Ulrich Schnauss - Far Away Trains (Towerblock 005)

Ulrich Schnauss - Far Away Trains

So many people told me to get this that I eventually succumbed and went to Amazon. It has been deleted, but is sometimes available second hand from the Marketplace. These days this stuff is called chill out - but this is of a higher than average quality. At its worst this kind of electronic noodling sounds like the kind of thing sold in garden centres or played in complementary health shops in the mistaken view it relaxes when actually pure vacuousness raises the blood pressure to dangerous heights. However, Ulrich S never tips into that realm, always offering a surprising turn, grin-inducing rythmn and originality. I also detect a tinge of Terry Riley's "A Rainbow in Curved Air" (Sony 4778492) - but then ever since I first heard that masterpiece in 1972 under the blankets played in its full 18 minute glory by John Peel, I have heard intimations of it in all sorts of places over the years - Soft Machine, Pink Floyd, Kraftwerk, Mike Oldfield, Eno, King Crimson, The Who's Baba O'Riley, Keith Jarrett's Koln Concert, running in a direct line towards trip hop, dance and trance. Back to Ulrich: it's high class ambient music that can soothe the soul after a tough commute and remind you there is a more beautiful and fascinating life than the A3 in the fog.

Ernie Andrews and Cannonball Adderley - Live Session - Capitol 7243 5 97934

Ernie Andrews first recorded in 1945, but despite having a couple of albums on which he sang guest vocals, I ignored his albums until Houston Person began producing them for HighNote in 1997. Ernie is a great Soul Jazz singer – still at 75.

More than any other jazz singer, Ernie sings songs you haven’t heard, or songs you haven’t heard sung. The material on this album, recorded in 1962 and 1964, comes from R&B; fifties Rock & Roll (would you believe Frankie Vaughn’s first hit?); Soul Jazz (Sam Jones’ Del Sasser, Marv Jenkins’ Big City, and Work song); Motown; and Swing. In fact, the only song on the album from the "Great American Songbook” is Bill Bailey.

It’s not only what he sings. Ernie sings with soul, power, humour and acid sarcasm, sometimes self-deprecating (“I’m a born world shaker”). And when he does something totally naff, like Green Door, you realise that even this can be made to mean something. The band is quite good - AM

Jim White - Drill A Hole In That Substrate and Tell Me What You See - Luaka Bop 68089-90055-2

I'm a big fan of Jim White's two previous albums, No Such Place and Wrong-Eyed Jesus. They're full of strange imagery and stories, no doubt the product of the hard and tragic times he went through before David Byrne took him on his label. For instance, he used to wake up handcuffed to a fence in Mississippi after his girlfriend had taken his car; or because there was a vengeful ghost at the foot of his bed; or to find that his lover had stabbed him and he was bleeding to death in a forest.

So I was initially disappointed to find on the first track of this album that he now awakes to a "sweet summer rain". In bed. Without any spectres. It almost sounds as though he's happy. Then he bounces back with the lonely picture of a phone box in heaven (but no-one's calling) and he tells us that we can't get there on borrowed wings, stolen from sleeping angels. Taken out of context, this might sound trite but the songs work. He may have mellowed, but he's got more musicality and poetry in his little finger than most musicians have in their whole body and this is a great listen. Buy all three albums is my advice.

Gerald Albright Live at Birdland West - Atlantic 82334

I bought Albright’s Bermuda Nights twelve years ago in a record fair, to see what he was like. Ooooo, he’s a bit smoooooth; haven’t played it much. In Kelly’s the other day, I picked up this one. Hmm, Impressions to start off with; Georgia On My Mind; Limehouse Blues – not heard anyone do that for ages; good blokes with him; not thousands. So I did what I very seldom do; listened to a bit.

Wow! Not even moderately smooooth. Albright’s burnin’, wailin’, screamin’ from the bottom. These geezers who follow Grover Washington can PLAY, though they don’t usually, so you gotta watch ‘em. This, in 1991, was the first Albright album that didn’t make the R&B charts, and most of the later albums have done better than this, so it’s clear where the rent’s coming from.

Only half is live; five are studio tracks, but he’s still playing - AM

Gillian Welch - Revival (Acony 50466 68742)

Well as a previous post was about something found in the bottom of a box I thought I'd review this from 1996 - found as I cleared out the car. I'd bought it a long time ago in a sale and never played it. My loss. Gillian Welch and guitarist David Rawlings are at the forefront of new country. Rawlings electric country guitar, including rasping feedback at times, is wonderfully balanced with more traditional slide guitar. And Welch's songs are are a treat. My favourite - Barroom Girls with the great opening lyric:
"Oh the night came undone like a party dress
And fell at her feet in a beautiful mess
The smoke and the whiskey came home in her curls
And they crept through the dreams of the barroom girls."
Paper Wings and Tear My Stillhouse Down find themselves oft repeated as well. If I had a Friday night music show in, say, New South Wales (or old South Wales come to that), she would be a regular feature.

Sound Soundtrack Tracks

Who on earth buys CDs of soundtracks? I mean, honestly, they are either cynically commercial or meaningless without the, um, pictures. Ridiculous notion. Except for some of us (well, me at least) who can still remember with fondness the advantages of sampler albums (Rock Machine Turns You On, Bumpers, Rockbuster etc) they can perform a similar function. So the soundtrack to Before Sunset introduced me to Kathryn Williams, Kath Bloom and Kathy McCarty (not often you get a full set of Kaths) all of whom are worth discovering. The Garden State soundtrack introduced me to a great song by Colin Hay (ex of Men at Work for those Down Under)and some Zero 7 and Nick Drake which had previously eluded me. The Vanilla Sky CD gave me Sigur Ros (early) Looper and Red House Painters. And the soundtrack to The Insider (Michael Mann at his best by the way) has some great Jan Garbarek and Lisa Gerrard with Pieter Bourke. I like to think I have benefited from the hard application of the directors to be surprising and non-derivative. On the other hand, I may just be sad. My kids certainly think so.
On the subject of Samplers, they now come free on the front of magazines. The Word has some of the best of them. Not least for introducing me to Rilo Kiley. It's a great magazine from the reliable stable of David Hepworth and Mark Ellen which is now also Webcast as Word Radio! (for a fiver a month)

Ron Carter - Orfeu - Blue Note 7243 5 22490 2

This 1999 album is part of a deal between Blue Note and HighNote, which resulted in Ron’s third album of duets with Houston Person. It’s not duets though; with Bill Frisell on guitar, Stephen Scott on piano, Payton Crossley (who?) on drums and the veteran Steve Kroon on percussion, it’s an album of Ron’s interpretation of the music of Brazil. The only two Brazilian tunes, however, are two Luis Bonfa compositions from Black Orpheus. The rest, apart from Dvorak’s Goin’ Home, frequently interpreted in Latin mode, are Carter’s tunes.

The band doesn’t try to convey the exhuberant side of Brazilian music but the melodic approach. The result is as serene an album as some of those by Cesaria Evora. It’s the best Blue Note album I’ve heard since EMI re-activated the label in 1985 -AM