Television - Live at the Old Waldorf, San Francisco

So, I haven't written anything about Television yet? Weird, I thought I had written how magical Marquee Moon was before. So, anyway... Television was a wonderful, short-lived band in the end of 70s that played rock. Art rock, punk rock, you name it - they were masterful musicians and had two guitars (played by Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd) exchanging leads (so-called weaving). And, they were good at playing long improvisations. Doesn't certainly sound like punk, right? Oh, there's more - they loved the Stones, the Beatles and others. They were rather neglecting early 70s music like Yes and ELP, though.

And they were playing almost everything but the blues. Their idea was simple - not to play the blues. Oh well. Damn it, I forgive them. They were epic anyway. Marquee Moon from 1977 is probably the greatest LP from that decade, such a shame 1978 follow-up was much weaker. Well, nevermind. Television broke up after two releases. But we're happy to have some live releases. Both from 1978, the first one is called The Blow-Up and was released in 1982 in shameful quality, second, from 2003, is much better. It's simply called Live at the Old Waldorf, San Francisco (waldorf salad instantly comes to my mind).

What we get: two 14-minute-long wild improvisations, two of undersigned's favorite tunes, one the Rolling Stones cover (Satisfaction, of course) and four other rockers. It is unbelievable. Makes me want to jump on stage and play with the band. What a divine album. Best live 70s rock ever released.

Dave Holland - Pathways

After Vijay Iyer's Historicity I wanted to hear some more modern-day jazz, so I downloaded released this year but recorded live in 2009 album by Dave Holland Octet called Pathways.

First thought: it doesn't site like an octet, everybody waits patiently for their time and has plenty of space. Holland's band consists of Antonio Hart (alto sax and flute), Chris Potter (tenor and soprano sax), Gary Smulyan (baritone sax), Alex Sasha Sipiagin (trumpet and flugelhorn), Robin Eubanks (trombone), Steve Nelson (vibraphone and marimba) and Nate Smith (drums). This is the first time this group played together but you don't feel this - they are really swinging. My favorite cut is the longest one, "How's Never?".

Loud applause after almost every solo adds to the album very much. It was recorded at New York's Birdland and I'd love to be there, but since I'm a million miles away, I am pretty satisfied with this live document. Dave Holland said he was always a fan of Duke Ellington and dreamed about playing with such a powerful front line (3 saxes, 2 brasses). So, he made one of the best jazz releases of the year. And I don't miss piano...

Muddy Waters - Screamin' and Cryin'

This album by Muddy is very close to my heart. It was recorded in my hometown, 16 years before I was born and 16 years after the famous Newport performance that marked his prime days. Waters was 61 at that time and well after his best years, but what does it matter? The recording is in very fine quality, the band is tight (my favorite, Pinetop Perkins, is on piano) and I'm sure all of the fans gathered at the Warsaw Jazz Jamboree '76 festival were amazed such a legend invaded Poland.


Everything starts kinda shaky but by the time the band gets into 3rd song ("Corrina, Corrina" sung by a duet Muddy-Pinetop) it's obvious I'm in for a treat! The legend is literally screamin' and cryin', but he's also a charismatic bandleader. He leaves the stage for a couple of songs to let his band show off ("Floyd's Guitar Blues" is remarkable - "hey, I know this riff!"), but then suddenly Muddy's back, never tired of singing his biggest hits: "Got My Mojo Workin'" and "Hoochie Coochie Man".

Highlights of the lenghty show include "After Hours" - several years later Pinetop Perkins recorded a solo album containing this song with the same title - and closing tracks (of 16 all - were they encores?), standard "Goin' Down Slow" and "What's the Matter With the Mill" also known as "Can't Get No Grindin'" straight from the 30s.

It's better than his previous work from the 70s and way more natural than all of the work he did after this while pairing with Johnny Winter. It's the last time we can hear Muddy howl "Howlin' Wolf" (by the way, the real Wolf died that year) or "Blow Wind Blow". Apart from a surprisingly great 1974's Unk In Funk, for me this is the most important of Muddy's outings from the 70s.

John Mayall live in 2010

On 18th June John Mayall played a student's club Stodola in Warsaw, Poland. It was a 2-hour-long set of blues without any supporting band and I can clearly say that everybody loved it, including the main character, the 76-year-old now John Mayall.

Mayall's band was: Greg Rzab on bass, Jay Davenport on drums, a fine pair; almost silent Tom Canning on keys and Rocky Athas on guitar. He was playing a very lyrical blues, wasn't an outstanding guitarist, but I really enjoyed his solos. Mayall played harmonica and keys. I was really hoping for a performance with a guitar but there wasn't a chance.


My favorite track of the whole show was "The Bear" from his album with Mick Taylor Blues From Laurel Canyon. It's just a little song about the leader of Canned Heat band. I couldn't find nor remember the setlist for this particular show so here's a glimpse of what he's playing on this tour that I've stolen from a show that took place ten days before in Aschaffenburg (?), Germany. :)

1 Another Man Done Gone
2 Hideaway
3 Chicago Line
4 Nothing to Do With Love
5 All My Life
6 Help Me
7 You Know That You Love Me
8 California
9 A Dream About the Blues
10 Room to Move
11 Somebody's Acting Like A Child
12 Mama Talk to Your Daughter

In Poland he didn't played "Hideaway", "California" and two encores: we had "The Bear", "All Your Love" (originally by Otis Rush), "Playing with a Losing Hand", and some more instead. The song list may be not impressive but Mayall's band was really jamming and most of them were about 7 minutes long.

I can recommend his shows to any blues fans, he won't let you down. And his new CD's ain't bad either.

The Rolling Stones - Knebworth Fair '76

For a long time I tried to avoid listening to mid-seventies live recordings of my favorite band, the Rolling Stones. I considered 1975, 1976 and 1977 the low points of their live career. The lack of good organization, too much heroin and cocaine and basically bad sound and/or bad performances kept me away from those shows. I still think those tours were not as good as the ones before (1972, 1973) and after (amazing 1978), nevertheless I started appreciating them. And great playing by new Stones guitar player, Ronnie Wood, straight from the Faces.

While browsing through my bootleg collection, I found an old DVD release of the Knebworth Fair show from 1976. It's incomplete, but the sound is okay and, in overall, video is highly enjoyable. I can recommend this release :-) On the other hand, it's quite short, clocking at 56 minutes only. And it contains a lot of snippets of other songs that are not shown here which can be a little bit irritating.


Among Stones' standards (like "Tumbling Dice", "Street Fighting Man" or "Honky Tonk Women") we get two rock and roll tunes ("Star Star", also known as "Starfucker", which could be easily a Chuck Berry track, it certainly sounds so, and good old "Route 66") and two great blues songs (Wolf's "Little Red Rooster" and lenghty "Midnight Rambler").

Guitars by Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood are high in the mix and really deserve to be so. Especially Ronnie's fills and solos are tasty: I love his slide guitar work on "Midnight Rambler" and solos on "Wild Horses" and "Tumbling Dice". Sometimes straight and to-the-point, more often lazy, laid-out and relaxed: he sounds there as good as in the old Faces days, just plays less and feels comfortable with that.


The only Stone that let me down was Mick Jagger. He failed at everything really (though the crowd seemed to enjoy his stage presence): hair, clothes (oh damn!), dancing and singing. Well, no, not singing really: he was howling and growling all the time, but it just wasn't fun.

If you don't know the Stones material too well, avoid this at all prices. One of the worst possible introductions to the band ;) If you like them, though, and have enough of earlier days work, get this. Not as good as you might think but still watching it is a very nice way of spending your next evening. "Little Red Rooster" is sexy and worth the price of the whole set. :)