Duke Ellington - Piano in The Foreground - Columbia/Legacy 512920

I heard this album in the mid-sixties, but it was already deleted. I’ve waited forty years for its reissue.

I can’t be bothered with Duke’s big band stuff, except for some commercial records, such as Main Stem, which spent four weeks at number 1 on the R&B charts in 1944. But when he plays in a small group, there are few funkier pianists. The standout tracks here are Summertime and So, from the original 1961 LP, and Piano Improvisation no 1; a 1957 bonus track which is nearly ten minutes of slow, funky blues playing. (Of course, there are a few Debussy-style tracks as well.)

James Brown is the only other pianist I’ve heard who can pull down strange chords from the outermost reaches of the galaxy into a twelve bar blues and keep the groove as low down and dirty as Ellington. This is NOT what we’re told about Ellington! (It’s not what we’re told about Brown, either.)- AM

Wild Bill Moore - Bottom Groove - Milestone MCD47098

According to Bill Haley, and generally accepted by historians, Moore made the first Rock ‘n Roll record, We’re Gonna Rock, We’re Gonna Roll, in 1947. Apparently, he was the first tenorman to gyrate so much he split his trousers. Moore was a Texas tenor player, involved in Bebop in LA in 1946, who moved to Detroit in 1947 and recorded his hit single. Later, he played the solo on Marvin Gaye’s Mercy Mercy Me, and even later, sitting in with Houston Person at Watts Club Mozambique, blew Person right off stage!

This CD contains both LPs he made for Jazzland in 1961. The first, Wild Bill’s Beat has Jr Mance on piano; the second, Bottom Groove, Johnny “Hammond” Smith on organ. There is only one ballad but a lot of blues and funky jump numbers. And Moore’s playing is as gut-rending as anything I’ve ever heard. After decades of mono, it’s nice to hear this in stereo - AM

The Concretes - The Concretes - ASW 71126

The first album from this Swedish outfit and they start off sounding strangely like Throwing Muses. Then you realise there's a lot more to them and a good thing too. They've got real pop sensibility and they avoid the dreariness of the Muses with some nice changes of pace and a wide variety of instruments, from organ to brass, never used gratuitously. On Warm Night they show they're not afraid of taking the obvious and making something of it.

You get the feeling someone really knew what they were doing when they made this record and the rather classy cd cover and video confirms that they're going for a distinctive sound,look and feel. But they're not pretentious and the songs are fresh and catchy.

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

CocoRosie - La Maison de Mon Reve - Touch and Go TG253CD

This is what you get when you take two American sisters writing and recording an album in a small Paris flat with no hot water. It’s a collection of frail, fractured songs with a fine collection of found sounds - frogs (quite possibly), throat clearing, and water dripping on a saucepan lid (definitely), to list but a few. The overall effect of that, and their crackling voices, is eerie but there’s always a strong melody to carry them through. Mind you, Sara said listening to it was her idea of hell.

But if more than 25 per cent of Americans had passports and used them for this sort of thing, rather than relying on tanks to get them into foreign countries, perhaps the world would be a better place. In this case, their travel has certainly broadened my mind.

Jimmy Smith - The Boss - Verve V6-8770

This is the most definitive Soul Jazz I’ve ever heard. Recorded in November 1968 in Paschal’s La Carousel Club in Atlanta, and issued in America in 1970, it’s the only one of Smith’s Verve releases not issued in Britain. Verve was sold to Polydor soon afterwards, so it disappeared until last year. It’s theoretically available in Britain, but I had a copy on order from Spillers for months, before I gave up and got an American copy the other day.

The band was really ON IT; George Benson plays better than usual, though not at his peak; Donald Bailey swings as ever; and Smith is inspired. Throughout the album, he plays stuff like nothing I’ve ever heard him attempt.

What makes this album definitive Soul Jazz is not the music but the exceptionally well-recorded audience. It’s muted during This Guy’s in Love With You, so I guess that was recorded before the club filled up. During the other four cuts, the audience is very loud and, to its eternal credit, seems to be completely ignoring what’s happening on the bandstand, except for a couple of dozen enthusiasts upfront. It sounds exactly like Friday night at Wetherspoon’s; a continuous babble of voices as people party the night away. This album makes it absolutely clear that the purpose of Smith and Co having been hired was to accompany the party. And that is the essence of Soul Jazz. No wonder they never issued it in Britain.

The CD is a missed opportunity. Several tracks fade out halfway through solos and there are five un-issued tracks from the gig - AM

African Dope Soundsystem

As Amazon still hasn’t sent the cds I‘ve ordered with some of money I’ve just earned, you’d better have a review of this instead. African Dope Soundsystem describes itself as “a tight collaboration of Capetonian dub, reggae and dancehall DJs, MCs, live and electronic musicians, studio producers and video artists” and it’s pretty damn good.

I’m particularly fond of Teba’s nuskool reggae and Felix Laband’s downtempo efforts. As well as biogs and album listings, you’ll find samples and free downloads of complete tracks in a particularly lively package. It’s for the stuff like this that the Internet was made.

Kankawa and Hiram Bullock - Jam Jam The Heavy Cats Live At STB139 Roppungi, Tokyo - Cool River NNJC6003

Some jazz pundit once wrote “the material is immaterial”. If so, why aren’t there albums like Merry Christmas from Miles Davis or Stan Getz plays Abba? Bullock has been a well-known jazz session guitarist since 1977, on everything from disco to avant garde jazz. Kankawa is a Japanese organist whose avowal of bringing the power of rock to jazz has led to an OTT dress code and eccentric sunglasses (six lenses facing in different directions) that would make George Clinton blink.

On this record, the material is not even slightly immaterial. Apart from two Kankawa originals, the material all comes from the world of rock, be that Miles Davis’ Jan Jan, Abba’s Venus, or Deep Purple’s Smoke on The Water. Bullock sings quite a bit – soul style mostly – and plays very appropriate heavy guitar solos. And Kankawa makes the most of the opportunities provided by A Whiter Shade of Pale. Hot enough for central heating!

Available from Mediawars
US$30 – deletion date 3 March 2005 - AM

Various - Disco sucks - Che Trading CHE60CD

Years ago, when I was living in London and participating in dotcom malarkey, I helped a chap I was working with move house. His big brother ran Che records and gave me a good handful of CDs as a thank-you. I played the Disco Inferno to death, since the idea of an ambient-shoegazy Joy Divison appealed immensely. However for reasons unknown, this CD slid to the bottom of a pile, and thence to the bottom of a box where it's been until yesterday. It's... A damn fine snapshot of indie-land from 1996. A pre-electronic Bis do twee, Bardo Pond and The Delgados do the loud-quiet-loud-quiet thing, Fuxa are hypnotic, Merzbow reverses a half-track playstation shop over a metal 'nite' in a suburban pub... And then there's Exit. Imagine Test Dept playing one note on several sets of brass bagpipes for four minutes. An utterly marvellous racket that makes the Merzbow track seem a paragon of cheerful tunefulness by comparison.

Les McCann – Vibrations Funkin' Around With Something Old, Something New – Pony Canyon PCCY-30068

This is Les’ fourth album since his first stroke in 1995, and the first since then with his own band. Amazingly, it’s one of his best ever. He’s now using some kind of keyboard, the sustain powers of which mean that his slower fingering doesn’t sound awkward. As ever, his character shines through everything he does. There’s a lot of his old material in this: “Compared to What” - as relevant as in 1966; the President’s still got his war. But there is new stuff. “Passion World”, a Wayne Shorter tune with words by Gene McDaniels (who wrote “Compared to what”) is very interesting, as is “It’s you” a song Les wrote with Jon Hendricks.

The band is wonderful, particularly Keith Anderson, a young Turrentine-influenced tenor player, who has been with Les since 1991. Donald Dean, and Stan Gilbert who first worked with Les in the sixties, swing as hard as ever.

Available from Mediawars
US$30 – deletion date 3 March 2005 - AM

www.music-map.org

I just discovered this website and thought I would pass it on as it's fun to play with. You type in an artist you like and it creates a map of other artists that are in some way similar. It works by an algorithm (or should that be algo-rythmn?)that is used to map random elements in forensic investigation (apparently).

Some of the closest features in any map may seem contentious, but equally it may make connections or suggest new artists that you wouldn't otherwise have reached...which I suppose is what maps are partly for.

Sekou Bembeya Diabate - Guitar Fo - Discorama WVF479016

Sekou is thought of by the Mandinke in much the same way as jazz fans regard John Coltrane; as the man who turned their music inside out and made of it an exciting, contemporary, popular music. This reputation is mainly deserved, though some of the credit must go to Sekou’s cousin, Papa Diabate, for the concepts that Sekou and Bembeya Jazz National so brilliantly implemented.

This is only the third album Sekou has made as a leader or joint leader, in over forty years of being the leading light of Guinean music. Like the others, it blends the lyrical serenity of traditional Mandinke music with the excitement of Jazz, Funk and Soul music. A new departure for Sekou is that he sings on several tracks. His voice has such charm and personality that one wonders why he didn’t take over as Bembeya Jazz’ vocalist after the death of Aboubacar Demba Camara. A beautiful and joyous album -AM

Various - Music From The OC Mix 2 - Warners B00063MCSE

Something different for the New Year. Apparently, if you’re an aspiring indie band, then you've just got to get one of your songs on the soundtrack of the TV soap The OC. It’s about a young lad, Ryan, who grows up on the wrong side of the tracks in Chino (all of Chino is on the wrong side of the tracks) and gets to live with his lawyer in prosperous Orange County.

This compilation is a good way to try bands ranging from Dios Malos to Beulah, via the Super Furries. Interpol contribute a cracking track; Nada Surf a disappointing one; and there‘s an anodyne version of Maybe I‘m Amazed from Cardiff‘s Jem. Overall, it has a slightly wistful air, in keeping with the expression of Ryan’s face when pondering his latest scrape and the possibility of return to Chino where, as The Mountain Goats have it, the asphalt sprouts.

Norman Simmons - In Private - Savant SCD2056

Norman Simmons has had an interesting career as a back seat driver. He’s mainly known for the first hard bop big band arrangements on Johnny Griffin’s pioneering 1960 album, Big Soul Band. Most of his career has been as pianist and, usually, musical director to jazz singers: Betty Carter; Carmen McRae; Anita O’Day; Chris Connor; Joe Williams et al. Since Williams died in 1999, Simmons has moved forwards; this is his third CD for Savant.

Most of it was recorded in the small hours in a hotel lobby in Japan and feels wonderful. But Caravan is a masterpiece. Simmons thinks the normal approach to this tune, with the band charging across the desert, is “unrealistic”. He imagines carrying the load across endless sands. But the way it comes out, for me, is a (delicate) slow grind/belly rub, with a Bolero rhythm set down by Paul Humphrey’s brushes, Lisle Atkinson’s bass booming out the riff to A Love Supreme, and Simmons full of eastern promise. What a sexy groove! - AM