Theo Schumann in 1981, East Germany

It's hard to follow up last weekend's post I know, but it's our obligation to keep on truckin' here.  So let's move from West Germany to East for a peek at some novichok music.  From discogs:

German pianist, saxophonist and band leader, born 24 July 1928, died 21 July 1990. [At age 62!]
Leader of Theo Schumann Combo.

From wikipedia translates:

His father Otto Schumann was master tailor, he coined the musical development of his son Theodor. He made sure that Schumann practiced daily for six to seven hours. After completing his 8th grade, he applied to the Dresden Conservatory , where he completed his studies in clarinet and piano. After the war he played in various dance music orchestras. In 1956 he founded his first jazz quintet.

After studying classical music at the Carl Maria von Weber Dresden University of Music (subjects: conducting, composition, piano and clarinet ), Schumann founded the Theo Schumann Jazz Formation in 1957. From 1958, he was the bandleader of several jazz bands and composed numerous pieces.  The Theo Schumann Jazz Formation formation played in the Dresdner Parkhotel , for example , where jazz concerts were held every Monday. He was well known in the jazz scene and also gave guest performances in West Berlin . He brought out two records.

Instrumentation
Theo Schumann: Hammond organ, electric piano, piano, ladder; Jochen Kittan: Bass; Frank-Endrik Moll: Drums, Percussion; Konrad Körner : tenor saxophone, flute; Hubert Katzenbeier : Electric violin, trombone

Theo Schumann Combo 
From 1961 to the mid-1970s, Schumann directed the Theo Schumann Combo , which played both self-composed pieces - mostly instrumental dance music - as well as cover versions of Western pieces of music (such as Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones ).

With Theo Schumann Combo Schumann turned to commercial pop music. Within the GDR he gained great popularity, his hits were often played on the radio.


So you can see he was already a ripe 53 when he made this one, and unlike what I said about Thollot, the maturity shines through splendidly throughout.  Here, for example, the gorgeous goodness of Grünes Gewölbe:





Smoothly perfect, perfectly smooth fusionary visions, with Kiril Wlatschkow on trumpet.  Channeling my old college favourite Freddie Hubbard, perhaps.


On this record, Honolulu comes across as a Miles Davis So What jam, oddly enough (unlike the atmospherically expressive version of Jukka Linkola):





But I like that he strays outside the conventional series of chords.  Even more surprising, and perhaps typically European, is how the subsequent track called "Honky-Tonky" is completely unlike the musical style of the title save for some bluesy moves from the flute soloist, being quite post-modernly deconstructed.

Altogether a fabulous slice of oblivion and I'm looking forward to more from this fantastic composer.

Best of Hawai'i: Greg Yoder is the Dreamer of Life [1976, recommended] and Golden Throat [197?]

I can't share Golden Throat due to its rarity, but I will excerpt three songs (the best ones, frankly) so you can form your own opinion about it.  First of all, continuing in the vein of songs about "Stupid record companies" and their elusive, hard to get contracts, we have Golden Throat's bluegrassy Contract Song, presumably a celebratory ditty:

Worse songs than this one are played every hour on the radio nowadays, and were, at that time.  But
my favourite ballad is a simply gorgeous and tender track with ethereal chord changes and fifth - sixth (?) harmony vocals.  The melody that jumps up by a fifth is the unusual aspect to this one.   (Rachell Cypriano is the female vocalist's name, and I thought she had an entry in the Home Grown series.)

Whilst the band is clearly showing off its AOR - progressive knowledge in the opening to the freaky instrumental jam-packed African Sham:

_________

Moving on to the next entry, Greg Yoder was a San Fran man who moved to Hawai'i in the early seventies and after achieving some local fame in the Waikiki area, recorded this one-off LP full of gentle meditative and happy should've-been hits.





"I got a wino father who ain't got no dollar but shure 'nuff he got soul,
He's sorry for the things he did, sorry for the way he said, 'this will never go:'
He's a dreamer of life, still got a long way to go
Gotta get it together before his time runs low..."

And I think we all know the kind of man he is referring to here in this beautifully penned tune.  It's a song that almost seems made to be sung out loud in the car, especially that na-na-na outro part, preferably I guess a jeep or convertible with the top down.


The Golden Lady tune shows his skills at excellent chord changes:





It's quite astounding how the chorus, backed up by those cloud-like strings, changes chords in that descending chromatic pattern and then ends on such a completely unexpected major chord. (From Bflat down to A ?)

So please enjoy Greg-- that beautiful groovy dreamer of life, and do seek out his compatriots Golden Throat...

Last of Home Grown Hawai'i with installment IV [1980]

Look at the wonderful cover!

It's the last of the series, but let's get this over with, quickly...  As usual assorted songs about smoking pot and laying back and beautiful tropical scenery, quite often both together.

Track B4: Joan Komatsu and Lorene Godfrey - Kahalu'u

Home Grown Hawai'i III [1978]

It's not clear how much more of this Pacific propaganda music we all can take, but there are two more quick entries to have a listen to.  Though clearly well-intentioned, it might be that the employment of amateur or unknown musicians here detracts.

Track B3: Miles Lee and the Hawaiian Electric Band - Blue Pacific Nights give you an idea, bear in mind this is a mixed bag with folk, bluegrass, etc.:





Not the kind of souvenir the progfan would have liked from this wonderful bunch of islands.

Home Grown II [1977]

Slightly more professionally recorded tracks highlight this next instalment in the compendium of Hawaiian artists celebrating their island homes.  Remember, this series was in service of the habitat for humanity charity "Habilitat" which explains the wonderful ads and T-shirts in the pictures above.

Brothers Blend's "Children of the Island:"





Nohelani & Cypriano's soulful track "Lihue:"

Olomana from Hawai'i, Like a Seabird [1976], And so we are [1977]... Happy New Year!

These guys play a delicate but beautiful CSNY-like folk with dual acoustic guitars and lots of peaceful easy feelin'.  The addition of what I thought to be a mellotron in track A5, from the rarer second album, made me sit up in my chair, and laugh unintentionally out of sheer surprise:





Our prog-angel the Holy Mellotron turned out to be a string trio on scanning the lyrics sheet unfortunately.

And there are lots of treats on the first, gorgeously-covered Seabird album too to discover.

From discogs a brief bio:

The original Olomana was a duo consisting of Jerry Santos and Robert Beaumont [who wrote most, but not all, of the music here -Ed.]
Beaumont passed away in 1982. Presently Olomana consists of Jerry Santos, Haunani Apoliona, Wally Suenaga, and Willy Paikule. 
olomanamusic.com

Note there is a third record from 1980 which I will listen to someday.

Mahalo to these great Hawaiian artists!

The first Home Grown compilation from Hawai'i, from the year 1976

The old Lewers Street in Waikiki was the main but least respectable path between the long beachside boardwalk and the main boulevard running parallel behind, called Kalakaua.  Full of cheap motels with backpackers, surfers, and bums, an old McDonalds and some coffee joints, it was deemed inappropriate for the upscale tourists that were pouring in from both N. America and more importantly Japan and was taken away more than a decade ago, to be replaced by an astroturfed outdoor mall renamed "beach walk" full of the mandatory Starbuckses, the ubiquitous P.F.Changs, Hard Rock Cafes, and Ruth's Chris Steakhouses found in every American city nightspot area or generic mall, but thankfully, a heavy helping of Hawai'i-content smaller boutiques sprang up among the weedy and totally unnecessary proliferation of Honolulu Cookie Co's.... and there a month ago, hanging from the wall of a new surf shop, I saw a display of old Hawaiian LP sleeves: the previous Kalapana, Olomano, Country Living, Seawind (in my opinion the best), Tender Leaf, and Home Grown... my jaw dropped when I saw those covers... I didn't know any of them at the time but, needless to say, I proceeded to collect a huge mass of seventies records from the islands, and here are some of them...

This VA compilation features some unknown artists and some who gained fame in that era like Country Living.  Notes on the rear are quite instructive for those who are curious though as usual discogs has all the database information.  As far as I know a series of four such records were made by the radio station up until 1980 and I'll post them all for some variety show fun.

For myself the mix of baroque fuguery with acoustic guitar and piano from an artist called "Cooper's Still" is the most delightful find though how that integrates with a depiction of the Big Island is not as clear, perhaps due to the constant fog and rain that envelops the windward, Hilo side :





"Nothing less than paradise-- it calls to me..."

When we're done with these Hawai'i rips I'll mention my favourite records from there, other than my amazing discovery Mofoya, and the aforementioned Seawind albums.... sadly, some are available on itunes and thus will not be downloadable.
But through it all, Hawai'i calls to me...

Kalapana I [1975]

A quick break to introduce a few lovely records from the seventies of Hawai'i but as far from the notorious Don Ho as possible, of course.  Here, as befits the tropical climate, we have sunny breezy soulful and fresh sounding songs that will endlessly bring you warmth as we explore these utterly unknown hits from the past...

First up a band that made quite a few records back in the day, and I believe, are still touring today.  However they are really out of sight and unknown and we would like to correct that fundamental injustice.

Some information on discogs.

As one who has had the great good fortune of having been all through the small archipelago I enjoy the references throughout all these LPs of places that are well-known there, like track A5's Kona Daze.





This is a small city on the west coast (or leeward side as they call it there) of the Big Island (which is called Hawai'i itself), known for its coffee and the manta rays that congregate there at night to munch on small sea creatures.

A sweet track called Naturally:

Lenny Mac Dowell (FM Leinert) is back with Bird Watching fusion from 1982

I talked in earlier posts how annoying the commercial Hawaiian music sound can be, and we have a great example here with track A5.





This is very very light fusion, fuzak as my friend calls it.  Mac Dowell's magnum opus was "Balance of Power" and luckily was released on CD so as far as I know is readily awailable, and I posted an earlier LP called "Airplay" here.  We are far from the seventies in spirit here, the song called "Birdwatching" has none of the delicatesse and beauty one would have expected after listening for example to "Jocs D'Ocells" but in fact is about a creepy guy looking at females with a hint of voyeurism.  Sigh.




Anybody need the lossless?  (lol)
How odd that Balance of Power came two years after this one.  The search goes on, as we say here...

Big Island Hawai'i and Mofoya's Send a Message review and download from 1979

MoFoYa = 'More for You' and here we do get a lot indeed.  The cover is a drawing of the Big Island of Hawai'i  complete with two mountains, including what is usually billed as the tallest mountain in the world if you count its foundation below the sea, Mauna Kea (more than twice the height of Everest, apparently).  It's readily visible due to the astronomy edifices built on top, their silver shining like beacons on the snow cap you see when you lie on the beautiful hot beaches...  (And hence the track called "climb the highest peak" at the A3 position.)

First, from popsike:

"Obscure Prog Psych band from Kona, Hawaii. Lots of variety on here. There's great funky wah-wah, mellow prog with flute and female vocals, some trippy treated vocals, synths, loud guitars, soft ones, etc.  Here are 10 tracks of groovy pop-meets psych-meets flowerchild samba rock. 

Female vocalist GAILYVON's spacey Hippie stylings are backed by BILL MONTEI (guitars, synthesizers, strings, & backing vocals); TIM VALENTE (bass, flute); JOHN ALDEN (guitars, vocals); & RONNIE ATWATER on drums & percussion & backing vocals."


This was recorded in Kona, famous for its coffee, a small city on the west side of the island.  Of course I've spoken before about Hawai'i and its friendliness and great beauty, many times before.


Probably the most accessibly gorgeous song is track A4, called "Magic Sands".





Oh how I want to go back to those turquoise waters and white beaches backed with jungle-draped high cliffs intercepted by fresh waterfalls!


Track B2's Transition shows how loco progressive these locals could get when they were in the mood for it:




Now anybody want to go to Hawai'i with us for some ono grinds?  Maybe some spam sushi or a nice big plate lunch full of macaroni salad and kalua pork?  But good luck trying to find this record for sale there-- it took me three years to buy a copy finally on ebay...

And dig those Galaga type old school video game sounds at the very end of the record...

"Don't stray there-- tidepools--  you better watch out..." (B4)

Waikiki's Surf West and Kalakaua Boulevard by Kanzaki on the Road... from 1981

These guys did three smooth fusion albums in that very light Japanese style, all of which are relatively average for the genre but I couldn't resist posting this when I saw the first two songs on the second side: Waikiki Surf West, and Kalakaua Shuffle (the name of the main boulevard in Waikiki).  This was recorded at "Commercial Recording" of Hawai'i  way back in 1981, presumably in Honolulu.

Track A3 called Suite 246 - Aoyama Road is a highway in Japan.

Here's the song about Waikiki Beach's fabulous surf:





Not quite as composed as Jukka Linkola's opus on Hawai'i, but still real nice to hear for those like me who miss those beautiful garden islands...

I'm a bit puzzled by the title since the surf in general is better towards the east, closer to Diamond Head Crater, the west side features the family-friendly lagoon of the Hilton Hawaiian Village, favoured by my wife for maternal reasons.

A 1980 Aloha from Tim Eyermann and the East Coast Offering!! [+ some requested reups]

As we all know, fusion went into a very light direction towards the end of the seventies-- I guess 'Bitches Brew' was by then a distant memory for the musicians who crafted some quasi-atonal sounds to spice up the jazz-rock sound.  And this is a perfect example of that sad tendency, or degeneration, alleviated slightly by some crafty songwriting from the team.  In terms of the compositional credits you can check on the back scan that Phil McCusker the guitarist, Wade Matthews the bassist, and Tim himself wrote most of the music with some help from keyboardists Bruce Harrison and Louis Scherr.

Surprisingly the track entitled 'Acapulco Harvest' (by Wade Matthews) isn't some silly mariachi-styled 1-4-5 guantanamara-like bitterly emetic syrup, but a soft and laid-back almost tender ballad with some interesting modulation and changes:





From the blissfully soft sounds I am surprised this was not given a Hawai'ian name in fact, to me it recalls the sunrise behind Diamond Head in Waikiki-- something I recommend everyone witness, much more beautiful than the acclaimed sunset over the waters...  Speaking of which, I was highly relieved to hear that 'Aloha' (by Phil McCusker and Bruce Harrison) wasn't commercialized and candied up with gratuitous silliness in the form of ukuleles, etc. So thankfully the musicians decided to at least maintain their respectability, although without the fusionastic crux of energy and insanity we are so addicted to, like my children are to nutella, or like the nutella co. is to destroying indonesian forests for palm oil for their product:





As for the subject of Hawai'i, I discussed it at length in an earlier post...  in a couple of months our family will be back for our yearly wintering there, and we all can't wait to smell that beautiful tropical air of orchids and feel the warm balmy dark breeze at HNL the Honolulu airport...  seeing the 'na pali' (high cliffs) diving into the ocean from a white sand beach...

We are now past Labour Day, another obscure and quite troubling holiday involving, as I understand it, gratitude to heaven or perhaps our positive spirit for being a proletariat worker dying to win the lottery and thus join the god-blessed 0.1%  rich billionaires who are able to jetset about their cities to order twenty dollar croissants shipped directly from the Champs-Elysees-- puzzling and in fact quite disconcerting as this day appears to be, it is not so much so maybe as Boxing Day, Hallowe'en, Easter, Mothers Day, and Fathers Day.  Yet we always get the faintest suggestion, as we humbly accept our day free of forced labour, that we are manufacturing consent (in Chomsky's words) in addition to manufacturing another order of burritos within 4 minutes, when we celebrate these, being told to accept our place as lowly hoi polloi suitable for employment in minimum wage jobs to ensure the continuing success of enormous abstract corporations that are free to plunder the earth like galactic sharks to make their bald, golfcart carried executives and stockholders fabulously wealthy, more wealthy than even Louis XIV could have even imagined, in order to provide us with more useless tools to waste away the interminable boredom of modern life... a very very puzzling state of affairs...

Jukka Linkola Octet, Part 2: Lady in Green, from 1983

Four years after "Proto-funk" they came back with another record that charts more squarely in the big band style-- even more reminiscent of the German group Noctett, by this time, even in Finland, fusion was probably a dirty word...

But I would like to feature it because of the awesome track called "Hawai'i."  Surprisingly, it's not all about ukulele strumming, circles of fifths, and diatonic ditties with major chords a la Don Ho and Tiny Bubbles.  Like the "Seven Sacred Pools" of Joachim Kühn (footnote: the natives make a point of saying they are not sacred, this is an inappropriate misnomer like calling the White House a sacred temple) it's a serious composition that evokes the verdure, the clouds, the beautiful birds and the fresh rainshowers that appear so suddenly but depart so swiftly.  For those who have been there, this is a place that stays in the heart forever, as Joachim and Jukka probably realized.

The minute you step off the plane-- passing through the open-air Honolulu Airport with its mahogany walls and numerous palms, you will smell the unmistakable thick subtropical wind full of orchids, rainforest and warmth, a smell you will never forget for as long as you live.  In Hawai'i you will do the dutiful tourist activites-- seeing the volcano on the big island, the longest continuous erupting volcano in the world, drive through the lush rainforests and stare, slack-jawed, at the plummeting cliffs going down to the ocean on the 'road to Hana', trek through jungles to see brilliant huge waterfalls falling hundreds of feet down into cold fresh pools, watch the championship level surfers on the North Shore of Oahu and be awed by their skills-- which took years of daily practice to master, make no mistake about it (I've tried it, and it's really hard), taste the wonderful abundance of seafood and hopefully try the magnificent fish called Wahoo, the name supposedly derived from the island name of Oahu, which the natives there call Ono (meaning delicious), maybe you will see the mandatory-touristy luau and watch the dancers-- but this is just a superficial tasting...

It's only when you've spent a few weeks there, enjoying the friendliness of the locals and their universal 'hang loose' hand signal, finding completely empty white sand beaches with gorgeous waters, walking hours along rainforest trails, swimming in secret ponds at the foot of waterfalls, visiting enormous valleys in the central parts of certain islands, as majestic as the Grand Canyon, that you will understand, really understand... Hawai'i is a paradise on earth, as close as we will get to experiencing Eden.  Then when you return home to the boring daily job of 30-40 hours a week you use to waste time and buy food until you get old and retire, having to deal with angry coworkers, upset clients, insoluble problems you are required to fix, the horrid cold in our Northern Hemisphere, driving past the endless suburbs of home depots, Starbucks, and Burger Kings to drive home late at night with no forest anywhere nearby, you will miss Hawai'i-- I guarantee.  And the more you go there, the more deeply you will miss it...

How you'll yearn to go back, like Gaugain to Tahiti, or Rimbaud to Africa, to hear the sweet music, to smell those gorgeous orchids, walk through the forests with grand three-hundred foot wide monkey pod trees, grander than the cathedrals the Europeans spent hundreds of years building, sit on a rock at the bottom and pass hours just watching the forest in its element...

With regards to the sample song "Hawai'i" notice how the woodwinds-- as usual I should say-- evoke the clouds passing by, or a flock of birds flying away, with their turbulent, arpeggiated style.  As well, using the 'polytonality' of D on top of the key of C (the tritonal F sharp in fact) here makes one think of mists, showers, water, etc., due to the layering of one chord on top of the other, as if a reflection in a pool of water.  A very composed track for sure from the hand of this master:





One of the botanical gardens (the most beautiful one) on the Big Island, and the Aihualama Falls at the Lyon Arboretum north of Waikiki on Oahu:

Far past the road to Hana on Maui there is a beautiful but tiny white wooden church hidden in the jungle, without a sign to indicate its location.  There the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh has his grave, as he spent the last few years of his life in seclusion on this island.  Every time I have been there I've visited this site and thought of how much I would like also to be buried forever in this gorgeous place, surrounded by rainforest trees, a stone's throw from a steep cliff facing the Pacific Ocean and its interminable, incomparably powerful surf...
And goodbye to the land of wai (waters)...