TWO LANDMARK GUITAR releases, both solo debuts, came along within a few months of each other in 1968 to open my youthful ears and blow my 14-year-old mind. And yet, one so completely overshadowed the other as to render it to relative obscurity. I’m referring to the near-simultaneous releases of Jeff Beck’s Truth, which came out on July 29 of that year, and Harvey Mandel’s Cristo Redentor, issued that November.
Beck, of course, was already famous, having succeeded Eric Clapton in the wildly popular Yardbirds in 1965 and appeared with the band the following year in Michelangelo Antonioni’s film Blow-Up. He also had major-label backing for his solo debut, courtesy of Epic Records. Mandel had already put in his time on Chicago’s active blues scene, making his recording debut in 1966 on Barry Goldberg’s Blowing My Mind and appearing on 1967’s Stand Back! Here Comes Charley Musselwhite’s Southside Band, a seminal recording that, along with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band’s East-West released that same year, bridged the gap between blues and rock and roll. Harvey’s solo debut on the smaller Dutch-American Philips Records — the same label that had released albums by Edith Piaf, Jacques Brel and the Singing Nun — simply did not have the visibility or promotional muscle to compete against a major-label juggernaut like Epic.
While both albums were life-altering experiences for listeners back then, and they continue to stagger to this day, Mandel’s instrumental solo debut was an overlooked masterpiece. Produced by Abe “Voco” Kesh (née Keshishian), a San Francisco radio DJ and producer who helmed Blue Cheer’s Vincebus Eruptum (which included their hit cover of Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues”), Mandel’s Cristo Redentor was a landmark melding of rock, jazz, blues, country, quasi-classical and soul, with some experimental guitar work thrown in for good measure. That includes his use of backward guitar effects, a manual tape-flipping process introduced by the Beatles on “I’m Only Sleeping,” from 1966’s Revolver, and perfected by Jimi Hendrix on the title track to 1967’s Are You Experienced. Harvey’s infinite sustain on his Les Paul goldtop — his entire solo on the title track consists of a single note sustained over the percolating groove for an astounding 56 bars — is why he was later dubbed the Sustain King.
