Rock legend Jorma Kaukonen is caught in a live set from 1980 with his backing band of the time, Vital Parts. The recording is from the equally famous – well, in Europe anyway – German Rockpalast TV show and this particular concert was recorded at the Kleine Westfalenhalle in Dortmund.
Kaukonen's set on this occasion is an electric blues rock and very pleasant it is too! It is, however, badly let down by the sound quality which is poor throughout and particularly so early in the set. (I don't really understand why this should be because the John Cippollina concert, recorded for the same series the day before – see my next review! – doesn't suffer from the same problem).
Anyhow, that's how it is, the music and the performance are fine; the sound quality is poorer.
Overall, the sound factor is likely to dissuade anyone other than fans of Kaukonen to search out and buy this album. For them, however, this is likely to be a sought after item as I don't believe there are any other live recordings of him playing with Vital Parts from the period: this album therefore provides a useful historical record of his career.
Those who are new to Kaukonen's music – yes, you, the teenager reading this – then you'd be better off exploring some of his studio solo work first, as well as his work with Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna, of course.
Track Listing:-
1) Money Money
2) Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning
3) To Hate is to Stay Young
4) Wake Up Dead Man
5) Jelly Raw Blues
6) Junkies on Angel Dust
7) Death Don't Have No Mercy
8) Walkin' Blues
9) Valley of Tears
10) Straight Ahead
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