THE STARK REALITY DISCOVERS HOAGY CARMICHAEL'S MUSIC SHOP

THE STARK REALITY were a Jazz band from Boston who managed to release this one studio album in 1970 but broke up after a failed tour. More on that later. This has to be one of the most unique recordings in my collection. It's just such an unusual idea to basically re-do a children's album from Britain circa 1958 by Hoagy Carmichael that was used on his PBS children's show. The lyrics here are for kids make no mistake like "30 days has September, April, June and November..." etc. A double album back in the day of about 90 minutes or so.

So you can imagine trying to tour with this record right? Who is your audience? Parents bringing kids or adults just not showing up. I feel the Bio here doesn't do this band justice. This is Monty Stark's band and he is the singer and talented vibes player. But come on, the Bio here should emphasize that the legend named John Abercrombie is on guitar here. We also get bass and drums with this four piece. Abercrombie has been a staple on the ECM label for decades and his first two solo albums from 1975 are classics "Timeless" and "Gateway" which I spun the other night much to my delight.

The music here is for adults for sure and impresses me to no end, but then the silliness with the vocals seems to fight against the seriousness of the instrumental work. This is a highly improvised, reimagined interpretation of Hoagy's recording. Interesting that Abercrombie adds his own composition "Blue Pillow" which is pretty much him on acoustic guitar and sparse bass and the words "Blue Pillow" are beside his name and picture on the back of the album. Yes the man with the moustache and guitar who I shall call from now on Mr. Abercrombie.

I checked about 8 tracks that I was really impressed with so this is a 4 star album in my world, just very unique and possibly sitting with MOTHER GONG's "Fairy Tales" even though this is quite different from that and in my opinion this is not quite as impressive as what MOTHER GONG created. I mention Stark's vibes work and the guy does get creative with them and often leads along with Mr. Abercrombie as far as soloing over top goes. I really like the setup. There has been some archival material surface many years after this that are from 1969 when they had a fifth member playing sax and flute which obviously changes their sound.

I think my favourite track is the over 8 minutes "Dreams" but that short "Travelling" song with those vibes is so good and closing it out with both "Comrades" and "All You Need To Make Music" at over 12 minutes is finishing strong. Of the earlier tracks I have four in "The Old Prospector", "Cooking", "Shooting Stars" and "Rocket Ship" that leave me very satisfied.

These guys are players, I mean the bass and drums are both killer supporting Mr. Abercrombie and Stark. There are a ton of extended instrumental passages on here, often starting that way then several minutes in the vocals show up briefly and possibly return later. Again such a unique record by a very talented band this one is for the jazzers out there who still have that kid in them.