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June 1998

CUT CHEMIST meets SHORTKUT
Live at the Future Primitive Sound Session Version 1.1
(Future Primitive Sound)
This album is a a collaboration with DJ Cut Chemist and Shortkut, original Boy Wonder of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz. "Live on five turntables May 27th 1997 somewhere in the heart of San Fransisco underground", according to the liner notes.

Shortkut handles all the scratching while Cut Chemist orchestrates the beats and patterns. The result is a tribute to their old school roots. They are throwing down cut after cut in a furious tempo so at times it feels like the history of soul and hip-hop has been collapsed into the grooves.

Here is also fragmants of what later turned out to be Cut Chemistīs masterpiece Lesson 6: The Lecture on the Jurassic Five EP. Live At The Future Primitive is both innovative and immediately accessible. Here is 70 minutes and 23 tracks of improvised and unrehearsed mixing and effects. File under San Francisco Beat Culture.

CURTIS MAYFIELD
Superfly
(Curtom)
Superfly was rereleased about a year ago as a deluxe edition with an extra cd, full of outakes, demos, instrumentals and a interview with Curtis.

Here is also included a demo of a unreleased song called Underground. By the way, it is not the same song as on the Roots album.

I have loved and played the original cuts of these tracks for many years now, and they still sounds excellent. But this time around it is the cd with the alternate takes that has been most rewarding.

These takes are mostly demos and alternative mixīs without string arrangements. The studio band loosens up with blasting horns, wreckless percussion and Curtis is wild and free on the guitar, which give the songs a distinct live feeling.

FRANK SINATRA with COUNT BASIES ORCHESTRA
Live at The Sands
(Reprise)
In memory of the late Frank Sinatra, I have been spinning Sinatraīs excellent live album At The Sands.

Frank Sinatra wasnīt in musical shape during the 1970īs, but on this live set with Count Basieīs Orchestra in top notch form he certainly is swinging in Las Vegas. Sinatra entertains us with long and sharp monologues. The audience is barely listening, they are at The Sands to have a good time and sip another cocktail. The band is hot and Mr Sinatra is cool!

In a way, the album captures an atmosphere not unlike the vibe of sleazy meetings and fast money so memorable brought into focus in Martin Scorseseīs film Casino, but this one is for real.