Stanley Booth is most well known for his book about The Rolling Stones, which covered their 1969 tour that eventually ended in the disastrous concert at the Altamont Speedway. But he did much more than that, writing for a wide range of periodicals. Much of his reportage was based around Memphis, Tennessee, a city with an at times thriving music scene and never any shortage of characters to write about. He begins the book with a series of pieces about famous pre-war blues and jazz musicians like "King" Joe Oliver, more well known today as the mentor of Louis Armstrong. But he was a massive talent, who came to a tragic end just as the world was coming into the idea of recorded music. Ma Rainey was a force of nature, singing in tent shows and revivals all across the south at the dawn of the blues, and Booth composes an epic and compassionate portrait of this musical pioneer. Equally illuminating are the articles about guitar masters Blind Willie McTell and especially Furry Lewis who the author knew and wrote an excellent two part series on his life and music. It wouldn't be a book about music in Memphis if there weren't a few stories about Elvis, and Booth includes three, one while the erstwhile King was alive in 1967 isolated amid a huge money making machine, then the story of Presley's doctor who took the majority of the blame when his patient died ignominiously on the toilet and finally a taketown of the ultra-tacky Graceland. Being a tried and true southerner, he could get right to the nitty-gritty with fellow southerners like Mose Allison and Bobby Rush, jazz and blues lifers who have seen it all and have excellent stories that can be coaxed from them by the right interviewer. He's equally well off at writing about the doomed figures as well, such as Graham Parsons who went from wealth and privilege to Harvard and eventually playing with The Byrds and The Rolling Stones before dying as an addict with people fighting over his corpse. Not every entry in this collection was a home run, but by far the most of them were excellent and leave a lasting impression. Booth has a perceptive nature that allows him to absorb the music and the people of Memphis and convey that to the reader in a compassionate and thoughtful manner. Red Hot and Blue: Fifty Years of Writing About Music, Memphis, and Motherf**kers - amazon.com Send comments to Tim.
The story of CSNY is a microcosm of rock and roll in America in the sixties and seventies, beginning in a burst of camaraderie and goodwill and ending in acrimony and spite. Doggett focuses on first five years of the group's existence 1969-74, but begins by providing a thumbnail biography of of each member leading up to their prior brush with stardom. David Crosby spent three years with The Byrds, singing and playing guitar on some of their biggest hits, while Stephen Stills and Neil Young were twin guitar leads in Buffalo Springfield, and Graham Nash had a long term in the successful British pop group The Hollies. No one quite remembers how they came together (most suspect Cass Elliot to be the catalyst) but soon they were demonstrating their harmonizing to anyone who would listen and after scrambling to work out the logistics of contracts, they signed to Atlantic Records and released their self titled debut record in 1969. It was a massive hit, but Stills felt something was missing and with the backing of label boss Ahmet Ertegun, Young was added to the mix for the group's first second concert before the untold thousands at Woodstock. They toured festivals throughout the year including the doomed Altamont gig, and went on to record their first album as a quartet, the massively successful Deja Vu. But success doesn't always breed contentment as egos fueled by copious amounts of cocaine, marijuana and alcohol began to take their toll. The 1970 tour was lucrative, but also marred by band friction, fired sidemen and fans boycotting over high ticket prices. Atlantic scraped together a live album called 4-Way Street, which would have to tide fans over as the sniping and backbiting led to a series of solo albums, Stills putting out solo work plus his band Manassas, Crosby recruiting members of the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane to create an unheralded masterpiece in If I Could Only Remember My Name and Neil Young mining a massive seam of brilliance from the pop friendly Harvest to the bleak beauty of On the Beach. By 1974, the money became too big to ignore, and the four re-grouped to perform a massive stadium tour, despite the fact that stadiums aren't the most conducive environments to acoustic guitars and close harmony singing. Young and Stills would battle it out on electric guitars during the plugged in section of the performance, with complaints that staying in tune or in key going by the wayside. Self indulgence, egotism and excess doomed the tour which finally sputtered to a halt in London, where the narrative leaves off. Doggett did very well presenting this story, telling the facts of the band's existence, the ups and the downs, leaving out some of the most salacious gossip, and trying to keep the music in focus when there are four very different characters moving in different directions. CSNY: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young - amazon.com Send comments to Tim.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the recording of Peter Brotzmann's infamous Machine Gun album at the Lila Eule in Bremen, this trio of legendary progressive jazz musicians gathered to perform live. With Brotzmann on tenor saxophone, b-flat clarinet and tarogato, Alexander von Schlippenbach on piano and Han Bennink on drums and percussion, they created a stellar performance that ranks with that classic album in terms of intensity, but also displays all of the hard won knowledge and wisdom that fifty years in the musical trenches can instill. “Fifty Years After” opens the album with raw saxophone, ripe piano, crisp drumming sounding free, full, boisterous and thrilling, with Brotzmann's magisterial saxophone sending billowing clouds of sounds aloft met by riveting piano and Bennink's always unpredictable percussion. The music builds to a withering intensity, easily matching the ferocity they achieved in their youth. Space is made for a piano solo, spacious and crystalline, with drums framing and jostling, building faster as the off kilter duo improvisation is filled with dynamic shifts and surprising turns. Brotzman returns with withering sounds playing off Bennink's crushingly loud drums, then leaving him room to expound in open space with a massively raw and scouring tone. They come together into a towering collective improvisation that is loud and thrilling with each member full represented in the texture of their sound, weaving in and out of more spacious sections that allow Bennink to feather his drums beautifully, and support another stellar Schlippanbach piano solo. They re-group for “Frictional Sounds” with Brotzmann shifting to the exotic sounding torogato which has such a beguiling tone, with the piano and drums gradually turning up the heat to a boiling level and creating a wonderful setting. Their improvisation is fast, nimble and very colorful with Bennink using his cymbals to great effect and Schlippenbach providing showers then storms of well articulated notes. The trio shows a tremendous amount of stamina, spooling out these long and intense spontaneous performances, with Schlippenback and Bennink slipping out into an impish Monk inspired duo section, before Brotzmann returns on tenor saxophone, booting the intensity back up to a head spinning level as peals of saxophone arc out over rumbling drums and dark piano, driving the music to a ferocious finish. “Bad Borrachos” opens with some wonderful drumming, developing a fascinating rhythm that seems to be everywhere at once. Soon joined by piano and then Brotzmann on b-flat clarinet, the group builds a supple improvisation of widely varying textures and colors. It grows faster with squalls of reed, and crashing drums and piano and Brotzmann taking the clarinet to places it has seldom scene. Bennink is all over his cymbals as Brotzmann squeals with delight, pushing the clarinet ever higher in a great reed and drums duet. Schlippenbach is is given space at the start of “Street Jive” and responds with some of his distinctively dark and fractured playing in conjunction with Bannink's enveloping percussion. Brotzmann barrels in completing the circuit and the electricity really flows through the unit, coursing through a stark and powerful performance that exemplifies the significance of the music that these men make together. Schlippenbach hammers the keys in a percussive fashion as Bennink dances on the cymbals and Brotzman blows massive waves of tenor saxophone. The brief concluding track “Short Dog of Sweet Lucy” has a torrid drum introduction, then scalding tenor saxophone matching the fast pace as they are pushing things into the red before drifting to a quiet and stately finish, leaving an astonished and delirious crowd in their wake. Fifty Years After... - amazon.com Send comments to Tim.
Saxophonist Rich Halley has produced a series of excellent progressive jazz albums with his own coterie of fellow travelers on his Oregon based Pine Eagle Records. This time he changes things dramatically, flying to the east coast to play with some of the brightest lights of the New York scene, Matthew Shipp on piano, Michael Bisio on bass and Newman Taylor Baker on drums. The summit meeting was quite a success with six well built tracks that offer a lot of room for both individual and group expression. "Opening" is subtle and free, with Baker's probing cymbals laying the groundwork for the group's entry, as Shipp and Halley swirl and offer notions before delving deeper into the available sound. Halley has a raw and unadorned tone to his instrument recalling the great new thing tenor players, and Shipp's engagement with him is excellent adding heavy low end chords and colorful notes to the overall tapestry. Baker has a lighter touch, playing all over the soundscape with shimmering cymbals and taut drumming, while Bisio's bass anchors the music together. Halley steps aside for an excellent interlude for the piano, bass and drums group coalescing around Bisio's driving bass, then the saxophonist re-enters, propelling the narrative of the music even faster, pushing to the conclusion with a storming collective improvisation. Baker builds an excellent rhythmic foundation on "Centripetal," setting the table for the rest of the group to come storming in at high speed. Halley is peeling off fast short sections of exciting raw toned saxophone neck and neck and with Shipp's boisterous and percussive piano playing and Bisio's propulsive bass. The group is thrilling to hear when they are locked in like this and improvising at high speed, as they complement each other and can anticipate each other, creating a surprising and continuously energetic sound. Halley accents his playing with over the top flourishes that work well to keep is playing fresh, and the band shifts the dynamism of the piece, gathering momentum and using it for further explorations. The title track, "Terra Incognita," has Shipp and Halley weaving their sounds together framed by bass and feathery percussion, slowly gathering speed and greater structure while retaining an open texture that works well with the improvisational nature of the music. The focus of this track is patience and genuinely exploring a new land, expanding the group's sound the fill the available territory, Halley reaches deep and builds from longer harsher saxophone sounds, with tones that are gritter and more in contact with the Earth. A very nice section for bass and percussion develops building a conversation in quiet tones that still manage to convey quite a bit of information, leading to a gentle conclusion. Overall this album worked very well, Halley's busman's holiday on the east coast was very productive, falling in among a sympathetic group of musicians to create a very impressive piece of work that will stand out among a discography already crowded with triumphs. Terra Incognita - amazon.com Send comments to Tim.
It's been a long time since we have seen an album from James Carter, the phenomenally talented saxophonist who burst onto the scene with the young lions in the early 1990's. Despite some undeniably great records, he could never get a label to go to bat for him, and prior to this, had not released a record since 2011. Blue Note hedges their bets a little bit here, recording Carter live with his excellent road band, Gerard Gibbs on Hammond B3 organ and Alexander White on drums. They also have Carter play the music of Django Reinhardt, reprising one of his best albums, Chasin' the Gypsy. Despite all that it works quiet well, Gibbs and White are really quite talented and Carter is just as good as you remember him. “Le Manoir de Mes Reves” comes out as a gentle swing for deep toned saxophone and grooving organ, a long track with plenty of room to develop, Carter's tone brash and immediate and the drums crisp and supportive. The music picks up the pace with Carter blowing fiercely, along side long tones of organ reaching high into his horn's upper register for emphasis. He steps aside briefly around the halfway point, giving the organ and drums team some much deserved space for a grooving duo section, digging way deep and getting very soulful. When Carter returns, he trades pithy phrases with the organist, then the three work into a closing improvisation bringing things to a rousing conclusion. There is a respectful organ foundation on “Anouman,” which then drops into a funky groove with plenty of open space. Carter enters with a cutting tone, slicing through the thick keyboard and drums with aplomb, with the drummer adding a nice subtle rhythm, leading into a very full sounding organ and drums section. Carter returns, gentle at first playing some greasy soul-jazz funk, leading to some unaccompanied blowing that is far into the avant-garde area, teasing the audience with squeals and overblowing, then returning to a trio outro. “La Valse Des Nidlos” is steaming right out of the gate with waves of organ and percussion, developing into a fine drum solo that sets an excellent foundation for Carter to enter on soprano saxophone, playing light filigrees at first, getting an extraordinary sound from the instrument, and leading the group into a fast paced trio improvisation. Chopping up his sound, then splaying spirals and spraying colors and tipping his hat to”My Favorite Things” gets the audience on their feet. Sure he's a ham, but the guy can play anything, so why not? The final track of the album is “Fleche d'Or” with Gibbs laying down some grinding organ and White responding with flashy drumming, Carter zooms right along with them, playing a very funky sounding version that is undeniably exciting. The organist digs in deep, and the drummer provides a stellar rhythmic foundation as Carter lays out, returning to introduce the band and thank the audience and then lead the band to the conclusion of what was a very entertaining concert. Live From Newport Jazz - amazon.com Send comments to Tim.
This is an inspired pairing, taking the Steve Lehman Trio which features the leader on alto saxophone, Matt Brewer on bass and Damion Reid on drums, and joining them on this album by the renowned pianist Craig Taborn. He fits in really well with the group, and they sound like an organic quartet rather than a trio with guest. The music the group makes is angular and fresh with Lehman seemingly taking cues from masters like Eric Dolphy and Arthur Blythe, but expanding them into a unique and personal sound signature. This is especially true when he is playing at high speed, when he emits flurries of notes at seemingly superhuman speed. However complex the music may be, it unfolds logically like on "Ih Calam and Ynnus" which follows a short opening prelude. The music twists and turns very quickly and the improvisation that the band conceives and expands upon is very impressive, making room for a sparking piano solo that takes the possibilities that are made available and uses that to mold a brisk and bracing performance, alternating depth charge comping with crisp single note runs and leading into a finely tuned bass feature. The following track, "Curse Fraction" allows the group as a whole to knead the space and time around them, slowly gathering their material and focusing their gaze with Lehman adding short bursts of saxophone each containing a lot of information coded within. Surprisingly gentle piano with soft bass and drums emerges, followed by the group reconvening in a tight and restrained full band improvisation. Kurt Rosenwinkel's composition "A Shifting Design" is a very exciting and fast paced track, introduced as a scalding saxophone and drums duet, sounding raw and immediate. Lehman has an acidic and biting tone on his horn that allows him to cut through just about anything, and Reid sounds uncharacteristically heavy here, really muscling the drums as they two come together and drive through and adding taught elastic bass to the mix to create a tight expressive example of what the trio is capable of. The longest track on the album is "Beyond all Limits," beginning with an excellent extended bass solo, with the remainder of the band coming in after about two minutes. Lehman plays raw and scouring saxophone leading to a lighter tone and a brisk and nimble soloing around the rhythm unit. The bright and supple playing of the piano, bass and drums team is very interesting, leading to the return of the leader who adds bursts of vibrant sound and volume, met by the remainder of the group in a thrilling dynamic response. "Echoes / The Impaler" keeps the pace high with riveting interaction between the saxophone and drums along with flourishes of piano and deep anchoring bass playing. The performance is dynamic and ever changing with excellent rhythm playing driving the changes, and allowing the sound of the improvisation to stretch out and find its own level. For this album, Lehman wanted to present his vision of the post-modern saxophone quartet and present ideas for future exploration. He and the group succeed in fine fashion in both of these goals, creating and album that is both accessible to jazz fans and inspirational to those who wish to go further. The People I Love - amazon.com Send comments to Tim.
