James "Blood" Ulmer + Wolvarines 1981-01-10

LIMITED TIME / LAST TIME 

 

https://pixeldrain.com/l/iFHbFojV 

 

 

James "Blood" Ulmer (power trio)
The Stone
San Francisco, CA
1981-01-10 (Saturday)

THTP Release 71

Recording chain: 
Stage mics > splitter (split to house snake/SBD and TH snake) > TH dedicated snake >
Peavy MkII 12 channel mixing board (10 channels snake, 2 channels audience mics) > 
AKAI GXC-570D Cassette Deck (Dolby B on) > TDK SA-90 tape

Archival Process: 
1999: Sony TC-KA3ES > TDK SA-90 tapes playback (NO Dolby) > BBE 462 Sonic Maximizer (to clean up tapes) >
Tascam DA-30 DAT > HHb DAT-125 DAT tape
2002: HHb CDR-850 Professional CD Recorder (In real time) > HHb CDR74 Gold 100 year archival grade CDRs
2005: Transfered to HDD in AIFF file format

Dime release processing: AIFF Master Files > FFMPEG > 16 bit FLAC 8 > tagging, cover artwork, checksums.

Recorded, preserved, and master AIFF files provided by: Terry Hammer

Setlist:
01. Don't You
02. Night Lover
03. Rush Hour
04. Jazz Is The Teacher,Funk Is The Preacher
05. Interview
06. High Time
07. (title ?)
08. Happy Time > encore applause
Encore:
09. Are You Glad To Be In America?
10. (title ?)
11. (title ?)

Length: 58:52

Band [power trio]:
James Blood Ulmer - electric guitar, vocals
Amin Ali - electric bass
G. Calvin Weston - drums

Band [1981 album group]:
James Blood Ulmer - electric guitar, vocals (tracks 2, 4 & 8)
David Murray - tenor saxophone (5, 6 & 9)
Oliver Lake – alto saxophone (5, 6 & 9)
Amin Ali - electric bass
G. Calvin Weston - drums
Ronnie Drayton - second guitar (2, 4 & 8)
Olu Dara - trumpet (5, 6 & 9)
# these are not in the show I believe:
Diane Wilson, Irene Datcher, Zenobia Konkerite - background vocals (2, 4 & 8)

Band: [1980 album group]:
James Blood Ulmer - guitar, vocals
David Murray – tenor saxophone
Oliver Lake - alto saxophone
Amin Ali - electric bass
Olu Dara - trumpet
Spaceman Patterson (Billy Patterson)  - rhythm guitar (track 4)
G. Calvin Weston, Ronald Shannon Jackson - drums

Notes:
* I am not even going to try to guess at untitled tracks 7, 10, 11. I assume since it looks like this performance is mostly the 1980 album, they may be any of these: 'Layout', 'Pressure', 'See Through', 'TV Blues', 'Light Eyed', or 'Revelation March'. Or they could be new compositions. If anyone can help with these, it's greatly appreciated. Or they could be off the 1981 'Free Lancing' Columbia Records album, this set has songs from both.
* I'm assuming that the power trio is Amin Ali - bass, and G.Calvin Weston - drums, on both 1980 and 19880 release.

* James "Blood" Ulmer is in the heavy Jazz/Funk vein, heavy duty stuff, very interesting musician. The setlist is a combination of the 1980 Rough Trade Records release "Are You Glad to Be in America?:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Are_You_Glad_to_Be_in_America%3F
and the 1981 Columbia Records album 'Free Lancing':
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Lancing

* About James Ulmer: 
"James "Blood" Ulmer (born February 8, 1940) is an American jazz, free funk and blues guitarist and singer. Ulmer plays a Gibson Byrdland guitar. His guitar sound has been described as "jagged" and "stinging". His singing has been called "raggedly soulful"
...
Willie James Ulmer was born in St. Matthews, South Carolina. He began his career playing with soul jazz ensembles, first in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1959–1964, and then in the Columbus, Ohio from 1964–1967. He recorded with organist Hank Marr in 1964 (released 1967). After moving to New York in 1971, Ulmer played with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Joe Henderson, Paul Bley, Rashied Ali, and Larry Young.
In the early 1970s, Ulmer joined Ornette Coleman; he was the first electric guitarist to record and tour extensively with Coleman. He has credited Coleman as a major influence. Coleman's reliance on electric guitar in his fusion-oriented recordings owes a debt to Ulmer.
...
Ulmer formed Music Revelation Ensemble around 1980, co-led with David Murray for the first decade and lasting into the 1990s. Later versions of the band included Arthur Blythe, Sam Rivers, Pharoah Sanders, and John Zorn. In the 1980s he co-led the quartet Phalanx with saxophonist George Adams. Ulmer has recorded as a leader, including blues-oriented albums produced by Vernon Reid: Memphis Blood, No Escape from the Blues, Bad Blood in the City, and Birthright. "

* About the Stone clubs:
The Keystone Berkeley, The Stone (San Francisco), and Keystone Palo Alto were all linked somewhat.
Keystone Corner: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_Korner
Keystones: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_(Berkeley,_California)
- Keystone Korner (750 Vallejo Street, SF) was jazz club in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco, which opened in 1972 and continued operation until 1983. Many live recordings were made at the club. Jessica Williams was the house pianist for a number of years. Keystone Korner's Freddie Herrera opened Keystone Berkeley (2119 University Avenue, Berkeley, less than 1 block away from UC Berkeley campus), a larger venue, then sold the Keystone Korner to Todd Barkan. The Keystone Berkeley closed in 1984.
- Keystone Palo Alto, at 260 California Avenue, opened 20 January 1977. The Keystone Palo Alto closed in 1986. The club became the Vortex in the mid-1980s, then The Edge in 1989, and closed in April 2000 to be remade into a restaurant, finally as Illusions, a restaurant and nightclub. The building was at various times during the last 50 years, a Purity Market, a Natural food store, a German restaurant, called the Zinzanatti Oom Pah Pah Lounge, a club called Sophies, it then was demolished in October 2013.
- Marty Balin's Matrix at 3138 Fillmore Street closed in early 1971. Peter Abram, along with John Barsotti and Dave Martin, re-opened the club at 412 Broadway, previously Mr D's in late summer 1973 but it was not really a success. The New York Dolls played September 4-6. Bob Marley and The Wailers played October 19-20, October 29-30. Iggy and The Stooges, The Tubes and Sugardaddy played Halloween 1973.
412 Broadway, San Francisco, then hosted the play Bullshot Crummond, then, from 1980 to 1990 it was The Stone, later it was the home of Broadway Showgirls Cabaret.
[Note that The Stone (SF) was basically right across the street from the Mabuhay Gardens, and I used to look at all the hippies lining up to see the Garcia Band play one of their endless gigs there. while hanging out outside the Mab I've frequently wished I could get a time machine and tell young teetering to just once skip that night's punk show at the Mab, and check out the stuff across the street.]

===========================================================

No distribution in lossy formats!!
No selling!!
No bootlegging!!
No remastering!!
Yes sharing. Definitely share.

Support the artists when or if they play, and buy their records/merchandise.

Please correct any errors or oversights in this information in the comments section so the information can be as accurate as possible.

If you can find related materials like flyers, posters, ticket stubs, even photos, etc, please add them in a comment and I will add them to the main release folder, so that can be included on the next re-seeding. Every bit is welcome, and as I am time constrained on this project due to the amount of material, I cannot spend as much time on each release doing research as I would like, so if we can add to and improve the information and release contents during this series, that would be great.

Please make an effort to pick at least one of these THTP releases and keep it seeded for as long as you can, particularly the lesser known groups. That will really help out long term.

===========================================================
About Terry Hammer and the THTP:

Someone put my feelings very well about these recordings in the following quote. I can't really improve on their words beyond noting that these recordings sound absolutely and utterly stunning, and I consider myself incredibly lucky to be able to present these to you here in their original, first generation, lossless hi-fidelity versions, for the first time ever.

"[These recordings were] recorded and preserved by collector/engineer Terry Hammer, for broadcast over the UC Berkeley station KALX and several others from the 1979 -1981 period. Anyone who spent a night at one of these clubs knows how chaotic the atmosphere was. That he was able to, not only get a decent feed from the sound mixing board, but was also able to get clean recordings was something of a miracle. And the fact this guy did it over and over again is pure dedication to the cause of preserving history for decades to come. Fortunately for everyone, he’s been making these gems of history available and their value as historic documents is inestimable. This is really exciting stuff and I am grateful for Terry’s foresight and deft skill."
src: https://pastdaily.com/2014/06/25/gang-four-live-american-indian-center-san-francisco-1980-nights-roundtable-concert-edition/ 

As Terry notes about the process of recording these shows: "Like all of my live recordings this was mixed direct to 2-Track Reel To Reel (and Cassette deck for backup and personal use) using headphones. Sitting in the club with the loud P.A. sound trying to drive the amp in my mixing board loud enough to hear what I was mixing.If you've ever been to a live concert,then,you know how loud it can be."

If you've ever been looking for an excuse to upgrade your sound system, these recordings certainly should provide you with some motivation, because they have incredible sound. And if you already have a quality sound system, you are in for a treat!! The audio goes straight to 20k hz, no losses I can detect. Due to the reality of tapes, even high end as used here, the low end starts at 47 hz.

And if you want to learn more about this incredible musical era, listen to the stuff you haven't heard, there are amazing gems in there.

Do we call these soundboards? Technically not precisely because this is not the house mix, these shows were mixed using a dedicated mixing board, with an additional 1 to 2 audience mics (1 for Mab because he needed 11 snake inputs), 2 at other clubs) in the mix. But I call it the Terry Hammer Tape Project (THTP) to make sure there is no doubt about the project's creator.

TECH:
Note that Terry made 2 master recordings (recording at the same time) when he mixed these shows live:
1: Reel to reel, for the radio stations: 
Technics RS-1500 Reel To Reel (mostly TDK Audua L-1800 & LB-1800 tape with back coating or Scotch 206 / 207 with back coating. Maybe a few Maxell UD-XL). All the KALX shows went to KALX, they supplied the reel to reel tape.

2: For his own use, and as backup in case something happened to the reels: 
AKAI GXC-570D Cassette Deck (Dolby B on) > TDK SA-90 tape

Terry isn't sure, but thinks the audience mics he used maybe were Electro Voice EV-DS35's.

Info: http://www.bbesound.com/products/sonic-maximizers/482i.aspx

===========================================================
 - teetering







Wolvarines
The Stone
San Francisco, CA
1981-01-10 (Saturday)

THTP Release 99

Recording chain: 
Stage mics > splitter (split to house snake/SBD and TH snake) > TH dedicated snake >
Peavy MkII 12 channel mixing board (10 channels snake, 2 channels audience mics) > 
AKAI GXC-570D Cassette Deck (Dolby B on) > TDK SA-90 tape

Archival Process: 
1999: Sony TC-KA3ES > TDK SA-90 tapes playback (NO Dolby) > BBE 462 Sonic Maximizer (to clean up tapes) >
Tascam DA-30 DAT > HHb DAT-125 DAT tape
2002: HHb CDR-850 Professional CD Recorder (In real time) > HHb CDR74 Gold 100 year archival grade CDRs
2005: Transfered to HDD in AIFF file format

Dime release processing: AIFF Master Files > FFMPEG > 16 bit FLAC 8 > tagging, cover artwork, checksums.

Recorded, preserved, and master AIFF files provided by: Terry Hammer

Setlist:
01. Central Park
02. An Interesting Girl (?)
03. Ann Complains
04. My Girlfriend
05. Emotion
06. Stephanie

Length: 33:03

Band:
Eric Calhoun - guitar, vocals (?)
Hector Penalosa - bassist, vocals (?)
Bruce "Ted" Slesinger - drums
? - keyboards

Notes:
* I believe though I'm not certain that there's a 4th member, who played keyboards. I'm also not sure about who did the vocal duties, my guess is it was Hector.

* Some of the songs carry more than a hint of the Dead Kennedys, 'Ann Complains' for example, is reminiscent of Holiday In Cambodia, which Bruce cowrote. In a sense 'Ann Complains" is the song "Holiday In Cambodia" could have been, and it's actually a take on that main idea I prefer because it's more artistically honest.
* This band is really interesting, everyone in it was either from or going to big bands in the scene. They do long songs, they aren't cliche, definitely worth checking out. Hard to categorize, one of the gems of this collection. It kind of reminds me of a much earlier version of another underground allstar band, Shrinebuilder, where the group put out some really good ideas. Very glad this was captured.

* In a sense this was an 'all star' band, with 'Ted' from the DKs (replaced right around this time by Darren Peligro), Hector from the really good Latin punk band the Zeros.
* About band (discogs): https://www.discogs.com/artist/2354656-Wolvarines
"From San Francisco, California, USA.
Members: Bobby Friedman, Bruce Slesinger, Eric Calhoun, Hector Penalosa, Jimmy Friedman, Tom Recht"
* About band: http://noiseaddiction2.blogspot.com/2017/01/wolvarines-stone-san-francisco-1-10-81.html
"The Wolverines were a San Francisco band that existed long enough to release one single, in 1981. They play 1960s style Garage Rock. Hector Penalosa, from the Zeros, was the bassist and Bruce Slesinger [aka 'Ted'], from the Dead Kennedys, was the drummer. The guitarist was Eric Calhoun who joined MDC in 1989. "

* The Wolvarines 7" single Stephnie / Animal Eyes: https://www.discogs.com/Wolvarines-Stephnie-Animal-Eyes/release/3022459
Klaus Flouride (Geoffrey Lyall), from the DKs, played on this, as did Ricky Sludge from the Readymades.

* About the Zeros: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zeros_(American_band)
"The Zeros are an American punk rock band, formed in 1976 in Chula Vista, California. The band were originally composed of Javier Escovedo (younger brother of Alejandro Escovedo, older brother of Mario Escovedo of The Dragons) on vocals/guitar and Robert Lopez (later known as El Vez) on guitar, who were both attending Chula Vista High School; Hector Penalosa, (bass), and Baba Chenelle, (drums), who attended Sweetwater High School. Sometimes compared to the Ramones, the band was considered a pioneer of punk rock on the West Coast."

* About Bruce Slesinger (Ted): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Slesinger
"He drummed for the band [DKs] from July 1978 to February 1981. He played the drums on their first album, Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables... He also co-wrote their second single, "Holiday in Cambodia""

* I have a faint memory that Greg Langston, of No Alternative, at one point played in the Wolvarines as well, but this could easily be wrong.

" Band: "Hey if someone has something cool to say, c'mon, cuz, you know, my ears are weak, and my brain is weaker.. if you have something to say, just come up and say it"

* Includes photos (but not of band itself, just members).

===========================================================

No distribution in lossy formats!!
No selling!!
No bootlegging!!
No remastering!!
Yes sharing. Definitely share.

Support the artists when or if they play, and buy their records/merchandise.

Please correct any errors or oversights in this information in the comments section so the information can be as accurate as possible.

If you can find related materials like flyers, posters, ticket stubs, even photos, etc, please add them in a comment and I will add them to the main release folder, so that can be included on the next re-seeding. Every bit is welcome, and as I am time constrained on this project due to the amount of material, I cannot spend as much time on each release doing research as I would like, so if we can add to and improve the information and release contents during this series, that would be great.

Please make an effort to pick at least one of these THTP releases and keep it seeded for as long as you can, particularly the lesser known groups. That will really help out long term.

===========================================================
About Terry Hammer and the THTP:

Someone put my feelings very well about these recordings in the following quote. I can't really improve on their words beyond noting that these recordings sound absolutely and utterly stunning, and I consider myself incredibly lucky to be able to present these to you here in their original, first generation, lossless hi-fidelity versions, for the first time ever.

"[These recordings were] recorded and preserved by collector/engineer Terry Hammer, for broadcast over the UC Berkeley station KALX and several others from the 1979 -1981 period. Anyone who spent a night at one of these clubs knows how chaotic the atmosphere was. That he was able to, not only get a decent feed from the sound mixing board, but was also able to get clean recordings was something of a miracle. And the fact this guy did it over and over again is pure dedication to the cause of preserving history for decades to come. Fortunately for everyone, he’s been making these gems of history available and their value as historic documents is inestimable. This is really exciting stuff and I am grateful for Terry’s foresight and deft skill."
src: https://pastdaily.com/2014/06/25/gang-four-live-american-indian-center-san-francisco-1980-nights-roundtable-concert-edition/ 

As Terry notes about the process of recording these shows: "Like all of my live recordings this was mixed direct to 2-Track Reel To Reel (and Cassette deck for backup and personal use) using headphones. Sitting in the club with the loud P.A. sound trying to drive the amp in my mixing board loud enough to hear what I was mixing.If you've ever been to a live concert,then,you know how loud it can be."

If you've ever been looking for an excuse to upgrade your sound system, these recordings certainly should provide you with some motivation, because they have incredible sound. And if you already have a quality sound system, you are in for a treat!! The audio goes straight to 20k hz, no losses I can detect. Due to the reality of tapes, even high end as used here, the low end starts at 47 hz.

And if you want to learn more about this incredible musical era, listen to the stuff you haven't heard, there are amazing gems in there.

Do we call these soundboards? Technically not precisely because this is not the house mix, these shows were mixed using a dedicated mixing board, with an additional 1 to 2 audience mics (1 for Mab because he needed 11 snake inputs), 2 at other clubs) in the mix. But I call it the Terry Hammer Tape Project (THTP) to make sure there is no doubt about the project's creator.

TECH:
Note that Terry made 2 master recordings (recording at the same time) when he mixed these shows live:
1: Reel to reel, for the radio stations: 
Technics RS-1500 Reel To Reel (mostly TDK Audua L-1800 & LB-1800 tape with back coating or Scotch 206 / 207 with back coating. Maybe a few Maxell UD-XL). All the KALX shows went to KALX, they supplied the reel to reel tape.

2: For his own use, and as backup in case something happened to the reels: 
AKAI GXC-570D Cassette Deck (Dolby B on) > TDK SA-90 tape

Terry isn't sure, but thinks the audience mics he used maybe were Electro Voice EV-DS35's.

Info: http://www.bbesound.com/products/sonic-maximizers/482i.aspx

===========================================================
 - teetering