October 2000

From the Inside Out
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By Chris M. Slawecki

At the end of just about every year, most music journalists compile “Best Of The Year” lists. Inevitably, journalists compiling such lists end up remarking about some release or another, “Man, I wish I had the space and time to write about that one…and that one…and that…”

I say this is foolishness and I say to hell with it. Here and now are space and time enough for quick snapshots of some of the music that helped get me through the summer of 2000.

B. B. King & Eric Clapton: Riding With The King (Reprise)
“I dreamed I had a good job, and I got well paid/ I blew it all at the penny arcade.” Upon that call, the first line to the opening song (the title track and a thumpin’ John Hiatt tune), Clapton and King stomp the blues-rock guitar door all the way down. The two sound as good on guitar and vocals as they’ve sounded in years, on a set of classics that’s relaxed and casual but well-played and at times intense. Classics include spirited workouts of “Worried Life Blues” and “Key To The Highway,” plus a rowdy “Hold On (I’m Comin’)” and the softly blue closer “Come Rain Or Come Shine.” The rhythm section of bassist Nathan East and drummer Steve Gadd cranks up the bumpin’ and thumpin’, and other musicians include Joe Sample on keyboards and guitarists Doyle Bramhall II and session ace Andy Fairweather Low. But make no mistake: This is showtime for Mssrs. King and Clapton and they bust up the joint pretty good. This album will bring some noise to the Grammy Awards.

Blues Masters: The Very Best of T-Bone Walker (Rhino)
It’s easy to forget that what we call the blues today began in a completely different time and place in this country. Very Best of T-Bone captures twelve prime years (1945-’57) in the career of this primal guitarist-vocalist. Walker’s seminal mix of blues and rhythm, with swinging orchestra or funky small combo, rocked and rolled long before the term existed, and served as the holiest of holy grails for Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Jimi Hendrix and just about every other blues or rock guitar demigod who’s picked up an axe during the past six decades. “Stormy Monday” and “T-Bone Shuffle” are familiar modern classics. Other highlights include “Bobby Sox Blues,” which suggests Hendrix via Albert King; “Mean Old World Blues,” which gallops on a loping New Orleans-meets-Mississippi piano run; and the frantic raveups “The Hustle Is On,” bristling with the raw Earl Bostic-sound of early rock saxophone, and the instrumental “Strolling With Bones.” One of three year 2000 installments in Rhino’s Blues Masters series (the other two fete Freddie King and Lightnin’ Hopkins), this set is essential to an understanding of the roots of modern popular music.

George Benson: Absolute Benson (GRP)
Cool and smooth, George Benson returns with an R&B album that spotlights his guitar and vocals, cushioned and wrapped in a crushed velvet glove. Joe Sample on piano and keyboards works particularly well with Benson in this soulful, relaxed format, and he makes heavy contributions to the stone groove with his compositions “Deeper Than You Think,” “One On One,” and “Hipping The Hop”; the two collaborate on the set-ending “Medicine Man.” Benson details with gemlike precision Stevie Wonder’s “Lately” into a lovely jazz guitar ballad, swaggers through Donny Hathaway’s “The Ghetto,” and testifies on guitar and vocals while digging deep into Ray Charles’ plaintive “Come Back Baby.” Producer Tommy LiPuma crafts a nice balance between the three tracks with vocals and the Absolute jazz; for his part, Benson rips off torrid riffing, with his trademark scat self-accompaniment, in “Medicine Band” and “El Barrio.” LiPuma’s polished production sounds warm and bright, contemporary yet classic – and this may be a classic Benson set.

John Bruschini:As You Were (Cathexis)
It’s nice to know that someone still makes albums like this – an honest-to-god jazz fusion guitar record, full of the wide open spaces, of risky exploration with commensurate danger and reward. Perhaps that sense of surprise should be no surprise, since guitarist Bruschini has enjoyed a long association with pianist Cecil Taylor. He leads his quartet (drummer Jeff Hirschfield, bassist Kip Reed, and keyboardist Robert Aires), plus guest Jim Nolet on violin, through a completely original program. Bruschini sounds like a “world”ly guitarist, more Steve Tibbets than Al DiMeola and with sparkles and flashes of Jeff Beck, too (especially in “Bloodroot,” where Aires on keyboards plays Jan Hammer to Bruschini’s Beck). Doubling the guitar, Nolet’s viola in the opening “As You Were” and “B4” help resurrect the diverse, spiritual fusion of the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Of course, you can’t forget the groove – and the closing jam to “B4” and “Funkyard,” engaging yet slippery, soulful and funky with that organ throbbing in the background, do not. Bruschini obviously put his heart and soul (and a great deal of thought) into this record; the emotion and power of the soaring “Glory,” for example, is…well, glorious.

k. d. lang: invincible summer (Warner Bros.)
lang falls in love with love in this summer romance full of breezy pop music that also intimates the cooling, darkening autumn days that spiral like a dying leaf toward winter. Some of this, like the soft French horns in “It’s Only Love,” could even be lang’s Burt Bacharach album. It’s also typical of “Extraordinary Thing,” “Simple”, “Suddenly” and the rest of this set – no, that’s no great revelation, but when you’re in the midst of it, it’s wonderful. In fact, the spry “It’s Happening With You,” in the hands of a less talented vocalist, might make you cringe (“In this crazy world full of lemons, Baby you’re lemonade”). The Consequences of Falling” seems more complex than even your most adult contemporary fare, full of the excitement and danger of eagerly aching to give away your heart. You’ve also got to admire the ambitions of a pop album inspired by a quote from Albert Camus ( “In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer,” printed on the inner jacket) that, like water ice, quickly melts and leaves a sweet, sticky taste behind.

Ithamara Koorax: Serenade In Blue (Milestone)
The worldwide debut of this Brazilian jazz chanteuse is like cool and creamy, dreamy summer sherbet, an impressive coming-out party replete with the finest Brazilian musicians and classic American and Brazilian pop and jazz. Her striking intro, “What can I say to you, Bonita?” in the opening track, “Bonita,” is languid, elegant and lovely; as the song proceeds, Gonzalo Rubalcaba on piano adorns her like a kid leather glove. The title track, performed with Brazilian jazz fusioneers Azymuth, glides with elegance and sophistication like a young Sophia Loren gracing a ballroom dancefloor (the song comes from Orchestra Wives, the 1942 film featuring The Glenn Miller Orchestra). “Moon River” with just voice, harp and subtle keyboards, is a stunning stroke of cool genius, beautiful and neo-classic. “Mas Que Nada” is more jazz/bop-ish, Koorax bestrides the hip-hop drumtrack and Dom Um Romao’s percussion. More hip-hop drums, flamenco guitars, keyboards and strings serve as featherbed mountain for “Aranjuez (Follow Me),” arranged by keyboardist Eumir Deodato. Koorax’ whispered yet urgent voice in “Un Homme Et Une Femme” oozes and dribbles down over the instrumentation like honey down a lover’s soft neck and shoulders and…oh! Nevermind…

Tito Puente: Party With Puente! (Concord Picante)
This compilation of dance music, one of the first sets released since the May 31 passing of this personable Latin jazz legend, is full of mambos and cha-cha’s and plenty of spice from the series of indefatigable albums Puente recorded for Concord Picante in the 1980’s and ‘90s. Its title holds true; this really is a great, and at times awesome, party record. Puente stokes up, in his own inimitable kitchen, signature versions of the warhorses “Killer Joe,” “On Broadway” and “Take Five,” each bubbling over with hot sauce and fire. Puente’s touch on “Take Five” and a spunky live version of the classic “Oye Como Va,” in particular, blisters then erupts into a whirling dervish of colorful percussion. “Descarga,” “Guajira Soul” and “Salsa Caliente” help fill out of the plate of this relatively satisfying sampler served by one of the most talented and gracious hosts in Latin jazz history.

The Colors of Latin Jazz: From Samba To Bomba! (Concord)
Keeping those Latin kettles warm, this sampler places under one cover the cream of Concord Records’ Latin jazz crop, sort of a portable Latin jazz Hall of Fame which includes Poncho Sanchez (“Papa Gato”), Tito Puente (“Mambo King”), the under-appreciated Ray Barretto (“Bomba-Riquen,” with New World Spirit) and Pete Escovedo (“Like A Volcano”). Cal Tjader rides his vibes cool and mellow on “Linda Chicana,” while “Soca Me Nice” from Mongo Santamaria and the surprising “Sangria” by Tania Maria burn with Latin bongo fury. And as so often happens, it’s those unexpectedly colorful stops that make this tour so delightful; in this case, it’s the harmonica that brings a folksy touch to “Sambahia” (Hendrik Meurkins with Claudio Rodtini, whose trumpet solo is both sweet and fleet), and “Reggae-Later” by Monty Alexander’s Ivory & Steel, as steel drums and Caribbean island rhythms contribute more bright hues to this vivid compilation.