Big Sugar

Big Sugar is a Canadian blues, reggae rock band. They were active from 1991 to 2004 and again since April 2010.

History

Big Sugar officially formed in 1988 in Toronto, Ontario, consisting of vocalist and guitarist Gordie Johnson, bassist Terry Wilkins, and drummer Al Cross, though the three musicians had already played together for several years as a supporting band for Molly Johnson's jazz performances and as an informal jam band with members of the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir. After Molly Johnson returned to rock music with Infidels, she helped her former bandmates to secure a record deal; their eponymous debut album was released in 1991 on Hypnotic Records.

After Wilkins left the band in 1993, Big Sugar recorded the album Five Hundred Pounds with the help of guest musicians, including harmonica and tenor saxophonist Kelly Hoppe, also known as Mr. Chill. Hoppe brought a blues and old-school r'n'b influence into the band's sound. Hoppe would become an official member of the band in September 1994. He would later add keyboards and melodica to his sideman responsibilities. In July 1994, bassist Garry Lowe joined the band. Lowe had moved to Canada in the mid-1970s from Kingston, Jamaica. Soon after arriving in Toronto, he became an in-demand bass player for touring reggae recording artists. He often accompanied them at Toronto's famed Bamboo club on Queen St.W., among other venues. Lowe was a founding member of "Culture Shock", a popular Toronto reggae band. Johnson, an avid reggae maven (and one-time bass player), had been a fan of Lowe's and was overjoyed when he agreed to join Big Sugar as a full-time member.

Big Sugar (album)

Big Sugar is the eponymous debut album by Canadian rock band Big Sugar, released 1991 on Hypnotic Records.

Track listing

References

Bemsha Swing

"Bemsha Swing" (also known as "Bimsha Swing") is a jazz standard co-written by Thelonious Monk and Denzil Best.

Composition

The tune is 16 bars in the form of AABA. It is in 4/4 meter but is often played with a 2-feel. The melody consists of a motif around a descending C Spanish phrygian scale (the A section) and a chromatic sequencing of the same motif a fourth higher on an F Spanish phrygian scale (the B section). The chordal movement by contrast suggests a C Major tonality rather than C Spanish phrygian, its relative minor f (melodic or harmonic), or its relative Major, A♭ Major. However, the song ends on a D♭maj7 (#11) rather than a C chord, a displacement which is characteristic of Monk compositions.

Recording history

The song was first recorded by Monk on the sessions for the album Thelonious Monk Trio in 1952. Soon after, in 1954, it was later recorded with Monk as a sideman on the Miles Davis album Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants, which was released in 1959. Monk himself revisited the song on his acclaimed 1957 LP Brilliant Corners.

Bemsha Swing (album)

Bemsha Swing is a live album led by trumpeter Woody Shaw which was recorded in Detroit in 1986 but not released on the Blue Note label until 1997.

Reception

Scott Yanow of Allmusic stated, "Despite worsening health and terrible eyesight, he was still in very good playing form in 1986 when he performed the music (recorded at Baker's Keyboard Lounge in Detroit) that resulted in this previously unissued double-CD from 1997... There is no feeling of decline or even world-weariness in the trumpeter's playing, and his solos are full of constant invention and enthusiastic ideas. This highly recommended set was one of Woody Shaw's last great recordings". Bill Shoemaker reviewd the album for JazzTimes stating "while the trumpeter's career was declining, and his life tragically unraveling, his creative abilities were still, at least occasionally, at the level of his high-profile '70s zenith'... the great trumpeter's legacy is well-served by Bemsha Swing".

Track listing

All compositions by Woody Shaw except as indicated