I
had a couple of record shops in Boston on the radar but couldn't
work them into the itinerary. As we worked our way up coast on a
gloomy and rainy day, foregoing a stroll around Rockport, the first
record store I visited was Mystery Train in Gloucester, MA. Mrs Darce
and my daughter generously left me to my own devices for over an
hour.
Mystery Train is a great shop which I only really scratched the
surface of. Tim was a very pleasant host. When I said I was from the
UK he asked whereabouts. When I told him it was Bristol he said he
was currently reading Original Rockers and had I read it? I
have – written by Richard King it is about his time working in
Revolver Records in Bristol, and the shop's history. Revolver just
happened to be my go to record shop in the the late 70s! Mystery
Train has an extensive range of albums and a fair amount of little
ones too. Apart from a few racks of “recent arrivals” all are
arranged by genre which, with my limited time, suited me very well. I
furiously sifted through the Soul and R&B 45s and gave the Jazz
albums section a scattergun attack. But, as I said, to do the shop
justice a few hours would be needed.
In
attacking the Jazz section, knowing that time was limited, I decided I would target certain artists
only. One of those is Sonny
Fortune. Until earlier this year I had been unaware of him, but then
I picked up a copy of his 1976 album Waves Of Dreams. It
was so much more than I expected. Being released in 1976 I think I
expected it to be a fusion album and maybe a tepid one. But it
contains much in the straight jazz vein,
Sonny's playing is terrific and it is very enjoyable.
So Sonny has
been on my radar ever since and I was happy to find two more of his
albums at Mystery Train.
What I have only just discovered is that
Sonny Fortune died from complications of a stroke on 25/10/18. That
just happened to be the day we were flying back home from our
holiday, with two Sonny Fortune albums – Serengeti
Minstrel and Infinity
Is - in our luggage. Here are
two tracks from Sonny, one from each of these two albums for you to
enjoy. From 1977 and 1978 these albums do see Sonny moving into an
increasingly funkier fusion setting, consistent with the times and
his, then new, label, Atlantic. Where have I heard that
before? I was left thinking on a
few occasions on first listening to Infinity Is.
None more so than on the track A Ballad For Our Times.
On this album was Sonny simply being derivative? Or was he in fact
laying down melodies and motifs that others would follow? Given that
Sonny was a well accomplished, and respected, player I suspect it
would have been the latter. As for A Ballad For Our Times,
he must have simply been paying
homage to an iconic track and album, I will leave you to identify
which piece of music that is.
I was going to expand a little on Sonny's career here but in fact his recent obituary in the New York Times does that much more ably and concisely than I could manage.
RIP
Cornelius “Sonny” Fortune 19/5/1939 - 25/10/2018.
1 comment:
God, I would love to go to the States and do some digging but there is no way I will ever to get on a plane for the length of time of a Transatlantic crossing. My wife and her friend went to New Orleans, Tupelo and Memphis a couple of months ago for their 50ths and ever since keeps saying, "you really would love it". It sounds like heaven for the vinyl junkie, especially of the soul persuasion even now.
Good to have you back Darcy
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