Green Monkey Records / Artist
Obrador
Obrador's 30+ year highlights include playing several Washington prisons. We played the Walla Walla pen 2 times, McNeil Island, Monroe and the Purdy women's facility. Those long volunteer travels were full of stories of being inside a very closed environment. Kim McCartney, a student at the The Evergreen State College was doing prison advocacy studies and arranged all of Obrador's prison visits. Each visit provided stories for all of us. At our McNeil Island federal pen visit, we hauled gear all day. On trucks, on the road, on dock, on ferry, on truck, off truck, upstairs to on stage. We were the first group to play there due to a 2-year lockdown, so they were ready for an afternoon of Jazz, Funk, Latin and original music. When the curtain came down the prisoners came in and the lights on the crowd turned off. The curtain opened and we couldn't see a soul in the 800+ crowd, but could hear a very satisfied roar after each tune. You'll find every kind of guy in prison. I saw a guy that looked like a nerd I knew in high school standing next to a guy that scared you by barely looking in his direction. At Monroe, we saw guys in the 4th row smoking reefer, At Purdy, we hurried to our next tune as fast as we could, due to the heckling cat calls from the crowd. Being in a prison and not being a prisoner was like being in the middle of a National Geographic article.
Paul Hjelm and Michael Olson
January 2026.
Live at McNeil & Monroe Prisons 1977
- Kim McCartney Introduction
- Dedication
- Cantaloupe Island
- Um Ah La
- Black Box
- Mas Que Nada
- Foot Prints
- Passion Dance
- Win Vidor’s comments on KAOS FM
- Festival
- Equinox
- Impressions
- Mambo Atrasado
- Little Sunflower
- Lady In Black Hat
- Blink Samba
- Festival 2
- Tough Talk
Obrador:
Tom Russell- Flute and Baritone Sax
Vince Soluna- Tenor Sax
Paul Hjelm- Guitar
Michael Olson- Conga, Percussion
Michael Moore- Piano
Jim Doney- Drums
Doc Doolittle- Bass
Recorded 6/18/1977
Aaron Sonego- Sound and Recording
Produced by Obrador
Mastered by Tom Dyer 2026
Cover shot – Obrador at McNeil Island – you can see the bars on the door!
More Odd Jobs
Oly Jazz #4! We are taking you in the wayback machine to 1981 for Obrador’s debut album, More Odd Jobs. In short – this album is refreshingly excellent – a bunch of young guys deep in their chops who probably don’t yet even know how good they are – the opening volley in a thirty year run for this band. They even feature the immortal saxophonist Bert Wilson on Michael Moore’s “Tierra De Ensueno”. This was pressed up on black vinyl back when and I asked the Obradorians to dig thru their basements – they have come up with 10 sealed copies for you to buy. $15 bucks for your piece of joyful Olympia sonic history and truth. Don’t hesitate.
- Willow
- Tierra De Ensueno
- Sidestream
- Zaire Freedom Suite
- Downtown Lacey
- More Odd Jobs
- Free Three Mile Island
- Snakes Bewildered
San Francisco, CA 1983
Previously unreleased! “It’s been nearly 40 years since Obrador pointed a big yellow step van loaded with gear & seven musicians south on Interstate 5. Destination San Francisco, where the group was scheduled for a 30-hour session at Russian Hill Studio. Against all odds, we made it there and back to Olympia without being arrested. On arrival we were welcomed to a well-equipped professional studio and an engineering staff that was probably more fascinated by the Obrador “scene” than particularly enamored of the music. As the first session began, we were confronted with a problem. The engineers had no idea what to do with a String Bass. They had never worked with a Bass Violin and more than a few hours were eaten up trying to get an acceptable sound. Kudos to the Russian Hill staff and bassist Steve Luceno for their diligence. What resulted from 4 or 5 different sessions was 8 original compositions recorded live in the studio. I don’t recall that we did very much overdubbing and several of the pieces were accomplished in one take. Steve Luceno’s beautiful ballad, “Return” was one take at 11:00am after a night of substantial partying over in Berkeley. The music on this recording has been gathering dust in the band archive for decades and only a few of the selections were ever publicly performed. So, this is a rare glimpse into the instrumental repertoire of a band that played together for 30+ years; a band with no commercial potential that endured solely from the love between members and a passion to create a unique sound.” Thanks for listening, Michael Moore.
- Blink Samba
- Lady In The Black Hat
- Nasty Figures
- Return
- Suit’s Time
- Three In One
- Two Of Us
- Water Memories
Recorded at Russian Hill Studios San Francisco July 1983
Mixed at ?? Studios Fall 1983
Transferred to digital 2003
Steve Bentley ~ Drums
Paul Hjelm ~ Guitar
Steve Luceno ~ Bass
Michael Moore ~ Piano
Michael Olson ~ Conga/Percussion
Vincent Soluna ~ Sax
Tom Russell ~ Sax, Flute
Engineers ~ Aaron Sonego, Tomas Jones
Producer ~ Carl Cook