Snark and Reverb

My first thought when checking this album out was, “With a title like that, this album had better deliver!”  Kenny Garrett begins with a free jazz piece, “Countdown”.  Interestingly, my brain first linked this to a similar sound I’ve heard from a Sonny Rollins album, The Solo Album.  Of course there were differences, including drums.  (There is also the track “Like Sonny”, which I’ll go into later on.) But when the second track, “Equinox” started, my brain instantly linked onto The Coltrane Express, and what a smooth ride it was.  The drums, bass and thick guitar are so tight that they seem to act as a defibrillator, pushing and pulling Kenny forward and back in an organic (yet controlled) manner.

Garrett is able to capture from the start, the devices often exploited by Coltrane, in regards to instrument layering, tone, attack and timing.  At times he may actually play in the pocket better than Coltrane did in his studio recordings, in fact.  In “Liberia”, for example, this is seen in the way he holds onto a note just a little to long, and gives it a tremolo with his breath, causing the note to waiver around in the air like a leaf slowly descending, that’s taken too long to reach the ground.  The note goes sharp, and begins to play with dissonance.  Another device used is his choice of riff clusters.  Several times in the same song, Garrett applies a quick triple note section, with a fourth note held out longer, which becomes a call to the band to kick off into its next progression.  As he takes the lead, his playing in the highest octave has a pinch of distortion to the tone, and is echoed by the bass which allows its own distortion to come through slightly, caused by string ricochets and thumb pull-offs.  The cymbals don’t mimic the tone, but rather provide a smoother counterpoint, and are allowed to slowly fade off in the distance, similar to the early sustained notes from Garrett described earlier.  After the progression has made a few rounds, Garrett again makes use of the combination to call everybody back to the verse line of the song.  Its things like that which make this album a veritable clinic in the effect of nuance.

“Dear Lord” has Garrett honing in on the slow, tender wavering notes that were such an integral part of the Coltrane sound.  They find that elusive spot between firm confidence and expressive vulnerability.  The rest of the band follows his example.  The drums take on a softer quality that reminds me of Joe Morello’s playing on Time Out.  The cymbal crashes don’t sound like ricochets, morel like leaves hitting the surface of some remote pond.  Pat Metheny plays off this with soft chord work that is often held just slightly behind the beat with sustained chords and pauses.  The places he doesn’t play really help give Garrett an enhanced airy quality at times, and prevent the mix from becoming too saturated or complicated.  Garrett returns the favor, giving Metheny a solo spot, where the dark, murky guitar lines share the same floating quality.  As the song winds down, the band executes a very satisfying tempo decrease, and Garrett finishes out the piece with the same wavering tremolo quality he started the song with, just before the band returns to share the last sustained bar.

“Lonnie’s Lament” is probably the quintessential rain day sountrack.  The combination of Metheny’s open arpeggios, the sustained cymbal splashes of Brian Blade, and the soft sax tones give the track a beautifully somber atmosphere.  The chief solo spot is given to Metheny, who offers up the album’s only distorted-guitar tones which shift the style over into the progressive genre, sounding like something Al DiMeola would conjure up.  While it offers a change of pace, it may be too big a change for such an album.

Ironically, the next track is titled “After The Rain”.  Continuing with the somber atmosphere, this one plays with the balance of modal, dissonant lines and offsets them with exotic percussion and several different strings.  The track sounds vaguely middle eastern as a result.  The exotic world instruments remind this listener of Dead Can Dance.  Its seven and a half minutes of world-jazz with a kind of troubadour-like quality to the solos.

Next up is six minutes channeling Sonny Rollins.  “Like Sonny” returns to more chord-based rhythm and modal based leads which works quite well juxtaposed off of the free jazz heard just before.  Its a fairly straightforward track, as is “Pursuance”, so there’s not much else to note on those.

While listening to both “Alabama” and Garretts’ cover of “Giant Steps,” Coltrane’s episodic quality really seems to come through, and its a quality shared by Garretts’ peers as well, not limiting itself to saxophone.  This is as good a time as any to briefly touch upon the album’s sonic qualities.  In short, they are excellent.  The album is not overly compressed, bass heavy or treble heavy, etc.  It does justice to Garretts’ great sense of dynamics, which are perhaps the highlight of the album for me.  While he doesn’t have Coltrane’s same instinctive projection, he counters with one of the softest touches in tone I’ve encountered in jazz.  Its a wonderfully intoxicating listen.  Even with the dissonant quality to the closer, “Latifa.”

I for one have every intention of getting Garrett’s entire discography, and would not be surprised to find myself reviewing more of his albums.

Musicians:

Kenny Garrett - Saxophone
Pat Metheney - Guitar
Brian Blade - Drums
Rodney Whitaker - Bass

Songs:

1. Countdown
2. Equinox
3. Liberia
4. Dear Lord
5. Lonnie’s Lament
6. After The Rain
7. Like Sonny
8. Pursuance
9. Alabama
10. Giant Steps
11. Latifa

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Went to the Wanee music festival in Live Oak, FL this past weekend. My first time to Suwanee Music Park, and it is truly a beautiful place, and a badass setup for a fest. Two stages: the Peach stage in a large field, and the Mushroom stage in a natural amphitheatre filled with oak trees.

Friday:

The Radiators - Can’t believe I’ve managed to live this close to New Orleans for just under three decades and never see this band, but this was my first time. Good stuff, like a hippie bar band. I’ll probably go see them next time they come through Mobile.

Hill Country Revue - For those that don’t know, this is Cody Dickinson’s (of North Mississippi Allstars) side project. It’s basically NMAS sans Luther with a different singer. Musically they are very talented, honestly the singer gets on my nerves a bit. Very loud blues rock, good times.

Little Feat - Classic band of course, but it seems obvious they are playing the old stuff to their old fans. They drag “Willin’” waaaay out to the point that is a bit cheesy. Having said that they all were having fun, and it was cool hearing some of my favorite Little Feat singles.

Umphrey’s McGee - I’ve spent years knocking this band, saying they don’t write good songs and they don’t have any soul. Well after this brief performance I’m a bit humbled but pleased to admit they have a new fan. Last time I saw them was several years ago, opening for moe at the Orpheum in New Orleans. I was blown away then, and am blown away again. Soulful or not, these guys are ridiculously talented, and they have a blast on stage. My musician friend was explaining to me the hand signals they use to indicate where they are going in a jam, and pointed out the microphones standing behind them they use to communicate to each other’s earpieces. Neat stuff. They busted out a “Fool in the Rain” because they heard it on the radio on the way to the fest.

Col. Bruce Hampton - had to show some love to the good Colonel. He looks a bit older and a bit plumper since I last saw him, but his voice is strong and he was smiling. Talented band as well.

Buddy Guy - first time seeing Buddy Guy, we all enjoyed this one. Very much like a B.B. King show but with more energy. Lots of blues and storytelling, lots of showmanship. I could have done without him playing “Mustang Sally” but other then that, good show.

Gov’t Mule - Disappointed. Dan had said the Mule has turned into a watered down jambandish thing, but I didn’t want to believe him. Maybe one festival set isn’t a fair way to fully judge a band, but the first half of the set was real weak. None of the raw strength of old mule. Things picked up significantly in the second half, with a Beautifully Broken, and then Hunger Strike > Dear Mr. Fantasy > Hunger Strike > Thorazine Shuffle, which was tight.

Allman Bros. Band - Sickness. 2009 is the Bros. 40 year anniversary, and the current line up is so unbelievably tight. The Dead certainly can’t claim the same.

Derek Trucks Band (midnight set) - We had got up at 4am to drive from Mobile, and so at this point were going on 20 hours no sleep. Made it about another two hours before we drove back to the hotel. Having said that the two hours of DTB we saw did not disappoint. Incredible as always, with appearances by Warren and of course Susan Tedeschi (Derek’s very talented wife, for those who don’t know)

Slept in a bit Saturday, and Denny’s took forever, but we made it to the park by two o’clock to catch:

BK3 - Kreutzmann’s project. Hearing some great jamming and some Dead was a perfect way to start our day. I was loving the female fiddle player, she was great and really put a cool spin on the sound. We left during the last song (He’s Gone) to make our way over to the Mushroom stage for:

Dumpstaphunk - Woah, talk about a spiritual experience through funk, these guys are awesome. I saw them open for Panic the night after Halloween in New Orleans, but seeing them up close was much more fun. Check these guys out if they come to your town, for sure. Non stop dancing and even some fart jokes.

And here is where it started pouring down rain. It rained for a little bit the day before, just enough for things to be fun, but this was a true torrential downpour. Luckily I had my poncho and my hat. I put these on and watched:

Jorma Kaukonen - Just him and a mandolin player, a wonderful act to watch in the rain, playing to a very appreciative crowd. I bounced back and forth between him and:

Susan Tedeschi - Hell of a voice, great guitar player, awesome backing band. Great sultry blues, and she’s a cutie and a sweetie to boot. Good stuff.

Drive-By Truckers - I am a huge DBT fan, but haven’t seen them since Isbell left. I missed Isbell for sure, but Patterson and Cooley have lost none of their energy. Absolutely awesome set, including favorites like “Women Without Whiskey” and “The Company I Keep”.

Allman Bros. - Tore it up again for another night.

We bailed before The Wailer’s late night set because who cares about reggae?

A few thoughts: I’m glad we didn’t camp. Those who say you miss out on the whole experience when you stay in a hotel, eh, maybe there is some validity to that, but the truth is my friends who did camp missed a hell of a lot of music because they had to nap in the afternoons because of noisy neighbors and late night discos setup near their camp site. Couple that with sleeping in a wet tent because of the rain, and I say forget about it. I’d much rather drive to my hotel at 2-3am, shower and crash in a bed, so I’m fresh and full of energy the entire next day.

Also, big kudos to the fest organizers. The park is very well laid out, perfect for festivals, and everything went smoothly. And the food vendors rocked! Prices weren’t that bad, and there was tons of way tasty choices, from Mellow Mushroom pizza to one of the best falafels I’ve ever had.

Bottom line is I didn’t want to leave on Sunday, I wanted more Wanee. Just a completely kick ass weekend.

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Ella Fitzgerald is known as the first lady of song. After hearing any album you can understand why she is given this title. However, after hearing this album, you understand it even more.

THE MUSIC

Most people are accustomed to hearing Ella sing either with Louis Armstrong or solo in her great songbook series. This album finds Ella in top form singing with a small jazz ensemble. This intimate style is a sharp contrast to the large orchestral tracks of her songbook series but it is in no way less impressive or lacking in artistic character.

The album starts out with a jazz standard more reminiscent of Charlie Parker/Dizzy Gillespie. However, when you hear Ella’s version of “A Night In Tunisia” you’ll wonder why you haven’t heard it this way before.

“Your My Thrill” is a complete vocal stunner. It’s sung in a hauntingly beautiful way and the delicate playing by the musicians just adds gorgeous layers of music on top of Ella’s voice. The song is just a superb performance all around.

“Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie” has a great drum intro as well as some awesome bass playing. This song has some great dynamics as well and definitely qualifies as a treat for the ears.

On “Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most” you can hear Ella open her mouth before she even starts singing! The rendition of this song is probably among the very best I have ever heard. The delicate piano playing really stands out on this song as well as the light touch on the drums. Musicians often complain that slow songs are among the hardest to play. If this is so, this song makes it sound ever so easy with fantastic playing all around.

I have singled out only a couple of tracks on this 14 track record but rest assured that every single song is a winner - from the first to the very last note. You really must hear it to really appreciate Ella’s phrasing and the skill of all the musicians involved.

THE SOUND

In one word: AMAZING. When I play music recorded like this to people they are often dumbfounded to learn that the music is over 45 years old. This album was recorded and mixed at Radio Recorders and engineered by Val Valentin. The two-track reduction was made on 6/24/61 by Val Valentin. 1961!!! That’s nearly 48 years as of this writing. Nearly 48 years later, here I am listening to this great album and I swear you can hear tons of details. There is so much detail that you can literally hear the room where they are recording. I swear that I can actually hear the room - that’s right - your reading this correctly - THE ROOM! The time and spatial detail is just to die for. There are few albums that I would classify as perfections in music and sound. This is one of those albums.

Why? Well, I have heard many, many albums where they get the EQ right, the soundstage might be great as well, but the thing that always gets me to say “WOW!” is when you feel like you’re there. It takes a special combination of proper microphone placement as well as engineering skills to get an album to sound this good. One outstanding example is on the song “This Years Kisses”. In the intro you can hear the electric guitar on the left speaker, yet if you listen closely, you can hear the guitar strings being plucked on the right speaker. On “Good Morning Heartache” when Ella sings “Might as well get used to you hanging around…” you can hear her voice coming off the walls of the room on both speakers (and not just on this song either!!). The last bass note on “Good Morning Heartache” just floats decays in the air until it turns into tape hiss. This albums sound quality is really just uncanny in my honest opinion.

I expect you to doubt me. In fact, I hope you do doubt me so that you can go out and buy this fantastic album and verify all these claims yourself. You will not be sorry.

CONCLUSION

This is definitely one of Ella’s lesser known works but every song is delicate and her phrasing is light and nuanced in every good way there is. The sound is nothing short of spectacular with great spatial detail and ambiance. In short, this is a killer record and one that every jazz fan, female vocalist fan and audiophile should own. It deserves a place in the heart of any music fan’s collection.

SPECIAL NOTE

There are at least 3 different versions of this album. The version with the best sound quality is the early Verve release mastered by Dennis Drake. It should cost no more than $15.00 new. Avoid all the other versions.

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Before I start the review, let me state the following:
If your a fan of bass players and appreciate well played, FAT sounding bass notes with great swing - look no further and just buy this album now.

Now, onto the review…

I was going to the CD shop! What I bought was expensive yet it was music by someone I had never heard before. This is definately not a well known name in jazz (yet) and my purchase was due more to a mere whim of consumerism rather that knowledge of the people involved in the album. Upon first listen, I was impressed by the music that came from my speakers and at that very instant I knew that my money had been well spent. The music was fantastic, warm yet different. The singer, bass player and composer, Esperanza Spalding, is the golden ticket here. Despite her young age, her bass playing is reminiscent of such greats by the names of Charles Mingues, Israel Lopez and Ray Brown to name a few. Her other trio members, pianist Aruán Ortiz and drummer Francisco Mela, are Cuban musicians who play with great gusto and round out the trio with a firm but swinging foundation. You can definitely feel the joy in the recording studio that day.

What really sets this album apart from the masses is her singing. More specifically - wordless singing. A type of scat if you will. While there are no words, her soft style brings about memories of some of the most suave bossa nova singers from times past. Pair this with her natural sense of rhytm and the charm never fades. This album is lyrical, fresh, hip and energetic from start to finish.

Normally, I would pick out a song and attempt to describe it. This is pointless for this album as every song has a special charm about it. It really is something you must hear on your own.

The mastering on the album is not perfect but it is very far from bad as well. It’s great actually. Not over compressed but a bit on the dark side for my preferences. Regardless this is a very, very minor complaint and admittedly, my only complaint for this album.

While expensive when compared to most jazz releases and re-releases, this album contains music that is worth the admission fee and is an album every jazz fan should own. Highly recommended!

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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.

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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!

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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.

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Going Home was recommended to me on a forum I frequent, based on my interest in Ray Brown’s bass playing, and my recent discovery of Laurindo Almeda’s guitar prowess.

To date, Ray Brown is and has been my favorite jazz bassist, since my discovery of him in the genre.  His tone, attack and timing are, for me, impeccable.  He has a way of being able to play a lot of notes, but not sound decadent or excessive, and each note played simply belongs.  He is capable of beautifully intricate lines, while avoiding overtly flashy playing.  Most importantly, he knows when to remain in the background, and let others have their moment to shine.

What makes Going Home so much different than the other Brown material I’ve personally heard is the meshing between his bass and the drums, and the flute material from Bud Shank.  When all three combine, it makes a visceral yet graceful, palpable snappy sound.  Shank’s sax material, by itself, is even stronger than his flute variety.  As a whole, I feel as though everything has been tightened up somewhat, and is best illustrated within the flute passages.  Ray is still able to play in his loose style, but the overall effect is a tight, staccato sound for much of the record.  Factor in the quick Spanish guitar backing chords, and Almeida’s technique of strumming that somehow is quick and decisive, but gives all the notes room to breathe and have their own individuality, and we have quite the interesting jazz record.

Calling it a jazz record may be putting too fine a point on it though.  Almeida is more of a classical player, so there really isn’t any straight-ahead jazz.  A longer, verse-based record is the result, from what I can tell.  There are no long stretches of avant-garde solos; they are shorter and end up being more intertwined with whatever verse or section of the song they originate from.  In short, everyone is kept in check, and bound by the song structure, as opposed to being free to roam about and see where things go.  Luckily, there is no shortage of straight-ahead or free jazz discs out there, so this change ultimately makes for a more interesting counterpoint in Ray’s discography.

The short intro of “Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise” would be an exception to that rule, with the exclusion of bass and guitar.  Flute accompanies drums for a stout, kicky little segment, until eventually everyone else joining in.  Its also one area of the album where I feel the full potential is never realized.  The classical and jazz differences don’t usually bring anything down, but Almedia’s playing here seems uninspired in a few places.  He echoes Ray Brown, which seems a bit redundant.  The track does have a bit of an open, airy feel to it (as does much of the record overall), so he probably wanted to avoid bogging it down further, and let the flute remain the dominant instrument, but providing a counterpoint to Ray’s playing throughout would have been a better choice.  He does so in a few places with chord work, but not the individual note material.  Its not wrong per se, it just seems a tad obvious.  That said, if this is the biggest point of contention for me, than I’d feel comfortable saying its still an outstanding album.  Almeda’s strumming chord work playing off the bass and drums goes a long way to blur the line between tight, regimented playing, and maintaining a loose pocket.  This is where the classical and jazz best meet.  The chords are still classically executed, but its when he plays them that makes all the difference.  This interplay is strongest on “Recipe of Love.”

Shelly Manne’s drums are probably most responsible for the album’s snappy sound characteristics.  He attacks very confidently, yet uses a soft touch which often reminds me of Joe Morello’s work with Dave Brubeck.  This similarity is particularly strong in the snare work.  Its nuances like these that allow Bud Shank’s flute to make such a large impact, achieving that airy sound mentioned earlier.  There’s just enough bite in the cymbals to give everything a sharp edge, without becoming overly brittle or harsh.

Its worth noting that the sixth track, “Romance de Armor” is a solo guitar piece.  It is an exquisite one at that.  The second half of the album is where much of the pyrotechnics kick in, and that track could be thought of as a sort of bookend to it all. 

Don’t hesitate picking it up.  Look for import versions in the usual places. Several different versions are available.  Fans of Laurindo Almeda are encouraged to check out the Concord release Brazilian Soul, co-lead by Charlie Byrd.  Ray Brown fans are encouraged to check out This One’s For Blanton, a duet with Duke Ellington.

Musicians:
Bud Shank - Alto Saxophone, Flute
Laurindo Almeida - Guitar
Ray Brown - Bass
Shelly Manne - Drums

Songs:
1. Going Home
2. Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise
3. Greensleeves
4. Things Ain’t What They Used To Be
5. Recipe of Love
6. Romance de Amor
7. Django

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