Music | Pamela Windo

GIMME, GIMME….. about 1982

THE FLAME ….

A BEAUTIFUL SONG BY MY SON JAMIE RUSSELL…..

Free downloads…

Is this the time? – from STEAM RADIO TAPES:

Blonde Country – from DEEP WATER:

Baxter from DOGFACE:

These 3 CDs are of Gary’s and my music, recorded in the 70s and 80s, and available now on: http://www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/search/?query=gary+windo&x=0&y=0

AND HERE’S A WEB RADIO INTERVIEW I DID WITH GONZO, ABOUT HOW STEAM RADIO TAPES CAME TO BE RECORDED IN PINK FLOYD’S STUDIOS:

http://gonzomultimedia.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=66d407e1f55721a2ff0351da3&id=01a961c5d1&e=1bde6394b1

ANGLO AMERICAN – Cuneiform – 2004
Excerpt from Him through Me:
One evening, while I was typing and listening to Alice Coltrane’s Cosmic Music album, without stopping to think, I said, “I’d love to play piano!” “Then we’ll get you one!” he replied. I said I knew nothing about music. He’d teach me, he said.The upright piano arrived and he kept his word, showing me rudimentary scales and simple chords that I practiced in between my jobs and household chores. Even at night, in bed, until my eyes closed, he would test me, “How many flats in G-flat?—How many sharps in E-major?”Even so, the idea of learning to play at my age was daunting. The piano seemed like a mountain waiting to be climbed, and I soon got depressed at my mistakes. “OK. Don’t get crazy. Forget scales for now,” he said. “Let go and play anything you feel. Think of dancing. Let your fingers dance on the keys. Get to know the sounds a piano can make.” He had chosen the right words—my hands were part of my body and my body knew how to dance.

Years later, he would say, “… I’ve sort of had to take the saxophone to pieces and blow it inside out … the same applied to the piano for Pam.”

More Information AND BUY HERE : http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/windo.html

Reviews
Discogs
BBC
NPR with Kevin Whitehead
Paris Transatlantic
Anglo-American is the title of a song written by Gary’s partner Pam, suffering from homesickness for Blighty after following the saxophonist across the big pond, but also a good name for the album as a whole: the contrast between the sprawling free jazz jams of the Soft Machine/Brotherhood of Breath and the dry, tight rhythm section of Windo’s US quartet, with Pam Windo on piano, Steve Swallow on bass and D. Sharpe on drums is clear.

AVANT GARDENERS – Reel Recordings – 2008
Excerpt from Him through Me:
“Soon, I found myself letting go, using a mixture of the chords I’d mastered and playing ‘free.’ And, as I did, he began to come into the music room to play along. And then came impromptu free-form sessions when other musicians dropped by, drummers, bass players, and guitarists. He would set up the four-track reel-to-reel he’d bought to record these sessions, to listen back, enjoy and learn from. And then the music took over as the reels turned silently on top of my piano.He neither made excuses for my being there, nor instructed me on how or what to play. I simply threw myself into the wild conversation of improvised sounds.

Pam and Gary Windo were coupled in spirit with a private passion for the musical road less traveled. During their marriage, Gary taught Pam how to approach the piano as an “expressive extension of life”, the aesthetic which informed his mastery of the tenor saxophone. Read More

BUY HERE: https://www.gonzomultimedia.com/product_details/15457/Pam_and_Gary_Windo-Avant_Gardeners.html

Reviews

Donald Elfman
Nic Jones
All About Jazz
All Music
Cuneiform Records
CD Universe
SquidCO

PAM WINDO & THE SHADES – Warner Bros/Bearsville – 1980
On my 38^th birthday, I was handed a check for $20,000, along with a recording contract. Albert Grossman—show biz manager extraordinaire—had seen my band at the White Water Depot, a country club where the bands usually played country music. Gary had joined the band as soon as he’d heard my first punk number, “Gimme, Gimme!” I was the first punk in Woodstock, even made the front page of The Daily Freeman, beneath the latest news on the Iran crisis. I was a long way from my conservative home town of Brighton, England—and a long way from the reserved teenager who read French romantic poets.“I want your body, to hell with your mind, ‘cos I’ve got a mind of my own,” was my personal war cry for women’s lib. I’d been a long time fighting the men’s club in the world of music. Once I was given rein, I went for it: the live shows had themes, and drew both fans and the curious. The musicians (apart from Gary) who had the guts to join up with me were Rich McCarthy on bass, Charlie Brocco on guitar, Ian Bennett on tenor sax, Chris grassi on drums. The album did not live up to the live shows, which were energetic and visually exciting, and, with Gary as band master, were constantly improvised. But I went on with The Shades in search of a ‘hit song.’ Warner Bros offered me a song-writing contract which I turned down; naively asserting I wanted my songs just for my band. At Albert’s direction, I changed the original personnel. The roster of musicians who came to play included bass players Ed Fitzgerald, John Marsh and Steve York, drummer Ron Riddle, and guitarists John Platania, Ted Orr and Robert Gelles. I became relentless and ruthless. Finally, sometime in the mid-80s, I bowed out of the music scene and turned to writing … and escaped to Morocco. Read Warner Bros. bio Reviews
In 1981, Pam Windo & the Shades was entered in Who’s Who in Rock Music, and in 1983 in The Rolling Stone Record Guide.Excerpt from Interview with Howard Johnson (tuba player, Double Fantasy) in Roll Magazine
When did you last speak to John Lennon?
I spoke to him the night he died. I was going to bring John and Yoko a recording I had of Pam Windo — she’s married to a saxophone player named Gary Windo and she sang, frankly, something like Yoko did. She and her husband and another tenor player from her hometown of Bristol in England had a way of playing unison parts —the same notes but having it sound very strange because the pitches were dirty on one or both of them but their phrasing was exactly right. So it just ended up being a great sound that I thought John would like because these guys could also play in tune and John had talked to me about taking a horn section on tour. So I called the studio. Yoko answered the phone and passed it to John. I said, ‘I brought that record with the tenor players I’d like you to hear, should I bring it up to the studio?’ And he said, ‘We’re going to leave a little early tonight, bring it in tomorrow in the afternoon.’ And I thought, ‘Well, that’s good’ because I wanted to watch Monday night football. And Monday night football is what told us that he had been killed.

Gary Windo: A highly original musician with an instantly recognizable style, Windo was born in England in a musical family, and began playing music at a very early age.
Gary Windo Click here to Read More – on next page

	ANGLO AMERICAN – Cuneiform – 2004 Excerpt from Him through Me: One evening, while I was typing and listening to Alice Coltrane’s Cosmic Music album, without stopping to think, I said, “I’d love to play piano!” “Then we’ll get you one!” he replied. I said I knew nothing about music. He’d teach me, he said.The upright piano arrived and he kept his word, showing me rudimentary scales and simple chords that I practiced in between my jobs and household chores. Even at night, in bed, until my eyes closed, he would test me, “How many flats in G-flat?—How many sharps in E-major?”Even so, the idea of learning to play at my age was daunting. The piano seemed like a mountain waiting to be climbed, and I soon got depressed at my mistakes. “OK. Don’t get crazy. Forget scales for now,” he said. “Let go and play anything you feel. Think of dancing. Let your fingers dance on the keys. Get to know the sounds a piano can make.” He had chosen the right words—my hands were part of my body and my body knew how to dance. Years later, he would say, “… I’ve sort of had to take the saxophone to pieces and blow it inside out … the same applied to the piano for Pam.” More Information AND BUY HERE : http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/windo.html Reviews Discogs BBC NPR with Kevin Whitehead Paris Transatlantic Anglo-American is the title of a song written by Gary’s partner Pam, suffering from homesickness for Blighty after following the saxophonist across the big pond, but also a good name for the album as a whole: the contrast between the sprawling free jazz jams of the Soft Machine/Brotherhood of Breath and the dry, tight rhythm section of Windo’s US quartet, with Pam Windo on piano, Steve Swallow on bass and D. Sharpe on drums is clear.
	AVANT GARDENERS – Reel Recordings – 2008 Excerpt from Him through Me: “Soon, I found myself letting go, using a mixture of the chords I’d mastered and playing ‘free.’ And, as I did, he began to come into the music room to play along. And then came impromptu free-form sessions when other musicians dropped by, drummers, bass players, and guitarists. He would set up the four-track reel-to-reel he’d bought to record these sessions, to listen back, enjoy and learn from. And then the music took over as the reels turned silently on top of my piano.He neither made excuses for my being there, nor instructed me on how or what to play. I simply threw myself into the wild conversation of improvised sounds. Pam and Gary Windo were coupled in spirit with a private passion for the musical road less traveled. During their marriage, Gary taught Pam how to approach the piano as an “expressive extension of life”, the aesthetic which informed his mastery of the tenor saxophone. Read More BUY HERE: https://www.gonzomultimedia.com/product_details/15457/Pam_and_Gary_Windo-Avant_Gardeners.html Reviews Donald Elfman Nic Jones All About Jazz All Music Cuneiform Records CD Universe SquidCO
	PAM WINDO & THE SHADES – Warner Bros/Bearsville – 1980 On my 38^th birthday, I was handed a check for $20,000, along with a recording contract. Albert Grossman—show biz manager extraordinaire—had seen my band at the White Water Depot, a country club where the bands usually played country music. Gary had joined the band as soon as he’d heard my first punk number, “Gimme, Gimme!” I was the first punk in Woodstock, even made the front page of The Daily Freeman, beneath the latest news on the Iran crisis. I was a long way from my conservative home town of Brighton, England—and a long way from the reserved teenager who read French romantic poets.“I want your body, to hell with your mind, ‘cos I’ve got a mind of my own,” was my personal war cry for women’s lib. I’d been a long time fighting the men’s club in the world of music. Once I was given rein, I went for it: the live shows had themes, and drew both fans and the curious. The musicians (apart from Gary) who had the guts to join up with me were Rich McCarthy on bass, Charlie Brocco on guitar, Ian Bennett on tenor sax, Chris grassi on drums. The album did not live up to the live shows, which were energetic and visually exciting, and, with Gary as band master, were constantly improvised. But I went on with The Shades in search of a ‘hit song.’ Warner Bros offered me a song-writing contract which I turned down; naively asserting I wanted my songs just for my band. At Albert’s direction, I changed the original personnel. The roster of musicians who came to play included bass players Ed Fitzgerald, John Marsh and Steve York, drummer Ron Riddle, and guitarists John Platania, Ted Orr and Robert Gelles. I became relentless and ruthless. Finally, sometime in the mid-80s, I bowed out of the music scene and turned to writing … and escaped to Morocco. Read Warner Bros. bio Reviews In 1981, Pam Windo & the Shades was entered in Who’s Who in Rock Music, and in 1983 in The Rolling Stone Record Guide.Excerpt from Interview with Howard Johnson (tuba player, Double Fantasy) in Roll Magazine When did you last speak to John Lennon? I spoke to him the night he died. I was going to bring John and Yoko a recording I had of Pam Windo — she’s married to a saxophone player named Gary Windo and she sang, frankly, something like Yoko did. She and her husband and another tenor player from her hometown of Bristol in England had a way of playing unison parts —the same notes but having it sound very strange because the pitches were dirty on one or both of them but their phrasing was exactly right. So it just ended up being a great sound that I thought John would like because these guys could also play in tune and John had talked to me about taking a horn section on tour. So I called the studio. Yoko answered the phone and passed it to John. I said, ‘I brought that record with the tenor players I’d like you to hear, should I bring it up to the studio?’ And he said, ‘We’re going to leave a little early tonight, bring it in tomorrow in the afternoon.’ And I thought, ‘Well, that’s good’ because I wanted to watch Monday night football. And Monday night football is what told us that he had been killed.

	Gary Windo: A highly original musician with an instantly recognizable style, Windo was born in England in a musical family, and began playing music at a very early age. Gary Windo Click here to Read More – on next page