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Pianist/arranger and smooth jazz veteran David Benoit continues to celebrate 30-plus years of making music, and with his new Heroes album, pays homage to those who have influenced him over the years. Benoit, not surprisingly, takes songs by the likes of piano legends such as Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson and Dave Brubeck. But then he lets his guard down a bit, and takes on a few of his pop idols — Michael Jackson, Elton John, the Beatles and the Doors. You might think the result is akin to elevator music, but when you realize how masterfully Benoit arranges songs like “Light My Fire” and “She’s Leaving Home,” you can’t help but give the guy props. As with most of the smooth jazz genre, this is great for Sunday mornings, quiet dinners or just relaxing. The rest of the time, you’re better off with the original versions. (Peak 2008) |
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It’s all too easy to forget what someone like Wes Montgomery meant to the guitar itself, and not just jazz guitar specifically. Concord’s Keepnews Collection, spotlighting milestones in the career of jazz producer Orrin Keepnews with 24-bit remastered sound and new liner notes from Keepnews himself, slips out a reminder with the series’ entry for The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery. Traditionally cited as Montgomery’s best studio album, it’s easy to hear why. Unlike his later recordings for Verve and A&M, which were often bloated by strings and other extraneous elements for a more pop-friendly sound, this landmark 1960 session finds Montgomery backed by a crack rhythm section – pianist Tommy Flanagan, bassist Percy Heath and drummer Albert Heath – and nothing more. The quartet storms through six originals and two standards, and Montgomery’s trademark flying octaves are all over the place. His leads always sound effortless and simple, but just try playing them yourself with the style and grace with which Montgomery applies. He was one of a kind, and an inspiration to countless jazz guitarists for reasons that Incredible Jazz Guitar articulates clearly, succinctly and enjoyably. (Riverside/Concord 2008) |
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Global Noize is collaborative project between turnbalist DJ Logic and Grammy Award-winning jazz composer/keyboardist Jason Miles, and joining them throughout their self-titled debut are about a dozen or so other musicians. Some of the more notable contributors include Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid, Blues Traveler’s John Popper, singer Me’Shell Ndegeocello and legendary trumpeter Herb Alpert. In addition to those somewhat prominent names, jazz musicians Karl Denson, Billy Martin, Cyro Baptista and Christian Scott show up, as does Parliament/Funkadelic’s Bernie Worrell. That’s a lot of great musicians from a ton of genres; and they bill themselves as “the nexus of jazz, funk, world music and electronica,” so it’s really too bad that they sound like nothing more than a third-rate jazz act experimenting with a turntable and a sampler. This isn’t a record that has one foot in jazz while dabbling in other genres; it has both feet firmly planted in jazz while the occasional pinky toe dips into electronic music or rock for a second before quickly retreating back to the safe, soothing waters of modern jazz. If you’re looking for a successful blend of jazz and electronic music (two genres of music that go surprisingly well together) check out Sqaurepusher’s Ultravisitor or At the Center by Meat Beat Manifesto. This is nothing more than waiting room music with mediocre backbeats tacked on. (Shanachie 2008) |
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Last night’s “American Idol” featured the Top 10 finalists, and with it only being 90 minutes, it’s like Fox handed me change back from a $20 bill. Good stuff. Anyway, the contestants had to sing a song from the year they were born, and most of them really stepped up their game. But it’s also worth mentioning this…..that it had to make most of us feel REALLY OLD seeing years like 1987 and 1990 come up. Anyway, here is the recap… THE REALLY GOOD That sound you just heard was David Cook stamping his ticket to superstardom. He closed out the show last night with a grungy version of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.” What, you say? Just how far can Mr. Cook push the envelope with his song choices? Well, he saw the ball coming and hit it clear around the world. It was that good, and dare I say one of the best performances I’ve ever seen on the show. I’m getting goose bumps thinking about it. I turned to Mrs. Mike and said, “There is your winner,” and then the judges agreed with me. Randy said “You might be the winner” and used the term “molten hot.” Paula said it was brave and brilliant. And Simon, who rarely uses such words, uttered this one: “Amazing.” This is clearly David’s competition to lose. THE GOOD Syesha Mercado was born in 1987, and sang Stephanie Mills’ “If I Were Your Woman,” and it was, for me, her best performance yet (more…) |
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Yes, we know that writing about music is like dancing about architecture (even if we’re not convinced that Elvis Costello said it first), but let’s be realistic: if you’re a music fan who likes to read, you can achieve a very special level of bliss when you get the opportunity to dive into a book about music. The Bullz-Eye staff knocked their heads together and came up with a list of 45 books that span several musical genres and include autobiographies and biographies, histories of record companies and music magazines, essay collections, and straight-up reference tomes. It’s not intended to be all-encompassing, nor would we presume to call it a definitive list of the best music books of all time. It’s simply a selection of some of our personal favorites, none of which would be out of place on a music fan’s bookshelf…and you can find it right here. We also got some of the authors in on the fun, as well as some of our favorite musicians, which resulted in enough responses from folks from Kyle Vincent to Henry Rollins to warrant Rock of Pages: Celebrity Edition. But we know: we’ve missed one (or more) of your favorites. We always miss one (or more) of your favorites. So call us out already and leave a comment. We can always use another addition to our Barnes & Noble shopping list… Filed under: Rock and Pop and Alternative and Rap and Hip Hop and Country and Jazz and Music Labels and Songs and News and Artists and Videos and External Music Comments: 4 Comments |
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Sure, it reads as a novelty - Paul Anka does swing covers of mainstream and alt-rock hits - but if you’ve ever actually heard Rock Swings, you know it holds up for the long haul as an instant party in convenient CD form. Rather than take the easy way out, most of the tracks have been dramatically rearranged to work within Anka’s concept, but if you’re convinced that he couldn’t possibly accomplish it with one of the most anthemic songs of the 1990s (if not all of music history), take a listen and enjoy being proven wrong:
Filed under: Rock and Pop and Alternative and Jazz and Songs and Artists and Videos and Less Talk, More Music Comments: None |
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Chalk up another entry for future “Proof that the Grammy Awards Are Out of Touch with Reality” lists
Posted on 02.11.08 by Will Harris @ 1:42 am
Give the Grammy Awards credit for getting a few things right this year: they gave Amy Winehouse the Curse of the Best New Artist (not that she hasn’t already put herself on the fast train to Hell), hooked her up with Best Female Pop Performance and Record of the Year and Song of the Year for “Rehab,” and gave Back to Black the award for Best Vocal Pop Album. Somewhere between all those Winehouse wins, they even let Vince Gill take home the Best Country Album for the sprawling masterwork that is These Days.
Gill also got in one of the two best zingers of the night after he was presented his award by Ringo Starr. “I just got an award presented to me by a Beatle,” he said, then pointed at a specific individual in the audience and asked, “Have you had that happen yet, Kanye?” (The other great line, by the way, was Prince throwing off the snarky comment about Alicia Keys’ virtual duet with Ol’ Blue Eyes, saying, “Frank Sinatra looked good for 150, didn’t he?”) But, c’mon, people: whether it’s a good album or not, you’re just setting yourself up for ridicule by giving the Album of the Year award to Herbie Hancock’s River: The Joni Letters. It’s just Steely Dan’s Two Against Nature all over again… Filed under: Rock and Pop and Alternative and Country and Jazz and Songs and News and Artists and External Music Comments: None |
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The Barenaked Ladies thought they were being funny when, on their 1992 debut, Gordon, they sang these lines: “Maybe it’s a lack of inspiration that makes me stoop, or maybe it’s a lack of remuneration – I can’t recoup – but if you want it, folks, you got it: it’s all right here in my box set.” While the song, “Box Set,” might keep BNL from releasing a multi-disc career-spanning collection (mostly because they would never, ever hear the end of it), plenty of other artists have dipped into the vaults and put together compilations which mix their best-known material with heretofore-unheard tracks. In some cases, however, artists dispense of previously-released material altogether, cull together all the rarities they can find, and make it an affair strictly for the fans. All told, there are so many such releases in existence that we here at Bullz-Eye didn’t even try to do a formal “Best Ever Box Sets” list. Instead, the writers put together lists of their personal favorites, and we separated out the various-artists collections into their own separate list, just to make it a little less confusing. The musical genres are decidedly across the board, but with the holidays coming up, if you’ve got a friend or family member who’s a full-fledged music geek, we might just have a few ideas for you to consider as gifts. Here’s an example…
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Live/1975-1985 (Columbia) “Ladies and gentlemen…Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band,” the calm voice of a faceless PA announcer breathes, as the opening piano notes of “Thunder Road” begin the incredible retrospective journey that is Live/1975-85. From intimate clubs like The Roxy in 1975, where Springsteen plays “Thunder Road” solo on a piano, to Meadowlands Arena in 1981 for a full-on band assault of “Cadillac Ranch” and “Candy’s Room” to the mega Born In The U.S.A. tour in 1985 and nearly every hit finding the LA Coliseum stage that year, Jon Landau mastered a beauty here. The Boss tells stories (“Growin’ Up”), opens his diary (“Because the Night”), and simply rocks out with the force of 100 men (“Born to Run”), all to wild applause of fans from coast to coast over a decade of non-stop touring. It’s a box set like no other: all live, all real, and with all albums (up to the release date) well represented. Covers of Tom Waits’ “Jersey Girl” and Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” are impeccably-done, if unexpected, nuggets that sound as fresh as any original. This was the perfect Christmas gift for a pimply-faced kid in working class America back in 1986 who would have otherwise had to work two weeks for enough money to buy a 3-album set, and it remains indispensable in 2007. – Red Rocker …and here’s the rest of the piece. Did we miss any of your favorites? Filed under: Rock and Pop and Alternative and Country and Jazz and CD Reviews and Boxed Sets and Songs and Artists and Concert CDs and External Music Comments: None |
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I love Thelonious Monk. I could explain away all day the reasons why, but the music says it all. Here he is busting out “Lulu’s Back in Town” in a long two-parter. Amazing stuff.
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Guest contributor: Una Persson
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One of New England’s best kept music secrets is Fats Hammond, a group featuring two Hammond B-3 organs bashing out some of the funkiest soul-jazz on the planet. Before you go thinking for a second that Fats Hammond, in their standing Tuesday night gig at the Dodge Street Grill in Salem, Mass., puts on some sort of high-faluttin’ academic jazz clinic, go listen to their tracks uploaded to The Space: It’s pure soul grease, laden with more fat than the pub’s fish & chips. Dirtier than the floor around the beer stand behind home plate at Fenway Pahhhk. Sometimes, we’ve been told, the drummer from the Trey Anastasio (Phish) solo band knocks off early–he works behind the bar at Dodge Street–and sits in with the band, and the jams go deep into Wednesday morning. 
Fats Hammond ringleader Ken Clark (back to camera) wheels in his 400lb B-3 every Tuesday |
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To prep you for our upcoming interview with Tom Jones, here are a few of the man’s performances to get you, shall we say, in the mood. First, let’s start with a live performance…his last-ever for the late, great “Top of the Pops”…of his 2006 collaboration with Chicane, “Stoned in Love”: Here are a few videos you may or may not have seen… …as well as a few covers you might not have heard him perform… “St. James Infirmary” (with Jools Holland on piano) …but, of course, we must close with an all-time classic, which sounds almost as good in 2007 as it did when he recorded it in 1965: Filed under: Rock and Pop and Jazz and Concerts and Songs and Artists and Blues and Videos Comments: None |
 More than 50 bands will play the second annual Osheaga Music and Arts Festival in Montreal on September 8. Among confirmed acts are Smashing Pumpkins, Arctic Monkeys, Amy Winehouse, Interpol, and Damien Rice with more to be announced later. Crooner Michael Buble released his new album at the start of the month, and will be starting his tour in support of it on July 12. Plans are also in place for Buble to tour Europe in October. Erasure is joining Cyndi Lauper, Debbie Harry and The Dresden Dolls on the “True Colors” tour next month, but after that will be headlining a tour of their own that starts July 6 in Tampa. Tour dates are as follows: Fri 7/6 Tampa, FL Carol Morsani Hall @ TBPAC The Detroit Cobras’ new album (more…) Filed under: Rock and Pop and Alternative and Hip Hop and Jazz and Concerts and Indie Labels Comments: None |
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Def Leppard will not be touring with Kiss after all. The band instead announced that they will be playing North American dates with Foreigner and Styx. Throw it all into a blender if you like, because no matter who the other bands are on the bill, it’s still a draft beer and mullet fest. British pop songstress Lily Allen’s career has exploded almost as fast as Barry Bonds’ upper body. After wrapping up the MTV “Discover and Download” tour, Allen will kick off a new headlining tour in Houston on March 16 after two appearances at SXSW. Allen’s album, Alright, Still, has tabbed her as an artist to watch by all of the major critics and she’s been dubbed the “queen of myspace.” If you want to see what the fuss is all about, you can catch Allen on her spring tour (more…) |
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There’s a show airing on PBS stations around the country right about now that every music fan should check out, particularly if you enjoy history as well. It’s called “Soundies,” and its topic is stated outright in its title. Soundies were, as the title of this post indicates, the precursor of the music video. The Mills Novelty Company created a refrigerator-sized machine called the Panoram, which was essentially a video jukebox, and these soundies - three-minute films of various musical artists performing their hit songs - could be watched on the Panoram in groups of three. (It was early technology, of course, so you couldn’t fast-forward or rewind; if you wanted to see the last soundie on the reel, you were stuck watching the first two as well, whether you wanted to or not.) The soundies began in 1940 and started off as a roaring success, but World War II caused the Panoram business to stumble - the war effort necessitated a slowing in the manufacturing of new machines - and by the time the armistice had been signed, it was too late; the era of the soundies was over by 1946. But, wow, who knew how many video artifacts from those six years were still out there…?
Fans of jazz, country, pop vocalists of the ’40s, and even early R&B will find their jaws dropping at some of this footage. You’ll see performances from Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Les Paul, Kay Starr, Fats Waller, Spike Jones, the Mills Brothers, Merle Travis, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Doris Day, and even a young Liberace. The stock line about soundies is that while the most popular white artists tended to be under contract to other studios and were therefore unavailable to make soundies (there’s an interesting story about how Mel Torme’s group, the Meltones, did a soundie with another member lip-synching Mel’s vocals because Torme himself wasn’t contractually permitted to appear on camera), there were plenty of black artists who were more than willing to get in front of the camera in order maximize their exposure…and it’s so awesome that they did. Actually being able to see Fats Waller kick out the jams on the piano is pretty damned sweet. There are also some interesting choices of talking heads brought onboard to discuss the soundies; in addition to new interviews with some of the folks who actually made them, like Les Paul and Kay Starr, we get commentary from Joe Franklin, Hugh Hefner, jazzmen George Duke and Wynton Marsalis, and…Stan Ridgway? Oh, it’s not so strange; didn’t you know that he recorded an album of standards a few years back? (If not, you will soon…when we discuss The Best Albums You’ve Never, Ever Heard. Check back at Bullz-Eye in early April!) You can check out the official website for “Soundies,” but I’m led to understand that in addition to future airings, there’s talk of releasing it on DVD. Fingers crossed that that’s true; there’s a lot of stuff here that’s worth watching over and over again. Filed under: Pop and Jazz and Documentaries and News and Blues and Videos and External Music Comments: None |
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