Recorda-Me

Want to help me write a book?

2009-01-12T11:41:00.008-04:00

The list of proposals for the next books in the 33 1/3 series has been posted at the blog.

My proposal was for Archers of Loaf's Vee Vee, so if you're a fan of the album (and/or Recorda-Me) and would buy a book about it, you could let them know by leaving a comment.

Here is my original review of the album.

CFMH 107.3 FM TOP 107 ALBUMS OF 2008

2009-01-02T20:01:00.000-04:00

1. V/A - Saint John 3 - The Revenge
2. C'mon - Bottled Lightning of an All Time High
3. Grand Theft Bus - Made Upwards
4. Woodhands - Heart Attack
5. Black Mountain - In the Future
6. V/A - CBC Radio 3 Sessions
7. Tom Fun Orchestra - You Will Land with a Thud
8. Barracuda Sunrise - Barracuda Bootleg Vol. 2
9. Share - Pedestrian
10. Sleepless Nights - Turn into Vapour
11. Hospital Grade - Secrets & Sawdust
12. Organizers - This Old Town's Filled with Sin
13. V/A - Forward Music Group
14. Constantines - Kensington Heights
15. Hey Rosetta! - Into Your Lungs
16. Sloan - Parallel Play
17. Adam Mowery - Port City Burning
18. Tony Wilson 6tet - Pearls Before Swine
19. Tokyo Police Club - Elephant Shell
20. Chesterfield Kings - Psychedelic Sunrise
21. United Steel Workers of Montreal - Broken Trucks and Bottles
22. Elliott Brood - Mountain Meadows
23. Mardeen - Read Less Minds
24. Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely
25. Gruesomes - Tyrants of Teen Trash
26. Ron Sexsmith - Exit Strategy for the Soul
27. Chad Vangaalen - Soft Airplane
28. Matt Mays and El Torpedo - Terminal Romance
29. Superfantasticks - Choose Your Destination
30. Brendan Canning - Something for All of Us
31. Paper Lions - s/t
32. V/A - Do You want to Talk All Night? A Tribute to Snailhouse
33. Howlin' Rain - Magnificent Fiend
34. Corb Lund - Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!
35. John Henrys - Sweet as the Grain
36. Flight of the Conchords - s/t
37. Wintersleep - Welcome to the Night Sky
38. Vampire Weekend - s/t
39. Slowcoaster - Future radio
40. Starvin' Hungry - Cold Burns
41. Santogold - s/t
42. Beck - Modern Guilt
43. Old Man Luedecke - Proof of Love
44. Holy Fuck - LP
45. Gerry Hebert Quartet - The Beat Niq Sessions Vol. 2
46. Sylvie - Trees And Shade Are Our Only Fences
47. TV on the Radio - Dear Science
48. Buck 65 - Situation
49. Bob Snider - A Maze in Grays
50. Catherine MacLellan - Church Bell Blues
51. V/A - Songs for the Gang - A Thrush Hermit Tribute
52. Blitzen Trapper - Furr
53. V/A - Variations in Time: A Jazz Perspective
54. V/A - Unity: A Tribute to Desmond Dekker
55. Band of Horses - Cease to Begin
56. Hercules and Love Affair - s/t
57. V/A - Juno soundtrack
58. Olympic Symphonium - More in Sorrow than in Anger
59. R.E.M. - Accelerate
60. XX Teens - Welcome to Goon Island
61. Women - s/t
62. The Sadies - New Seasons
63. The Evaporators - Gassy Jack and Other Tales
64. Justin Townes Earle - The Good Life
65. Grady - A Cup of Cold Poison
66. Hello Blue Roses - The Portrait Is Finished and I Have Failed to Capture Your Beauty
67. Loudon Wainwright III - Recovery
68. Brightblack Morning Light - Motion to Rejoin
69. The Golden Hands Before God - Here
70. Department of Eagles - In Ear Park
71. V/A - In Tune Saskatchewan 2008
72. Land of Talk - Some Are Lakes
73. Ratatat - LP3
74. Cat Power - Jukebox
75. British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?
76. Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs
77. Iron Giant - Creator of Scars
78. City and Colour - Bring Me Your Love
79. Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
80. Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride
81. Outrageous Cherry - s/t
82. The Pack A.D. - Funeral Mixtape
83. B.A. Johnston - Stairway to Hamilton
84. Destroyer - Trouble in Dreams
85. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
86. Fembots - Calling Out
87. Kate Maki - On High
88. Rachael Yamagata - Elephants... Teeth Sinking into Heart
89. One day as a Lion - s/t
90. V/A - Funky Nassau: The Compass Point Story
91. V/A - Anti- Winter Sampler
92. Metallica - Death Magnetic
93. Caribou - Andorra
94. DK Ibomeka - I'm Your Man
95. Jane Vain and the Dark Matter - Love Is Where the Smoke Is
96. Luke Doucet and the White Falcon - Blood's Too Rich
97. Laura Barrett - Victory Garden
98. Apollo Sunshine - Shall Noise Upon
99. Bloc Party - Intimacy
100. V/A - Umalali: The Garifuna Women's Project
101. Vancougar - Canadian Tuxedo
102. Plants and Animals - Parc Avenue
103. 54-40 - Northern Soul
104. Beautiful Nubia and the Roots Renaissance Band - Kilokilo
105. K.D. Lang - Watershed
106. Hayden - In Field & Town
107. The Stills - Oceans Will Rise

www.cfmh.ca

CFMH 2008 Countdown

2008-12-31T14:38:00.002-04:00

Tune in to CFMH 107.3 FM in Saint John, NB (online at www.cfmh.ca) around, oh, noonish, to hear the top 107.3 albums of 2008 as compiled by yours truly! It's a long, arduous process that should take up most of the day (and I won't actually be there), so if you miss any part of it, check back here on the weekend and I'll post the list. Happy New Year!

PAVEMENT Slanted and Enchanted

2008-12-13T18:55:00.007-04:00

Matador OLE 038-2 (1992)

In 1993, I was a part-time student finishing up a music degree at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where I spent many days prowling the streets and industrial parks of the city, looking for a part-time job. One afternoon, I stopped by a record shop to kill some time between interviews. Browsing through the used cassettes, I spotted Slanted and Enchanted, the debut full-length album by California indie rockers Pavement. I had heard plenty of "next big thing" talk about the band, so I plunked down five bucks and popped the tape into my Walkman, where it stayed on repeat all day while I shuffled from appointment to appointment. The singer sang lines like "I was dressed for success/but success it never comes" in a hesitantly sympathetic voice... sitting on the bus ride home in my suit and tie, still jobless, I knew how he felt. I must have listened to S&E at least seven times in a row that day; the job search quickly grew tiresome, but the album didn't.

S&E is the sound of the raw elements of rock and roll being reshuffled for the umpteenth time; listen to the opening track, "Summer Babe (Winter Version)" and you'll hear lazy, fuzzed-out guitars played over a bassline that sounds like it was swiped from a Joy Division bootleg played at the wrong speed while in the background someone tries to remember how to play the James Brown "funky drummer" backbeat. "No Life Singed Her" features Tourette's-influenced vocal outbursts from someone who sounds like Tim Roth's Mr. Orange character after being shot at the beginning of Reservoir Dogs. Most startingly, "Here" is a plaintively pretty ballad with keening vocals and languid guitar lines that indicate that success was something Pavement deserved, dressed or not.

Separated at birth: Lindsay Lohan and Tammy

2008-05-08T18:22:00.002-03:00

Go here to listen to as much as you can stand of Ms. Lohan's new single, and then watch this:

Except for the second one sounding a little more musically current, I can't hear the difference.

The Final No Pain for Cakes playlist, 22 April 2008

2008-04-22T20:59:00.003-03:00

"King Ghidora" - Rutherford/Vandermark/Muller/van der Schyff
"An Oscar for Treadwell" - Anthony Braxton's Charlie Parker Project
"Klactoveesedstene" - Ornette Coleman Quintet
"Please Send Me Sweet Chariot" - Derek Bailey
"The Path" - Jan Garbarek
"Intro to Fifteen" - Art Ensemble of Chicago with Cecil Taylor
"The Lady of Khartoum" - Garrison Fewell/Eric Hofbauer
"Time Will Tell" - Paul Bley/Evan Parker/Barre Phillips
"Angles of Repose Number One" - Joe Maneri/Barre Phillips/Mat Maneri
"I Smoke by the Ocean" - Deep Dark United
"I Am the Walrus" - Tony Wilson 6tet
"No Pain for Cakes" - The Lounge Lizards

http://www.shoutcast.com/directory/?s=cfmh&numresult=25

New radio show

2008-04-21T10:00:00.003-03:00

The final broadcast of No Pain for Cakes will take place on Tuesday, April 22 at 9:00 p.m. AST on CFMH-FM and shoutcast.com... but on April 29 at 8:00 p.m. AST I will be hosting a new weekly show called Double Nickels on the Dime, which will be two hours of alternative pop, rock, punk, and hip-hop from the 1970's, 80's, and 90's (but mostly the 80's). Expect to hear lots of R.E.M., Husker Du, Minutemen, Replacements, Mekons, Public Enemy, Pere Ubu, Pavement, Television, Dinosaur Jr., etc., etc. Hope you'll tune in!

No Pain for Cakes playlist, 15 April 2008

2008-04-15T21:02:00.002-03:00

"Composition No. 23B" - Anthony Braxton
"Don't Impede the Stream" - Joe Fiedler Trio
"Blood" - Paul Bley
"Walking Pictures" - Jason Kao Hwang/Edge
"Sonny's Back" - Archie Shepp
"Laxing Lizards Resume" - Wilson/Lee/Bentley
"Taktgebertendenz" - Butcher/Muller/van der Schyff
"96.5" - Ken McIntyre
"Introduction by Ronnie Scott", "Nick Tete" - Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath
"Sweep Out" - Joe Morris Trio
"Transformation" - Chicago Underground Trio
"D Trad, That's What" - Cecil Taylor

http://www.shoutcast.com/directory/?s=cfmh&numresult=25

SWANS Children of God/World of Skin

2008-04-13T14:34:00.003-03:00

Young God Records YG02 (1986-88)

I bought Children of God while I was a student at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia during the late 1980's... at the time, I was taking advantage of living in a larger city with cooler record stores than my hometown had and was sampling a variety of "alternative" or "college" rock. It was a little different from most of the music I was listening to at the time... much heavier and "metallic" than, say, R.E.M. or the Replacements (or even the Fall). At the time, it also seemed a bit simplistic in both its lyrical and musical content... lots of moaning and repetitive melodic figures over simple, plodding beats and general self-pity... what we would soon refer to as "goth" (and not the relatively happy, poppy kind you're probably thinking of. I mean, get an earful of this:

Right now I should probably apologize to all hardcore Swans fans for calling their favourite band "goth". I take it back, OK? Put down the axe.).

The funny thing is that, while this music was probably aimed at my late-teen age group at the time it was released, it's only now, as a thirtysomething adult, that I've come to appreciate it. I picked up this reissue (which features a second disc of comparatively sedate but still somber material released under the side-project name "World of Skin") partly out of curiosity and partly for nostalgia, and I was surprised at how well it holds up. Not all the songs bludgeon, either; the ballads "In My Garden" and "You're Not Real, Girl" would make great cover-song material for, say, Leonard Cohen. My favourite, however, is "Like a Drug", a keyless, joyless stomp featuring sledgehammer guitars and drums, bellowing brass, and a chorus of siren-like voices druggedly singing "sha-la-la-la".

The sound quality is remarkably good on even the loudest of these tracks, and this and other reissues from the band are well worth seeking out by the adventuresome listener. After this album, Swans would explore gentler sounds on albums like The Burning World and Love of Life, but Children of God shows the band to be the missing link between punk, metal, and (ducks head) goth.

No Pain for Cakes playlist, 8 April 2008

2008-04-08T21:12:00.002-03:00

"The Sicilian Clan" - John Zorn
"Thanking the Universe" - Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble
"Ghost Dog" - Rob Brown Ensemble
"Grid" - Matthew Shipp String Trio
"ififif" - Guy-Gustafsson-Strid Trio with Marilyn Crispell
"The Legend of Enos Slaughter" - Yankees
"Gone, Goner" - Butcher/Muller/van der Schyff
"It" - Cecil Taylor/Elvin Jones
"Ee-Gypt-Me" - Tony Wilson 6tet
"Eclipse at Dawn" - Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath
"Ramblin'" - Paul Bley
"Wrenches" - Steelwool Trio
"Aten and Amarna" - The Roy Campbell Ensemble
"Composition/Improvisation Nos. 1, 2 & 3 - I" - Roscoe Mitchell
"Blue Lake" - Don Cherry

http://www.shoutcast.com/directory/?s=cfmh&numresult=25

Thor is the God of Metal

2008-04-02T10:43:00.001-03:00

JANDEK The Beginning

2008-03-26T12:38:00.000-03:00

Corwood 0766 (1999)

Singer/songwriter Jandek may not make the kind of music that results in massive popularity and record sales, but he's a critic's dream; they get to use words like "cryptic", "hermetic", and "idiosyncratic" like there's no tomorrow. Jandek is what you might call a "cult artist"'s cult artist; since the late 1970's he's been recording albums of totally original, utterly unclassifiable songs that usually feature no more than his own wandering, keyless vocal meanderings over a seemingly untuned guitar. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, he's released close to forty albums on Corwood Industries, his own record label, and maintained a small, devoted following, all without touring or (until recently) playing any live concerts or making any public appearances whatsoever.

Stylistically, The Beginning doesn't deviate very far from Jandek's earlier releases; most songs are addressed to a "you" that could be a (former) lover with little in the way of standard pop melody, as Jandek's guitar pumps out harsh, steady ostinatos. The exception is the title track, coming at the end of the album and clocking in at over fifteen minutes. It's an instrumental piece played on a, you guessed it, poorly-tuned piano that nevertheless achieves a majestic, almost classical beauty by its abrupt end.

To learn more about Jandek, check out Jandek on Corwood, an excellent documentary now available on DVD.

In the news

2008-03-22T15:43:00.002-03:00

MINUTEMEN 3-Way Tie (for Last)

2008-03-13T21:06:00.004-03:00

SST Records SST-CD-058 (1985)

When Robert Christgau stated that the untimely death of Minutemen vocalist/guitarist/songwriter D. Boon was on a par with those of John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix for wasted potential, he wasn't exaggerating. Boon may not have achieved the fame of those men in his twenty-seven years on the planet, but it wasn't for lack of trying. After five years and ten records of brilliant, uncompromising punk rock, 3-Way Tie for Last sounded like the beginning of a new direction for the band that would have brought them increased exposure; instead, thanks to a tragic automobile accident, it was to be the band's (and Boon's) epitaph.

Too bad, because the album found the group coming to terms with commercial accessibility in a way that didn't place any limits upon their creative identity or their artistic integrity. From the soaring guitar solo on "The Price of Paradise" that opens the album to the friendly acoustic bounce of "What Is It?", the group stood poised for a breakthrough, even if their increasingly political lyrics (and far-left leanings) seemed unlikely to endear them to radio programmers. Sadly, it was not to be.

A lot of die-hard fans consider their double-LP opus Double Nickels on the Dime to be the Minutemen's finest hour, but I prefer 3-Way for not only its brevity but also its focus; the songwriting is some of the group's tightest. Besides, for a band that made their name (literally) by playing songs that lasted only a minute or under, less is definitely more.

Though punk to the bitter end, in the past the band had been known to record songs from such unlikely sources as Van Halen and Steely Dan (and in the most sincere, non-ironic way to boot). 3-Way Tie (for Last) features no less than five cover songs, including a beautifully straight-up reading of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Have You Ever Seen the Rain", a rendition of Roky Erickson's "Bermuda" sung into a telephone answering machine by bassist Mike Watt, and a powerful version of Blue Oyster Cult's "The Red and the Black" that may be the group's best performance ever on record.

Here's a promotional video for the group's cover of the Urinals' "Ack Ack Ack" that answers the question, "How do you make a video for a song that's only twenty-seven seconds long?" Why, by bookending it with footage of the band paying tribute to the Three Stooges, of course. It echoes the spirit of the sole lyric of the group's "Situations at Hand": "There are still lofty dreams, meager desires, and still silliness!"

No Pain for Cakes playlist, 11 March 2008

2008-03-11T21:12:00.002-03:00

"Hora Decubitus" - Charles Mingus
"Four Pests" - Joe Morris
"Evidence" - Thelonious Monk
"Equinox" - Pharoah Sanders
"From East Sixth Street" - Jason Kao Hwang/Edge
"Max's Dream" - Wilson/Lee/Bentley
"Helix" - Sam Rivers
"The Path" - ZMF Trio
"Commentary" - Tyshawn Sorey
"Little Fox Run" - Joseph Jarman
"February" - Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble
"Smoke" - Mark Feldman/Sylvie Courvoisier
"My Favourite Things" - Hank Roberts
"The Price of Survival" - George Lewis & Miya Masaoka
"A Frankfurter in Caracas" - Joe Fiedler Trio
"Celebrated Blazons" - Cecil Taylor/William Parker/Tony Oxley

http://www.shoutcast.com/directory/?s=cfmh&numresult=25

LIVE SKULL Dusted

2008-03-11T09:05:00.002-03:00

Homestead HMS090-2 (1988)

Along with Sonic Youth and Swans, Live Skull personified the sound of the New York school of alternative guitar rock, class of the 1980's. What set them apart from bands like SY were their standard tunings (Sonic Youth liked to use experimental tunings on their guitars) and their greater sense of economy in their songs, which sounded closer to conventional (punk) rockers than those of their compatriots'. They were still pretty noisy, though: guitarists Mark C and Tom Paine twanged out overdriven riffs that sounded straight out of some imaginary spaghetti western over tribal rhythms from drummer Rich Hutchins and bassist Marnie Greenholz.

LS released a few albums before Dusted, but they didn't really find their sound until the addition of vocalist Thalia Zedek; her melodic range didn't extend much farther than, say, Lou Reed's, but her short, declarative phrasings delivered in a hazy, drugged monotone between bursts of guitars and drums helped set the band apart from its contemporaries (it's fitting that the album closes with a cover of Curtis Mayfield's "Pusherman"). There is a deliberate emptiness, almost a hollowness, at the center of Live Skull's music, but that's not meant as a detraction; you just have to be in the right mood to hear it.

No Pain for Cakes playlist, 4 March 2008

2008-03-04T21:09:00.003-04:00

"Lonely Woman" - Ornette Coleman Quartet
"Cloud Call" - Jason Kao Hwang/Edge
"Port of Call" - Cecil Taylor
"I Am the Walrus" - Tony Wilson 6tet
"Quintet" - Spring Heel Jack
"What's in Your Hand" - Reggie Workman
"Sharpening the windings until they roll up, roll up, roll up and snag on the point of the tear" - Butcher/Muller/van der Schyff
"Composition No. 69N" - Anthony Braxton
"Wherever June Bugs Go" - Archie Shepp
"Taurus at Pasture" - Warren Smith
"No Pain for Cakes" - The Lounge Lizards
"New Rose Neurosis" - Avi Granite : 6
"Revue" - World Saxophone Quartet
"Fredology (1-2-3-4)" - Paul Steinbeck
"Om" - John Coltrane

Hey, look, it's a radio show! Click on the link below every Tuesday night at 9:00 p.m. Atlantic/8:00 p.m. Eastern for two hours of free jazz, improvisation, and general avant garde mischief.

http://www.shoutcast.com/directory/?s=cfmh&numresult=25

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO

2008-03-01T15:30:00.000-04:00

Verve 823 290-2 (1967)

Ah, the Summer of Love. You won't find any hint of it on the Velvet Underground's 1967 debut. Produced by legendary visual artist Andy Warhol, the album is a dark antithesis to the sounds of its time... no hippies, tie-dyed dancing bears, or Peppery horn sections to be found. What you get instead are nervous, clattering songs about scoring drugs, sado-masochism, and death, as well as some of the most poignant and beautiful ballads you'll ever hear (mostly sung by smoky-voiced chanteuse Nico, who would part ways with the group after this album).

With the aforementioned lyrical content, TVU&N could have been a total bummer, but what saves the album is the wit and humour of principal songwriter/vocalist Lou Reed, who would go on to lead the band after Warhol lost interest. There's a telling moment about two-thirds of the way into "Venus in Furs", a turgid ode to bondage and S&M; just after singing the line "Taste the whip, now plead for me", Reed lets slip a nervous laugh. It's moments like that (not to mention the way that he stretches the word "pleeeeead" to an almost ridiculous length) that give the impression that Reed and the group are in on the joke and not taking themselves too seriously.

With a range that encompassed the gentle "Sunday Morning" and the thrashing, pounding "European Son", the Velvets would inspire a thousand black-clad "alternative" bands, many of whom would sell quite a few more records than they did, and even a couple who came close to "getting the joke".

So, the Oscars were presented last night...

2008-02-25T16:52:00.004-04:00

... which means that it's time for everyone who thinks he knows something about music (hi!) to make fun of the musical nominees/performances. Ironically, the Best Original Song tends to be the one category for which originality is not rewarded, which usually results in a handful of unmemorable and similar-sounding tunes being nominated (I remember Roger Ebert commenting one year that you could switch songs around between the movies and it wouldn't really make any difference). This year, we had three songs from Enchanted that all kinda made my head hurt (though, given that the film is a kind-of-sendup-sort-of of Disney fairytale movies, maybe that's what they were supposed to do), a gospelish vamp from August Rush that I gave up on trying to find a melody in after about 30 seconds, and a relatively inoffensive ballad from that movie Once, which I haven't seen but is supposed to be really good and it was low-budget and the people who wrote it and ended up winning seemed pretty nice, so, you know, yay.

Do you remember?

2008-02-24T17:07:00.002-04:00

Lately I've been going through a nostalgia craze for the music of the 1980's... more specifically, the music I bought and listened to during those musically formative years. Most of it was purchased on cassette, so I've taken it upon myself to replace as much of it as I can afford on shiny new (and used) CD's. It's been a lot of fun scouring Amazon, eBay and various used music stores, hunting for the cheapest prices on albums by the Replacements, R.E.M., 10,000 Maniacs, the Minutemen, Husker Du, etc., etc. One thing that's struck me is that I used to listen to music almost exclusively on a Walkman, owing as much to convenience as to the fact that my mostly "alternative" tastes weren't shared by my peers or my family. It's been oddly exhilirating to be able to listen to these songs (most of which I haven't heard in close to twenty years) turned all the way up in my own home.

More reviews (and stuff like this) to come. Promise!

DAVID BYRNE Live from Austin Tx

2007-10-25T15:35:00.002-03:00

New West Records NW8045 (2007)

Recorded in 2001 for PBS's popular Austin City Limits, Live from Austin Tx showcases former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne's versatility and live chops with a mixture of solo material and songs from his days with the Heads. He is backed by a trio of crack musicians on bass, drums, and percussion (how fitting that the third member of Byrne's backing band would not be a keyboardist or second guitarist but a percussionist, underscoring the importance of rhythm to his music) and the string ensemble Tosca. Byrne's new songs may not have the immediacy or shock of his earlier material (including a stunningly vital "Once in a Lifetime") but they do tend to lodge in the head easily (especially the tuneful "Marching Through the Wilderness"). Byrne's guitar playing is tight and rhythmic and his singing has gotten better with age, as on the show-closing cover of Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" (which he introduces as "a song my mother used to sing to me"). (Also available on CD)

PHILIP GLASS/KRONOS QUARTET Newly-recorded motion picture score for Dracula (1931)

2007-10-11T13:16:00.001-03:00

(1999)

"Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make!"

One of the best special features found among Universal Pictures' Legacy Collection series of classic horror films on DVD is the modern musical score for Dracula, composed for string quartet in 1999 by Philip Glass and performed by the Kronos Quartet. The original 1931 film had almost no music and little dialogue, and the presence of the new score greatly enhances the viewing of this classic. Glass uses his trademark minimal harmonic and rhythmic materials expertly to fashion music that focuses on a sense of dread and inevitable tragedy, creating a sort of sympathy for Bela Lugosi's remorseless monster. The film can be played with or without the score, but viewing both versions will give a greater appreciation for Glass' achievement. (Also available on CD.)

CHARLES MINGUS Orange Was the Colour of Her Dress

2007-10-02T15:46:00.000-03:00

Salt Peanuts 44613 (2007)

For my first DVD review, here's a disc from Salt Peanuts' new line of jazz DVD's. Averaging about 50 minutes each (about the length of a CD), these discs are an affordable way (mine cost about $10 each) to enjoy little-seen performances by jazz legends such as John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Bill Evans on video. The sound and picture quality are above average for footage taken largely in the fifties and sixties for European television.

The Mingus DVD contains four songs recorded in Norway, Sweden, and France in the early 1960's. Mingus' sextet for these dates included such notable musicians as Eric Dolphy, Clifford Jordan, Booker Ervin, and Bud Powell. It's a real treat to see and hear this band in complete performances of tunes such as "Meditations", "Orange Was the Colour of Her Dress, then Blue Silk", and "I'll Remember April" (featuring some stunning pianistics from the late, lamented Powell). Marginalized by both race and genre, Mingus has never received his due as not only one of the finest jazz composers of the twentieth century, but as one of its finest composers period. The fire and imagination found in these small-band arrangements certainly do nothing to refute this statement.

SOUND IN ACTION TRIO Gate

2007-09-25T20:15:00.000-03:00

Atavistic ALP160CD (2006)

If multireedist/composer Ken Vandermark seems like he's in some sort of competition to release the most albums per year by an avant-jazz musician (look out, Anthony Braxton!), it's just because he's the kind of guy who likes to stay busy (both for pleasure and out of necessity, as the new documentary film Musician shows). Gate finds him in one of his many band lineups, the Sound in Action trio, which is made up of Vandermark and drummers Robert Barry and Tim Daisy.

The lack of a bass, piano, or some sort of chordal accompaniment gives the trio a unique sound not unlike that of the duo of John Coltrane and Rashied Ali on their classic album of duets Interstellar Space. Vandermark's brawny tenor and slinky bass clarinet fill in any gaps left by the absence of another non-percussive instrument, and Barry and Daisy play as one powerful entity beneath and beside him.

Even on the freest, most abstract cuts (such as "Slate" and a cover of Albert Ayler's "Love Cry"), the beat never seems to waver, allowing Vandermark to indulge himself in punchy, spiraling solos throughout (as on a faithful cover of Coltrane's "One Down, One Up"). Gate shows that even the freest jazz can still have a strong rhythmic foundation (especially with a great drummer or two on board).

ORNETTE COLEMAN The Complete Science Fiction Sessions

2007-09-18T12:08:00.000-03:00

Columbia/Legacy C2K 63569 (2000)

The greatest jazz album of all time? Sure, why not? At the very least, Ornette Coleman's Science Fiction deserves a spot at or near the very top of the "free jazz" echelon, and is a masterpiece by any musical standards. This double-disc reissue pairs the 1972 classic with another album of unused material from the same sessions (1982's Broken Shadows).

The album was a reunion of sorts for Coleman with his "classic quartet" bandmates from the late fifties/early sixties. After taking some time off, Ornette had reemerged mid-decade with a trio that toured and recorded in Europe intermittently. These sessions find bassist Charlie Haden, trumpeter Don Cherry, and drummers Billy Higgins and Ed Blackwell in fine form ten to fifteen years later, playing hard and fast with a seemingly telepathic link between each other and their leader. It reminds one of Greil Marcus' comments on the reunion of the 1970's pre-punk band Rocket from the Tombs in 2000; the youthful slash-and-burn angst of many years ago was still present in the performances of these middle-aged men, just waiting to be released... the only difference was that everyone could play better.

Tracks like "Civilization Day", "Rock the Clock", and "Happy House" flatten everything in their path with a punkish energy, while curiosities like "What Reason Could I Give" and "Good Girl Blues" (featuring vocals by Asha Puthli and Webster Armstrong) provide variety to the proceedings and still sound energized and committed. The Complete Science Fiction Sessions is as essential to any self-respecting jazz fan's collection as Miles Davis' Kind of Blue or the works of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong.

FRANCOIS CARRIER Travelling Lights

2007-08-31T15:24:00.000-03:00

Justin Time JUST 203-2 (2004)

Though its instrumentation is of the traditional sax-piano-bass-drums variety, the music on Travelling Lights feels like anything but the usual quartet jazz suggested by such an ensemble. Any one of the players are as likely to take the lead as any other, with the others entering and leaving on different "levels" of sound within the group... it's these constantly shifting sonic hierarchies that make this completely improvised record such a fascinating listen. Drummer Michel Lambert mostly eschews traditional timekeeping in favour of gently propulsive ornamentation, nudging the group's inventions with pulsating toms and cymbal washes. Carrier's alto and soprano saxes soar over and around the structures with a quietly Coltranian authority, and bassist Gary Peacock and pianist Paul Bley fill the spaces in between with inventive interplay. Each track is named for a continent or global mass ("Asia", "Oceania", "Europe") and the idea of the music as territory is explored by the musicians as each takes turn "staking out" his terrain in the tunes. The territories of Travelling Lights are well worth visiting.

PETER BROTZMANN/JOE MCPHEE/KENT KESSLER/MICHAEL ZERANG Tales Out of Time

2007-08-08T16:53:00.001-03:00

hatOLOGY 589 (2004)

I was lucky enough to see these guys as part of the larger Peter Brotzmann Chicago Tentet two years ago in Victoriaville, Quebec; the sounds they make on this album are slightly softer and more compact than the (unamplified!) wail that came from the stage that night, but the intensity is undiminished. Brotzmann and McPhee on twin tenor saxophones produce a thick, meaty sound that is unlike anything in free jazz, and the endlessly creative Kessler (bass) and Zerang (drums) provide inventive support throughout. The music is reminiscent of Albert Ayler, John Coltrane, and Ornette Coleman (especially in its two horn/bass/drums instrumentation). The relative brevity of the tracks (from just over two minutes to twelve, with only two clocking in at over eight) keeps the music tight and focused, with highlights including the screaming "Alto Lightning in a Violin Sky (for Jimmy Lyons)" and the traditional gospel tune "Blessed Assurance" (dedicated to Thelonious Monk, who also recorded a version).

Here's a brief video snippet of Brotzmann and Zerang:

THE SPIRITUALAIRES OF HURTSBORO, ALABAMA Singing Songs of Praise

2007-08-07T09:38:00.000-03:00

CaseQuarter CASE103 (2006)

Go here.

VARIOUS ARTISTS American Hardcore: The History of American Punk Rock 1980-1986

2007-06-22T14:49:00.001-03:00

Rhino RHI2-74192 (2006)

Released in conjunction with the documentary film of the same name, American Hardcore presents a varied overview of the hardcore scene that grew in America in the wake of the punk rock of the seventies. With 26 songs clocking in at a total of 37 minutes, its brevity is symbolic of the nature of the music being made at the time; performing and recording in the shadow of then-President Ronald Reagan's Cold War with Russia and the looming threat of nuclear war, many of the bands probably felt that there wasn't much time to say what needed to be said, so they had better say it as fast as they could. After a while, the songs all feel like one big song, with slight pauses for subtle shifts in vocal and instrumental tone. What the bands lack in individuality, however, they more than make up for in energy. Highlights include Bad Brains' "Pay to Cum", Canadian punkers D.O.A.'s "F***** Up Ronnie", and Flipper's sardonic "Ha Ha Ha".

GEORGE HARRISON All Things Must Pass

2007-06-12T09:52:00.000-03:00

Capitol STCH-639 (1970)

George Harrison may have been known as "the quiet Beatle" during his tenure with rock and roll's most revered band, but he proved he had a lot to say with the release of his triple-album solo debut in 1970. All Things Must Pass surprised listeners and critics alike with its consistency and the strength of its songwriting; often overshadowed by the Lennon-McCartney songwriting team, he usually managed to get no more than a song or two on each Beatles album. ATMP showed off his mastery of both the mid-tempo ballad ("Beware of Darkness", the majestic "Let It Down") and the rocker ("Wah-Wah", "Art of Dying") and even provided Harrison with a few chart hits ("My Sweet Lord" and the sunny, upbeat "What Is Life". The third record in the set (subtitled "Apple Jam") consists of instrumental jams led by George with some of his friends, lending credence to critic Robert Christgau's theory that, of the four Beatles, Harrison was "the player", or enjoyed his role as lead instrumentalist of the Beatles so much that he didn't mind his reduced songwriting duties with the band. Thank goodness that, on ATMP, the "quiet Beatle" finally got to have his say.

DAVID S. WARE QUARTET Renunciation

2007-06-06T14:54:00.000-03:00

Aum Fidelity AUM042 (2007)

Go here.

I'm still here

2007-05-21T14:15:00.001-03:00

Sorry for the lack of updates... I will try to post more often in the future. I promise! To try!

I will soon be writing online reviews for !earshot magazine... I did a few in the past, and was recently commissioned by them again. This should not affect the quantity (hah!) of my posts here, and I will provide links for any reviews posted over there. You can read my past work for !earshot here and here. Stay tuned!

THE FALL Bend Sinister

2007-04-14T22:52:00.000-03:00

Beggars Banquet BEGA 75 (1986)

In a recent record review, a critic cheekily referred to British post-punk legends The Fall as "Britain's best new band", and although the group has been around in name for over thirty-five years, the label is not altogether inaccurate, as the lineup has gone through more changes than the cast of Doctor Who. Frontman/vocalist/lyricist Mark E. Smith remains the constant in the group's ever-shifting personnel, and, as he once told an interviewer, "if it's me and your grandmother playing bongos, it's The Fall."

Bend Sinister showcases one of the strongest Fall line-ups (with Smith's American then-wife Brix on lead guitar) and came out as the group was enjoying a surge in popularity in North America. It's a darker album than their previous efforts for the Beggars Banquet label (The Wonderful and Frightening World of... and This Nation's Saving Grace), but it also contains some of their lightest, catchiest songs ("Shoulder Pads", "Mr. Pharmacist", and "Terry Waite Sez"), as well as murkier, moodier efforts like "Riddler!" and "U.S. 80's - 90's". Smith's lyrics are so obtuse that one wonders if even he knows what they mean, yet their surreality suits the band's shifting tempos and idiosyncratic textures (such as the clattering neo-industrialisms of "U.S. 80's - 90's" or the roiling guitars and pounding drums of "Gross Chapel - British Grenadiers"). Like Chrissie Hynde's Pretenders (or, to a lesser extent, Axl Rose's Guns 'n' Roses), The Fall is the brainchild/creative outlet of one person, and, though his bandmates may come and go, if Smith is on a Fall album, then you can bet it's a Fall album (bongo-playing grandmother or not).

MARIE ANTOINETTE Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

2007-04-10T11:12:00.000-03:00

Verve Forecast B000782202 (2006)

Released to mixed reviews and booing audiences at Cannes, Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette was one of the strongest American films of last year, and contained perhaps the most uncompromisingly singular vision to be found in a "mainstream" picture this side of Martin Scorsese's The Departed. Like Coppola's previous film, Lost in Translation, it carried itself forward mainly on mood and emotion; because of this, it was the kind of film that people either loved, or hated, or simply didn't see its "point". And, like Lost in Translation (and most of Scorsese's films), it was released in conjunction with a soundtrack album that, in its choice of (mostly) popular music and songs, seemed to receive just as much care in its production as the film which it accompanied.

For the film, Coppola chose a mix of the baroque-era sounds of composers such as Domenico Scarlatti and Antonio Vivaldi and the early-1980's new wave/post-punk of bands like Bow Wow Wow, Adam and the Ants, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. The album itself leans more heavily in favour of the latter, though the two styles complement each other wonderfully (the lead-off track, Siouxsie's "Hong Kong Gardens", is preceded brilliantly by a brief orchestral version of the song's theme). The two-disc set is filled out by modern "retro" groups such as Air, the Strokes, and the Radio Dept., and each disc closes with a soaring elegy by the Cure ("Plainsong", "All Cats Are Grey"). Like the movie for which it was compiled, Marie Antoinette expertly creates a world of mood and emotion that is all its own and from which a listener will be reluctant to leave.

ANTHONY BRAXTON Quartet (London) 1985

2006-10-02T17:05:00.000-03:00

Leo CD LR 200/201 (1990)

In 1985, Anthony Braxton took his working quartet on the road in Britain. Three of the shows on this tour were recorded and released by Leo Records, including this one at the Bloomsbury Theatre in London (it was also broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 1987). Each disc of this double-CD contains one of two hour-long sets from the November 13th show. There are no track markings, but each set contains six compositions (or parts of compositions) with Braxton's usual "collage" method of including bits of other pieces occasionally coming into play. Braxton and his bandmates (pianist Marilyn Crispell, bassist Mark Dresser, and percussionist Gerry Hemingway) are in their usual fine form, with each responding to the others almost telepathically. Of the three double-disc sets available from Leo, this is probably the best; the sound quality is the brightest (though, unfortunately, still typical of the muddiness that Leo Records has problems with, especially on live recordings) and the performances are mostly white-hot and blazing (though occasional quiet passages provide a welcome change of pace). Braxton's music is still not for every jazz fan (and probably has more in common with twentieth-century "art" music) but Quartet (London) 1985 won't disappoint his acolytes.

(note: author Graham Lock travelled with the group during this time and, in addition to writing the liner notes for each album, wrote about the tour in his book Forces in Motion: The Music and Thoughts of Anthony Braxton, which is highly recommended not only for Braxton fans but for anyone looking for insight into the world of the touring creative musician.)

RICHARD WAGNER/THE METROPOLITAN OPERA ORCHESTRA AND CHORUS - JAMES LEVINE Der Ring Des Nibelungen

2006-09-27T15:18:00.000-03:00

Deutsche Grammophon 4769803 (1988-1991/2006)

Normally I wait until listening to an album in its entirety at least once before mentioning it here, but I couldn't wait to tell you about this new budget-priced recording of Richard Wagner's famed opera cycle. Also, it's pretty bloody long... I'm just starting disc 6 of this 14-CD behemoth. The set includes all four operas (Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried, and Gotterdammerung) in their entirety and is being released in Canada in conjunction with the inaugural production of the cycle at Canada's new opera house The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. The music is packaged attractively in a (relatively) slim box and retails for around forty dollars. That's right, forty dollars. Canadian. For fourteen CD's. Now anyone can own a top-notch recording of Wagner's masterpiece (featuring soloists such as Kathleen Battle, Jessye Norman, James Morris, and Christa Ludwig) without draining their bank account. So, as the saying goes, run, don't walk.

THE BEIGE 01

2006-09-22T13:41:00.000-03:00

2006

This was given to me by a friend to take to the radio station (CFMH 92.5 FM in Saint John, N.B.) where I host a late-night jazz program (No Pain for Cakes, Tuesdays 9-11 p.m. Atlantic) that I absolutely hate plugging (you can tune in here). My friend has a friend named Rick Maddocks, who is the singer/songwriter for The Beige, a five-piece band from Vancouver. On their debut album 01, The Beige have mixed a cocktail of post-rock, country, folk, and various other styles that sounds not unlike Tortoise covering Music from Big Pink or Bonnie Prince Billy jamming with Neil Young. The group's sound is highly atmospheric yet tightly focused, the recording quality is superb, and the packaging (done by hand) is gorgeous. I could say more, but you'd probably be better off heading over to their MySpace page and having a listen for yourself.

LOCUS SOLUS 50th Birthday Celebration Vol. 3

2006-09-19T17:46:00.000-03:00

Tzadik TZ 5003 (2004)

During the month of September, 2003, the downtown New York club known as Tonic celebrated the fiftieth birthday of one of the city's most famous and prolific avant-garde musician/composers, the eternally youthful John Zorn, by hosting a month-long series of shows featuring Zorn in collaboration with artisitic contemporaries such as Fred Frith, Milford Graves, Wadada Leo Smith, and many others. The concerts were taped and many have been released in a series of recordings on Zorn's own Tzadik label, including this one featuring his improvising trio Locus Solus.

Locus Solus consists of Zorn on alto saxophone, Arto Lindsay on guitar and vocals, and Anton Fier on drums. The three have also worked together as part of Fier's Golden Palominos, but the music of Locus Solus is a departure from even the most "out" work of that band. The seventeen brief tracks on this album consist of strangulated nonsense vocals and squealing sax laid atop thundering, sometimes arhythmic drums and stabbing, overdriven shards of Lindsay's trademark "skronk" guitar style. The music is loud, hard, and fast (and strange) with little room for quiet introspection. Tracks like "Doll Moment" and "Come Yelling" achieve a monolithic metallic stomp before quickly breaking apart into chaos.

Here's a clip from the show of Zorn and co. playing "This Year's Skirts", and here's to another fifty years of Zorn!

ANTHONY BRAXTON & FRED FRITH Duo (Victoriaville) 2005

2006-09-13T14:04:00.000-03:00

VICTO cd 100 (2006)

Each spring, the pleasant little city of Victoriaville, Quebec comes alive with the sounds of free jazz, improvisation, and noise rock. The Fesival Musique Actuelle has been going strong for over twenty years and has even spawned its own record label. For my 100th post, I thought I'd talk about Duo (Victoriaville) 2005, a live album recorded at last year's proceedings by saxophonist Anthony Braxton and guitarist Fred Frith that just happens to be the 100th release from Victo Records.

The album is broken into five tracks (ranging in length from three to nearly twenty-three minutes), but the recording is basically one uninterrupted performance totalling just under an hour. Frith utilises a number of effects on his electric guitar, while Braxton alternates between alto, soprano, and sopranino saxophone. The performance runs the gamut from actively noisy and grating to spacious and nearly silent (the beginning of "Improvisation No 4" is almost inaudible). Braxton and Frith respond to each other well throughout the concert, but it seems to take them a while to get on a common wavelength; the music doesn't really seem to gel until midway through "Improvisation No 3", which is about the halfway point of the album. Despite this, Duo is still a worthwhile document of this historic first meeting of two avant-garde titans.

(As a side note, I attended part of the festival; not only did I get to see and hear Braxton's sextet play two days after this concert, but I met Mr. Braxton himself, who turned out to be a very kind and gracious man who told me how wonderful it was to be in Canada. Hopefully this visit will not be his last.)

DEWEY REDMAN/CECIL TAYLOR/ELVIN JONES Momentum Space

2006-09-10T15:06:00.000-03:00

Verve 559 944-2 (1999)

Tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman's passing last Saturday at age 75 due to liver failure marked the end of a brilliant life and career in jazz and improvised music. In addition to his own recordings and performances as a leader, he worked with such greats as Ornette Coleman, Keith Jarrett, Pat Metheny, Carla Bley, and Charlie Haden. For his final recording under his own name, Redman entered the studio with pianist Cecil Taylor and drummer Elvin Jones, where they produced a compelling set of solos, duos, and trios.

"Nine" opens the album with Redman firing off an ascending nine-note whole tone riff as Jones and Taylor plunge in behind him for nearly eleven minutes of free form frenzy. Redman and Jones lead the charge while Taylor pokes in and around the edges and spaces, alternating high-note sweeps and trills with pounding bass octaves. The absence of a bass player gives the group's sound a feeling of both weight and weightlessness; it opens the sound up, creating more space for these powerhouses to fill. "Bekei" is a brief drum solo in which Jones eschews the tradition of showing off one's percussive chops in favour of creating a slow, rhythmic build. "Spoonin'" is a bluesy sparring match between Redman and Jones which features another, more active drum solo.

Judging by their titles and instrumentation, the next three tracks seem to form a kind of suite. "Life as" is a meditative, quietly roiling solo performance by Taylor that leads into "It", a fiery duet in which Jones' drums coerce Taylor into his trademark percussive style. This culminates in the twenty-minute "Is", in which all three players manage to play in their respective, highly distinct styles while meshing into a cohesive whole. The album closes with the forty-nine-second "Dew", a brief solo blast from Redman that concludes the formidable career of a great artist.

THELONIOUS MONK In Philadelphia 1960 with Steve Lacy

2006-09-07T02:03:00.000-03:00

Rare Live Recordings RLR 88623 (2006)

The late soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy made no secret of his admiration of the music of Thelonious Monk and its influence on his own work. He recorded several albums of Monk's compositions and played with him for a period of time during 1960 that, although brief, had a profound effect on the young jazzman. Rare Live Recordings has now made available a live recording (originally taped for radio broadcast) of Lacy playing with Monk's quartet. The album also features some previously unissued recordings of Monk in various group formations (including a performance on The Steve Allen Show with Charles Mingus on bass). The CD case warns buyers that "the music on this CD comes from non-professional private tapes and its technical sound quality its (sic) not up to today's standards" and a sticker suggests that the album is "only for collectors".

The set featuring Lacy was recorded as a live radio broadcast in March of 1960. Longtime Monk sideman Charlie Rouse plays tenor sax on these tracks ("Evidence", "Straight, No Chaser", and "Rhythm a Ning") and is joined by John Ore on bass and Roy Haynes on drums; he takes the first horn solo on each, followed by Lacy. Lacy's tentative, searching style can already be heard on these early recordings (unfortunately, his solo on "Rhythm a Ning" gets cut off early by overdubbed closing announcements from Louis Armstrong and Mitch Miller). The sound quality is not perfect, but it's a lot better than expected from the multiple warnings on the case.

The audio on the second set of recordings, recorded in New York in 1957, is quite nice and bright, with Thad Jones' trumpet fattening up the sound of Monk's quartet (Rouse, Ore, and drummer Billy Higgins) on "Blue Monk" and Higgins getting a nice long solo in at the end of a nearly twelve-minute "Evidence". Three tracks from 1948 (with Art Blakey on drums) follow, and the sound remains quite satisfactory, with Idrees Sulieman's trumpet cutting through loud and clear on "Just You, Just Me" and "All the Things You Are".

Two performances from the Allen show follow ("Off Minor" and "Well You Needn't") and it is here that the sound quality takes a nosedive; Mingus and Blakey are, for all practical purposes, inaudible, and the recording sounds as if someone held a microphone up to their television set. The tracks are preceded by a brief interview in which Allen attempts to pick Monk's brain regarding his compositional process (with little success). The album closes with a couple of odd pop numbers in which Monk, Blakey, and Sulieman (joined by Lucky Thompson on tenor and Curly Russell on bass) accompany a syrupy vocalist by the name of Frankie Passions. The sound is better here, yet it hardly seems worth it.

Despite the unevenness of the audio and some of the performances, In Philadelphia 1960 will appeal to both hardcore collectors and average jazz fans alike, and it makes me eager to hear other releases from RLR Records (about which I could find little on the net... hopefully they'll have a website up soon).

WIRE Read & Burn 01

2006-09-03T12:59:00.001-03:00

pinkflag PF4 (2002)

I remember seeing this on the shelves at Bluetone Records and asking Mike, the owner, about it. I had been a Wire fan throughout high school and university but hadn't heard anything from them in a while. This six-song, seventeen-minute CD was pricey ($27!) but Mike had played it in the store and liked it, and another customer had bought it and assured him that it was worth every penny.

Read & Burn 01 was a massive departure from previous Wire recordings, and the sound of the album was about as "back-to-basics" as you could possibly get. After experimenting with sampling and electronic percussion during the eighties and nineties, the group released The First Letter, an album without their drummer Robert Gotobed, who parted amicably with the band previous to the recording. Gotobed and the rest of the group felt that Wire's sound at the time was evolving into a state where actual drums would be unnecessary (in his honour, the group dropped the letter "e" from their name, calling themselves Wir). Read & Burn, therefore, is like a reunion of sorts, as Gotobed returns to the drum chair with a vengeance, propelling the band's stripped down sound with martial, no-nonsense 4/4 beats.

"In the Art of Stopping", a one-chord fuzztone stomp, kicks off the album and seems to act as a massive throat-clearing with regard to the band's previous sound. There's an immediate sense of freshness and something almost like relief in the way the group bears down on the simple blues riff that propels the track. The other tracks on the album follow this model, making Wire sound like the best aggro-metal band ever, or at least ready to challenge any of the current bands in the genre (who are probably about half their age).

By stripping their sound down to its bare essentials, Wire sounds refreshed and ready to start writing the next chapter in their legacy. (Some tracks also available as part of the full-length album Send.)

Even more video...

2006-09-01T12:47:00.000-03:00

... added here and here. Enjoy!

MARILYN CRISPELL TRIO Storyteller

2006-08-31T12:26:00.000-03:00

ECM 1847 (2004)

Pianist Marilyn Crispell made a name for herself in the eighties and early nineties playing in Anthony Braxton's quartet; it was there that she adapted her thunderous Cecil Taylor-esque style to Braxton's intricate charts, creating a uniquely identifiable sound within the realms of free jazz and improvised music. Since then, she's honed her sound to its essentials, creating a style that is at once calm and turbulent, reflective and probing. Her spare, haunting melodies are a perfect match for her current label, ECM, which is known for its pristine production and the cool, almost "wintry" atmosphere of its recordings.

Storyteller was recorded with bassist Mark Helias and drummer Paul Motian. On it, Crispell moves even farther away from the controlled tumult of her Braxton performances than on her previous albums for ECM (Nothing ever was, anyway and Amaryllis), producing a recording of quiet, sublime beauty. The opening track, "Wild Rose", sets the mood immediately; each player produces single notes or beats that are allowed to die away before the next is produced. On this album, echo is like a fourth member of the group. The trio takes its time with each piece; themes appear to be built out of improvisations, instead of the other way around.

Storyteller and the music of Marilyn Crispell are perfect for late-night listening, whether you want gentle background music or intricate improvised jazz that unfolds its stories one note at a time. (A quick glance at her concert schedule shows "possible dates in Canada" for May 17-21, 2007, which means she may be playing FIMAV in Victoriaville, Quebec. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!)

New video

2006-08-29T08:31:00.000-03:00

I just added a couple of video clips to the December archive page (for Bob Dylan and Game Theory). Click on over, scroll on down, and check 'em out.

Edit: three more videos added to the October page.

BOB DYLAN Highway 61 Revisited

2006-08-28T14:47:00.000-03:00

Columbia CH 90324 (1965)

Greil Marcus once wrote about being in a bar in Maui and hearing Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" come on the radio. One by one, he recalled, the conversations around him stopped as the patrons turned their attention to the music, until the room was silent except for Dylan's song. He offered it as proof that there are some songs (or at least one) that can never be turned into background Muzak.

For someone who's only put out two new albums of his own material in the past fifteen years (a third, Modern Times, is set for release tomorrow), Bob Dylan has been the subject of countless retrospectives, films, and books (including Marcus' excellent Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads) in that same time period, which is a testament to the timelessness of his work. After a rough creative spell during the late eighties and early nineties, Dylan rebounded with Time Out of Mind and "Love and Theft", two albums that seemed to reach back to a time and place that predated even his own earliest folk recordings. Critics and fans alike applauded the directness and simplicity of the songs, and it seemed that, for Dylan and his listeners, a new era was beginning.

An era of a different sort was being undertaken in 1965 with the release of "Like a Rolling Stone" and Highway 61 Revisited; Dylan fans were shocked and/or appalled by the radical change in his sound that came with the addition of electric guitars, drums, and loud organ. Folk purists accused Dylan of selling out to gain a rock and roll audience, and he and his band were booed routinely at concerts. (In Martin Scorsese's documentary No Direction Home, organist Al Kooper tells an amusing anecdote about playing before an audience that heckled them mercilessly until they started playing "Like a Rolling Stone", at which point the entire audience started singing along. When the song ended, the crowd resumed their catcalls!)

The shock of these recordings may have worn off over time, but the songs retain their bite over forty years later. "Ballad of a Thin Man" and its story of a clueless, floundering character could be aimed at the "establishment" or at Dylan's own audience. "Tombstone Blues" and "From a Buick 6" are fast, folkish talking blues numbers driven by relentless drums and driving organ and guitar fills. The title track's retelling of the biblical tale of Abraham and Isaac is punctuated by a mocking slide whistle, and "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" is a relaxed, world-weary song that manages to convey both comfort and warning to the listener. The album closes with the lengthy "Desolation Row", a surreal ballad for voice and acoustic guitar that wouldn't sound out of place on one of Dylan's earlier folk records.

Here's a song you'll probably never hear in your dentist's office:

(This is the famous "Royal Albert Hall" version in which someone in the crowd shouted "Judas!" at Dylan just before he started playing. It can be heard on The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966 - The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert.)

Added a cool clip...

2006-08-23T17:00:00.000-03:00

... here.

ARCHERS OF LOAF Vee Vee

2006-08-19T18:54:00.000-03:00

Alias A-064 (1995)

Archers of Loaf were a four-piece group from Chapel Hill, North Carolina that started gaining attention in the early 1990's but never achieved the level of fame that some other "alternative" bands of that era garnered. That's a shame, because the band was easily one of the most original and creative groups around at the time, and Vee Vee is among the best rock records of the decade (in fact, it's my personal favourite).

The Archers' sound was defiantly unique, even for its genre; Eric Bachmann's hoarse, strangulated vocals fought to be heard above the group's skronking guitars and pounding percussion. Their lyrics, when decipherable, alternated between obtusely abstract poetry and hilariously direct putdowns (such as the classic refrain "It's too bad that your music doesn't matter" from "Let the Loser Melt"). Their squalling, guitar-driven sound owed a debt to such indie contemporaries as Superchunk and Sonic Youth, yet retained a unique, angular identity all its own. So unique, in fact, that listening to it today makes it pretty easy to understand why the group never found its place among the Nirvanas and Pearl Jams and their imitators. Vee Vee feels like a note-perfect distillation of the post-grunge hangover of the late 1990's.

DOM MINASI The Vampire's Revenge

2006-08-16T08:28:00.000-03:00

CDM 1006 (2006)

The Vampire's Revenge is an ambitious double-CD project by New York guitarist Dom Minasi that was inspired by novelist Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles. The credits on the back of the jacket read like a who's-who of free jazz and avant-garde improvisation: from pianists Matthew Shipp and Borah Bergman to hornmen Joe McPhee and Paul Smoker, each track is peppered with guest stars (the constant throughout the album being the core trio of Minasi, bassist Ken Filiano, and drummer Jackson Krall).

At first, Revenge suffers from weak compositions and tentative improvisations, but it gets going toward the end of the first disc with Shipp's impressive contributions to "The Dark Side". Disc two benefits from the presence of McPhee and Smoker on "The Hunt", and Bergman's playing is a cohesive factor on the lengthy, compelling "Blood Lust" (as is, seemingly, the leadership of conductor Byron Olson). On the vocal side, less compelling (and a bit silly) are a growly recitation by Peter Ratray on "Where You Gonna' Go? Where You Gonna' Hide?" and Carol Mennie's shrieks on "Just One More Bite" and "The First Day".

Though initially off-putting in its size and concept, Revenge is an intricate, detailed album that rewards repeated listenings.

THE CECIL TAYLOR UNIT Live in Bologna

2006-08-13T17:40:00.000-03:00

Leo Records LR 404/405 (1988)

According to the scant liner notes inside the gatefold of this double LP, Cecil Taylor's Live in Bologna was indeed recorded live in Bologna on November 3, 1987. There are no track titles; only the total time for each non-banded side is listed. Nearly all the information you need about the music is in the music.

Taylor's group (or "unit") for this album consists of William Parker on bass, Carlos Ward on reeds, Leroy Jenkins on violin, and Thurman Barker on drums, percussion, and marimba. It's an all-star cast of free jazz luminaries, and each does their part in bringing Taylor's dense, driving music to life. Live is not for the faint of heart or the avant garde neophyte; the length of the album alone is off-putting, and the sidelong tracks give the listener little opportunity to catch his or her breath. Yet Live offers a succinct encapsulation of this group's sound at a creative peak.

The music is organized mainly by groupings of instruments; players drop in and out, giving a sense of sonic variety to the proceedings while maintaining the overall momentum. For the most part, the rhythm section anchors the sound while the violin and sax share the lead with Taylor's piano. Some especially nice interplay occurs during the second half of side two, when the instruments drop out and some growling vocalisms (mostly, I suspect, courtesy of Taylor) occur low in the mix, followed by a (relatively) quiet interlude supported by Barker's marimba and tambourine. Although neophytes are recommended to check out his solo and trio work first, Live is a thick, heady mix of sound that will satisfy any adventurous listener.

I'm back

2006-08-09T14:39:00.000-03:00

I apologize for the lack of blogging this summer... I've been a bit busy with other things, and when I haven't been busy I've been lazy and haven't felt much like writing. I've decided to expand my coverage of my collection to include my compact discs and cassettes, which means I'll be able to review some new and recent music. Look for some updates in the very near future... I promise! In the meantime, enjoy this clip of Anthony Braxton and company playing John Coltrane's "Impressions".

JIM HALL Live!

2006-07-15T22:52:00.000-03:00

A&M SP-705 (1975)

Few jazz fans would disagree that Jim Hall is one of the most important and influential guitarists of this era. He's also one of the most versatile, as anyone who's heard his work with such artists as Sonny Rollins, Paul Desmond, Ron Carter, and Pat Metheny can attest. Though the majority of his work falls within the (creative) mainstream, he's equally at home in avant-garde surroundings (listen to his "out" improvisations with Metheny on their album of duets).

Stylistically, Live! sits comfortably within the mainstream, though it has a loose, free feel. It was recorded at Bourbon Street in Toronto in June of 1975 with bassist Don Thompson and drummer Terry Clarke. Polite crowd chatter can be heard in the background, lending the album a warm, "you-are-there" intimacy. Hall's style of playing mainly in the middle register of his instrument blends well with the rhythm section; if Hall were a saxophonist, he'd probably play tenor. From the bluesy "Angel Eyes" to the elegantly contrapuntal "'Round Midnight" to the bubbly, bouncing "Scrapple from the Apple", each track showcases the trio's effortless creativity and empathy to each other's playing.

Here's a clip of Hall with an unidentified rhythm section; though it was recorded more than ten years before the making of this album, his tone and style are distinct and consistent, as they have been throughout his career.

MATERIAL Memory Serves

2006-07-10T13:15:00.000-03:00

Elektra Musician XE1-60042 (1982)

Material is more of a musical collective than a band; like Anton Fier's Golden Palominos, they are a constantly changing group of musicians led by one person and their singular artistic vision. In this case, that vision belongs to bassist/producer Bill Laswell, and for Memory Serves, he assembles an all-star cast of avant-jazz and -rock musicians including guitarists Sonny Sharrock and Fred Frith, alto saxophonist Henry Threadgill, trombonist George Lewis, violinist Billy Bang, and many more.

Most of the tunes on Memory Serves serve up the dry, angular funk that was popular with the New York downtown art scene at the time; the title track and "Conform to the Rhythm" are edgy, danceable tracks that wouldn't sound out of place at most nightclubs (unfortunately, Michael Beinhorn's synthesizers and stilted vocals direly date these songs). "Upriver" is a techno-fiddle stomp featuring Bang's down-home, bluesy violin, and "Disappearing" spotlights Olu Dara's Miles-ish cornet playing. Best of all is "Square Dance", a driving funk-rock number that pits Frith's overdriven axe against an ascending, primal bassline by Laswell over Fred Maher's pounding drums and everyone else's squealing horns.

Like the Golden Palominos, Material's sound can vary widely from album to album (1982's One Down was a straightforward dance-pop album that on one track featured a young newcomer named Whitney Houston), so buyer beware. However, for listeners who want a taste of adventurous funk with liberal helping of avant-garde improvisation, Memory Serves will not disappoint.

KEITH JARRETT The Survivors' Suite

2006-07-06T12:55:00.000-03:00

ECM-1-1085 (1977)

The Survivors' Suite features pianist Keith Jarrett's classic seventies quartet of himself, tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Paul Motian. With the bulk of Jarrett's recordings of the last couple of decades made either by himself or with his Standards Trio, it's nice to reach back into his archives and listen to Jarrett improvise with horn, bass, and drums.

The album consists of the title track broken into two parts, one on either side of the album. "Beginning" opens with Jarrett playing a modal melody on bass recorder (he also plays soprano saxophone, celeste, and osi drums on this recording, in addition to piano) over muted percussion and shakers. Haden enters on bowed bass, alternating between low end drones and high end squeals. Redman plays the first theme, doubled by Jarrett on soprano sax and accompanied softly by Haden and Motian. The music builds in intensity as Jarrett shifts to piano and leads the group in the second theme, a lovely, circular ostinato that acts not unlike the secondary theme in a sonata-form symphony. Though largely improvised, the piece has a very definite overall structure that allows the musicians to improvise freely with a common goal in mind.

Next, Haden steps forward with a plaintive, plucked bass solo over a beautiful harmonic progression on celeste by Jarrett, then the band closes off the track with a slow ballad based loosely on previously played material. Side two's "Conclusion" opens fiercely with a fiery Coltrane-like riff that quickly dissolves into free improvisation, with Redman's tenor howling and sputtering and Jarrett invoking the spirit of Cecil Taylor with pounding tone clusters. The band eventually settles into a groove over a two-chord riff featuring a brief, bluesy solo from Jarrett, then Redman joins in on a melodic, almost pop-inflected theme which leads into another, more angular piano solo. The album closes with the reentry of the bass recorder, a brief statement of the theme from the beginning of side two, and an elegiac finale.

The Survivors' Suite is both challenging and entirely accessible; the perfect album to lend to your free jazz-fearing friend.

VARIOUS ARTISTS Amarcord Nino Rota

2006-06-29T13:21:00.000-03:00

Hannibal HNBL 9301 (1981)

Amarcord Nino Rota (which translates as "I Remember Nino Rota") is a tribute to the Italian composer/film scorer who provided the music for every single one of Federico Fellini's films (including 8 1/2, La Dolce Vita, and Amarcord). It was produced by Hal Willner (whose That's the Way I Feel Now: A Tribute to Thelonious Monk was reviewed by yours truly here) and features a stellar cast of jazz players.

Listening to Rota's music, it's not hard to understand why he and Fellini had such a lengthy (29 years!) and harmonious working relationship; Rota captures perfectly the blend of whimsy and longing found in most of Fellini's films, and his music mirrors the carnival-like atmosphere of these stories. The Carla Bley Band's take on "8 1/2" is a perfect example of this; the piece shifts rapidly through several moods and textures and is able to tell a story without the aid of visuals. Guitarist Bill Frisell contributes a hauntingly evocative "Juliet of the Spirits", and soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy's solo reading of "Roma" is sublimely lyrical. The David Amram Quintet's version of "Satyricon" captures the fevered, primal nature of the film in its poundingly insistent rhythms, and "Medley: The White Sheik, I Vitelloni, Il Bidone, The Nights of Cabiria" collects several of Rota's themes in a cool-jazz setting featuring Wynton and Branford Marsalis. Rounding out the album are Jaki Byard's calm but subtly emotional readings of "Amarcord" and "La Strada", which open and close the record, respectively.

Considered by many to be the first "modern" "tribute" album, Amarcord Nino Rota is a generously-sized LP (nearly 57 minutes on a single record) and is worth searching for in any format (it's available on CD, but appears to be out of print (and pricey... I feel very lucky to have secured my copy for $1.99!)).

THE PRETENDERS Learning to Crawl

2006-06-22T10:26:00.000-03:00

Sire 92 39801 (1983)

Though it was only their third full-length album, by the time Learning to Crawl was released in 1983 it felt like the Pretenders had been around a lot longer than they actually had. Since the release of their critically-acclaimed first album in 1980, the band had suffered numerous hardships, including a poorly-received second album, a career-threatening injury for drummer Martin Chambers, and the deaths of two founding members. Amazingly, the group not only survived, but managed to put out one of the best albums of their career, and one of the most poignant and heartfelt rock albums ever.

"Middle of the Road" sets the tone for the rest of the album; it's a rollicking paean to aging and normalcy, with head Pretender Chrissie Hynde both celebrating and railing against her newfound domesticity ("I'm not the cat I used to be/I got a kid, I'm thirty-three"). "Back on the Chain Gang" and "Time the Avenger" develop this theme further with their tales of past lovers and lost youth ("Thought that time was on your side/Now it's time the avenger"). The beautiful "Show Me" is a love song to love itself and features dreamy ascending guitar patterns courtesy of Hynde and guitarist Robbie McIntosh. Finally, "2000 Miles" might be the best modern Christmas song ever written (it came on the radio last December 25 as I was pulling into my parents' driveway. Yeah, it brought a tear to my eye... so what? Okay, maybe a couple of tears... )

I bought this album when it came out (I was 14) and it keeps getting better and more resonant with each passing year. In the end, Learning to Crawl proves that growing up doesn't necessarily equal growing old, and becoming maturer and wiser doesn't always equal getting boring.

MEKONS Retreat from Memphis

2006-06-13T23:58:00.000-03:00

Quarterstick QS26 (1994)

Why, oh why, aren't the Mekons more famous? Why isn't their picture on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine instead of Britney Spears or the cast of The O.C.? Could one ever hope to find a more loveable band of aging anarchist punks who just happen to play some of the most life-affirming rock and roll you'll ever hear in this lifetime? Maybe it's just as well... do we really want the rest of the world to find out about good music? Huh?

Retreat from Memphis was recorded soon after the Mekons' brief major label dalliance with A & M and found the group continuing to develop the classic rock and roll sound of "The Mekons Rock n' Roll" from five years before. It was released on the band's own Quarterstick label on CD, cassette, and a limited vinyl edition of one thousand copies. It was pressed as a sort of double album, with one disc containing only five songs and mastered at 45 rpm; this way, the band was able to include all of the music from the 61-minute CD without leaving any songs off or trying to cram everything onto one record (which can sometimes result in a decrease in sound quality).

Retreat is definitely a rock record, but it contains the usual elements of country and folk that give the Mekons' music its unique flavour. "Ice Rink in Memphis" is a haunting uptempo ballad that mixes a lilting twang beat with blasts of metallic guitar, and "The Flame that Killed John Wayne" is a flat-out rocker that recalls The Clash at their most strident. In fact, the Mekons seem to pick up where the Clash left off, both musically and philosophically; they share the ability to effortlessly mix leftist politics with hard-hitting yet tuneful punk rock. "Our Bad Dream" recalls the Sandinista!-era dub experiments of the Clash (especially if you play it at the wrong speed, which I just did).

Retreat from Memphis and the music of the Mekons will appeal to anyone with an ear for heartfelt, ambitious rock and roll. If you don't own at least one Mekons album, you're missing out on one of punk's best kept secrets.

BOB DYLAN Infidels

2006-06-08T17:09:00.000-03:00

Columbia QC 38819 (1983)

Musically, the eighties were an up-and-down kind of decade, especially for established artists like Elvis Costello, Lou Reed, and Bob Dylan, who were faced with the choice of either updating their sound for a youthful audience or staying the course. As a result, many of their albums from this period went underappreciated for one reason or another; fortunately, a few have resurfaced in people's memories as underrated gems that time forgot. Bob Dylan's Infidels is one such album.

Infidels was recorded before the eighties got going in full swing, and is a tight yet relaxed collection of Dylan tunes, thanks largely to the famed dub rhythm section of drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare. They prove themselves able to adapt to any style on the album, be it the gentle reggae lilt of "Jokerman", the hard-driving rock of "Neighborhood Bully", or ballads such as "License to Kill" and "Sweetheart Like You", which was a minor radio hit for Dylan. Keyboardist Alan Clark gives solid support throughout the album (his Hammond B-3 organ provides stirring swells in all the right places), as do guitarists Mick Taylor (formaerly of the Rolling Stones) and Mark Knopfler (of Dire Straits). Knopfler co-produced the album with Dylan, resulting in a warm, gimmick-free sound not unlike that of Dire Straits' early albums.

Lyrically, Dylan is in full "preacher" mode for most of the album, whether warning us that sometimes Satan comes as a "Man of Peace" or declaiming "false-hearted judges dying in the webs that they spin" in "Jokerman". Love it or hate it, Dylan's judgmental fire works extremely well with the mostly laid-back musical settings, giving them an intensity that may never have materialised with a more forgiving lyricist at the helm. In turn, the music softens the edge of the words (but, thankfully, only a little).

Here's the video for "Jokerman", one of the better visual efforts made by a sixties icon during the video-crazy eighties. Only Dylan's Miami Vice jacket (mostly obscured) gives the decade away!

ORNETTE COLEMAN Dancing in Your Head

2006-06-02T12:47:00.000-03:00

A&M SP-722 (1977)

Dancing in Your Head was an important step in the evolution of Ornette Coleman's music. Just as In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew marked Miles Davis' stylistic transition from jazz into rock-oriented fusion, this album was Ornette's first foray into his now trademark blend of jazz, funk, and harmolodics.

The album is brief but seems to contain a lot of music in its thirty-one minutes. The bulk of the record is occupied by two takes of "Theme from a Symphony", listed as "Variation One" and "Variation Two" (the tune has appeared on other albums by Ornette as "The Good Life"). The group consists of Ornette on alto sax, Jamaaladeen Tacuma on bass (credited here as "Rudy MacDaniel"), Ronald Shannon Jackson on drums (credited as "Shannon Jackson"), and Bern Nix and Charlie Ellerbee on "1st and 2nd lead guitar", respectively. After several unison statements of the main theme, the group improvises freely, with no apparent chord progression to guide them. Things get quite frantic, and even the most resilient of ears may have trouble listening to the squealing, childlike interplay of the instruments (it doesn't help that the recording makes Jackson sound as if he's playing large boxes of cereal instead of drums!), but repeated listenings prove rewarding as different elements of the sound come to the front with each spin.

The final track, "Midnight Sunrise", was recorded with the Master Musicians of Joujouka and clarinetist/author Robert Palmer in Morocco in 1973 and is an oddly fitting postscript to the album. Coleman's sax and Palmer's clarinet fit perfectly with the beautiful squall conjured by the MMJ (the track can be heard in the David Cronenberg film Naked Lunch). Listen to Dancing in Your Head and you'll hear the exciting sound of an innovator reinventing himself.

FLEETWOOD MAC Tusk

2006-05-30T11:35:00.000-03:00

Warner Bros. 2HS 3350 (1979)

Let's say you're a member of a band who just released the biggest-selling album of all time. What do you do for a follow-up? If you're Fleetwood Mac, you put out Tusk, a moody, wandering double album with little of the immediate commercial appeal of its predecessor (Rumours). Oh yeah, and make sure that the first single you release to radio is the strangest sounding track on the album.

I remember hearing the song "Tusk" on the radio soon after the release of this album and being both intrigued and impressed that a band that was on top of the world at the time would so willingly risk commercial suicide by putting out a muffled-sounding live recording featuring a marching band as the lead single from their hotly anticipated new album. I later learned that the madman behind the method was Lindsey Buckingham, the singer-songwriter responsible for the stranger songs on this album ("The Ledge", "Not That Funny"). In it's own nose-thumbing way, it's possible that Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" may have been my first taste of "alternative" music.

Not every song on the album flaunts commercial convention so wildly; Stevie Nicks' songs sound like they would fit comfortably on Rumours ("Sara", "Angel"), as do Christine McVie's ("Over & Over", "Never Forget"), yet even these songs have a dreamier, airier quality than the tightly focused writing of that album. Perhaps they are meant to counter the angry bite of most of Buckingham's songs like "What Makes You Think You're the One?" with its barrelhouse piano and rage-filled vocal, or the muffled yelps of the title track. Either way, the album is Buckingham's show.

Tusk went on to sell about 2 million copies at the time and was considered a flop compared to Rumours' sales of 15+ million, but time has been kind to the album, and it's generally considered to be one of the group's stronger and most influential efforts (in 1986, Camper Van Beethoven recorded their own song-for-song cover of the album) and has developed something of a cult following. If Tusk was an attempt at commercial suicide, then it would appear that the experiment ultimately proved a failure.

TOM VERLAINE Dreamtime

2006-05-25T13:26:00.000-03:00

Warner Bros. P-11070W (1981)

For a band that released only a handful of albums, the band known as Television has garnered a legendary reputation as one of the earliest and most important post-punk groups ever (think of them as the Terrence Malick or J.D. Salinger of music). After their (first) breakup, singer/guitarist Tom Verlaine went on to release several well-received solo albums that developed Television's unique sound with copying it outright.

Dreamtime was Verlaine's second album under his own name and is notable for the way it showcases his ability to compress Television's trademark guitar assault into tight, compact pop songs such as "There's a Reason" and "Fragile". Verlaine gets valuable assistance from gutiarist Ritchie Fliegler and former Television bassist Fred Smith, but its his own voice and guitar that take centre stage throughout the album. Verlaine was and is widely considered to be the best, most virtuosic guitarist to emerge from the New York punk scene of the seventies, and he gets off several soaring solos on tunes like "Always" and "Without a Word", while "The Blue Robe" is an instrumental that features Verlaine stabbing away with sharp, crisp guitar lines.

Television reunited briefly in 1992, after which little was heard from Verlaine until this year, when he released two albums simultaneously on the Thrill Jockey label. Hopefully this will spark a renewed interest in Verlaine's earlier, hard-to-find works like Dreamtime.

WYNTON MARSALIS The Wynton Marsalis Quartet Live at Blues Alley

2006-05-20T09:49:00.000-03:00

Columbia PC2 40675 (1988)

Recorded near the end of Wynton Marsalis' ascendancy to keeper of the traditional jazz flame, Live at Blues Alley is quite a bit looser, even rowdier, than his studio albums of the same period. The live setting of a small club with an appreciative audience seems to inspire the musicians into some of their freest (and, occasionally, most frenzied) playing on record.

Take the opening tune, "Knozz-Moe-King". Marsalis leads his quartet through the manic free-bop changes like Miles Davis and his sixties quintet, careening recklessly around the implied harmonies, soloing freely off little more than drummer Jeff Watts' pounding rhythms, yet able to stop and start together on a dime. Or pianist Marcus Roberts' solo on "Juan", where he gets deep into a riff, repeating it over and over with different rhythmic inflections until it threatens to shake itself loose from the beat altogether. The highlight of the album is probably the fifteen-minute "Chambers of Tain", a showcase for Watts' prodigious percussion chops in which his solo seems arranged into chapters that resolve into a recurring theme.

Things calm down a bit on side three, with a fairly straightforward reading of Charlie Parker's "Au Privave" and a touching rendition of "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans", but, for the most part, Live at Blues Alley is fierce, virtuosic hard bop that crackles with energy and invention and shows an unexpected (but welcome) side of Wynton Marsalis.

TODD RUNDGREN Hermit of Mink Hollow

2006-05-17T11:29:00.000-03:00

Bearsville BRK 6981 (1978)

Todd Rundgren's name might not be immediately recognizable to the ear, but his music may be, especially if you grew up in the seventies anywhere near the rock album phenomenon that was Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell, which Rundgren produced and played guitar on. He's remained prolific since then, releasing albums on his own and producing bands such as The Pursuit of Happiness and XTC.

Rundgren was and is the kind of fellow who likes to do things his own way (during the recording of XTC's Skylarking, he butted heads with bandleader Andy Partridge so many times that Partridge quit the band not once, but twice), and if that means doing everything himself, then so much the better. Therefore, the invention of the synthesizer was like a godsend to Rundgren, who was already a multi-instrumentalist but was now able to record nearly everything himself. Unfortunately, this sometimes gives his albums a tinny, insular feel, and many of the sounds and textures on Hermit of Mink Hollow sound like they would have been out of date even during the seventies.

What saves the day is Rundgren's undeniable gift for a catchy hook, regardless of subject matter. The album is divided into "the easy side" and "the difficult side", but both are full of instantly hummable melodies, whether it's the first side's relationship tales "Can We Still Be Friends" and "Hurting for You" or the second side's "Bread", "Bag Lady", and "Lucky Guy", which deal with weightier topics like homelessness and depression. Even a throwaway novelty like "Onomatopoeia" would be a highlight on most other singer-songwriter's albums.

Rundgren continues to record, tour, and embrace technology as it suits his purposes; he maintains his website himself and is a pioneer in music multimedia. On Hermit of Mink Hollow, though, the focus is on the songwriter and his songs.

ANTHONY BRAXTON Seven Standards 1985, Volumes I & II

2006-05-15T11:25:00.000-03:00

Magenta MA-0203 & MA-0205 (1985, 1986)

The debate rages on concerning whether or not Anthony Braxton's peculiarly personal music can legitimately be called "jazz", or if Braxton can even play jazz at all. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, in the matter of the second argument, we submit exhibits "A" and "B", the Seven Standards albums recorded by Braxton in the mid-eighties, on which he plays popular tunes by John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, and others in a more or less straightahead style accompanied by a crackshot traditional jazz rhythm section. Though Braxton has never cared much for popular opinion of his music, these albums feel like the work of someone with just a little bit to prove.

Compared to Braxton's other recordings, these may be some of his strangest performances simply due to the fact that they sound so normal. The angular themes and formless improvisations associated with the artist have been replaced by the lush melodies of "You Go to My Head" and the sprightly post-bop of "Moment's Notice". It's not as if Braxton hasn't been down this road before (or since), though; in the mid-seventies he recorded another pair of albums entitled In the Tradition composed mainly of standards, (though those albums had more of an experimantal, "out" feel than these) and he's recorded entire albums of material by Monk, Charlie Parker, and Lennie Tristano.

Non-fans of Braxton probably won't be won over by these recordings, but acolytes and neophytes may be pleased by what's on display here. Braxton's trademark grainy alto sound is cushioned by the top-notch team of pianist Hank Jones, bassist Rufus Reid, and drummer Victor Lewis; they support and follow their leader unfalteringly, even when the excitement of the performances causes the tempo to rush or Braxton takes off on an atonal flight of fancy here or there.

Fans of older standards may prefer the first volume, with its renditions of "Spring Is Here" and "I Remember You", while those with slightly more modern tastes may prefer the second, which concentrates on tunes by Monk, Coltrane, and Miles Davis. Open-eared music-lovers with a taste for energetic, tonal hard-bop and ballads are advised to grab 'em both!

Videos added

2006-05-11T15:52:00.000-03:00

I've sprinkled about a half-dozen more videos throughout the blog; I'm too lazy to link to each one, so please have a look through the monthly archives for some moving pictures (and visit YouTube!)

THE MOTHERS Fillmore East, June 1971

2006-05-10T10:25:00.000-03:00

Bizarre/Reprise MS 2042 (1971)

The story goes that, at an early age, Frank Zappa decided he wanted to become a serious classical composer when he grew up, but in order to raise the money that would allow him to work at the type of music he loved, he would first start a band and become a rock star. That band was the Mothers of Invention, and on this live album one can hear traces of Zappa's ambitions in its operetta-like structure (even though most "serious" composers would probably never write about groupies or mud sharks).

The album's "overture", "Little House I Used to Live In", gives the listener a crash course in Zappa's compositional style: using the traditional rock group instrumentation of guitars, bass, keybaords and drums, he creates linear themes over jazzy harmonic changes and bluesy rhythms, then deflates any self-importance in the music by layering silly scat-singing on top. Zappa uses the Wagnerian technique of the leitmotif, which involves assigning each character in a musical drama their own identifying melodic fragment, and introduces us to the "mud-shark arpeggio" and "the mating call of the adult male mud shark". What follows is a rather sordid (but apparently true) tale involving groupies, a video camera, fish, and the rock bands Led Zeppelin and Vanilla Fudge (you can read about it here, but it's not suitable for all ages or dispositions, so don't say I didn't warn you).

Zappa's catalogue never seems to go out of print, so this and many other albums of the period are readily available on CD (thanks in large part to Zappa having the prescience to buy up the rights to his own music from the record companies so he could control its release (he even went so far as to seek out illegal bootleg recordings of his music and rerelease them on his own label)). Get it and hear how, even in his rock band/groupie/mud shark days, Zappa was developing his "serious" style while never taking himself too seriously.

CECIL TAYLOR Indent

2006-05-05T15:00:00.000-03:00

Arista-Freedom AL 1038 (1977)

Although Cecil Taylor has performed and recorded with a wide variety of performers and in various sizes of ensembles (from duets and trios all the way up to orchestras), I've always enjoyed his playing most by itself. Like Duke Ellington and Art Tatum before him, Taylor has the ability to utilise the eighty-eight keys of the piano as his own orchestra, and his percussive, rhythmic attack eliminates any real need for a rhythm section.

Indent is a live recording of a solo Taylor concert from 1973 at Antioch College in Ohio and is a typically fiery performance from the master. Taylor's style owes as much to modern classical or "art" music as to jazz, and parts of "Indent: first layer" sound like baroque arpeggios sped up and warped beyond recognition. The blues can still be heard in his fractured swing rhythms, but most casual jazz listeners may find Taylor's rejection of traditional (or just about any) harmony a bit much for the ears. In addition, the piano sounds ready to break apart at any minute under the strain of his thunderous attack. Yet there is an "ugly beauty" in even the most sonically extreme of Taylor's inventions, and he is just as capable of sublime subtlety as he is of overt excitement. "Indent: second layer, part two" builds gradually, through the use of Taylor's trademark "mirror-image" fingering (in which the fingers of each hand play opposing but equidistant melodies), into the brutal note-cascades of "Indent: third layer".

Since words (or even audio) alone cannot convey the intensity of a Cecil Taylor performance, below is a clip of Taylor performing before the cameras of Ron Mann for his documentary Imagine the Sound in 1980. It's irrefuteable evidence that, love it or hate it, there is nothing quite like the music of Cecil Taylor.

(Imagine the Sound is currently being restored for HD DVD/Dolby Digital, available Fall 2006. To pre-order, visit Ron Mann's website www.sphinxproductions.com. My thanks to Ron Mann for the use of the clip.)

Video updates

2006-05-04T12:14:00.000-03:00

Thanks to the wonder of YouTube, I've been adding some videos to my blog. You can check them out here, here, here, and here, and I'll be letting you know when I add others. To try it out, click on the arrow on the screen below and watch the John Coltrane Quartet play "Naima" at around the time that this album was recorded.

MAURICIO KAGEL '1898'

2006-05-02T15:33:00.000-03:00

Deutsche Grammophon 2543 007 (1973)

'1898' was composed by Mauricio Kagel to comemmorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of Deutsche Grammophon, a prominent German record label specializing in classical music. It is unique in several ways, not the least of which is its instrumentation. Kagel was inspired by a photograph from 1910 of an ensemble led by Bruno Seidler-Winkler in which the musicians played instruments that appeared to be violins with horns protruding from them (actually trumpet bells). These strange hybrids were called Stroh-violins, named for their inventor, Charles Stroh, who wished to create an instrument loud enough to be recorded on the phonographs of the day. Kagel was unable to find any existing Stroh-violins, so he created his own for the purpose of this recording.

Stroh-violins sound almost as strange as they look, with the amplified quality of an electric violin but more woody resonance. The composition itself lends to the unique sound of the record; Kagel avoids harmonic complexity by using no more than two notes at once in the string parts, producing a haunting, homophonic quality. Add to that a choir of untrained children's voices who alternate trills and open vowels with bursts of laughter and the end result is a rather spooky sounding composition, even for the time in which it was written.

'1898' is a difficult but rewarding listen; while recommended to adventurous music lovers and historians, it is not for everyone, as evinced in Kagel's self-effacing liner notes: "Right from the start I had declined to select children distinguished by the quality of their voices, and had invited a class of schoolchildren I didn't know to come to the recording studio. True to my view that there are no unmusical people, only those whose musicality is damaged by wanting or defective education, I now tried... to awaken the childrens' interest... After two sittings I was content with the outcome. On the other hand, one child told me: 'Write that nothing was achieved.'" Listeners are invited to track down a copy of '1898' and decide for themselves.

JOHN COLTRANE The John Coltrane Quartet Plays

2006-04-27T13:06:00.000-03:00

Impulse! A-85 (1965)

Here's an album recorded during John Coltrane's transitional phase from traditional jazz and bebop into the more experimental sounds he would pursue up until his death only two years later. At the time, Coltrane was developing his trademark "sheets-of-sound" style, in which he would play rapid-fire arpeggiations that sometimes had little to do with the harmonies of the piece on which he was improvising. Coltrane was listening to and being influenced by avant-garde jazzers such as Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler and was looking for a way to express his emotions directly from his horn, and if traditional jazz harmonizations had to be abandoned along the way, so be it.

The album consists of two Coltrane originals and two unlikely standards; "Chim Chim Cheree" is indeed the chimney-sweep song from the film Mary Poppins, and, as he did earlier in his career with The Sound of Music's "My Favorite Things", Trane takes the song into unexplored sonic territory, using the mournful 6/8 melody as a basis for some extended soprano improvisations. "Brazilia" finds Coltrane once again on tenor and is a typically loose but hard-swinging later-Trane tune with little if any harmonic progression but plenty of rhythmic drive from all the instruments.

Side two opens with the popular ballad "Nature Boy"; Trane plays the melody over drummer Elvin Jones' cymbal washes and muted toms and McCoy Tyner's elegant stacked-fourth piano chords before the group ventures into free territory. This track is augmented by a second bassist, Art Davis, who here plays with a bow, creating a nice contrast to Jimmy Garrison's plucked lines (Ornette and Ayler frequently used two bassists in this fashion in their own groups). The album closes with "Song of Praise", which begins with a solo from Garrison (during which he strums his bass like a guitar) and builds slowly to a quiet but passionate climax.

Coltrane covered a lot of musical ground during his all-too-brief final years, and The John Coltrane Quartet Plays is an excellent jumping-off point in either direction of his development, containing elements of both his earlier bop and ballad style and of his later free-form work.

COLIN NEWMAN A-Z

2006-04-24T09:46:00.000-03:00

Beggars Banquet XBEG 20 (1980)

One of the most prominent and influential bands of the first wave of British punk, Wire quickly grew bored with the sounds they were making and set out to discover new textures by not only adding synthesizers to their sound but trying to make their guitars sound like synths through the use of repetitive, minimalist melodies. By doing this, they unwittingly became one of the first "new wave" bands, though their music remained just a little too complex and dense to crack the top 40.

Originally intended as the follow-up to their third LP 154, the material on A-Z became Wire frontman Colin Newman's solo debut after they broke up. Sonically and lyrically, the album picks right up where the band left off in 1979 (thanks in part to the presence of Wire drummer Robert Gotobed); "I've Waited Ages" kicks off the record with the same chattering sound effects and ploddingly propulsive rhythm that had come to be associated with the group by the time of their (temporary) disbanding.

Despite the typically obtuse lyrics and dark, foreboding textures, A-Z is generally an upbeat album, at least on the surface; even melancholy songs like "Seconds to Last" and "Alone" are lightened by a soaring synth solo here or a chugging guitar riff there. Newman's break from his bandmates seemed to have recharged his creative batteries, as even the most turgid songs here sound more energetic and uplifting than those on 154.

Wire reformed in 1985 and have continued to record and tour to the present day; Newman has released several more albums on his own (as have other members of the group), but fans of Wire's early material should definitely start with A-Z.

THE BAND

2006-04-20T12:41:00.000-03:00

Capitol STAO-132 (1969)

How did a group that was four-fifths Canadian manage to capture the sound of America so completely in their music? From their origins as Ronnie Hawkins' backing band, to their seminal work with Bob Dylan during his conversion from acoustic folk to electric rock and roll, to their own timeless songs and albums, the Band have always had an uncanny knack for capturing the sound of the American heartland; their unique mix of country, folk, blues, and rock sounded like no one else at the time and remains immediately identifiable to this day.

The Band was the second album from the group and showed a marked increase in confidence and versatility. Songs like "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and "Up on Cripple Creek" are such perfect representations of early American folk music that it's easy to forget that they were written by a young Robbie Robertson (credited here as "Jaime Robbie Robertson") at the end of the sixties (much the same way that people forget that "Ol' Man River" isn't actually an old Negro spiritual but a piece of modern musical theatre).

In addition to having one brilliant songwriter, the Band was blessed with three terrific singers. Drummer Levon Helm (the group's sole American) had a gruff but clear workingman's tenor that fit the roguish narrator of "Up on Cripple Creek" to a tee. Bassist Rick Danko possessed a rubbery, plaintive voice that was well-suited to the questioning uncertainties of "Across the Great Divide" and "Unfaithful Servant", and keyboardist Richard Manuel had a shivery, unearthly falsetto that could be moving and unsettling at the same time (as on "Whispering Pines").

Each member of the Band was able to play at least a couple of instruments, but their secret weapon was certainly organist Garth Hudson, who is credited on the album with "organ, clavinette, piano, accordion, soprano, tenor and baritone-sax and slide trumpet"! According to an anecdote from the concert film The Last Waltz, before going on tour with the group for the first time, Hudson had asked for an additional small stipend from each of the band members; the group later learned that this was so he could tell his mother that he was only going on the road with them so that he could give them music lessons!

The Band have several compilations and box sets on the market, but their second album is truly essential, a snapshot of a sound and a voice that is American in its nature but universal in its appeal.

DAVE BURRELL High Won - High Two

2006-04-17T11:54:00.000-03:00

Arista-Freedom AL 1906 (1976)

In the world of avant-garde jazz piano, Dave Burrell's name is one that too often goes unmentioned; less flashy and percussive than Cecil Taylor, less quietly reflective than Paul Bley, yet more versatile than either, his music falls somewhere in between the stylistic cracks.

High Won - High Two is a double-album reissue of a pair of 1968 trio sessions on the Arista-Freedom label. Sirone plays bass on all tracks, and drums are handled by Bobby Kapp (except on "East Side Colors" which features Sunny Murray). Pharoah Sanders is credited on tambourine and can be heard on several tracks (though at times one wishes he could have brought along his tenor sax).

The album opens with "West Side Story Medley", a mostly straightforward reading of various themes (including "Somewhere", "Maria", "America", and "I Feel Pretty") from Leonard Bernstein's famous musical. Occasionally the group ventures into freakout territory, with Burrell hammering on the lower keys with the sustain pedal down, but, for the most part, this is a loose, swinging tribute to Bernstein's work. Side two consists of five shorter pieces: "Oozi Oozi"'s happy harmonies and shifting time signatures sound like pumped-up Dave Brubeck, while "Bittersweet Reminiscence" sounds pretty much like its title suggests; rolling piano chords over a shifting landscape of bass and drums that threaten to break apart into violent storms of notes but nevertheless maintain a balladic tonality. "Bobby and Si" recalls Paul Bley at his most upbeat with its off-kilter ascending hook and funky bassline, and "Dave Blue" is a bright, gospel-tinged waltz. "Margie Pargie (A.M. Rag)" closes the side with a display of Burrell's ragtime chops.

"East Side Colors" takes up side three and is easily the most "out" of the music on the album (thanks in large part to the presence of Murray at the drum kit). The cut opens with thundering keyboard smashes a la Cecil Taylor over frantic bass and percussion which quickly shift into an extended bass solo by Sirone. Burrell and Murray re-enter with Murray slashing away at his cymbals and Burrell continuing his atonal assault. The main difference between Burrell's style and Taylor's seems to be sustain; where Taylor favours short, staccato bursts, Burrell prefers a more sweeping attack, with more use of the sustain pedal. In short, if Taylor plays the piano like a drum, Burrell plays it like a harp.

Side four consists of another medley, this one consisting of all five pieces from side two in a different order plus an additional tune, the Monk-like "Inside Ouch", at the end. Aside from Sanders' prominent tambourine, there isn't much difference between these recordings and the versions on the second side; the medley may have been included in order to pad the album out to a double-LP (the original album consisted only of "West Side Story Medley", "Margie Pargie" and "East Side Colors"). Still, the track is a testament to the versatility of the group and their ability to switch quickly from one mood and/or style to another, and High Wan - High Two (available on CD) is worth owning for any fan of versatile, swinging jazz and improvisation.

GARY BURTON/STEVE SWALLOW Hotel Hello

2006-04-13T10:46:00.000-03:00

ECM-1-1055 (1975)

Gary Burton and Steve Swallow are two musicians who need no introduction on record, so personal and immediately identifiable is their sound. Burton was one of the pioneers of jazz fusion during the seventies, and Swallow is known for being one of the first jazz bassists to use the electric bass almost exclusively. The two have worked together on a number of projects, but Hotel Hello is their only album of duets.

The album opens with "Chelsea Bells (for Hern)"; over an elegant progression of block piano chords by Swallow, Burton adds tasteful, searching ornamentation on the vibes. "Hotel Overture - Vamp" switches things around as Burton provides a propulsive organ riff for Swallow to riff over on bass. As on most of his recordings, Swallow's tone is unmistakeable, due largely to his use of a copper pick and lots of upstrokes, mainly in the upper register of his instrument (often causing his bass to sound like a guitar). This track starts off sounding like the theme to a seventies TV drama before Burton overdubs some nice vibe playing in its latter half. It proceeds without interruption into the title track, with Burton soloing over a climbing harmonic pattern on piano and bass by Swallow. "Inside In" is a brief, wah-drenched funk tune with uncredited cymbal washes, and the pretty, elegiac "Domino Biscuit" closes the first side.

Side two opens with "Vashkar", a Carla Bley composition that is the highlight of the album. Swallow plays a plaintive bass melody over Burton's shifting, ethereal organ chords, then the piece shifts into a piano-vibes-bass arrangement over the same progression. "Sweet Henry" is another upbeat, organ-and-vibe tune that, like the others on the record, needs no percussion to give it rhythmic propulsion. "Impromptu" is a dreamy improvisation for bass and vibes, and "Sweeping Up" has a lovely, slowly ascending harmonic pattern that fades the album to a close.

Hotel Hello is essential listening for fans of either artist, or for fans of ECM Records, or for fans of good music in general. It provides an intimate look and listen into the musical relationship between these longtime collaborators and friends.

DON CHERRY Art Deco

2006-04-11T23:32:00.000-03:00

A & M SP 5258 (1989)

This album was part of a brief, interesting series of records released by A & M in the late eighties titled the "Modern Masters Jazz Series". Its focus was on the avant garde and contained albums by artists with few to no previous major label recordings such as Max Roach, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, and the late, great trumpet legend Don Cherry.

Cherry spent his formative years as part of Ornette Coleman's seminal quartet before striking out on his own with several notable releases for labels such as Blue Note and Actuel. By the eighties, his recordings had become fewer and farther between, so Art Deco was a welcome addition to the Cherry catalogue which received wide distribution thanks to its release on A & M.

For the album, Cherry reunited himself with the rhythm section of bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Billy Higgins, with whom he had played in Ornette's aforementioned quartet. Taking the saxophone chair for this date was Ornette's fellow Texan (and former Ray Charles sideman) James Clay, who had played with the group for a while before they started recording in the fifties. Clay's tenor fits the quartet comfortably; his tone is deeper and more relaxed than Ornette's but shares the same bluesiness and searching quality.

The spirit of Ornette hangs over the recording, whether in the group's readings of his compositions ("When Will the Blues Leave", "The Blessing", "Compute"), the Ornette-ish title tune by Cherry, or even Thelonious Monk's "Bemsha Swing". This is not to say that the quartet simply apes Ornette's sound; rather, it shows how essential these musicians were to what we think of today as "Ornette's sound". While side one is fairly traditional as far as "free jazz" goes (even the formerly outrageous Ornette tunes sound like standards by now), side two is more experimental, with solo outings by Cherry, Haden, and Higgins, a leisurely trio reading of "I've Grown Accustomed to Your Face" featuring Clay, and a wild version of Ornette's "Compute".

Cherry made one more album for A & M (the uneven Multikulti) before the label discontinued the series. Like the brief forays into avant garde jazz made by labels such as Arista in the seventies and Verve in the late nineties, the bottom line seemed to be sales, something free jazz never specialized in. Too bad, but at least every time this sort of thing happens, we end up getting great, widely distributed records like Art Deco.

FATHERS AND SONS

2006-04-08T21:28:00.000-03:00

Columbia FC 37972 (1982)

Here's an album with an intriguing concept; two sets of two generations of jazz musicians in which the second generation is more well known to the listening public than the first.

Fathers and Sons was recorded near the beginning of the "new traditionalist" movement in jazz in which the post-bop sound of the fifties and sixties was picked up by a new, young generation of players which included Wynton and Branford Marsalis. The two brothers achieved fame that grew throughout the eighties and nineties and extended itself to their father, pianist Ellis Marsalis, a respected musician with few fans outside his native New Orleans. Similarly, legendary Chicago tenor saxophonist Von Freeman was little known outside his native city until his son Chico became a member of the A.A.C.M. and began making recordings with such names as Jack DeJohnette and Cecil McBee.

The first side of the record sticks with the neo-traditional sound that brought attention to the Marsalis brothers in the first place, while side two finds the Freemans playing in the bluesy Chicago style associated with papa Von (with a little bit of free-time improv thrown in on "Time Marches On"). Highlights of the album include Ellis' adventurous piano-and-bass treatment of Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life" at the end of side one and Chico's oddly Marsalis-like "Tribute to Our Fathers", which closes side two. From listening to this album, it would appear that (musically, at least) there is no generation gap in either the Marsalis or the Freeman household.

ORNETTE COLEMAN Town Hall, 1962

2006-04-04T12:51:00.000-03:00

ESP 1006 (1965)

Ornette Coleman has been name-checked on this blog so often that anyone who reads it on a semi-regular basis should already be familiar with who he is and what he does; his importance to the style of free, improvised jazz cannot be understated. His music is the model for just about everything in the genre that followed; what the Beatles were to rock and roll, Ornette was (and is) to free jazz. He even has an album titled Free Jazz, from which the music took its name (producing an effect similar to that of Douglas Coupland's novel Generation X).

Town Hall, 1962 was recorded live at Town Hall in New York City on December 21, 1962. It was at this concert that Ornette unveiled his new trio lineup, consisting of himself with David Izenzon on bass and Charles Moffett on drums. Strangely, Ornette was to announce his retirement soon after this concert, only to resurface in 1965 with the same trio! Izenson and Moffett are ideal musical partners for Ornette; rather than serve as accompanists, they take an equal role in the music, giving support and taking the lead almost simultaneously. This works perfectly for the trio, producing a powerful, uncluttered sound. Izenson is essential to the stunning "Sadness", as his long bowed tones cushion and amplify the plaintiveness of Ornette's alto. Side two's "The Ark" never flags in energy or invention for all of it's twenty-three minutes, thanks largely to Moffett's propulsive, varied percussion.

The album also contains one of Ornette's pieces for string quartet, titled "Dedication to Poets and Writers". It's nice, but not in the same league as the trio pieces. Like Ornette's other string works, it contains angular melodies and clashing harmonies common to twentieth century art music, but the rhythms are fairly straightforward and baroque, and most of the piece has all four string players playing at once, producing a predictable homogeneity to the music.

Town Hall was released on the tiny independent label ESP; my copy identifies itself as an Italian import from Base Records. The sound quality is superb, even on my cheap stereo; it's been reissued several times on CD but is still hard to find. It can be downloaded from ESP here, and is well worth owning in any format.

JACKIE MCLEAN One Step Beyond

2006-04-03T15:02:00.000-03:00

Blue Note BST-84137 (1963)

Jackie McLean's death on Friday at the age of 73 marked the passing of one of jazz music's major voices. McLean recorded prolifically during the fifties and sixties, mostly for the Blue Note label; his piercing alto sax tone was heavily influenced by Charlie Parker, but he went on to find his own voice and make some of the most important hard bop recordings of the period. He would also become one of jazz's most influential educaters, founding the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at the University of Hartford's Hartt School in Connecticut.

McLean's music of the sixties often incorporated elements of the avant garde movement of jazz that was forming at the time, and One Step Beyond shows the influence of artists such as Eric Dolphy and Ornette Coleman (whom McLean invited to play on his 1967 recording New and Old Gospel). The band is a top-notch line-up of forward-looking jazzmen of the time; Grachan Moncur III plays trombone and contributes two of the four compositions, Bobby Hutcherson plays vibes, Eddie Khan holds down the bass chair, and seventeen year-old drummer Tony Williams makes his recording debut (just before going on to play for Miles Davis' classic sixties quintet).

"Saturday and Sunday" opens the album with an alternately ascending and descending whole-tone line that moves quickly into a fast-paced bop tune featuring a typically searing solo from McLean. Moncur's "Frankenstein" slows things down a bit and contains a probing, economical solo from the soulful trombonist. "Blue Rondo" is a brief, swinging blues that features solos from Hutcherson, Moncur, and McLean, who begins his excursion in the vein of his idol Parker before branching out into some politely "out" phrasing. Hutcherson's vibes lend a spooky feel to the closing tune "Ghost Town", a long, mysterious tune with plenty of long tones and angular riffing.

McLean will be missed in the jazz community for his creativity and passion, both in his music and his teachings, but his legacy lives on in his vast discography. No collection is complete without at least one of his albums.

GLENN GOULD Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988

2006-03-31T10:37:00.000-04:00

CBS Masterworks IM 37779 (1982)

Legendary Canadian pianist Glenn Gould's recording of Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations is stamped so indelibly with his own personal stylistic imprint that I can't help but think of this work as sounding undeniably Canadian, even though it was written by a German composer over 250 years ago.

Bach composed the set in the mid-eighteenth century for Count Hermann Karl von Keyserling, who suffered from insomnia and requested some soothing music to help him sleep. Bach produced this set of a theme and thirty variations on a bassline, in which the original line of notes is put through changes of tempo, dynamics, ornamentation, and rhythm in each successive variation. The piece was performed by the gifted harpsichordist Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, hence the title. The theme and variations form had its origins in the street minstrels of the time (today we would call them "buskers"); a musician would take a given song and vary the style of the accompaniment so as to get as much use and variety out of the material as possible before moving on to the next tune. In the Goldberg Variations, Bach took this form to what many consider its apotheosis.

Gould actually recorded the Variations twice; once, in 1955, near the beginning of his career as a performer, and again in 1981, not long before his untimely death the following year at the age of 50. (By some happy quirk of fate, my previously owned copy of this album contains both discs.) In the 1981 recording, he plays the aria and its thirty variations without pause, one leading directly into another on the beat, often with dramatic dynamic shifts between them (the ultra-quiet aria at the beginning leading abruptly into the loud first variation is a signature of Gould's rendition, as well as his overall style).

Gould recorded prolifically for CBS, and every album he made for the label is worthy of attention, but the Goldberg Variations are absolutely essential for any classical music collection (and for any Canadian music collection as well).

THE ZULUS Down on the Floor

2006-03-26T21:16:00.000-04:00

Slash 92 58281 (1989)

If only the Zulus had come along a little later than they did; listening to their sole LP release Down on the Floor, the group sounds like it would have made a perfect companion to bands like Soundgarden and Pearl Jam on the airwaves of only a few years later. The album's bluesy, hard-rock sound would prove to be a foreshadowing of the grunge nirvana to come.

I picked this up on a whim at a record sale at the Dalhousie University Student Union building in Halifax in the early nineties for one dollar (still sealed and brand new). As I played it, I experienced the joy of discovery that so many music collectors cherish, that of finding something new and unheard that the general populace had yet to experience (or would ever experience, in this unfortunate case).

The Zulus hailed from Boston and included former members of bands such as Human Sexual Response and Wild Kingdom. The album was produced by Bob Mould (of Husker Du and Sugar fame; he also wrote the theme to The Daily Show); that and the fact that it was on the super-cool Slash label were more than enough to convince me to give it a try.

Initially, the most striking things about the band's music are the virtuosic, bluesy guitar riffs by Rich Gilbert and Larry Bangor's yelping, impassioned vocals. Listen closer and you'll hear some of the strongest songwriting of any rock record of the eighties; there is literally not a bad song on the album. Songs like "Never Again" and "Skinny Dip" feature Gilbert's twisted blues-rock inversions and Bangor's howling tales of love gone wrong atop the rock-solid rhythm section of bassist Rich Cortese and drummer Malcolm Travis (who would go on to play with Mould in Sugar). "Big D" is a slow, smoldering blues that sounds like a great, lost Led Zeppelin outtake circa 1977, and "Gotta Have Faith" closes the record in a raging wash of feedback a la Husker Du.

In the music business, sometimes timing is everything. Time wasn't on the side of the Zulus, but their only record is well worth searching for. It's currently out of print on CD, so scour those yard sales and used record stores.

NEIL YOUNG After the Gold Rush

2006-03-22T17:32:00.000-04:00

Reprise RS 6383 (1970)

I'm doing this one because my girlfriend suggested it; she took one look at the cover and said, "Ew, that's a creepy cover. You should do that one next." It is kind of creepy; it's an overexposed shot of Young walking past an old lady, but the dark blacks in the photo mess with the perspective so that it looks like Young is either carrying the woman on his back or has an old lady growing out of him. Weird.

After the Gold Rush was the third album to be released solely under Young's name, coming after his work with Buffalo Springfield and during his tenure with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; though it hews closely to the folk-rock/country model of those groups, Young's signature hard-rock sound is beginning to take shape in such songs as "Southern Man" and "When You Dance I Can Really Love". "Southern Man" bravely tackles racism in the south (inspiring the famous "answer" song "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd), but for the most part Young's lyrics focus on love, age, and the passing of time, subjects with which he's stuck closely throughout his career. The overall mood of the album is downcast, yet hopeful; for every plodding piano chord or lonesome harmonica lick, there's a drum kick or wailing guitar lick to prod it out of its misery. The wary optimism in the lyrics of "Don't Let It Bring You Down" is mirrored in the music's harmonies, as the song struggles to wrestle itself free from its own minor chords.

Dismissed by some critics as "dull" at the time of its release, Gold Rush has stood the test of time and is one of Young's definitive albums; like Jimi Hendrix's Are You Experienced or the Beatles' Let It Be, it's one of those records that seems like a greatest hits collection even though (amazingly) it's not.

THE GOLDEN PALOMINOS

2006-03-16T14:38:00.000-04:00

Celluloid CELL 5002 (1983)

I picked this up very recently at a new store in town called the Oryx; if you live in the Saint John area, it's located on Prince William Street just past Melvin's* or whatever that bar on the corner is called now. It's a nice, friendly little shop that specializes in used books, records, and CD's, and it seems to contain every album by every band I ever listened to in college. In other words, if the owners have kids, I'm the one who's going to be putting them through college.

The Golden Palominos are an ever-changing ensemble of musicians from all walks of musical life led by drummer Anton Fier. Though their later albums would skew toward the alt-pop and country-rock ends of genre classification, this, their debut, was firmly entrenched in the New York avant garde of the early eighties.

The most prominent players on the album include former DNA/Ambitious Lovers frontman Arto Lindsay on strangulated vocals and guitar, Fred Frith on guitar and violin, John Zorn on saxophone and duck calls, and Bill Laswell on bass. Its Fier's vision which dominates, though; his drums (both acoustic and electric) are what drive tracks like "Hot Seat", with its furious wails and disembodied vocals churning over Fier's DMX beats, or "Under the Cap", with Lindsay's yodels riding the churning percussion like a bucking bronco. "Cookout" features an early example of record-scratching (courtesy of Roger Trilling) and "I.D." rides along on Laswell's funky fretless bass, giving the album a "dance-party-on-Mars" vibe.

The Golden Palominos will appeal to fans of projects led by Zorn, Lindsay, and Laswell; it's avant-garde, it's got a good beat, and you can dance to it.

*UPDATE: the bar is called Elwood's. My bad.

ANTHONY BRAXTON The Montreux/Berlin Concerts

2006-03-08T19:04:00.000-04:00

Arista 5002 (1977)

This is it, ladies and gents; my desert island disc. The one album I would save from my burning apartment. The Montreux/Berlin Concerts showcases my favourite artist during one of his creative peaks with two of his best groups. I briefly owned this on CD before losing it, but the record is superior; it contains an orchestral piece not on the CD and the sound quality is not much different (the CD is currently out of print).

This may be the first Braxton recording under his own name and leadership that I owned (it was either this or For Alto); I remember buying it Taz Records in Halifax, N.S. The album contains two quartet performances; the first was recorded in 1975 at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland with Kenny Wheeler on trumpet, Dave Holland on bass, and Barry Altschul on drums and percussion. The second concert took place at the Berlin Jazz Days in Germany in 1976 with trombonist George Lewis taking Wheeler's place.

Side one opens in Montreux with the ominous "Composition 40N" (Braxton uses diagrams as titles on this record; the composition numbers are taken from here and here); over a bowed bass drone, the horns hold long tones which break up into short staccato bursts which in turn gradually form the theme of "Composition 23J", a swinging post-bop number which features a furious alto solo from Braxton that disintegrates into screams and squeals. On side two, "Composition 40(O)" is an atonally pointillistic piece that contains some thrilling interplay between Braxton and Wheeler.

"Compostion 6C", from the Berlin performance, is a goofy march that builds to a blustery squall of notes from Braxton and Lewis over Holland's bowed bass and Altschul's clacking percussion. The concert continues on side three with "Composition 6F", the one with the infamous "farting" contrabass saxophone noises (and a loud, smoking solo by Altschul, one of jazz's most underrated drummers), and concludes with "Composition 40K", another of Braxton's slyly swinging post-bop pieces that features a bold, propulsive solo from Lewis.

Side four contains "Composition 63", recorded at the Berlin Jazz Days two days after the quartet performance. It is one of Braxton's works for large orchestral ensemble (in this case, the Berlin New Music Group, conducted by Herr Hummel, featuring Braxton and Lewis as soloists); sonically, it has more in common with twentieth century classical or "new" music than the fractured jazz of most of the rest of the album. In my view, it's perhaps his most artistically successful larger work. The influence of twelve-tone serialism in the piece is obvious, but it moves and breathes with a life of its own and a voice that is undeniably Braxton's. The static, long-tone orchestral tuttis that back the soloists foreshadow Braxton's later orchestral works like Compositions 96 and 82 (for four orchestras!). Braxton has had difficulties with performances and recordings of his concert repertoire (due to indifference, racism, etc.), but here the ensemble sounds eager and totally involved in the music.

Of all the Arista-Freedom jazz recordings desperately needing proper CD representation, Montreux/Berlin is in a class of its own. It's an absolutely essential document of an artist who has always stressed the importance of documentation; it's also perhaps the best music of Braxton's career, which is saying a lot.

MEKONS "The Mekons Rock n' Roll"

2006-03-03T12:07:00.000-04:00

Blast First BFFP 40 (1989)

The Mekons are a collective of socialist musicians hailing from Leeds, England. I say "collective" because that seems like a more fitting word to describe their ever-changing ensemble than "band". One of the first punk-rock groups who never achieved the household notoreity of the Sex Pistols or the Clash (but who outlasted them both combined), they shifted toward a "cowpunk" sound in the mid-eighties before being signed to A&M Records in the U.S. Perhaps stemming from possible record company pressure to make an album with a more "rock" sound, the group produced "The Mekons Rock n' Roll", a sort-of concept album about (you guessed it) rock and roll music that celebrates both its virtues and excesses.

Rock and roll music about rock and roll music usually tends toward the sentimental and/or nostalgic (think of Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll", Huey Lewis and the News' "The Heart of Rock and Roll", even Chuck Berry's "Rock and Roll Music"); even an edgier, questioning lyric like the Rolling Stones' "It's Only Rock and Roll (But I Like It)" resolves itself into the singalong comfort of its chorus. With the songs on Rock n' Roll, the Mekons take the Stones' uncertainties and tear them wide open. Rock and roll is presented as a slobbering, carniverous beast, devouring everything in its path.

"Memphis, Egypt" opens the album with a slashing, overdriven guitar, riffing over a pounding drumbeat. Another guitar enters from the side and mocks the first one with a clucking, countryish melody. A third guitar materializes, louder than the previous two combined, as if to silence their arguing, then the drums kick in really loud and the guitars all begin to play in unison, the mocking melody of the second guitar now the main riff of the song, only two or three times louder than before.

We know the Devil and we have shaken him by the hand, embraced him and thought his foul breath was fine perfume just like ROCK N' ROLL...

The amped-up country-and-western of their previous albums is still on display throughout Rn'R; Susie Honeyman's fiddle pokes its way through the distorted wash of Jon Langford's and Tom Greenhalgh's guitars on the waltz-time "Ring O' Roses" and the pretty "Learning to Live on Your Own" (sung by the band's secret weapon/MVP Sally Timms). "Empire of the Senseless" attacks McCarthyesque music censorship;

No-one's making any noise now,
SSHHH, we've been waiting for so long,
They took away our films and notebooks
But it's ok 'cos we've SELF-CENSORED this song.

"The Mekons Rock n' Roll" is an acid-tongued love letter to an abused and misused genre. The Mekons end up celebrating rock and roll while mocking "rock and roll" and leave behind an album which rocks (and rolls) harder than any previous song on the subject.

ALICE COLTRANE Universal Consciousness

2006-02-26T20:58:00.000-04:00

Impulse! AS-9210 (1972)

Alice MacLeod became John Coltrane's second wife in 1965, a time of great creativity and change for the tenor saxophonist. 1965 was the year Coltrane recorded Ascension, his massive free-jazz statement of purpose. It was during this time that pianist McCoy Tyner and drummer Elvin Jones felt they could no longer continue in the stylistic vein Coltrane was mining, so they left the group. Replacing Jones was Rashied Ali, and taking Tyner's place was Alice Coltrane. She played piano with the quartet until her husband's death in 1967; her style, at times recalling Tyner's rolling romanticism and stacked fourths, lent itself perfectly to her husband's new sonic explorations.

Universal Consciousness was one of many albums Coltrane recorded for the Impulse! label (both with and without her husband); the overt spirituality of John's albums is still present (and quartet members Ali and bassist Jimmy Garrison are on hand), yet is even more explicit and specific, as titles like "Oh Allah" and "Hare Krishna" demonstrate. Rather than simply duplicating the Eastern mysticism found on her husband's final recordings, Alice refines and defines it, telling of her pilgrimages both physical and spiritual in the detailed liner notes.

As if to define her own personal sound that much more distinctly, there is no piano on the album; Coltrane plays organ and harp throughout, accompanied by Garrison's bass and a multitude of drums and percussion provided by Ali, Jack DeJohnette, Clifford Jarvis, and Tulsi. An added bonus is a quartet of violins which lends an otherwordly feel to "Oh Allah", "Hare Krishna", and the title track (Coltrane's string arrangements for the group were transcribed by none other than Ornette Coleman). The musical highlights of the album are perhaps the most unconventional; "Battle at Armageddon" and "The Ankh of Amen-Ra" are a pair of duets with Ali that recall one of John's last albums: Interstellar Space, an album of duets with Ali ("Battle" actually sounds like an intergalactic war between two godlike entities, while "Ankh" showcases Alice's facility on the harp).

Many of Alice Coltrane's albums are thankfully back in print on CD, and she recently returned to recording after a twenty-six year hiatus (!) with the stunning Translinear Light. Her Universal Consciousness is a thoroughly engaging and enjoyable album and a worthy continuation of the Coltrane legacy.

LENNIE TRISTANO

2006-02-23T08:38:00.000-04:00

Atlantic 1224 (1955)

Was Lennie Tristano the true father of free jazz? Many would say so; in 1949, Tristano's group recorded "Intuition" and "Digression", two pieces with no written themes or preordained rhythm or tempo. They are the first recorded examples of totally free improvisation in jazz and predate Ornette Coleman's first albums (which were not 100% improv due to the presence of pre-written heads) by nearly a decade.

Tristano's free music bore little resemblance to today's image of avant-garde jazz; melodic lines unfolded slowly and leisurely, creating a weave of counterpoint that, at the time, had more in common with the polytonality of 20th century classical music than jazz. As a result, Tristano's music often gets dismissed by jazz historians and critics as dispassionate and soulless, a laughable claim to anyone with an open ear who has heard his music (such as Charles Mingus, a former student of Tristano's who was heavily influenced by the pianist).

"Line Up" and "East Thirty-second" show Tristano's ability to play snaking single-note lines with the fluidity of a horn player; his improvisations over rapidly walking bass by Peter Ind and Jeff Morton's drums sound eerily similar to Coleman's. The latter track also features staccato, hammering chord clusters like those of Cecil Taylor. The solo "Requiem" opens with ominous, slightly Wagnerian block chords before morphing into a slow 4/4 blues. The album also compiles five live recordings of standards, showcasing Tristano's ability to adapt his technique to the traditional song form. Tristano disciple Lee Konitz plays clear, simple alto sax lines above and around Tristano's comping while bassist Gene Ramey and drummer Art Taylor keep the beat.

Tristano's is a name that deserves to be remembered; his influence is felt in the world of jazz and free improvisation alike, plus he simply made great music that deserves to be heard and preserved.

SHELLEY MANNE/BILL EVANS WITH MONTY BUDWIG Empathy

2006-02-20T17:14:00.000-04:00

Verve V-8497 (1962)

Shelley Manne is so closely identified with the drum sound of such early big-band swing ensembles as those belonging to Raymond Scott, Woody Herman, and Stan Kenton that it's easy to forget that he's also one of the most versatile, creative, and downright musical drummers who ever lived. Equally at home with the traditional sounds of Les Brown or the forward-looking Ornette Coleman, Manne is in perfect sync with pianist Bill Evans, another musician with the ability to sound at home in various musical situations (Miles Davis' Kind of Blue band, various trios, and overdubbed duets with himself).

The album itself covers a wide swath of styles; "The Washington Twist" is a staccato blues with a polite Dave Brubeck-like theme that breaks into some smooth and swinging soloing from Evans. Manne is nearly inaudible beneath the calm surface of "Danny Boy", providing just the right amount of support and momentum to the sentimental ballad. "Let's Go Back to the Waltz" finds Evans and co. returning to one of his favourite dance rhythms; bassist Monty Budwig gets off a full-bodied solo before the gentle 3/4 time suddenly breaks into a rapid four-on-the-floor shuffle, then returns to a slightly faster waltz tempo at the end. The traditional standard "With a Song in My Heart" gets an avant-garde makeover near its end, as the trio seem to improvise freely over the feel of the song (in a manner similar to Ornette Coleman's).

Empathy almost seems like too obvious a choice of title for this album; so relaxed and in tune with each other are the three musicians on this record that it sounds as if it were made by one person (with three distinct personalities).

ARCHIE SHEPP I Know About the Life

2006-02-15T10:41:00.000-04:00

Sackville 3026 (1981)

I Know About the Life was recorded during the filming of Ron Mann's excellent documentary Imagine the Sound (cruelly unavailable on DVD); in the film, Shepp is shown playing in the studio and being interviewed by Sackville Records co-founder/CODA magazine co-founder/Canadian renaissance man Bill Smith. The tone of the interviews is relaxed and intimate, yet serious and focused, just like the music on this record.

Shepp's boozy, Ben Webster-ish tone suits the laid back feel of the title track, which is the only original Shepp composition on the album. Pianist Ken Werner contributes elegant comping while bassist Santi DeBriano and drummer John Betsch sound like a one-man rhythm section, so focused and synchronized is their accompaniment. My only caveat involves what seem to be some tuning problems on Shepp's part that plague the recording and make his playing sound a little more off-kilter than usual. That's not meant to put down his playing; Shepp has always had a distinctive, freewheeling quality to his style that always seems to suit the material (his unique rendition of "The Girl from Ipanema" is a modern jazz classic).

Shepp pays tribute to his mentor John Coltrane on "Giant Steps"; here the tuning is even more suspect, and Shepp can't navigate the sharp harmonic turns quite as effortlessly as Trane did in the original, yet the rhythm section cooks, and Shepp's soloing is passionate and heartfelt. Near the end, there's a particularly wonderful "duel" between Shepp and Betsch that reminds one of Trane and Rashied Ali duking it out on Coltrane's Interstellar Space.

The album closes with a pair of Thelonious Monk compositions. "Round Midnight" is played straight by the rhythm section, with Shepp inserting honks and squeals that probably would never have occured to Monk sideman Charlie Rouse, and "Well You Needn't" ends the session on an upbeat note. Life may not be essential Shepp, but to his fans and followers, any Shepp is worth hearing. Make sure you beg or borrow (but don't steal) a copy of Imagine the Sound at some point in your life to catch a glimpse of this sometimes underappreciated modern jazz legend.

THE ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO Fanfare for the Warriors

2006-02-12T13:02:00.000-04:00

Atlantic SD 1651 (1974)

Within days of my joining the AEC in early 1970, Lester (Bowie) took me aside one day after rehearsal and said, very seriously, "Don't even mess with us or get any more involved if you can't commit to playing Great Black Music at a very high level, becoming famous, and taking our place in the History of Jazz."

- AEC drummer Famoudou Don Moye, from the liner notes to Tribute to Lester (ECM 1808)

Regardless of what one thinks of the country of the United States of America and their position in the world, they can be credited with two very important contributions to world culture; they gave us jazz, and they gave us the Art Ensemble of Chicago. For nearly forty years the group has dedicated itself not just to the performance and preservation of jazz and the avant garde but to what they call "Great Black Music", a style all their own that encompasses traditional African folk music, blues, poetry, vaudeville, and theatre. They have survived changes in lineups and record labels (and the deaths of two founding members) and continue to thrive as one of America's most underappreciated national treasures.

Fanfare for the Warriors was recorded with the help of pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, who was not an official member of the group but a fellow member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), a Chicago-based collective made up primarily of avant garde jazz artists. It's a strong, varied album and contains at least one example of each ingredient the band uses in its musical melting pot; there's the poetic recitation of "Illistrum", the bluesy, driving "Barnyard Scuffel Shuffel", and the intervallic, avant garde madness of "Nonaah". The title track is a classic free jazz raveup in the vein of Albert Ayler, while the flutes and piccolos of "What's to Say" give off a dancing African township feel. The off-key vocal harmonizations and subsequent laughter in the brief closer "The Key" proves that, for all their lofty goals, the group never takes itself too seriously.

If you only own one Art Ensemble album, I'd tell you to go out and get a few more, but if you're going to limit yourself to one, Fanfare shows this multitalented, multistylistic group at one of their many peaks.

THE BLASTERS Non Fiction

2006-02-10T13:40:00.000-04:00

Slash/Warner Bros. 92 38181 (1983)

One red rose on a new black dress
Crushing it between our chests
Tonight I wonder where you'll be
One dead rose is all I see

- "Red Rose", Dave Alvin/The Blasters

The Blasters were one of the bands associated with the American "indie-rock" scene of the early eighties. One of the things these bands had in common was that, sonically, they didn't have much in common; the Blasters didn't sound much like Camper Van Beethoven, who didn't sound much like Husker Du, who didn't sound much like X, who didn't sound much like the Replacements, etc. At one point or another, however, all of these bands were labelled as "alternative", a term that was still relatively new in the eighties and hadn't yet become an official "genre". In those post-punk, pre-grunge days, these bands were popping up in various parts of the country; separated by geography, they concentrated not on copying their neighbours' sound but on inventing their own. As a result, the "alternative sound" of the eighties is a lot harder to pin down than that of the nineties and beyond, and probably better for it.

Of all the aforementioned bands, the Blasters were far and away the most traditional, both in sound and style. They dressed in leather and denim, hair combed back in pompadours, looking like your typical rockabilly/boogie-woogie bar band, but without the mannered affectations of certain other bands. On the surface, the music was competent, hard-driving rock and roll; it had a good beat and you could dance to it. Listen closer, though, and you'll hear some of the most perfectly-woven tales of love and heartbreak this side of Hank Williams. Like Williams, songwriter/guitarist Dave Alvin had a knack for writing tightly constructed songs in which not one word was wasted; the haiku-like "He lies to her, she kisses him/Getting tired of love" from "Bus Station" tells you all you need to know about the intricacies of the relationship between its youngish lovers, and the way that the band bears down just a little harder on the instrumental breaks between singer (and Dave's brother) Phil Alvin's impassioned yelps drives every verse and chorus home. The band dedicate "Long White Cadillac" (later covered by Dwight Yoakam) to Hank; like many of the other songs on the album, it sounds exactly like something Williams would have written without sounding like a copy. The band (and Alvin) were just that good.

The cover of the album is one of my all-time favourites. A man in grime-covered overalls, perhaps a service-station attendant or a miner, his hair slicked back, stares into the camera while clutching a single red rose. That image, with its mix of macho cool and romance, gruffness and sensitivity, really says it all about the music of the Blasters. Like their songs, it conveys the maximum amount of information and emotion with the simplest of messages, and the harder you look at it, the harder it seems to look back.

Dave Alvin left in 1986 for a solo career after recording one more album with the band (Hard Line) and the group continued off-and-on in various incarnations under Phil's leadership. Sadly, most of the group's original albums are out of print and unavailable on CD, but various compilations exist and are well worth your time. Pick one up; Hank would've wanted it that way.

THE BEATLES Magical Mystery Tour

2006-02-08T00:01:00.000-04:00

Capitol SMAL-2835 (1967)

This is the only Beatles album I own on vinyl; I think I bought it at a library sale, possibly on the last day when you can fill up a box with as much as you can carry for three dollars. It's in pretty decent shape; it's missing the inner sleeve liner, but there's a 24-page picture book on the inside which is perfectly intact and shows stills from the ill-fated movie of the same name as well as an illustrated story.

Magical Mystery Tour is an album that usually doesn't get mentioned in the same breath as the Beatles' more respected albums (like Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band), possibly because it's sort of an odds-and-sods collection of music from the film and non-album singles, and possibly because the self-indulgence of the largely plotless movie has relegated it to a place in Beatles history well below A Hard Day's Night and Yellow Submarine. That's a shame, because on a purely musical, song-by-song basis, it's a very strong album, even by Beatle standards. "I Am the Walrus", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Penny Lane", and "All You Need Is Love", all on the same album? Who could say no to that?

When I think about the Beatles, I marvel at how much they changed over such a short period of time. Think of the four polite-looking young men in suits who were the Beatles in 1962 and compare them with the costumed madmen on the cover of this album and then try to think of another band who altered their image and sound so radically in such a short period of time. It would be like Coldplay suddenly growing their hair long and wearing army fatigues in concert; it's almost impossible to imagine such a thing happening in today's industry-driven music scene.

Writing about this album has suddenly made me want to go out and track down the film (I saw bits of it once while a friend was watching it in another room; I remember him saying, "Pete, promise me you'll never watch this!"), so, against my better judgment, I'm off to the video store. Pray for me.

TALKING HEADS The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads

2006-02-05T17:55:00.000-04:00

Sire 2SR 3590 (1982)

Most live albums serve a dual purpose; not only do they give the listener an idea of what a band sounds like in concert, they usually function as a sort of career retrospective, collecting the group's hits and fan favourites into an unofficial greatest hits package. The Name of this Band Is Talking Heads goes one step further and features performances from five different concerts between 1977 and 1981, giving the listener a chance to hear the evolution of the Heads' sound over a five-year period.

Side one was recorded live at Northern Studio in Massachussetts and consists mainly of songs from their debut album Talking Heads: 77, including their breakout hit "Psycho Killer". The songs don't sound too different from their studio counterparts, a tribute to the band's live chops as much as to the effective simplicity of their sound. The album cover shows the group playing in someone's living room, which is exactly what this concert sounds like; cozy and intimate.

Side two was recorded two years later at the Capitol Theater in New Jersey and finds the band sounding more aggressive, particularly vocalist David Byrne, slurring and growling his way through songs from the band's slightly more experimental second and third albums. The audience sounds a lot larger at this show, and the band responds with a bigger (yet somehow leaner) sound. They also perform their very first single "Building on Fire", unavailable on any of their previous LP's.

Sides three and four cover the early eighties Heads; the band is now using as many as six additional musicians onstage, including guitarist Adrian Belew, keyboardist Bernie Worrell, and two backup singers. The sound is much more intricate and rhythmic (funky, too) and is reflective of the innovative sounds of their groundbreaking fourth album Remain in Light. Belew in particular shines throughout on some particularly twisted guitar solos.

The Name of this Band is Talking Heads is not only a great live album but a great way to introduce yourself to what was probably America's greatest band at the time; for fans, it's a perfect summation of the group's strongest and most important part of their career.

MILES DAVIS A Tribute to Jack Johnson

2006-01-29T22:16:00.000-04:00

Columbia KC 30455 (1971)

"The rise of Jack Johnson to world heavyweight supremacy in 1908 was a signal for white envy to erupt. Can you get to that? And of course being born Black in America... we all know how that goes."

- from the liner notes by Miles Davis

Recorded and released just after his groundbreaking fusion albums In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson is Miles Davis' most straightahead "rock" album, and it represents an even sharper turn away from anything resembling a traditional jazz sound. Drop the needle on "Right Now" and you may think you've purchased the wrong album, with drummer Billy Cobham laying down a pounding 4/4 beat and electric bassist Michael Henderson playing a simple, chugging line beneath guitarist's John McLaughlin's chunky power chords. Before the tape rolled, Miles had instructed McLaughlin to play like he couldn't remember how, and while McLaughlin is far too accomplished a musician to fool us, his playing is more primal than (and almost unrecognizable compared to) his previous work with Davis.

The sidelong "Right Now" is probably the closest that any of Davis' studio recordings came to capturing his actual live sound at the time. Producer Teo Macero had tinkered with Miles' previous recordings (with his permission), cutting and restitching them into complex sonic murals. Some of this technique is present on Jack Johnson, but to a much lesser degree. (To hear more of this group in their natural state, check out the recently released The Cellar Door Sessions 1970 or The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions.)

Side two's "Yesternow" is closer in sound and spirit to Bitches Brew but still maintains a leaner sound than its predecessor. The track begins with Miles playing short, legato phrases over Henderson's bass and McLaughlin's wah-drenched guitar. Slowly Cobham's drums enter the conversation, as McLaughlin takes the lead with some languourous blues-drenched lines. The beat picks up speed as someone (probably either Miles or Herbie Hancock) injects some vicious organ stabs into the mix, then the pace shifts drastically into what sounds like a Brew outtake, then another shift into an upbeat funk riff.

In dedicating this album to former heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson, Miles was aligning himself with another black hero who fought for his own personal freedoms as well as the freedoms of his black countrymen. Refusing to allow himself to be put in a box stylistically, Davis was unafraid of those who criticized his artistic shift into a more populist "rock and roll" sound, and it resulted in some of the most controversial and groundbreaking jazz ever recorded.

"Dig this - The fight he lost (1915) in Havana was rumored to be thrown - Jack Johnson died like he lived - in a fast car (1946 - age 68).
The music on this album speaks for itself! But dig the guitar and the bass - They are 'Far-in' - and so is the producer Teo Macero. He did it again!"

- Miles Davis

PAT METHENY/ORNETTE COLEMAN Song X

2006-01-25T11:58:00.000-04:00

Geffen Records XGHS 24096 (1986)

There are two things that you should know about this album right off the top. First, it's available on CD in an expanded twentieth-anniversary reissue with six extra tracks, and second, you should stop reading this right now and rush out and buy it, because while the original LP is a masterpiece of improvisation and invention, the reissue is even better; the remastering punches up the sound of the tracks noticeably, and the additional tracks alone are worth the price of the CD. Then again, if you read my top ten list of about a month ago, you already know this. So, go already! Buy it! I'll wait right here...

In 1985, contemporary jazz guitarist Pat Metheny surprised a lot of people by entering a studio with legendary free jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman and recording Song X. Metheny had previously expressed his admiration for Coleman and, in 1983, had recorded some of his compositions on an album called Rejoicing (with longtime Coleman collaborators Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins), yet few fans of either musician were prepared for the results of their session together. Though Metheny gets top billing, the album feels more like an Ornette record than anything Metheny had previously recorded.

The rhythm section is evenly integrated with musicians from each leader's musical past; Ornette's son Denardo (who has played and recorded with his father since the age of ten) plays drums and percussion, while frequent Metheny bandmate Jack DeJohnette holds down the main drum chair. Bassist Haden, known primarily for his work with Coleman's first quartet, had played with Metheny on Rejoicing and 80/81 (and would later record an album of duets with the guitarist entitled Beyond the Missouri Sky).

The opening title track sets the tone for the rest of the album; two brief, furious blasts of the theme, then several minutes of whirling free improvisation, then two more thematic statements. "Video Games" features some frantic playing from Metheny on guitar synthesizer (sounding like Pac-Man on a bender) which abruptly shifts into some swinging trio interplay led by Ornette. "Endangered Species" is thirteen minutes of pure frenzy, with the instruments creating a thick soup of guitars, drums and horns that gradually empties into a frenetic percussion duet at the end.

Not everything on the album speeds along so frantically; "Mob Job" swings lazily and features some of Ornette's unique violin playing, while "Kathelin Gray" is the kind of lovely, lyrical ballad that Coleman specializes in. The biggest surprise on the album comes near the end with "Song X Duo", a short improvised duet between Coleman and Metheny that unexpectedly (probably even to the players) climaxes in a brightly strummed open G chord before returning to the theme of the title track. It's an unexpected burst of tonality in an album made by artists who recognize its importance even amidst the freest of improvisations.

Song X simply must be heard to be believed. Like Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, it's one of those albums that is essential to any jazz fan's collection.

WINGS Back to the Egg

2006-01-18T12:46:00.000-04:00

Columbia FC 36057 (1979)

There's an old joke about the little girl who innocently asks her father, "Daddy, was Paul McCartney in a band before Wings?" McCartney laughed about it in interviews, saying that now he was getting fans who were too young to remember Wings. Of course, the joke now would be about kids who are too young to remember Paul McCartney, period, but that would be unnecessarily cruel. Give 'im a break! He's got a new album out! With the guy who produced Radiohead! And people seem to like it! (No, I haven't heard it!)

As much as you can feel sorry for a multi-zillionaire, sometimes I feel a little sorry for Sir Paul McCartney; the guy often got short shrift in people's estimation of his contribution to the Beatles' songwriting oeuvre. Personally, I always got the feeling that John was, admittedly, the "substance" guy, but Paul was the "music" guy. This became even more apparent after the breakup of their little band; John's albums featured the work of an artist willing to plumb the depths of his soul and confront his own shortcomings, yet it often lacked the melodic sweetening of his Beatlemusik, while Paul's work was, well, pretty, and certainly catchy, but not always... ahem... deep.

Neither is Back to the Egg, but it's fun in a catchy, non-deep, silly-love-song sort of way. Best of all, it contains two tracks by the wonderful ridiculousness that was Rockestra, Paul's big-band-symphony thingie featuring five guitarists (including Pete Townshend and David Gilmour), three drummers (!), four bassists (!!!), and lotsa horns and keyboards. I guess it was Paul's attempt to bring a symphonic, "wall-of-sound" grandeur to rock 'n' roll, and it doesn't sound half-bad, though I wouldn't want to hear a whole album of it. It reminded me of a TV broadcast of some awards show I saw when I was about nine years old where they had a huge group of musicians on stage jamming with a video screen of Bill Haley and the Comets playing "Rock Around the Clock" and it sounded like an unholy mess, yet strangely exhilirating.

Anyway, if you haven't sampled any of McCartney's work between his stint with the Beatles and the time he fell in with that Jackson kid, Back to the Egg is a pretty good place to start. It's got a handful of good rockers ("Getting Closer", "Spin It On", "To You", "Again and Again and Again") and the love ballads aren't as cloyingly sweet as some of those found on his other albums (though "Baby's Request" comes dangerously close). "After the Ball/Million Miles" is downright pretty without being sickeningly so, and features some imaginative instrumental arranging. I still think McCartney has one of the best rock singing voices ever (able to leap from a sweet croon to a raspy yelp in a single breath) and he's in fine form here.

McCartney may never put out anything to rival his work with the Beatles, but, then again, very few artists probably will. Get past the comparisons to past glories and there are gems aplenty on Back to the Egg and McCartney's other albums, with Wings and without.

WIRE 154

2006-01-16T12:25:00.000-04:00

Warner Bros. QBS 3398 (1979)

The story goes that, at a certain high-society party one night, Miles Davis was introduced to a lady of status and fell into a rather one-sided conversation with her, during which she listed her many titles and accomplishments. When she noticed him growing visibly distracted, she was said to have huffed, "Well! Might I ask what you have done in your lifetime?", to which Davis coolly replied, "Well, I've changed music about five or six times."

English post-punks Wire may not have had quite as much influence on their peers as Davis did on his, but like Miles they put their music through many stylistic changes over the course of their career. Beginning life as a snotty art-punk band in the tradition of the Sex Pistols and the Buzzcocks, their sound changed as they searched for different means of expression, incorporating synthesizers, drum machines, and samplers into the mix. 154 was their third album and was the first to suggest the the group had grown bored with traditional punk sounds and were ready to try something new and different, punk formalism be damned.

The overall sound of the album may be a bit off-putting to the casual listener; synths and guitars grate against each other abrasively over pounding drums, and most of the lyrics tend to be either dark or analytical (or usually both: "The Other Window" describes a man on a train watching a horse struggle to free itself from a barbed-wire fence and, realizing that he is unable to help, eventually ignoring the situation). Yet repeated listenings reveal Wire's ear for catchy hooks; "The 15th" and "Map Ref. 41'N 93'W" could've been pop hits in an alternate universe (despite their oblique lyrics; the chorus of "Map Ref." goes "Interrupting my train of thought/Lines of longitude and latitude/Define and refine my altitude" and somehow manages to be hummable!).

Unfortunately, the tensions in Wire's music were reflected in the relationships between the band's members; the group broke up after the album's release. Happily, Wire reunited in 1985 with The Ideal Copy, a record that picked right up where 154 left off. Wire continues to record and tour to this day, continually confounding any and all expectations with regards to their sound (or what it should be).

(Wire performing live in Germany in 1979. The first song is from the album Chairs Missing, the second is from 154.)

BERLIN CONTEMPORARY JAZZ ORCHESTRA

2006-01-13T12:50:00.000-04:00

ECM 1409 (1990)

Lately I've been reading New Dutch Swing, Kevin Whitehead's book on the development and current state of jazz and improvised music in Amsterdam, and it made me want to dig this album out for a listen. BCJO is mentioned in the book and features many prominent Dutch musicians such as Willem Breuker and special guest soloist Misha Mengelberg, who composed two of the pieces here. This album also brings back memories of the late, lamented Bluetone Records in Saint John (who for a time were the sponsor of my radio show No Pain for Cakes on CFMH-FM); it was the first recording I ever bought there ($8.00, brand new and still shrinkwrapped).

In his book, Whitehead makes note of the differences between Dutch and German jazz musicians; while the Germans tend to be more straightlaced and formal (both in their demeanour and their playing), the Dutch have a tendency toward more theatrical, even clownish behaviour. This is apparent in the contrast in mood between each side of this record; side one contains "Ana", a moody, gently flowing composition (by Canadian Kenny Wheeler) that is given a gorgeous, respectful treatment by the orchestra (under the direction of conductor Alexander von Schlippenbach), while side two consists of two pieces by pianist Mengelberg ("Salz" and "Reef und Kneebus") that are wilder and more playful in nature. "Salz" features some particularly loony playing from Mengelberg and Breuker (on bass clarinet, sounding like Eric Dolphy jamming with Cecil Taylor) while drummer Ed Thigpen (known for his more staightahead work with Oscar Peterson) soldiers along bravely.

As with all ECM releases, BCJO is impeccably recorded and tastefully packaged, and should be sampled by anyone curious to hear jazz from another continent. (Pick up Whitehead's book for even more recommendations of Dutch and German jazz; it's a thorough history and a great read.)

FRED FRITH Cheap at Half the Price

2006-01-10T10:38:00.000-04:00

Ralph FF 8356 (1983)

I remember reading an interview with ex-Talking Heads frontman David Byrne in which he said that, during the band's early days, a lot of his friends were a little worried about him after hearing some of the songs he was writing. Tunes like "Animals" (" I know the animals.../Are laughing at us.../They don't even know.../What a joke is!") and "I'm Not in Love" (" ...Happy! Is there time for this?/Is this responsibility?/Girl time, boy time, is that the difference between me and you?") caused some of them to be concerned for his mental health and well-being.

Friends of multi-instumentalist Fred Frith are probably accustomed to his quirky recordings by now; he began his career in the sixties as co-founder of the legendary British progressive rock band Henry Cow and has gone on to play with people like John Zorn, the Residents, and Brian Eno. Cheap at Half the Price is still a pretty unique sounding album, though, and would probably unsettle even Frith's closest associates. Frith recorded the album at his home on a four-track recorder, playing nearly all the instruments himself and using tapes of drum machine samples he had collected through the years (and which probably sounded dated even in the early eighties).

"Some Clouds Don't" opens the album; a disturbingly strained, high-pitched voice advises us, in very Byrne-like fashion, to "beware of the wise, beware of the wise/Lies! Lies! Lies!" and informs us that "some clouds don't have a silver lining". "Cap the Knife" opens with the line "one loving lick from a little dead duck could kill" and samples a speech by then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan (because no experimental album from the eighties would be complete without a Reagan sample!). "Evolution" proclaims "welcome to the insects/let's change the subject!" over a shuffling Latin rhythm before breaking into a speed-picked Mediterranean-sounding guitar solo.

The second side is made up of (mostly) instrumentals that are slightly (but not much) more conventional than the songs on side one. "Instant Party" is a driving, somewhat rock-like tune with untelligible vocals that suddenly switches gears into a fiddle-led jig. "Walking Song" sounds like Atari videogame music and features some pretty synthesizer washes and a lilting, wordless vocal melody. "Heart Bares" is a spare, minimalist ballad that leads into "Absent Friends", a rhythmically percolating arrangement of a traditional Swedish melody that layers handclapping patterns over strangulated guitar and a simple synthesizer melody, then breaks into a beautiful fiddle solo; it's the best track on the album.

For those with a taste for the eccentric, Cheap at Half the Price is a great introduction to the world of Fred Frith, and should give no one any cause for alarm with regards to his sanity; at the very least, his musical instincts are completely sound (and, after repeated listenings, his words begin to make more and more sense!).

RANDY NEWMAN Little Criminals

2006-01-05T23:14:00.000-04:00

Warner Bros. BSK 3079 (1977)

Okay, first of all, let's get that song out of the way. Right, that song.

They got little hands
And little eyes
And they walk around
Tellin' great big lies
They got little noses
And tiny little teeth
They wear platform shoes
On their nasty little feet.

Well, I don't want no Short People
Don't want no Short People
Don't want no Short People
`Round here.

"Short People" was the biggest hit of singer-songwriter Randy Newman's career; it went all the way to number two on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart in 1977, and probably would have gone to number one had it not been kept out of the top spot by Debby Boone's treacly "You Light Up My Life". Along with Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." and the Beatles' "Revolution", it's one of the most misunderstood pop songs ever. Newman invented and wrote about a prejudice that didn't exist (or at least was not very prevalent in society) so he could examine the nature and principles of bigotry and racism without focusing on any one group in particular. What happened, of course, was that many people took the song at face value and interpreted it as an attack on short people. It's a good thing he didn't write a song called "Stupid People". Ahem...

Little Criminals was Newman's sixth album, coming just after his critically praised run of records like 12 Songs, Sail Away, and Good Old Boys, and just before his first film soundtracks (Ragtime, The Natural, and Three Amigos). The album was not received quite so well by critics as his previous works, and some of the tunes do feel more like fragments of songs than actual songs. Most stick with you after repeated listenings, though; "You Can't Fool the Fat Man" is a funny trifle with a catchy New Orleans-style middle eight, and the touching "I'll Be Home" looks ahead to some of Newman's movie ballads* for Toy Story and the like. The best songs are the ones that dig deepest; "Baltimore" is a moving, rhythmically-driving elegy to the crime-ridden city, and "Kathleen (Catholicism Made Easier)" is an oddly ominous love song. Best of all is the title track, a pounding rock number with a madly swerving hook about a gang of stick-up artists chiding the drug-addicted thieves they see as beneath them in stature.

What you wanna come back here for?
Thought you're with your uptown friends
Don't need none of your junkie business
You gonna screw us up again

'Cause we've almost made it
We've almost made it
We've almost made it to the top

The funniest song may be "Rider in the Rain", a lazily loping send-up of the Eagles' "Desperado", on which Newman actually gets Eagles frontmen Don Henley and Glenn Frey to sing backup harmonies!

Oh, my mother's in St. Louis
And my bride's in Tennessee
So, I'm goin' to Arizona
With a banjo on my knee

He's a Rider In The Rain
He's a Rider In The Rain
And I'm goin' to Arizona
He's a Rider In The Rain

It's unclear whether Frey and Henley are in on the joke, but you know that Newman is.

Newman sticks mostly to film scores these days, which is too bad; the radio could use a little more of his good-natured cynicism. There's a whole generation who knows him simply as "the Toy Story guy", which is pretty hilarious to anyone familiar with the darkly comic songs found on his earlier albums. Of course, any kind of Randy Newman is better to have around than none at all.

*(side note - I was pretty happy to see Newman take home an Oscar for one of those Pixar movie buddy songs he wrote (it was the one that John Goodman sang at the ceremony), especially since he had been nominated something like fifteen times without a win, though I do think it's funny to imagine that it probably takes him less time to write one of those tunes than it does to actually sing it. Nothing against him or his talent; in fact, it's that tossed-off feel that gives those songs their charm, and Newman is so good that he can probably whip one off without breaking a sweat... "Yeah, hello? Oh, hi, David. Yeah, good. A song? Sure, whaddaya got? Okay... two best pals... against the odds... giant cat... talking cars... okay, got it. I'll call you back in five minutes. (click) Honey? Good news! We can keep the cottage for another year!")