THE TRUE VINE
3544 HICKORY AVE
BALTIMORE, MD 21211
(TELEPHONE: 410 235 4500)

OPEN:
TUES. – SAT. 12 – 9
SUN. & MON. 12 – 6

hello,
i’m doing blah blah blah & my life is blah blah blah. now that that’s out of the way, here’s some music:

WASHINGTON PHILLIPS: THE KEY TO THE KINGDOM cd ($17)

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wikipedia says:

“Washington Phillips was a pioneering gospel performer in the 1920s. Born January 11, 1880 in Texas, Phillips recorded sixteen songs, some of which amount to highly specific and detailed gospel sermons. The songs were recorded between 1927 and 1929 and feature Phillips’ voice self-accompanied by an instrument that sounds like a fretless zither. This instrument, which has been variously identified as a Dolceola, a Celestophone, and a Phonoharp (and also is considered by some to be an instrument entirely home-made by Phillips) creates a unique sound on these recordings that makes them immediately recognizable. Phillips died September 20, 1954 in Teague, Texas, at the age of 74.”

i say: mmmm smack slurrrrp mmmmmm yes mmmmmmmmmmm more” & that “it’s a compilation.

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HARRY PARTCH: THE BEWITCHED cd ($16)

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wikipedia says:

“Harry Partch (June 24, 1901 – September 3, 1974) was an American composer and instrument creator. He was one of the first twentieth-century composers to work extensively and systematically with microtonal scales, writing much of his music for custom-made instruments that he built himself, tuned in 11-limit just intonation.”

i say:

the bewitched was made in 1956 & was made as a dance satire. this is the juiciest harry partch record i’ve heard.

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PIERO PICCIONI: THE SEDUCTION OF PICCIONI cd ($17)

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wikipedia says:

“Piero Piccioni was born in Turin, Piedmont. His mother’s maiden name was Marengo, hence his pseudonym Piero Morgan, which he adopted until 1957.

When he was growing up his father, Attilio Piccioni (a prominent member of the Christian Democratic Party with the post-war Italian government), would frequently take him to hear concerts at the E.I.A.R. Radio Studios in Florence. Having listened to jazz throughout his childhood (he dearly loved Art Tatum and Charlie Parker) and without attending studies at the Conservatoire Academy of Music, Piero Piccioni became an extremely talented self-taught musician.

Piccioni made his radio debut with his 013 Big Band in 1938, but only returned on air after the liberation of Italy in 1944. His 013 was the first Italian jazz band to be broadcast in Italy after the fall of fascism.

He was deeply influenced in his use of jazz by 20th century classical composers and American cinematography. Amongst his favourites were Frank Capra, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, John Ford and Alex North. He began writing songs of his own and was soon able to get some of his works published by Carisch editions.

Piero Piccioni came into contact with the movie world in Rome during the fifties, when he was a practicing lawyer and was securing movie rights for Italian distributors such as Titanus and De Laurentiis. During that time, Michelangelo Antonioni had called Piero to score a documentary film directed by Luigi Polidoro, one of his apprentices. Piccioni’s first score for a feature film was Gianni Franciolini’s Il mondo le condanna (1952). He consequently changed his lawyer’s ‘toga’ for a conductor’s baton. He developed close-knit working relationships with directors Francesco Rosi and Alberto Sordi, and established strong personal and professional bonds with them.

Many directors sought Piero Piccioni to score the soundtracks for their films: Francesco Rosi, Mario Monicelli, Alberto Lattuada, Luigi Comencini, Luchino Visconti, Antonio Pietrangeli, Bernardo Bertolucci, Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, Tinto Brass, Dino Risi, and others.

Also bearing his name are The Scientific Cardplayer, Swept Away, Tutto a posto niente in ordine by Lina Wertmuller, Il bell’Antonio by Mauro Bolognini, The Tenth Victim by Elio Petri. He is credited with works for more than 300 soundtracks and compositions for films, radio, television, ballets and orchestra. One of his favorite vocalists was female soul singer Shawn Robinson.

Among the many prestigious prizes won include a David di Donatello Award for the movie Swept Away (1975), Nastro d’argento Award for the movie Salvatore Giuliano by Francesco Rosi (1963), Prix International Lumière 1991, Anna Magnani Award 1975 and Vittorio De Sica Award 1979.

His song “Traffic Boom” was featured as the song for the fictional Logjammin’ movie-within-a-movie in The Big Lebowski.

Piccioni died in Rome in 2004.”

i say:

this a compilation filled with love & grooviness italian 70′s style. songs that make you want to dance & songs that make you want to fall in love with someone & listen to this record with them & then years later split up & then listen to this record for the first time since when you used to listen to this record together & feel your heart crumble into little pieces.

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FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS: THE GLORY (????) OF THE HUMAN VOICE cd ($12)

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wikipedia says:

“Florence Foster Jenkins (July 19, 1868–November 26, 1944) was an American soprano who became famous for her complete lack of rhythm, pitch, tone, and overall singing ability. From her recordings, it is apparent that Jenkins had little sense of pitch and rhythm and was barely capable of sustaining a note. Her accompanist can be heard making adjustments to compensate for her tempo variations and rhythmic mistakes. Her dubious diction, especially in foreign language songs, is also noteworthy. Nonetheless, she became tremendously popular in her unconventional way. Her audiences apparently loved her for the amusement she provided rather than her musical ability. Critics often described her work in a backhanded way that may have served to pique public curiosity.

Despite her patent lack of ability, Jenkins was firmly convinced of her greatness. She compared herself favorably to the renowned sopranos Frieda Hempel and Luisa Tetrazzini, and dismissed the laughter which often came from the audience during her performances as coming from her rivals consumed by “professional jealousy.” She was aware of her critics, however, saying “People may say I can’t sing, but no one can ever say I didn’t sing.”

The music Jenkins tackled in her recitals was a mixture of the standard operatic repertoire by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giuseppe Verdi and Johann Strauss (all of them well beyond her technical ability), Lieder (including works by Johannes Brahms and Joaquín Valverde’s Clavelitos [Carnations], a favorite encore), and songs composed by herself or her accompanist, Mr. Cosmé McMoon, who reportedly made faces at Jenkins behind her back to get laughs.

Jenkins often wore elaborate costumes that she designed herself, sometimes appearing in wings and tinsel, and, for Clavelitos, throwing flowers into the audience while fluttering a fan and sporting more flowers in her hair. After each performance Cosmé McMoon would collect these flowers from the auditorium in readiness for redistribution at the next one.

After a taxicab crash in 1943 she found she could sing “a higher F than ever before.” Instead of a lawsuit against the taxicab company, she sent the driver a box of expensive cigars.

In spite of public demand for more appearances, Jenkins restricted her rare performances to a few favorite venues, and her annual recital at the Ritz-Carlton ballroom in New York City. Attendance at her recitals was always limited to her loyal clubwomen and a select few others — she handled distribution of the coveted tickets herself. At the age of 76, Jenkins finally yielded to public demand and performed at Carnegie Hall on October 25, 1944. So anticipated was the performance that tickets for the event sold out weeks in advance. Jenkins died a month later.”

i say:

this is the only opera record i’ve heard that i enjoy listening to (in response to the description above, i want to say that everyone has pitch, tone & rhythm. even if you have no voice box or you’re completely paralyzed, you still have it in your brain).

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SUN RA: MEDIA DREAMS double cd ($28)

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wikipedia says:

“Herman Poole Blount, legal name Le Sony’r Ra[1]; May 22, 1914 in Birmingham, Alabama – May 30, 1993 in Birmingham, Alabama) was a jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his “cosmic philosophy”, musical compositions and performances.

“Of all the jazz musicians, Sun Ra was probably the most controversial,” critic Scott Yanow said,[2] due to Sun Ra’s eclectic music and unorthodox lifestyle. Claiming that he was of the “Angel Race” and not from Earth, but from Saturn, Sun Ra developed a complex persona of “cosmic” philosophies and lyrical poetry that made him a pioneer of afrofuturism as he preached awareness and peace above all. He abandoned his birth name and took on the name and persona of Sun Ra (Ra being the ancient Egyptian god of the sun), and used several other names throughout his career, including Le Sonra and Sonny Lee.[3] Blount denied any connection with birth name, saying “That’s an imaginary person, never existed … Any name that I use other than Ra is a pseudonym.”[4]

From the mid-1950s to his death, Sun Ra led “The Arkestra” (a deliberate re-spelling of “orchestra”), an ensemble with an ever-changing lineup and name (it was also called “The Solar Myth Arkestra”, “His Cosmo Discipline Arkestra”, the “Blue Universe Arkestra”, “The Jet Set Omniverse Arkestra”, and many other permutations; Sun Ra asserted that the ever-changing name of his ensemble reflected the ever-changing nature of his music.) His mainstream success was limited, but Sun Ra was a prolific recording artist and frequent live performer, Sun Ra’s music ranged from keyboard solos to big bands of over 30 musicians; his music touched on virtually the entire history of jazz, from ragtime to swing music, from bebop to free jazz; he was also a pioneer of electronic music, space music,[5] and free improvisation, and was one of the first musicians, regardless of genre, to make extensive use of electronic keyboards.”

i say:

‘media dreams’ as well as ‘disco 3000′ (which we also have in stock) are the only two sources i know of where you can listen to sun ra, during the peak of disco, making his own form of disco & possibly predicting the state of disco 1022 years later. i hope these records are kept in print for the next 991 years so comparisons can be made.

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HOOTCH: S/T (cd) $21

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wikipedia says: “”

i say: first reissue of a pressed-in-small-quantity 1974 album recorded as a high school project. good basement psyche rock.

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FRED FRITH: SPEECHLESS cd ($16)

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wikipedia says:

“Fred Frith (born February 17, 1949) is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor.

Probably best-known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-garde rock group Henry Cow. Frith was also a member of Art Bears, Massacre and Skeleton Crew. He has collaborated with a number of prominent musicians, including Robert Wyatt, Brian Eno, Lars Hollmer, The Residents, Lol Coxhill, John Zorn, Bill Laswell, Derek Bailey, Iva Bittová and Bob Ostertag. He has also composed several long works, including Traffic Continues (1996, performed 1998 by Frith and Ensemble Modern) and Freedom in Fragments (1993, performed 1999 by Rova Saxophone Quartet).”

i say:

i like alot of fred’s work but my favorites have always been ‘gravity’ & ‘speechless’. both records were recorded with a different backing band per record side. gravity side a is samla mannas manna from sweden & side b is the muffins from rockville, md u.s. speechless side a is etron fou leloublan from france & side b is massacre

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JR. & HIS SOULETTES cd ($13)

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wikipedia says: “”

i say:

it’s records like this that make me want to get out of bed in the morning (even though i rarely do). in the early 70′s, jr., 10 years old & his 3 sisters, ranging age from 6 to 9 made a funk record which = true-too-good-be-trueness. the reissue is your only hope to hear this music since their well-meaning-butcher-uncle thought it would be good to shrink wrap the original pressing in his meat shrink wrapper which was way too tight & subsequently warped them all.

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HET: LET’S HET cd ($17)

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wikipedia says: “a Dutch band from the 1960s”

i say:

het are a british duo named dominic weeks & cass davies that were in a wild & crazed acapella band called furious pig. het only made this one record which came out in the 80′s & was produced by tim hodgkinson in this heat’s cold storage studio. in 1991 i used to call dom & cass alot about reissuing this record on my label megaphone but because of too many complications it never happened. luckily a few years ago a label in colorado called ad hoc was started by dave kerman & without knowing it dave has managed to psychically reissue 4 different albums that i tried to reissue in the early 90′s. thankyou brother dave.

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PEOPLE LIKE US & ERGO PHIZMIZ: PERPETUUM MOBILE cd ($16)

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wikipedia says:

“is the stage name of Sussex DJ and multimedia artist Vicki Bennett. She has released a number of albums featuring collages of music and sound since 1992. In recent years, she has performed at a number of modern art galleries, festivals and universities.”

i say:

that statement above would guarentee no interest from me if hadn’t already heard vicki’s music. people like us affects me like a musical translation of terry gilliam’s early animations for monty python’s flying circus – surreal, absurd & deliciously torturous.

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MCCB: THINGS FROM THE PAST cd ($17)

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wikipedia says:

“Geoff Leigh (born 5 October 1945) is an English jazz and progressive rock musician, playing primarily soprano sax and flute. He was a member of the English avant-garde rock group Henry Cow and founded several bands himself, including Red Balune, Random Bob, Black Sheep, Mirage, and Ex-Wise Heads.”

i say:

a good bit of this collection was on my list of music to reissue – thankyou dave kermin, thankyou.

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JEAN PIERRE MASSIERA: PSYCHOSES (DISCOID) 1976 – 1981 CD ($16) LP ($20)
JEAN PIERRE MASSIERA: PSYCHOSIS (FREAKOID) 1963 – 1978 CD ($16) LP ($20)

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LES MALEDICTUS SOUND: S/T CD ($16)

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wikipedia says:

“Though rock was not extremely popular until the 70s, there were innovative musicians in France as the psychedelic rock trend was peaking worldwide. Jean-Pierre Massiera’s Les Maledictus Sound (1968) and Aphrodite’s Child’s 666 were the most influential. Later came bands such as Magma, Martin Circus, Au Bonheur des Dames, Trust, Téléphone, Indochine, Noir Désir, and musicians Marcel Dadi, Paul Personne, Jean Pierre Danel, Bireli Lagrene, etc.”

i say:

too many emotions….too strong….too excited…can’t focus……inside my head……pressurized against a small opening…..that leads to a thin tube….that leads to what i’m writing right now……so much excitement…..love….colors…..i want to get drunk with jean pierre behind a mixing board all night long….for 10 years. ok, i’m back. i walked away & came back after a few hours. greg put some good tracks up already {{greg, please add link to that here, thankyou}} so here’s a couple more tracks from me. i’ve been trying to get more massiera productions into the true vine for years & finally here it is.

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CLUB 12″S

alot of vinyl has come in as well & i will try to represent that in the next update. this week & probably for the next couple months i will be bringing in more & more old (81′ to 85′) club records including baltimore club. i’m buying them directly from a very nice retired baltimorian club dj who started working around 80′ & has alot of records in his basement. i’m visiting his house about once a week picking up a few hundred at a time.

love,
jason

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