Monday, October 11, 2010

Gary McFarland: I Don't Need the Rain



McFarland released two "concept" albums within the space of about a year, this astrological one in 1968 & the serious, environmental-themed “America The Beautiful: An Account Of Its Disappearance” in 1969. I haven't heard the entire "America." The latter won a Grammy for cover design, may been been nominated in another jazz category, but by then McFarland was like a man without a musical nation to call home. Repudiated several years earlier by most  jazz critics &  fans for going "soft" & "pop" - jazz itself was becoming more racialized, radicalized, amplified, & funkified, McFarland probably didn't know who  the audience was for this stuff.  But he recorded it anyway.  Much of his music was lightweight but it was always quality.  McFarland was killed in 1971 in a New York bar by a drink someone had laced with methadone.  His music disappeared.  He was completely off my musical radar, unusual because he was an arranger & producer  of stature in the early Sixties.    "Scorpio and Other Signs," released on Verve, a major jazz label,  is not available as CD or download. With a few more uploads by fans of the LP  it'll all be on You Tube.

Labels:


Comments:
I feel as if I have been transported to 1974 and I am in Stern's in Woodbridge Center Mall shopping with my Mom.
 
Yeah, but McFarland's "easy listening" music usually has some twisty chord changes or rhythm that intrigues me.
 
Post a Comment

<< Home
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?