The Marilyns - Living Room Sessions (1988)

One of the best (minor) investments I've made in recent years is a cassette-to-mp3 converter. It's allowed me to, at least theoretically, immortalise music made 20-plus years ago, which is miraculously still in my possession on a plethora of cassette tapes. This is a session I did with the late-80's incarnation of Memphis band The Marilyns, in the summer of 1988, just before I high-tailed it to Japan for two years. With the exception of a couple of vocal parts, it's all live to four-track, recorded in Jim and Marilyn Duckworth's living room in Memphis. I seem to be missing a couple of tracks, which I may need to remedy.

Album of the Day: "Ask The Ages" Sonny Sharrock (1991)

I've been terribly remiss in updating this blog, for various reasons, mostly related to the fact that I've been busy enjoying living my life rather than reflecting on it in print. However, I realise that I still have much to say, and I will redouble my efforts to update more frequently. For now, here is an album which I was alerted to at its release in 1991 by my old friend Jim Duckworth, who was a huge Sonny Sharrock fan.

I listened to it obsessively for a long time, and it still sounds incredibly fresh to my ears 23 years later. With the inimitable Elvin Jones on drums, Charnett Moffett on bass, and Pharoah Sanders on tenor and soprano, it is, to my mind, the closest anyone has ever come to the spiritual intensity and fire of the John Coltrane Quartet. Track 2, "Who Does She Hope to Be?" is a beautiful moment of tranquility and understatement, without which, the entire album would simply launch itself into orbit.