Herbie Mann

and I thought
http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drd500/d595/d5959021v78.jpg

was the worst.

can't comment on Super Mann as I haven't heard anything by him except those albums from the period when Roy Ayers and Sonny Sharrock were in his band. Of those, Windows Opened and Live at the Whiskey are actually pretty hot! He could definitely assemble some decent groups. Still, he's one of those fellows where you wonder if there are actual self-described Herbie Mann fans out there. I mean folks who own, say, even half his albums. The guy has been around forever.

That is one of the greatest album titles.

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drf400/f466/f46619eef61.jpg

I'd like to go to a stoned soul picnic, it would probably be a good time.

if yr party's any good, JBR, then the cover to that record is deffo what the party guests should be seeing by the end of it ;-)

Alexander Zonjic should do this with the Neptunes.

http://www.bossa.net/image/H/Herbie_Mann/Do_The_Bossa_Nova_with-thumb.jpg

got this on vinyl for a buck. pretty awesome.

Been listening to a lot of Sonny Sharrock lately, never heard any Herbie Mann (that I know of) but it's hard for me to imagine what he actually did in Herbie Mann's band!!!

For me, it's all about the amazing Discotheque LP, a seminal disco classic. And it has "Hijack" on it, one of the best songs ever. Robert Christgau gave it a D+, the wanker.

so was herbie a homoflexual? says he's been married a few times, but has an album called Fire Island?

i just picked up Memphis Two Step the other day for a buck and well, i guess the cover was worth that?

i love "guinevere" on that one, jaxon. the rest? not so sure.

so was herbie a homoflexual?

A homoflexual? Ha ha. Nice!

i've listened to, at least, no hyperbole, 20 herbie mann records this year, and every single one i listened to has something good on it. rocking memphis underground right now and i think i could live to be a hundred and i would never cease to be amazed by sonny sharrock's guitar solo at the end of hold on, i'm comin'. one of my fave punk rock solos of all time. just wish i could see the faces of the memphis dudes they played with on this when he unleashed that one.

i made a mix yesterday and used a herbie track.

Memphis Underground is wonderful, i play it all the time.

he's good for all occasions. you need some pop, jazz, funk, soul, disco, rock, reggae, blues, fusion, brasilian? herbie has something for you.

his version of "flying" has to be up there with the weirdest Beatles covers

Bought a Japanese CD of Stone Flute for £3 in Fopp, Herbie's In a Silent Way knock-off, pretty great - Sonny Sharrock, Roy Ayers, Ron Carter, Miroslav Vitous on some of it. Opening track is like a cross between Can and Calypso Frelimo, whole thing is indeed pretty stoney.

The 2CD live set of additional recordings from the Whisky circa 1969 that came out the other week is really good.

A friend of mine dug out a copy of Stone Flute last night and yeah, this is one of the stonedest albums I've ever heard. The version of The Beatles "Flying" is so cool. What a record!

Was this guy immensely popular at some point? Was he a Bob James-type crossover figure? Why are his records so common in dollar bins, why are his tunes in The Real Book, why is he famous beyond just having some silly covers. Not suggesting he is bad - I've barely spent any time listening to him. In fact that's part of why I'm asking - he seems to have such a presence in the record world although I never feel like his name comes up among jazz heads.

Yeah, I kinda think so? I was listening to an interview with Roy Ayers (who got his start in Herbie Mann's band), and I got the impression that he was a pretty popular bandleader in the'70s.

We were talking about the Real Book on some other thread - maybe that part just has to do with the preferences of the Berklee kids who put it together?
https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-real-book/

yeah he was in on the bossa nova craze in the early 60s which i think sold him a ton a of records, and he had smooth pop crossover hits in the 70s, which i always assumed those two things were enough to get him rated as 'not real jazz' by heads back in the day. Glancing at his discography i cant even count how many LPs he has as a leader from the 50s-70s, easily north of 50.

i always rate him along w/ramsey lewis as an artist where youre not missing anything if you ignore him but the records are often better than youd expect them to be, espec for the $4 or less they usually go for

How could he have known that his career would be summed by the punchline of that one terrible album cover

on the other hand this is a dope cover imo:

https://i.imgur.com/PZRk2aF.jpg

Ha, Ramsey Lewis is a good touchpoint. My grandpa had a bunch of Ramsey Lewis records, Three Sounds records etc. - stuff I probably just never would have heard if he hadn't had them, yet those artists were obviously quite popular in their day. Would probably make a good thread - jazz artists who successfully crossed over but have not endured as jazz head favorites.

Also the Real Book is a whole other interesting topic. I recently dug out my copy of The New Real Book from the late 90s, and it's interesting how many tunes there are that I can't possibly imagine anyone ever calling on a bandstand today (not that I'm ever on bandstands). Like, just flipping to a random one, Always There by Ronnie Laws (as played by Jeff Lorber (?)) or Song for Lorraine by Spyro Gyra.

The stone flute album is awesome

The Questlove-directed documentary about the Harlem Cultural Festival (six weekend concerts held in Mount Morris Park between June and August 1969) has some footage of Mann's band. Late in the film they also cut in a short, decontextualized clip of Sonny Sharrock murdering his guitar, which felt to me like kind of a cheat; they were effectively framing him as some outside thing, but he was Mann's guitar player, and if he took wild, string-snapping solos, it was because it was OK with the boss.

You're totally right about '70s wanna-be standards that did not become so, but 'Always There' rules, it's a cookout classic and has become a New Orleans standard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKnUo9bDMIo

And the original is from that period where proto-smooth jazz was beginning to happen, but the production was still very rugged '70s style.

Stone Flute 2nded

“Always There” also a massive European hit in 1991 in the version by Incognito, with Jocelyn Brown on vocals:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4weGwDt13Q

“always there” is so fucking sweet, never get tired of it.

definition of a happy song

Anecdotally, he seems to have maintain more a profile among hiphop/turntable/funk folk than jazz. Live at the Whisky a Go Go is a fine dollar bin listen from the band with Sharrock.

Memphis Underground is a great record. Sharrock’s all over it

The 2-CD expansion of Whiskey A-Go-Go is also worth checking out by Sharrockheadz. Another amen for Memphis underground---and he produced Black Woman! I'd suspect his name was on there mainly to get it past the label suits, but the label was Vortex, which was fairly freewheeling: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex_Records
Other Mann albums he played on (wiki has still has live links on most of these, I think)
Windows Opened (Atlantic, 1968)
The Inspiration I Feel (Atlantic, 1968)
Memphis Underground (Atlantic, 1969)
Concerto Grosso in D Blues (Atlantic, 1969)
Live at the Whisky a Go Go (Atlantic, 1969)
Stone Flute (Embryo, 1970)
Memphis Two-Step (Embro, 1970)
Herbie Mann '71 (Embryo, 1971)
Hold On, I'm Comin' (Atlantic, 1973)
I've got most (for xpost under $4.00 each, yes), but my record player died before I got through all, will have to check spotify.
I also dig Push Push, with Duane Allman on the title track, and "Comin' Home Baby," his early 60s (breakthrough?) hit: 8:37 and and his coolest playing evah (from At The Village Gate. Also rec w Jobim and Baden Powell, and prolific as hell from the 50s on (a lot of links in here):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbie_Mann_discography
Going for "World Jazz" way before any such tag 9okay more like Exotica, posters at the Village Gate, but records too, and he made a living of it, as some no doubt notes).

Sorry to say "he" referring to Sharrock and Mann, but it's mostly Mann

This is actually pretty good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG2CCFS_bZY

oh yeah i can get with that

I've been on kind of a Herbie Mann kick lately. As the weather gets nicer I put on records like Brazil, Bossa Nova & Blues and picture myself at a swanky pool party.

But this one is pretty different, Mann performing with oud and dumbek players, and Rufus Harley on bagpipes on one track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0mcII-mE4g

I recommend the Unreleased Whiskey Tapes. Great set including the band doing some Sharrock tunes from his current lps.

I was just jamming Stone Flute this week and loving it.

Got that one a few years ago - hippy era Herbie are some of the best $2 jazz LPs out there.