Once you get the chance to explore music, it can quickly transport you outside of your comfort zone. It tests our personal convictions and stereotypes. But you can point to many fascinating crossroads where the envelope got pushed and fell over. Like maybe Dylan going electric at Newport. Or John Coltrane’s departure from his reassuringly gorgeous ballads into the testy tonal waters of his records “Impressions” or “Ascension.”
And then there is the matter of listening to music from a language other than English. Welcome the 1970’s “progressive rock” Italian outfit Picchio dal Pozzo (loosely translated to mean, ”Woodpecker of the Well.”)
I have included “Abbiamo tutti i suio problemi” 1980 in its entirety. The translation: “His Problems Are Your Problems.” I would recommend you give yourself some time and sit down to listen to it all. Leave the fact that you may not know any Italian and let the music go at you! The compositions are built upon what strike me as “interlocking irregularities,” continuously shifting, surprising constructions that are entirely soulfully pleasing. You deserve to hear music this good. A triumph. Are all our problems united as the lp title queries?
“You’re probably familiar with the British rock bands from the late 1970’s and early 1980’s like Yes and Emerson, Lake and Palmer who expanded the capacities of the genre. Longer songs, and more experimentation musically. Hatfield and the North emerged from this realm and along with the Soft Machine in Canterbury, England producing some truly. beautiful work. The most obvious injections came from jazz but also new classical bringing a range of mediative depths. One of their techniques was to have all the songs interlink with no space between them. Yep, you could listen to the whole record in one sitting!
Their lead singer Richard Sinclair led another quite prolific band, Caravan. He offers a profoundly relaxed vocal style to his work. The Northettes: Amanda Parsons, Barbara Gaskin and Ann Rosenthal. provide great background voicings. The Picchio dal Pozzos boys list them as their inspirations.”
“Traffic
Fairport Convention
Swallow
Electric Factory/Philadelphia
June 9th, 1970
The Electric Factory closed on November 21st, 1970 with Van Morrison and Mott the Hoople doing the final show. Miles Davis performed on November 15th and Mother Earth and Elton John were there the weekend of the 6th and 7th. The venue reopened in 1995 and continues to have shows regularly.
While not the original band that included Dave Mason, Traffic at this date included Steve Winwood (following his short stint with Blind Faith) - Keyboards, Guitar, Vocals; Chris Woods - Flute, Sax, Organ; Jim Capaldi - Drums, Vocals; Rick Grech - Bass. Their performance featured a number of songs from their just released LP, John Barleycorn Must Die. “John Barleycorn,” “Glad,” “Empty Pages” and “Every Mother’s Son,” are four that I recall. Other memories included, “Forty Thousand Headmen,” “Dear Mr. Fantasy,” “Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring,” and “No Time to Live.”
Fairport Convention came together in 1967 and has had many, many lineup changes. See Wikipedia for a full rundown. At this performance the band consisted of Dave Mattacks, drums, Dave Pegg, bass, Dave Swarbrick, fiddle and Richard Thompson, guitar.
A set list from this period included mostly material from their just released album, Full House: “Walk Awhile”: “Sloth”; “Doctor of Physick”: “Flatback Caper” and “Sir Patrick Spens.” Other songs I recall were “Tam Lin,” “The Lark in the Morning Medley” and “Now Be Thankful.”
Swallow was a Boston based rock/blues with some jazz touches band. They had 11 members including a horn section and were led by singer George Leh, who happened to be blind. They released their first album in 1971 and their second and final album in 1973. They toured with Traffic.
Traffic and Fairport were two of my favorites in 1970. Both put on great performances, expanding upon songs with extended solos that featured their outstanding musicianship.
P.S. In 1998, Fairport drummer, Dave Mattacks moved to the beautiful North Shore town of Marblehead, Massachusetts and has lived there ever since.”
Lester Young’s hold on things