|
|||
GO MEDIA
SEAN NOONAN’S BREWED BY NOON/Boxing Dreams: The genre buster is back to shatter expectations once again and this time, he brings along a bunch of downtown jazz cats that we haven’t heard from in a while. Taking his personal world view to the max, this is a next wave world/jazz date that people who like their jazz sitting down will find captivating. Putting his stamp on the AfroCelt mixture, Noonan might be an NPR type all the way, but those with NPR tastes will dig his heady brew that often tosses up some non-NPR surprises.
1573 (Songlines)
MICHAEL BLOOM MEDIA RELATIONS
BLUEPRINTS OF JAZZ: Mike Clark (Vol. 1); Billy Harper (Vol. 2); Donald Bailey (Vol. 3): If the words “pretty purdie” mean something more to you than something you’d say to a tot or a parrot, then this series tipping the hat to the cats in the background that have informed all the great jazz and jazz related music for as much as the last half century will be right up your alley. Somebody must have written a big check to Herbie Hancock sidekick Clark because he assembled a dream team of all kinds player you know by name. From jazz to funk and everyplace in between, Clark has been there providing the beat. Here he really kicks it out on the ultimate ‘give the drummer’ some set of this and probably a lot of other years. Bailey, also a drummer, has been at it for 50 years and he notable for laying down the beat behind cats like Jimmy Smith, allowing them to let that fat, greasy organ do it’s thing. He’s still got a lot on the ball and he’s throwing hard with this date as proof. Sax man Harper has that fat Texas sound and has made his mark cruising the mainstream and laying it down so righteously, there probably wouldn’t be a generation of smooth jazzers that took the easy way out because they couldn’t keep up with him. A dazzling way to give some of the unsung heroes of jazz the respect they deserve.
(Talking House)
ORANGE GROVE ARTISTS
JO LOWRY/I Want to Be Happy: Downtown by way of Australia, this folkie with jazz roots comes in with a new style downtown adult pop set as informed by Norah Jones as any local club malcontent you haven’t heard. Way left of Eva Cassidy, Lowry could have been a spiritual grand niece of Yma Sumac with a lot of the vibe she puts out. Left of center and often in it’s own world, this is a voice for today’s disaffected young lady that is looking for something with meat and depth she can relate to while buffing her own unfulfilled artistic tendencies.
(Fleurleu Music)
TWO FOR THE SHOW MEDIA
ARTURO O”FARRILL & CLAUDIA ACUNA/In These Shoes: Take a major label runaway and let her do what the majors signed her to do in the first place but didn’t let her and let her have a good time with a pro that knows how to bring home the Grammy nominations to an indie label and you get a cross genre fun funkfest that mixes the funk with Latin vibes and jazz for a party record that doesn’t quit. Accessible enough for gringos to get down with it, this is a snazzy set that owes a debt to 70s vibes that anyone can relate to. A solid outing that’s outside the lines and a winning date throughout.
200808 (Zoho)
BRINSK/A Hamster Speaks: And along comes a bass player that sees the jazz/rock idiom as so old and ingrained that it’s a genre in need of a kick in the pants. With Anthony Braxton as his lodestar, Aryeh Kobrinsky mixes metal with comics for a jazz/rock nu date that kids into noize that are ready to move beyond shoegaze will find inspiring in it’s atonal moments of creative dissonance. If you do the same drugs your parents did when they were listening to Miles Davis after he stopped bothering to give songs names, a generational bonding effort will have closed the new generation gap.
1 (Nowt Comics)
Volume 31/Number 319
September 14, 2008
MIDWEST RECORD
830 W. Route 22 #144
Lake Zurich, IL., 60047
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher
©2008 Midwest Record
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI