Moist Paula's Bring A Record Take A Record

You come to my place and bring me one of your records. While we're listening to it on my RCA Victor, you can go through my collection and pick one to take with you.

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Gospel Gourmandise Reverend Vince Anderson FINALLY came to #BringARecordTakeARecord and of course it was worth the wait because he brought me some delicious vinyl as I knew he would.  Part of the fun of #BringARecordTakeARecord is excitedly wondering what people will bring (rather than focusing on the scarier aspect of what they’re going to take), and as my anticipation of Reverend Vince’s long awaited visit grew I projected that he’d PROBABLY bring me a gospel record, since he’s an avid, knowledgable and spectacular collector, and while his proclivities are widely varied, I am indeed on this cloudy June Sunday morning blasting my new “You Brought The Sunshine” LP by The Clark Sisters. Before I even put the record on the RCA Victor, I was thrilled by the album art which has a nice collage of individual full length photographs of the Clark Sisters wearing variously hued pleated chiffon gowns against a starry backdrop.  

The opening title track is an upbeat early 80s dance number reminiscent of Master Blaster by Stevie Wonder and Murphy’s Law by Cheri, but considerably more optimistic in lyrical content than the latter.  Other tracks I’m particularly enjoying this morning are Overdose of The Holy Ghost and an epic arrangement of Psalms 31.   In 1990 I saw The Clark Sisters live in concert at The World Famous Apollo Theater opening for Rev. Al Greene, and while I was very impressed, I’ve never until now owned one of their records.

Reverend Vince’s episode of #BringARecordTakeARecord occurred on an historic day in the United States Supreme Court, namely June 26, 2015, the day in which marriage became a legally observed institution available to any two adults wanting to tie the knot in this country.  Never one to skimp on meaningfulness, The Rev brought me a glorious original pressing of Long Walk to DC by The Staple Singers on 7″.  

If at this point you’re wondering who this marvelous Reverend Vince is and what he is to me, the quick version of the story is that in 1996 I answered an ad in the Musicians Wanted section of the Village Voice - I say it was an ad for a bass player, he insists it was for a drummer - anyway, I’m neither, but I’ve been playing bari sax with Reverend Vince in New York City every week ever since.  This week we celebrate our 6th anniversary at Union Pool in Williamsburg, Brookyn.  Tumblr isn’t large enough to regale you with tales of fun we’ve had together through the years, but I can’t overemphasize how fortunate, or as he would say, blessed I feel to have met this man and enjoyed this long standing friendship which revolves around music and food!  

Every time a new record that comes in my door under the auspices of #BringARecordTakeARecord, I have to be prepared to relinquish one of mine.  It’s been interesting for me to watch all the different ways people approach this part of the program - some agonize for hours and listen to a dozen or more records before making their decisions; others grab the first one they see.  Reverend Vince was fairly succinct in his selection process and went straight for a Thelonious Monk LP, 5 by Monk by 5, which I acquired a couple of years ago when my friend Morgan Price, the dapper saxophone player, came by to #BringARecordTakeARecord.  

I’ve enjoyed a dozen or so spins of this EP and like it very much but was pleased to see it going home with a great piano player.  

Rev. Vince’s 2nd choice was also made with alacrity - he zoomed in on an eponymous double album by Muddy Waters released on Chess in 1976 which was part of a collection donated to #BringARecordTakeARecord by my best friend Ginny’s father Warren Suss.  Apart from having often loved to immerse myself in this compilation, listening to sides 1 though 4 in order, I particularly like the cover art, a nice painting of a dapper Muddy hitchhiking amid autumn leaves.  Unfortunately I don’t know the name of the artist, but maybe Reverend Vince can tell me.  

Even though Rev. Vince got 1 + a double for 2, it all evens out considering the preciousness of the original Stax 45 and the most fun aspect of #BringARecordTakeARecord, which is that I make up the rules as I go!  Really, what’s mine is his and if you ever want to understand why I say that, please come some Monday in Brooklyn and see me play with Reverend Vince Anderson and his Love Choir, which I’ve been lucky to do weekly since the mid 90s.  

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When Man About Town Luqman Brown aka The Ace Face of Funkface aka The Dope Sagittarius of Dope Sagittarius aka Mackie Riverside of Mackie Riverside & The Street Pushers aka BigBoss of OUR collaborative project  Secretary feat. BigBoss aka Heimvey in Stew Stewart's Family Album came to #BringARecordTakeARecord, I foretold that he'd bring something as ridiculous and awesome as the Mr. T's Commandment 12" by Mr. T and as personally meaningful as a Smokey Robinson & The Miracles best of,  weirdly on Imperial House records.  

My good friend since the late 90s when I met him slinging a trombone at Baby Jupiter in NYC, Luq knows I love all things Smokey more than ever since the highlight of my life (so far) a few years back, when I got to play with him and The Roots on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. And while I never watched The A Team, Mr. T's ubiquity as a cultural figure icon celebrity hasn't been lost on me since the 80s when along with acting and wrestling, he made his foray into rap under the  Rap Direction of another Mr. T, namely Ice Tea, and made an album, Mr. T's Commandments, the maxi single from which is now mine to enjoy, and if you don't know the jam I recommend this video for insight into what it (life, rap music) really was like in the 80s.  Something about Mr. T's Commandment evokes exactly the essence of my friend Luqman so I'm very glad to have this record to remind me of him. 

As I said, Luqman, in addition to being the songwriter singer of the legendary NYC punk funk band Funkface, the mastermind behind electro rap project Dope Sagittarius  whose alter ego Mackie Riverside leads Stax cover band Mackie Riverside & The Streetpushers (in which I play bari sax) and who joined me in my saxtronica solo project Secretary, making it a duo project Secretary feat. BigBoss, plays a mean trombone.  Therefore it didn't surprise me a bit when he zeroed in on my Fred Wesley & The Horny Horns album A Blow For Me, A Toot For You.  Of course I love this album, but I couldn't think of anyone I'd rather have take it.  As you can see by following the link to the Discogs page for this record, the style is P.Funk. 

Luqman's style is also decidedly P. Funk and the second LP he took was Bootsy's Rubber Band's This Boot is Made For Fonk'n (also featuring The Horny Horns), describing a recent Bootsy Collins concert he saw in New Orleans in which Bootsy pulled off 5 costume changes. 

Luqman and I spent hours listening to records and chatting and I'd be remiss not to say that he really is one of my favorite people, musicians and characters in New York City.  And as multi-faceted in his exploits as Mr. T himself, as you can see from his #BringARecordTakeARecordfilmete, in addition to all his acting and musical personae I listed, he's also a really decent beatboxer. 

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All the words in the blogosphere can’t sum up Moist Gina and what she is to me - since we started playing music together in a basement on Ludlow Street in 1996 in KOOL-AID and went on to form our band Moisturizer in 1998 (Moist Gina on bass and I on bari sax), we’ve spent so much quality time together in taxis, restaurants, jet airliners, nightclubs, our rehearsal studios, and gone through so much nonsense and good sense together, writing more than 80 instrumental songs we think are hits all the while  about boyfriends, friendboys, not exactly girlfriends, taxis, restaurants, shoes & matching handbags, lost wallets, treading on the tiger’s tail …. I could drag this sentence out for pages & pages.  Moisturizer played it’s swan song in 2009 after 11 fantastic years, and now I don’t see nearly enough of Moist Gina, so I was thrilled when she finally came over to #BringARecordTakeARecord, not least of all because I knew she would bring some groovy wax for us to listen to while she flipped through my LPs choosing what to take home with her.  

I haven’t stopped listening to one of the albums she brought, the "Privilege" Original Soundtrack Album from 1968.  The album features one song I remember hearing on the radio my whole life, I’ve Been A Bad Bad Boy by Paul Jones - the rest of the music on the album is perfectly conveyed by the zany cover art: 

I now really want to watch this movie starring said Paul Jones and Australian 60s super model Jean “The Shrimp” Shrimpton. 

Gina also gave me a an LP by Le Kid & Les Marinellis a French band from nowadays doing 60s garage rock.  We particularly enjoyed listening to the track GINA.

As a bonus, Moist Gina brought me a copy of “Gardens” by her band Madam Robot & The Lust Brigade, which of course I already have, so now there’s a copy up for a swap.  

After so much tea and refreshments, Moist Gina, after listening to many records, chose to take along home with her an album I really like but am happy for to her have by Bonnie Koloc, After All This Time , which was donated to #BringARecordTakeARecord by my friend Mina Karima aka The Sparrow last year.  

She also took along with her my excellent Girl Groups compilation which I look forward to enjoying with Moist Gina when I visit her later today.  It contains many classics by the 60s girl groups who directly inspired and influenced Moisturizer.  

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If you've ever seen or heard Antibalas, you sonically know bari sax man and founding member Martin Perna . I met Martin around the turn of the century in Brooklyn and have loved this low end sax sibling ever since.  In addition to being a great musician, Martin is a serious and learned activist and also a hilarious comic.  I always enjoy hanging out with him and knew if I could get him to #BringARecordTakeARecord I'd not only wind up adding a choice cut of vinyl to my collection, but also having a wonderful conversation.  

Before we got down to the "business" of swapping the records, I, of course, had to show Martin my new electronic wind instrument, the AKAI EWI5000 and invite him to get onboard with Electric Embouchere, the umbrella organization for all my future EWI5000 related collaborations.  Martin gave the EWI5000 a whirl and quickly realized if you know how to blow a sax you can EWI, hence the opening scene of the attached filmette. 

After some tea and refreshments we moved into the record listening chamber.  Martin broke out the Bobby Womack LP he brought, BW goes C&W,  and put it right on the RCA Victor, filling my apartment with soulful versions of classic country songs, including one of my very favorites, Charlie Rich's Behind Closed Doors, which I reference frequently.  

This record was a timely and topical gift because I've been thinking to learn some country songs on EWI5000.  It made for great listening while Martin flipped through my collection but he didn't even make it through the first side before reaching his decision.  

He almost automatically zeroed in on my too long overlooked copy of The Pretenders Learning To Crawl.  He said, as he begins to say at the end of the filmette, that his mother had loved The Pretenders and he listened to them a lot growing up.  

We listened to and marveled at Chrissie Hynde and I looked up her wikipedia page on my phone and discovered she'd moved to London from Akron, OH in 1973 and worked at NME and also at Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's fledgling boutique.  Talk about getting off on the good foot.  

I love The Pretenders, but I'm happy Martin took the album with him and I love my new BW goes C&W record and intend to put it on and jam along with it right now.  

Martin, meanwhile, is preparing to play at the Daptone Super Soul Revue at The Apollo Theater in Harlem, USA December 4, 5 & 6.  Hopefully he'll be chaneling Chrissie Hynde on bari sax during the Antibalas set! 

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From 1 sax player to another, Freddy DeBoe brought me Kool Jazz, a 1973 album by Kool & The Gang ; turns out Kool Jazz might be some of my favorite jazz -- the slinky instrumentals on the 70s r&b tip have been making for some very easy listening around my livingroom.  

I met Freddy a couple of years back when he hadn't long been living in New York; he came and sat in at soul siren Meah Pace's  downtown residency that I was working at the time and blew us all away.  He soon secured a position as main sax man for Charles Bradley and has been traveling the world playing soulful sax ever since.  Exotically, I ran into him in the mess hall of a French theater at the Jazz a la Villette Festival where i was playing with Nick Waterhouse on a double bill with Charles.  We had a laugh over the fact that we had to travel to the other side of the ocean to eat a meal together when we live just a couple of miles apart in Brooklyn.  The first day I got back I was getting my new Manning Custom baritone sax case made and ran into Freddy over at Mike Manning's shop on 35th Street.  He was bringing in his 30s Conn to be repaired and restored after it got a soaking at an outdoor festival in Vermont.  Having to leave on tour with Charles again the next day, Freddy asked if by chance I had a tenor sax I wasn't using; surprisingly, almost even to myself, the answer to that question was yes - Elliot Bergman had given me a stone cold deal on a Buescher Aristocrat a couple of years back which I love but can't seem to fit on my back along with my bari and consequently don't play very frequently.  So Freddy took the horn out some tour dates; when he came to return it, I suggested he #BringARecordTakeARecord and now I'm relaxing listening to Kool Jazz.  

Freddy, in return for his Kool & The Gang LP, the visit and his time got to go through my records and pick out the one he would take home.  I can't commend him enough on his choice and I was very touched by the way he related to it.  Extension of a Man is a very deep, powerful album by Donnie Hathaway (not that he made any other kind that I'm aware of); to hear Freddy reverently read aloud the entire liner notes, written by Donnie Hathaway himself rekindled my interest in the album doubly as we listened to how fantastic it is.  

I'm so happy that record went with Freddy who I'm sure will continue to deeply appreciate it, and I'm now in the market for a copy because I want to revisit it myself.  So if I've invited you to #BringARecordTakeARecord and you're stumped as to what to bring ..... hint, hint.  

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One night at The Church of the Electric Dirt, the DJ caught my ear -- I emerged from Moist Gina's room where I'd been hiding out to find out who was playing the Brothers Johnson version of Strawberry Letter 23 preceded by a strange mixture of several other favorite songs of mine and saw it was girl about town Kerry Lacy.  Another time I was in the crowded front bar at Union Pool and heard a string of my favorites - I looked over to the DJ Booth and it was Kerry again.  Next time I saw her I invited her to #BringARecordTakeARecord and I wasn't surprised when she brought along a very groovy album with an amazing cover.  Kerry brought me a copy of A.NAL.Y.SIS by The Nite-Liters, which I'd never seen or heard of, but which I knew would be a record I'd enjoy exercising (ie dancing in the livingroom) to as soon as the needle of my RCA Victor landed on the first track. Almost unimaginably to some, the hot orchestral funk jams arranged and conducted in part by my friend Tina's grandfather (!) Harvey Fuqua remind me of my childhood in Australia in the early 70s.  Somehow, and clearly only through the radio, TV and the movies, this kind of music was available to my 10 year old ears who were constantly seeking and sifting through sounds with which to build and forge my aesthetic identity.  It was a groovy time, even in suburbia. Anyway, to this day I'm a sucker for a funky horn section bouncing around in a deep bass pocket so I immensely appreciate Kerry's contribution.  

Of course, in return for The Nite-Liters album, I had to relinquish one from my shelves and as always I found it interesting watching Kerry flip through my records and pull out a few to consider.  As we listened, there were a couple I was reawakened to and promised myself I'd listen to if she didn't take them; fortunately for me she didn't and she went with the first record she'd been attracted to, George Clinton's R&B Skeletons In The Closet.  

George Clinton has certainly the most popular artist for people to TAKE since I started #BringARecordTakeARecord; people have grabbed albums by The Parliaments, Parliament, Funkadelic and now a solo LP.  So if anyone is considering BRINGING a record by any of George Clinton's projects, at this point there's a good chance I won't have it!  But I'm glad Kerry got to take this album off into the world with her because I know she'll have people dancing to Do Fries Go With That Shake, whereas at best I'd be exercising to it in my livingroom.  

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_"My name is Smoota.  I, of course, brought Teddy Pendergrass."  

I, of course, already had my own Teddy Pendergrass, so now I have two and am down one Sylvia.  A funny thing about Lay It On Me, it never made a strong impression on me until Smoota put it on the RCA Victor and wanted it; only then did I realize I was laying something good on him, not that he doesn't deserve it.  And look at her outfit on the cover! 

Thank goodness, however, that I bent the rules as I went along and drew the line at Smoota being allowed to take my Ashford & Simpson Gimme Something Real LP (with gatefold sleeve).  

I have one small shelf of records I'm not giving up for these Bring A Record Take A Record vinyl swapping affairs, and said copy of "Gimme Something Real" should have been on it.  When I first started doing this, that shelf contained records I played on, that my friends played on or that I received as a gift; also records that couldn't be replaced or listened to digitally.  As time has gone by I've been less stringent and allowed myself to put on that shelf any record I simply don't want to part with.  After relinquishing five Funkadelic LPs, I put my last remaining one (Let's Take It To The Stage) on that shelf along with a couple by Parliament and then started adding to that just any record I use and enjoy ever.  My Ashford & Simpson record should definitely have been put away, since I regularly take side 2 of that LP, which starts with Bend Me and ends with the title track, both of which I LOVE, out for a spin on my RCA Victor.   Anyway, Smoota and I are good friends and he was very sporting about me making up the rules as I go, and I'm sure he'll find a way to punish me down the line.  We're also fellow hornblowers and you catch us playing together most Mondays in Brooklyn with Rev. Vince Anderson & The Love Choir at Union Pool.  You should also check out his pop music and thoughts at http://www.smoota.com  Watch the "Body To Body" video; it may shed some light on why he "of course" brought me a record by Teddy Pendergrass, one of his patron saints.  

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Fine Art Photographer Amy Touchette (we call her Amos and you can follow her on instagram at @amostouchette, which account is filled with fantastic portraits of the public she encounters in her travels) is very deeply affected by music.  I've been in her company and watched her from the stage at dozens or even hundreds of live music performances and she is always an instantaneous mover and shaker.  In her home I've sat many many times in the orange velvet armchair enjoying her musical selections, always the perfect complement to hospitality and refreshments.  I'm sure we've listened to Earth Wind & Fire Head To The Sky  LP on some such occasion; listening to it now certainly reminds me of kicking back with Amos over a cup of tea and a smoke and shooting the shit on some luxurious evening when I've spontaneously swung by finding myself on the Williamsburg end of Brooklyn.  I think I may even remember asking her what she was playing and it being this record and her telling me she was super into it at that time.  As she says in her #bringarecordtakearecord short above, she only brought it because she and her live in lover Smoota have two of them at home.  

Nevertheless, the songs on this EWF album are pretty unfamiliar to me; none of them appears on the Greatest Hits LP I fell in love with as a teenager in the 70s, and I don't mind confessing that apart from those songs and some ensuing hits over the years, and the Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song OST, which was recorded by members of the band before they became Earth Wind & Fire, and which I had to learn for Melvin Van Peebles' stage production in 2010, I've never really listened to Earth Wind & Fire that much.  I even have a couple of their albums but couldn't say I know them.  

So I've been listening to this album of album tracks for a few days since Amos brought it over and finding it to be very enjoyable overall, without any of the songs sticking in my head so much as an atmosphere becoming associated with the music, actually, an atmosphere of indulgence.  Listening to the album also made me think about albums versus individual songs -- I think Head To The Sky is best listened to in its entirety, although my friend Little Shalimar singled out the 1st track Evil as one he liked to spin when DJing.  The title track is also kind of reminiscent of Love On A Two Way Street by The Moments and stands out to me the most.  

The cover of the album is, of course, very groovy with Jessica Cleaves (RIP) looking like a superfly kundalini yoga practitioner in her white turban and all white outfit and the fellas all shirtless.  

Cover art clearly matters to Amos, and she went straight for Grace Jones Island Life , which my man on bass Daniel Fabricatore brought to #BringARecordTakeARecord a few months back, just on the strength of the photo on the cover.

I know she'll enjoy the album, since Amos was smart enough to go and see Grace Jones perform at Roseland Ballroom in 2012, an opportunity which will never arise again, since NYC has now lost that wonderful historic venue.  

And here's a fun fact .... what do Earth Wind & Fire and Grace Jones have in common?  They've both performed the music of Melvin Van Peebles.  Check out Grace Jones' version of Apple Stretching  and a very young EWF performing Sweetback's theme.  Amos has also photographed Melvin, so it's true what they say, everything is connected.  

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Attachment to Funkadelic LPs is something I've had the opportunity to consider repeatedly since I decided to allow people to go through my record collection and help themselves to anything replaceable, regardless of what they may have brought to swap.  As a superfan of the group, I have their full catalog over various formats and can listen to their eponymous 1970 debut album any time my iPhone is charged.  But when Michael Kammers (of MK Groove Orchestra etc fame) and Amy Pace walked out the door with my copy of the album, leaving me with only one Funkadelic wax to my name (John Speck and Satch Hoyt also relieved me of Funkadelic LPs), I was like, fuck this, and I put my copy of Let's Take It To The Stage on the not available for swapping shelf.  Not that I resent MK and Amy's funky emotions being licked or that I can't face the fact that part of growing up is giving away your Toys to the younger kids, especially when you haven't played with them in a few years .... it's just that I feel some way about certain of my records, almost as if I'm defined by them.  Which is, of course, an illusion and in part the underlying idea of #BringARecordTakeARecord.

I remember buying the Funkadelic record in question.  The first time I heard the band, it was on the radio in Australia on 3RRR on Billy Baxter's radio show.  My mind was blown by the song I heard but I missed Billy's announcement as to who it was and Shazam was then the stuff of SciFi, so my search began .... crate digging until I heard the sounds again of the psychedelic funk band that sounded like a Stone Soul Picnic gone orgiastic on LSD after midnight.  Finally I found Maggot Brain and I knew that was the band.  My Funkadelic collection began.  The self titled album was the second album I bought, at Greville Records, full price for the US Import.  Listening now to the digital version of the album I'm reminded of how I listened to the record repeatedly until it was so deep in my blood that it took me on a journey which included moving to America and joining Burnt Sugar, a sprawling tribe of musicians and vocalists which, when I witnessed them in action for the first time at Tonic in NYC around the turn of the century, in essence reminded me more of Funkadelic than the P-Funk Allstars themselves.  When I think of the thousands of records I've listened to in my life I might have to say I was more moved by Funkadelic then anything else.  Who knows why?  

Anyway, MK & Amy flipped through my shelves .... Amy went straight for a Best of Dolly Parton LP, which was a beautiful choice since I had two of them and she and MK brought me two duplicates to swap ... no tears there, and Loretta for Dolly is a nice even swap anyway.  

She also gravitated to The Velvet Underground & Nico, an excellent choice and topical because Lou Reed had just died.  Now, this album was equally important to me at the time I first came upon it as an 18 year old as any Funkadelic LP I acquired later, but somehow I was nothing but pleased to hand it over for Amy & MK to enjoy.  I love the record but no part of me feels that I NEED to own a copy.  

The fourth record they took was a reissue of an early LP by The Upsetter, aka Lee Perry, with a beautiful cover, but which I'd always found disappointing to listen to, so I was thrilled for them to take that home with them.  

Is the cover not beautiful?

Finally, I'd forgotten until watching the video above that they also took a fantastic Jimmy McGriff & Junior Parker record, The Dude's Doin' Business.  I forgot they took 5 records with them because two of the four they brought were doubles.  Now, while this record was unquestionably a score on their end, the very fact that I forgot they'd taken it (and possibly that I owned it) makes it an excellent candidate for passing on.  I'm slightly mad at myself for not checking out the record more, but that very syndrome is also an underlying principle of #BringARecordTakeARecord and a reminder to me to get at the RCA Victor and start using my records before I lose them!

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Art Punk Rapper DJ CX KIDTRONIK popped over late last Tuesday night to #BringARecordTakeARecord; cutely enough he seemed shy and nervous about the contents of the (other) brown paper bag he arrived with, disclaiming wildly that a lot of his records were packed up in boxes .... he seemed worried I wouldn't like the record he'd brought, or that perhaps I'd miss the conceptual link between it and "you know what I'm saying? Big ol' horn" (pointing at the bari sax he could see on my bed through the open door to my "studio").  As I've said again and again in this blog, a big part of the charm for me of the project is spending non-club time with people I've known and liked for years; CX and I have known each other a long time, but he didn't know me well enough to be sure that of course I bloody get the connection between Tubby The Tuba and my beloved low end ax, let alone that I wouldn't be thrilled by the children's record released in 1974 of a collaboration between storyteller Paul Tripp aka Mr. I. Magination and composer George Kleinsinger, who together created the Tubby The Tuba character and his musical adventures in 1945.  

This record actually made for excellent late night listening ... Paul Tripp's narration was indeed a trip and the Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra's rendition of the original scores written and arranged by George Kleinsinger is filled with crazy sounds and musical ideas that CX kept saying he wished he'd sampled.  Ultimately, he was, like, I might have to digitize this.

Moreover, it seems he may have unwittingly given me a very rare record, since I can't find any information on the internet about this particular LP, released on Wonderland Records (a division of A.A. Records) in 1974.  There are versions available of the same record on Golden Records with the catalog number GLP 8, but this version just has the catalog # LP8.  Oh well.  

I asked CX if he remembered where he got the record and why he'd been attracted to it; he said he'd been in a group in the 90s in Atlanta called Furthur 3 MCs which had a tuba and that was when he'd picked it up.

Tubas have been topical in my mind over the last week since I saw Howard Johnson's tuba ensemble "Gravity" and Henry Threadgill's "Ensemble Double-Up", which featured Jose Davila at the NYC Winter Jazz Fest in the same night, a huge helping of the huge horns.  

I've said all along, I love my instrument but I always think the low brass players are having the most fun.  Listening to my first Tubby The Tuba record I can understand how funlovers the world over gravitated to the instrument.  

I think I need a few more late night tea parties with my neighbor CX to dream up the adventures of Barbarella The Bari Sax.  While you're eagerly awaiting for that to materialize, check out his Stones Throw release KRAK ATTACK 2: BALLAD OF ELLI SKIFF

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DJ $mall ¢hange changed the mood of #BringARecordTakeARecord by being the first bringertaker to bring 45s and take a 33.  Hopefully the wobbly staircase leading to my 2nd floor apartment concealed the fact that I was slightly shaken by the idea, but as with so many new developments in life, once I checked it out I actually loved it.  

Naturally the internationally acclaimed record digger/radio personality/party dj extraordinaire brought me a beautifully put together bunch of sides, a trio of soul funk singles from my favorite period in aesthetic history, the late 60s/early 70s, providing me with the perfect musical accompaniment to my new Trim Twist exercise regime for 2014.which I devised while listening to them today.

The Impulse, Stax and Polydor labels alone of the Mel Brown, Rufus Thomas and Hank Ballard & The Midnight Lighters singles piqued my tantalization with the assurance that groovy sounds would momentarily fill my livingroom as I fixed the cups of PG Tips and refreshments for $¢ and myself, 

First we heard Rufus Thomas's "Do The Funky Chicken", famously performed at WattStax, and the funky flipside Turn Your Damper Down, a vernacular I'd never heard in the US but of which I was able to figure out the meaning, despite thinking of Australian bread baked in the ashes of campfires.

Next I found myself twisting whilst pouring tea to the sounds of Mel Brown's groovy instrumental version of Son of A Preacher Man backed with Set Me Free.  I don't remember hearing this guitarist's records before, so now I'm on a mission to hear more, starting with 1969 LP Blues For We  which features both tracks, even though the label on the single refers to the album as "Set Me Free".  I guess somebody had a change of heart.    

Next we listened to Hank Ballard & The Midnight Lighters (as distinct from The Midnighters and The Midnight Lovers!), Finger Poppin' Time and From The Love Side, by way, as the label states, of James Brown The Creator, Produced By James Brown, Arranged By James Brown,  Enough said. 

Hanging out with Gentleman $¢ was a stone cold pleasure. As has frequently been the case since I've been carrying on Bring A Record Take A Record, this was the first time I'd ever sat down outside of nightlife with someone I've "known" for at least a decade.  Had the sun not set at 4.44 it would have been the first time I'd seen $¢ by the light of day other than the morning after Black Betty closed down when Rev. Vince played until 6 in the morning and we all wound up on some rooftop until 9am.  Even so, it was quickly apparent that we had an accurate sense of each others' sensibilities as we waxed poetic about our waxen voyages of discovery as record lovers.  Like me, $¢ started a college radio show as a young collector; unlike me he only worked at a record store for three months in a brief stint at the world famous Bleecker Bob's in NYC.  "He had an incredible collection, he was a big doo wop guy".  

I first met $¢ at the Rubulad parties in the late 90s on South 5th Street in Williamsburg where I played frequently through most of the first decade of this century.  His DJ sets were always fantastically diverse and earcatching and dancing to his music with Moist Gina was a good way to while away the hours and hours we'd sometimes wait to play our Moisturizer set or for which we'd hang out afterwards.  

$¢'s record collection is in the 10s of thousands and probably encompasses every genre imaginable.  He impressed me with his better than casual knowledge of Australian punk rock records, a few of which I've hung on to since my girlish days, and a story about how he once spied from an upstairs NYC apartment window a guy selling choice Prestige vinyl on the street, which of course he ran downstairs to acquire.  

The good news is that you can get a load of what's in his collection every Wednesday night on WFMU from midnight to 3am on Nickel and Dime Radio - in fact, all his shows are archived so you can tune into dozens of episodes any time at http://wfmu.org/playlists/ND.  And excitingly, as I write, $¢ has invited me to a be a guest on his show tomorrow night, so tune into the Wednesday January 8 2014 episode to listen to the sounds of us emerging from the polar vortex and stay tuned here to find out which LP $¢ took.  

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Most Mondays I get to play music with the great bass player Dan Fabricatore.  Since Dan came onboard a couple of years back on my weekly gig at Union Pool with Rev. Vince Anderson & His Love Choir, I always look forward to hearing him get wild on bass for a couple of hours before we share a late night taxi to our respective homes in the early hours of Tuesday morning.  Dan, while being the first bandmate from the Reverend Vince gig to Bring A Record Take A Record, built up my anticipation surrounding the event for weeks and possibly months.  I appreciate his forethought and teasing and concern that he wanted to bring the "right" thing and when he finally showed up, he brought me three perfectly right things to swap, as well as a gift of a beautiful album he played on, The Ängsudden Song Cycle by Mike McGinnnis. Hopefully this #BringARecordTakeARecord and throw in one of yours trend is becoming a tradition (Michael Kammers likewise brought one of his Abacus LPs); it works out great for me!    

In addition to that nice bonus, Dan brought a well rounded trio of musical long players for me to shelve in place of the three he wound up taking out.  Triangulating Grace Jones with The Rascals and Joan Baez, Dan set me up with plenty of listening pleasure for in between our gigs together.  

I felt Time Peace: The Rascals Greatest Hits  to be in my case a timely piece - still mildly smarting from the exodus of The Hollies Bus Stop, which I relinquished to John Ventimiglia, I was relieved to replenish my collection with some pleasant, smiley mid 60s radio pop, the likes of which was a significant part of my listening diet as a small child, via the green wireless on top of the fridge and TV shows like Bandstand* (as distinct from American Bandstand).  While The Rascals are from the US and defined, I just learned on the Internet, as "blue eyed soul" and their contemporaries The Hollies hailed from Manchester and were part of the MerseyBeat movement, somehow the flavor of nostalgia I taste from the respective records is very similar, so I'm very pleased with Dan's contribution, which has sweet feel-good original tracks like "Groovin", "It's A Beautiful Morning" and "It's Wonderful" on my favorite side, side 2.  A couple of years ago I caught a solo performance by The Rascals' Felix Cavaliere at Stephen Talkhouse; I was playing the late set with The Bogmen and Felix was playing the early "dinner" set.  Seated at his electronic keyboard, he pumped out the familiar hits which somehow sounded exactly like the record and I discovered I had more favorite Rascals songs than I'd ever realized, which I can now, thanks to Dan, enjoy in the comfort of my living room, on vinyl, of course. 

Joan Baez's eponymous first album released on Vanguard in 1960 and of which Dan brought a "stereolab" copy, is a record I managed not to have listened to during the first 50 years of my life due to an early prejudice against a lot of folk music.  While that's obviously a blanket statement with many exceptions, it has been the case generally for me until recently when I started this record swapping project.  I seem to have been inundated with folk records and am discovering I now like them!  Timeliness.  Moreover, on Thanksgiving evening, I watched The Legends of Folk: The Village Scene, a wonderful documentary on folk music in Greenwich Village in the 60s which gave me the back story on the folk records I've been unexpectedly listening to recently by not only Joan Baez, but Joni Mitchell, Ian & Sylvia, Judy Collins, The Everly Brothers and more.  While this music is obviously very lyrically driven and perhaps has never caught my immediate attention since I'm first & foremost a Slave To The Rhythm (see below), I'm gaining a great appreciation for the melodies in folk songs.  Traditionally, I have to confess, I'm a lyrics last kind of listener.  Something about the way I hear music with vocals processes the voice as an instrument and I often don't notice the words, unless they're very out front or repeated in a hook.  Anyway, right now I'm enjoying familiarizing myself with these folk songs which increasingly I can hum, and if I can hum it, I can play it on the saxophone so don't be surprised if I bust out bari sax versions of trad folk numbers with titles like John Riley, Mary Hamilton and Henry Martin some time soon.  

Grace Jones' Island Life is an absolutely fabulous compilation with tracks from Warm Leatherette, Nightclubbing, Slave To The Rhythm and both sides of the  La Vie En Rose backed with I Need A Man single.  While I've been listening to all the music on Island Life fairly regularly since it came out, I'm thrilled to have one convenient LP to put on the RCA Victor to get me in the Grace Jones mood whenever I need to walk out my door and face the world feeling fierce.  I never fail to be inspired musically, artistically and as a woman by Grace Jones, who in addition to being brilliant in all of those regards displayed an excellent sense of humor in this clip from her appearance alongside Tony Curtis and Dr. Christian Barnard on the Dame Edna Everage Show.  One of my favorite moments in television history, I'm going to wrap up this blog post and watch it as soon as I get to the end of side one of Island Life.  Thank you Dan!  

* The episode of Bandstand linked contains television footage of Hermans Hermits and The Rolling Stones on their Australian tours in 1967!

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My good friend, bandmate and neighbor Michael Kammers of MK Groove Orchestra swung by with his lady friend Amy Pace a few weeks back bringing four records to swap plus one of his for good measure.  

Michael is a mindblowing musician/composer who I've had the pleasure of saxing it up with in many projects and whose rockin' funk spacey big band MK Groove Orchestra, a 14 piece band which he leads and which plays dozens of his original compositions as well as awesome rearrangements of some of his cool favorites just got signed to Ropeadope Records, who have released the entire Michael Kammers back catalog, including the Abacus album by his math rock band, which is the bonus record he brought over for me.  Easy listening it's not, but for those times I just want to listen to something sick, smart and ultra stimulating, I look forward to taking it for a spin on the RCA Victor.  

The other four records which the two of them handed over included not one, but two records I already have.  This in itself was an anomaly, since it was the first time I'd received any duplicates; if that wasn't duplicitous enough the pair, on going through my shelves and picking out whatever they fancied managed to choose a record to take of which I had two copies!  By this time, having listened to two sides of Abacus, which made up just 20% of the records they brought, I started to feel like I was living in an algebraic equation.   5-4-4, 2x2 + 2x2 4 1x2 + 3x1.  Etc. Etc.  

Of the four they brought, one, which was not a duplicate, was in fact a double.  I was very pleased to have for the first time in my collection a copy of the WATTSTAX: The Living Word album.  I recently saw the movie again in the cinema with my boyfriend who was actually there (!!) and whose picture is hidden inside the gatefold, adding untold sentimental value to the new acquisition and qualifying it for the extremely limited not up for grabs shelf.   The music is, of course, also fantastic with great performances from Isaac Hayes, Albert King, The Staple Singers, Eddie Floyd and The Barkays from the amazing historic concert attended by over 100,000 people and for which tickets were only $1.  If you've never seen the WATTSTAX movie from which this double album showcases just snippets of the music performed that day, I highly recommend it.  

The other non-duplicate record was a little bit country .... well, actually more than a little bit.  Any record by Loretta Lynn that I've ever heard, and I've heard quite a few, has been completely nothing but country, and Amy, who hails from Louisiana via Knoxville and Memphis, Tennessee and who I'd say is more than a little bit country herself chose Entertainer of the Year by Loretta Lynn featuring Rated X to bring along.  I've been half listening to it all morning and without ACTUALLY listening, I know these songs with titles such as Hanky Panky Woman, Ruby, Madge & Mable and Til The Pain Wears Out The Shame are all about extra marital sex and drinking.  They sound so good I really almost don't care what they're about.  Being basically a "lyrics are secondary" kind of music fan, Loretta's voice sounds like a magical perfect honey dripping instrument let loose over the lush, classic arrangements of her producer Owen Bradley on this collection from the golden age of country music.  I have to say, I'm a little bit country myself. 

More than that, I'm a Motown nut and in particular I could almost safely say that Diana Ross & The Supremes are my absolute favorites.  The Diana Ross & The Supremes Greatest Hits LP which MK and Amy brought -- another double album (and also a duplicate!), with 4 sides of 5 songs a piece, adding up to 20 actual hits, in my opinion some of the greatest hits of all time.  Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart, You Can't Hurry Love, Love Is Here But Now You're Gone, You Keep Me Hanging On, I Hear A Symphony, My World Is Empty Without You .... so many hits!  So many amazing pop songs!  Even my original copy of this double album is duplicitous since I have lots of Supremes in my collection and of course on my "device" - I've been playing these songs on bari sax for years purely for my own enjoyment.  It is my hope that some record swapper will pick up one these albums and can similarly catch the Supremes groove and enjoy the glamorous cover art.  

The fourth album brought by Amy & MK was a duplicate but not a double.  Let's Dance by David Bowie ... surprising that I had it in the first place but interesting in its generational appeal; growing up in the golden age of country which was also the golden age of radio pop, I enjoyed cuts from Aladdin Sane, Ziggy Stardust and Young Americans on mainstream radio and TV ... by the time I was a snobby older teen and Mr. Bowie came out with Let's Dance in 1981, my punk rock know it all ass thought he'd lost the plot.  However, as I listen as I write, because after all what could this project be about if not listening to records, I'm realizing that Let's Dance is as excellent as anything I'd expect from the masterful Bowie genius and that my original beef with the record was probably based in the mire of me finding it "too mainstream", "too upbeat", "too slick", etc.  Whatever -- it's fucking great, and clearly powerful enough to have penetrated my mind since I'm completely singing along to Modern Love which obviously insinuated into my psyche despite my resistance over 3 decades ago.  One of the lovelier things about growing older is revisiting things and discovered what once bored or grossed you out is now perfectly enjoyable.  As a youth I was snotty over the version of China Girl on this record, probably opining that Bowie had murdered the brainchild of his friend Iggy Pop.  Listening now I'm marveling at how he improved upon it!  Not really, but it's a fine version and homage which I'm sure was executed lovingly.  

Really, one of the things I love about having started Bring A Record Take A Record is thinking about musical taste and identity ... thinking of how I've used my taste in music over my life as a vehicle for self expression.  It's also fascinating to observe this in all the people who've come -- I love seeing what they bring and what they're attracted to in my collection.  And what I've learned in this case is that I've had a perfectly enjoyable David Bowie album sitting collecting dust on my shelf for years and have been carrying around an outdated feeling of aversion unnecessarily.  I'm now thrilled to own this LP and also to have one to spare for the person who feels they'd like to take it home with them.  

So thanks x 4 to MK & Amy!  

ps - the sax solo I never noticed at the end of Let's Dance!! 

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I've forsaken 4 Funkadelic LPs since I started #BringARecordTakeARecord and each time somebody chose one my side was pierced.  The way this works, in case this is the first you've heard of it is, I invite people to come to my home and bring me a record, any record, and then allow them to go through my collection and take whichever LP they want.  Some people bring more than one record, and they're invited to take one for one.  I came up with the idea as a way to get new records in my collection without returning to my former addiction to shopping for and buying records, as well as to have a themed social visit with friends in my home where we inevitably end up listening to records and talking about them.  In the beginning, I made a rule that unless I played on a record or it was a present with sentimental value, anything was up for grabs unless it could not be found digitally.  I'm also exploring the idea here that I should really be able to let go of any of my material possessions at any time.  I didn't listen to my records very much for 10 years, so therefore, shouldn't I be able to live without them?  Where I'm at with this now is that it's ok for me to want to keep certain possessions as long as I can and therefore I put my last Funkadelic record and two by Parliament in the small "hands off she's mine" shelf.  Even though I have all the P-Funk music on mp3 and CD, I still want to put on the records.  

My good friend and long time bandmate in Burnt Sugar Satch Hoyt helped me understand this.  Visiting NYC from his current home in Berlin, he wanted to join in the fun of #BringARecordTakeARecord in absentia of his record collection (which is vast and I'm sure fantastic).  He went out to the flea market and came back with a bag containing 7 records to swap.  I was very pleased with my 7 new records, thank god, because included in the 7 he took were Funkadelic's Standing On The Verge Of Getting It On and One Nation Under A Groove.  If you're a fellow Funkadelic fan, you'll know how I felt.

 Satch also zeroed in another couple of my favorites, Facets - The Legend of Leon Thomas and Stevie Wonder's Music of My Mind.  Likewise, all easy enough to listen to in the digital life, but so lovely to hold in all their 12 inch glory, complete with cover art and liner notes.  

Less hurtfully, Satch decided to grab for himself a Buddy Miles record, We Got To Live Together,  which had been sitting neglected on my shelf for I don't know how long; I don't even remember how and when I acquired it.  We put it on to listen and it quickly became clear Satch had scored again!  The horn arrangements alone on this album are reason enough for me to feel I should have been paying more attention to this record.  At least by Satch's attraction to this record my consciousness was awakened to the awesomeness that was under my nose all along.  Even though I don't own the album any more, I'm now interested in it and plan to check it out.   I'm actually on the lookout for a copy on vinyl! 

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The Art of Marcel Grandjany is a record of harp music that came my way via magic, at least that's what it sounds like.  It did in fact find its way to me as part of this Bring A Record Take A Record situation, albeit more fortuitously than usual for me since my friend Mina Karimi aka The Sparrow posted on the facebook that she was leaving town and giving her records away.  When I jumped at the offer, she sped over to my house in her chariot and dropped off a lovely stack of wax and left with nothing but a Secretary CD.  

In addition to this lovely recording of works by Debussy, Ravel and other classical composers about whom I'm significantly ignorant, Mina brought a couple of Joni Mitchell records about which I'm hitherto equally ignorant and have never checked out and now LOVE (Don Juan's Reckless Daughter and Miles of Aisles), a record by a woman I never heard of named Bonnie Koloc which is awesome, my fave Frank Sinatra LP and another, some Barbra Streisand (always handy), two fantastic albums by Gene Ammons and a bunch more,  While I couldn't suppress the surge of avarice which welled up inside me, I tried to concentrate on thoughts of non-attachment and sharing and MOST of these records are up for grabs in the record swap, I decided to spirit away the Grandjany record for myself, since I feel that it kind of chose me.  I've always liked thinking about the adventures of inanimate objects and enjoyed those kinds of movies that will trace the journey of a dollar bill or a coke bottle.  I started collecting second hand stuff when I was about 16 and I've never grown tired of it; when I find something in a thrift store, a flea market or a sidewalk sale, or even better,  a record or clothing swap, or if I'm just on the receiving end of any kind of hand me down, I like thinking about where and with whom my new thing "lived" before it came to me.  Sometimes I make up a scenario.  Like, once, I bought this fringed turquoise silk jogging suit in a thrift store in Buffalo which had the stogie of a More cigarette in the pocket and I pretended it had formerly been the property of Rick James's woman.  Or sometimes, like these records which were a gift from Mina, or the ones Norn Cutson gave me, I'm reminded of the generosity of the person who gave them to me.  And in the case of all the record swaps I've done as a result of this project, I can enjoy an added meaningfulness to every listening experience, thinking about the time I spent with the person who came to Bring A Record Take A Record.  

So when Mina came, we talked about all that kind of stuff over a pot of Cretan mountain tea; the difference between choosing something and being given it, especially as it relates to the acquisition of music which is such a vehicle for self expression.  

I've known Mina since she was 21; she's been coming to see Rev. Vince Anderson since then, and she's now 29 and embarking on her own adventures as a singer songwriter as The Sparrow.  Her music laden visit was the first time we'd actually spent time together outside of running into each other at my gigs and now she's moved to DC.  

But until next we meet, I'll be enjoying listening to the records she brought and seeing if they stay with me or go with the next person (except for the harp record which I have a feeling is going to be a new levitator attached to my vehicle of self expression, giving it a very magic carpet feel).  

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I first met Eli Paperboy Reed 6 or 7 years ago when his soul band shared a CMJ bill with Burnt Sugar, who at that time were doing straight up conducted improvisation, making for what superficially appeared to be an unlikely musical pairing, except for one thing .... all the musicians concerned shared a deep love of 60s soul and r&b, and I remember many of my older Afro American bandmates in Burnt Sugar being blown away by the young white man's dedication to and renditions of the form.  Eli has an amazing voice and is a visceral performer with a unique musical background.  After graduating high school in Boston in 2002, Eli moved to Clarksdale, MI, where he spent a year exploring the musical and juke joint culture of the deep south before moving to Chicago to study sociology and getting a j-o-b in Mitty Collier's church as organist/pianist.  He stayed there also just a year before returning to Boston with a headful of Chicago soul which he expressed by becoming a bandleader and releasing a soul record of his own music, as well as producing a radio show.  

As Eli's musical career has grown, our paths have crossed from time to time when he's appeared as a guest vocalist and DJ at Rev. Vince Anderson's Monday night residency (which I've been playing on since 1997).  I was eager to invite him to Bring A Record Take A Record, because I knew he'd bring something good!  And indeed he did ... 

First out of the bag was Capricorn Princess by the amazing Esther Philips.  This album was released in 1976 and in my opinion, while some established artists were confounded by the disco era, Esther rode the wave in style, making a great album of material that was of the time but which held up in terms of songwriting and arrangements.  But that's just my opinion, and all it really means is I'm glad to have this album on vinyl, which I didn't, and will listen to it for my own pleasure until such time as somebody takes it in a vinyl swap.

  Eli also brought me a copy of The Stylistics debut self-titled album, which plays like a greatest hits, considering that this masterpiece did contain five smash hits (Betcha By Golly Wow, People Make The World Go Round, You Make Me Feel Brand New, Stop Look Listen To Your Heart and You're A Big Girl Now), and four remaining songs which are none too shabby.  A big fan of The Stylistics since my childhood, when they were played in high rotation on mainstream radio in Australia, I've been carrying their Best Of around with me for decades and have several of their other albums (one scored in Bring A Record Take A Record courtesy of DJ dhundee​ - I'm glad and flattered this isn't the only time somebody's thought to bring me a slice of sweet Philly soul), but I never had this one and I don't mind at all that the copy Eli brought has been heavily enjoyed and has its own unique set of pops.  I love pre-loved stuff and enjoy pondering where "things" have been before they found their way to me.  I also like the cover of the album which shows The Stylistics lying around in some long grass.

The Black Nativity - Gospel On Broadway is the third album Eli brought me.  Featuring the lead vocals of Marion Williams, Princess Stewart and Prof. Alex Bradford performing music from Langston Hughes' groundbreaking 1961 Broadway show, there is a lot of added passion and pride to be heard in this particular selection of black gospel music.   Ingeniously using the widely popular story of the Nativity as a framework, Mr. Hughes was able that December to introduce the rich musical legacy of African American gospel music to the world of Broadway theater-goers and also undoubtedly to revolutionize the demographic make up of that sector of the New York City public.  On my first listening to the original VeeJay Records pressing of this album, I heard what I recognized to be a mash-up of gospel, showtunes and Christmas music -- exactly what it is.  But upon revisiting it, reading the liner notes and thinking about the historical context of these performances of this musical, directed by a black woman on Broadway in 1961, I found listening to the record even more deeply moving than your average gospel record.   

One thing I like to do when listening to an album is to think about how all the musicians and the engineer and producer felt at the time they were making it in the studio, listening to play-backs and then how they felt when they held the finished product in their hands and probably put it on their own record player for the first time.  

I think everyone concerned in making these three records must have felt great ... Eli is releasing his own new record in a couple of weeks and I look forward to taking it out for a spin!  

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It's been a while since DJ @dhundee brought me 3 records and left with 4. I threw in Abba's Greatest Hits as a gift for his daughter since I enjoyed it so much as a little girl.  I can't imagine what that music would sound like to a kid today, but songs like SOS, Nina Pretty Ballerina, Bang-A-Boomerang, etc, etc, etc, rocked my world when I was little.  

More childhood memories were totally tied up in David Bowie's Aladdin Sane, which I thought was a fair swap for the Kraftwerk record Dhundee had brought.  I remember the first time I saw David Bowie on TV when I was 8 or 9 years old.  I was simultaneously thrilled, attracted, terrified and repulsed.  He was singing The Jean Genie, which I thought was amazing.  Naturally I'd never seen or heard anything like it and sang along, not understanding.  In his Aladdin Sane period, Bowie, in addition to the waves he was making in rock & roll history, became a pin-up pop star for adventurous little girls (and, I imagine, boys) and his picture was  right alongside David Cassidy's and Michael Jackson's in all the teeny bopper magazines.  I didn't have Aladdin Sane at the time, but when I copped my copy as an older teenager I marveled at its mastery and mass appeal and Lady Grinning Soul was my jam.  I loved my current copy of the record but was happy for Dhundee to take it with him if he didn't have one.  

Also on the kiddy music tip, Dhundee grabbed for himself a record by The Invincible Beany Man -  The 10 Year Old DJ Wonder.  It is indeed the first LP from THE Beenie Man, the latter day self proclaimed king of dancehall.  With song titles such as Bony Punanny, Sleep With A Gal and Grandma Cooking, this early example of late reggae is as much an anomaly and historical document as it is dancehallishly listenable.  Not that #BringARecordTakeARecord has to go this way, but in my mind this record was an excellent swap for Dancing Machine by The Jackson Five -- perhaps not the best album by the artist but very enjoyable as a whole package in terms of cover art and the idea that these people were making records as children. 

  For his final choice, Dhundee moved on from the kids' stuff to the unquestionably sensual, adult themed Theme from Last Tango In Paris & Sensual Love Songs by Riccardo, His Saxophone & Orchestra.I don't think I can really enlarge much on the title of this 1973 Pickwick release, except to say that in addition to versions of some of Gato Barbieri's music from the Bertolucci film, there are some other sexy film themes such as The Summer of 42 and A Man And A Woman.  It's late night music and was the perfect swap for The Stylistics LP Dhundee brought, Thank You Baby.  And it's the only release I was able to find on the www by Riccardo, His Saxophone & Orchestra.  I wonder what became of them.