The raw materials from which the issued version of "Calypso Frelimo" was assembled
have appeared in a couple different versions. According to the notes to the Columbia
On the Corner Sessions box (CK7 06239), the issued version was assembled
from five different takes. Perhaps ultimately this means items 1-6 above, but the
proximal parts are the longer excerpts listed as Parts 1-4 (items 7-10), which have
appeared on the So What CDR Calypso Frelimo Session (SW 127). The first
table below shows how the longer parts were used to create the issued version (32:06):
| Issued version
|
Taken from
|
| 00:00-10:11 (A)
|
Part 2 (Davis tpt/org + fl, g, perc overdubbed)
|
| 10:11-21:43 (B)
|
Part 3 (Davis plays org only; tpt + perc overdubbed)
|
| 21:45-32:06 (C)
|
Part 4 (Davis tpt + perc overdubbed)
|
| Calypso Frelimo
|
TDK Funk
|
| 00:02-01:06
|
3:48-4:52
|
| 01:25-06:15
|
0:06-4:52
|
| 26:00-26:17
|
3:38-3:54
|
Parts 2-4 are heavily edited, and there is much added on top of this music in the
issued version, but the relationship between these parts and the issued version
is pretty clear. The relationship between these longer parts and the six takes listed
above (items 1-6), however, is not. Parts 1-4 don't appear to have been assembled
from those six studio takes, and it's hard to locate these takes in the issued
version. So although we seem to have the ingredients that constitute the issued
version of "Calypso Frelimo," the recipe according to which they were combined remains
mysterious.
An overdubbed trumpet solo which recurs throughout the issued version of "Calypso
Frelimo" also appears in edited form on "TDK Funk," remixed on December 27, 1976.
See the table on the right, above. An excerpt of this title is issued on Kind of
Blue KOB 002, Unknown Sessions, Volume 1 1973-1976. The tune "TDK Funk"
consists of this solo superimposed on an excerpt of "What They Do" (take 14), which
was recorded on November 6, 1974. The solo, which is audible throughout "TDK Funk,"
is brought in and out of the mix during parts A and C of "Calypso Frelimo."
It isn't clear when this much-used solo was recorded. Since some of the runs and
the wah-wah effects on part B also figure in the solo used in parts A and C (e.g.
21:31-21:40), my guess is that the solo was recorded at this session, then re-used
later to create "TDK Funk." But this is just a guess.
The other tune recorded on this day was quickly brought into the live book. The
tune is given the title "Mr. Foster" in the On the Corner Sessions box
(Columbia CK7 06239), but it has traditionally been known as "For Dave," and was
so titled even on previous Columbia releases (e.g. Columbia Legacy C2K 65137). What's
worse, a tune called "Mr. Foster" appears on Al Foster's 1979 album Mr. Foster
(Better Days (J) YX-7599) -- but that tune is not this one but a different Davis
original from May 1975, to which Sony/Columbia has now given the title "Minnie"!
Thanks to Len Pogost for helping me with "Mr. Foster."
|