Garage sale diggin'

Spring is here in the air at least in the greater Chicago area, it has been 80 for the past couple of days... all the better to open the screen doors and crank a recent LP find from the local garage sales.


One of the best grabs this past weekend was Push Push by Herbie Mann. I had seen a blurb about this LP somewhere that lead me to purchase this record, as the cover art alone would have scared me off. Dude, any kind of shirt would have been more flattering.

Piano, with both a large bass and some moderate wah wah propel the title, lead off track, providing the bedrock, from which Mr. Mann blows his flute. A minute or two into the song, a well placed tambourine, in the left channel, provides a counterpoint to the flute that is in the middle of the stereo image. A bluesy guitar riff populates the right channel. The guitar then busts into a laid back break that builds into something more. As the break builds it becomes obvious that the guitar is provided by Duane Allman, just a short time before he met his early death at the intersection of a motorsickle and a peach tree. Herbie heads towards the mother ship on his instrument after Duane's break. Pretty monster groove-- all 9 plus minutes of it.

The next track takes the listener to chill out land. Supposedly, it is a cover of What's Going On. I honestly can't say that it sounds like an instro cover to these ears.

Flipping the disc over to Man's Hope, the tempo picks up a bit and even features at least one flute break. The accompaniment, borders on the funky and will drive the point home as everything builds to the (too early) fade out.

The cover of If is more of a recognizable track to these ears at least. Here the build is quite massive from the entire band to the fade out, which is so tight it seems that it is more of a harsh cut.

The final track is an upbeat take on What I Say, that features licks a plenty from Allman, coming at you out of the right channel. The Rhodes appears to be in the left channel with the flute front and center again. The call and response with the flute taking the place of the vocal and back and forth with Allman is pretty cool.

The resident husky (and music critic) seems to dig this LP as she is stretched out in front of the speakers, grooving to the bass that has at times the syrupy consistency of flat root beer. This record sounds good and is in NM condition. I would recommend it. There are cd copies on AMZN.