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BLIND RACCOON
BLUES EXPERIENCE with Cash McCall/Vintage Room: Willie Dixon’s grand son enters the family business with a new set mixing it up with a venerable blues man and bringing the past into the present without losing any of what made it great. Having co-written with gramps, young Alex has something special to offer blues fans everywhere. Crazy good stuff that does more to keep the legacy alive than all the law suits on it’s behalf ever could. This is real west side stuff, loud and proud.
(Dixon Landing)
ROCK PAPER SCISSORS
STEVE REID ENSAMBLE/Daxaar: Right. So here I am with Borders 30% off a cd coupons, vainly searching bordersstores.com for some Arista Gil Scott-Heron reissues, probably spurred by “Futurama” ripping off “The Revolution Will Not be Televised” for a commercial. Nada, they didn’t even have the Compendia live greatest hits. Bah. Waste of a good coupon with them reducing cd space by 30%. So, the next day, comes a party record by a former black panther that took the whole back to Africa thing very seriously, so much so that he did time as a draft resister. And here he comes with a party record fusing da Bronx with Dakar, but it’s a party record almost ala “Johannesburg”. Cool synchronicity, huh? Give it a spin, you won’t feel like a New York immigrant cab driver. The drum ace powers a snazzy set that brings heat to the feet and rhythm from the core to the fore. Check it out to lively up yourself and beat down the man at the same time.
(Domino)
ARABESQUE MUSIC ENSAMBLE/Music of the Three Musketeers: So you get these three cats that back up Shakira and Beyonce all pissed off that contemporary music is nothing but half naked women shaking it to bad music. They are locals, but they got in touch with their inner Egyptian to come with a set that honors Egyptian songwriters that are pretty much their Gershwins etc. These guys wrote the major Egyptian hits for their grandfather’s generation and never got their due until now. Imagine a Diana Krall tribute to Peggy Lee, Egypt style, and you have what’s going on here. A fun treat for world beaters looking for that new thing, even if they have to reach into the past to get it. Certainly a well played set that offers some new musical food for thought.
(Xauen)
TWO FOR THE SHOW MEDIA
NYNDK/Nordic Disruption: Last year, we were pleasantly surprised by the existence of a jazz scene in Norway amid all that death metal and such. This year, we’re more pleasantly surprised to find that as we venture farther into the Norway jazz scene it’s noting like that ersatz Dixieland we get too much of from Denmark. This crew is a New Yorker mixing it up with Norwegians for a zesty romp of hot meets cool taking the old west coast vs. east coast thing to wild new places. Edgy stuff that never shies away from taking chances and winning bets in the process. Check it out.
(Jazzheads)
Volume 31/Number 70
January 9, 2008
MIDWEST RECORD
830 W. Route 22 #144
Lake Zurich, IL., 60047
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher
©2008 Midwest Record
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