Aye Chris, but duz thi know that John McLaughlin hails frum Doncaster, sithee?
But don't forget that it wasn't just Sanders doing The Who... Coltrane did a tribute to Julie Andrews in 1961 (My Favourite Things)!
Chris Bryant's Musical Instruments no less then, guitar specialist. My own Eko one sitting collecting dust in the corner was bought there. I bought a Höfner Senator there but resold that soon, never been much of a guitarist. They also had Hohner Marine Band harmonicas although the poorer among us all bought a set of Echo Super Vampers. I used to go back to London weekends and holidays and would spend ages hanging around in Dobells just talking music, trying instruments at Chris's and wasting life generally. Why do I not do that at an age when it is running out by itself?
In Santa Barbara it was something like two and a half hours, bit more perhaps, but being a California audience... In fact, for me it was free to the point that the university was paying me for four days research cooperation and the ticket was a perk! Country Joe and the Fish were on the same bill, but pretty awful, stuck in a rut 1960s stuff which did not wash in 1974. No idea who the other bands were, but then I believe I fell asleep for several bands. Santana played standards from Abraxas, some Caravanserai stuff and better versions of the things that they released on the abysmal Welcome album. The man did 20 minute type solos several times, but managed not to get repetitive and lose where he was going. Impressive.
i remember Dobells well Brian. I bought my first guitar from a shop lower down Charing Cross Rd when I was 15, but had neither the patience or ability to play the damn thing. In fact I didn't even enjoy trying! Consequently it was another 40 years before I bought another and taught myself well enough to actually discover it was fun. I'll never be GOD, but I'm enjoying doing my own thing.
I saw Santana in the early 70s at Wembley Arena. They played for 45 minutes and then walked off stage. The assembled devotees were not happy....
I have Let us go into the house of the Lord too, I never really got into McLaughlin but Santana yes I did. Saw them in Santa Barbara at a university gig that was twice as long as any I had ever seen then or since.
I was a Dobells customer, 75 and 77 Charing Cross Road up until 1980 when Doug could no longer afford to compete with the likes of Tricky's Virgin shop. I got all my jazz, blues and folk in two shops with lots of under the counter imports that shop regulars used to trade. I have Sanders with Coltrane's Meditations, which I think I have only ever played a couple of times, so pristine. The Ayler, Sun Ra type of free jazz sounds very dated now but we all though we were into it, so I guess it must have been the variety of 'tobacco' some people rolled.
Hi Mark, think you must be about the same age as me (sad ain’t it) as I too know of the original Virgin record store. I worked about 400metres away in New Oxford St when I was 16,and in the early days Mr Branson was in residence. People sitting crossed legged on the floor smoking!(call Health and Safety immediately) It was a great place to listen to new music and I could also buy bootlegs there in the early days. They were labelled as American imports, probably to stay within the Law.
Jazz is not really my thing, but I used to have a version of “Let us go into the house of the Lord” by John McLaughlin and Carlos Santana which I really did like.
Wow some great memories sparked by your conversations.
Yes Dobells -what a great institution. Another 'small' shop ousted by the pile em high newbies.
Great discussions about past bluesmasters -caught plenty of BB King and James Cotton -but just missed Muddy and Sonny Boy Williamson.
This jazz and blues fraternity, certainly keeps me reading. Merci!
Mark Sampson, I really appreciated your description of how this piece entered into your life, how you were longing for it, trying to listen to it once again as if you were searching something essential in your life. It’s very touching.
I discovered “Let us enter into the house of the Lord” two days ago and can’t stop listening to it. It is like a mystical enlightenment. For me, it’s like the mystical fusion of the sea (Lonnie Liston Smith’s piano), the earth (Cecil Mcbee’s bass) and the sky (Pharoah Sanders’s saxophone). All the elements of the universe seem to be interconnected.
Nothing will ever be the same.
Thanks for your lovely words, Rémi. I’m really glad that you
discovered and appreciate this beautiful piece of music. Astral
travelling!
As Pharoah sang and played, ‘You got to have freedom’.
Mark