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SPRING BREAK 2005
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 JORGEN INGMANN |
 BRIAN ENO |
 JEFFERSON AIRPLANE |
 THE SHADOWS |
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ANDREW GOLD Whirlwind (Collector's Choice)
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BO HANSSON Watership Down (EMI)
KH: We
had a gig in Gothenburg, Sweden, as sub-sub for Hendrix. We then stayed
at the same hotel as Hendrix. While we were checking in, Jimi came rolling
through the main entrance door with a 5m feather stola around his neck.
He was quite hmm, unsteady. He went for the elevator same time as we.
Together we went up to his floor, and what I then was thinking was,
he seemed so tall on stage, but not in the elevator in "private".
After letting him off at his level, we continued to ours. The same night
he threw a TV set out through the window of his room. 6th or 7th floor.
He did his concert the next day, with one of his hands wrapped up in
a bandage.
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JORGEN
INGMANN
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BRIAN
ENO Music For Airports (Astralwerks)
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JEFFERSON
AIRPLANE Fly Jefferson Airplane (Eagle)
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THE
SHADOWS Specs Appeal / Tasty (Magic)
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Over
the past five years, Collector’s Choice have established
themselves as the final word for collectible imports and domestic U.S.
CD remasters. In early 2005, CC’s in house label reissued four
CDs from West Coast pop maven Andrew Gold. Starting with his
1975 album Andrew Gold, the singer songwriter went
on to release What’s Wrong With This Picture? (1976
produced by Peter Asher) and All This And Heaven Too (1978,
now with a bonus cover of the Beatles’ hit “Dr. Robert”),
although he completely outdid himself with his 1979 album, Whirlwind.
Often referred to as Gold’s best album of the ‘70s, Whirlwind
was also his hardest rocking album to date and contains a slew of
dynamic power pop gems including the title track and a blistering lead
off rocker called “Kiss This One Goodbye”. Commenting on the
liner notes Gold adds, “In 1979 I began work on an unusual album
for me. A rock album. It’s funny, now that it’s been years
since the record was made, a lot of my fans like this album the best.
Go figure.” Gold may have been known as a pop lite kind of guy,
but the 2005 Collector’s Choice remaster of Whirlwind places
Gold into a solid pop-rock category. Well worth the time for fans of
Gold’s West Coast pop sound, Whirlwind along with his other
CC remasters feature detailed liner notes, bonus cuts and photos and
provide a solid introduction to an underrated pop maestro. Other 2005
reissues on Collector’s Choice worth checking out include Terry
Melcher (a CD reissue of his 1974 Reprise Records Lp with Ry
Cooder, Chris Hillman, Clarence White), Doug Sahm
- Groover’s Paradise (1974 with Stu Cook and
Doug Clifford from Creedence Clearwater) and a CC remaster from
the Del-Fi Records catalog, The Impacts - Wipe Out! (1962
instro surf-rock classic with guitarist Merrell Fankhauser).
Most CC remaster titles feature bonus tracks and all feature excellent
digital sound and extensive liner notes. 
It’s
taken a while but late in 2004 EMI Records in England reissued Music
Inspired By Watership Down—the 1977 album by Swedish keyboard
master Bo Hansson. Assisted by Swedish guitar ace Kenny Håkansson
and other top players, Hansson recorded and released some of the
most adventurous and melodic progressive instrumental rock of the era
and although he’s been dormant—at least on record for the
past couple decades—the albums Hansson made with Silence Records
producer Anders Lind remain vital and refreshing. After leaving
Silence, Hansson and Håkhansson switched labels for his 1977 album
El-Ahrairah, which was released on Lp in the U.K.
and the U.S. as Music Inspired By Watership Down. Now, more than
25 years after Bo’s final instrumental album, EMI in the U.K. reissued
the first four Bo Hansson solo albums—his first Lord Of The
Rings (1969), Magician’s Hat (1972), Attic
Thoughts (1975) and Watership Down, complete with bonus
tracks and intriguing liner notes. Unlike the late ‘90s Silence
Records CDs of these progressive music masterpieces with their Swedish
titles, these 2004 EMI remasters feature all the info needed by English
speaking music lovers to rediscover some certified ‘70s prog-rock
classicss. 
Just
how The Shadows got screwed out of making it in America might
be laid at the feet of Danish guitarist Jorgen Ingmann, who in
a simple twist of fate had his version of “Apache”
released in the U.S. at the same time as The Shadows were enjoying a
number one hit with the song in every other country in the world. Why
Atlantic / Atco chose to release Ingmann’s version in the U.S.
and not roll the dice and stick with the cooler Shads original goes
beyond words (even for an instrumental!) and ultimately falls into the
musical twilight zone of time. Pale in comparison to the Shadows 1960
EMI number one—don’t forget the song was written for the English
quartet in 1960 by the great Jerry Lordan on the back of a tour
bus—Ingmann’s laconic version is low key yet, in retrospect
is interesting in its own right. More Bert Weedon than Hank Marvin,
with a touch of Les Paul, Ingmann nevertheless displays an interesting
Nordic sensibility in his guitar playing, all of which is amply displayed
on a 2004 two-fer CD reissue on Collectables pairing his ‘61/62
Atco albums Apache / The Many Guitars Of Jorgen
Ingmann. The Danish are great music lovers and have turned out
some great players over the years and for fans of Euro-tinged instrumetal
music, Ingmann certainly provides a unique guitar history that’s
well worth checking out. 
Back
in 1978 rock icon Eno released his first major instrumental opus
of ambient music entitled Music For Airports. Flashback several
years before to 1975 when Eno had released an album of neoclassical
music released on the Obscure label entitled Discreet Music,
inspired by his early mentors Erik Satie, La Monte Young, Steve
Reich and Philip Glass. The liberating minimalism of Discreet Music
in 1975 provided the perfect backdrop for the truly significant
release of Music For Airports: Ambient 1, which
is still regarded as Eno’s first ambient electronic music masterpiece.
Conceived and produced by Eno “as an aid for those with a fear
of flying or perhaps just a feeling of anxiety about whether they will
ever see their luggage again”, the four part instrumental opus
never got piped in to airports world wide, yet Eno’s equivalent
of an aural sedative set the stage for the New Age boom of the late
‘70s and certainly the ‘80s. Eno followed Music For Airports
in 1980, collaborating with Harold Budd on an album entitled
Plateaux Of Mirrors: Ambient 2. By this time Eno
was on a roll and in the eyes of progressive music lovers could do no
wrong. In 1982 Eno created another masterpiece of ambient electronica.
Entitled On Land: Ambient 4, the album featured
Eno assisted by several players including Jon Hassell (trumpet)
and Michael Brook (guitar). The eight track On Land, along
with Plateaux Of Mirrors, Music For Airports and Discreet
Music were reissued late in 2004 by Astralwerks. Remastered
using ‘Class A’ analog electronics combined with the best
analog to digital conversion, each CD now sounds ‘as Brian Eno
intended them to be heard.’ In addition, each 2004 Ambient CD
remaster features liner notes by Eno and spiffy digi-pak design. Eno’s
calling as the inventor, spokesman, architect and mapmaker of “Ambient”
music is truly realized on these living, breathing artifacts of historic
minimalist music magic. Although ‘Ambient’ music has splintered
into a wealth of categories including ambient dub, ambient house, ambient
techno, ambient chill, it’s a valuable lesson to hear the art form
in it’s purest, incipient state...just as Eno first imagined it.
Let’s
face it, the ‘60s wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun as
it was without The Jefferson Airplane. Started by Paul Kantner,
Marty Balin, Jorma Kaukonen, Jack Cassidy and late
great drummer Spencer Dryden, the group took off in full flight
upon enlisting lead vocalist Grace Slick. From the ‘67 release
of Surrealistic Pillow till they laid the name to rest in 1972,
the Airplane invented a new rock language, influencing scores of bands
who worshipped their free-form, freaky approach to West Coast psychedelia.
With the 2004 DVD release of Fly Jefferson Airplane, Eagle
Vision pays tribute to one of America’s great rock legends.
The nearly two hour DVD offers a captivating collection of the Airplane’s
best live performances as captured on ‘60s TV shows like The
Bell Telephone Hour, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Perry
Como Show as well as clips from The Monterey Pop Festival and
the documentary Go Ride The Music. Linking these incredible video
performances are recent interviews with all the members who vividly
articulate the legacy behind the groundbreaking innovative Airplane
sound. Also featured are moments from the band’s induction into
the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame capped off by liner notes from Airplane
expert Jeff Tamarkin. 
When
it comes to CD reissues from The Shadows, it doesn’t get alot better
than the titles coming these past few years from the France-based Magic
Records. Magic has done a great job all around on a wide range of
Shadows CD remasters and most recently, in 2004 they reissued a fine
double CD set combining the late ‘70s Shadows classics Specs
Appeal and Tasty. Both Specs Appeal
(from 1975) and Tasty (from 1977) presented a range of hard
rocking Shadows instrumental guitar tracks with Specs Appeal adding
in a number of vocal tracks as well. On this essential Magic double
CD reissue of Specs Appeal / Tasty, both the original
13 track Specs Appeal and the 11 track Tasty track lineup
are further enhanced with a range of bonus vocal and instrumental
tracks combining for a total of 36 tunes over the two discs. Both of
these now classic albums were among the final studio albums of original
music The Shadows would release on EMI Records, and they remain
stellar examples of the brilliant, though often overlooked instrumental
and vocal music that guitarist Hank B. Marvin and his Shadows
band mates recorded in the mid ‘70s. Check out the Magic web site
for information on all their fine Shadows CD remasters. 
