{"id":4038,"date":"2015-04-30T19:11:45","date_gmt":"2015-04-30T19:11:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/martinblack.com\/?p=4038"},"modified":"2016-11-14T13:10:28","modified_gmt":"2016-11-14T13:10:28","slug":"adventures-in-collecting-jazz-vinyl-bill-doggett-the-band-with-the-beat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/2015\/04\/adventures-in-collecting-jazz-vinyl-bill-doggett-the-band-with-the-beat\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Doggett &#8211; Band with the Beat!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I picked this up from the Ely Saturday market for \u00a33.<\/p>\n<p>Recorded in 1962 on the Warner Brother&#8217;s label (&#8216;The first name in sound&#8217;).\u00a0The line up is:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bill Doggett on the &#8216;sizzling&#8217; hammond<\/li>\n<li>Jim Powell, Ray Felder and Les Taylor take turns on\u00a0sax<\/li>\n<li>Joe Benjamin on bass<\/li>\n<li>George Johnson on drums<\/li>\n<li>Bill Butler on guitar<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Bill Doggett was a new name for me but the front cover looked good and a quick scan of the back notes convinced me to make the purchase.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4043\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4043\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4043\" src=\"http:\/\/martinblack.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/bill.jpg\" alt=\"Bill Doggett and hammond\" width=\"200\" height=\"252\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4043\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bill Doggett and his hammond<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After a couple of listens I can make the following observations:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Despite the claims made by the back cover notes, this is an R&amp;B, album, it ain&#8217;t jazz\u00a0\u00a0(nothing wrong with that, I&#8217;m more than partial to old-school R&amp;B).<\/li>\n<li>The hammond is one of those instruments that either sound terrible or fantastic. \u00a0This is clearly demonstrated on the album which swings from cheesy holiday-camp (i.e. Butlins) jolliness\u00a0to raunchy get-down-and-boogie beat music.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Check out\u00a0the album cover, it promises so much, you can understand why I had to have it, eh? \u00a0Dig the photo of Bill taking it easy with a newspaper. \u00a0Thrill to that typeface, oh, that typeface, love it!<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4039\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4039\" style=\"width: 591px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-4039 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/martinblack.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/doggett2.jpg\" alt=\"Bill Doggett - The band with the beat\" width=\"591\" height=\"591\" srcset=\"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/doggett2.jpg 591w, https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/doggett2-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/doggett2-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 591px) 100vw, 591px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4039\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bill Doggett &#8211; The band with the beat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Here&#8217;s some thoughts on\u00a0each track:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Side one<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Swivel:<\/strong> Could be in Butlins or a backing track for a Benny Hill sketch. It&#8217;s kind of fun in a kitch way but you wouldn&#8217;t want to listen to it again. Actually it does improve slightly midway through but not enough to save it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Anniversary\u00a0Song:\u00a0<\/strong>Nice R&amp;B intro with howling sax, I started tapping my foot to this one. \u00a0The hammond makes its appearance half way through the track, sounding a little Butlins again. It&#8217;s the sax that makes this track, to be honest.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Open the door, Richard:<\/strong> Doggett sings on this and it&#8217;s all pretty awful, sounds like a track on some\u00a0kid&#8217;s birthday party album. \u00a0The sax is the saving grace, again.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mr Lucky<\/strong>:<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>More Butlins hammond, I&#8217;m not feeling Mr Lucky with this album at the moment.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Let&#8217;s do the Continental:\u00a0<\/strong>This is much\u00a0little better, I could be in a Soho coffee bar with a latte in the early 60s. \u00a0Nice.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Pony Walk:<\/strong>\u00a0Oh, two good tracks in a row, yeah, I could imagine dancing to this. hep!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Side two<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The Waltz you Saved for Me:<\/strong> Another good track, swinging in fact!<\/li>\n<li><strong>Petite Fleur:<\/strong>\u00a0More Butlins<\/li>\n<li><strong>Later Baby Later:\u00a0<\/strong>More R&amp;B and this one is fun, Doggett on vocals again, sax wailing, straight-forward dance track, strong track, I bet this one got the\u00a0crowd going.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Po&#8217; Boy: <\/strong>A nice bluesy beat propels this forward, one of the best tracks on the album<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lucky:\u00a0<\/strong>A cool modish sound, hammond sounds great, low down and sexy, just how it should be. Best track on the album? We&#8217;re finishing strong!<\/li>\n<li><strong>Blues for Joe<\/strong>: More smokin&#8217; hammond from Bill, wish all the tracks were more like this!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So there you go, \u00a0a few duff tracks but overall an enjoyable slice of R&amp;B. \u00a0The good moments make me smile and that&#8217;s all I need in the end.<\/p>\n<h3>Ratings<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Overall hepness: 2\/5 (points deducted for cheesy hammond)<\/li>\n<li>Cover art: 3.5\/5<\/li>\n<li>Condition of vinyl: 2.5\/5<\/li>\n<li>Cost: 4\/5<\/li>\n<li><strong>Overall rating: 12\u00a0\/ 20<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Music<\/h3>\n<p>Here&#8217;s &#8220;<strong>Let&#8217;s Do the Continental<\/strong>&#8220;. \u00a0Get down and boogie hepsters!<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1040\" height=\"585\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DxMIw_Avz9g?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I picked this up from the Ely Saturday market for \u00a33. Recorded in 1962 on the Warner Brother&#8217;s label (&#8216;The&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[125,5],"tags":[143],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4038"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4038"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5945,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4038\/revisions\/5945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinblack.com\/oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}