Keef Hartley (Band)

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Keef Hartley Band - Halfbreed - 1969









Original Release Date: ® 1969 The Decca Record Co. Ltd.
Reisue Release Date: 1992 Decca HQS 820 978-2

Tracks info:
1 - SACKED
Introducing HEARTS AND FLOWERS (0.40)(Art. Hartley)
CONFUSION THEME (1.05)(Hartley, Cruickshank)
THE HALFBREED (6.08)(Hartley, Dines, Cruickshank)
2 - BORN TO DIE (9.58)(Dines, Hartley. Thain, Hewitson)
3 - SINNIN' FOR YOU (5.51)(Hartley, Dines, Hewitson, Finnegan)
4 - LEAVIN' TRUNK (5.55)(Estes)
5 - JUST TO CRY (6.20)(Lowther, Finnegan)
6 - TOO MUCH THINKING (5.30)(Finnegan, Dines, Thain)
7 - LEAVE IT 'TIL THE MORNING (3.36)(Hewitson, James, Hartley, Thain)
8 - THINK IT OVER (5.00)(King)
TOO MUCH TO TAKE (0.31)
Total Timing: 50.34 (Music Approx.)

Personel info:
THE NUCLEUS
MILLER ANDERSON: Vocal, Guitar
PETER DINES: Organ, Harpsichord
SPIT JAMES: Guitar
GARY THAIN: Bass Guitar
KEEF HARTLEY: Drums: LEADER

HENRY LOWTHER: Trumpet, Violin
HARRY BECKETT: Trumpet
LYN(N) DOBSON: Tenor Sax, Flute
CHRIS MERCER: Tenor Sax

Brass Arranger: HENRY LOWTHER
JOHN MAYALL Appears By Kind Permission Of... JOHN MAYALL
Producer: NEIL SLAVEN
Music Director: HENRY LOWTHER (1-6,8), UNKNOWN (7)

Reisue: Licensed from TABS Ltd.
Cum'On Everybody Records, UK
Made in England


Tracks info:
1. YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU (7.48) (Anderson)
2. ME AND MY WOMAN (4.56) (Barge)
3. NOT FOOLISH, NOT WISE (5.06) (Hewitson, James, Hartley, Thain)
4. LEG OVERTURE (MEDLEY): (21.26)
LEAVIN' TRUNK (Estes)
THE HALFBREED (Hartley, Dines, Cruickshank)
JUST TO CRY (Lowther, Finnegan)
SINNIN FOR YOU (Hartley, Dines, Hewitson, Finnegan)
TOTAL TIMING: 39.16

Personel info:
KEEF HARTLEY (BIG) BAND:
KEEP HARTLEY: Drums
MILLER ANDERSON: Vocals. Guitar
GARY THAIN: Bass Guitar
DEREK AUSTIN: Organ. Piano
MIKE ROSEN/MIKE DAVIS/TERRY NOONAN/MARTIN DROVER: Trumpet
HARRY BECKETT. Trumpet (Solo)
DANNY ALLMARK: Trombone
DEREK WADSWORTH: Trombone (Solo)
BARBARA THOMPSON: Alto Sax
ROGER WADE: Tenor Sax
LYN(N) DOBSON: Tenor Sax. Soprano Sax, Flute (Solos)
CHRIS MERCER: Baritone Sax, Tenor Sax (Solo. Track 3)
PETE YORK: Percussion

About:
Ever since the critical success of their numerously-populated' album THE BATTLE OF NORTH WEST SIX, the Keef Hartley Band's main man had harboured the desire to run a larger ensemble on a more regular basis simultaneously with his small group, and better still etch their efforts into black plastic.
Further public acclaim and consequential artistic freedom had favourably manifested themselves over the ensuing eighteen months, during which period two further studio LPs had nailed their colours to the mast, namely THE TIME IS NEAR.... (U.K.: Deram SML 1071, Released: August 1970; U.S.: DES 18047) and OVERDOG (SDL 2, 8th April 1971; DES 18057). Added to this, thanks to the ever-increasing numbers that had been turning up to catch Hartley's units strutting their stuff on the boards, his finances had gradually improved to the point that he could bring the group of like-minded friends who shared his vision together more often.
So it was that while OVERDOG was still fresh off the presses, arrangements were actually being made for its 'expansive' follow-up. Keef's long-time producer Neil Slaven recalled in the mid-Seventies: "The Big Band had begun to play a few dates. It shouldn't have been economically possible, but audiences quickly proved otherwise. Of course, it had to be recorded, so in June we used the combined services of the Marquee Club/Studio to tape a couple of concerts. The problems were almost insurmountable, but I think we captured the atmosphere of a typical Big Band gig. They were loose, friendly occasions, but still powerful.' How very true. The repertoire chosen for revisiting was drawn from all three of Hartley's existing studio sets, with emphasis on the first, HALFBREED.
Keef's 'registered small group' had latterly been cut to a quartet of himself on drums, Miller Anderson (Guitar, Vocals), Gary Thain (Bass) and Mick Weaver (Keyboards). This last-named was not in attendance on the nights of 13th/14th June, but would re-emerge amongst a yet further re-shuffled line-up for Hartley's next spectacular. The other three stalwarts were, however, and found themselves augmented by thirteen other musicians, some of whom were decidedly familiar to camp followers.
In the brass department sat five trumpeters. Mike Rosen was then currently working on Mogul Thrash's eponymous LP, with contributions to The Bunch's ROCK ON (1972) and Scaffold's FRESH LIVER (73) just around the corner, while Terry Noonan's impressive C.V. was top-heavy with inserts on Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon label albums. How does Chicken Shack's O.K. KEN? (68),

Champion Jack Dupree's SCOOBY DOOBY DOO (69) and Top Topham's ASCENTION HEIGHTS (70) grab you for starters?
Martin Drover's to-be-well-travelled horn was gaining youthful experience for the days when such as Bryan Ferry, Jim Capaldi, Andy Fairweather-Low, Gonzalez and Juice On The Loose might make a call, and Mike Davis, who'd recently added his fivepenny-worth to Deram labelmates' Egg's marvellously esoteric THE POLITE FORCE was, if he had but known it, destined to blow with, amongst others, Duster Bennett, Georgie Fame and Ramsey Lewis. Harry Beckett, who'd enriched both HALFBREED and BATTLE took the solos. Trombone parts were the responsibility of Danny Allmark and the much-respected Derek Wadsworth, a gentleman well-known to Manfred Mann, Julie Driscoll, Savoy Brown and Colosseum, to name but four.
Certain elements of the reed section knew the numbers intimately, Lyn(n) Dobson, Barbara Thompson and Chris Mercer having all been involved with various forerunning Hartley long-players, so tenor saxist Roger Wade had no shortage of compatriots to compare notes with (pun intended!).
Keyboard emissions were fashioned by Derek Austin, and a damn fine job he made of them. Suitably impressed, presumably, were Linda Lewis, Alvin Lee and Chris Thompson's Night, for they dialled him later in the decade, and that leaves only percussionist Pete York. Long-time backbeat of The Spencer Davis Group, he'd lately also set out a stall with musician/singer/songwriter Eddie Hardin, who'd originally volunteered for the thankless task of replacing Stevie Winwood in the SDG. As 'The World's Smallest Big Band' the two of them had deposited a couple of remarkable LPs with Bell, but were currently awaiting the imminent issue of one under Deram's parent Decca logo. Meantime, Pete was fully occupied...
After mixing, Hartley's aptly-titled LITTLE BIG BAND dream became a reality when SDL 4 fanfared its arrival in British shops on 1st October 1971. It didn't intrude on the printed best-sellers and, disappointingly for its creator, London Records in the States confirmed that the Deram logo there would not be manufacturing an equivalent, probably because no wholly-new material was displayed within its grooves.
Nevertheless, they'd be back on the case when next Blighty's Red Indian-champion donned his warpaint as the SEVENTY SECOND BRAVE, though he'd be fronting yet another amended 'tribe'...

© JOHN TRACY London, 1994

Reisue: 1994 Deram 820 974-2
Printed in Germany


Tracks info:
1. YOU CAM CHOOSE (Anderson) (5.28)
2. PLAIN TALKIN' (Anderson) (3.23)
3. THEME SONG (Anderson) (1.45)
EN ROUTE (Hartley, Thain) (5.41)
THEME SONG - REPRISE (Anderson) (0:39)
4. OVERDOG (Anderson) (4.18)
5. ROUNDABOUT (Anderson) (6.06)
6. IMITATIONS FROH HOME (Hartley) (3:34)
7. WE ARE ALL THE SAME (Anderson) (4.39)

Personel info:
Brass Arrangements DAVE CASWELL
John Almond - Flute
Miller Anderson - Guitar, Vocals
Dave Caswell - Trumpet
Valerie Charrington - Vocals
Peter Dines - Keyboards
Keef Hartley - Drums, Producer
Jon Hiseman - Drums
Lyle Jenkins - Saxophone
Joan Knighton - Vocals
Neil Slaven - Producer
Gary Thain - Bass
Ingrid Thomas - Vocals
Mick Weaver - Keyboards

About albume:
Review by Jo-Ann Greene (AMG)

After the subtleties and suppleness of 1970's The Time Is Near..., the Keef Hartley Band's third full-length, the group returned the following year with Overdog, a set that kicks them into overdrive. Opening with a dramatic flourish of wah-wah guitar, the anthemic "You Can Choose" instantly wipes all memories of the intricate design of the preceding album off the board. Big and brash, "Choose" pounds rock into funk with savage delight. In contrast, "Plain Talkin'" is all grit and glory, strutting its Stax-y antecedents center-stage, and smugly smirking at their hard-rocking ex-Brit beat contemporaries, who lost the blues in their rush to rock. Elsewhere, "Overdog" puts paid to prog rock pretentiousness, as the band slyly slide from haunting wah-wah guitar and spacy effects straight into funk, and back out again through coursing, driving instrumental sections. It's a spliced styling that's reiterated to even more dramatic effect on "Theme Song." Keef Hartley's drums keeps those segments pulsing, but it's "Roundabout" that's his true showcase, as his skins rumble away under layers of dramatic brass passages and crash around the guitar solos. His drumming reaches an apotheosis on the song's 7" version, a blistering attack of swing-styled beats that prods the brass to even greater heights, while his crack drumming on the flip side of the single pushes the guitarist into hyper-speed and the horns into rousing solos of speed jazz, only to collapse into slower passages of big rock that slams straight into Detroit. After that, the gentler, jazzy excursions of "Imitations from Home" are a well-deserved breather, although not for Hartley, whose intricate patterns keep him on his toes. Only the Beatlesque "We Are All the Same" provides any concession to contemporary pop audiences, but KHB cared little for them, so intent were they on proving to rock fans that there was no need to desert R&B, soul, and funk in their search for more experimental music and/or harder sounds. On their last set, they delicately pointed out the possibilities; here they hammer it home.

Reisue: Deram 820 931-2


Tracks info:
1. THE DANSETTE KID (0.56)
HARTLEY JAM FOR BREAD (3.03)
(Hewitson, James, Hartley, Thain)
2. DON'T GIVE UP (4.04) (Hewitson, James, Hartley, Thain}
3. ME AND MY WOMAN (4.25) (Barge)
4. HICKORY (2.44) (Hewitson, James, Hartley, Thain)
5. DON'T BE AFRAID (4.25) (Hewitson, James, Hartley, Dines, Thain)
6. NOT FOOLISH, NOT WISE (3.55) (Hewitson, James, Hartley, Thain)
7. WAITING AROUND (2.30) (Hewitson, James, Hartley, Thain)
8. TADPOLE (6.58) (Hewitson, Hartley, Thain)
9. POOR MABEL (YOU'RE JUST LIKE ME) (3:07) (Hewitson, James, Hartley, Thain)
10. BELIEVE IN YOU (5.24) (Hewitson, Hartley, Thain)

Total Timing: 41.31 (Music Approx.)

Personel info:
KEEF HARTlEY: Drums. Percussion
MILLER ANDERSON: Vocals. Guitars (Various)
HENRY LOWTHER: Trumpet Fluegelhorn, Violin
JIM JEWELL Tenor Saxophone
GARY THAIN: Bass Guitar
SPIT JAMES: Guitar
MICK WEAVER: Organ, Piano, Percussion
MIKE DAVIS: Trumpet
HARRY BECKETT: Trumpet. Fluegelhorn
LVN|N) DOBSON: Tenor Saxophone. Flute
CHRIS MERCER: Tenor Saxophone
BARBARA THOMPSON: Baritone Saxophone. Flute
RAY WARLEIGH: Flute
MICK TAYLOR: Guitar

Producer NEIL SLAVEN
Music Director/Brass Arrangements: HENRY LOWTHER

Recorded: Decca No.1 Studio, West Hampstead. London

Fine band!!Thanks you Musicgate
Ps Lancashire Hustler?