Waste Takezo

John Mayall, OBE (born 29 November 1933) is an English blues singer, guitarist, organist and songwriter, whose musical career spans over sixty years. In the 1960s, he was the founder of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, a band which has counted among its members some of the most famous blues and blues rock musicians…

This band was the remains of Carcass (minus Bill Steer) along with former Cathedral bassist Mark Griffiths. They played a straight forward 70s metal/rock style, not unlike the album Swansong from Carcass. After one album, the band split.

A quick internet search brings up some extraordinary footage of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry producing a session at the Black Ark. Taken from the film ‘Roots, Rock, Reggae’, directed by Jeremy Marre, the sequence shows Junior Murvin collaborating with members of the Congos and the Heptones on a song improvised on the spot for the film crew. Before the vocals are recorded, the Upsetters lay down the backing track. The musical director of the session is the afro-haired bass player, Boris Gardiner; unusually, it is he who counts in the band to start each take. After a long conversation with Boris a few years back, I asked Lee about his contribution to the Black Ark sound.

As the elder statesman of British blues, it is John Mayall's lot to be more renowned as a bandleader and mentor than as a performer in his own right. Throughout the '60s, his band, the Bluesbreakers, acted as a finishing school for the leading British blues-rock musicians of the era…

Back in November of 1979, deeply respected saxophonist and arranger Tom Saviano as­sembled a group of outstanding musicians and vocalists to create an incredible jazz infused R&B/Pop debut album under the band name HEAT. At the time, Saviano had just come off of working extensively with Melissa Manchester as musical director on her tours as well as in the studio. But now his HEAT project was literally turning up the fire on his talents as a writer, producer, arranger and musician.

"No Frills" is the sixth studio album by American singer Bette Midler, released on Atlantic Records in 1983. No Frills was Midler's first studio album in four years, following the movies The Rose, Divine Madness! and the ill-fated Jinxed!. The rock and new wave influenced album was produced by Chuck Plotkin, best known for his work with Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, and included three single releases; the ballad "All I Need to Know", a cover of Marshall Crenshaw's "My Favourite Waste of Time" and Midler's take on the Rolling Stones classic "Beast of Burden".