Month: September 2009 (Page 12 of 17)

Gary Burton, Pat Metheny, Steve Swallow, Antonio Sanchez: Quartet Live

September 11, 2009 /

Jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton formed the original Gary Burton Quartet in 1967 with bassist Steve Swallow and a couple of other hip jazz cats (namely, guitarist Larry Coryell and drummer Roy Haynes), predating the sometimes exhilarating but often lugubrious jazz fusion craze by at least a few years. Coryell left the band after a few years, and a number of talented jazz guitar slingers filled the slot, Pat Metheny among them. Recorded live in June of 2007 at Yoshi’s Jazz Club in Oakland, CA, Quartet Live reunites Burton, Swallow and Metheny, and includes drummer Antonio Sanchez, who’s been playing in the Pat Metheny Band for a number of years. The chemistry between these four jazz masters is obvious, as the quartet just clicks on a set that includes such compositions as Duke Ellington’s beautiful ballad (and disc highlight) “Fleurette Africaine,” Chick Corea’s “Sea Journey,” Carla Bley’s “Olhos de Gato” and “Syndrome,” Keith Jarret’s “Coral” and Metheny’s own “Missouri Uncompromised,” “B and G” and “Question and Answer,” the well-known Metheny staple here given an 13-minute treatment that somehow manages to avoid sounding like aimless, ego-driven noodling, like the rest of the album, really. (Concord Jazz, 2009)

Gary Burton fansite MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Jazz

Hot Club of Cowtown: Wishful Thinking

September 11, 2009 /

The best thing about Wishful Thinking is the lack of ironic, tongue-in-cheek posturing. The Hot Club of Cowtown plays a sincere, honest blend of Western swing and hot Gypsy jazz that’s thankfully parody-free. The weakest thing about ’em is, sadly, the vocals, which are a bit thin for music this passionate. I found myself wishing more than once that they were an all-instrumental band, in fact. Luckily, the palpable sense of exuberance and the command of their instruments is almost enough for Elana James (fiddle, vocals), Whit Smith (guitar, vocals) and Jake Erwin (upright bassist) to get by on. And the vocals aren’t so bad that you’ll find yourself turning Wishful Thinking off, either. It’s obvious this band has the chops and experience to exhilarate an audience, whether live (they’ve appeared on such diverse stages as the Grand Ol’ Opry to the Glastonbury Festival to “Prairie Home Companion” to opening for as well as backing both Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson) or on record (this is their first new album in five years, and the first-ever with drums), which lend such a crackling energy to the proceedings you’ll wonder how they ever did without ’em. (Thirty Tigers, 2009)

Hot Club of Cowtown MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Jazz

Chris Knight: Trailer II

September 11, 2009 /

A lot of country singers don’t know squat about horses, trailer parks, and rural life – but they can sound like they do, thanks to the songs written for them by guys like Chris Knight. A former coalmine inspector from a speck on the map in Kentucky, Knight is one of those plucked-from-obscurity successes whose story sounds like it was dreamed up in a Beverly Hills bungalow for a crappy movie script, but he’s the real deal – and though he’s never enjoyed a ton of success as a recording artist, he’s written plenty of cuts for more established acts: Montgomery Gentry, John Anderson, Ty Herndon, and Gary Allan are just a few of the performers who have covered his songs. Trailer II, as you might have already gleaned from its title, is a collection of demos taped in a trailer, and a sequel to 2007’s well-received The Trailer Tapes. Recorded over a decade ago, when Knight was still years away from making his major label debut, these performances offer a grippingly intimate snapshot of an artist with little more than a guitar and a dream. Unlike The Trailer Tapes, the songs that make up Trailer II will be familiar to Knight’s fans, but hearing them here, in all their stripped-down majesty, provides a more direct emotional connection to the material. He’s been described as “John Prine and Steve Earle rolled into one,” and despite the hyperbole of the comparison, that’s as apt a way as any to describe what you’ll hear here. Forgive the somewhat dodgy fidelity and bask in the sweltering heat of a bona fide Americana talent. (Drifter’s Church 2009)

Chris Knight MySpace page

Adult Contemporary, Americana, CD Reviews, Country, Folk

Gordon Gano and the Ryans: Under the Sun

September 11, 2009 /

Nine years removed from the demise of the Violent Femmes, erstwhile head Femme Gordon Gano has left his past as a folk-punk godfather behind, both literally (Femmes classic “Blister in the Sun” is now a Wendy’s commercial jingle) and musically, via his latest artistic incarnation as the frontman for Gordon Gano and the Ryans. Under the Sun, the fruit of a years-long, postal service-assisted collaboration with former Bogmen Brendan and Billy Ryan, provides Gano’s grating adenoidal whine with a thicker, more colorful musical backdrop than it usually enjoys – which is nice, certainly, but what would make it nicer is a set of uniformly solid songs. Now 46, Gano is still most effective when plumbing the depths of rock & roll whimsy, and when the band dares to be stupid here – as on “Way That I Creep” and “Oholah Oholibah” – Under the Sun can be a lot of fun despite his extreme vocal limitations. Too much of the album, however, gets – pardon the pun – bogged down in melody-deficient ponderousness to hold much interest. Femmes loyalists will probably miss the acidic bite of Gano’s earlier work, but there’s no denying this new partnership offers sonic vistas far more expansive than those offered by his better-known band. With enough time and some stronger material, it might just give him something interesting to do with all that Wendy’s money. (Yep Roc 2009)

Gordon Gano and the Ryan Brothers MySpace page

Alternative, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Rock

Rob Blackledge: Inside These Walls

September 11, 2009 /

Mississippi-raised and Nashville-based Rob Blackledge was torn between pursuing a career in baseball or in music. But his love of music was affirmed after he decided to attend Belmont University in Nashville, a music industry hub, when Blackledge won a talent contest and had a positive crowd reaction leave him wanting more of that artist/audience connection that can be magical when it’s right. Blackledge honed his craft while touring with Nashville favorite son Dave Barnes, co-wrote country act Love and Theft’s “Runaway,” then later signed with One Revolution Entertainment. Now Blackledge has his own debut album, Inside These Walls, and his wide range of influences are all there for the world to see – James Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Ben Folds among them. That may seem crazy, but it’s not – Blackledge is accomplished on both piano and guitar, his melodies soar with his falsetto (which he wisely does not overuse), and everything is tied together nicely by producer Jeff Coplan. Among a solid set of songs, the best ones are the hummable “Early Morning Riser,” the radio-ready “Should Have Known Better,” and the understated R&B-infused beauty, “Worth Taking” – the latter of which could be a huge Top 40 hit in the right hands. (One Revolution Entertainment 2009)

Rob Blackledge MySpace page

Adult Contemporary, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Pop, Rock

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