Warmth: "Praise Poems" (Cooper House, 197?)
Warmth was a loosely knit group of jazz musicians led by pianist/vibraphonist Don McCaslin, the middle hairy guy in the photo above. Beginning in 1972, the group regularly performed at a sidewalk cafe outside the Cooper House in Santa Cruz. They continued until the 1989 quake destroyed the building.
The group recorded at least 5 albums. This song is from their second one. McCaslin adapted the song from a poem by Joseph Stroud, another Santa Cruz guy; it's sung by Harry Woodward. I don't normally flip for jazz guitar solos but Larry Scala kills this.
Michel Sardaby: "Welcome New Warmth" (Mantra, 1974)
Michel Sardaby's a Martinique-born pianist who has been based in Paris since the 1950s. This is from his Gail LP, which was (I think) his second. The album was booted in the early 90s and "Welcome New Warmth" has been comped a few times.
While ripping these it occurred to me that either might fit comfortably alongside Fusion Batches, an excellent mellow jazz mix that my homie Morse Code put together a few years ago. I ran into him on a plane recently and he told me had a sequel wrapped up and ready to go plus plans to reissue the first one. I'm waiting....
3 comments:
don mcclaslin's son (i assume it;s his son) donny is a spankin good sax player - last name mcclaslin from santa cruz. seen him a few times in nyc
never disappoints bloodlines
Hi, I like your blog! Nice really obscure stuff... Can you tell me more about the Warmth discog? I've been googling them as a result of this posting, and there's nothing at allmusic.com, discogs or any of the other usual places. You got me intrigued! I like the 'hairy hippy jazz vibes' of these guys, if you'll pardon the pun re McCaslin's mallet-wielding. The lyrics are nice, and the fact they're off-key is cute enough to be bearable, cheers,
the funky goat
http://soundsfromthefunkygoat.blogspot.com/
Yeah, same guy! Donny comes up in this, which is about all the information I could find online about Don McCaslin or Warmth:
http://www.folkplanet.com/musicallives/Don.html
Re: Warmth's discography, all I know is what I can infer from the three albums I own (S/T, II and Volume 5: Up Jumped Kolbe). There are no dates on any of them, although the first seems to date from about 1975 and the last from about the mid-80s.
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