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Hey there everybody, a happy new year to you. I hope all is well with you and that you had a fun holiday period. We’ve been rockin’ at the store and sending a lot of folk home with cool records, which has been great. A big thank you to all of you, whether you visited us in person or on-line. We really appreciate it and will do our best to get even more ace records onto your turntables in 2023.
As for a staff pick this week, I could go anywhere. Just like the crazy changing weather here in North Carolina, my mood switches from one day to the other and often from one hour to the other. Typically, when it’s cold and grey the music soundtrack is similar, but what with all the sunny days we have had, along with the recently finished World Cup, I have found myself listening to a lot more music that I usually associate with summer. Reggae, Latin and Brazilian music, for instance. This past week on Worldy, Matt and I played an all Brazil special to honor the recently departed Pele. If you checked out my staff pick from a week or two ago where I talked about a Brazilian music mix CD, and you liked it, then you may enjoy this show. I’d be honored if you gave it a listen.
On the Latin music front, I was reminded of a great record this week that celebrated its 50th anniversary last year and it’ll be that one that I’ll steer you towards this week.
Eddie Palmieri and Harlem River Drive: Recorded Live At Sing Sing. Tico Records. 1972
Just like any other person with ears, I am a big fan of Johnny Cash, and particularly like his two prison albums recorded at San Quentin and Folsom. Over the holidays, we had copies of those two at the store and I gave them another listen. Coincidentally, John Scott told me that he had been playing them on his drive back from visiting his family for Christmas. He’s a fan too. With that in mind, we discovered a great show that Johnny Cash performed in 1968 at the Carousel Ballroom in San Francisco, right between the release of those two prison albums. The show was recorded by Owsley Stanley using his unique verité style of recording. As the listener, you really feel like you are stage side in the audience witnessing the show as it happened. The show was recently released commercially, and I snagged a vinyl copy for myself. It’s an awesome set and captures Johnny Cash at a very interesting point in his life and in history. I highly recommend you investigate.
The prison system in the United States is truly a blight on the country, and back in the late sixties and early seventies the conditions were particularly bad. Nixon’s war on drugs and the mass incarceration that resulted was just beginning, but the prisons were already overcrowded with terrible conditions and with an already too high percentage of people of color. At Attica in 1971 tensions boiled over into a riot, resulting in over 30 deaths. It was just months later in that atmosphere when Eddie Palmieri took his Harlem River Drive group up the Hudson river to Ossining, NY and the infamous Sing Sing Correctional Facility to perform for the inmates and record this great album. He wasn’t the only act though to perform and record there. That very year, a young filmmaker was granted access to the prison to teach a film making class and the resulting project had, among other performers, blues legend B.B. King giving a very emotional performance to the inmates for a special Thanksgiving concert. You should look at the footage and see for yourself. B.B. King said at the time that this performance was one of his best and most memorable and special. Filmmaker David Hoffman has made the whole concert available, so click here for the link.
Another name that performed that year at the prison was a new up-and-coming artist by the name of Bruce Springsteen.
The Harlem River Drive group consisted of leader Eddie Palmieri, his brother Charlie, the core of Aretha Franklin’s then touring band, plus several major names in the Latin music and session scene. The group was named after the controversial highway that was built cutting through the streets of Harlem, allowing cars to bypass the streets and neighborhood, thus avoiding the realities of the ghetto. The previous year, 1971, saw the release of the self-titled album, a great Latin Jazz Funk Soul crossover record, which is rightfully still held in high regard today and will cost you at least $100 for a nice copy, although there are now some reissues available. The Sing Sing album doesn’t go for quite as much, but is just as worthy, as is the follow up second volume that was released a couple of years later. That one has eluded me in the wild and doesn’t seem to show up as much.
On the original volume, you get to hear four long extended songs, plus poetry read by Felipe Luciano and introductions from M.C.’s Joe Cain and Paquito Navarro, and most importantly the very enthusiastic response from the audience of mostly Black and Latino inmates. By the end of the last performance, they are whipped up into a fervor. That last song on the album, called Azucar, is pure fire, and it’s worth owning the album for that alone, although the impact is more significant if you have listened to the preceding songs and readings.
The recording captures a real moment in time, and one where the musicians, just like in the case with B.B. King and Johnny Cash, bring their A game. Palmieri, to his credit, continued playing prison gigs throughout his career, including twice at the aforementioned Attica.
You should check this album out if Salsa and Latin funk is your bag, and of course those classic Johnny Cash and B.B. King performances. All killer.
Have a great week and I’ll see you next time. Cheers - Dom