Wednesday 5 April 2023

Batdorf and Rodney, part 2







So as you see prior to the OG 3 albums, someone dug up some demo-type recordings Live from Las Vegas in 1970 which are just the two of them plus guitars, very basic and simple, unfortunately for me marred by the poor quality of the sound recording (on two track tape it says), and a live session from 1975 which is also somewhat poorly recorded but does have a band (or just a bassist?) augmenting the sound.  On both of these there are tracks which didn't appear on the original 3 masterpiece official releases so for completists, it's heavenly to find these.  

From the latter, the 'tricky folk tuned' lovely Where are you now my love:



Sounding a lot here like David Crosby.

Then in 2007 they released Still Burnin' which features some more original compositions though mostly replays of old hits.

I want to mention 3 other things, the band Silver which released one album, and which was mostly written by Batdorf (who also penned most of the music for the duo). This album notably went all out into the commercial 70s pop, with keyboards replacing the double-guitars and four-part harmony vocals, for ex. the song about being a musician gives you an idea:



As well, from the VA Earl's Closet compilation (unreleased southern folk tracks from the seventies), Rodney's song about California appears:



Then in a compilation called Portfolio, someone (god bless them or rather 'em) dug up 4 more unreleased demo tracks from Batdorf, one of which is really outstanding, called Play, with its almost ethereally beautiful acoustic guitarwork:



Those 4 bonus tracks are included in the folder for the Live 1975. If anyone wants, I can also upload the compilation but the rest of the songs can be found on the other albums I upped.

God bless those guys, forever and ever...






7 comments:


  1. all the BR related albums in 1

    https://www.sendspace.com/file/ry0ye5

    https://krakenfiles.com/view/kqgUe3k1Kg/file.html

    portfolio

    https://www.sendspace.com/file/v5up2v

    https://krakenfiles.com/view/4Nx6pfH947/file.html

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  2. Never heard these,thank you very much!

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  3. Hi, your comparison to David Crosby is spot on. Some of their comps are outstanding. Incidentally I remember seeing a documentary about the boxer Sonny Liston which featured an interview with Mark Rodney. Mark talked about his father's association with Sonny in Las Vegas. The documentary was in part about about Sonny's connections with the Mob etc. Mark's father was the famous jazz trumpeter Red Rodney. Can't find the link to the documentary now, but it was show on UK satellite yv some years ago

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    1. Holy cow! I recently revisited Red Rodney's music and in doing so spent some time reading about his substance abuse issues. However, *not one* biographical article ever mentioned any sort of connection with La Cosa Nostra. Just Red and his music. Having read close to 60 books on the American Mafia, I am gobsmacked at the tenacity of the bastards. From regular kids, to jazz musicians, all the way to a former president, organized crime is/was a menace.

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  4. Here's a link to an interesting hour long interview with Mark Rodney talking about his father the trumpeter Red Rodney https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jake-feinberg/episodes/The-Mark-Rodney-Interview-e10ue44/a-a5iuh2l (you can listen within the site)

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  5. Allegations of Red Rodney and the mafia.
    https://nypost.com/2016/10/15/was-legendary-boxer-sonny-liston-murdered/

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  6. Check this obituary of Red Rodney... https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-red-rodney-1439684.html It says he impersonated a Major-General to run a scam. What a character. Suprised a movie's not been made about him. The story of him being billed (on a tour of the South) as Albino Red, the black white guy with Charlie Parker's band (and singing blues to a Southern audience) is funny. Watching an old vid of Red it reminds me he sounded not dissimilar to Dizzy see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llRgZpw8Sfo And in his youth he looked like Mark (minus the big hair)

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