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OFF THE BEATEN TRACK |
MOSTLY JAZZ "
by MICHAEL FOSTER
PEARCE-PICKERING BARRELHOUSE
JAZZ BAND, Swaggie, Stereo,
21P-001.
It IS Swaggic's first double album,
and it is of Australians, Taswcgian
Australians at that, playing jazz in the
style which has a peculiarly Aus
tralian tone about it.
They are good musicians, playing well,
and tlic tunes suit them
Technically it is a good album. Obvious
ly the Hobart Studios at Aunty's Place are
good and well equipped.
The music is, as Dick Hughes says in
his liner notes, mostly off the beaten track,
in fact all but one of the 26 offered.
There is then, a great deal to be expected
from the album, and a great deal to be
gained.
I cannot quite tell you why there is a
lingering, if not too disappointing doubt
that all there is is all there was.
It could be that the music seems to
march rather than strut, to be too meas
ured and ordered to be what I expected
from the "barrelhouse" designa'ion. There
again perhaps my understanding of the
term is awry.
What you do get is some consummate
clarinet from both Tom Pickering and from
John Tuckcr; good solid piano from Ian
Pearcc and some sometimes driving and
always steady bass from Ron Roberts.
Everyone else listed on the sessions,
which range through 1975 and 1976. con
tributes well.
The compositions, or perhaps rather the
composers represented, range extremely
widely from Jelly Roll Morton, through
Scott Joplin to Tom Pickering and Dave
Dallwitz.
Some of the others arc as little heard as
the tunes presented here, an obscurity
which docs no: mean that the music is not
worth the listening to.
Dick Hughes is better acquainted with
the musicians and is better able to offer
parallels and comparisons than I, which
makes his notes interesting. (His own re
cent record is still spinning while I listen
rather than write).
For that reason his notes are to be
commended.
They arc another of the many faccts
which make the album well worth the
listening.
Perhaps another time sometime soon I
will hear whatever it is 1 think 1 am
missing.
FINGER PAINTINGS, Earl Klugh, Blue
Note, (Festival) Stereo, L 36357.
LIKE tcnorist Yuscf Latecf, a native
of Detroit, Earl Klugh is a guitarist
of some considerable ability.
One of the first to rccognise and en
courage it from any position of emincncc
was Latecf.
He heard the young man giving lessons
in a music store and invited him to take
part in his 'Suite Sixteen' album.
A few months later Klugh met George
Benson, of whom he acknowledges he was
"aware". Again there was the invitation to
record.
Then a linked opportunity camc when
a demonstration tape reached a Blue Note
executive to whom Klugh had been recom
mended independently by Benson.
Klugh had meanwhile worked with
Chick Corea and George Shearing and was
back in Detroit "woodshedding", which
apparently means getting sorted out and
writing.
The tape led to a recording session, the
record led to god tales and Klugh was, and
is, on his way.
He has a nicc and easy style which
incorporates a lot of recognisable but not
dominant influences. There is something of
the surfing beat, something of the South
American beat, something of the pulsating
television theme style, something of some
of the great guitarists and enough individ
uality and ability for his acceptance by
both jazz and popular music buyers to be
understandable.
There is also a fair helping of strings and
voices in the arrangements, but it is not too
much, thank goodness and taste.
All in all it is one of those albums which
will grow on one with time.
It needs rather more listening.
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