Ian Hunter is famous for fronting Mott The Hoople and this album is famous because of its bass player Jaco Pastorius. I recently saw the documentary Jaco and was reminded that Jaco appeared on this album. I had never listened to the album and it was not on Spotify so I made a mental note to pick up the LP if I ever saw it. I recently found a clean LP at The Electric Fetus for $1.99.
The year was 1976 – a heady time for Pastorius. That year he debuted with Weather Report, was a prominent voice on Joni Mitchell’s Hejira, released his solo LP Jaco Pastorius and appeared on Ian Hunter’s All American Alien Boy. Pastorius work on All American Alien Boy is unremarkable compared to the significant voice he is on Hejira. I am not sure I would even detect him on album (although he is prominent on the titular cut) if I didn’t know he as there. But once you know he is there, it is exciting to hear him in a straight ahead pop context. He seems comfortable being a side man here.
But enough about Jaco, this Ian Hunter’s album. This is a piece of ambitious 70s jazzy pop. I don’t have a lot of context for Hunter beyond Mott The Hoople’s “All The Young Dudes” and Hunter’s one solo hit “Once Bitten, Twice Shy.” His voice reminds me a bit of Bowie, Dylan and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd – just to name a few. Hunter is the master of several credible rock and roll voices.
The LP opens with “Letter to Britannia From The Union Jack” which is an odd start as it sounds like nothing else on the album – it almost sounds like a mellow George Harrison song. Lyrically it is an interesting literary device: a flag imploring its country not to do something to half-mast it.
Next comes the titular song. It is a playful song that creates a great platform for Jaco to do a nice show-off solo and for sax player David Sanborn to do the same. Hunter is in his best Bowie voice. The song ends with some great horn work and female vocalist stealing the show.
“Irene Wilde” is a ballad of unrequited love. It has a kind of Billy Joel feel (Piano Man era).
“Restless Youth” is plain old rock and roll and I like it. The lyrics are bit preachy.
Side Two opens with “Rape” a epic sounding piece with a mighty chorus. Another set of preachy heavy handed lyrics.
“You Nearly Did Me In” opens with a great David Sanborn sax solo. Hunter sounds like Bowie. Like several songs on the album it has some great backup vocals – this time voiced by a little band named Queen.
“Apathy 83” is the most prominent Jaco playing on the album outside of the titular track’s solo. This song reminds me of Rod Stewart fronting Springsteen’s E Street Band.
The LP ends with “God (Take 1) which could easily be an outake from Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks.
I came to this album out of “Jaco curiosity” and discovered a pretty darn good LP on its own merits. My favorite songs are well produced with great instrumentation and strong backup vocals – the kind of arrangements that could make me sound good. I like that Ian Hunter has several personas to his vocals. This should be an easy album to find in the crates and I recommend you snag it. It does take several listens to fully appreciate, so don’t dismiss it on the first spin.
I look forward to the every release from the Tedeschi Trucks Band (TTB). This is the equivalent to comfort food for my late 50’s ears: a mix of rock, blues, soul and funk – spiced with virtuosic chops. By no means do I want to suggest by comfort food that I mean some kind of bland tater tot casserole, I mean an old family dish that has been handed down from generation to generation. Something you crave and when you take that first bite you are intensely satisfied: rich in flavor, tradition and memories.
Susan Tedeschi is heir to the throne to the great Bonnie Riatt – a sassy bluesy singer who can also rock the guitar. Derek Trucks assumed the throne of the late great Duane Allman in The Allman Brothers Band. Interesting tidbit: the year opened with a great album – Bowie’s Blackstar. TTB bassist Tim Lefebvre plays on Blackstar and Let Me Get By. So there is some pretty amazing pedigree here.
For many years Derek Trucks solo efforts were interesting blues-rock studies, but they lacked something. When he and his wife decided to resurrect the ghost of Delaney and Bonnie to create the TTB, it was pure magic. This is their third studio album and they are continuing to issue top quality jams.
Now one minor complaint – and TTB are not the only offenders – you are forcing your fans to make purchase compromises. This album is offered in too many editions:
- Regular CD and stream
- Deluxe stream
- More than the stream deluxe CD
- Vinyl LP
The vinyl LP is the most expensive option, yet it lacks the bonus material. You should be able to buy the vinyl and download a FLAC of the standard album and get the bonus material. Instead I had to compromise and buy the deluxe CD version. Fortunately I have a pretty amazing CD player that sounds great.
I can’t say this is the best TTB album because they are all great. This is a gem, but the other two at gems too. The band seems to have found a comfortable place, one that allows them to branch out into new sounds like on “Right On Time” which has a bit of Broadway/Tin Pan Alley feel. That song features Minneapolis native and songwriter Mike Mattison. One of the great things about the TTB is that is is a “big band”- 12 members strong!
As far as the bonus material, it is totally worth it (a rarity). There are some alternative cuts, some cool cuts that did not make the main stage (Bowie’s “Oh! You Pretty Things” is so perfect, given the moment and bassist Tim Lefebvre recent connection to Bowie). Five of the bonus cuts are only available for purchase, but the last three live cuts are on Spotify. The real treat of the live cuts is to hear Sussan Tedeschi cut loose with absolutely shredding vocals.
If you are a fan of classic rock, but are sick of the same old songs, pick up anything from the TTB catalog and you will feel like you found a great lost artist from the 70s. Let Me Get By is as good a place to start as any. It’s just blues-rock craftsman spitting our yet another masterpiece.
And for an added treat, check out the TTB joined by Sharon Jones:
Funny how timing works out. These last few days I was digging The Replacements’ gunslinger Slim Dunlap’s early 90s solo albums when I realized that Mats’ frontman Paul Westerberg had a new release. Actually he is in a new band called The I Don’t Cares featuring himself and Juliana Hatfield. A few months ago I had heard the preview single called “1/2 2 P.” I am album guy, so it is hard for me to get hooked on a single – especially one that has kind of a novelty feel (go ahead and say the song title out loud).
I have been listening to Wild Stab repeatedly for the last 48 hours and it gets better with every play. This is the best Westerberg album since his early solo work in the 90s: 1990’s All Shook Down (the last Replacements album) through 1999’s Suicaine Gratifaction. As much as I loved those albums, their production values were a bit fussy and had the dirty fingerprints of a producer all over them. Wild Stab is much closer to the production values of the Mats’ Let It Be – not sloppy, but like Exile On Mainstreet: honest, naked and beautiful. The best rock and roll is about authenticity – whether silly or serious – it has to be real. Wild Stab is as real as it gets. I can’t tell you why, I just trust Westerberg and Hatfield are telling us the truth.
My biggest question was what was the role of Juliana Hatfield? She sings amazing backup to Westerberg – as Westerberg tells it Sandpaper and Daffodil. But that did not seem a big enough contribution to warrant not calling this a Westerberg solo album. I started Googling to learn more about the album (why can’t Spotify have some semblance of liner notes?). I found nothing of any value anywhere – until I came upon a recent interview that Westerberg did with J. Geils Band frontman Peter Wolf. The one hour interview video is below.
Wow was that video revealing. I don’t know who I thought Paul Westerberg was, but the video reveals a totally regular guy who happens to be one of his generation’s greatest songwriters. He is serious about his work, but not too serious. He is bit prickly in charming sort of way. As for Hatfield’s role in the album, it seems pretty profound: muse, producer and performer. I am pretty sure after watching the video that this album would never have seen the light of day without Hatfield’s presence.
It is rare that an album does not have a single stiff – Wild Stab is all gems. In the video interview Peter Wolf describes the album as a very romantic, spontaneous collaboration, with multiple layers of feeling. “It’s like a nice jewel,” he says, “you just keep rubbing it, and it starts shining.” I couldn’t agree more.
When I saw the Mat’s on their reunion tour in September of 2014 I was blown away by how good they were – and Westerberg was a rock and roll god that night. I had goosebumps all night. It was nothing like the fall down drunks I had seen in the late 80s. At the reunion show I savored every note assuming I would never experience Westerberg like this again. But the SOB has pulled a rabbit out of his hat – he has taken a wild stab at creating something good and birthed a rustic masterpiece. Now I have a little bit of current day Westerberg magic to go with my old Mats and Westerberg solo records. Ms. Hatfield I don’t know what you did, but thank you.
PS – this is most romantic album cover I have seen since Dylan’s Freewheelin’.
A reference recording to me is an album that sounds great and that I am intimately familiar with. Because of that, it is an excellent tool to test drive a stereo or stereo equipment. It has to be so beloved by me that I can play it over and over and never get sick of it. Roxy Music’s Avalon is one of my reference recordings. I have it on CD, SACD and LP. Avalon is about as gourmet pop as you can get. It is smooth, sophisticated and timeless.
I was not a Roxy Music fan when I picked up Avalon when it was first released in 1982. It must have gotten a great review in Stereo Reveiw or some other magazine to get on my radar. I instantly fell in love with it and I have never tired of it in the three-plus decades since. I checked out the rest of their catalog, but nothing else from their catalog ever resonated with me like Avalon (however several titles from Bryan Ferry’s catalog have worked for me). To this day I must play it 4 or 5 times a year.
Why do I like this album so much? First and foremost is the sonics of the recording. It is atmospheric, yet it swings. There is great separation between the instruments. There is great depth to the arrangements. Second it is the aloof detachment of Bryan Ferry’s voice. It is bit of Bowie, but more conventionally beautiful. It is totally British, yet soulful. Finally, it is the great songwriting. Great songs beget great covers (check out “More Than This” covers by Lucy Kaplansky and Charlie Hunter & Norah Jones).
This is an album that can be played as background music at a dinner party and can be played loud front and center. If at first you find it to be boring ambient pop – turn it up and force yourself to immerse in the warm blanket of its sound. As smooth as this is, there is an undercurrent of sophistication and quite storm funk.
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When I first picked up The Old New Me in 1993 I was blown away by how good it was. I knew Slim Dunlap from his time in The Replacements. I saw his solo band live just prior to the release of The Old New Me when they were a warm up band for Bob Dylan (August/September 1992) and so I should have known something good was coming. Times Like This came a couple of years later and was nearly as good. The two albums are favorites in my collection. I have them on CD and as a twofer on vinyl (the two albums were issued on CD only back in the day and were recently reissued on vinyl for Record Store Day 2015). Unfortunaly they are not on Spotify (but they are on Amazon and iTunes). The CDs are be easy to find used in the $8 to $10 range (the vinyl is still available too at a reasonable price too).
Slim’s solo work remindeds me of Kieth Richards’ solo albums. Kieth had issued a couple of solo albums by that point. Slim had the same feel with a bit more country twist. Slim has a very similar voice to Keith and he is a very cool guitar player with out being a virtuoso – again similar to Keith (primitive cool). But probably the most shocking thing was he was a great songwriter. You can get a sense of his songwriting on the tribute album (see below). “The Ballad Of The Openning Band” is my favorite rock and roll song about rock and roll (see YouTube clip below).
The albums have an easy going tossed off style, but at the same time it is tight – keep in mind this was a journeyman. I am sorry to speak in the past tense. Although he is still alive he suffered a stroke in February 2012. I often wonder how many brilliant bar band mucisians there are like Slim slogging it out around the world. I am sure every mid-sized to large city has a few. What makes Slim special to me is that he he made his career in my home town and he was a member of one of my favorite bands The Replacements.
Make the effort to find these Slim Dunlap releases, it will renew your faith in rock and roll. Worst case check out the tribute/fundraising album Songs For Slim (below). That album reveals the greatness of his songwriting (and it also reveals he has some of the coolest friends and musician fans in the world – which is about better endorsement than this blog post). Also check out the Songs For Slim site.
Yesterday I was getting ready to head down to the Electric Fetus to pick up a LP version of Bowie’s Blackstar and so I took a look at their web page to see the new releases. This release caught my eye, especially seeing guitarist Bill Frisell promently on the cover. I read the profile (below) and immediately decided I had to have it. From Electric Fetus:
Charles Lloyd & The Marvels release I Long To See You on January 15, the debut album of a band founded by esteemed saxophonist and composer Charles Lloyd, featuring Bill Frisell (guitar), Greg Leisz (pedal steel), Reuben Rogers (bass) and Eric Harland (drums). The album presents 10 tracks, including a beautiful interpretation of “You Are So Beautiful” with Norah Jones on vocals and “Strangest Dream” with Willie Nelson on vocals.
It is an absolutely charming release. With Frisell in the left channel and Leisz on the right creating an amazing stage for Lloyd on sax and flute. It is folk jazz. Lloyd has made a career of fusions and making adventurous jazz accessible to rock and roll ears without compromise his art. He just makes great music whether it is his own compositions or covers.
The album opens with a cover of Dylan’s “Masters Of War” that captures Dylan’s anger and yet remains beautiful.
Next comes “Of Course, Of Course” the titular track from Lloyd’s 1965 album. Here Lloyd plays the flute and revises the classic funky 60s soul jazz with a country twist.
“La Llorona” is a traditional Mexican folk song that The Marvels give a spaggatti western movie soundtrack feel. It absolutely drips melancholy (one of my favorite musical moods).
“Shenandoah” is a traditional folk song that is the perfect cover for this band. It is a simple folk tune, but Lloyd and the band make it absolutely regal.
Lloyd pulls out another one of his mid-60s catalog standards “Sombero Sam.” This song is from 1966’s Dream Weaver. The song has a nice surf music and Latin vibe. Lloyd masterfully walks the razor’s edge between cool and kitch.
“All My Trials” is a folk song associated with the 60s protest movement. Lloyd turns it into a gorgeous jazz ballad spreading his gorgeous tone like cream cheese on a warm bagel.
“Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream” features Willie Nelson on vocals and guitar. This is a protest movement standard in the spirit of Dylan’s “Blowing In The Wind ” and Lennon’s Imagine which it predates by 10 and 20 years respectively. Nelson’s weary voice is perfect.
“Abide With Me” is a short hymn.
“You Are So Beatiful” is a song that J made famous. Evidently Lloyd has often used it as an encore piece and had often imagined Norah Jones’ voice gracing it. Now a Blue Note labelmate he made it happen. I fell in love with Norah Jones voice even before her debut album when she covered Roxy Music’s “More Than This” on a Charlie Hunter album. Norah’s cameo, like Nelson’s is perfect.
The album closes with a new song: “Barche Lamsel.” The band riffs on a single chord for sixteen and half minutes. It is stunning in it simplicity and yet it quietly shreds. The title refers to a Buhdist prayer for clearing away the obstacles from the path.
This is an absolutely gorgeous album. Great players and great songs. The recording is pristine. I first fell for sax and guitars on Metheny’s 80/81 – they go so well together – a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. The album is entertaining, yet enlightening as it deals with protest and spirituality. The intertwining of Frissell’s and Leisz’sguitars are a beautiful knot. Lloyds sax and flute are grand expressions of the man’s soul. Lloyd’s regular rhythm section of Reuben Rogers (bass) and Eric Harland create a mighty foundation. This blend with these songs is audio perfection.
2016 is starting out great for me on the music front – two Friday’s in a row that best of 2016 albums are released.
My earliest memory of Bowie is from 1975 – when I was in high school. I remember two buddies of mine arguing about who was superior David Bowie or Foghat. An argument that today makes about as much sense as which is smarter a dog or goldfish, but at the time I was ignorant about pop music. I remember the Foghat fan pronounced Bowie as boo-e and the Bowie fan kept correcting him. The insinuation of the Foghat fan was that if you were a Bowie fan you must be a homosexual – which at the time made sense because in my ignorant world view Bowie was a freak who dressed like a women and wore make up (not in a macho way like Kiss) and my buddy the Bowie fan was effete.
As I started to get pop literate I was dismissive of Bowie who was famous for “Space Oddity” which to me was a novelty song. It took me until the early 80s when Bowie went mainstream with his album Let’s Dance that I finally became a fan. The next thing I bought was the greatest hits package Changes which turned me on to his amazing singles. But it was not until 2004 when I saw him live that I saw the light. It was after that that I really studied his catalog.
A few years ago when my son was home from Chicago I went into wake him calling him Starman. I have no idea why. That has evolved in recent years to my waking him up with the Bowie song of the same name blaring from my iPhone. In 2014 we went as a family to the Bowie show at Museum of Contmproary Art in Chicago (David Bowie Is) – the location of the photo above. It was a great family memory.
Fast forward to this past Friday and the release of Blackstar the first Bowie album I have ever been truly gaga over. I was motivated enough to write a review that same night after listening to the album about 10 times. I remember watching the video for “Lazarus” and thinking,not the Bowie looked old, but that he looked dead – embalmed. Yet it was still a shock when I woke up early Monday (about 4:00 AM to pee) and I looked at my phone to check the time and discovered the headline that Bowie was dead.
Bowie’s gift to pop music was his recognition that to rock was not just the sound but the look – or to put it in Bowie terms “Sound and Vision.” I feel blessed to be touched by Blackstar at the moment of its greatest relevance. Bowie’s greatest performance may be his death.
I am not a singles guy, but an album guy. So my “best of” is my favorite albums for 2015. I am behind schedule, but better late than never right?
I will cut to the chase, my favorite album of 2015 is Kamasi Washington’s The Epic. This is a very ambitious jazz album: 3CDs/3LPs, choir, strings and famous friends (Thundercat). I got to see Kamasi’s touring band and that was pretty ambitious too (e.g. two drummers and a vocalist). The music has a 70s soul jazz feel for the most part, but also there are some John Coltrane moments. This is very accessible jazz, yet it is not light.
The rest of this list is in no particular order.
Another ambitious album is Titus Andronicus The Most Lamentable Tragedy. This a rock opera by a punk band. I would be dismissive of that description – but don’t let it dissuade you from checking this album out.
Titus Andronicus reminded me of Springsteen. Continuing with the “ambitious” theme, Bruce also had an ambitious release The Ties That Bind: The River Collection. I did not get a chance to review that collection, so I will share a bit here. Springsteen had been on a roll with some great albums, but they did not catch the magic of his live shows. Springsteen’s goal with The River was to capture some of that live magic. It worked, The River had a great bar band feel and it yielded Springsteen’s first top 40 hit with “Hungry Heart” (written in few minutes as a for the Ramones). It turns out Springsteen wrote a boatload of unreleased material for The River and the purpose of this collection is to pull all the material together. This is truely bonus material – these are not leftovers that should have never seen the light of day – this is a great desert to a gourmet dinner.
Yet another ambitious release was from Bob Dylan: The Cutting Edge 1965 – 1966: The Bootleg Series Vol.12: Collector’s Edition. I am embarrassed to admit I laid out $600 for this epic collectable. Allegedly every thing cut to tape in the studio during Dylan’s most important period (Bring it Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde).
What do we learn from this collection of master takes, alternative takes and stops and starts? That Dylan was pretty spontaneous in the studio and at the same time pretty concise (18 CDs for 3 albums originally spread across 4 CDs does not seem like a lot of excess junk to me). My favorite cuts are the deconstructed multi-tracks of “Like A Rolling Stone.”
The 18 CD edition includes Dylan’s original nine mono 45 RPM singles released during the time period, packaged in newly created picture sleeves featuring global images from the era. The limited edition includes rare hotel room recordings from the Savoy Hotel in London (May 4, 1965), the North British Station Hotel in Glasgow (May 13, 1966) and a Denver, Colorado hotel (March 12, 1966) as well as a strip of original film cels from “Don’t Look Back.” In addition you have the privilege of downloading a pile of MP3s of live material from the period. I am still working through all this material.
This is for the truly obsessive – but their are less expensive choices too – including the Spotify sampler below.
This could have been so bad: Dylan as crooner singing songs made famous by Sinatra, but it worked. Bob Dylan’s Shadows In The Light was so enthusiastic and genuine that it was impossible to deny. In addition to being a labor of love, I think the reason it worked is because the arrangements were pulled together from Dylan’s regular working band.
Chris Potter Underground Orchestra’s Imaginary Cities is a very nice jazz piece. Similar to Kamasi Washington it is accessible without selling out. Unfortunately ECM releases are not available on Spotify so if you want to check this out you will have to layout the cash.
I was not a Gov’t Mule fan before hearing this release. The hook for me was John Scofield. Sco-Mule is a treasure and turned me into a Gov’t Mule fan. Unfortunately the live show promoting the album I saw at the State Theater in Minneapolis was a disappointment – Sco phoned it in.
Knopfler never disappoints – Tracker was another success.
As great a studio band as Weather Report was, they where just as good (if not better) live. This collection captures them in the era when I saw them live.
Coldplay is a guilty pleasure.
Adele’s 25 is good, but you know that because it is the last album that everyone bought. Congratulations Adele for getting people to actually buy music.
If you have not heard St Germain, you don’t know what you are missing and you have to check this out.
Last year’s Pink Floyd leftovers was a nice little gift, but this year’s David Gilmour solo was a shock – had no idea it was coming and so it was extra special. Extra kudos for taking advantage of modern technology.
Low is such a wonderful quite storm. Here is another gorgeous slow burner from them.
Wilco delivered a sneak attack with Star Wars.
If not for Kamasi Washington, Ferry’s Avonmore may have been my #1.
Father John Misty put out a great album and he rivaled the Stones for the best live show I saw this year.
Every bit as good as her last album, Short Movie got slighted in my listening when it first came out, but I made it up by listening to it later in the year.
I have a half-written review of this album in my draft posts- I doubt it will ever see the light of day. But don’t that let that suggest that Crosseyed Heart isn’t a great album. I saw the Stones live this past summer and they where shockingly good – better than when I saw them in the 80s.
Another half-written post, that will likely never see the light of day. Unlike Dan Auerbach, Craig Finn is not afraid to try something different when he is away from his day job.
It took me a while, but I finally learned that T-Swift is a talent. It took Ryan Adams to convince me.
I can’t forget my perennial best of: the love of my life, the lovely Laura. For tolerating – no fanning my music passion (and other passions). For example, she is the one who insisted that I sit down and watch the Kennedy Center Honors. I want to thank her for discovering pre-sales for concerts, making Record Store day a family event, and making our home a shrine to music. Love you Pea!
Nothing delights my ears more than when a legacy act delivers an album late in their career that is as daring as anything from their prime. That is rare, but even rarer is when they deliver a masterpiece that holds its own against the meat of their catalog. And rarest of all is when they deliver something that is totally contemporary, yet totally themselves. Well Bowie delivers on all counts with Blackstar.
The sound bites are that this is Bowie’s jazz album. That is simplistic. Yes Bowie uses a jazz band (Donny McCaslin’s band), but he uses that band not to play jazz, but to play Bowie music. There are jazz instruments and textures but this is Bowie rock.
I can’t begin to describe how amazing this album sounds. This is not easy music. It is cacophony at times, but it consistently swings. It is stunning beautiful. The best way to describe it is to imagine if Radiohead did a jazz album.
At no point does Bowie sound like he is pandering or trying to be young. This a mature album, yet fresh. It is the kind of album that makes you wonder “where the hell did this come from?” But then you remember that Bowie is one of the greats of pop music – the master of both sound and vision. A true original. Why wouldn’t he birth another masterpiece? He is Bowie.
Bowie has thrown down the gauntlet to the pop world that he is not over the hill, but king of the hill. Blackstar has reserved a spot on lot of best of 2016 lists the first week of year.
I don’t consider myself a cinephile, but I was shocked at the shoddy quality of the roadshow presentation of The Hateful Eight. The projection was blurry on the edges, lines on the sides and wobbly. It reminded me of the highly used films that my junior high used to show at lunch hour – well that is an exaggeration, but I was expecting pristine visuals and to be visually blown away. My assumption is the renovated projector and an inexperienced projectionist are to blame.
The idea was great: do an old style epic with state of the art antique equipment and present it roadshow-style like back in the late 50s and early 60s. I am an analog guy – I love my vinyl LPs – this should have been right up my alley. Oh well, a swing and a miss, but nice try. You won’t have missed a thing when you see it via DLP.
So how was the movie? It was very much a Tarantino movie: wordy, visually clever, non-liniar plot, comical violence, great music, unabashed borrowing from other movies, etc. I love Tarantino movies, but frankly I found this one a slow and unadventurous. If you are a fan of Tarantino, love westerns and have a sick sense of humor you will like this move. I liked it – it just did not blow me away – but frankly Tarantino has not blown me away since Pulp Fiction (my all-time favorite film).
The novelty of this movie was going to be the 70 mm analog film, when that stumbled, this movie became nothing more than another notch in Tarantino’s belt. We only have two Tarantino movies left – lets hope he blows our minds at least once more before he goes off to write the great American novel.
Axl's Catch Groove 