Monday, January 25, 2010

The Nilpferd A-listers- The Vocalists



Abahachi kindly pointed out that the Nilpferd A-list tally just hit twenty and that I owe the 'Spill a commemorative post. As I've been pretty quiet recently it seems as good a way as any to poke the hippo snout back into the 'Spill trough, so here goes. Conveniently, the tracks in question sort themselves into fairly obvious categories, so here as the first of four 5-for posts is The Nilpferd A-listers- The Vocalists.

Esther Marrow - Baby, that's what I need (Walk Tall)
Betty Davis - If I'm in luck, I might get picked up
Carmen McRae - Spring can really hang you up the most
Dinah Washington - I used to love you, but it's all over now
Leon Thomas - The Creator has a master plan

Five highly individual singers are represented here, each with a very clear idea of where they stand. If you aren't pepped up by Esther Marrow's motivational efforts, you're probably needing an embalmer, while Betty Davis isn't leaving any doubt about what's motivating her at the moment.
Carmen McRae has had a gutsful of spring and Dinah Washington is washing her hands of her do-no-good lover, not before time.
Faced with the combined might of these four sisters, Leon Thomas borrows Pharaoh Sander's Creator to ensure things will work out in the end, even if we don't have much say in the matter. Just lay back, and let them do their thing...

13 comments:

Abahachi said...

Dammit, why do I have no time at the moment?

steenbeck said...

Congratulations, Nilfperd! Wonderful list of songs, here.

nilpferd said...

Thanks steen! Of course if it's becoming de rigeur for 'Spill anniversary posts, you do realise you, Ejay, DsD, GI, TonNL, Cather, May1366, FP etc. will have to bring out your respective boxed set anthologies sometime soon... just looking at Marconius' list, it looks like a couple of regular 'Spillers have hit 20 recently too- sourpus and severin at least.

tincanman said...

I'm doing mine on a 7''

Nice tunes Nilp. Esp. liked the Esther Marrow.

nilpferd said...

Cheers Tin! Funny, I thought about you when Esther sings (from memory) "..and maybe you're down about that A-listing..or maybe that A-listing never came, you dig? 'Cause sometimes it be's that way..."

I also like the way this playlist ends with Leon Thomas softly warbling "The Creator has a master plan, B's and A lists for Tincanman"

Shoegazer said...

Very high standard of picks there, Mr. Nilp. Looking forward to the rest of the series, if indeed that what it am.

nilpferd said...

Thanks Mr. Shoe.
It ought to be said that I did snatch a few of them from under other people's noses- Mnemonic especially could easily have beaten me to Carmen McRae and Betty Davis- and I have a rare Marconium Exception to thank for the Leon Thomas credit.
I'll be rolling the rest out over the next three Mondays. Next week- the electronic/dance cuts.

Abahachi said...

Finally got round to listening to these; wonderful, especially the McRae and Washington. Obviously I'm also looking forward to the fourth instalment, which presumably includes the songs you got listed more or less by mistake and which aren't tasteful and exquisite...

tincanman said...

oh, like my A listers

nilpferd said...

Believe in The Creator, Tin..;-)

Thanks Aba- actually I was planning on doing the instrumental jazz in post 4 (mainly cause I figured hardly anyone besides you would really bother listening to it)
Not that I haven't nommed tonnes of crap, mind you, but the Gurus have generally been merciful enough not to A-list any of it.

Oh- I listened to Humus/Bojan Z Tetraband on Saturday- not really blown away though. The songs started nicely in many cases, but mostly took on a sort of MOR "edgy" rock/fusion sound which quickly paled. I think people like Dave Douglas do the electronic jazz thing better.

steenbeck said...

I really love the Esther Marrow and the Leon Thomas, but they're all wonderful.

saneshane said...

I really wanted to listen to Humus - Bojan Z Tetraband.. (I wasn't going to buy it - didn't think it was my type of thing enough) but you might have water down my enthusiasm for finding it!
what's the drumming like? that'd be make or break for me!

nilpferd said...

Thanks steen!

Shane, I'd say the drumming was "rock drummer does funky jazz/rock style" - nice patterns and power, but not much variation. Though it was the keyboards and trombone which I found most disappointing- the keys drifted into sort of a mid eighties fusion sound and were way too "smooth", while the trombone just didn't do much else other than standard post-bop soloing.