Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Ricotti & Albuquerque - First Wind 1971

From the back liner notes I will quote verbatim:
When a new band appears on the scene, the same old question always arises.
Are they really new?
Do they have a new sound?
For once the answer is a definite YES
The line-up is as follows.
Frank Ricotti, whose style and musical ability voted him the No 1 vibes player in Britain, doubles occasionally on alto and percussion.
Michael Albuquerque, who wrote most of the material for this album uses his distinctive voice and relaxed country-style guitar to give this band a fantastic edge.
John Taylor who was responsible for a lot of the very good arrangements performs on electric piano with a high degree of subtlety and skill.
Chris Lawrence plays bass just like it ought to be, both electric and acoustic string.
Trevor Thomkins' flawless drumming holds together an awful lot of very good sounds.
Sounds you ought to hear.
Special thanks to Michael Keen and Henry Lowther for solos on Go out and get it and Give a damn.
Pegasus Records, London W.1

Additional credits:
Producer Stuart Taylor
Arrangement: Frank Ricotti, John Taylor, Robin Sylvester
Sleeve Design: Jane de Albuquerque

This album is always hugely in demand, an incomplete copy has been annoyingly circulating for quite some time, so here is the complete album. With regards to the missing songs, I would note that the best songs were left out of the inc version, esp. new york windy day and the last track, how to give a damn. So this is a nice surprise, since oftentimes the worst songs will have been left out. Of course, I am sure others will disagree, hate the pieces I mentioned, and wildly love other songs, such is musical taste. Note that M de Albuquerque made a fantastic solo album in 1973 called We may be cattle, etc. which is well worth seeking out.

Musically, I'd say this is all over the map, with some soul songs, a cover or 2(from J. Sebastian and James Taylor, of all people), some more progressive jazzy passages (the first track in particular), and some really nice tunes all with a strong soul-blues feel. Note that the songs tend to run into each other, but I chopped them up. In typical early seventies british style there is studio talking and noise between many of the tracks. For sure M. de A. is the strongest songwriter here, with the last 2 tracks on side a for me the standouts. Please enjoy this gem which really should be rereleased to cd-- I hope our friends agree.
Priority: 3.14...

20 comments:

Crazy B said...

feed us master! looks so nice

Tristan Stefan said...

this is the mp3, the wav will be up soon
http://netkups.com/?d=b8d936d7c4dfb

Unknown said...

Hallelujah!
I'm kneeling in front of You!

Tristan Stefan said...

lol- glad to make you happy mr morgan
here is wav
http://netkups.com/?d=e4c74b6dbb3f3
http://netkups.com/?d=ebf303d0f4032

apf said...

Thank you!

Mit said...

Hi,Tristan Stefan.
Thank you very much for sharing this excellent rare jazz rock album !!!!!
I love it.
But,a little noisy and listen to some popping repeat part of track 5,
I will correct them and UL here some days later.
Stay tuned ^^)

juan manuel muñoz said...

great album, many thanks. Cheers

Mit said...

Remastered files are ready.

These are same as Tristan Stefan's files.
But many noises are removed and track 5 is corrected and start point and end point of each track is sometimes changed and remastered totally.

WAV

http://netkups.com/?d=15457bdf1fed7
http://netkups.com/?d=22dd79bd1ff45
http://netkups.com/?d=50645f2dcdbfc
http://netkups.com/?d=4bf5e55f8fead

mp3
http://netkups.com/?d=47fa41ed8bb05

apf said...

Thank you for your work Shige! Much appreciated!

Tristan Stefan said...

great work! sorry about those cutoff points

Mit said...

Hi,Tristan.
No problem.
Thanks to you,we can enjoy legendary GEMs.
I appreciate you a lot !!!!!!

Tristan Stefan said...

wow !! you really did a good job shige

GrUrs said...

thanks a lot for these rare gem!

Matt Miller said...

Thanks for this. I wanted to mention that song 9&10 titles in the remastered version seem to be reversed. I'm not sure about the others.

Mit said...

Hi,Matt Miller.
Thank you very much for your comment.
Yes,you are right.I am wrong.
Sorry too much......

Correct order's file is the following.

WAV
http://netkups.com/?d=64a15cb3be26f
http://netkups.com/?d=b46afc63fcd08
http://netkups.com/?d=fb37faf8442b6
http://netkups.com/?d=28f6c93eb0a24

mp3
http://netkups.com/?d=affb4f6c73af6

Matt Miller said...

No problem. I just switched the tltles on songs 9&10. Listened to the album yesterday when I was working outside, sounds great! Thanks, Tristan Stefan and Shige for all you do.

Anonymous said...

any chance of a re up? snippets on youtube sound amazing

ujule-rachid said...

hi, can you repost, please???

Tristan Stefan said...

http://netkups.com/?d=329f1b935922e
reup-- sept 10, 2013

Rollo said...

Hi, thank you very much for sharing this ! Is there any way to get it with a lossless compression, such as .flac ?

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