David Peel and the Lower East Side “Have a Marijuana” Recrorded Live on the Streets of New York. 1968.   This is the debut record by New York street musician and John Lennon protege David Peel.   Peel plays guitar and sings (mainly about marijuana), it’s all live.   Fugs parallels are hard to avoid and there is the same type of parody here – “I Like Marijuana” actually got kind of popular – it’s a parody of “I Like Peanut Butter”   “Show Me the Way to Get Stoned” is a killer, nothing bad on here at all, a great piece of underground wildness caught on tape. (Review by Carl Slim)

(30 votes, average: 3.43 out of 5)

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An odd piece of beatnik poetry from 1957. “Contributions to the Delinquency of Minor Poetry by Guy Wernham” I never heard of this guy, but a Google search brought up his name as a dude on the San Francisco scene who first made his name with a 1943 translation of Lautremont’s “Les Chants du Maldoror” in New Directions magazine. It says by the mid-50’s he was tending bar in North Beach and a frequent visitor to Alan Ginsburg’s apartment. The cover is pretty unusual and cool I think. Can’t be many of these around.

(18 votes, average: 3.39 out of 5)

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“The Freedom Book” Booker Ervin Prestige Records 1963

Booker Ervin, tenor sax; Jaki Byard, piano; Richard Davis, bass; Alan Dawson, drums

Track List: A Lunar Tune, Cry Me Not (by Randy Weston), Grant’s Stand, A Day to Mourn, Al’s In.

Rudy Van Gelder produced.

Booker Ervin was an artist who bridged the gap in post-bop 1960s between straight ahead hard bop and the avantgarde movement that spawned mid-decade. He could play in a soulful Texas tradition yet could creep into edgy material. He seemed to keep his hard bop for his Blue Note sessions and bring his avant leanings to sessions with pianist Jaki Byard for Prestige. He made a series of “Book” sessions for Prestige with titles like Freedom, Space, Song, and Blues Book. The common denominator for all the “Book” sessions was that they paired Booker with bassist Richard Davis and drummer Alan Dawson. Ervin’s career was on the short side as he died of cancer in mid-1970, just shy of his 40th birthday. But thankfully, he left a large amount of recordings for us to remember him by.

(18 votes, average: 4.11 out of 5)

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“Songs To Get Elected By” Sung by Howard Da Silva and the Ward Healers.

(18 votes, average: 3.06 out of 5)

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Portrait of Art Farmer on Contemporary.   Although it was not until 1958 (the year this album was recorded) that Art Farmer was voted “New Star” of the year in the Down Beat poll, his reputation had already been established among musicians on the basis of his work with Lionel Hampton, Gigi Gryce, and Gerry Mulligan. With a rhythm section that includes his twin brother, the late Addison Farmer, on bass, as well as pianist Hank Jones and drummer Roy Haynes, he is heard here in three originals (two are blues), and five other appropriate vehicles such as Benny Golson’s “Stablemates.” Farmer felt that this was the best album he had made at that stage in his career.

(12 votes, average: 4.17 out of 5)

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“The Nicotine Scene” Sung and Spoken. This one had them “rolling in the aisles”.

(11 votes, average: 4.18 out of 5)

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Graham Forbes and the Trio “The Martini Set”.   1955.

Unlikely album for Sam Phillips to release.   An album of pop standards from the big band era such as “From this moment on”, “The lady is a tramp”, “Autumn in New York”, etc.   The reason this is so collectible is it came from Sam Phillips’ Sun Studios in Memphis.   Very few printed at the time of release.

(17 votes, average: 3.88 out of 5)

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Johnny Hoes Presenteert “De Meid Van de Straat”

(18 votes, average: 4.61 out of 5)

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Noel Coward, dramatist, actor, writer, composer, lyricist, painter, and wit wrote songs including “A Room With A View,” “I’ll See You Again,” “Mad Dogs and Englishmen,” and “Don’t Put Your Daughter On the Stage, Mrs. Worthington”. With the play “Private Lives,” (1930) he had became the highest earning author in the western world. With the onset of World War II he redefined the spirit of England in films such as “This Happy Breed” (1944), “In Which We Serve” (1942), “Blithe Spirit” (1945) and “Brief Encounter” (1945). His “Hay Fever” was the first work by a living author to be produced at the National Theatre. He was knighted in 1970, and died in his beloved Jamaica on 26 March 1973.

(13 votes, average: 3.54 out of 5)

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An evening with Rozelle Gayle “Like Be My Guest” on Mercury “for adult listening”.

(19 votes, average: 4.37 out of 5)

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