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A
History of Linda Thompson
Linda Thompson
Hannibal 1379
Although
the music is striking, so is the context: Linda Thompson's shattered
association with ex-husband Richard and later her retirement due to
illness from music, but more sadly, singing. I don't know of any compilation
which is any more adult, more infused with the tensions between trust
and trial than this one. Some of the tracks here, especially those
shorn of any studio enhancement (for example "Sometimes It Happens",
) are as intimate as recorded music gets.
Sacred
Steel :
Traditional Sacred African-American Steel Guitar Music From Florida
[various artists]
Arhoolie 450
Bracing
stuff, this slippery slide driven gospel featuring both the instigators
(Willie Eason) and innovators (Glenn Lee) of a local genre of rural
music keyed originally on the lap steel guitar and evolved today
to encompass the string bending pedal steel. This is an obscure
record but it's also a no-brainer kind of deal: you won't be able
to hear this anywhere else!
Five
Facings
Steve
Lacy (and partners)
Free
Music Productions 85
Since
I'm a sucker for the genius of soprano saxophonist Lacy, there is
always at any moment a disc of his which has achieved 'most favored
status'. The Lacy disc of the day features duos with pianists Marilyn
Crispell, Misha Mengelberg, Ulrich Gumpert, Fred Van Hove, and Vladimir
Miller. Given a disc on which the most well-known players outside
of the leader are Crispell and Mengelberg, this is a chance to become
enveloped by the alternative approaches of superior European improvisors,
and, once again, the crystalline musical zen of Lacy.
(1)
Mundo Civilizado / (2) Hyper Civilizado
Arto Lindsay
/ various artists
(1) Bar/None
082 / (2) Gramavision 79519
Finally Lindsay gets back to an Ambitious Lovers groove and
revisits Brazil in the same stroke. Then, to make the affair completely
spectacular, Mundo Civilizado gets the remix treatment from a host
of downtown 'illbient' reconstructors, including D.J.Spooky, on
a follow-up disc. Wow! This is the cutting edge of educated pop:
college meets collage. Inspirational lyrics: "Not everything
that gives me pleasure / Goes out through the same door it came
in"
Lost
In the Land of Texico
Tom Faulkner
Serano 5678
Tom
is an artist possessed of an exceptional artistry, who's music is
honest and driven by conviction. Every song is strong; a very rare
record in the pop sense because it never misfires. He has a dusky
voice, is a stirring slide guitarist, and matches those talents
with a record full of admissions of experience, faith, longing,
resignation and hope. Mature sentiments; learnings forged by life,
and the Southwest.
Carnival
Wyclef Jean
and the Refugee All-Stars
Sony
There is an irony inherent here, given the sociological context
of this brilliant record. Its fundamental insight is that life cannot
be escaped. Considering the status quo fatalism and cartoon imagery
of the rap genre this is a mature, ironic sentiment, especially
placed within the complex pan-African atmosphere of this sophisticated
creative outpouring of Fugee leader Wyclef. CARNIVAL is an intelligent
rap record and it automatically becomes 'ghettoized' vis a vis the
hard world of rap precisely because it is intelligent. So, "Staying
Alive", the first single, is the kind of master stroke of contextual
place setting which comes along infrequently and is even more ironic
for it being imperiled by the fragmentation and short memory span
of the music market. I guess this will mean the Caribbean joy-in-the-midst-of-surviving
found here is a listening pleasure much more likely to be gained
by college kids than it is by the wretched autistic youths for whom
'intelligent rap' is an oxymoron, irony a bourgeois conceit, and
staying alive more about being turned into an obedient consumer
than it is about...staying alive. Rant over. A great record.
Silencio
= Muerte [Red Hot and Latin]
[various artists]
Polygram 341
005
The
latest Red Hot installment is full of life, this time the life of
Latino pop and rock moods, 19 diverse, energized track's worth.
Collaborations effectively match David Byrne, Los Lobos, Fishbone,
and even Melissa Etheridge with various Latin stars. But, it's the
more unalloyed cuts which stand out; check out the wonderfully named
artist 'Victimas Del Doctor Cerebro' for a slag of shuffling metallic
barrio rock.
Monk
On Monk
T.S. Monk
N2KE 10017
Monk is my religion. Committed thusly, I search out indiscriminately
all attempts to implicate his oevre in hopes of hearing seekers
successfully seek. When one of 'em gets it I'm right there with
'em. My own conceits aside, T.S.Monk is his literal son, so is anybody
surprised that with the help of lots of musicians, the arranger
Don Sickler, and his own feel for melodic drumming, these nine Monkian
essays are full of faithfullness and are even...righteous?
Al
Ol
Yair Dalal
Al Sur 202
As
a student and lover of the tradition of music which is middle-eastern
and extends back beyond statist notions of this area, Yair Dalal
is a real find. A multi-instrumentalist and leader of a very fine
ensemble, his music is a showcase for a fusion of the semitic, arabian
and persian traditions. This results in the non-traditional but
it feels traditional and perhaps it is so because it speaks out
of a history which was not originally defined by the hazards of
geography, the sands of the desert tending to blow regardless of
national borders. Anyway, this is a superb disc.
Higher
Standards
Jessica Williams
Candid 79736
Because
Jessica Williams is true to the jazz tradition of cutting doorways
out of the very walls of that tradition, and because she is fearless
at allowing those doorways to lead back into the soulspace of her
musical intelligence and emotional verve, her new record transcends
(with the very first track, "Get Out of Town",) its 'playing
standards' concept. How? Vigorous imagination, experimental attitude,
vivacious swing, and deep feeling for the tradition. Feeling without
any dry pledges of allegiance: this is why Ms.Williams is the equal
of any pianist today. (Which is saying a great deal in a Jazz world
full of brilliant pianists.) As good as piano Jazz gets.
Ambient
Intermix 2
[various artists]
Instinct 1002
Slow
down my BPM, please! Ooooh, that's nice. Spoiled by the noir of
Robert Rich and the eros of Pauline Oliveros, I never expected to
get turned on by the downtown reconstructions which have resulted
in illbient, ambient, trance, city dub and a plethora of hard-to-market
names for textural kinds of slowness. Silly me. Must be the silly
season but I'm eating this stuff up. It is ear candy and may turn
out to be ephemera but then ephemera is also a 'notion' and notions
in general may corkscrew gyre-like into the depths. Musical notions
do this too which is what this fine compilation does when it hits,
as it does often. Featuring ambient remixes of ambient material,
these are twice told tales corkscrewing...
Rumba
Argelina
Radio Tarifa
Nonesuch 79472
North
African tinged pop from one of the world's most magical locales,
that power spot which helped transmit back and forth between Spain
and Africa the esoteric communiques of Islam, Judaism, Christianity
and, archetypically viewed, the 'Gypsy'. Well, what does it sound
like? Like this. The World Circuit label gets upgraded via distribution
from Time/Warner; isn't the record business amazing? This helps
put this wonderful record in more peoples' ears and that is a beautiful
thing!
Eyes...
Geri Allen
Blue Note 38297
Her
serious 'looking' on the back cover is appropriate for this is a
very serious and remarkable record. It features small groups without
a bass player and highlights the free flights of trumpeter Wallace
Roney and icon Ornette Coleman. But, Geri has made it so the most
rewarding cooking results from the interplay of her dark hued pianism
and the lively spice of percussionist Cyro Baptista. Seriousness
of purpose has caused Geri Allen to make music which isn't immediately
ingratiating but this is another important chapter in an immensely
rewarding body of creative work.
Cape
Town Flowers
Abdullah Ibrahim
TipToe 888826
There
will always be Jazz on this page representing the ancestral fusion
movement through which tradition and creativity are in active heartfelt
dialogue. A paragon of this facet of world music is South Africa's
Abdullah Ibrahim, who happens to be my favorite musician. His new
record features his 'Ekapa' trio which is to say it is filled out
through the talent of Africans Marcus McLaurine on bass and George
Gray on drums. This, then, is African creative music at its highest
level: healing, rooted, drum infused, spirited, dancing, and, celebratory.
Son
Egal
Tarika
Xenophile 4042
Madagascar's
most recognized musical export intends to help effect a reconciliation
over the historic tragedy of the island's colonization by the French
and the vicious use of Senegalize mercenaries. Like all of her records,
this one achieves combined danceable and political heights which
few musicians ever obtain. Lyrical sample: "Who dares? Who
dares? / Stealing my bones? / Burning my ancestors? / Since the
land is mine, I am coming back / I will haunt you, you will have
nightmares / I will make you cry, I will haunt you"
Equations
of Eternity
Eraldo Bernocchi
- Bill Laswell
Unlike Laswell's own records for which dislocation is used as
an effect, guitarist Bernocchi makes this record about dislocation.
Here the puffed up textures of ambient electronica are made to unravel.
Mysterious guitaristics, shards of samples, and rumbling dub verbs
are floated like a mobile stuck in a fish tank while Bernocchi's
andalusian tinged atmospherics swim in brownian non-patterns. Neither
creepy or extra-terrestrial, nothing held together long enough to
'en-trance', this is more of the moment when the storm has broken
but the clouds still menace.
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