Will Truitt's ? from 1972

Now that's a great title for a record, isn't it.

This guy is absent from my wonderful and ever-expanding resource discogs, at least for now.  On the other hand he does appear on rym where the fans are always out to lunch and the progressive music reviews always harsh.  And I see from the Great Google that his namesake is trying to advance in politics-- good luck, if it's the same guy, who graduated into politics.  Or rather, failed into politics.  Our Will Truitt here today is the kind of nutty, creative, uncompromising artist like Karlos Steinblast or Me's Thomas Marolda, or MO's Whittemore, who also presumably spent the recording session fully stoned, unlike the Nordic Jazz Quintet and all other Danish jazz musicians.  Perhaps to their detriment.

This is crazy-ass blues-based Southern stuff with the artist singing really oddball but highly original compositions over acoustic piano, no guitar or drums, as if said musical instrument were located in the commons room of the local hospital's psychiatric ward.  I would go so far as to say that through the many years of listening to these private pressed or DIY albums I've never heard anything quite like this one, so it's really hard to provide appropriate points of comparison.  Especially unusual is the format of singer and piano alone.  Unlike the case with Orval and their guitar playing I find it charming that his blues scales are sometimes wrong-note-prone.  He clearly makes up in enthusiasm what is lacking in virtuosity. The song Fat Lovebirds seems, perhaps accidentally, indebted to Grace Slick's marvelous progressive mini-opus inspired by James Joyce called ReJoyce:





It would've been nice and probably more enjoyable had he brought on some friends for a little bit of guitar bass and drums going here and there, but I guess he was too much of a loner.  Sure hope he didn't wind up shooting anyone.  And then moving on into politics.