11/25/07
LORI HEHR PUBLIC RELATIONS
SEAN MALONE/Cortlandt: Here’s the kind of collectable that should have been tearing up Ebay for a while. Recorded in 1996 and long since fallen through the cracks, the bass ace had Reeves Gabrel and Trey Gunn on board to lend a hand. A presage to his work with Gordian Knot, this is a hyped up Malone strutting his solo stuff as a young, energetic rocker on the rampage. With a bonus track and crisp sound, this is one the fans will be glad to un-overlook at a popular price.
4007 (Free Electric Sound/Laser’s Edge)
MASTERWORKS BROADWAY/PLAYBILL
BETTY BUCKLEY/1967: Because of the Internet, we can’t bury our past anymore. Here we have the slightly late, 40 year old debut recording of Broadway’s Betty Buckley from when she was fresh from being Miss Fort Worth and an agent was willing to pop for a jazzy trio to back her on a Streisand flavored/anti-hippie recording that finds her in youthful voice on songs she was a little over her head on but giving it the old college try. Certainly more innocent than embarrassing, this is a well intentioned set that was wide of the mark on several counts, like being out of step with the times for one. An MOR program of Jim Webb, Jacques Brel and Laura Nyro might not have burned up the charts but would have given her material she could probably resonate with better. So, lighten up. It’s more demo than finished recording, even if produced by T-Bone Burnett and supervised by Al Schmitt (40 years ago!). We all have to start someplace and Buckley has the cachet and personality to make this a fun look back at another time.
17320
ROCK PAPER SCISSORS
ALEX ALVEAR/Equatorial: Ok world beat fans, what do we know about Ecuadorian music? Not much since life there seems to be so bad that the locals hate it. Alvear didn’t get in touch with his own heritage until he fled the country, learned music at Berklee and eventually found out how much his local sounds from the general area had to do with all the music he was attracted to. A musical travelogue that also serves as an emotional biography, this set has a lot of elemental fusion at it’s core but it also has enough indigenous style that you have a whole new sonic vector to explore. A rocker with a jazz attitude, this is a cat that doesn’t recognize boundaries at a lot of levels so anyone that digs the mixmaster effect will enjoy this in many ways.
100101 (Colorao)
LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO/Ilembe-Honoring Shaka Zulu: A tribute to one of Africa’s greatest warriors, this uniter from centuries ago cast a lasting shadow that this well loved group found the time to pick up and honor. Paying tribute not only to the man but to his values, this is the kind of set that couldn’t come about unless the group had such a solid foundation with the fans as it might otherwise go over their heads. If you’re a fan of the group, you can deal with the history lesson secondarily and dig their sounds as you always do.
3133 (Heads Up)
AUDIOBOOK SUPPLEMENT
HARPER AUDIO
CLARENCE THOMAS/My Grandfather’s Son: No matter how you feel about his politics or peccadilloes, Thomas is a self-starter that came from humble beginnings and literally worked himself up to the top of his field. An unabridged autobiography spread over 12 hours of discery, it’s told with the kind of first person passion that let’s you know this won’t wind up discredited by National Enquirer in a few years. Almost as much inspirational tale as autobiography, political junkies and biog fans have a solid listen here with this tale that touches on a lot of the dark sides of contemporary Americana.
137345
Volume 31/Number 25
November 25, 2007
MIDWEST RECORD
830 W. Route 22 #144
Lake Zurich, IL., 60047
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher
©2007 Midwest Record