Blind Faith - Blind Faith

Although I'd been listening to music from an early age, my parents bought be "Squeeze Me Please Me" by Slade when I was, I think, six years old, one of the first genres/tribes that inspired me as  i approached my teens was Heavy Metal and Hard Rock with bands such as AC/DC, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. I can't really remember how I got into this music, although I do remember seeing Judas Priests' video for "Breaking the Law" on Top of The Pops once. It was also a time, the late 70s/early 80s when there was a thing called "The New Wave of British Heavy Metal" just starting up which Iron Maiden and Def Lepard were part of.

Anyway, As I followed these bands via magazines like Kerrang and Sounds, I took note of the bands/artists that had influenced them, which is where I discovered bands like Cream, Led Zepplin, Deep Purple and, obviously, musicians like Eric Clapton ( I also took note of their influences from the Blues etc but that's for another post maybe).

One of the things I like about this period, the mid 60s to the mid 70s, is that artists appear to have been prepared to "up sticks" and move on to something new when they felt the need and be willing to collaborate. So Clapton went from the Yard Birds to the Blues Breakers to Cream and on. And Steve Winwood went from Spencer Davis to Traffic etc. Blind Faith, the band and the album came about, of course, as a consequence of that spirit of collaboration. 

I'd been aware of the album since I first got into listening to Eric Clapton but at the time I didn't dare buy it, my mother would have had a fit seeing the album cover! So it remained one of the albums i always intended to check out but never got round to it until a year or so ago.

Originally, I checked it out on Spotify and then downloaded it, where it lay unlistened to on my ipod until recently.

There are some really good songs on it and Steve Winwoods' voice is brilliant, sounding like a Brummy Ray Charles. My favourite track is "In The Presence of the Lord". I also like the cover of "Well Alright", originally by Buddy Holly, one of my favourite artist from the early days of Rock & Roll.

Charles Mingus- The Black Saint & The Sinner Lady

In many ways it's this sort of album that caused me to create this blog. Basically I bought it on a whim having been given some vouchers over Christmas.

I've never been a fan of Jazz, particularly this avant garde form. I've always felt you needed to be amusicologist to get the best from it. However, I thought since it wasn't my money I'd be spending, I'd give it a go and it always comes up on those lists of the "best ever" albums so there must be some merit to it.

 Having bought it, I've listened to the album sporadically, usually in the car when it's not safe enough to reach for the "shuffle" button. However, when it shuffled this time, in the house with no on coming traffic or pedestrians to worry about as I looked down to search for the ipod, I decided to stick with it and really have a listen and I'm actually pretty glad I did.

I won't pretend that I know much about Charles Mingus except that he played the Double Bass and was a noted composer of Jazz, as opposed I suppose, to "simply" being a good writer  or player. I'm also aware that he had a history of mental illness and a relationship with some British aristocrat or some such thing. I was tempted, prior to giving the album my full attention, to do some further research but I resisted so that I could approach the album afresh.

One disadvantage of this approach concerned the albums' concept i.e. what's it about? Who are the characters mentioned in the title and how do the titles of each composition relate to these? Maybe a greater understanding of these questions might have aided my enjoyment still further?

The other question I have concerns Charles' Mingus as the musician. Maybe it's the nature of his instrument, the double bass, or maybe it's to do with the nature of the ipod  and the type of files it uses ( digital formats tend to be compressed so they lose some "bits" that are supposed to be imperceptible to the human ear) or the fact that my headphones aren't that great (they should be given what I paid for them!!) but I expected the bass to be a major instrument. Perhaps his role as a composer was more important and it's only since I listened to the album properly that I noticed that the bass isn't to the fore as much as I'd expected. I think I'd assumed that he would be noodling away on his bass like Eric Clapton on his guitar at a "Cream" gig.

Anyway, to the music itself. There's no doubt that to a jazz "nimby" like me, this is a pretty challenging album. However, having listened to it a few times, there's much I enjoyed. Yes, there are bits that are quite "atonal" (if that's the right expression) which are difficult to listen to but there a flashes of things, such as a bit of flamenco guitar and, I think, I detected snippets of bits of more traditional jazz that you might have expected to hear in the 1920 & 1930s, which allowed me to find a way in to the rest of the pieces. There was an interesting use of, I think a base or baritone saxophone in an early part of the first piece which was reprised later on. A flute was also used at one point and I have to declare a prejudice in this regard, I hate the sound of the flute with a passion unless it's been hidden away at the back of an orchestra, I don't know why I just do! However, on this album it wasn't too hideous.

All in all it was good getting to know this album. I still think I need a few more listens to appreciate it properly but It's something I intend to do.