Open .cbr

Tony Coleman has had an illustrious career touring the world with B.B. King, Otis Clay, Bobby Blue Bland, Johnnie Taylor, Albert King, Albert Collins, Etta James, James Cotton, Katie Webster, Z.Z. Hill, O.V. Wright and Buddy Guy.
His early aspirations led to his meeting soul singer Otis Clay. He quickly joined Clay’s band and toured with him for a couple years, recording a live album in Tokyo, Japan. Out of touring and recording with Otis Clay came opportunities to work with other major R&B and blues artists. After a jam session in a Chicago club called The High Chaparral, B.B. King jammed with Otis Clay’s rhythm section. B.B. King liked the rhythm section so much that he asked them to join him as his touring band. So Tony Coleman, Russell Jackson and Leonard Gill became B.B. King’s rhythm section…

Since Full Moon Fever was an unqualified commercial and critical success, perhaps it made sense that Tom Petty chose to follow its shiny formula when he reunited with the Heartbreakers for its follow-up, Into the Great Wide Open…

For this live concert recorded at the Caravan of Dreams in Fort Worth, a mostly all-star group of Texas jazzmen (plus pianist Ellis Marsalis from New Orleans) was gathered together. The music, which includes four blues and three standards among its nine selections, lacks any real surprises. Most of the numbers have solos by Fathead Newman on alto, James Clay's tenor, veteran baritonist Leroy Cooper, the lesser-known trumpeter Dennis Dotson and guitarist Cornell Dupree or Marsalis. In addition, the pianist gets a pair of solo features, and Newman is also heard on tenor and flute. Strangely enough, Fathead never gets around to dueling with Clay. Some better planning and the utilization of a few charts (rather than the funcitonal frameworks) would have elevated the pleasing date to a much higher level.

Here is an excellent example of the US Progressive rock scene of the Seventies: having both technique and excellence, imagination & talent. They seemed to be influenced by a variety of styles. Their sound was a little folky at times, poppy at others, even a little jazzy at times, loosely in the shadow of Kansas, Yes, Genesis, early King Crimson and others, with lots of vocals everywhere.

As a defining point of the U.K. psychedelic/progressive rock crossover, the Open Mind's sole album is the perfect specimen. With a singing style rooted in the freakbeat era, rather than the operatic tenor screams hard rock ushered in, and acidic duel guitars, heavier than those of a typical psychedelic act, The Open Mind filled the gap between the beginning of one era and the end of another. "Magic Potion" is unarguably their greatest moment. Its monotonous rhythm guitar anticipates the stoner rock of Hawkind while double bass drum fills and doom-laden fuzz guitar ragas combine bombastic rock power with Eastern-influenced psychedelia. Magnificent! "Girl, I'm So Alone" - a remake of early Open Mind lineup, mod band the Drag Set's "Get out of My Way" - harks back to a 1967 feel, as do a number of other songs that show the band being not quite as progressive as they intended…

Esoteric Recordings is pleased to announce the release of Open Your Heart – The Island Recordings 1972 – 1976, a new re-mastered four-disc clamshell boxed set (comprising 3 CDs and a DVD) by the legendary JIM CAPALDI.