Archive for the 'Opinion Posts' Category
Records from my shelf – Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express
Author: Doctor B
Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express
Closer To It
Original vinyl: RCA APL1-0140
CD Reissue: Fuel 2000 Records
I pulled this record, which I’d found years ago in a bargain bin, off my shelves just the other day and slapped in onto my garage-sale-bought Harman-Kardon turntable. Damn, but I’d forgotten just how flat-out funky this album is! Read the rest of this entry »
read comments (0)First Impression & First Aid Kit
Author: HJ Mills
Greetings to my fellow admirers of audio rivers. My name’s HJ. I’ve been writing my own music blog semi-frequently since September ‘08. It started as a class assignment, then grew into one of my favorite things. Music is my passion, and I’m here to share and celebrate my passion with you. I always love metaphors, a ripe mango, tea with steam dancing on the top, scarves that are lovely, silver rings, scripture, and the gritty smell of camp fires. Read the rest of this entry »
Well here is your intrepid blogger, deep inside enemy territory. I mean crazy deep; I can count at least three laser-sight dots on my flak vest. Firstly, I am sure I have bad-mouthed this venue, as it likes to jerk its customers around. If I haven’t maybe I should now. For one show they offer you luxurious accommodation at a particular price, and then for a next show, you pay that same price and get a barstool. CRIPES!! That was a shot close to my ear! Next, I MUST address some recent King Crimson issues (Wetton was the bass player in the`70’s incarnation): If you all think I am spewing sour grapes as I won’t be able to see the 40th Anniversary King Crimson shows alleged to be taking place on the west coast, I refer you to the August 2008 archive where my review of the August 16th Nokia Theatre performance in New York City lie in state for all to examine. If my ramblings got the Brain and the Bald One to reconsider their heinous acts, so be it! I would be open to ghost authoring the Bald One’s book. He once referred to himself as dumb-as-a-shovel… BAIL OUT!!! That was a concussion bomb, about thirty feet away. I need to interject that should I not make it out of this review alive, please scour the wooded areas of Mount Juliet, TN for my remains. Lastly, I am inside the stomping ground of the Birdwoman, the pipeline to the Bald One. If I fart, she tells The Bald One. DUCK!!!!
The Number 547: Why I can’t live without Iron & Wine
Author: Eliza Varner
Iron and Wine is the perfect antidote to stress, especially when you’re simultaneously frantically writing a lab report, trying to find your friend a date for her sorority formal, chugging caffeine by the liter, and/or just living the life of an undergrad at a highly competitive college. Sam Beam’s soothing melodies and beautifully crafted lyrics are like a cup of herbal tea and a long bath– a way to forget your troubles. Read the rest of this entry »
March Madness: Jeers, Cheers and Slam Dunks
Author: Anthony Medici
It’s that time of the year, when professional basketball teams, under the aegis of the NCAA, play out the ritual basketball frenzy known as March Madness. Oh sure, they represent various colleges (64 to be exact), but this is Big Business; perhaps, one of the few big businesses still making a go of it in our recession-racked economy. There will be the usual cheers, jeers and slam dunks to enliven one’s viewing. We have a few of our own. Read the rest of this entry »
Kasim Sulton, Live In Atlanta… Or live in your living room!
Author: Jeff Boule
When I first heard about Utopia’s new bass player back in 1977, I wondered if he would last. “Who is this Kaseem Sooltan?” I asked. The answer is extraordinary talent, a level-headed sensibility and a close eye on Todd Rundgren have kept him working with industry names such as Mick Jagger, Joan Jett, Patti Smyth and most notably as musical director for Meatloaf, as well as being part of the foundation of the Bat Out Of Hell original album and a right-hand man to Rundgren since Utopia’s evaporation in 1992.
Road Trip!
Author: Anthony Medici
Literally just back from an enjoyable but tiring road trip to New York City; I-95 seems to still be spooling out in front of me as I write this. I decided Friday to take an impromptu road trip to visit my daughter in college in Brooklyn (the new hip place in New York), my brother in Joisey (New Jersey to you), buy a few records, and take in the Saturday Art for Art Show at The Living Theater on the Lower East Side. Left Friday night and was back in DC for lunch on Sunday. The trip is a blur of images, sights, sounds, tastes: delicious pizza at Pompilio’s in Westwood, NJ, traffic jams noon and midnight in NYC; LPs and more LPs; and blasts of passionate free jazz, and the sinuous movement of skilled dancers. Read the rest of this entry »
Regular readers of this blog know that I have had some tussles with public radio in the past, most notably my ongoing critique with the disappointingly bland programming of WBGO (Newark, NJ). Most recently, and closer to home, that is, my local jazz-public affairs station, WPFW, Washington, DC,, I have encountered some rather more serious reasons why I –and you– might want to look a little deeper into our public radio stations before we give them any more of our money–especially in this era when everyone else-from bankrupt banks to greedy CEOs– seem to want it also. The question I wanted to answer was whether or not these stations handle the money they receive with the care and prudence which we expect them to handle it. The answers I found were alarming. Read the rest of this entry »
DIONYZA: “Quite Like Me,” Sophisticated Generational Bridge
Author: Leigh Silbernagel
DIONYZA
“Quite like Me”
Little Dizzy Records
DIONYZA has a polished sophistication to her skilled, soulful, modern R&B styled music. The daughter of Motown singer/songwriters Michael and Brenda Sutton is a welcomed newcomer to counterbalance the dime-a-dozen-divabots that are taking over the music scene. Her lyrical content and style heralds back to Chante Moore and Maysa Leak.
To paraphrase the sappy, mushy title theme from the equally sappy movie Love Story of the `70’s, “Where do I begin, to tell the story of how great a night can be?” No minor exaggeration, this was one of those once-in-a-lifetime events that everyone who attended will not soon forget. The evening had everything every average Todd Rundgren fan would run a Ponzi scheme to get to.
Stray Thoughts of a Stray Mind
Author: Anthony Medici
Strange Interlude: no live jazz this weekend. Looking forward to some good shows the next couple of weeks and will report on them of course. In the meantime, some stray thoughts for your edification.
The recession has hit our friends at Downbeat. The February 2009 issue has so little content it ought to come with a rebate coupon. The cover story, “75 Great Guitarists” offers thumbnail (pinky nail?) sketches of, well, 75 guitarists. This exercise in cloying nostalgia serves no valid purpose except to, once again, exploit the legends of Wes Montgomery and others to cover the lack of serious thinking and reporting that so depressingly characterizes our mainstream jazz magazines. Let’s have a good wallow in nostalgia, shall we? Read the rest of this entry »
Free Jazz in Fortress America
Author: Anthony Medici
On a frigid Friday, I set out from Our Nation’s Capital to the City of Brotherly Love to attend the Marshall Allen-Han Bennink concert, part of the Ars Nova Workshop series. Leaving the DC area took on the trappings of departing from one of those doomed cities one finds in sci-fi movies, like “Escape from New York.” Massive security procedures for the Inauguration have turned DC into a bunker complex: bridges and roads closed; transit system overwhelmed and confused; people warned to stay away. I needed a change of scene. Read the rest of this entry »
Chick Corea: Artist of the Year? Is This Really 2009?
Author: Anthony Medici
Time to get back to work. The holidays are mercifully over. I was able to use a lot of my unused leave at my real job (and just to repeat, I do not work in a record store, nor do I work for Princeton Record Exchange alas). I took last week off from blogging and just kicked back to listen to music and read, so far as I could in between all the usual holiday hoopla. During that time, I managed to listen to 54 CDs and LPs (rather uncharacteristically, I decided to keep track) and read several interesting jazz books. I’ve been wondering: is this too much, or not enough? A vague feeling of guilt hovers about me (probably due to my parochial school upbringing): was this time well-spent?
Let me review briefly what I listened to and read, and you can form your own response to the question I’ve asked myself.
Top Ten Musician’s List for 2008
Author: Jeff Boule
Happy New Year to all! On my recent visit to the Princeton Record Exchange, the sheer volume of inventory overwhelmed me. The things that were available were equally astounding. Yes, I have been blogging about PREX site unseen until now. I can only further recommend getting down there and checking things out. That is, if you have a ton of time to peruse the massive inventory.
All those artists and genres, it would take hours upon hours to examine everything they have that one might have an interest in. The scope of the variety that the Exchange contained has inspired and reminded me that it is time for my picks of this past year and overall.
Foo Fighters Too Big For Their Britches? And Other Fan Casualties.
Author: Jeff Boule
Before you get mislead, no fans or audience members were harmed in the making of this blog. But it ain’t pretty.
The Year in Review: Highs and Lows, Including the 5 Worst Jazz Magazine Cover Stories
Author: Anthony Medici
This is the time of year when we look back, take stock of what was, both the highs and lows, and look forward to what the new year brings. Let’s start with the Top 5 Worst Jazz magazine Cover Stories of the Year, shall we? Read the rest of this entry »
Passing Ships and Cheesesteaks
Author: Anthony Medici
This past Friday, your intrepid blogger set forth to face the challenges of I-95 from DC to Philly in order to attend the Ars Nova Workshop presentation of the Ron Horton Sextet performance of Andrew Hill’s Passing Ships. Since I love the music of Andrew Hill, I was more than willing to face the three hour drive each way (it’s the return trip late at night that’s tough). On my last trip up the same route, I ran over a large metal object in the road, destroying two tires (newly installed) on the driver side of my car as well as the front left wheel. So it was with some trepidation that I set forth. Fortunately, the storm that had deluged the DC area for several days lifted on the very monring that I left, leaving cold, grey but dry weather for the trip. I was looking for great music and great cheesesteaks. I found great music…. Read the rest of this entry »
Throwdown: Downbeat v Jazz Times, Dec 08-Jan 09
Author: Anthony Medici
I thought it might be fun, and perhaps even instructive, to make some head to head and round by round comparisons between our two heavyweight jazz mags, Dowbeat (DB) and Jazz Times (JT), as they compete for the hearts, souls, and dollars of jazz fans. JT clearly wants to lead the pack, as last week I received their January 2009 issue, while my copy of DB that came in the mail a few days later was only the Decemer 2008 issue. Apparently the DB group are either laggards or have undue respect for the calendar. I noticed that DB’s individual copy price is $4.99, while JT come sin at a bargain price of $4.95 an issue. I wonder what DB does with its extra 4 cents? Read the rest of this entry »
Turkies, Stuffing, and Thanksgiving
Author: Anthony Medici
Sated with good food, good company, and plenty of music listening, it was not easy to put on my blogger’s mantle, but then I saw the cover of the just-issued Jazz Times and, well, I was roused to blog a bit. Our pals at JT seem pretty much determined to prove my point that much of what passes for feature writing in their magazine is simple puffery, fed by the blast furnaces of PR hot air. What else can explain yet another cover story on Tony Bennet? The ostensible reason this time is Mr. Bennett’s new Christmas album with the “Basie Band.” How’s that for advancing the art of jazz? Read the rest of this entry »
For those of you not familiar with the name David Byrne, he was the strange man in the suit and horned-rimmed glasses chopping at his forearm in the Talking Heads “Once In A Lifetime” video. Talking Heads long-time producer, Brian Eno, has been a long-time collaborator of Byrne’s. The show was billed as The Songs Of David Byrne and Brian Eno, right there, you know it’s going to be…