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Art Pepper: Geneva 1980
by Jack Kenny
"Do not go gentle into the good night," Dylan Thomas wrote that; Art Pepper did it. He did not go gentle. He raged with his horn across continents: Asia, Europe, the Americas. There was gentleness too at times. He raged against his own wasted times. It all fuelled his playing and he was able to deliver powerful and emotionally-charged performances. Art Pepper with his dissolute, angelic face with Laurie Pepper as his Boswell collecting, remembering, recording, preserving. According ...
Continue ReadingDave Edmunds: Swan Songs: The Singles 1976-1981
by Doug Collette
Extended as is Joe Marchese's essay in the twelve-page booklet enclosed with Swan Songs, it is nonetheless as breezy and free-flowing as the content spread across the two compact discs. Consisting of cuts originally issued 45-rpm singles on the label imprimatur of Led Zeppelin (referenced in the main title of the package), the cumulative impact of these selections reaffirms the effect of the somewhat daunting expanse of prose, that is, clearly making the case for Edmunds as a decidedly rootsy ...
Continue ReadingJD Souther: You're Only Lonely
by Doug Collette
JD Souther might well be considered the unsung hero of country rock as we know it. Forget for the moment the ill-conceived and woefully mis-executed David Geffen vanity project that was Souther, Hillman and Furay: his early alliance in Longbranch Pennywhistle, with the late Glenn Frey, co-founder of the Eagles, led to Souther's collaborations with that group, including but not limited to what is arguably the pinnacle of their discography Desperado (Asylum, 1973) (he is one of the captured outlaws ...
Continue ReadingTerry Adams: Terrible [Deluxe Edition]
![Read "Terrible [Deluxe Edition]" reviewed by Dave Linn](https://s3.amazonaws.com/allaboutjazz/coverart/large/1915e29cbe092b861b4848bdfe28ad6b.jpg)
by Dave Linn
Terry Adams is best known for his work with the seminal band, NRBQ (New Rhythm & Blues Quartet). Their self-titled debut (Columbia, 1969), included Sun Ra's “Rocket Number Nine." The follow-up was a collaboration with early rock legend Carl Perkins called Boppin' The Blues. In 1974 singer, songwriter, and guitarist extraordinaire, Big Al Anderson and drummer Tom Ardolino joined the band. For the next 20 years that lineup thrilled live audiences around the world. In 1994, Anderson (dismayed by the ...
Continue ReadingHasaan Ibn Ali: Reaching For The Stars: Solos/Duos/Trios
by Doug Collette
Since its inception in 2010, Omnivore Recordings has applied a most stringent set of standards to its archival efforts devoted to the disparate likes of Merle Haggard, Maynard Ferguson and the Posies (and no less so in the occasional preparation and release of new content such as Americana master Peter Case). The label has rightly been recognized for its exacting approach to vault exhumations. Perhaps the most laudable of all its campaigns is the one on behalf of ...
Continue ReadingJorma Kaukonen: Live At The Bottom Line
by Doug Collette
Live at the Bottom Line represents a significant turning point in the history of guitarist, composer and vocalist Jorma Kaukonen. Occurring roughly a year after the release of his solo album, Blue Country Heart (Columbia Records, 2002), the concerts marked the advent of a new career phase for the co-founder of Hot Tuna, including regular touring with the latter (in both electric and acoustic formats) plus roadwork as a solo act. Featuring sixteen tracks on two CDs (as ...
Continue ReadingStephen Stills: Live At Berkeley 1971
by Doug Collette
Given the length and breadth of Stephen Stills' discography--as a solo artist, leader of the Manassas band, and in various collaborations--it's altogether surprising he hasn't done more archival work. But Live At Berkeley 1971 rectifies the neglect, at least to some degree, and might augur well for future releases. This sixty-six minutes (on CD or two LPs), recorded over two nights, may not be the definitive recording of its time anymore than the contractual obligation that was/is Stephen ...
Continue ReadingBlood Sweat & Tears: What The Hell Happened to Blood Sweat & Tears?
by Doug Collette
The title of this release might rightfully be applied at various junctures of Blood Sweat & Tears' career, but for the purposes of this project, it's particularly apropos to the group's State Department-sponsored tour of 1970 behind the Iron Curtain. Innuendo about this band's hip cachet or lack thereof arising from this jaunt--the main premise of the film devoted to the occasion--becomes moot in hearing the 69 plus minutes of performances in Yugoslavia, Romania and Poland, from whence comes the ...
Continue ReadingD.B. Shrier: D. B. Shrier emerges
by Mike Jurkovic
The provenance behind this full-bore blow out recorded in 1967 by Philadelphia tenor sax legend D.B.Shrier differs from most myths in the fact that we now have pure, full-blown proof of what a night in his company sounded like: A scorching combustion of energy, virtuosity and audience adulation. Originally released by Alfa Records in 1967, the first five tracks of D.B. Shrier emerges may sound a primitive as hell having been recorded at a community college, but it ...
Continue ReadingBobby Cole: A Point of View
by Randy Poe
Frank Sinatra walks into a bar... ...Specifically, he walks into Jilly's, on 52nd Street between Broadway and 8th Avenue. Actually, Jilly's was more of a piano bar/restaurant. Sinatra chose to call it a “bistro." It was right there inside the matchbooks scattered all around the joint—back when people still ate and smoked at the same time—in public. On the matchbook cover was a drawing of a red piano right next to a jauntily-fonted “Jilly's." When opened, the inside cover read, ...
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