Baaska And Scavelli – Get Off The Ground

Yes, you are reading that right…one of THE rarest jazz dance anthems finally re-issued on Freestyle Records. For those of you not familiar with this track, it has become somewhat of an enigma amongst collectors and DJs for the last 23 years, eluding the most ardent of diggers and dancers alike. First picked up for 10p by jazz DJ Chris Bangs in a second hand shop, the tune fast became a firm favourite with the dancers who battled at the now legendary Electric Ballroom, due in no small part to it’s booming bass and frenetic changes, but also for the vocal crescendo which signalled for the losing dancers to “Get Off The Ground”. This tradition was kept by Ballroom successors and jazz dance dons Paul Murphy and Gilles Peterson, elevating the track to it’s now legendary status. With nothing credited on the sleeve or label other than the words “The Bottom End”, the original performers were almost impossible to track down.

The track was originally recorded in the USA as a test disc for a studio monitor sub-woofer (specifically designed for Steely Dan’s Pretzel Logic LP) and was recorded as a live jam with the musicians improvising most of the parts. A further twist in the story is that the musicians Don Baaska, Jamie Faunt, Ken Park and vocalist Elvira Scavelli had absolutely no idea of this records existence, let alone it’s magnitude over on this side of the Atlantic. We’re pretty sure that if it wasn’t for the detective work of dedicated digger Seymour Nurse, they still wouldn’t! Over the years many people have laid claim to the origins of the track, with different versions appearing by artists such as Working Week, Brother Davies Miles and Janet Lawson – all of whom added to the mystique and the appeal of finding the original! Luckily Seymour wasn’t detered and having dedicated over 20 years of his life to finding this seminal track, finally located composer Don Baaska in 2003. Only 5 copies of the original 12″ have surfaced in the time since it’s recording in 1974. It is presented here in it’s full 8 minute “Bottom End Version” alongside a shorter version of “Get Off The Ground” and another mellower jazz number “Floating