Galt Macdermot - Woman Is Sweeter '1969/2023

Tracks list

The definitive reissue of HAIR composer Galt MacDermot’s quirky
masterwork, the impressionistic soundtrack of filmmaker and photographer Martine
Barrat’s film for designer Yves St. Laurent.

Lacquered by Bernie Grundman in an all-analog transfer from the original stereo
master tape.

Officially-sanctioned Record Store Day release from Now-Again Records.

HAIR’s royalties bought Galt MacDermot the ability to create on his own
terms, to work with musicians he respected, and who respected him, as they
recorded his compositions for issue on his own Kilmarnock Records. He brought
his friends - bassist Jimmy Lewis, guitarist Charlie Brown and drummer Idris
Muhammad into HAIR’s band, and he spent 1968 developing his rapport with
the ensemble, testing out rhythmic ideas with Muhammad and his best friend
Bernard Purdie.

He was considered a rock composer, a mantle he begrudgingly accepted, if only
because he tired of explaining what his music really was. MacDermot and his
closest musician pals were all steeped in the tradition of jazz and R&B and many
were instrumental in the development of the music we now consider funk. But
MacDermot wasn’t a funk musician and, though he had grown bored with
jazz, he hadn’t tired of the genre’s best elements. MacDermot,
like the greatest of the era, from David Axelrod to Sun Ra, created timeless
music by consciously avoiding everything but what felt right to him. As such,
his music took influence from the baroque, from Africa, from rock and from,
mainly, the ideas his trusted friends brought into the studio when he brought
them his ideas.

MacDermot’s best from this era is minimal – his beautiful melodies
ornamented only by the necessary rhythmic additions to keep the listener engaged
to his song’s completion. A great MacDermot composition resolves itself
in an odd way, leaving you feeling like you just said goodbye to a close friend.
You’re touched with a certain sadness after the song has faded.
You’re immediately ready to welcome it again.

1.01 - Galt Macdermot - Tango (Stereo Master Tape Transfer) (4:05)
1.02 - Galt Macdermot - Fragments 1A (Stereo Master Tape Transfer) (1:53)
1.03 - Galt Macdermot - Fragments 1B (Stereo Master Tape Transfer) (3:00)
1.04 - Galt Macdermot - Fragments II (Stereo Master Tape Transfer) (1:37)
1.05 - Galt Macdermot - Bass (Stereo Master Tape Transfer) (2:14)
1.06 - Galt Macdermot - Cathedral (Stereo Master Tape Transfer) (2:16)
1.07 - Galt Macdermot - Woman Is Sweeter (Stereo Master Tape Transfer) (2:32)
1.08 - Galt Macdermot - Moving Clothes (Stereo Master Tape Transfer) (2:25)
1.09 - Galt Macdermot - Bathtub (Stereo Master Tape Transfer) (2:46)
1.10 - Galt Macdermot - Radio Rock (Stereo Master Tape Transfer) (3:50)
1.11 - Galt Macdermot - Princess Gika (Stereo Master Tape Transfer) (2:11)
1.12 - Galt Macdermot - Merry-Go-Round (Stereo Master Tape Transfer) (2:55)
1.13 - Galt Macdermot - Space (Stereo Master Tape Transfer) (1:55)
1.14 - Galt Macdermot - Perfume Bottles (Stereo Master Tape Transfer) (2:05)

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