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Live albums full of new material – a brainstorming session…

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Duke Special and the Ulaid, as AW regulars will know from a previous post (a memoir on a live recording session with invited audience in the middle of nowhere), are currently mixing their ‘Belfast Suite’ album and Peter (AKA Duke) asked me out of curiosity did I know if there were any previous examples of artists releasing effectively ‘new albums’ in the form of a concert recording.

Interesting question – and I’m hoping there’ll be a few answers from The Massive. off the cuff, I could vaguely recall a Joe Jackson 2LP set from the mid 80s that was, I think three-quarters new material, but recorded in concert. From memory (I haven’t checked yet), I think ‘Slade Alive’ in 1970 was largely material not otherwise recorded by the group.

And then one gets to live albums that feature a handful of ‘stage repertoire’ numbers alongside familiar material, such as The Who’s ‘Live At Leeds’.

The Pentangle’s ‘Sweet Child’ (1968) double LP is worth mentioning in that the live disc entirely comprised material not otherwise recorded by the band bar one number – although some of the items were tunes that individual band members had previously recorded in other bands or » Continue Reading.

Magical Music Venues

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178 7th Avenue South, Greenwich Village, New York is a place of magic. In a tiny basement, where you could cram no more than two hundred people if everyone breathes in, is a speakeasy, The Village Vanguard. It started hosting folk concerts from 1937. By the forties, jazz featured more often and from the 1950s onwards, The Village became the premier jazz venue. All the greats played there. Thelonius Monk’s week long residency helped break him to a wider audience. Bill Evans was a regular. Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra performed so often on Mondays from 1966 to 1990, it morphed into the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.

The venue is in the shape of an isosceles triangle with a small angle between the two equal sides. The stage is situated at that point in the triangle. As a consequence, the acoustics are special, the source of the magic. The musicians are touching distance from the audience, even spilling into the front tables if the band has more than a few members. The official capacity is 123. The combination of perfect acoustics and intimacy with audience is inspirational to a jazz musician who thrives on improvisation.

Sonny Rollins was among the first » Continue Reading.