Baby Batter [Import, Original recording remastered]

Harvey Mandel | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 15, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Original recording remastered
• Label: Bgo - Beat Goes on
• ASIN: B0000011NX
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #235,394 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Baby Batter

2. Midnight Sun

3. One Way Street

4. Morton Grove Mama

5. Freedoom Ball

6. El Stinger

7. Hank The Ripper

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Instrumental Goodies From Neglected Guitarist, March 30, 2001

By 

J. E FELL "boogaloojef" (Carterville, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Baby Batter (Audio CD)

This album is my favorite Harvey Mandel album. It is entirely instrumental. Harvey Mandel played at the original Woodstock Festival with Canned Heat and on the Rolling Stones "Black and Blue" album among others. His music is a mixture of rock, blues and jazz. He has done sessions playing all of the types of music. He has much in common with such guitarists as Jeff Beck and Roy Buchanan who also play a similar type of music. All three of these guitarists are not good vocalists and are better suited for making instrumental albums. While his playing is not as technical as either Jeff Beck's or Roy Buchanan's styles, there is still much to enjoy. Harvey makes excellent use of the wah wah and other effects on this album. His playing is fluid and takes some interesting turns on occasion. Harvey Mandel was one of the first guitarists to utilize the "two-hand tapping" method of playing (Shangrenade album). This method became influential later in the seventies and eighties. My favorite cuts include the title track, "Freedom Ball" and "El Stinger" but every track is great. The band is very cohesive on this album and work well together. Larry Taylor a bandmate of Mandel's from his days in Canned Heat and John Mayall's band plays bass throughout this disk. It is hard to believe that Harvey Mandel's instrumental albums with the exception of the first album were not better sellers at the time they were released. Fans of progressive instrumental guitar music should purchase this album as soon as possible before it goes out of print again.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars classic, December 26, 2009

By 

Bill Your 'Free Form FM Handi Cyber Print DJ ... (Mahwah, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Baby Batter (Audio CD)

You wanna know how good Harvey Mandell is. The Stones invivted him to join after Mick Taylor left.

Mandell must have either had a trust fund or another hell of a good reason for refusing, because the Glimmer Twins missed out on one dynamite guitar player. Need evidence; get this.

This album is basically orchestrated instumentals over which Mandell plays over. The backing tracks are just average, but that is not why we are here.

Mandell has got this amazing style: he is bluesy and jazzy, fast but never flashy. He has got this way of finding a spot on the neck, locking in--usually in the lower register-and just working magic with a pattern. He is so quick, so nimble, his runs just seem like melted butter. He never shows off, he never show boats. But he can take a pattern and just twist and turn it with so many subtleties, so quick, you are astounded.

When you add just the slightest ammount of distortion, this has amazing ressonece, but amazing untility. A guy scribbles his phone number down on the back of a matchbook. He is offhand, he is not even looking when he writes, but when he hands it to you, it is caligrophy.
That is what hearing Mandel is like.

In 2006 I was in San Fransisco on a vacation, and my freinds and I were bar hopping. We walked into a small, no name club, and there is this little band jamming. I look and look and look and think, it could not be, but I keep insisting to myself, and, Holy Chirst, its Harvey Mandel. No billing, no cover, no anything, just a bar band. But it was Harvey.

I never got to talk to him, he walked elusively off stage, but man, that was enough. Still, my not getting a chance to talk to Harvey might have had something to do with my beer soaked friend calling him HOWIE Mandel. I have forgiven the bloke since.

I hope one day you get a gift like hearing Mandel live free, but if not, this album will soothe your envy.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Listening is like opening a time capsule, February 3, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Baby Batter (Audio CD)

Harvey Mandel speaks directly to listeners on Baby Batter, so it is improtant to listen. The songs are simple yet elegant. Nearly 30 years ago, a fuzz box and a Cry Baby were near the limit of what most players used, and rarely was a wah-wah used more artfully than on this album/disc. The lead lines and harmonies on Baby Batter should be heard by every amateur guitarist who is trying to get a feel for what soloists of the era were up to. Whereas it is easy to see why the all-instrumental Baby Batter is not everyone's cup of tea, it is hard to believe it doesn't have a larger cult following. Rock with a solid dose of blues and a tart pinch of jazz. Try it. You'll like it.