Axl's Catch Groove

I stumbled across this album on release day on emusic. I had no idea it was coming.  But the thought of Betty Wright mixing it up with The Roots sounded pretty appealing. I learned about Betty from Joss Stone’s first album (The Soul Sessions).  I was very impressed by that first Joss Stone album – she was 16 at the time and sounded amazing – how could this be?  Well reading the credits I saw that a Betty Wright was very involved in the production.  Further research revealed that Betty was a moderately successful soul singer from the 70s.

This is my first Betty Wright album and it sounds great (I have a few of her hit singles).  It is retro, but has some modern touches too (e.g. guest raps by Snoop and Lil Wayne). The Roots have crafted a very nice subtle late 70s/early 80s soul vibe.  There are plenty of younger singers playing this retro soul game these days, why not give a genuine vintage artist a chance?  If you like Erykah Badu, Joss Stone, Jill Scott, Adele etc. give this LP a chance.

This album was a very important part of my youth.  When I was 19 this album perfectly captured the mood of an angry young man.  I am sure I listened to it several hundred times.  My roommate had a copy and I mainly listened to a cassette dub of his vinyl.

Early in the CD era I had a CD edition (1985 MCA version not the mid 90s remaster) and it sounded pretty good, but this version sounds fantastic. Early CDs reissues often were issued without much care.  I never listened to the mid 90s remaster, so I can’t compare this to that. There is nothing better than hearing a familiar piece and noticing nuances you have never noticed before.  That has happened on almost every song on this edition.

There are several versions that have just been reissued, but this is the most economical version.  This deluxe edition adds a handful of demos.  These are interesting, but nothing close to the main event.  I am much more impressed with The Stones approach with Exile on Main Street and Some Girls where they basically give you a whole new lost album.  I am glad I did not splurge for one of the more expensive editions.

Personally I think Quadrophenia is the most coherent of Townsend’s rock operas.  I find it a much more advanced work than Tommy – both in the libretto and in the score.  All the players are amazing.  Entwistle’s bass plays like a lead guitar.  Daltrey is both subtle and bombastic. Moon is tight and chaotic. Townsend plays some of the best guitar and keyboards of his career.

One of the best parts about Quadrophenia is that is an album whose cuts have been rarely played to death on classic rock radio.  So they still sound fresh.  There are wonderful instrumentals and themes that recur throughout the album. There are parts of this album I swear that bands like Radiohead have listened too.  It is a real genius to have an album that is both symphonic and rock and roll.  This album pulls together all the best aspects of The Who and is solid from beginning to end.  Highly recommended.

I have been sitting on this one for a couple of months now.  Just making sure it was fully absorbed into my skin.  For Miles fans this is a wonderful find.  This is an incredible set of live recordings of Davis’ “Second Great Quintet.” at the height of their powers and near the end of their run – Miles was on the verge of a change to electronic-funk-rock-based jazz.  But this recording is modern hard bop tipping into free jazz at its finest.

The reason I sat on this was that I found the first listen challenging.   It was the free jazz element that held me back (or as my dear wife refers to this kind of music: noise).  But I stuck with it and with each listen I broke in a little further and the music’s secrets were revealed.  I can now listen to this with compete ease and comfort.  And what seemed wild and untamed now has a logic.  So like all the finer things, this is an acquired taste.

For live recordings this is very high quality sound.  The audience is unobtrusive.  At times the bass and piano are buried a bit far back. As an added bonus there is a DVD of concert footage.  It is great to see the band in their very hip suits looking ever so cool.

Although I am a huge Miles fan I have not always given him the respect he deserves as a technical trumpeter.  But these sets show how strong a player Miles could be.  He plays with a lot of enthusiasm and strength and I am grateful the mute has been for the most part left behind.  As for the rest of the band – there is a reason they are known as the Second Great Quintet.  Each player would go on to huge success and be considered a key player at their position for their generation.  Wayne Shorter (sax) is the other main soloist besides Miles.  Herbie Hancock mainly plays a supporting role – but don’t ignore him – that is the brilliance of Hancock – he is the greatest accompanist of his generation for my money.  Ron Carter’s bass gets a little lost in the mix, gut his playing is great.  Tony Williams drums are very prominent – so you get to hear a lot of him – wonderful light and airy cymbal work.

This music on the CDs come from 3 dates in Belgium, Denmark and France and the DVD has shows from Germany and Sweden.   All from a 10 day period.  Most of the songs are repeated at each show, which gives you a chance to see how inventive this group cold get with the repertoire.  This group had been together for 4 years at this point and their interplay is very strong.  They can play very free with each other – a conversation amongst very old friends.  Each with an independent voice and each bringing up a different topic. Experts have called the approach of this band “time, no changes.”  I take that to mean they all stay in rhythm but are free to go where they each want with the melody and chords.  There are points when the horn soloist and Hancock sound like they are playing different songs, but some how they miraculously make it work without sounding like cacophony.

The collection is subtitled “The Bootleg Series Vol. 1” – a nod to a similar approach that has been taken with Columbia label mate Bob Dylan.  It is amazing how much material must be in the vaults.  I have collected all the Columbia box sets which are crammed full of bonus material.  I look forward to being fleeced by Columbia on the multiple bootleg volumes to come.

Oasis’ (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? would be on my all time 100 greatest albums list.  So I am a sucker of anything that slightly smells of Morning Glory.  This has a strong Oasis feel.  More so than brother Liam’s Beady Eye from earlier this year (which I also enjoyed, but that strayed a bit from the trademark Oasis sound).

I listened to this at the gym this AM via a headphones and found it kind of ho-hum. But I re-listened tonight on my home system and it sounds much better.  I take that to me this is music that needs to fully surround you. The arrangements need to float around and bounce off the walls.  On headphones they are too confined – almost muffled.

Noel’s voice is not as nuanced as Liam’s, but he makes up for it in big magnificent arrangements that evoke the classic Oasis sound.

It is too much to expect another masterpiece like Morning Glory, but this is is a nice little whiff of that fine aroma.  Don’t expect to be blown away, but if you like Oasis you will enjoy.

I had a dalliance with Tom Waits based on his soundtrack (with Crystal Gayle – how did they hook up?) for the Coppola movie “One from the heart.”  At the time I was very much under Coppola’s spell – believing Apocalypse Now was the greatest movie of all time.  Plus I was very much hooked on Nastassia Kinski who starred in the movie (the photo below was pasted to my bedroom wall for several years).  I was one of two people who thought “One from the heart” was a good movie.  If nothing else it introduced me to the brilliance of Tom Waits.

I had heard of Tom Waits prior to “One from the heart,” but he was some cool hipster that was way over my head.  “One from the heart” was very accessible to me.  I picked up his next album “Swordfishtrombones” and thought it was pretty cool.  But then I lost track.  I am not sure why – I should have loved this guys career.

For some reason I got sucked into the hype to pick up “Bad As Me.”  I guess it was reading reviews that it was really good and it was really accessible.  Oh and Keith Richards and Flea played on a few tunes – the lured me in too.

Well I am glad I picked it up.  I forgot how original Waits is.  His voice is probably an acquired taste, but it sounds sweet to me – but I like Dylan’s current croak.  This is not an original description of Waits voice – but it is phlegmatic.  But there is more to it than just that – it is not just a wet cough – there is a musicality to it – he is singing and at time he sneaks in a croon – he sings gravely because he wants to not because he has to (sorry Bob).

What I like about Waits is he has great music going on behind that voice – there is jazz, R&B, rock and roll and Star Wars’ Cantina.  I also like that I always feel like Waits is pulling my leg and smirking at me.  He is a hipster – but he is not too cool to not let you know it is all a put on.

One of the most amazing songs on the album is “Raised Right Men.”  Here is a great example of how amazing Waits voice can be – I thought for sure it was a duet with somebody until I checked the credits. Waits alternates between his Cookie Monster voice and his Elvis Costello voice – amazing.  The next song is a sandpaper falsetto – how can he do it? Only to morph into a wild rock and roll ditty.  This is really a tour de force – with so many voices (but only one man)and so many great musicians: Keith Richards, Flea, the Los Lobos guys, Marc Ribot, Augie Meyers, Charlie Musselwhite, Les Claypool, – and those are just the names I recognize.  The musical arrangements are fun, but sophisticated – spanning the full pop music cannon.  The one genuine duet sounds like an overdub – it’s not its Keith Richards – sand on sand.

This album got me excited enough to creep into his back catalog and I picked up “Nighthawks at the Diner.”  That album is like a stand up routine masquerading as a music review.  He raps, he cracks, he sings.  Ultimately a smart ass poet backed by a jazz band.  He tells stories  and he jousts with a live audience.  What an amazing talent.  Hard to believe he has been so low on my radar screen all these years.  I am embarrassed I have not been a fan.  I have some catching up to do.  You probably do to.  “Bad As Me” is not a bad place to start.

Nastassia Kinski – it has nothing to do with this review, just a glimpse into past obsessions.

Lou Reed and Metallica – together at last!  Really is this that an odd a pairing?  I typically like to digest a new recording, but I have been anticipating this release for several months and so I want to share my first impressions based on my first listen.

First this is a Lou Reed album.  If you are a Lou Reed fan there is plenty to like.  Heavy lyrics and one very heavy backing band.  If you are a Metallica fan – I am not sure what you will think.  I am both and I love hearing Metallica in a support role.

This is a dark album – but not a depressing album.  It has a very serious sound to it.  It is also the most artsy setting I have ever heard Metallica.  Metallica has always been thinking man’s metal without being soulless so at first blush this seems like a perfect pairing.

I will give it a few days and hopefully I will post again once I have fully digested this.

For the backstory here is an excerpt by Chris Hall from the Electric Fetus Weekly Newsletter that tells it well:

This week sees the release of the highly anticipated, much talked about, seemingly oddball collaboration between Lou Reed and Metallica, Lulu. The album began as a cycle of songs Lou Reed had written based on the plays of Frank Wedekind and had intended as a Robert Wilson collaboration meant for the stage. After Reed played with Metallica at 2009’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame concert, however, he decided to use the songs as the basis for a record with the metal titans.

This might be the most controversial, divisive record of the year. Whatever it is, Lulu is never boring and one of the more interesting projects either has been involved with in a while. This is a departure for both artists, and a record that will challenge both of their fanbases. First and foremost this is a Lou Reed record which Metallica plays on. Lulu is a concept album on which Reed explores the broken psyche of a woman damaged by her past relationships. The lyrics are bitter, violent and graphic – it’s easy to see why Reed reached out to Metallica to provide the requisite musical ballast to equal the heaviness of his words. At 87 minutes, this is a two-disc, almost film-like piece of work.

Like most musical experiments, some of this works better for me than other parts of it, but the album closer “Junior Dad” is a major Lou Reed song, akin to any of his majestic epics: “Heroin,” “Street Hassle,” or “Like A Possum.” Reportedly, both Kirk Hammet and James Hetfield had to leave the control room when Reed cut his vocals for the song, moved to tears. Neither of these artists has anything to prove to anyone; their legacies are cemented. It’s nice to see someone of their stature taking these kinds of risks. No matter what you think of either artist’s work or this record, it’s definitely worth hearing – there’s nothing else like it out there.

Herbie Hancock is one of my musical heroes and this was my first time seeing him.  Overall I was bit disappointed and not because Herbie did not play well.  The show at Minneapolis’s Orchestra Hall was short (less than 90 minutes) and stuttering.

This was a solo show and Herbie has made his reputation as the consummate team player and collaborator and not as a one man show.  So I guess it is not too surprising that Herbie had some brilliant catches and a few fumbles.  Herbie took both the solo piano on the concert stage approach and the studio wizard one man band approach.  He also chose to take an entire career retrospective in 6 songs – or in one case one song.

As far as short: I am big portions clean your plate sort of guy and anything short of two 70 minute sets would have left me feeling less than full no matter how good the meal.  This was just one short set.

As for stuttering – how do you play early 60’s bop, Headhunters funk, and contemplative solo piano all in the same show separated by awkward spoken word introductions/stories and not feel a little disjointed?  At the same time within the performance of each piece there was brilliance.

Herbie started the show with a radical deconstruction of Wayne Shorter’s Footprints a solo acoustic grand piano.  This is a song that Herbie has probably done hundreds of times so he brought a familiarity to it yet at the same time had the musical intelligence to deconstruct it in a most avant garde way.  As Herbie said – this is not your garden variety of Footprints.  It was not and it was wonderful.

Next he played his own Dolphin Dance, again on solo acoustic grand .  A song as familiar to Herbie and his fans as the backs of their hands.  He brought amazing improvisation to the piece and turned it inside out and back again repeatedly teasing us with the theme.  Wonderful.

Next came a piece I was not familiar with: Sonrisa from a fairly obscure Japanese import (I only know this due to a preview in the StarTribune.)   Here Herbie started his one man band schtick.  Starting on solo acoustic grand.  After an introduction of the theme, Herbie added some samples.  As the piece progressed the samples became more complex and orchestrated.  I really enjoyed this.  After the show my wife (who comes from the George Winston school of jazz) said she wishes Herbie had played it straight.  I loved it, but I understand. This is where Herbie could have benefited from two sets.  One set straight solo piano and a second set as the one man band.

Next came a very contemplative rendition of Gershwin’s Embraceable You.  Again Herbie took the approach of pulling the song apart and then putting it back together.  Although unlike the first two songs of the night this was much more of a quiet prayer than in your face jazz.  A fun approach given the familiarity and the sentiments of the tune.

Then for me came the real highlight: Cantaloupe Island.  This is one of my favorite Herbie Song.  He made the song a career retrospective by starting out at the acoustic grand, then adding samples, then spinning to an electronic keyboard and finally to a snyth ax for a full on Headhunters rock star solo and finishing up on solo acoustic grand.  WOW!

Herbie did not screw around with an encore and instead snapped on the samplers, strapped on the snyth ax and funked it up with Chameleon. Total fun and then he was gone.

So in conclusion each piece was fantastic, but Herbie did not pace it well and thus what could have been a very memorable concert turned out a bit of let down.

Picture below is not from the concert, but a chance to show you the concept of a synth ax: