Walid Itayim & Friends Live at Sporting June 22 , 2010

Walid Itayim: guitar and vocals/Jad Abi Haidar: Vocals/ Munir Khauli: guitar/Mazen Siblini: keyboards/Abboud Saadi: bass guitar/ Emile Bustany: drums.

The songs featured in these 3 live clips are: "Faith", "Thank God It's Over" and "They Call It Love".







We participated in Day 1 of the Old Vs New Rock Band Festival. Our set was about 45 minutes long. We played 9 out of the 12 songs that are on my CD "Where I Wanna Be" which was released in 2009. If you would like to buy the CD, it is available at cdbaby.com Click below:

A really good review of my CD has been published on the USA based rock music site hardrockhaven.net
The very positive review was written by music journalist Alissa Ordabai who has done interviews with many big names in the rock world including Aerosmith, Vinnie Moore and Paul Gilbert! It's nice to get a bit of international recognition!! Click on the following link to read the review:
http://www.hardrockhaven.net/online/2009/walid-itayim-where-i-want-to-be

Unfortunately, only about 100 people showed up out of an expected number estimated to be at least 500. It is pathetic that so called "music fans" would miss a rare live concert by a band they claim to like because of a fucking world cup football (soccer) match. It's our bad luck that just as we opened with our first song, a match involving Argentina was starting on TV and the Lebanese people, more than any others in the world, take the world cup very seriously! All political and religious divisions disappear and you will find people with diverse political and religious convictions bonding with each other in the various cafes and bars in the country that have put up a TV screen for the month. They talk to each other about how glorious Messi's last goal was with the same passion and devotion as members of the same religious sect might glory over the miracles that their prophet or messiah undertook. Apart from the world cup, another reason why people didn't come to the event could be the entrance fee of $20 which is extremely fair if you consider that there are 4 different bands who need to be paid for playing. Organizing a music festival of this sort is no joke and people should appreciate the fact that some people have sacrificed a lot of time and effort to provide live musical entertainment for no profit to themselves. Instead, these same people will happily spend the $20 and sometimes much more without any hesitation on some event in a club where the only entertainment is a one man DJ. What a sad situation it is in Lebanon for musicians and artists. On a different note, it's only when I see myself on video that I realise how much weight I have gained and how bad I look. I thought about not posting the videos because of that but who am I kidding, that's what people see when they see me in person and the video will not surprise them as much as it surprises me. I guess I have to deal with this problem until I lose the weight. In the meantime I cannot stay in hiding and should not worry about what people say or think. It's not like the groupies are standing in line :-) LOL

British Guitarist Alan Ross: Unrecognised Genius

Guitarist Alan Ross played on 2 of John Entwistle's solo albums in the early 70's, "Whistle Rhymes" and "Rigor Mortis Sets In". He was also part of Entwistle's touring band during that period. In 1973, he played guitar on Tim Hardin's album "Painted Head". That same year, he formed a band called Ro-Ro with bass player Warwick Rose and they released an album called "Meet At The Water" on the Regal Zonophone label. The album is now extremely hard to find and goes on ebay for anything between GBP 200 and GBP 300. By 1974, he formed the group "Ross" with former Indian Summer keyboard player Bob Jackson. The band's career seemed to take off when they landed themselves a contract with RSO Records. They recorded 2 brilliant albums for the label, "Ross" and "The Pit And The Pendulum", released in 1974 and 1975. Eric Clapton, who was also an RSO artist toured the USA in 1974 and the Ross band was on the same bill. The band disbanded after two albums. In 1976, he appeared on the band Stars' self titled album. He released another 2 albums in 1977 and 1978, "Are You Free On Saturday" and "Restless Nights", this time for a small British label, Ebony Records under the name Alan Ross Band. In 1980, he appeared on an album by Wilson-Gale called "Gift Wrapped Set". In 1983, he played on Alexis Korner's album "Juvenile Delinquent". With the exception of a few minor session jobs in the late 80's and early 90's, Alan Ross disappeared. Last year, thanks to the contacts I made through my Alan Ross website, I was able to locate Alan Ross. His neighbor saw the site and contacted me. Apparently, Alan now helps his wife run a horse sactuary in a town called Finchingfield in Essex, England. Amazingly, a couple of days after I discovered this information, I was contacted by a representative of a Japanese CD reissue label called Airmail Recordings, who wanted Alan Ross' contact info to discuss the reissue of his four albums from the 70's. Airmail and Alan signed a deal and the four albums are now available in Japan in the mini LP replica CD format!!
Those four Ross albums had suffered the same fate as the LPs I wrote about earlier in this blog. God bless the Japanese for giving everyone an opportunity to own these albums on CD, digitally remastered no less!! For fans outside Japan they are a bit pricey but definitely worth buying. The best online Japanese CD store is CDJAPAN.CO.JP After you register with them click on the 4 links that you can find in the comments section of this post to buy them with your credit card.

Before they were reissued on CD, I had included the following links for people who wanted to listen to some mp3's which I had made from the original vinyl LPs:

http://www.waliditayim.com/lookingdown.mp3

http://www.waliditayim.com/caroline.mp3

http://www.waliditayim.com/swallow.mp3

http://www.waliditayim.com/discovery.mp3

http://www.waliditayim.com/standing.mp3

http://www.waliditayim.com/soslow.mp3

http://www.waliditayim.com/mystefied.mp3

http://www.waliditayim.com/punishment.mp3

Ernie Watt's Planet Love - Another gem not available on CD due to ignorance of the record companies

Ernie Watts Quartet's Planet Love was actually his debut LP released by World Pacific Jazz (ST-20155). Like some of the other albums I have discussed in my earlier posts, Planet Love was never reissued on CD and those who might go looking for it on vinyl don't have an easy task ahead of them. What a shame it is that such a mainstream jazz classic is not deemed worthy of a CD reissue. Ernie Watts is a veteran jazz player with who is very highly regarded and yet record companies seem to be ignorant of what a great stepping stone this first album from 1969 is. Listening to the album it's very evident how ispired Ernie Watts was by John Coltrane and will allow you to compare his playing back then to what he does nowadays. You'll be clearly able to see how his playing developed over the years and how he has managed to forge the distinct and unimitable style and sound that you hear on his records 30 years later.

If you are interested in it, check out the link in my comments.

Frank Gambale Solo on Polish Fusion CD

In 1996, a CD called "The Beginner" was released by Polish keyboard player Darek Janus.
I have not managed to find the CD but I found this:

Ofarim and Winter - Long forgotten and obscure masterpiece album

I am amazed by how many brilliant albums from the 60's and 70's never got the recognition they deserved and simply vanished. In the case of many of these records, matters were made worse by the fact that the record companies totally ignored their existence when the CD format replaced vinyl. Albums that you could still find in the record bins for years after their release suddenly disappeared from music stores when their labels failed to reissue them on CD. Only the collectors who maintained an interest in vinyl and continued to own a turntable would now on occasion come across these records at the used vinyl stores. "Ofarim and Winter" is the perfect example of what I am talking about. In 1973, Abi Ofarim and Tom Winter got together and recorded their album "Ofarim and Winter" which CBS released (CBS 65436). Ofarim had earlier scored a number one hit with his wife in the duo Esther and Abi Ofarim with the song "Cinderella Rockefella". Tom Winter, a British singer/guitarist, who was previously a member of the Dutch band Opus. The finished album is a collection of 10 acoustic based numbers with influences ranging from British folk, country and cool American blues-rock, to elements of flamenco, Yiddish and Middle Eastern. Loaded with insanely beautiful vocal harmonies as well. While they both do a great job with their solo vocal parts, it becomes very clear that Winter had the overall superior voice. The few of us who know and like this album are very priviledged because we are internationally such a minute group of people. I think that every person who owns and loves this album has a duty to use their blogs, websites, profiles etc... to bring people's attention to it. Maybe one day CBS will recognise what a fantastic record this is!

If you are interested in this album, check comments for a link.

"Red Baron" recorded live at the Montreux Festival in 1982 by Billy Cobham's Glass Menagerie and featuring the awesome Dean Brown!

Billy Cobham's classic Red Baron has become a standard covered by musicians all over the world. Billy Cobham has released countless versions both live and in the studio. The original version was on Cobham's 1973 album "Spectrum" and featured the legendary Tommy Bolin on guitar. Of all the exisitng versions my top favourite was recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1982 by Billy Cobham's Glass Menagerie featuring Dean Brown on guitar, Tim Landers on bass and Gil Goldstein on keyboards. Dean Brown's soulful wah guitar solo is what makes it my favourite version. This was part of a live album on the Elektra/Musician label called "Smokin'". For some reason the album has not yet been made available on CD but as of July 2009 was made exclusively available as an MP3 download by Rhino/Elektra. Curiously, the only other Cobham album featuring this exact same line-up of musicians, the studio recorded "Observations And....", also released on Elektra/Musician, has neither been reissued on CD nor been made available as an MP3 download as in the case of "Smokin'". On both these albums, there is a lot of amazing guitar work by Dean Brown and if you are a fan of his, they are must have items. Elektra was consolidateed by WMG's Atlantic Records Group in 2004 and after remaining dormant for 5 years, was revived by Atlantic in 2009. That gives one hope that these two albums could conceivably be reissued on CD in the near future.

Frank Zappa's "G-Spot Tornado"

This video clip is for me of one of the most beautiful and moving musical moments in history! 17 September 1992: 14 months before his death from the cancer that had been growing inside him for years, Frank Zappa finally realised his dream of having this and other complex compositions of his played by an orchestra capable of executing them to perfection. Six years earlier, Zappa had recorded G Spot Tornado using a synclavier (early computer system for music programming) for the album Jazz From Hell because he believed that it was too difficult for his musicians to play it. When it was finally performed and recorded by the Ensemble Modern (this clip) for the Yellow Shark album, Zappa was a very happy man because he had previously believed that it would never be played to his satisfaction by human musicians. Every time I watch this clip I get all teary-eyed. Watching Frank conduct the piece and the thundering applause it receives from the audience always affects me in this way.

Performed By Ensemble Modern on 17/09/1992

1986 Synclavier Version as it appeared on "Jazz From Hell"

Yesterday, I was surfing youtube and came across a clip of a Russian pianist called Viktoriya Yermolyeva playing her own solo piano arrangement of G Spot. The piece is extremely hard to play and she admits that she didn't play it perfectly and mentioned that she recorded the video after only two days of practice. She added that she still needs to work on it. I respect the fact that she chose this particular piece to play. Not only is she very courageous to attempt playing it, but also, she has excellent musical taste!

Solo Piano arrangement by Viktoriya Yermolyeva

Enjoy!

Jerry Lacroix - Second Coming

One of my alltime favourite records is Jerry Lacroix's "Second Coming. I don't believe the album has ever been made available on CD. I have the LP converted to mp3 but for some reason the last track "You'll Always Be Mine" is not included. Great solos by Edgar Winter, David Spinozza, Rick Derringer and Johnny Winter.

Jerry Lacroix is one of the greatest R&B singers of the 1970's but unfortunately very underrated and certainly never got the recognition he deserved. As a result, his recordings are few considering how long he has been around. For a while, he was vocalist for Edgar Winter's White Trash, Blood Swaet and Tears and Rare Earth. As a solo artist I know of only 2 albums one of which is Second Coming and the other being Lacroix.

1 Mean Ole World (4:47)
Guitar - Hugh McCracken
Arp [Solo] - Edgar Winter

2 Are You Lonely For Me Baby (4:21)
Guitar - Bob Rose , John Tropea

3 You Girl (3:43)
Guitar - Bob Rose , David Spinozza
Horns - David Sanborn , Lewis Del Gatto* , Randy Brecker , Robert Millikan

4 The Die Has Been Cast (3:30)
Guitar - Hugh McCracken
Guitar Solo : Johnny Winter

5 Genesis (3:45)
Guitar Solo: David Spinozza

6 She Does It To Me (2:55)
Guitar Solo: Rick Derringer

7 Funny Boy (5:58)
Guitar [Slide] - Johnny Winter

8 Drinkin' Daddy's Wine (2:45)
Guitar - Bob Mann

9 Silent Is The Night (4:33)
Guitar - Bob Rose , David Spinozza

Check comments for link.