In cleaning out my old tapes from 1/4 inch, one inch, two inch, to cassettes , I came on some recordings that were done at concerts and clubs that I wanted to share with others. Those of you who have old tapes should transfer them as soon as possible since tapes will degrade after 25 years and could be lost. Most of these live events were recorded on a Sony tc-D5m cassette recorder one of the best cassette recorders of its time, but the fidelity and the mix are not anywhere near the quality we would get in a studio. So taking this into consideration, I felt the performances or the nostalgia factor superseded the limitations of the recordings, so I chose to share them with you. After listening to these recordings on the cassette recorder, I was amazed at the quality that a small little recorder with a stereo mic could have. These recordings capture the ambience of the clubs and concerts of this time. In the late 60s, 70s, and early 80s, there were numerous clubs that musicians could play at as well as concerts being presented all over the Bay Area.
I have also included or will include recordings which were done in studios large, small, and sometimes unique. One on the studios we used at the time was in Marin and was housed in a church, and appropriately named “The Church”. The studio itself was housed behind the pulpit, probably where the choir once sang because it was very narrow and crowded, and was where the control room was set up. You had to do a two step to get in behind the console. The musicians set up on the floor of the former church where the pews had been, and the sound was great. These recordings in my archive were done for various purposes like television, film, or just promo tapes. Some were outtakes for albums we were planning.
I hope you will also enjoy them as much as I did. I would encourage anyone with some recordings from this era to send them to me to post so people can hear what the music of this era was like.
Kamikaze Berkeley Jazz Festival
Kamikaze UCBerkeley March 17,1977
Jessica Hagedorn & The Gangsta Choir
Madame Kudo feat Shirley Muramoto-KPOO Session
Ota Pierce and the Chinatown Crew
Julian Priester and the Marine Intrusion in Concert at the College of Marin