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BANGSY MEETS GILLES PETERSON AT THE ROOTS OF DUB !!

BANGSY PRODUCING ABOVE THE CLOUDS - PAUL WELLER

 

After Producing Galliano's Debut Album " In Search of the 13th note " , Chris Bangs was asked by Paul Weller to co - produce his new tune ' Above The Clouds ' ( Weller was good friends with Gilles Peterson of Talikng Loud and had come down to the Galliano / Roy Ayers session). Starting from a drumbeat,a notebook and a guitar, Above the Clouds quickly began to grow on the multi-track tape . Weller played the grand piano at his Solid Bond studio ( A very atmospheric granite walled haven in the deepest recesses of Marble Arch ) and laid down the main keys track from a cheap Casio keyboard Paul had knocking around for writing ideas to tape. It was only a guide part but truly became the body of the song and never did get replayed.

The guitar parts came from a fat jumbo acoustic, don't quote me but i think it was a Guild guitar and the guitar parts from a superb cherry red Gibson E 335, with the higher licks overdubbed on a maroon Fender Strat and set up thru a vintage Fender Champ amplifier. Paul has an unbelievable guitar collection permanantly set up and tuned and ready to play straight off. When Weller gets an idea he likes to get it down on tape right away !!

Fuelled by trips to Paul's legendary Gaggia coffee machine, Weller and Bangs worked late into the night recording the vocals with a quick fag between takes to assist the legendary Weller gravel while singing.

The track was mixed down later at residential studio Comforts Place.  A few overdubs were added, the  mks 50 synth riff before the third verse and a "vibey' slightly alcoholic live hand claps track from Weller, Bangs, Brendan Lynch and Steve White who was there to add his percussion track before the mixdown.

Released as a single " Above the Clouds" was a cool summer tune and featured on the " Paul Weller " album)

 

Go Discs
Paul Weller - Above the clouds (Prod)

CHRIS BANGS & MICK TALBOT - BACK TO BUSINESS ALBUM REVIEWS

Back To Business’ is a delightful new collaborative album from two vets of the UK soul and mod scene… MICK TALBOT and CHRIS BANGS. Mick is, of course, a garlanded keyboardist who’s played with everyone and anyone but maybe best known in  the mainstream for his key contribution to the Style Council. “Bangsy”, who’s been on the scene for more years than he cares to remember, is an acclaimed DJ/producer/mixer and sometimes percussionist and their ‘Back To Business’ betrays all their years of experience. Apt too that the 12 tracker is being released via Acid Jazz – a label the duo have enjoyed a long relationship with. Indeed Chris actually coined the term ‘acid jazz’ while Mick appeared on one of the label’s earliest and rarest singles as ‘King Truman’ back in 1988.  

The upcoming release of ‘Back To Business’ was flagged up by  two singles… ‘Sumthin’ Else’ and a cover of ‘How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)’.The former was/is a 60s flavoured sweaty jazz club groove which went down a storm on Acid Jazz head boy’s Eddie Piller’s Totally Wired Radio show. The single all but selling out that very day.  The latter was/is an  instrumental take on the Marvin Gaye classic and its vibe recalled those great old Earl Van Dyke 60s Motown albums.

And the good news is if that retro soul instrumental and soul-jazz sound is your bag, then there’s plenty more on ‘Back To Business’. Indeed if the LP was presented as some lost 60s Blue Note/Chess album from someone like, say, Brother Jack McDuff, Jimmy Smith or Ramsey Lewis you wouldn’t  blink an eye lid! Yep, ‘Back To Business’ is that good.

Here’s a selection of highlights. ‘Jerk Chicken’ has a wild Northern Soul/mod flavour (in the early days of “Northern” those in the know revered people like Jimmy Smith and Ramsey Lewis); ‘Surf and Turf’ offers more of the same – a very “Chess studio sound”. ‘It’s Alright’ is another Earl Van Dyke homage; ‘Leela’s Dance’ mines a 5/4 rhythmic Latino groove (listen up Roger Beaujolais’ jazzy vibraphones); ‘Goody Goody’ is another visit to Spanish Harlem; ‘Pick N Micks’ is a virtuous soul-jazz workout from Talbot featuring our man on three pianos, three Hammonds and three Wurlitzer pianos plus Rhodes Bass; while ‘Blues Walks’ is Chris’ solo composition – a swinging bop-jazz tune fronted by trumpeter  Dave Priseman and featuring more sweet vibes from Roger Beaujolais.

Buy Vinyl or CD , Downloads or check it out HERE !!

BANGSY ON THE PAUL WELLER PODCAST !!

CLICK HERE

CHRIS BANGS’ MODCAST PLAYLIST FROM THE MODCAST WITH EDDIE PILLER - MAY 2022

 

 

 

Paul Weller - Above The Clouds ( CB Remaster )

Tyrone Davis - Is It Something You’ve Got

Johnny Pate - You Can’t Even Walk In The Park

Coke Escovedo - I wouldn’t Change A Thing

Jimmy McGriff - All About My Girl

Mickey & The Soul Generation - Iron Leg

Augustus Pablo - King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown

Airto - Celebration Suite

Jeff Lorber Fusion - Lava Lands

Nat King Cole - Brazilian Love Song

Quincy Jones Big Band - Soul Bossa Nova

The 3 Sounds - Blue Genes

The Young Holt Trio - Wack Wack

Eddie Bishop - Call Me

Tommie Young - Hit ’N Run Lover

Shorty Long - Night Fo’ Last  - Featuring [Organ] Shorty Long

Johnny Lytle - Selim

Quartette Tres Bien - Boss Tres Bien (45 version) 

Pharaoh Saunders - You’ve Gotta Have Freedom

 

A smorgasbord of diverse tunes from Bangsy’s DJ years at gigs like Mambo Madness , Doo at the Zoo, Cock Happy , Special Branch Ibiza , Radio London Jazz Bops, Bournemouth Weekenders, Mondays at the Wag  , Hurley etc etc 

 

All tracks taken from original wax cylinder

Anal Records 1903

MICK TALBOT & CHRIS BANGS NEW ALBUM - BACK TO BUSINESS ON ACID JAZZ RECORDS

I am very proud to announce the new album from Chris Bangs & Mick Talbot - ‘Back To Business’ (out on 17th June) - along with advance single ‘How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You). 

Acid Jazz have a long history with Chris (who coined the term ‘acid jazz’) and Mick (founding member of the Style Council), who appeared on one of the label’s earliest and rarest singles as ‘King Truman’ back in 1988. 

‘How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)’ is an instrumental cover of Marvin Gaye’s 1964 Motown classic. This reading of the song has a shuffle groove and features uber rhythms from Brand New Heavies’ guitarist Simon Bartholomew (who also makes an appearance on good times R&B number, ‘Blue Jeans’). As Bangs put it, "we wanted to put a different slant on the tune, small combo vibe with a Wurlitzer piano lead. We were thinking of getting a vocalist to sing the tune but it's been done that way so many times." 

This follows the release last month of their original composition, the sweaty jazz club groove of ‘Sumthin’ Else’, which went down a storm on Eddie Piller’s Totally Wired Radio show, all but selling out that very day. Both songs are representative of the infectious 12-track album collaboration between these two musical titans. 

Elsewhere the album features a variety of styles including ‘Jerk Chicken’s ‘60s dancefloor groove with Memphis guitars, Hammond Organ and Wurlitzer 112 (the sound made famous by Ray Charles on ‘What I’d Say’), the Latino soul crossover stomper ‘Surf ‘n’ Turf’, which takes its cues from the West Coast Beach Beat sound of ‘60s California, and the skipping Detroit flavoured groove, with Jackson 5 style fuzz guitars, swinging Farfisa organ and Wurly Pianos of ‘It’s Alright’. Bangs and Talbot wrote this song during lockdown and put down the Hammond as a guide melody for the vocals, everybody who heard the demo loved the instrumental, so the lyrics will sit firmly on the back burner till a later date. 

The talents of Mick Talbot are exemplified on tracks such as the high energy, fiery Hammond stomper ‘Kookie T’, ‘Leela’s Dance’, a distinctive and alternative slant on the classic 5/4 rhythm made famous by Dave Brubeck on ‘Take Five’. The track features his hypnotic piano riffs accompanied by Roger Beaujolais’ jazzy vibraphones and Julian Burdock’s slinky guitars, comes across as a band in the room but, in fact, the sessions were recorded across three continents. On ‘Pick ‘n’ Mick’s’, a Talbot solo offering for the album, a live groove takes his love of all thing Memphis, which he overdubbed ALL the instrumental parts on; three pianos, three Hammonds and three Wurlitzer pianos plus Rhodes Bass for a unique vibe on this southern delight. 

‘Stingray’ is another live delight, this time recorded straight after lockdown at the legendary California Club PJ’s. The newly released audience groove along ecstatically to Talbot’s gospel flavoured Hammond virtuosity, Memphis vibes on the guitar, Bangs getting crazy with the drums and the whole thing serving up an uptempo Baptist groove that’s sure to set the dancers moving. ‘Goody Goody’, a Chess Records / Ramsey Lewis-inspired gospel piano groover takes live elements and fuses them with big beats, brass, crowd claps to create an atmospheric bluesy number. 

Bangs’ solo composition for the album, ‘Blues Walk’, is a swinging bop-jazz tune formed by trumpeter Dave Priseman transcribing Bangs’ scat vocals from demo version, vibraphone pleasures from Beaujolais and an excelling guitar solo outro from Burdock. 

Back To Business is an exhilarating, contemporary fusion of timeless genres on an album that perfectly distils all these sounds to create the ultimate-sounding Acid Jazz record by two legends of the scene. 

BUY IT HERE - PRE - ORDER NOW !!

CHECKOUT BANGS AND TALBOT INCLUDING FIRST SINGLE - SUMTHIN' ELSE

 

 

 

CHRIS BANGS / GILLES PETERSON Special Branch @ Royal Oak 1986

A few pics from a 1986 photoshoot for City Limits magazine , CB and GP djing upstairs at the Royal Oak , Tooley Street, with kind permission of photograher David Corio

 

Photos © David Corio

www.davidcorio.com
instagram  @david.corio