06/25/07
DL MEDIA
KENNY BURRELL/75th Birthday Bash Live: Actually a two part set that showcases birthday celebrations that were planned around Burrell, his 99th album is a nice look back at a musical life well lived that isn’t really a look back at all. Working with Gerald Wilson and several class soloists, the guitarist brings it back to where it basically began in grand style. A tasty, stylish and touching work, this is a record that goes above and beyond. The kind of sessions we need more of because the music really inspires.
74906 (Bluenote)
GO MEDIA
CHASING THE SUN/various: I was all set to run a diatribe about this was the cool package that Rhino used to come out with all the time until I was flipping the package over and found “Rhino Custom Products” in small print. Packaged in a cooler, this 3 cd/1 dvd collection is all about summer. One disc is surf, one disc is shag and one disc is summer for flyovers. The dvd is about surfing. Which ever beach you have or don’t have, there’s a disc here collecting the familiar and important sounds of the season that powered your parties and will probably power all tomorrows parties as well. With 59 real deal tracks packaged and configured as only that bunch at Time Life can do, whether surfing, shagging or sunning, this is the music you’ve always loved when the solstice comes to town.
18272 (Time Life)
SIX DEGREES
OJOS DE BRUJO/Techari Remixes: It isn’t enough the flamenco/hip hop crew made one of the freshest world beat albums of the year, now they have to remix it as well making sure it has that extra club appeal. It’s hard to tell if the remixes give the underlying music another dimension or not, but it certainly gives it a nice zest to expose it to a new set of ears. Whether souped up or to, it’s pretty cool stuff.
7057
GAUDI + NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN/Dub Quwwali: 10 years after Khan’s death, he’s still influential enough that remixers want to take left overs from the Elvis of the East and fashion them into new works they can leave a stamp on. Gaudi should not offend anyone as he brings Khan into the present. An able and capable work, it’s something old and new at once that should capture the fancy of younger, boundary pushing world beaters.
1137
Volume 30/Number 237
June 25, 2007
MIDWEST RECORD
830 W. Route 22 #144
Lake Zurich, IL., 60047
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher
(c)2007 Midwest Record