- Jul 23, 2001
- 5,589
- 1
- 81
I just picked up probably one of the best cds I own, and it's a highschool band.
What makes it so grand, in my opinion, is the youth of the band, it shines through.
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lil' info
Kashmere Stage Band
Texas Thunder Soul 1968-1974 (Now Again)
While some ISDs cite the deterioration of high school band programs as the impetus for amateurish hip-hop immersion, few high school bands encapsulate the contemporary immediacy of teenage culture. Some 30 years ago, Houston's Kashmere High School emerged as a breeding ground for an orchestral funk so simultaneously raw and sophisticated that it screamed "I'm Superbad" every bit as authentic as any group of professional musicians. Under the guidance of bandleader Conrad O. Johnson, the Kashmere Stage Band embraced the black popular music of its time with an enthusiasm that made their instrumental proficiency a given on the competition circuit. Granting his students freedom to craft their own arrangements, Johnson kept the band engaged to the point that the reputation that sprung up around both their performances and recordings became legend. An institution with revolving members, the KSB consistently infused what has become known as break classics, such as the Soulful Strings' "Burning Spear" and Dennis Coffey's "Scorpio," with the sweeping genius of focused youthfulness. In addition to its litany of blazing covers, Now Again's 2-CD retrospective captures several Johnson-penned originals and live outtakes as it spans a good portion of the band's highly sought-after eight-album discography
----
High school stage performances often prove to be nothing more than memories, but Kashmere High School in northeast Houston has spawned a sensation that's still drawing listeners, some 40 years later.
Conrad Johnson, the school's band master, formed the Kashmere Stage Band with some of his very best students and took them to compete at high school festivals. The band became a national phenomenon -- not just at band competitions, but in the world of commercial popular music.
Today, Johnson is 92 and physically frail, but he remembers vividly a concert nearly 40 years ago that changed his life: Otis Redding was performing.
"[Redding] was kicking!" Johnson says. "He let all of his men perform, sing, play, and do everything. So I saw that and I went back and [asked my band], 'If I were to get you to do a show while you're playing and teach it to you, do you think you could do it?' My band said, 'If you believe we can do it, we can do it.'"
At first, judges didn't know what to make of the kids from Kashmere in their platform shoes and matching crushed-velvet suits. Their impeccably choreographed moves were more James Brown than high school big band, and the music was often an original funk composition by Johnson himself.
But KSB was soon winning national championships, and a larger-than-life reputation as undefeatable. For 10 years, even with constant changes in the lineup as kids graduated, KSB was considered by some to be not only the nation's best stage band, but one of the best funk bands -- period.
Between 1968 and 1978, KSB recorded eight studio albums. As Johnson neared retirement in 1978, the band broke up, and before long, the band was largely forgotten. But not by everyone. Kashmere's recordings became prized by hip-hop producers and DJs, who sampled them and played them in clubs.
Several of Conrad Johnson's students have gone on to become professional musicians. Jazz drummer and former Kashmere band member Bubbha Thomas says of Johnson, "There's not a value you can put on him because he's touched so many people. Not only people who went to school under him, like me, but people in the community that he's influenced."
The recordings Johnson made of the band continue to influence musicians to this day, and are being re-released on a new CD compilation, Texas Thunder Soul 1968-1974.
------
They were just a high school band, and the first few times through this compilation it's hard to think past that, hard to stop being wowed by the audacity of that. The music is too crisp, the groove too deep, the horn section too sharp, the rhythm section too damn tight for this to be a bunch of high school kids who needed an elective credit. But it is just that. Of course, the Kashmere Stage Band under the direction of Conrad O. Johnson was a better than average high school band. Blending deep funk rhythms with Johnson's predilection for carefully charted orchestral jazz in the mold of Duke Ellington and Count Basie, the band from the northside of Houston won 42 of the 46 contests it entered between the years of 1969 an 1978, was named Best High School Stage Band in the Nation in 1972, and pressed eight LPs and three 45s. This long overdue and startling compilation offers sharp and sticky large ensemble soul jazz with big brassy horns, crisp in-the-pocket rhythms, and enough urgency and virtuosity to pack the house and stun it.
The compilation, which splits the recorded and live output of the stage bands from the years 1968-1974 into two discs, serves as a tribute to Johnson's mastery as a teacher and composer. While the lineup constantly shifted, the quality of the band's work remains steady. Initially focusing on covers of popular material, Johnson re-charted music in both directions, jazz to funk and back again. They deliver a punched up, funk-driven, almost unrecognizable "Take Five" that leaves space atop for a saxophone to swagger through Brubeck's signature riff. "Thank You" is at least as, if not more, deeply funky than Sly Stone's original, and the band's "Super Bad" would leave Fred Wesley and the JBs with little to complain about. More impressive still are the original tunes with their heavy reliance on thick horn charts, where Johnson's blend of funk and jazz is perhaps more discernable. From the blistering "All Praises" to the rollicking "Keep Doing It" to the comparatively minimal funk of "$$Kash Register$$," the band under Johnson's hand plays with vitality and precision. They've got the chops, and they've got the swagger.
The band could press it, as they do on the swinging "Thunder Soul" where the relentless rhythm section (replete with flurrious congas) seems to battle with the horns. They could also lay deep in the pocket, as they do on "Kashmere," which features Craig Smith on drums and Gerald Calhoun on bass. The band had its share of exceptional musicians (Melvin Sparks among them), but none outshine these two. Calhoun's often frenetic fret work perfectly offsets Smith's crisp simplicity, and here, where the band repeatedly falls out for Smith's break beats, you get the best of all sides. DJs dug this band's work off the discard pile, and here you see exactly why.
While the quality of the live recordings is not exceptional, the content is. This is clearly a band built for performance, a skilled and drilled band that somehow brings fresh energy to songs that must have been rehearsed ad nauseum. "Zero Point" features Johnson's most intricate and tangled horn charts, and the live cut flies through them flawlessly. It sounds like a jumpy band, a band chomping at the bit, an anxious band moving through things a little faster than they intend to. "Ain't No Sunshine" on the other hand finds the band in full recline, swagging deep into the blue groove and feeding off the vocal crowd's energy without ever losing the languor. It's hard not to think of the JBs, which undoubtedly served as a model for stage bands across the nation during these years, but the Kashmere Stage band isn't only about the groove. As a competitive band, they had to demonstrate flexibility, versatility, virtuosity, and precision, and it's all captured here.
It's an excellent collection -- dense, comprehensive, rewarding, and proof positive that there's always something buried out there for the diggers. The liner notes reproduced sans the lengthy interview with Conrad O. Johnson) are here as are a few photos (afro damn-near required). You can also check out David Brown's radio piece here. Go on. Do some digging.
--------
p.s.
parliament - maggot brain is really good too
What makes it so grand, in my opinion, is the youth of the band, it shines through.
--------
lil' info
Kashmere Stage Band
Texas Thunder Soul 1968-1974 (Now Again)
While some ISDs cite the deterioration of high school band programs as the impetus for amateurish hip-hop immersion, few high school bands encapsulate the contemporary immediacy of teenage culture. Some 30 years ago, Houston's Kashmere High School emerged as a breeding ground for an orchestral funk so simultaneously raw and sophisticated that it screamed "I'm Superbad" every bit as authentic as any group of professional musicians. Under the guidance of bandleader Conrad O. Johnson, the Kashmere Stage Band embraced the black popular music of its time with an enthusiasm that made their instrumental proficiency a given on the competition circuit. Granting his students freedom to craft their own arrangements, Johnson kept the band engaged to the point that the reputation that sprung up around both their performances and recordings became legend. An institution with revolving members, the KSB consistently infused what has become known as break classics, such as the Soulful Strings' "Burning Spear" and Dennis Coffey's "Scorpio," with the sweeping genius of focused youthfulness. In addition to its litany of blazing covers, Now Again's 2-CD retrospective captures several Johnson-penned originals and live outtakes as it spans a good portion of the band's highly sought-after eight-album discography
----
High school stage performances often prove to be nothing more than memories, but Kashmere High School in northeast Houston has spawned a sensation that's still drawing listeners, some 40 years later.
Conrad Johnson, the school's band master, formed the Kashmere Stage Band with some of his very best students and took them to compete at high school festivals. The band became a national phenomenon -- not just at band competitions, but in the world of commercial popular music.
Today, Johnson is 92 and physically frail, but he remembers vividly a concert nearly 40 years ago that changed his life: Otis Redding was performing.
"[Redding] was kicking!" Johnson says. "He let all of his men perform, sing, play, and do everything. So I saw that and I went back and [asked my band], 'If I were to get you to do a show while you're playing and teach it to you, do you think you could do it?' My band said, 'If you believe we can do it, we can do it.'"
At first, judges didn't know what to make of the kids from Kashmere in their platform shoes and matching crushed-velvet suits. Their impeccably choreographed moves were more James Brown than high school big band, and the music was often an original funk composition by Johnson himself.
But KSB was soon winning national championships, and a larger-than-life reputation as undefeatable. For 10 years, even with constant changes in the lineup as kids graduated, KSB was considered by some to be not only the nation's best stage band, but one of the best funk bands -- period.
Between 1968 and 1978, KSB recorded eight studio albums. As Johnson neared retirement in 1978, the band broke up, and before long, the band was largely forgotten. But not by everyone. Kashmere's recordings became prized by hip-hop producers and DJs, who sampled them and played them in clubs.
Several of Conrad Johnson's students have gone on to become professional musicians. Jazz drummer and former Kashmere band member Bubbha Thomas says of Johnson, "There's not a value you can put on him because he's touched so many people. Not only people who went to school under him, like me, but people in the community that he's influenced."
The recordings Johnson made of the band continue to influence musicians to this day, and are being re-released on a new CD compilation, Texas Thunder Soul 1968-1974.
------
They were just a high school band, and the first few times through this compilation it's hard to think past that, hard to stop being wowed by the audacity of that. The music is too crisp, the groove too deep, the horn section too sharp, the rhythm section too damn tight for this to be a bunch of high school kids who needed an elective credit. But it is just that. Of course, the Kashmere Stage Band under the direction of Conrad O. Johnson was a better than average high school band. Blending deep funk rhythms with Johnson's predilection for carefully charted orchestral jazz in the mold of Duke Ellington and Count Basie, the band from the northside of Houston won 42 of the 46 contests it entered between the years of 1969 an 1978, was named Best High School Stage Band in the Nation in 1972, and pressed eight LPs and three 45s. This long overdue and startling compilation offers sharp and sticky large ensemble soul jazz with big brassy horns, crisp in-the-pocket rhythms, and enough urgency and virtuosity to pack the house and stun it.
The compilation, which splits the recorded and live output of the stage bands from the years 1968-1974 into two discs, serves as a tribute to Johnson's mastery as a teacher and composer. While the lineup constantly shifted, the quality of the band's work remains steady. Initially focusing on covers of popular material, Johnson re-charted music in both directions, jazz to funk and back again. They deliver a punched up, funk-driven, almost unrecognizable "Take Five" that leaves space atop for a saxophone to swagger through Brubeck's signature riff. "Thank You" is at least as, if not more, deeply funky than Sly Stone's original, and the band's "Super Bad" would leave Fred Wesley and the JBs with little to complain about. More impressive still are the original tunes with their heavy reliance on thick horn charts, where Johnson's blend of funk and jazz is perhaps more discernable. From the blistering "All Praises" to the rollicking "Keep Doing It" to the comparatively minimal funk of "$$Kash Register$$," the band under Johnson's hand plays with vitality and precision. They've got the chops, and they've got the swagger.
The band could press it, as they do on the swinging "Thunder Soul" where the relentless rhythm section (replete with flurrious congas) seems to battle with the horns. They could also lay deep in the pocket, as they do on "Kashmere," which features Craig Smith on drums and Gerald Calhoun on bass. The band had its share of exceptional musicians (Melvin Sparks among them), but none outshine these two. Calhoun's often frenetic fret work perfectly offsets Smith's crisp simplicity, and here, where the band repeatedly falls out for Smith's break beats, you get the best of all sides. DJs dug this band's work off the discard pile, and here you see exactly why.
While the quality of the live recordings is not exceptional, the content is. This is clearly a band built for performance, a skilled and drilled band that somehow brings fresh energy to songs that must have been rehearsed ad nauseum. "Zero Point" features Johnson's most intricate and tangled horn charts, and the live cut flies through them flawlessly. It sounds like a jumpy band, a band chomping at the bit, an anxious band moving through things a little faster than they intend to. "Ain't No Sunshine" on the other hand finds the band in full recline, swagging deep into the blue groove and feeding off the vocal crowd's energy without ever losing the languor. It's hard not to think of the JBs, which undoubtedly served as a model for stage bands across the nation during these years, but the Kashmere Stage band isn't only about the groove. As a competitive band, they had to demonstrate flexibility, versatility, virtuosity, and precision, and it's all captured here.
It's an excellent collection -- dense, comprehensive, rewarding, and proof positive that there's always something buried out there for the diggers. The liner notes reproduced sans the lengthy interview with Conrad O. Johnson) are here as are a few photos (afro damn-near required). You can also check out David Brown's radio piece here. Go on. Do some digging.
--------
p.s.
parliament - maggot brain is really good too
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