Odds and Ends
The blog Spread the Good Word spreads the about the death of legendary guitarist Link Wray, and has sports some mp3's to boot:
Mr Wray passed away at the age of 76 in Copehagen where he lived since 1983. Though rock historians always like to draw a nice, clean line between the distorted electric guitar work that fuels early blues records to the late-'60s Hendrix, Clapton, Beck, Page, Townshend mob, with no stops in between, a quick spin of any of the sides Link recorded during his golden decade punches holes in that theory right quick.
The Nation's web site offers up a huge of new and upcoming books on jazz:
For the jazz musicians and jazz journalists struggling for mainstream attention, the sky could appear to be falling, but judging from the deluge of recent books, the music's shelf life is just beginning.
Jazz, more than any other musical genre, currently dominates academic presses; compared with pondering the use of the grace note in Haydn, chasing the path of Django Reinhardt or a riverboat band might even seem sexy. Hip-hop is so recent, rock and roll so flaky and ubiquitous. Scholarly presses are more willing to admit jazz's importance today than they were when the music was at its most vital stages of development.
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Sunday, November 20, 2005
The Bad Plus - London Jazz Festival 11/11/05The Bad Plus' from the London Jazz Festival was a short, crowd pleasing one. This concert hit many of the highpoints of their current music, starting with the mid tempo composition 'Let Your Garden Grow' by pianist Ethan Iverson that presents an impressionistic and classically trained feel.
Drummer Dave King's throbbing anti war epic 'The Empire Strikes Backward' always receives a warm welcome overseas in the current climate, and is particularly memorable here. Led by King's raucous drumming, 'Empire' is an impressive performance.
Things calm back down with the mid tempo interesting feel of bassist Reid Anderson's 'Rhinoceros is My Profession.
' Finally, the requisite quirky cover is the theme from 'Chariots of Fire' which starts with a very abstract view of the song and gradually moves back, building tension until finally reaching a climax with the very memorable melody. This is the perfect song for the group to cover as they have always had a flair for the dramatic and cinematic in their music. One wonders why they haven't been called upon to score a film.
Maybe that lies ahead in 2006.
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Just a quick take on some of the music I have purchased recently.
Full reviews to follow soon, I hope!
The Deadly Snakes Porcella: The Deadly Snakes seemed to get lumped in with the other members of the garage rock revival like The White Stripes and The Greenhorns, but their range may surprise people. Calling on a wide range of styles, from rock to pop and R B, this is a very adventurous record.
Broken Social Scene (self titled): A super-group made up of various members of the Canadian indie rock community, BSS is another band that thrives on the lyrical and musical diversity of their members to create a wide-ranging musical stew that runs the gamut from 'traditional' Pixies-inspired indie rock to the dreaded emo. The thought of a band with a rotating cast of 15+ band members playing a two-disc epic may cause some head-scratching, but the music holds up quite well.
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