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FRESH SOUND
JACKIE & ROY/Bits & Pieces -and- Free & Easy: The way this set is packaged, if you aren’t up and your Jackie & Roy, you might not realize that this is a value packed twofer of prime Jackie & Roy that’ll blow you away. Two sets from their prime 50s years finds them in the company of Bill Holman and Quincy Jones along with players including Richie Kamuca, Clark Terry, Jerome Richardson, Herbie Mann, Shelley Manne and a host of other mind blowers when they were young and clawing for a piece of the action. Bopping, scatting, singing, swinging and flying through some vocalese, 1957 was a killer year for this duo. Before their CTI, Vegas, Sondheim etc ventures in the later years, they were the cool definition of cool. If you want some wonderful jazz vocals to take your mind off high gas prices and the rest of the world’s troubles, plunk down a few bucks for this oasis and lose yourself in this hipsters paradise.
510
JAZZ PROMO SERVICES
MIKE & THE RAVENS/The Saxony Sessions: Yep, this is what rock and roll does to your soul. Basically making their first album after initially forming nearly 50 years ago, these underground, ubercult heroes that have formulated a legend that lasts through this minute based on three underground singles has finally hit it as their social security checks come rolling around. Without Lee Hazelwood around, pomo kids need something new/old to rally around and this fills this minute’s maw. With a new version of their proto anthem and their youthful punch undimmed, it’s certainly a modern rock pomo classic. You really have to be too hip for the room to get the how/where and why’s of this set, but if you are, this is more freight train than train wreck.
200807 (Zoho Roots)
JAMIE DAVIS/Vibe Over Perfection: Certainly one of those -how did this happen- kind of sets. Here’s a old guy no one has probably ever heard of, yet everyone in Hollywood music that matters turned out to play and everyone from Clint Eastwood to Mrs. Joe Williams is howling his praises to the moon. A vocalist in the gulf somewhere between Lou Rawls and Joe Williams, Davis lives up to the acclaim. With a familiar set card, this is about a winning performance as opposed to breaking new ground. Simply a top flight jazz vocalist that delivers on a wide swatch of fave cuts and serves them with no dust extant. If this is the kind of drill you dig, you’re sure to want to hop to it and get in the groove.
12517 (Unity Music)
LISA REEDY PROMOTIONS
SWEET BABY J’AI/Introducing: Jazzy vocalist with equal parts sass and class serves up a nice debut that has her showing as much flash in as many directions as possible to give you that initial taste of all the things she’s capable of. With chops that show she’s no stranger to having paid her dues, J’ai keeps the form alive and moves it along a nudge by her and her crew showing they have the knowledge and appreciation of merging the past with the present and future. Nicely done.
2157 (SMG)
NOWT
NOAH PREMINGER GROUP/Dry Bridge Road: Don’t know what’s been going on lately, but this is another in a series of sexy sax records that show there’s more to the ax than smooth jazz in it’s future. Surrounding himself with this hippest of New York cats with chops galore, this is smoking debut is a grand statement in the Coltrane tradition but only as a guiding light, not a homage or a rip off. Anyone that can tip the cap to Warne Marsh may be too hip for the room, but he can be counted on for some lyrical, power playing with fast and furious notes that aren’t just a fusillading salvo. This cat is proof the future has bright lights.
2
Volume 31/Number 254
July 11, 2008
MIDWEST RECORD
830 W. Route 22 #144
Lake Zurich, IL., 60047
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher
©2008 Midwest Record
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