Review: Good Buddies by Herr / Frisell / Johnson / Driscoll
Michel Herr / Bill Frisell / Vinton Johnson / Kermit Driscoll - Good Buddies
(1978, EMI Belgium)
I stumbled across this listing on Discogs and realised I had to give it a listen. Seems to be a pretty difficult record to get a hold of. No copies for sale with the median historical price being $225. It’s also not on streaming and has never been reissued which earns it big points with me. But of course, the real reason I am so intrigued by this record is the album art. The cover painting depicts a naked woman, mouth open in shock, hand on forehead, crouching and clutching what looks like a straw hat or wicker basket. She has big boobs. It’s really a terrific painting. There’s something a little more than meets the eye going on here and something about it feels a little darker than it should. Maybe it’s the red-black gradient background. Maybe the fact that she’s got a little more tummy than many cover models makes it feel a little more intimate. Her facial expression doesn’t quite articulate fear, she just looks totally shocked. She doesn’t look like she’s just been walked in on while changing because she’s had time to throw her hand to her head. Really fascinating piece. The artist responsible is Belgain painter Roland Delcol, whose work I’ve learned is often centred around the nude form. Some of his work is erotic and some not so much. I wonder if this album art is the reason there’s never been any modern distribution of the music.
At any rate, another intriguing aspect of this record is that it features some very early performances by Bill Frisell (perhaps his first?) and Kermit Driscoll who would go on to play on many records together in the following decade. Keyboard player in this band is another Belgian named Michel Herr, whose work I’m completely unfamiliar with. The drummer is also a stranger to me, an American named Vinton Johnson who is without a Wikipedia page.
The music is jazz fusion. There are some electronic keyboard sounds and obvious overdubs in a way that is very 1978. Driscoll is credited with playing electric bass (his tone is ironically frog-like, not to mention pretty difficult to listen to) but the first track, Herr’s “Acapulco Bells” has a strangely affected upright bass motif. The overall style is not unlike the early records of Bob James and almost seems to have a bit of smooth jazz DNA.
“Alcapulco” isn’t a particularly interesting piece but it may be Herr’s most interesting contribution to the album. It’s followed by a pair of Driscoll Tunes that are oddly stitched together by an open solo from Johnson that was almost certainly recorded after the fact and punched in with moderately careful hands. The First of these pieces is a funky number called “Frog Legs Vampin’ in the Moonlight.” This tune mirrors its title in that it seems the band seems fairly unsure how to end it. This is followed by “I Think I Know What You Mean” which is solely notable for featuring various band members singing and speaking the title along with the melody.
While Frisell doesn’t really sound like himself yet, he shines as a composer on this date. He’s composed the entire B-side of this album and gives us our first interesting moment on track B1, “Sans Blues Thank You” whose vamping outro the band falls into a super pleasant jam. Johnson plays a nice pocket and has chops to boot, although he doesn’t add too much sauce to the dish and his snare sounds a bit lifeless.
Frisell’s “What Do You Mean, What Do You Mean” (perhaps a response to Driscoll’s earlier piece) is the standout tune on this disc. He accompanies himself on acoustic guitar via overdubs and the strange off kilter 3/2 feel is at once groovy and fun to wrap one’s head around.
This album sort of reminds me of Adam Sandler’s extremely early film Going Overboard. Just learned about Kermit Driscoll’s arrest when researching this album, what a piece of shit. I’d love a copy of this extremely rare date, or even a poster with this painting on my wall.
