Jazz Articles
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Jaco Pastorius: Jaco Pastorius
by Sacha O'Grady
For any serious fan of jazz fusion, the release of Jaco Pastorius' debut solo album should have come as no surprise. Largely self taught, by 22 he was already teaching bass at the University of Miami, where he forged a strong friendship with guitarist Pat Metheny, one which would lead to the two eventually recording together, issuing a little known LP (simply titled Jaco) in 1974. But it wasn't until he became a member of fusion pioneers Weather Report that ...
Continue ReadingSly and the Family Stone: Higher
by Carlo Wolff
Sylvester Stewart is a maddening guy. Both a cock of the walk and abjectly self-destructive, the man better known as Sly Stone, leader of the Family Stone, psychedelicized funk better, or at least more notoriously, than anyone else as the 1960s collapsed into the 1970s. In albums like Dance to the Music (1968), the 1969 breakout Stand!, the shadowy 1971 masterpiece There's a Riot Goin' On and 1973's disturbingly catchy Fresh, Sly and his musical--including some blood--kin crafted unparalleled, unsurpassed ...
Continue ReadingThe Clash: Hits Back
by Phil Barnes
Nearly eleven years have passed since Joe Strummer's untimely death on 22 December 2002, and yet the music he, Mick Jones, Paul Simenon and Topper Headon made is still held in great affection by fans across the globe. Part of the reason for this longevity is the sheer quality and breadth of inspiration of the music that the Clash packed into a frenetic four year period from the release of their UK debut in April 1977 to the ...
Continue ReadingThe Clash: Hits Back
by Doug Collette
Companion piece in miniature to the exhaustive Sound System (Epic, 2013), The Clash's Hits Back would be merely another collection were it not for the novel twist applied to its anthologizing. The thirty-two remastered tracks on two cd's (or three vinyl lp's) are sequenced in the running order of a 1982 Clash concert, a replication of which, in the late Joe Strummer's handwriting, is reproduced inside the booklet within the triple- fold digi-pak. As much as that concept ...
Continue ReadingInspiration Information / Wings of Love
by Chris M. Slawecki
Singer, songwriter and multi- instrumentalist Shuggie Otis might not have been born holding a guitar but he probably picked his first one up soon thereafter. He did grow up playing guitar in bands led by his dad Johnny Otis, who introduced such artists as Charles Brown and Esther Phillips to R&B and soul audiences. He debuted in 1970 on Kooper Session: Al Kooper with Shuggie Otis (Columbia); when he recorded those tracks, he was just 15. His solo debut, Here ...
Continue ReadingStevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble: Couldn't Stand the Weather
by Jim Santella
Couldn't Stand the Weather is a great album which has been reissued before. But this time, there are considerable extras in the package that make it jump out and shout. Each of the two discs runs for nearly 80 minutes: disc one includes the original album and plenty of bonus tracks; while disc two contains a previously unreleased concert appearance. Extensive liner notes by Andy Aledort of Guitar World form a biography of Vaughan, and provide interesting commentary on the ...
Continue ReadingStevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble: Couldn't Stand the Weather: Legacy Edition
by Doug Collette
The two-disc package of Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble's second studio Album, Couldn't Stand The Weather, adds to the legacy of this contemporary bluesman through a combination of studio outtakes and a complete concert recording. Disc one contains the original follow-up to Texas Flood (Epic, 1983), that effectively ignited a blues revival in the Eighties. By adding a homage to Jimi Hendrix, in the form of “Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)," as a crowning touch, Vaughan thoroughly honored ...
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