May 7, 2006
Filed under: admin @ 3:12 am Hot stuff.
BERND LHOTZKY/Piano Portrait-Arbors Piano Series V. 15: A swinging piano man that has probably flying under the radar of all but the most ardent jazzbos, Lhotzky is well in command of his instrument and can carry a date by himself sounding like the studio is full even if it’s just him and his keys.
Adjectives like ‘world class’ are not over reaching and this is a special find for the contemporary jazzbo looking for a straight ahead player that has the old vibe but not old ideas. It’s a fatly tracked set with a wide range of styles from all corners that’s simply hard to resist.
ADRIAN BELEW/Side Three: The adventurous Mr.
Belew closes out his recent trilogy with a set that points to the future rather than aims for closure. Quite simply, never afraid to follow his muse or let his imagination fly, Belew opens the ears to new and next possibilities in a set of pure creativity that moves forward with a purpose rather than just be a showcase for chops. Always a wide ranging cult hero with an impressive bunch of friends and admirers, let’s just say, accurately, this isn’t your father’s Adrian Belew.
A grand ride for the adventurous listener.
WILSON PICKETT/Wicked Pickett: Some white boys have the juju and some don’t. Steve Cropper shows that drinking wine out of jelly glasses between sessions might be the key to unlocking juju for white boys.
Revving it up with Pickett as he did with Booker T, Otis Redding and others, Croppers writes and powers the seminal tracks that could have turned Pickett into the next Jackie Wilson. Bristling with out of the box energy and passion that crackles still over 40 years later, I think it’s illegal to enter a frat house where this isn’t playing at some point in the night. A soul/R B winner that time can’t dim.
DONNA FARGO/Dark Eyed Lady: Early in her switch to Warner Nashville, Fargo hooked up with the best of Nashville and Muscle Shoals, with a bunch of guys that would back Garth Brooks 15 years later as well, and delivered one of those stellar country/blue eyed soul dates that really gets you down deep. Still penning several of the songs herself, Fargo was on the money throughout whether with original or cover and showed just how much life there was in real country while everyone was trying to cash in on crossover. A date that stands the test of time well.
CHET ATKINS/Music from Nashville, My Home Town-Chet Atkins: A nice curio for Atkins fans, these two dates are pulled from Camden’s holdings from when Camden was doing original records, typically of stuff already recorded that wasn’t deemed strong enough for full price release. Smack dab in the middle of his countrypolitan sound with the guitar upfront and center in place of the voice, even these “secondary” sides show where contemporary greats like Muriel Anderson got their inspiration from. Easy guitar music from a master that wasn’t out to change the world but somehow managed to do so anyway.
JIMMY WITHERSPOON/Spoon: Once again we dig into the vaults and come up with something a little interesting, a little curious and a lot of cool. Witherspoon is linking with Gerald Wilson and the two come up with a set of tunes identified with Ellington and Waller. This 1961 date shows that the record business was trying to find it’s way as singles were slowing giving way to albums and nobody really knew which end was up.
As long as real pros were allowed in the studio with minimal interference, they were able to make records that stood the test of time no matter how they were received in real time. Sweet blues/jazz fusion that any fan of either owes it to themselves to check out.
BLUE MAGIC: The date that kicked it off for this Philly crew that was loaded with TSOP mainstays that needed an extra outlet for their creativity, this date was on the cusp of soul and pre-disco soul with an on board gang of talent that could play with their eyes closed but never sounded like they were asleep.
Although the vibe has become dated, the material and the craftsmanship were so strong that this serves as a great example of mid-70’s, Arab oil embargo era soul. You can still listen to and enjoy this date like time has stood still.
BLUE MAGIC-MAJOR HARRIS-MARGIE JOSEPH/Live: Philly music puts on a Vegas style revue in Atlantic City and gets the neighborhood all worked up.
Playing to something of a hometown crowd, this two disc party simply lets the good times roll, Philly soul style. Released 30 years ago, before everyone black had to go disco, this is a rich vocal collection that never hit’s a sour note. High octane, high energy and loaded with good vibes, this is Philly soul the way it used to be.
Be glad it’s back for another round.
JIMMY WITHERSPOON/Roots: Recorded in 1962 with Ben Webster, this is probably a much different ‘Spoon than later fans would come to know. Delivering a rousing blues work out on some tracks that you just can’t do wrong, The Spoon delivers an age and time appropriate performance on tracks well deserving of being dusted off.
A tasty golden oldie, this is a great trip back in time for those who weren’t there originally to get a load of some low, down dirty blues that sound so fine.
TRAMMPS/Where the Happy People Go: After escaping from Buddha and just prior to breaking out on a little soundtrack that almost defined the late 70’s, Trammps were kicking out disco/pre-disco with the passion that real musicians brought to the fore before the hype took over. Riding high on the soul meets disco tip, the core crew, with the help of TSOP stalwarts were on point proving just how much talent will out.
Because of their prior work for Philly International, this set isn’t as trademark stamped as TSOP or TK, but it leaves an indelible mark from the pros involved just the same. If you dug the era, this is one of those sets worth digging in the crates for.
TRAMMPS/Disco Inferno: Extended track, happy good times disco in eh wake of “Saturday Night Fever”, the music seems to stand up a whole lot better than the movie which certainly gives you an insight into the era.
Interesting in that disco was regarded as faceless music, you can’t call the players in ion the action automatons and it’s no wonder why their grooves and riffs are heavily sampled today. The stuff was just to hot to recapture. This is practically a sure thing disco record for people that can’t/couldn’t stand disco.
ELLA FITZGERALD/Ella: It was ‘69 and Sinatra wanted to make Fitzgerald contemporary having her do some Beatles, some Motown, some Bacharach and some Memphis. Fitzgerald and Randy Newman don’t really seem like a fit, but pro that she was, she made it all her record. One of those truly offbeat entries in the Fitzgerald canon, but one that true fans and urbane kitsch fans will get a charge out of.
EARTH WIND FIRE/Millennium: Fatly tracked collection recorded when they were hitting the comeback trail and trying new things, the still had the kick that drove them to the top, but the times were changing. Leader Maurice White brought on some different co-producers for each section of the album and didn’t make the kind of cohesive statement he was known for during his CBS days, but he didn’t turn in chopped liver either. This set was hurt by changing times then, but that shouldn’t dampen the spirits of retro soul/funk fans now.
KARRIN ALLYSON/Footprints: Far and away, Allyson is probably the best example of a chanteuse we have singing today. Still riding high at the top of her game, she takes the set card back to the turn of the 60’s and covers things from first call names that have fallen into history. With a verve it’s hard to find in other singers, she tackles these works, savoring the original flavor but making the palette able to contemporary audiences.
Moving beyond her traditional urbane fan base, she delivers here as a fully realized talent to be reckoned with. Standing her own with guests like Jon Hendricks just go to further prove that point. Hot stuff.
BLONDIE/Greatest Hits-Sound and Vision: This cd/dvd combo pack shows that Blondie really was a product of it’s time. Even though Debby Harry was nice to look at, the real power was in the records where the detachment that comes across in the videos was interpreted by your brain as something else. With 20 tracks of non stop hits that offer something fro everyone, this is a sweet commemorative of the group’s recent induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
It’s also a solidly remastered repack of a time and place a lot of aging boomers remember fondly.
PAT BENATAR/In the Heat of the Night (48609); Crimes of Passion (48441); Precious Time (48613): If anyone ever gives you static for saying there was a golden age of Pat Benatar, don’t waste your breathe arguing when you can just point them in the direction of her first three albums to make them eat their worlds. With some undeniable classic singles leading the way and killer tracks bring up the rear, these three sets are more than some artists can deliver in a long career of banging around and banging it out.
They work as well now as they did back then and there’s no way you can deny the power of this original serving of grrl power, even if it wasn’t invented yet.
POISON/Best of 20 Years of Rock: Look, I’d give them a best of just for being close to Pam Anderson. This best of is for the fans that have fond memories of hard metal and the party side of the youth they left behind almost 20 years ago.
It’s hard to believe that this is qualifying as oldies these days, but there’s also a generation out there that thinks this is dinosaur music so don’t forget the wheel is always spinning. If you remember it fondly, the remastering and fatly tracked round up will take you back to the Sunset Strip in your mind.
ALARM/Best of: A fatly tracked look back at the group that had to live in the shadow of epithets like “Miles Copeland’s U2”, “the other band behind REM” and the rest of the snipes.
Fairly big sellers here despite most of their content being about bad politics over there, it just proves you can never underestimate the power of the malcontents that listen to college radio and were the fans that went on to fuel alternative radio. Peppered with single mixes, radio edits and other slightly different moves to keep this from being more than just another repack, old fans will find new things and want to ride this time machine roller coaster one more time.
GRAND FUNK RAILROAD/Greatest Hits: Remastered collection of solid, early 70’s flyover rock the coast never got but the heartland understood.
Kicking it off with their commercial breakout, “We’re an American Band” (remember the gold vinyl pressing?” and wending through the rest of their Capitol canon, this is pretty much timeless head banging music that Beavis Butthead could have been conceived to if their father’s eight track players were still working. Certainly one of those times it’s ok to be loud proud and wear it on your sleeve.
LOU RAWLS/Best of-You’ll Never Find Another: It wasn’t that he had brain cancer that made his World Series appearance so compelling, it was that most of us fond it out a day or two later. Fatly tracked look back at his Capitol years when ‘mainstream’ black entertainers had the tough task to adjusting to a world of changings hitting on all levels all at the same time. Mixing Broadway, soul and pop on this set, the classy vocalist was at home with anything you put in front of him and capably made it his own.
This is a great snapshot of the sixties model of the great soul/pop vocalist.
FOREIGNER/Definitive Collection: When was the last time you thought of prog-rocker Ian McDonald? Hopefully his taste on the early Foreigner records was enough to keep him in sinecure and away from painting houses.
This double disc collection gives you all you need on all the various stages of the prog into hard rockers of the late 70’s. Powered by singles of unmistakable power and signature, this collection highlights the brighter side of era arena rock and serves it up quite nicely.
BREAD/Definitive Collection: Actually, a polarizing bunch in that these SoCal soft rockers that came just before country rock really did set up the divide to make you show which side of the soft rock thing you were on.
Like fellow Okie, David Gates showed himself to be a master songsmith, but his MOR didn’t have Webb’s edge and as such, he never got the same kind of recognition despite sizable sales. However you felt about it back then, it’s nice soft rock by a crew that knew to call it a day before jumping the soft rock shark. Well stacked set that can help you set a mood when blue light, smoky soul isn’t the right mode.
RICK JAMES/Definitive Collection: While the label is on a mission to find out how many ways you can repack James, we can enjoy being along for the ride as mastering techniques get hotter and newer and time makes some stuff hotter and some stuff fade. This fatly tracked single disc James collection is a must have if you don’t have any James collections yet and a dandy set to have and leave in the car while you leave your good copy home. Proof you can’t stop the funk.
LORETTA LYNN/Chronicles: While this threefer doesn’t compete with the great box set on Lynn in the 90’s, it gives you a great value pak over view combining her two 20th Century Masters collections with a hymns collection that pretty much takes you around Lynn’s world in three easy pieces. One of the most solid doses of pre 90’s country you could have in your library.
BON JOVI/Chronicles: Join the hair band as they get a threefer repack that takes them from Jersey to the old west in “Young Guns II”.
80’s fans of commercial hair metal will enjoy this value pak presentation that gives you the best of your memories in one convenient long box. Fits In the console of mom’s SUV quite nicely too.
JOHN WILLIAMS the Boston Pops/20th Century Masters: Actually a Williams soundtrack greatest hits set in disguise.
While not taken directed from the soundtrack albums, this is his outside performance of the same work from several of the key film scores in his canon. Each on as well known and American as apple pie, this is a crisp round up of Williams taking his place with the soundtrack greats of our times with “Star Wars”, “Superman”, “Jaws” and the rest on board.
CAMEO/Definitive Collection: Fatly tracked single disc set powered by 12 certified funk hits that are certainly part of the contemporary funk lexicon.
Recorded at a time when ‘keeping it real’ didn’t mean ‘be ignorant’, this is a dose of zesty music for party people that like to get the sweat flowing. Solid collection that wears well.
INCOGNITO/20th Century Masters: This group always had a chameleon edge to it that kept them from grabbing a bigger piece of the spotlight.
Meanwhile, this is some juicy contemporary jazz that is smooth but doesn’t fall into the smooth jazz ghetto. Easy stuff that isn’t easy listening, this is a solid round up of several albums worth of solid work that contemporary jazzbos are sure to enjoy either again or for the first time.
HIP HOP GOLD/various: Continuing to take their “Gold” twofer series into every corner of music, the label now turns the spotlight on hip hop.
While the genre’s history isn’t as long as other genres highlighted, it is deep and this cross licensed collection takes a nice overview starting with Sugar Hill Gang and running right up through Black Eyed Peas. Managing a showcase that still offers something for everyone in just over 30 tracks, this is a killer collection of the commercial, but non-sell out, side of hip hop that can get anyone into the genre.
MUSIC INSPIRED BY THE BIG CHILL/various: This threefer encompasses the original pic soundtrack as well as the second volume and the later roll off piece that went with it.
Any boomer worth his weight will probably own most of these discs already, but you can bet they’ve been scratched, misplaced and otherwise devalued. Since the guts of this is classic Motown that never goes out of style, this value pak is sure to find a home in a lot of homes, one more time.
RICHARD ASHCROFT/Keys to the World: With his first new anything under any name in quite some time, Ashcroft will influence the new generation just like the did the last with this hard hitting, contemporary rocker that is loaded with guts blood and passion showing just how he can bridge time in ways many lesser talents can’t even imagine.
Coming out of mothballs with Coldplay at his side and scoring just under the Arctic Monkey’s hot shot debut over there, Ashcroft has all the Brit sensibility in tow, but he can cross the pond as well. An extra value package to cut through the morass and reach the fans directly, this fatly stocked set is a great current last word that is sure to drive the fans nuts. It’s only his third record, but he’s one of these guys that’s worth the wait.
BEN HARPER/Both Sides of the Gun: A double album that is set up to be like the double albums of the vinyl era, it could have fit on one disc, but the genre bending Harper had other things in mind. Letting the Mixmaster run on puree, Harper mixes all his influences and faves into the gumbo without anything turning brown and losing it’s flavor along the way. Well more than a cult hero, Harper understands and knows his fans and knows that the contemporary college world is one of ADD that had to be hit hard and quickly.
He scores a target mightily. A well conceived set for the open eared, Harper once again will fail to disappoint the left leaning contemporary rock fan.
THE MEL BROOKS COLLECTION: Ok, kvetches, let’s get this out of the way first-while they did cross license “Blazing Saddles”, there’s no “Spaceballs”, “Dracula, Dead and Loving It”, “Life Stinks” or “Producers” one or two.
Now let’s talk about what we do have. This 8 disc collection has five titles new, and overdue, to DVD, including “History of the World Part I”, a picture as under rated in it’s own time as “Scarface”, “To Be or Not to Be” in which Mel does his tribute to Jack Benny, the great “Silent Movie” as well as several other of his genre send ups and early works. One of the greatest comic minds of our time, this is a dandy retrospective/tribute to a comic genius that was so outlawed in the 60’s he couldn’t get work for years and did the original “Producers” for next to nothing just to get his name back out there.
Meshuginer or insane genius. Who cares? He also produced stuff like “84 Charring Cross Road” so it’s jot like he’s a zany madcap out of control.
His pictures might be but this world would be a much sorrier place without Brooks and certain without handful movie mirth like these. There’s enough unmitigated laughs on board here to make your side hurt for a week. Dig in and let the good times roll.
IN LIVING COLOR Season Five: Despite the cast comings and goings and main street catching up to hip street during the course of the run of this comedy, it never jumped the shark and you had to keep coming back for the latest from Blaine and Antoine, Fire Marshall Bill, the Home Boy Shopping Network and all the rest of the inventions. A different comic look at the ghetto than Richard Pryor provided, the Wayans gang and their posse made the streets safe for laughter in the wake of Rodney King and other contemporary flash points that could have done a real number on dividing society at the time. Spread across three discs, this continuum of stars of tomorrow will keep you rollicking with each beat, especially if you can’t TIVO BET.
This is the end of the line for some of the greatest TV laughs of our time.
AMERICAN DAD volume one: Hey, no hating on Seth McFarlane for trying something different from “Family Guy” while keeping it in the same, surreal, Family type sitcom. With the first 13 episodes from season one jam packed with deleted scenes, commentary on 12 of the episodes and much more, you might find this sharp edged series funnier the second time around when you can enjoy it without commercials and without the hype of being part of a Sunday cavalcade where too much animation can become too much of a good thing.
The Smiths are a typical CIA family with rebellious kids, a hot wife and an insane dad, as well as a space alien that sounds like Paul Lynde. This is what TV is about dammit! If you appreciate subversive things that go way over the top without really looking like it, you have a smoking collection on your hands here.
ROBERT ALTMAN COLLECTION: A nice career wrap up in light of his recent career achievement Oscar. A four disc box reflective of the best of his work for Fox, you can’t go wrong with a set that leads off with “MASH” and “A Wedding”, then moving into some of his other ensemble works like “Quintet” and “Perfect Couple” From war to post-war wasteland survival, Altman was one of the true trail blazers of the generation with a special gift for pleasing the studio and pleasing the public, particularly that part of the public that likes it iconoclastic.
LEO KOTTKE/Home and Away Revisited: An expanded version of a docu about Kottke is a grand diversion of fans of the guitar master that either never saw it or want to see more about the man.
Mixing performance and life situations into the kind of stew that currently gaining vogues with docus on subjects like Jack Elliot and Townes Van Zandt, long time fans are sure to enjoy this look at the man and his playing; newbies that have just discovered him from his association with Phish will probably be amazed how he’s been at it for so long seeming to never miss a step. Long time fans will get a blast out scenes of Kottke hanging with John Hartford, Doc Watson and Michael Hedges in addition to the concert footage featuring some of his best loved works.
RUMOR HAS IT: With a cast that’s welcome on your home theater screen, this comedy that’s supposed to be the real story behind “The Graduate” comes home in fine style.
Jennifer Aniston puts her standard schtick to good use as she realizes someone close to her be the real Benjamin and her mother might be the real Mrs. Robinson. That aside for “Graduate” fans, this pic has all the right elements for malcontents tired of coming from families that put the ‘fun’ in dysfunctional to enjoy and feel like they are less alone.
Powered by right on talent above and below the line, this is simply one of those contemporary screwball comedies that was more tailor made for home enjoyment than theatre enjoyment. Check it out.
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