Desert Island Selects: TJ Oliver-Gorton
Let’s play the hypothetical game. You are trapped on a deserted island. You have all the essentials to live (food, water, shelter, etc) and a record player (essential in my mind). In this, admittedly ridiculous scenario, you can only bring with you five records. What would they be?
Most of us have played the “trapped on a desert island” hypothetical game to some degree, and here at BeatCaffeine we want to have a little fun with this idea through a new series titled Desert Island Selects. This ongoing series will be asking musicians, DJs, vinyl collectors, and others to reveal their five “Desert Island” records.
To kick things off, it only makes sense that we begin with myself and my top five.
At the end of the list, there will be a Desert Island Selects Spotify playlist featuring selections from each record chosen. Follow this playlist as we will be adding new tracks to it with each post in the series.
Here are my Desert Island vinyl selections:
Cymande
S/T
(1972/Janus Records)
The debut album from the legendary British funk group Cymande is a bonafide classic, featuring many of the band’s best tracks including “Bra,” “The Message,” “Dove,” “Getting It Back,” and “One More.” The record is great from start to finish, and nicely blends 70’s era funk, soul, reggae, psychedelic and Caribbean grooves together to produce a timeless masterpiece that includes both selections for the dance floor and the beach. This is one of those records that you never get tired of listening to, regardless of how many times it’s in rotation.
Arthur Verocai
S/T
(1972/Continental)
For many vinyl collectors, DJs, and Brazilian music fans, Arthur Verocai’s 1972 self-titled album is of “holy grail” status. Madlib is literally quoted as saying “I could listen to this album for the rest of my life.” I couldn’t agree more with that declaration. This is one of the most complete albums I’ve ever heard. The album takes you on a drawn out journey that you never want to get off of, featuring both uptempo and drawn out moments fusing together jazz, samba, and folk-like melodies using large string arrangements and Brazilian-rooted instrumentation. For how beautiful and incredible this album is, it was shockingly Verocai’s only album for more than 30 years until he released a couple newer albums beginning in 2002. This is definitely one of those albums that I couldn’t imagine not hearing on a consistent basis, and therefore I would definitely need it by my side no matter where I located.
Terry Callier
What Color Is Love
(1972/Cadet)
The guitarist/singer-songwriter’s sophomore release What Color Is Love features one of my top three favorite songs (ever!!!) in the mesmerizing jazz-folk gem “Dancing Girl.” The nearly nine-minute masterpiece is beautifully haunting, taking the listener on a journey featuring layered string arrangements, jazz-influenced instrumentation, folky guitar rhythms, and Callier’s soulful vocals. The album also includes the funky uptempo seven-minute classic “You Goin’ Miss Your Candyman.” The album as a whole, features so many different mood changes and beautifully layered string arrangements and rhythms that by the time I get to the album’s conclusion, I find myself both relaxed and also feeling like I just went through a mellow cosmic trip … a feeling that is certainly welcomed at all times.
Johnny “Hammond” Smith
Gears
(1975/Milestone Records)
Johnny “Hammond” Smith’s 1975 recording Gears (featured on the BeatCaffeine Top 100 Jazz-Funk List) is, in my opinion, the greatest jazz-funk album ever recorded (sorry Herbie Hancock Head Hunters‘ fans, even though you know I got plenty of love for that recording too). The Mizell Brothers produced classic features some of the best jazz-funk tracks ever recorded including “Tell Me What To Do,” “Fantasy,” Shifting Gears,” and the disco crossover “Los Conquistadores Chocolatés,” a track that Larry Mizell recently declared as his personal favorite out of all the songs he ever produce. Being a huge jazz-funk fan, Gears definitely makes my Desert Island Selects list.
Arthur Russell
Calling Out Of Context
(2004/Audika, Rough Trade)
One of the first albums that came to my mind when thinking about this list was Arthur Russell’s incredible posthumous release Calling Out Of Context. This record is basically a compilation of mostly unreleased material that Russell had been working on from the mid-seventies right up until his passing in 1992. Many of the tracks were intended to be part of an album that the avant composer/musician was working on for the label Rough Trade (who released Calling Out Of Context in the UK), however Arthur never finished the album and twelve years passed before much of the music was officially released. The avant electro dance album, which features many signature Arthur Russell cuts like “You And Me Both,” “Arm Around You,” “Make 1,2,” “Get Around To It,” “I Like You,” and “That’s Us/Wild Combination,” also helped launch the Audika label, which has since released many albums worth of previously unreleased and out of print material by Russell.
Arthur Russell is one my favorite artists ever, and even though this album is technically considered a compilation of previously unreleased works, it remains my favorite of his many incredible recordings to this day, which frankly says a lot given how many incredible recordings he has released. Calling Out Of Context always puts me in a great mood, and is in my mind, timeless.
HONORABLE MENTIONS (sorry, had to get these in there):
Alice Coltrane – Ptah, The El Daoud
John Coltrane Quartet – Africa/Brass
Manuel Göttsching – E2-E4
Gil Scott-Heron – Pieces Of A Man
Horace Tapscott w/ The Pan-Afrikan Peoples Arkestra – Live At I.U.C.C.
Most importantly, what are your desert island selections?
