05/24/07
CREATIVE SERVICE CO
BEAT DADDYS/5 Moons: As a group, they fly under the radar doing their own thing even if they have played with everyone you know and love and have laid down some seminal AM radio licks that you can’t get out of your head. Doing a modified yuppie version of the blues that makes them at home across that gaping suburban maw of this nation, they can tear the roof off a casino or heat up a mall parking lot barbeque fest. It’s fun stuff that’s made for good times that might piss off the purists but will leave everyone else with a smile. Purely fun, blues flavored stuff that goes down easily.
5762 (www.beatdaddys.com)
MARK PUCCI MEDIA
LAURIE MORVAN BAND/Cures What Ails Ya: There are some wild women out there that really know about the blues, even if some are only wild on stage. Morvan is pretty well grounded but knows how to wail the blues like a sharecropper’s daughter with a bad case of sunburn. A red hot blues rocker, it’s going to take more than a bottle of aloe to put her fire out. Zesty, rollicking stuff that you would expect from a red hot mamma, Morvan knows how to carry on and you can’t help but to get caught up in her firestorm if you’re any self respecting roadhouse blues fan. Pretty heady stuff from a rural white girl.
3 (Screaming Lizard)
WIDOW’S TASTE
ART PEPPER/Unreleased Art V. 1-Complete Abashiri Concert 11/22/81: Recorded as part of the recording fury in the last years of his life, this is a two cd outing from a cassette recording of Pepper’s last concert in Japan, recorded with his regular crew in tow. Most of the tracks are originals and Pepper is feeling free to swing from the chandeliers as he takes the tunes to implausible outer limits showing why older jazzbos dug him so much. Improvising, swinging and simply letting the fur fly with abandon while still being disciplined, this sounds an awful lot like one of those you had to be there nights. When this was recorded, the Japanese were going through a period of being much more respectful of classic jazz cats than we were and the energy that flowed both ways really spurred things on to great heights. After the tape really gets rolling, the sound moves past the artifact stage and you can really get into what’s happening like this was real sanctioned recording. Check it out.
6001
ART PEPPER/Unreleased Art V. 2-The Last Concert: And that’s why you keep that consarn tape rolling. This was Pepper’s last performances, recorded 10 days before he died, at the Kool Jazz Festival at the Kennedy Center. With Roger Kellaway on keys as a last minute fill in, the classic jazzbo adds a different flavor to the date by bringing in his own brand of professionalism. A strange night to be sure (Benny Goodman was there but didn’t want Voice of America recording him for socio-politico reasons that may or may not have been well founded), Pepper had no such problem with letting them roll tape on him. In line with the high octane work he was turning out for Galaxy in those days, the Pepper bunch was certainly salty that night. You can tell everyone was in fine spirits for what would turn out to be this unexpected send off. This is killer jazzbo grail essence. Check it out.
7001
Volume 30/Number 205
May 24, 2007
MIDWEST RECORD
830 W. Route 22 #144
Lake Zurich, IL., 60047
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher
(c)2007 Midwest Record