Long title hey ?
Well, I was pretty excited when my dad took me to see this funky big band in 1972, the year this album was recorded.
As a ten-year-old, my two major impressions from the show were :
1. I wanted a wah wah pedal. Now. Right now.
But it was to be five long years until I got a wah wah pedal.
2. Singer Kerrie Biddell looked a bit like my mother.
Maybe she was my real mother, and dad was just trying to tell me ? ...
In any case, this is a pretty funky 70s big band, perhaps a little looser and dirtier than the european equivalents of the time.
Best known track is "Dirty Feet" sampled by rapper Mobb Deep in the track "Shook Ones Pt. II". It starts with a breakbeat from sampler heaven, goes into a big brass section then builds into a psych guitar meltdown.
"City Sounds" is like a mini soundtrack, big band soul working it's way into an almost "free" middle section with crazy wah wah and scraped piano strings, plus great work by Kerrie Biddell/"Mom" who brings things back to basics at the end.
"Three for One" is a little like the music from an imaginary 70s detective show, perhaps with shots of the main character joking with pretty girls around the water cooler at the police station, then we cut to the money shot of him taking aim with a fat gun at some bad guys / male competitors ...
The track "In Necessity" was on the "Dusty Fingers 8" compilation - all in all, there are plenty of killer tracks to go around, with only a few crap tracks at the end.
* SENSIBLE BIOGRAPHY *
The Daly-Wilson Big Band existed from 1969-1983, formed by trombonist Ed Wilson and drummer Warren Daley. They went broke soon after this album was made, but were rescued by sponsorship from the Benson and Hedges cigarette company in 1973 - so this fiery album was also their last smoke-free one (I'm so sorry). They went on to make another three or four albums, adorned with B&H logos, that are not as fantastic as this one.
* DIRT-DIGGING BIOGRAPHY *
Musicians' biographies can be so boring. Rather than doing proper bios on these people, today we'll do a dirt-digging VH1 "Where are they now?" :
Kerrie Biddell appeared in this 80s World War 2 movie, along with jazz great Don Burrows, presumably appearing in some sleazy bar scene.
Or she was my real mother. Or both.
Warren Daley is giving drum lessons in Perth, Australia. First lesson is apparently free! I think we should all call Warren up and ask him to play the Mobb Deep "Dirty Feet" breakbeat over the phone (his phone number is there, add 61-8 to call from other countries).
Ed Wilson sells brass arrangements to the police, the army and your local school - but hopefully he changes that shirt occasionally ...
Finally, it seems that trumpeter / bass player Dieter Vogt had a creative way of paying his tax back in the 70s. So what happened to Dieter after that ? Is it him playing viola on this rather beautiful Jazzanova track 30 years later, a lit Benson and Hedges cigarette nonchalantly hanging from his bow? Sadly no ... he's retired to nasty dixieland hell. And is hopefully paying his taxes.
01 "Limp Dropper" - 4:30(Ed Wilson)
02 "Dirty Feet" - 3:30(George Broadbeck)
03 "City Sounds" - 4:32(The Carsons)
04 "Col's Dilemma" - 5:05(The Carsons)
05 "In Necessity" - 2:25(Martin)
06 "Today" - 4:28(The Carsons)
07 "Three For All" - 6:24(Col Loughnan)
08 "On My Own" - 3:20(Ed Wilson)
09 "Do Me A Good Turn" - 4:41(Rhode)
CREDITS
Label: Elephant Records
Catalog#: ELA 7002
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: Australia
Released: 1972(Listed incorrectly at Discogs as 1975)
Engineer - Spencer Lee
Producer - Ed Wilson, Warren Daly
Vocals - Kerrie Biddell(Can't seem to find musician's credits, sorry!)
Recorded at United Sound, Sydney, Australia
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