Jasper Van't Hof's Pork Pie Live in Berlin 1974 with Chas. Mariano and P. Catherine (limited time only)

When I excitedly told my wife I had found this fresh release with the classic Porkpie lineup from 1974 and our beloved Jasper van't Hof with Charlie Mariano and Belgian super-guitarist Catherine she looked at me ranting, pulled out her phone and speaking into it said "google translate please translate into English"  No amount of excitement I guess can communicate how legendary this group was to a non-fan, how gorgeous their mid-seventies brand of progressive fusion was through those classic albums both as the Porkpie outfit and on solo works like Selfkicker, Helen 12 Trees, September Man, etc.  I mean, some of those albums have been my favourite fusions for years... Even when I play the music to get some kind of a reaction I usually get just a blank look and the comment "Kinda weird.  Like your hobby."  I guess Christmas means different things to different people.  To some, it means a thousand dollar silk scarf, & who could ever understand that??

Info is here.  Everyone gets a chance to add some compositions, but there are no new ones-- I think.  All the tracks run into each other, in fact the whole album does, with sides 1 and 2 artificially split by the producer.  I also added my own artificial splits when I got bored at the points where there were pauses for a little injection of applause.  Overall though this must have been quite an impressive and energetic concert if the musicians carried on so intently from one song through to the next without breaks.  Wouldn't that have been wonderful to hear and see live?

Note that the master tapes are from the master himself (van't Hof), handed over to 678 Records to make a limited release.  So I won't post it for long.  You can tell how good the sound and recording are from my sample track, the last one:





This is called "Blooz" [i.e. blues?] and it's by Chas Mariano.  There is nothing bluesy about it of course. Or perhaps it's in the form of a twelve bar blues, but I can't focus on it long enough to determine.


More Notes:

Recorded Philharmonie Berlin, November 1, 1974
Master tape from the private archive of Jasper van ’t Hof
Master digitized at Studio JDM Amsterdam by Frank Jochemsen
Edited & mastered by Marc Broer at Live Concert Recording Monnickendam 
Release initiated by P-Dog & Zembie and produced by Frank Jochemsen (Gallio producties), Jasper van ’t Hof & Sander Huibers for 678 Records
Succesfully distributed by Sander Huibers for Painted Dog Records
Grafische verzorging: Piet Schreuders

Note about the cover:
Two versions of the cover were released: the 'normal version' with the group photo of Pork Pie, and a special 'poster cover' with the Pork Pie poster illustration by Niklaus Troxler, limited to 150 copies and only available directly from 678 records.