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The Wood Brothers: Smoke Ring Halo
by Doug Collette
The Wood Brothers began as a quirky duo with musical charm far out of proportion to its numbers. On Smoke Ring Halo the brothers continue as a trio (with plenty of guests),extending their collective virtues further still. The Woods' wry sense of humor comes through as clearly on “Mary Anna" as drummer Tyler Greenwell's forthright beat, itself anchored by Chris Wood's bass. Sibling guitarist Oliver Wood has as light a touch with his rhythm guitar as he does ...
Continue Reading...New Zion Trio: Fight Against Babylon
by Eyal Hareuveni
The jazz piano trio and Jamaican dub music--the reggae sub-genre that focuses on slowing down the original reggae mix and emphasizing the bass and drums tracks with studio wizardry--seem to be two distant musical universes. Yet producer and multi-instrumentalist Jamie Saft's New Zion Trio debut recording succeeds in blowing fresh winds in the traditional piano trio with dub aesthetics, citing King Tubby, Bob Marley, Bill Evans, Pharoah Sanders and Alice Coltrane as influences. All the compositions, except ...
Continue Reading...Philadelphia Folk Festival: Schwenksville, PA, August 18-21, 2011
by Wade Luquet
Philadelphia Folk FestivalSchwenksville, PAAugust 18-21, 2011In 1962, when folklorist and DJ Gene Shay took to the stage of the first Philadelphia Folk Festival in front of 700 folk enthusiasts to introduce Pete Seeger, he had no idea that 50 years later, at the age of seventy-five, he would take the stage again. As he has done every year since, he introduced the audience of 15,000 people to performers like Arlo Guthrie, Tom Paxton, The Kennedy's, Levon ...
Continue Reading...Jimi Hendrix: More to Experience
by Doug Collette
In the near half-century since Jimi Hendrix's death, the passion the late guitarist's music elicits includes deep feelings about how his art has been presented posthumously. Accordingly, the reaction to the release of the four-CD Winterland box set, in combination with an expanded edition of one the earliest (and most sought after out-of-circulation) posthumous titles, In The West, threatens to dampen what otherwise might be unbridled enthusiasm. Those familiar with the history of titles following Hendrix's ...
Continue Reading...In Transit: Shifting Moods
by Glenn Astarita
Well-regarded for his co-leadership of the perennially progressive Fonda/Stevens group, pianist Michael Jefry Stevens is an accomplished solo artist and a much in demand session musician, who extends his reach globally. Featuring three European instrumentalists, the In Transit group devises a comprehensive playbook amid budding expansions into the free dominion. However, the modern jazz component underscores the improvisational factors. It's not about wanton cacophony. Conversely, the quartet's synchronicity instills a sense of perpetual motion, executed at various frequencies, throttling pulses, ...
Continue Reading...Tuomo J. Autio: Groovy Moments & Melodies
by Chris Mosey
The word groovy probably derives from the groove of a record in pre-digital days. It first appeared in print in Really The Blues, the 1946 autobiography of jazz clarinetist Mezz Mezzrow, and became part of hippy terminology in 1965, when Simon and Garfunkel recorded “We've Got A Groovy Thing Goin,'" and the following year, when they put out “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)." By the 1980s groovy had largely disappeared from the vernacular, and in the harsh economic ...
Continue Reading...Alison Krauss and Union Station: Denver, CO, September 2, 2011
by Geoff Anderson
Alison Krauss and Union StationRed Rocks AmphitheaterDenver, CoSeptember 2, 2011 Alison Krauss and Union Station often get lumped into the “country" music category, but occasionally, they end up in the more accurate “bluegrass" classification. Modern country music seems to be little more than run-of-the-mill pop music with an occasional steel guitar, a big hat, a hint of Texas twang and subject matter that centers on lyin,' cheatin' and stealin.' Bluegrass, on the other hand, ...
Continue Reading...Grateful Dead: Road Trips, Vol. 4 No. 4: Spectrum 4-6-82
by Doug Collette
Throughout the entirety of the Grateful Dead's archival series, Road Trips, the graphics have accurately mirrored the music enclosed and Vol.4 No. 4 is no exception. Lacking the plethora of detail in the cover art as well as the usual array of action photos, the plainness of the packaging reflects what's inside. Five years removed from its hiatus, and having already recognized its fifteenth anniversary two years prior with acoustic/electric runs in its San Francisco birthplace and its adopted hometown ...
Continue Reading...Rick Savage Jazz 4tet: Warwick, NY
by David A. Orthmann
Rick Savage Jazz 4tetWarwick, NYAugust 22, 2011 The opening set of trumpeter/flugelhornist Rick Savage's Jazz 4tet was a witty, civilized conversation between longtime colleagues, all of whom had something essential to say and respected one anothers' space. As part of the last day of the second annual Warwick Valley Jazz Festival, the music took place in the community center of Warwick Grove, an upscale village of condos, townhouses, and single family houses. Though the repertoire of ...
Continue Reading...Simon Little: The Knowledge of Things to Come
by Lawrence Peryer
The first wave of auteurs to substantially capitalize on the proliferation of sophisticated yet accessibly-priced music production technology hailed from the DJ and electronic scenes. With turntables, samplers and DAT machines in their arsenals, these solitary explorers discovered, manipulated and mixed sound in innovative ways. The boundary between instrument and tool would never be the same. The proliferation of multi-track recorders and expensive effects rigs have increased as their price and physical size has shrunk. As a ...
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