Snark and Reverb

I will fully admit up front that I am a big fan of Kanye West’s work. He knows how to make catchy beats, and his rap delivery is very complimentary to them. Maybe not one of the strongest lyricists in the game, he demonstrates that it takes more than superior rapping ability to produce a hit record (pay attention: Nas). Coming off of Graduation, Kanye was at the top of his game, and then it happened: his mother passed away as a result of complications due to (plastic) surgery. Not long after that, Kanye separated from his long time fiancee Alexis Phifer. West’s internal conflict came to light on a stop of his “Glow in the Dark Tour”, when he broke down in the middle of a performance of “Hey Mama”. When the buzz around his new album started, the initial rumors titled it “A Good Ass Job”, continuing his album theme: Late Registration, The College Dropout, and Graduation. These rumors were put to rest, with the performance of “Love Lockdown” live at the MTV VMA’s. As stated on his blog: the album called 808’s and Heartbreak would be released on November 25th, EARLIER than the expected December 16th release. The album serves as a release for him. He’s not making this album for the fans. He is making this for himself.

Frankly, I’ve had enough of the Auto-Tune crap. T-Pain, the main auto-tune ambassador, started this whole fad and even he is saying its over (in my opinion so is his career, but that remains to be seen). When I read that Kanye was releasing an entire Auto-Tune’d album, my heart dropped. I was really looking forward to his new album, and I dismissed it right away. Then I heard the revamped Love Lockdown.

Kanye used the auto tune tastefully, in the majority of the album. For poor implementations, please see Ron Brown’s latest work, exception of Busta’s “Arab Money”.  Busta can do no wrong in my eyes, but is neither here nor there. The way I see Kanye’s use of auto-tune: it allows him to make music that he would LIKE to, but physically cannot. Have you ever heard Kanye sing? Track down some of his old work: Peace, Half Price, Wow, Drop Dead Gorgeous, or I Need to Know. Strong tracks in my eyes, but they are not complimented by his attempt at singing. Sure the use of computer-aided vocal enhancers could be viewed as ‘cheating’, but good vocals on a bad track does not a hit make. Just ask Mariah in the Butterfly portion of her career.

After hearing the v2 of Love Lockdown, I decided to change my mind, and give the album a chance. Kanye knows what he is doing. Therefore, I’m walking into the album with an open mind, and I suggest you do the same.

The whole album has a dark sound to it, which I think plays perfectly into the theme. Starting right with the first track, a solemn, sad theme is instilled. There is a good 3 minute instrumental interlude at the end of the song, creating dramatic tension, and pulling you into the second song: Welcome to Heartbreak. The thing I love about the entire album is although he sings, the feel is still very hip-hop, not that of an RnB release. Albeit darker and more dramatic, the beats are still 100% Kanye. They have a unique feel though, likely from the tone of each drum hit. Kanye supposedly required each beat be programmed using the Roland TR-808 drum machine. This gives the now infamous tribal drum feel, which I think works wonderfully.

The third track is Heartless, which has been released as the second single. Featuring a whistle and vocal production in Auto-Tune, the songs expresses his emotional pain caused from heartbreak. Kanye himself stated the Auto-Tune processing (robotic puberty) is to represent the effect of being heartbroken. I think that’s a load of crap, but fortunately for him, he uses the effect sparingly.

The other standouts for me are: Love Lockdown, Paranoid, RoboCop, and Streetlights. Paranoid has an absolutely infectious beat, that practically holds a 44Mag to your head and forces you to shake your booty. That may have been imagery from my dream, but the effect is still the same.

RoboCop is very experimental, and may not appeal to many, but I think the electronic additions to his music are pure genius. Then again, I am a big fan of electronic music. Streetlights is more laid back, but just as experimental. Heavy vocal distortion in front a piano with a distinct drum pattern. A synth rounds out the sound scape with the help of choral singers. This complex arrangement works, to my ears. Its a very compelling and captivating song, demonstrating his discontent with his current stage of life.

I was not overly impressed with Bad News, or See you in my Nightmares. Not bad songs, but they are overshadowed by the standouts on the album.

All in all Kanye breaks new ground artistically, through a body of inspired work. As good as it is, let’s hope that one recovery album is all he needs so we can have the rapping ‘Ye back quick.

Buy 808s & Heartbreak at Amazon, and support SnR!

I swear to God I thought it would be cock rock.

I really, really did.  Last week sometime a fellow rock snob friend of mine sends me a text along the lines of “r u gettin new gnr”, to which I replied “yes, but it will be cock rock”, to which he replied “lol”.  This is definitely one of those albums I had completely figured out years ago, actually a decade or more ago, which makes it the longest time I’ve ever had an album figured out before its release.   Surely it would be an over produced throw away joke, rife with cheesy lyrics, awful vocals, and brick walled compression that makes Death Magnetic look like a 1980s Barry Diament master?  Right?  I mean, we know that Buckethead and Robin Fincke are taking on guitar duties, which on any other album would be the greatness, but here we have Axl Rose at the helm: crazy, insane, and crazy Axl Rose.  Of course he will find a way to ruin it!

Nope.  Chinese Democracy rocks, and I can’t stop listening to it.

I grew up on metal when I was in grade school.  I thankfully made the progression that southern adolescents with a penchant for rocking are bound to make, from the poppy story driven country of No Fences-era Garth Brooks to the waiting arms of the two godheads of early 90s metal: Metallica and Guns N’ Roses.  I sat in awe of the pure rebellious testosterone of Appetite, and continued to sit in awe as I was turned on to Lies, wherein Axl croons to a girl about not having sex and still manages to be a total badass.  But where GNR really enriched my musical upbringing was on the Use Your Illusion I & II.  I spent countless days after school watching the “November Rain” video, picking apart the beautiful but insane lyrics, comparing them to the imagery, rocking my pre-teen air guitar skills, drooling over Stephanie Seymour, and wondering why the hell that guy jumps over the cake when it started raining? Also how did she die?  Did she get struck by lightning?  What was going on there?  I also spent Saturday nights staying up for the Headbanger’s Ball, so I could marvel with my hero Riki Rachtman at the strangeness, awesomeness, and sheer bigness of UYI’s underappreciated epic, “Estranged”.  Of course there was also snickering in the back of the minivan as someone’s mom was aghast when “Back Off Bitch” or “Get in the Ring” came on.  And pointing out over and over that “Live and Let Die” was actually a Paul McCartney song, and he was a Beatle, and The Beatles aren’t metal, so what the hell.   And “Don’t Cry”, with the line “don’t you cry tonight / there’s a heaven above you baby”.  Jesus!  Even writing this now I’m realizing it’s amazing that Axl was able to pull off those lines with total earnestness, never even skating the lines of cheesiness.  But could I really be expected to think he’d be able to do the same 17 years later?  Just shy of two decades?

And don’t forget there is no Slash!  Slash is gone!  Where will Axl be without Slash, smoking in the shower and falling off the wagon every two years?  Remember that picture where he is smoking in the shower?  How can it be Guns N’ Roses without that?  And what about Duff McStradlin?  Wait, nevermind, only Axl and Slash matter.

The truly great things about Chinese Democracy can be summed up in the three things I forgot about Axl Rose:

1. I forgot that Axl can write a hell of a melody.  Composition and performance wise, the vocals on Chinese Democracy are simply outstanding.  Sure, there is some serious pro-tooling effects going on with some of the vocal tracks.  However, while sometimes this is to their detriment, on the majority of songs it works and sounds great.  See “Better”, “Catcher in the Rye”, “Street of Dreams” for good examples.  While we are on the subject, critics are already poopooing “Street of Dreams” as the cheeseball track, but I’ll put myself out there and say the only thing cheesey about it is the name.  The song works on every level, from the instrumentation to the true emotion in the vocals.  I would say 51% of the joy I’m getting out of this record is just listening to Axl wail, whether he is singing or just humming along with the melody, and I don’t care if some of the vocals were cut ten years ago or last week.  The point is they are here now, immortalized on record, and they are amazing.

2. I forgot that Axl knows a rocking guitar solo when he hears one, and Chinese Democracy is rife with them.  Sure, the guitars may be different from Slash outside a chapel in the desert tearing a mournful riff to the godless hot summer air, which to this day might be the most badass rock imagery of all time, but they are perfect in their own way.  Far from somehow squelching the talents of his lead guitar players, he really lets them rip into the stratosphere with their notes, soaring into secret genius heights the likes of which Michael Houser spent his tragically too short career exploring.

3. I forgot that Axl writes enigmatic sociopathic lyrics that I just can’t get enough of.  Its like I’m a kid again, back on the floor in front of the TV singing every single line to “November Rain”.  I love Axl’s insane lyrics, and songs like “Catcher in the Rye” prove that he’s still got enough crazy to make my brain hurt trying to figure them out: “When all is said and done / we’re not the only ones / who look at life this way / that’s what the old folks say / but everytime I see them / makes me wish I had a gun / if I thought that I was crazy / well I guess I’d have more fun”.  There is so much awesome in that line it makes me want to shriek like a little girl.  Who is looking at life this way with Axl?  I mean who is “we”?  What way are we looking at life?  Who are these old folks?  Wait though, wait, its not crazy enough, not quite yet, wait for it… wait for it… YES!  When you see “them” it makes you wish you had a gun, yes!  Thats what Axl needs is a gun, and in fact multiple times on Chinese Democracy he expresses his desire for a firearm.  Honestly, he had me at “I’ve got an itchy finger and there’ll be hell to pay / I’m gunna pull the trigger and blow them all away” from the album’s second track “Shackler’s Revenge”.

Since I don’t find the album to be negatively heavy handed as some other critics do, I can only find one aspect that could be called a fault: it’s busy as all hell.  Axl had a great deal of time on his hands to tweak, polish, and edit every single track over and over, the end result of which is a layered wall of sound so congested and complex that unfortunately some instruments can get lost in the mix.  Sometimes Axl’s vocals, or one of the ripping guitar solos lose their dynamics against a massive background of strings, trip hop beats, or industro glitch effects.  This effect is present on both the CD and the vinyl LP, both of which, by the way, are excellently mastered despite the density of the mix (I haven’t done a straight comparison between the two, but feel free to contact me in the coming weeks, as I’m sure by then I’ll have had the opportunity to do so).

Having made this criticism, I’ll counter myself and say the album simply wouldn’t be what it is if it wasn’t so busy.  All the simultaneous sound is what contributes to the album’s superb richness: it is the complexity that makes Chinese Democracy a true cohesive whole, as opposed to just fourteen very good songs, and this is what pushes Chinese Democracy from very good territory into greatness.  Every fan of music should own this album, and in listening marvel not just at it’s history, but also its musical excellence.

Buy Chinese Democracy at Amazon, and support S&R!

Yes, it is that time of year again! CHRISTMAS TIME! So what are you to do as a music lover?! Why…play music of course. The difficulty is knowing which albums to get and / or how to compile a good album. I’ll be helping in both areas, but first, a little history:

Christmas Music

Christmas music has been playing during the Christmas season since the 13^th Century. But, what exactly is Christmas music? Christmas music is simply any music of any genre which is traditionally played, performed or heard during the Christmas season. The music usually deals with common themes such as the folklore and traditions surrounding the holiday. The music can have a religious overtone or it can simply be about the weather being cold. Thus, many songs not originally intended to be Christmas music have been adopted as Christmas songs over the years.

Selecting Great Christmas Music

Part of the Christmas season is the ability to relax with loved ones and enjoys many of the joys of the Christmas season and what Christmas wouldn’t be complete without some music. So, what music should you get? What are some good Christmas albums? Where do you start? Full length themed album or a compilation album? Well…let’s start with Christmas Themed album by a single artist or band which are commonly available.

Nat King Cole – The Christmas Song

Back on a piping hot day in 1946, Mel Torme wrote a nostalgic Christmas song he titled simply, The Christmas Song. Nat King Cole was the choice to sing it, and he accepted. With strings added to his Trio for the first time, Nat’s beautifully genuine vocal and the classic arrangement evoked the sentiments of the holiday so well that it’s seldom been equalled. Not only was The Christmas Song a huge hit, it has remained a perennial hit ever since. That evergreen is possibly Nat’s most widely heard record these days.

Originally, The Christmas Song was a single only. Nat recorded more holiday novelty singles on occasion over the following years. A full scale, classic pop holiday album finally came in 1960, fourteen years after The Christmas Song, with this, The Magic Of Christmas.

The Magic of Christmas was soon to undergo a repackaging. In 1961, Nat would record The Christmas Song for the third time, this time in stereo. In 1963, Capitol combined that 1961 remake of The Christmas Song with the bulk of this album (minus God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman) and renamed the album, surprisingly enough, The Christmas Song. That comp would remain Nat’s staple Christmas album for decades to come and is the one now available on shelves all over the world.

A great album with many great tunes, it has become a staple of the holiday season.

Vince Guaraldi Trio – A Charlie Brown Christmas

I’ll be damned if the first time you listen to this disc you will not be undoubtedly transported directly back to your childhood. The original soundtrack recording of the CBS television special recorded in 1965, this album has become a holiday favorite since the CBS television special was first broadcast and has become an essential Christmas album ever since. Songs like “Linus and Lucy”, “Christmas Time” and the jazzy “O Tannenbaum” allow many people to re-live their childhood Christmas’ of years gone by.

Ella Fitzgerald – Wishes You A Swingin’ Christmas

Ella was known as The First Lady of Song and this album proves that it is a titled which is well deserved. This album was recorded back in 1960 when Ella was at the very peak of her creative talents. Every song on this album swings and each songs carries Ella’s vocal stamp like a flag. It is filled with songs that have been sung to death, yet Ella gives them a much needed breath of fresh air that leaves listeners wishing the album had more music than it contains.

NOTE* The album was originally released on CD in 1989 and, in my opinion, the 1989 release sounds much better than the 2002 remaster of the same album.*

Frank Sinatra – A Jolly Christmas From Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra – the name alone should be incentive to have this on your shelf. First released in November, 1957, Frank Sinatra’s “A Jolly Christmas” album was released by Capitol Records barely one month after the release of “Elvis’ Christmas Album” which became the “Number 1″ best-selling LP of the 1950s .

It’s hard to believe it now, but back in 1957 “A Jolly Christmas” was thought to be music in poor taste. Despite the poor reviews the album went on to become the 13^th best selling LP of the 1950’s. Time does indeed heal all wounds and this album has stood the test of time.

This sublime Christmas collection touches the hearts of new generations of Sinatra fans time and time again due to Sinatra’s singing or the track listing which give us the best of the popular ’secular’ Christmas songs, combined with traditional ’sacred’ carols.

NOTE * The very best sounding version of this LP are the early, gray label vinyl versions of this LP. The original CD release of “A Jolly Christmas” from 1987, mastered by Larry Walsh is still the best-sounding CD version of this album. Avoid the remasters done by Bob Norberg at Capitol Mastering at all cost.

Dean Martin – Christmas With Dino

With such a great voice, it’s hard to understand why Dean Martin didn’t do more holiday albums. Dean Martin only recorded two Christmas albums during his career – one for Capitol Records and one for Reprise Records. This albums deals with holiday songs from his Capitol years and it’s a winner in every way. Most of the songs are well known but Dean makes them his own.

This album is a great introduction to Dean Martin’s intimate style of singing and is a Christmas essential.

Bing Crosby – White Christmas

THE CHRISTMAS ALBUM! If there was ever an album that defined the holiday season – this one would be it. This is one the best selling albums of all time and it has NEVER been out of print since it was released in the form of a multiple 10-inch, 78-rpm record set in 1945. As result Bing Crosby is also known as The Voice of Christmas. That says a lot!

Its initial success was attributed to its striking a chord with homesick GI’s in the Pacific Theatre of Operations during the Second World War, but that somehow spilled over onto the Home Front, and it continued long after the troops returned and the war had ended. It has been so successful that it has cracked the Top 40 in an amazing sixteen different years!

If I were on a deserted island and could only have 1 Christmas album, this is the album I would pick. While Bing went on to record many, many more Christmas tunes on various albums, this album embodies the Christmas spirit more than any other Christmas album out there.

Honorable Mentions:

Perry Como – Greatest Christmas Songs

Bing Crosby – Christmas Classics

Andy Williams – The Andy Williams Album

The Ventures – The Venture’s Christmas Album

Frank Sinatra – Christmas Collection

Johnny Mathis – Merry Christmas

The Carpenters – Christmas Portrait

Elvis Presley – Elvis’ Christmas Album

Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass – The Christmas Album

Henry Mancini - Greatest Christmas Songs

Glenn Miller Orchestra - In the Christmas Mood

Al Green - White Christmas

Michael Buble – Let It Snow!

Burl Ives - Christmas Album

Brenda Lee - A Brenda Lee Christmas

The Drifters - Christmas Album

Aimee Mann - One More Drifter In The Snow

Christmas Compilations / Various Artists

Now That’s What I Call Christmas (2 CD Set)

This set is among the best compilation albums I can think of. It features the rare and hard to obtain 1953 recording of “The Christmas Song” by Nat King Cole as well as countless other Christmas favorites on the first CD and newer, lesser known holiday favorites on the second CD. Usually priced somewhere between $9.99 and $15.99, it’s a bargain at any price. Why? Well, mainly because this set gathers some of the best singles from various albums and puts them in one place. Attempting to compile this on your own would not only be costly but it would also be extremely difficult.

If you don’t own any Christmas music and are not familiar with some the artists above, then this is a great place to start.

Phil Spector’s A Christmas Gift For You

This album features many artists such as The Ronettes, The Crystals and Darlene Love. This album was painstakingly put together during a hot August month by producer Phil Spector and was supposed to be originally released on November 23, 1963. The original release date was pulled as a sign of respect for the recently assassinated President. As a result of the gloom mood that followed President Kennedy’s death, the albums sales were relatively low.

However, over the years, this album has been called the greatest rock and roll Christmas album of all time and has inspired many “copycat” albums. Spector’s “Wall of Sound” technique is perfectly tailored to the Christmas music within album and it’s a great addition to any Christmas collection.

A Very Special Christmas

Modern day artists singing Christmas songs about collard greens, Christmas wish-lists and Christmas cheer. Released in 1989, the first “Very Special Christmas” was such a success, it spawned the “The Very Special Christmas Series”. The series now contains a total of seven volumes including a live album and an acoustic album. The music throughout the series is very good but nothing beats the very fist album. Charming, whimsical and full of Christmas cheer, it’s a compilation album worth seeking out.

DIY

That’s right – DIY. DIY stands for Do It Yourself. And why not? I’m sure you have a Christmas album or two. Why not make your own compilation? The theme should be relatively easy – it’s Christmas! All you have to do is select your favorite Christmas songs from the many albums you own and put them together to make a cohesive whole. The problem facing many people is not knowing what songs to put on a CD. I would suggest that you start off with the 25 most played songs as a template.

According to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, the following are the Top 25 most-performed “Holiday” songs for the first five years of the 21st century:

1. “The Christmas Song” (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)

2. “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”

3. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”

4. “Winter Wonderland”

5. “White Christmas”

6. “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!”

7. “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”

8. “Jingle Bell Rock”

9. “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”

10. “Little Drummer Boy”

11. “Sleigh Ride”

12. “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”

13. “Silver Bells”

14. “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”

15. “Feliz Navidad”

16. “Blue Christmas”

17. “Frosty the Snowman”

18. “A Holly Jolly Christmas”

19. “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”

20. “Here Comes Santa Claus” (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)

21. “It’s Beginning To Look a Lot Like Christmas”

22. “(There’s No Place Like) Home for the Holidays”

23. “Carol of the Bells”

24. “Santa Baby”

25. “Wonderful Christmastime”

Remember, this is only a template and it is not written in stone. Feel free to add in non-traditional songs or add in songs from Christmas shows or cartoons. Most importantly – have fun. Christmas is a time of cheer and time that should be spent with family and friends. What better way to spend your time together than singing, dancing and listening to Christmas songs you will be able to cherish to years to come!

Merry Christmas and happy holiday music hunting!

Purchase White Christmas from Amazon, and support S&R!

I really enjoyed the self titled debut album by Seattle’s Fleet Foxes.  Basically a giant B12 shot for pop music, it came in like a breath of fresh air.  At a time when the majority of introspective pop artists feature a whining quality, it was nice to hear pure, unadulterated singing.  Vocal harmonies, panning, counterpoint and substance; the whole bit.  This prequel has the band doing more of the same, thankfully, still with an abundance of clean guitar and instrument tracks, frequently juxtaposed against interesting miscellaneous acoustic instruments, which has garnered the group classification as “Baroque Pop“, further exasperating the freshness of this band, ironically.  Comparisons can and are drawn to such acts as CSNY, Neil Young, and others from years past.

The title track starts the album off with an a capella intro that has an almost chant quality to it, except put to actual words.  A soft mandolin plays as the track fades away rather quickly.

“Drops in the River” offers up the full band, and offers a more straightforward sound, but still with mandolin, and a few other surprises.  There are some nice jangly electric guitar sounds, which share the stage with the softer acoustic parts as well.  One of the strengths of the band is exhibited nicely here; their ability to start songs off with one or two instruments and slowly build intensity by adding other parts in gradually.  This makes for some really nice atmospheric moments, including the little sitar part on this song.  Far too many pop bands these days seem to overlook this type of dynamic, which is almost like missing a food group, really.

“English House” starts off in a similar fashion, but is a little quicker to the point, which keeps the band from exploiting this talent.  However, there is still a very mature sense of restraint, most notably from the drummer.  Great care is taken to avoid excessive use of cymbals.  In fact there are barely any at all.  I suspect it is to allow the softer ‘baroque’ instruments to shine through.  The drums really don’t overpower the band at all, and it probably goes a long way to giving Fleet Foxes their ethereal, airy quality I enjoy so much.  The thick reverb is here in full force, which seems to be a trademark of the band.  I’d prefer a bit less, personally.  It would sound just a bit more natural that way.  But it does give the vocals an impression of being chanted in a church-like setting, which can be interesting at times.  I think this effect would be stronger if used sparingly, such as during periods of silence from the band, interludes, etc.  So dynamics do suffer a bit, but its certainly not a deal-breaker.  The guitars that fade the track away have a great jangly quality.

“Mykonos” is perhaps the best track on Sun Giant.  The main melody line is rather catchy and conducive to bouts of humming from the listener, perhaps unconsciously.  The vocal panning and harmonies give this song a real epic, classical quality that recalls the best moments in Queen’s vocal styling in “Bohemian Rhapsody”, the intro to “Fat Bottom Girls”, et all. Juxtaposed against an abrupt tempo change, the voices really lift off into space, guiding the band along on a riveting pace, but the band remembers not to fill the space completely, giving proper focus to the vocals.  This is pop music after all.  Its all about the vocals.

Sun Giant closes out with “Innocent Son”, a humorous play on the word.  It’s a minimalist, straight-forward track, with only a strummed acoustic guitar anchoring the singing, which is also kept to just one singer who sounds weary, tired and lays the album down to sleep.

Sun Giant offers up a solid collection of melodically rich, well-crafted pop songs that take a page from CSNY and Neil Young, while offering up originality and individualism as well.  The material here would be at home on their full length album; it would be a mistake to label it weaker based on its E.P. setting.

Songs:
1. Sun Giant
2. Drops in the River
3. English House
4. Mykonos
5. Innocent Son

Purchase Sun Giant EP from Amazon, and support S&R

Upon the very first trumpet note, “Back To The Land” oozes tone.  Syncopation, varying durational patterns, texture and of course turn-arounds are some of the devices used throughout.  Gillespie often uses muted and/or distorted notes to set against the rinforzando notes he interjects quite frequently, which themselves set to material held back, or ritenuto.  This is some heavy manipulation, and goes a long way to interject unadulterated emotion into the music.  This is one of the more emotional jazz albums I’ve heard, but not in an overtly exaggerated way.  There is never a sense the musicians are trying to explain how they feel to you; this feels more like an experience that the listener is made part of, right along with the band.  Put simply, when listening to this album, you will forget the world around you.  Gillespie is by no means the only one with deft use of such mechanisms.  Ray Brown makes frequent use of triple-note runs to help accent a point being driven home by the band.  He’ll continue with this throughout much of the album, in a telepathic-like tandem with Mickey Roker.  He’ll occasionally step down from his high-reaching bass notes to some guttural material, set against Basie’s high-octave playing.

“Constantinople” starts out simple enough.  Basie plays a little intro riff, with plenty of empty space, ripe for the picking.  The band mates start playing off the riff, as if they were offering up new pieces of an abstract puzzle.  There’s a lot of play with the space, and great care is taken to leave it partially empty, despite the flurry of activity.  This keeps the dark, murky vibe Basie has created to keep going strong.  There are no unnecessary notes; every note is utilized to its full extent, with no waste left over.  The band dials back, while Brown lets loose a flurry of bass activity, itself held back in volume in keeping with the dynamics of the song.  How one plays this fast quietly, I’ll never now.  As things pick up, Gillespie offers up some of the best muted trumpet tone’s I’ve ever heard.  The high octave is exploited, but there are no piercing notes, as often the case with muted trumpet.  There simply isn’t an offensive or harsh note to be found anywhere.

“You Got It” takes the album into Basie’s trademark happy and peppy territory with a soft piano transition.  After completing the first verse, he doesn’t simply launch into his solo; he slips into it like an old man into a pool of water.  Only here its not to get acclimated; its to let the listener get acclimated, just like he did with the transition.  Brown covers most of the territory; something which starts to verge on redundant, but as soon as Basie returns, it no longer sounds so.  Is this his way of pushing the envelope, or merely working with what he’s got (given the sparse nature of this ensemble).  Gillespie fires off some quick rounds for his lead, the way you’d expect a bopper to do.  Not that it’s a bad thing, mind you.  Gillespie can coax some pretty incredible wails out of his instrument, and hold his own with the best of them.  When he launches into the final few bars, it sure seems like it worked.  Brown and Basie fill the end of the song like two people attaching the last few pieces of a puzzle, and everything just sort of slides into place.

“St. James Infirmary” exposes itself as the star of the album.  Gillespie’s palpable tone, with the perfect bite and tinge to it, is given plenty of wiggle room, complimented with very dynamic snare wraps that give a feeling of tension.  Basie’s minimalism as spot-on and dynamic as ever.  Brown’s woody bass tones come through with all their muted, plucked glory.  Staccato trumpet lines bring the focus back to Gillespie again for round two.  Followed by the opposite; long drawn-out lines, juxtaposed beautifully.  The entire song is just dripping with emotion, and feeling.  After a few Gillespie phrases out front, Brown comes back in louder, with a rhythmic change, building up the tension further, then brings it back down to its final resting place.

“Follow The Leader” returns yet again to the faster, happier material.  Mickey Rocker cycles through well placed cymbal splashes, gradually building, in tandem with Ray’s swelling bass lines.  Its like they have the volume button, letting Gillespie know when to dig in, when to withdraw, giving an organic sound, as if the music was breathing. During Gillespie’s solo, Roker does this thing with cymbal tapping and snare tapping simultaneously that just knocks me on my ass.  You’d miss it if you weren’t paying attention, but that’s the strength of this album; it commands your full attention.  Ray gets a little time out front on this one, and everyone does a good job becoming the anchor’s anchor, and stepping back.

I found “Ow!” to be the most straight-forward track of the bunch.  The musicians keep to the same devices explained above.  Roker is the only element worth isolating; he uses this track to cycle through several different styles, but its done in a subtle way, with the absence of cymbals being the key difference with the more held-back style that gets exhibited several times.  Like the rest of the album, the listener is made to feel like part of the band, and becomes unaware of anything else going on, being drawn in to the music exclusively and completely.  The device that most responsible for this, and the one found universally across the entire album, is the deliberate yet intoxicating manipulations of empty space from Basie and Co.  The silent pauses and playing ‘in the pocket’ and related durational elements are superlative.  This is mandatory listening for all you jazz cats.

Musicians:
Count Basie - Piano
Dizzy Gillespie - Trumpet
Ray Brown - Bass
Mickey Roker - Drums

Songs:
1. Back To The Land
2. Constantinople
3. You Got It
4. St. James Infirmary
5. Follow The Leader
6. Ow!

Buy The Gifted Ones from Amazon, and support S&R

Halloween approaches on the Gulf Coast, and a hurricane hasn’t decimated the Crescent City* this year, which means its time for Voodoo.  Yep, fun in the cool breeze New Orleans City Park, complete with the aromas of sugary alcoholic swill, golden fried shrimp, and tangy smoky schwag.

I was there this past weekend, and as usual New Orleans made it a fantastic time. We left Mobile Saturday afternoon, so with the two hour drive we only caught the evening acts, but the whole trip was just to see Nine Inch Nails. First up was Thievery Corporation. I could go the rest of my life without having that dreadie dude or that latina chick yelling at me through a sea of their dub lounge bullshit. Summed up real nicely when my friend Meribeth stood up, pointed at the stage and said “I’ve had about enough of that shit”.

Next up was Mars Volta. I’m not a Mars Volta fan, but I haven’t written them off either. The only album I’ve heard of theirs is Frances the Mute, which I found immediately appealing and almost as quickly wearisome: the songs lack substance and direction. Come to find out I had a similar reaction to the live show. The first song was like a delicious piece of progressive chocolate cake being crammed down my mouth, then the second song was the same, then the third song more sweet chocolate icing, and on and on, and in the words of my girlfriend “all I want is a glass of milk, not more chocolate cake.” So I was happy when they left the stage.

The next was a band called Ghostland Observatory. We were actually setup at the NIN stage at this point, so I wasn’t close enough to hear them extremely well (at voodoo each stage is actually two stages facing each other at a distance of maybe a couple hundred yards, so the music never stops and the crowd just moves between stages), but when I went to the bathroom it sounded pretty cool. I might check them out later.

Then was Nine Inch Nails! This was the true reason for the 45 minute walk from our parking space to the entrance of the festival grounds. Trent was home in New Orleans and put on an amazing show. I’d heard about the light show but really had to see it to believe it. Absolutely unreal, easily the best light show I’ve ever seen at a rock concert, period. I kept a set list but its kind of a mess because I don’t know all the titles to the songs, but here is an incomplete list anyway: Discipline, March of the Pigs, Closer, Gave Up, Great Destroyer, Piggy, Pinion > Wish, Terrible Lie, Survivalism, The Hand That Feeds, Head Like a Hole, Hurt.

Highlights include March of the Pigs which came early in the show and was way intense. Great Destroyer was off the industro-glitch chains; I think it is as good as any song Trent has written. Some of you may have seen a picture floating around the internet of a nails show with a blue screen of death behind him. This happened during Great Destroyer, literally only for a second as the screens flashed through a hundred different images. I thought it was cool since we know Trent is an Apple man. Closer was awesome, but its only one of the greatest rock singles ever written so. Pinion > Wish was one of those “oh my god this is so badass the world is about to asplode” moments. Head Like A Hole closed the set before a multiple song encore, and right when the song ends a huge red NIN is up on the screen, it was a moment of pure band worship for me. Trent did a lot of the Ghosts stuff in between the regular songs, and it added so much to the show, what with all the beautiful and haunting imagery he had up on the screens during the slower bits. He made his political statement during “The Hand That Feeds”, when he put a huge face shot of GWB up on the screen, which ever so subtly morphed into McCain by the songs end.

Trent gave a great speech before the last few songs about how good it was to be home, and about how much he loves the city and how happy he is to see New Orleans coming back. I’ve considered New Orleans to be the greatest city on the planet since I was a kid so I shared his sentiments. For me I’m happy that Trent has his shit together and didn’t become just another lame rock casualty. His live show has proven to me he is an artist of the highest order.

Buy NIN stuff from Amazon and support SnR!