Customer Reviews

Baby Batter

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I was a teen when I first heard this guy. He is some where between

Hendrix and Jerry Ried with his stile.

This album is as great now as the day I first heard it.

Really good stuf.

John Bean

I had never heard of Harvey Mandel until I saw him in a small Philadelphia venue, called the Bijou Cafe, around 1978. He appeared with John Mayall.

Harvey really performed dutifully for the rock/blues legend, John Mayall...but there was a point where the crowd departed its attention from the headliner and was screaming HARVEY...HARVEY.....!!!!! Mayall relented and Mandel stepped up.

What a memorable moment.

While I enjoy this album very much, I depart with most of the praise found on this page. It is more in the Jeff Beck vein than the Roy Buchanan, Elvin Bishop, or Rory Gallagher style. I enjoy much more the rock/blues sound than the fuzzy, hard-guitar jazz of Beck's "Wired".

Technically, this album is fine, but just know what it is your buying. If you favor Beck over Bishop, then buy it. If you feel contrary to that, then go buy something else. If you are ambivalent, err on the side of saving your money for something you are more sure of.

All best. Lee

Harvey Mandels acid-based groove meanderings are awesome! This disk is true raw energy from a man Carlos Santana holds in high esteem. I mean there's congas on this, the guitar is WAY in the forefront and everything is instrumental! Mr. Mandel plays a LOT of guitar on this disk - and he;s real good - sure he sometimes repeats himself and isn't necessarily "fluid" but its got some fire behind it. This is the kind of album that would really go over big in a retro-60's college party playing right after "in-a-gadda-da-vida". It simply JAMS! Big!!! Real big. Like Cream or something like that. I hear a lot of influences in Harvey - Duane Eddy, Grant Green, Kenny Burrell, Clapton - its a very good album but be prepared to go back to the middle of 1969 on this one - right from the get-go all the way to the end. I'd call it acid rockin blues. Damn good stuff!

I have over 3000 discs and I can honestly say this is my favourite, its that good!. On hearing this I became a lifelong fan and urge others, interested in guitar based music to listen to this remarkable album.

Well were do you start? Everything Harvey touches just seems to turn to gold!This album is a fine example of how you don't need to over play and take over take every song to be heard. Harvey has that way of melting into a song. Very few do what he does and well that can be difficult to explain at times to people who love a million notes in their face. This is a good place to start and there are also a few other fine examples. Harvey never seems to lack in the area of bands to back him either.Sit back relax and crank this album up you won't regret it!

i have bought this album almost before thirty years together with *Snake* and *Get Off In Chicago*. As I Said in *one line review* this is the best instrumental guitar album i*ve ever heard. Also, the other albums of harvey Mandel is exellent. Thank You Harvey!

Harvey has always been one of my favorite blues guitar players. His inventive use of wah wah and fuzz match his incredible choice of licks. I just listened to this disk. It is still fresh after almost 30 years. Go Harvey go!