter, bass  and Tony Williams, drums.  Mt. Fuji Jazz Festival, 1986.

Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble - I'm Leaving You (Commit A Crime) (Video)

 

This week's Sunday Special.  Music video by Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble performing I'm Leaving You (Commit A Crime). (C) 1986 Sony BMG Music Entertainment.

Joe Henderson & Calvin Keys, February 1, 1984

 

Full Concert Friday this week, featuring the duo of guitarist Calvin Keys and tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, a true jazz legend.  This is jazz at the art gallery.  February 1st, 1984, at the Eye Gallery in San Francisco, California.  The jazz being played by Calvin Keys and Joe Henderson represents and accompanies the photography, framed in the background, that was done by photographer Tom Copi.  

Masa Takagi "Take a Ten" (1974)

 

Full Album Friday this week, is taken from a playlist posted to YouTube, and pointed out to me, by a high school buddy who also happens to be a guitar player and music afficionado.  This is Masa Takagi, a Japanese singer/songwriter and her 1974 record "Take a Ten" and this record is filled with songs that are really a part of the country rock genre and the cannon of American music.  So, there's country and western, rock, pop, and rhythm & blues influence in a lot of this record.  The musicians on this record are also top-notch session players.  Plus, the producers and arrangers for this record really did it right.  It has stood the test of time for half a century, so you know the music is good.  Nice to finally introduce it to people, who like me, have only just recently heard of it.

https://www.discogs.com/master/1219796-%E9%AB%98%E6%9C%A8%E9%BA%BB%E6%97%A9-%E9%AB%98%E6%9C%A8%E9%BA%BB%E6%97%A9

The track listing is:

1. My City

2. Mardi Gras

3. Why

4. Love Clock

5. After The Rain

6. Goodbyes at Sunset

7. Colors of the Wind

8. Living The Lonely Life

9. Beat Seven

10. Song of Spring

11. My Shiny Bicycle

12. Surigarasu (demo)

13. Greeting Card (early demo, late 1974, early 1975)

14. (Fushigi na Kibun) Mysterious Mood (demo, 1974/'75)

15. Song of Spring (English version)

16. Too Many Memories (live, '74)

Steppenwolf "Magic Carpet Ride"

 

American rock and roll band Steppenwolf, named after the title of a Herman Hesse novel, with one of their biggest hit songs, "Magic Carpet Ride", recorded and released in 1969, with bandleader John Kay on guitar and lead vocals, Michael Monarch on lead guitar and backing vocals, the late, great Rushton Moreve on bass, Jerry Edmonton on drums, and the late, great Goldy McJohn on Hammond organ and vocals.  It is McJohn who plays the epic Hammond solo.  Check out "Magic Carpet Ride".  

🥬 Lettuce - "Lettsanity" feat. Cory Wong - Blue Note Napa Summer Sessions (8.24.24)

 

🥬 Lettuce - "Lettsanity" feat. Cory Wong - Blue Note Napa Summer Sessions (8.24.24) All Things Lettuce: https://ffm.bio/lettuce * * * 🥬 Follow / Listen to Lettuce: Bio Link: https://ffm.bio/lettuce Website: https://www.lettucefunk.com/ Store: https://merchandise.lettucefunk.com/ Tour Dates: https://www.lettucefunk.com/tour Instagram:   / lettucefunk   Facebook:   / lettucefunk   Twitter:   / lettucefunk   TikTok:   / lettucefunk   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1fZXj... Apple Music:   / lettuce   YouTube:    / lettucefunk   Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/artists/B001... YouTube Music:    / lettuce - topic   Soundcloud:   / lettucefunk   Bandcamp: https://lettuce.bandcamp.com/ Tidal: https://tidal.com/browse/artist/3918323 Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/us/artist/398787 Pandora: https://www.pandora.com/artist/lettuc...

🥬 Lettuce - “Vámonos” Live at Santa Barbara Bowl - Santa Barbara, CA (7.21.24)

 

🥬 Lettuce - “Vámonos” Live at Santa Barbara Bowl - Santa Barbara, CA (7.21.24) From the album ‘Unify’ Stream/Download ‘Unify’: https://orcd.co/lettuceunify All Things Lettuce: https://ffm.bio/lettuce * * * 🥬 Follow / Listen to Lettuce: Bio Link: https://ffm.bio/lettuce Website: https://www.lettucefunk.com/ Store: https://merchandise.lettucefunk.com/ Tour Dates: https://www.lettucefunk.com/tour Instagram:   / lettucefunk   Facebook:   / lettucefunk   Twitter:   / lettucefunk   TikTok:   / lettucefunk   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1fZXj... Apple Music:   / lettuce   YouTube:    / lettucefunk   Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/artists/B001... YouTube Music:    / lettuce - topic   Soundcloud:   / lettucefunk   Bandcamp: https://lettuce.bandcamp.com/ Tidal: https://tidal.com/browse/artist/3918323 Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/us/artist/398787 Pandora: https://www.pandora.com/artist/lettuc... * * *

Dianne Reeves & Russell Malone "Embraceable You"

 

Continuing to remember and celebrate the life and music of jazz guitar legend Russell Malone.  Here he is, in a duo with jazz singer Dianne Reeves and they are performing the jazz standard "Embraceable You" written by George and Ira Gershwin.  

Raphael Wressnig & Soul Gift

 

This week's Sunday Special is yet another version, with his trio, Soul Gift, of Hammond B3 organ maestro Raphael Wressnig and his signature tune, "Born to Roam".  

Raphael Wressnig - Hammond B-3 organ, vocals

Enrico Crivellaro - guitar

Eric Cisbani - drums

"Born to Roam" written by Raphael Wressnig

Recorded in Padova, Italy

Special thanks to Radio Music Hall Padova

Videos and FOH: Enrico Santacatarina

For more info visit: https://www.raphaelwressnig.com

©2024 All rights reserved.

"Oh yes, Raphael plays a dynamic brand of B-3, his passion commensurate with his technique and his creative intelligence. He's a high-voltage dynamo but also a musician of surprising delicacy and self-reflection. Call him one of the finest blues/funk/jazz B-3 operators anywhere." 

(DOWNBEAT MAGAZINE)

"It’s 2021 most purely enjoyable blues listening experience”  (LIVING BLUES)

“It’s a true organ trio effort smeared in fat and grease - no fakery. Uncommonly adept at the art of nailing down funk rhythms, this international threesome infuses groove music with elements of jazz, blues, R&B, soul and gospel as if they’d found the Holy Grail to be the early-1970s, cross-genre funk of Jimmy McGriff. Suggestive of McGriff, but with a modern approach, Wressnig changes the tones and drawbar setting throughout a song and deals from a deck of Jimmy Smith-inspired R&B lines, hooks and licks. The fortyish Graz resident displays tremendous spirit and keen musical intellect as he accentuates the natural beauty of the Hammond”

(DOWNBEAT MAGAZINE)

Robin Trower - Too Rolling Stoned 2024 In Concert [Official]

 

Taken from 2024's In Concert with Robin Trower - released 14th September 2024. Too Rolling Stoned is a Robin Trower classic from 1974's 'Bridge of Sighs'. Stream the full concert of classic songs: https://www.robintrower.com/robin-tro... "Robin is playing in high gear. His guitar work is truly like no other. An iconic guitarist that plays with so much heart and passion. Mind blowing good!" PressMaven

Michael Brecker Band Montreux 1987

 

Michael Brecker Band
Montreux Jazz festival, Switzerland

Michael Brecker: Tenor/EWI

Mike Stern: Guitar

Jeff Andrews: Bass

Adam Nussbaum: Drums

Joey Calderazzo: Piano/Synth

Intense and Emotionally Charged - Sammy Davis, Jr.: What Kind of Fool Am I

 

From Bret "Jazz Video Guy" Primack.

"What Kind of Fool Am I?" Sammy Davis, Jr., one of the greatest male voices and entertainers that ever lived. This clip showcases his incredible vocals at the end of a concert - no vocal hoarseness, just a microphone and a bit of reverb. His phrasing, range, clarity, nuances, acting and sheer beauty of his timbre are simply spellbinding. In 1978, Sammy finally got an opportunity he had been waiting to do for many many years, he was given the chance to play Little Chap in Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse's "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off!". The musical was re-tooled for Sammy, and he did the show for several months in 1978 both on tour, and on Broadway, and it was later taped for cinema/television. After he did the show, he began doing this medley only in very select concerts in certain places, usually doing it at a premiere or closing show. This was closing night in Melbourne, 1979 Complete Performance:    • Sammy Davis Jr  -  Live in Australia ...   #sammydavisjr #whatkindoffoolamI

Monty Alexander Trio - Work Song - 11/06/1976 MUSIC ALL IN • World of Jazz

 

In this rare material, we see the Monty Alexander trio playing together with the famous Dutch Metropole Orchestra. It was founded in 1945 shortly after WW. II. ended. After years of suffering, Dutch people needed hope and... good times! In 1980 Rogier van Otterloo started as conductor. He was already famous, for writing the soundtracks of box office movies as 'Soldier of Orange' and "Turks Fruit" (Turkish Delight).

Montgomery Bernard "Monty" Alexander (born 6 June 1944) is a jazz pianist. His playing has a Caribbean influence and bright swinging feeling, with a strong vocabulary of bebop, jazz, and blues rooted melodies. He was a regular guest at the North Sea Jazz Festival. In this footage that we found in the archives; he performs in the Dutch TV show "Music All In".

 

SRV & Lonnie Mack - Live 1986

 

~Double Whammy!~
The American Caravan 
Live at The Orpheum Theater 
Memphis, TN 
August 1986