Don Byron - Ivey-Divey (Blue Note, 2004)
I went back and forth a hundred times about whether to buy this or not - I’m a big fan of Jason Moran but wasn’t sure how he would sound with Byron - pretty good as it turns out, it’s a tight disc with Jack DeJohnette making up the last member of the core trio and Lonnie Plaxico on bass and Ralph Alessi on trumpet joining in on a few tracks. Moran’s left hand and Byron’s reedy sounding clarinet make up for the lack of bass on most of the tracks. "I Want to be Happy" opens the disc at a very fast pace, with Jason Moran laying down darkly flavored chords for Byron to improvise over while DeJohnette keeps a boiling pace beneath.
Two takes of Gershwin’s "Somebody Loves Me" are included, the first being a more spacious and traditionally swinging tune while the second version picks up the pace a little bit with Byron taking a more intense run through of the song.
A couple of Miles Davis pieces are included, "Freddie Freeloader" from Kind of Blue, and the title track to In a Silent Way. The familiar melodies sound good in this format, especially Moran feeding the dark chords behind Byron’s higher pitched clarinet on "Freddie Freeloader.
" It would have been great for Moran to have a chance at the Fender Rhodes on IASW but it’s not to be as he sticks to the acoustic piano...
still sounds good. Interesting though, that they have a trumpet player sit in on a couple of tunes but not the ones associated with a famous trumpet player! Alessi and Plaxico sit in on the swinging "The Good Drag" where Byron switches from his usual clarinet to tenor saxophone and Moran drops in a nice swinging solo.
All in all this is a nice solid mainstream jazz record. Byron and Moran sound comfortable together and of course Jack DeJohnette could make anyone sound good. Now we just need to get Jason Moran back in the studio for another record of his own!
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Saturday, November 20, 2004
David Muray mp3David Murray is one of my favorite musicians and over the last several years he has taken to exploring the music of different Caribbean cultures and melding it to his own music to great success. This is a 12" remix of the title track from his latest album Gwotet.
Go to my Yahoo , right click on the track(s), choose "save target as" and then select where you would like to place the file on your computer and click OK. It should (fingers crossed) download. Send me an an and let me know what happened.
The tracks from Geri Allen, Sonny Criss and The Bad Plus are still there, but get them if you are interested because they're coming down soon.
Any music posted on this blog is for sampling purposes - please support the artists or bands by purchasing their CD's and going to their live concerts.
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Music Bloggers For Democracy
(Snipped from )
Hey!! Stop what you're doing!
You're not going to find that Arcade Fire live bootleg today, nor will you be stumbling across the b-side to "Hand In Glove", and there's no way you'll be finding that unreleased Pixies album. What you need to do is get ready to vote in the most important election of our lives. Figure out where your nearest polling place is, and tell your friends to do the same, tell your enemies for that matter.
But just vote.
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Champion Jack Dupree - The Tricks (GNP, 1974)
Boxer, gambler and piano playing bluesman extraordinare Champion Jack Dupree was just past the halfway point of his epic 50 + year career when this set was cut.
Dupree was equally able to sing a deeply felt tribute to Martin Luther King in which he chastises white people for their safety and security (he wonders if he'll be the next to be shot) as he is blasting out good time hokum. It's not all serious social commentary by a long shot though, the title track is about the ladies of the evening in Dupree's hometown of New Orleans and throughout the whole album he keeps up a running commentary with his accampanying guitarist, trading wry jabs at one another.
He thinks of "Going to Paris" where he'll confer with Charles de Gaul about the weighty issues of the world and then slips into "I Had a Dream" in which he fantasizes the demise of his mother in law only to awaken with her standing right over him.
In other words this is typically excellent Jack Dupree blues. It may miss the blasting saxophone and guitar of his masterpiece, Blues in the Gutter, but it cuts its own groove with an easygoing informal setting.
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