Mark Naftalin's Rhythm and Blues Revue
Old Waldorf
San Francisco, CA
1980-09-07 (Sunday)

THTP Release 83

Recording chain:
Stage mics > splitter (split to house snake/SBD and TH snake) > TH dedicated snake >
Peavy MkII 12 channel mixing board (10 channels snake, 2 channels audience mics) >
AKAI GXC-570D Cassette Deck (Dolby B on) > TDK SA-90 tape

Archival Process:
1999: Sony TC-KA3ES > TDK SA-90 tapes playback (NO Dolby) > BBE 462 Sonic Maximizer (to clean up tapes) >
Tascam DA-30 DAT > HHb DAT-125 DAT tape
2002: HHb CDR-850 Professional CD Recorder (In real time) > HHb CDR74 Gold 100 year archival grade CDRs
2005: Transfered to HDD in AIFF file format

Dime release processing: AIFF Master Files > FFMPEG > 16 bit FLAC 8 > tagging, cover artwork, checksums.

Recorded, preserved, and master AIFF files provided by: Terry Hammer

Setlist:
01. Caladonia
02. Since I Fell For You
03. Stagger Lee
04. I'll Take Care Of You
05. Last Night
06. I Wouldn't Treat A Dog (The Way You Treated Me)
07. Candy
08. Mean Mistreatin' Mama
09. It Hurts Me Too
10. Blues In The Night
11. Grand Finale

Length: 1:04:59

Band:
Mark Naftalin - keyboards
Charles Houff - vocals
Dr. Wild Willie Moore - vocals, tenor sax
Sonny Rhodes (Clarence Edward Mauldin) - vocals, guitar
Buddy Ace (Jimmie Lee Land) - vocals
Frankie Lee - vocals
Bobby "Mr. Goodfingers" Murray - guitar

Notes:
* Naftalin's group plays rhythm and blues. It's ok if the cover picture doesn't match the members exactly. It's hard to resist reminding ourselves that this was the year that great Akroyd/Belushi move "The Blues Brothers" was released... Clearly this was in the air since long before this gig, and one is tempted to wonder if the movie took some of this look/feel from groups like this.

* About Sonny Rhodes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_Rhodes
"Clarence Smith (born Clarence Edward Mauldin, November 3, 1940), known as Sonny Rhodes, is an American blues singer and lap steel guitar player."
* About Buddy Ace (RIP):
"Jimmie Lee Land, known as Buddy Ace (November 11, 1936 – December 25, 1994) was an American Texas blues singer, billed as the "Silver Fox of the Blues.""
* About Franky Lee: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankie_Lee_(musician)
"Frankie Lee (April 29, 1941 – April 24, 2015) was an American soul blues and electric blues singer and songwriter who released six albums. His style has been compared to that of Otis Redding."
* About Mark Naftalin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Naftalin
"Naftalin moved to Chicago in 1961, and graduated from the University of Chicago in 1964, where he performed on piano at campus "twist parties," popular at the time. It was at these parties that Naftalin first played with blues harmonica player Paul Butterfield and guitarist Elvin Bishop, the nucleus of what was to become the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Naftalin then came to prominence as the keyboard player in the Butterfield Blues Band, from 1965-1968. On the group's first album, he solos and has a writing credit on the instrumental track "Thank You Mr. Poobah." On the second album by the band, East West, he is credited as "Naffy Markham".
In the late 1960s, after the first four Butterfield albums, Naftalin went out on his own, settling in the San Francisco Bay Area. There he put together the Mark Naftalin "Rhythm & Blues Revue" and has been active in blues and rock recording sessions, solo gigs and revue shows, and as a producer of concerts, festivals and radio shows. He played as a duo with fellow Butterfield bandsman Mike Bloomfield. He also in a band (most often called Mike Bloomfield & Friends) from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s. He hosted Mark Naftalin's Blue Monday Party, a weekly blues show (1979-1983) that featured over 60 blues artists and groups and was the scene of 86 live radio broadcasts and three TV specials."

* About Old Waldorf: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Waldorf
"Old Waldorf was a music venue located in San Francisco, California. The famous club was located at 444 Battery St, and was originally opened by Jeffrey Pollack in 1976 before selling it to Bill Graham who closed it in 1983. During its time Old Waldorf hosted some of the biggest names in the music industry, such as AC/DC, Dire Straits, Blue Öyster Cult, Iggy Pop, Blondie, Rory Gallagher, Metallica, Pat Benatar, R.E.M., Spirit, Poco, U2 and Dead Kennedys.
The Punch Line comedy club now occupies part of Old Waldorf's location.".
Note: 444 Battery Street (at Washington St.) is about 6 blocks from the location of the Mabuhay Gardens (at Broadway & Montgomery/Kearny), which was in a much seedier part of town (The Famous Carol Doda Condor Strip bar was right by the Fab Mab, on the corner of Broadway and Columbus). But the Old Waldorf was situated right in the heart of the downtown business district, which tended to be completely empty at night after the business crowd had left, so these two venues were very different in feel.
Terry: "The Punch Line was always on the one side of the Old Waldorf building. Jeffrey owned it also. He let me mix shows there a few times when there was no comedy going on that night so I could have some isolation."

* Includes photos.

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No distribution in lossy formats!!
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No remastering!!
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Support the artists when or if they play, and buy their records/merchandise.

Please correct any errors or oversights in this information in the comments section so the information can be as accurate as possible.

If you can find related materials like flyers, posters, ticket stubs, even photos, etc, please add them in a comment and I will add them to the main release folder, so that can be included on the next re-seeding. Every bit is welcome, and as I am time constrained on this project due to the amount of material, I cannot spend as much time on each release doing research as I would like, so if we can add to and improve the information and release contents during this series, that would be great.

Please make an effort to pick at least one of these THTP releases and keep it seeded for as long as you can, particularly the lesser known groups. That will really help out long term.

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About Terry Hammer and the THTP:

Someone put my feelings very well about these recordings in the following quote. I can't really improve on their words beyond noting that these recordings sound absolutely and utterly stunning, and I consider myself incredibly lucky to be able to present these to you here in their original, first generation, lossless hi-fidelity versions, for the first time ever.

"[These recordings were] recorded and preserved by collector/engineer Terry Hammer, for broadcast over the UC Berkeley station KALX and several others from the 1979 -1981 period. Anyone who spent a night at one of these clubs knows how chaotic the atmosphere was. That he was able to, not only get a decent feed from the sound mixing board, but was also able to get clean recordings was something of a miracle. And the fact this guy did it over and over again is pure dedication to the cause of preserving history for decades to come. Fortunately for everyone, he’s been making these gems of history available and their value as historic documents is inestimable. This is really exciting stuff and I am grateful for Terry’s foresight and deft skill."
src: https://pastdaily.com/2014/06/25/gang-four-live-american-indian-center-san-francisco-1980-nights-roundtable-concert-edition/

As Terry notes about the process of recording these shows: "Like all of my live recordings this was mixed direct to 2-Track Reel To Reel (and Cassette deck for backup and personal use) using headphones. Sitting in the club with the loud P.A. sound trying to drive the amp in my mixing board loud enough to hear what I was mixing.If you've ever been to a live concert,then,you know how loud it can be."

If you've ever been looking for an excuse to upgrade your sound system, these recordings certainly should provide you with some motivation, because they have incredible sound. And if you already have a quality sound system, you are in for a treat!! The audio goes straight to 20k hz, no losses I can detect. Due to the reality of tapes, even high end as used here, the low end starts at 47 hz.

And if you want to learn more about this incredible musical era, listen to the stuff you haven't heard, there are amazing gems in there.

Do we call these soundboards? Technically not precisely because this is not the house mix, these shows were mixed using a dedicated mixing board, with an additional 1 to 2 audience mics (1 for Mab because he needed 11 snake inputs), 2 at other clubs) in the mix. But I call it the Terry Hammer Tape Project (THTP) to make sure there is no doubt about the project's creator.

TECH:
Note that Terry made 2 master recordings (recording at the same time) when he mixed these shows live:
1: Reel to reel, for the radio stations:
Technics RS-1500 Reel To Reel (mostly TDK Audua L-1800 & LB-1800 tape with back coating or Scotch 206 / 207 with back coating. Maybe a few Maxell UD-XL). All the KALX shows went to KALX, they supplied the reel to reel tape.

2: For his own use, and as backup in case something happened to the reels:
AKAI GXC-570D Cassette Deck (Dolby B on) > TDK SA-90 tape

Terry isn't sure, but thinks the audience mics he used maybe were Electro Voice EV-DS35's.

Info: http://www.bbesound.com/products/sonic-maximizers/482i.aspx

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- teetering

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Images for this show: