Jazz Articles
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Gary Clark, Jr.: JPEG RAW
by Doug Collette
In contrast to Gary Clark Jr.'s thunderous stage performances, the keen impact of which permeate Live (Warner Bros., 2014) and Live in North America 2016 (Warner Bros., 2017), his studio albums, including JPEG RAW, are ambitious eclectic pieces of work the force of which grow inexorably with repeated listening. Its title an acronym for 'Jealousy, Pride, Ego & Greed / Rules, Alter Ego & Worlds,' the man's sixth full-length album is hardly an exception to that rule. In ...
read moreKinga Glyk: Real Life
by Mike Jurkovic
Throughout daredevil bassist Kinga Głyk's Real Life there are several moments which border menacingly on mainstream Euro-pop and wanna-be fusion. Fortunately those (intentional or unintentional?) moments are heavily outweighed and outnumbered by thrillingly incandescent moments which lend themselves to that old catch-all street phrase of the '60s, '70s, and '80s: “Man this is some really high powered s**t!" Because Real Life is high powered. And should be. Maybe that is the lesson to be learned from listening--live life ...
read moreMiles Davis: Merci Miles! Live at Vienne
by Ian Patterson
So great was Miles Davis' legend, so magnetic his aura, that the crowds and the adulation only increased towards the end of his life—a period when he was playing arguably the least progressive music of his career. This double-CD recording of a concert at the Jazz à Vienne Festival from 1991 is a case in point. Ten thousand people packed into the Roman amphitheatre that July evening, while another two-and-a-half thousand who had turned up without tickets were shepherded onto ...
read moreTrout Mask Replica
by Eric Gudas
“No Instruction Sheet": Trout Mask Replica's Unfathomable Origin Story If you were a teenager who liked freaky stuff, on a June day in 1969 you could bicycle down to your local record store and buy a brand-new, shrink-wrapped album with a man covering his entire face with an actual fish head on the cover. A double-LP set, it cost your whole month's paper route money, but there was something about the guys on the back-cover photo, who looked like refugees ...
read moreSpodie's Back
by Jim Trageser
Still a teenager when signed to Quincy Jones' Warner Bros. subsidiary, Qwest, trumpeter Derrick Shezbie was nonetheless a veteran on this debut as leader--having been playing in the traditionalist Rebirth Brass Band for several years already. Produced by fellow Crescent City native Delfeayo Marsalis, “Spodie's Back" is a much more modernistic outing than anything he would have tackled in Rebirth. But unlike the throwback neo-bop so popular with other young jazz lions in the 1990s, this is more ...
read moreEthan Gruska: En Garde
by Doug Collette
Ethan Gruska's En Garde illustrates the truism about the apple not falling far from the tree. With his solo efforts as well as his participation in the Belle Brigade (with sister Barbara), the songwriter/multi-instrumentalist is doing justice to his esteemed lineage: Ethan's father is Emmy-nominated TV/film composer and songwriter Jay Gruska and his grandfather is Oscar-winning composer John Williams. The younger Gruska further demonstrates his versatile expertise with this second album his own name. Like its predecessor, Slowmotionary ...
read moreGary Clark, Jr.: Live North America 2016
by Doug Collette
At first glance and upon initial listen, Gary Clark Jr.'s Live North America 2016 suggests a holding pattern on his rapidly-developing career. More careful perusal, however, reveals the man's second concert release, out in fairly quick succession to both Live (Warner Bros., 2014) and his last studio album, The Story of Sunny Boy Slim (Warner Bros., 2015), is the full and complete personal artistic statement the latter title purported to be, as well as harbinger of future stylistic changes.
read moreRed Hot Chili Peppers: The Getaway
by Nenad Georgievski
All the surface evidence on The Getaway suggests that the band Red Hot Chili Peppers, for most part, is steering its music towards unfamiliar territory. This change of sound first began on I'm With You, (Warner Bros. 2011) the first recording the band did without one of its key members, guitarist John Frusciante who left to pursue solo career. Instead, his protégé Josh Klinghoffer took over guitar duties and provided more layered guitarscapes. I'm With You (Warner Bros. 2011) was ...
read moreLittle Feat: Dixie Chicken
by Sacha O'Grady
A lot has been written about Dixie Chicken over the last few decades, so there's perhaps not all that much more this listener can add to the discussion. Yes, it has another great album cover by the late Neon Parks, a painter whose name has become synonymous with the band itself. And yes, the LP found Little Feat at a creative peak, pulling off a collection of songs that are as good if not superior to anything they had done ...
read moreEdith Piaf: 1915-2015
by Bruce Lindsay
2015 is the centenary of one of the best-loved, most charismatic singers of the twentieth century. For some that singer is Billie Holiday, for others it's Frank Sinatra: but for many more, especially in the French-speaking world, it's the legendary Edith Piaf. 1915-2015, a vinyl-only Best Of collection, establishes the case for Piaf's status beyond doubt.This album is just one of a series of releases that celebrate this great singer's centenary. A double CD collection, five classic Piaf ...
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