The Playlist 10/17 – 10/24

Lots of catching up to do - here's some recent listening. The always interesting and seriously talented Don Byron shows up a couple of times. I'm also bringing in some Miles for a friend at work who's getting into jazz; I've been sneaking in some listening on those discs as well (hard to resist Miles). Some notes in brief:

10/17 – Lonnie Johnson – Complete Folkways Recordings
Lonny Johnson produced this smooth and refined collection after a lifetime of performing in every possible venue. This is a late set of recordings (1967) by an artist who was born in the 19th century and started performing when he was 14. A nice look back/summation of a career; Johnson's clean, sophisticated tenor voice and immaculate playing are miles removed from the rawness of early blues. This is cabaret music far more than roadhouse blues and not one I expect to go back to; I'll try his earlier work.

10/18 – Music for Two – Bela Fleck & Edgar Meyer
Lovely, lively, and witty. Bass and banjo in live performance that touches classical, bluegrass, jazz, and all points in between. Fleck, as usual, takes the banjo on beyond its rural roots, and Meyer happily matches his versatility. This is a playful album by two pros on an unusual combination of instruments. Highly recommended.

10/19 – The Book of Abbeyozzud – Terry Riley (comp.), David Tanenbaum (guitar)
I've mentioned the Minimalists before – the one school of post-war "academic" music I like. Digression: I don't know quite what to call it; "classical" doesn't make much sense in the 20th century and "formal" or "serious" are emotive terms that don't work for me. I've thought about "unpopular music" or maybe "anti-popular", but Glass has done successful film scores among other things. I'll stick to "academic" for now, but basically, like Potter Stewart's definition of obscenity, when it comes to post-classical music (hey – there's another possible term), you know it when you hear it. Anyway, I like Riley's larger scale pieces. This set is out of the minimalist mainstream (which is an oxymoron), although the pieces for guitar and percussion - particularly marimba - have more of that context, and is for two or three instruments. The music itself consists of a number of modernist variations on classical Spanish-style themes. This one is only for Rileyphiles and fans of David Tanenbaum (who is an excellent guitarist); if you're interested in this kind of music in general, "Sketches of Spain" or its founding inspiration, Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez", are far more satisfying.

Bonus Listen: Kind of Blue – Miles Davis
(with Trane, Cannonball, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb)
Every jazz fan has at least one copy of this (I've got it on vinyl, CD, and remastered CD), and if non-fans have one jazz record on their shelves, this is far and away the most likely one (and may be jazz's only perennial best-seller). This is the latest remastered set with excellent sound and a few bonus tracks. Not much more to say except that its popularity is deserved, and I never regret spending time with it, even though I spent the rest of the day humming and whistling "Freddie Freeloader" and "So What".

10/20 – Ivey Divey – Don Byron
Can a white guy play the blues? Answer: can a black guy play Klezmer? Electic and electric Don Byron – who, among other things, has recorded an album based on the songs of Mickey Katz - has the chops and broad musical background to also answer the zen koan at the root of free jazz: what is the structure of no structure?

This set, anchored by Byron on clarinet with Jason Moran (great piano) and Jack DeJohnette drumming in excellent form, includes a number of songs done by the Lester Young Trio (Young, Nat King Cole, and Buddy Rich). It also includes covers of Miles' "Freddie Freeloader" (from Kind of Blue, natch) and "In a Silent Way", which lets Byron's trio stretch their free jazz wings. If you're wondering who's making solid, stimulating and still swinging jazz-based music today, check out this album (and Don Byron in general).

Extra Credit!: 10 points if you can identify the source of the title of one of Byron's original tracks on this release, "Abie The Fishman".

10/21 – Heavy Traffic – John Barleycorn Must Die & Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys
The reforming of Traffic is – for me - Winwood's peak (yes, better than Blind Faith). A sidelight: there aren't many good parts for flutists in the rock world (Tull, and the Blues Project's "Flute Thing" come to mind), but Chris Wood's work here, especially on the more folkish numbers, is tasty. Tracks that caught my attention this time around – "Rainmaker" and "Empty Pages".

10/24 – Bug Music – Don Byron
Music of Raymond Scott, John Kirby, Duke Ellington/Billy Strayhorn – small and large swing sessions with a wry twist, especially, Scott's unique pieces. You know that crazy factory music from Looney Tunes? It's based on Scott's "Power House". This disc features nice arrangements in mostly traditional swingband style, fine playing by Byron and a host of others, including Steve Wilson (alto) and Uri Caine (piano). This is upbeat music, great for wake-up or just goofing around.

Bonus Listen: Porgy and Bess – Miles Davis/Gil Evans
(also Adderly, Chambers, Cobb – and the remarkable Gunther Schuller on French Horn). When you look at trumpet players (and cornet and flugelhorn), there are three who took a lead role in shaping 20th century jazz: Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis. There are plenty of others to like (Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Lee Morgan, Chet Baker, Roy Eldridge, Clark Terry, etc.), but these are the masters. This set is the high point of the Evans/Miles collaboration - Miles is in peerless form, and Evans' arrangements add to the power and beauty of Gershwin's music (IMO, his peak as a composer, too). It's simply a seminal jazz/American music album. The remastered version, like others in this very well-produced set, has fine sound and some bonus tracks. This time around, I got caught as usual by "Prayer" and unexpectedly by "Here Come De Honeyman".

Call Me Derek

Along with music, I love old movies – and when I say "old", I mean starting with the silents of the 1910's and 20's and the early talkies of 1929-1931. I've also got a scholarly interest in Herman Melville (wrote an MA thesis on his novels). So when a 1930 version of Moby Dick showed up on Turner Classic Movies, starring John Barrymore as Ahab, I just had to watch it.

My friends, it was a revelation! First, it turns out that Ishmael was a totally fictional character, invented by Melville solely for the novel, and not even credited in the movie. Then I learned that Ahab had a last name – "Ceely" – as well as a brother named Derek. Not only that, but Ahab, a young, hell-raising harpooner with both legs and an eye for the ladies, and Derek, a genteel but slick landlubber, were both smitten with the same lovely young maid, Faith Mapple, daughter of the Rev. Mapple (who gives a pretty humdrum sermon without mentioning Jonah even once). For some reason, Melville had omitted these salient facts from his novel, as well as skipping Ahab's close friendship with Queequeg, arising from Ahab's stopping the mad Elijah from destroying Queequeg's idol during a drinking binge at the Spouter Inn.

The movie next shows us Ahab losing his leg to Moby Dick in graphic gruesome detail, losing his girl through a misunderstanding crafted by the wicked Derek, and then shipping out as a harpooner to revenge himself on the vicious whale. In the climactic sequence, after Ahab has acquired a ship in Shanghai (the "Shanghai Lily" – no "Pequod" in sight) and mate Stubbs has shanghaied Derek unbeknownst to Ahab, there's a mutiny. Queequeg breaks Derek's back in a struggle to save Ahab, and – finally – Ahab kills Moby Dick, revives his spirits, returns to New Bedford, and there, waiting faithfully for him, is Faith. They clinch, and we fade out.

Well. I don't know what kept Melville from telling us this story. It's got love and deception, violence and just revenge, and a happy ending for all hands (save Derek and Moby Dick, who get what they deserve). Instead, he invented Ishmael, completely cut the love story (no Derek, no Faith), and let the mean-spirited whale kill our hero, good old fun-loving Ahab!! Major downer, and it doesn't surprise me that it took 80 years before this movie got the story right or that sour old Melville died in obscurity. All I can say is "Hooray for Hollywood"!

This Week's Playlist - 10/3 to 10/7

Yes, I'm falling a little behind, but I'll catch up! This week's music included two all-cover discs and a lot of guitar. Here's the Cliff Notes:

10/3 – The Mr. Neutron Useful Instrumental Collection disc 1 & 2
My friend, the Mr. Neutron drummer, passed me this collection of primarily surf instrumentals running from the Blue Stingrays to Los Straitjackets and beyond. The Straitjackets, while not the originators of the style, are clearly the finest honed group; great chops all around, and a wicked sense of humor. They’re not a post-modern surf band, although their Mexican wrestling masks and inherent commentary (like the novelty track “Itchy Chicken”) might give you that feeling on first listen. But they obviously love the music they play and devote their serious musical skills to making it sound fresh and fun, as good surf music should be. The double set also includes some classic Dick Dale and well-known tracks by such groups as The Surfaris, The Chantays, and the Trashmen, as well as surprises like the Byrds (“Buckaroo”), REM (“Tricycle”), the Stray Cats cover of “Sleepwalk”, and the hey-I-had-forgotten-this-one “Lonely Surfer” by Jack Nitzsche.

10/4 – The Wicked Grin – John Hammond
The first all-covers disc has John Hammond, with Tom Waits producing, finding the blue notes in the Waits songbook. He doesn’t have to look too far, but Hammond’s deep swampy take on cuts like “Get Behind the Mule”, “Heartattack and Vine” and “Big Black Mariah” works as if they had been written just for him. A great set for Waitsians and Hammondites alike, and if you’re one of those who are put off by the rocks-and-gravel of Tom’s voice, this is a good way to get into the excellence of his songs as interpreted by another talented artist.

10/5 – Red on Blonde – Tim O'Brien
Just about everyone has covered one or more Dylan songs at some point in their career, and with good reason. The great variety of styles and subjects covered by Dylan – to say nothing of the power, intelligence, and craft of the songs themselves – makes it easy to find something good that suits just about any style. Tim O’Brien’s style is bluegrass, and trad country; he’s got a nice country tenor voice, and is an outstanding mandolin and fiddle player, among other instruments. So you’d think this album of all-Dylan covers would be heavy on Nashville Skyline type songs – and you’d be wrong. O’Brien’s picks include “Oxford Town”, “The Wicked Messenger”, “Forever Young”, and “Lay Down Your Weary Tune”. It all works unusually well, and I think his version of “Farewell Angelina” is definitive. Great for Dylan fans, country/bluegrass fans, and just about anyone else. Highly recommended.

10/6 – Rough Guide to Bottleneck Blues
I’m a big fan of the Rough Guide series, and am also partial to bottleneck/slide guitar styles of all sorts. This collection focuses on bottleneck blues music and musicians, both old and new (typical of Rough Guides). It’s a tasty disc with a heavy emphasis on delta blues (which – more than any other form of the blues – uses slides) and includes numbers by classic bluesmen like Furry Lewis, Blind Willie Johnson (the haunting “God Moves on the Water”), and Charley Patton as well as contemporary slide guitarists such as the late John Fahey, Bob Brozman, and Stefan Grossman. It even includes a good segue to the last CD of the week – a cover of “St. Louis Blues” by Jim & Bob a/k/a The Genial Hawaiians.

10/7 – Slidin' On the Frets: The Hawaiian Steel Guitar Phenomenon
So where did all this steel/bottleneck/slide playing coming from in the first place? Delta blues fans may think it originated down South, but according to the folks at Yazoo (and others – although it may be apocryphal), it all started in Hawaii in the late 1880’s when a guy named Thomas Kekuku figured out how to play guitar with a knife edge and open tuning (fyi non-guitar players: the normal tuning of a guitar does not produce a euphonic sound when chording the open strings; in open tuning, the guitar is actually tuned to a specific chord). This Hawaiian sound swept the islands and then the country, probably brought back by sailors – particularly the Spanish and Portuguese who had originally introduced the Hawaiians to the guitar in the mid-1800’s). In the delta, guitarists adapted the technique but found that for individual performances, you got more sound by standing up and bringing the slide under the neck of the guitar rather than playing sitting down with the guitar in your lap, Hawaiian style, with the slide played over the neck. The craze for Hawaiian music in general was so great that in the 20’s, the famous Martin guitar company actually sold more ukuleles than they did guitars. As I said above, I’m partial to slide guitar, and have several albums of historic Hawaiian steel music in my collection; this is another very good one that documents the spread of the sound and its enormous success around the world, including songs from Argentina, Trinidad, France, and – one of my favorites – “Pame Sti Honolulu”, recorded by Bezos’ Hawaiian Orchestra from Greece (yes, it has both slide guitar AND bouzouki!). Also of note – and showing the sound in early New Orleans jazz – is King Oliver’s “Everybody Does It In Hawaii”. This disc is an intriguing slice of musical history, and grand entertainment to boot.

Odds and Ends

A few random notes about this and that.

1. Thickfreakness – The Black Keys
I mentioned liking what I'd heard of this group and a friend brought this one in to borrow. I like them even more. Dan Auerbach's guitar and Patrick Carney's drums are all you need to produce crunchy, fuzzy, hard-hitting fat-toned blues. Auerbach opens the set with a Jimi Hendrix style line, Carney punches in, and the two man band is off and running on a group of mainly original material that sounds like it's been around a long time (and for this music, that's definitely a compliment). Auerbach sings with heart and the sound of hard-earned wisdom, unexpected in a young man, although the voice is mixed a little muddy (that's small "m" muddy). These guys are on Fat Possum, where they definitely belong (there's a shared song credit with Junior Kimbrough). Solid stuff.

2. Check out WFMU's website for the Van Morrison Contractual Obligation Album. All tracks are downloadable MP3's, and it's a hoot. Not quite as great as the American Song Poems (which merit a posting of their own), but this set laid down in 1967 (Astral Weeks time) represent Van's last efforts for Bang. The set of songs about some record company honcho named George are worth it just for themselves (including Dum Dum George, Here Comes Dumb George and, of course, Good-bye George). These tracks are essential for Van fans (like myself), and people with a taste for the weirdly funny (hey - that's also like myself; there's a pattern here). WFMU is cool, too.

3. If anyone is in NYC looking for an interesting off-Broadway play, Mrs. DJStan and myself saw The Artificial Intelligence of Jenny Chow yesterday, and it was good, smart, entertaining theatre. The story is hard to categorize, but it's a comedy-drama-fantasy with some good twists, and uniformly fine performances - especially Remy Auberjonois (yes, Remy - not Rene, so don't go expecting Odo) who plays several parts with flair and wit. And no, it's not a musical.

4. And speaking of Fat Possum, I caught another good music documentary on IFC called You See Me Laughin'. This one is the history of the label and the stable of Mississippi hill country bluesmen they've promoted - people like Cedell Davis (amazing saga), Junior Kimbrough, T. Model Ford, and my personal favorite, R. L. Burnside. Good story, and plenty of performances of rawest kind of blues still being made and recorded (thanks to Fat Possum) in this country today.

5. Some music for a rainy Sunday: Beyond the Missouri Sky (Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden), The Melody At Night With You (Keith Jarrett), The Black Balloon (John Renbourn), Charlie Parker with Strings - the Master Takes (Bird), Divertimento in E Flat Major, K.563 (Mozart), Return of the Repressed (John Fahey).

6. By the way, on second and third listenings, McCartney's new album (Chaos and Creation in the Backyard) impresses me more than it did at first. It's better than OK.

This Week's Playlist 9/26 - 9/30

This week featured new output from some long running acts and two windows into the past (one revisited, and one previously unopened). Here’s my take.

9/26 – The Way Up – Pat Metheny
Not sure where this way is going, but it's an interesting trip with glimpses of almost all the places Metheny's been over the years, starting with early Pat Metheny group output and American Garage. It didn't grab me initially – there’s too much going on and it feels unfocused on first listen - although it's nice to hear Lyle Mays and Metheny working together. I wouldn't call myself a major fan, but I like Metheny’s work on ECM (got a lot of their production on vinyl - Gary Burton, Steve Swallow, Ralph Towner, etc.) , and some of Metheny's smaller, quieter sets like the absolutely lovely Beyond the Missouri Sky with Pat on guitar and Charlie Haden on bass. This one I’ve got to listen to again, in a more peaceful space than my cubicle on a busy day. Maybe it - and I - will have more to say.

9/27 – A Bigger Bang – The Rolling Stones
OK. This is a good Stones album. They play with energy and spirit, and sound just fine; you don’t even miss Bill Wyman. OTOH, it doesn't seem to matter to me. Thematically and musically they haven’t gone anywhere we all haven’t been before – and attitudes/concepts that once fascinated simply don’t any more, for whatever reason. The music is alive, but the poses are exhausted, and should be put out to pasture. I know all the arguments about how old blues singers keep doing their material until they simply up and die and how Jagger’s always said he saw no reason why the Stones shouldn’t do the same, and there really isn’t any. I just don’t care about them any more.

9/28 – Chaos and Creation in the Backyard – Paul McCartney
Better than I expected. He probably shouldn't have done the one-man-band thing with the cymbals between his knees, although an outside producer does his best to keep him from overindulging his natural charm. Paul even allows himself to show some genuine self-wisdom (confronting his inner twee-ness in “English Tea” is a cool thing to do), and – as usual - displays his sizable gift for melody and running the Pop Confectionary. A few songs (the sad and anger-tinted “Riding to Vanity Fair”) go further – maybe as far as Paul can go without violating his nature. It’s not a reinvented Paul, but he’s pushing himself on this set and I respect that (even though he’s just sooo NICE). I’ll add this one to current rotation and give it another spin or two.

9/29 – Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (remastered) – John Mayall
Wow. I don't think Clapton ever played blues guitar better than on this set. His take on Robert Johnson's Rambling On My Mind is so much better than anything on the recent Me and Mr. Johnson disc; his solos are taut and pointed, with great tone and attack. Strong support is provided by Mayall (expecially on organ and blues harp), Flint (drums), and particularly McVie on a nice fat bass, and Mayall is smart enough to stand back and let it be more Clapton's album than his own. For fans of electric blues guitar, this is a must have. The remastered sound is excellent, and this reissue has two additional tracks that are more than just filler. If Layla is Clapton's high water mark, as I think it is, this one's not far behind.

9/30 – Live At The Gaslight – Bob Dylan
Sold only at Starbucks, which is kind of weird but ironically appropriate, given Dylan’s historic connection to coffeehouses (and I assume they thought of that - it certainly suits him better than Victoria's Secret, unless he's got a secret lingerie fetish). This is in some ways a better accompaniment to the recent PBS Dylan documentary (about which more to come) than the official soundtrack. It's the kind of set you would have heard Dylan play if you dropped into the Gaslight or Gerde’s Folk City back in '62; you can even pick up some audience voices quietly singing along on Hard Rain. The sound is surprisingly good, and you can hear how Dylan was crafting his arranging skills and shaping his voice around a folk and blues kernel; it’s a key moment in Robert Zimmerman’s greatest work – the creation of “Bob Dylan”. A nice listen and a good document; it was my wake-up music for the week.