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Music reviews
October 2003
Andy
Bey: Tuesdays in Chinatown
12th St Records/Little Big Music
I'm embarrassed to say that
I'd never heard of Andy Bey before my wife, very bravely buying something
not on my 160 album long wish list, gave me this CD. Boy had I been missing
out. Andy brings the passion and understanding of his 62 years, focuses
them through his rich, gentle baritone and subtle, understated piano,
packages all this up in songs covering the range from Bix Beiderbecke
to Rodgers
and Hart to Sting and then allows us to savour it on Tuesdays In
Chinatown for the cost of a few measly dollars.
Andy's gentle, turn the lights down jazz stylings (think of a male Shirley Horn but mercifully with more varied tempos) have been honed over many years performing with the likes of Sarah Vaughan, Max Roach, Duke Pearson, Gary Bartz, Philly Joe Jones and a long association with Horace Silver. This experience has been distilled into the ability to lay bare the heart and soul of a song. Bey and Vaughan, his primary early influence, share the ability to find more meaning in a single note or phrase than many modern, multi-grammy award winning artists can wring out of an entire album.
Listening to old favourites like I'll Remember April or Little Girl Blue is to hear the songs for first time with the emotion dial turned up to 11. Tuesdays In Chinatown tells the story of two lovers who meet to escape time and place, to free themselves of the baggage of the six days in between, a story made achingly real and involving in the hands of Bey. Involving, that sums up the album experience perfectly. I find it impossible to listen to this dispassionately, to have it playing in the background. The way he brings the images to life and makes you part of the story demands that you pay attention.
The voice is but one star of the album as when you hear the piano work on the upbeat Invitation, the straight vocal and piano blues of Bill Broonzey's Feelin' Lowdown or the swinging with strings Just Friends you know that you're listening to the total package. Not a pianist to bombard you with notes, he places them carefully, working subtly with those around him. Of course all of this could be diluted if everybody else on the album wasn't up to speed. Paul Meyers on guitar, Peter Washington on Bass and Victor Lewis on drums add very sympathetic support, along with guests such as John Sneider (his flugelhorn on Tuesdays In Chinatown is magnificent), Ron Carter and Steve Turre.
Perhaps amongst all the praise I should add one caveat - whilst the overall sound quality is good, there is some audible clipping in parts which can be disconcerting. Trust me though, when you've heard Andy Bey's wonderfully controlled vibrato on I'll Remember April, you won't bothered by a few sonic nasties.
"...the bottom line is does it communicate, does it have feeling?" - Andy Bey
Yes and yes. Do yourself a favour - buy this album. You'll feel better for the experience. Craig Fenemor
The Essential Series from Sony Music
Bob Dylan:
The Essential Bob Dylan
Billy Joel: The Essential Billy Joel
Neil Diamond: The Essential Neil Diamond
Sony Music
When Sony purchased the Columbia recording company in the 1980s, they bought a marvelous legacy of recorded music. Sony Music has looked after that legacy well over recent years, releasing a number of well thought out compilations and re-releases. Among these releases is The Essential series, mainly double CDs covering the career of a single artist.
Bob Dylan. It may seem weird to some readers for me
to celebrate hearing tape hiss at the beginning of this CD, but it means
that the
tapes haven’t
been mucked around with and had the life processed out of them in an
attempt to remove the hiss. “No-Noising” techniques are destroying
the sound of many reissues and compilations – it’s good to
find some mastering engineers have more respect for the music.
Starting with 1963’s Blowing in the Wind, this compilation of 34 tracks does an excellent job of traversing the long and varied career of His Bobness. The 22 track first CD is particularly good, covering the ten years up to Knocking on Heaven’s Door in 1973. All of the classics are here: The Times They Are A Changing, Like A Rolling Stone, Just Like A Woman, All Along the Watchtower and so on.
The second CD covers the subsequent two decades. While not chock full of classics like the first, it still contains songs of the caliber of Tangled Up In Blue and the still-powerful Hurricane.
The Essential Bob Dylan is the perfect collection for the music fan who needs a bit – but not too much – Dylan in their collection.
Billy
Joel. Billy Joel’s never gained much respect from record
critics, but consistently good sales since his 1977 breakthrough album
The Stranger has shown that his songs and performances mean a lot
to the record buying public.
Containing songs from all of Joel’s studio albums bar his first, The Essential Billy Joel is a wonderfully compiled collection. Covering the 20 years from 1973 until Joel’s last pop studio album in 1993 in chronological order, Essential includes every Joel hit I can think of in this 36 track compilation. Also included are two tracks from Joel’s classical piano album, the aptly named Fantasies & Delusions.
There have been a number of Billy Joel compilations available in recent years, which may stunt the sales of this album. This is a great sounding CD too, nicely remastered by Ted Jenson (his name as remastering engineer normally guarantees a great sounding disc).
Neil Diamond.
If the other Essential albums are excellent, this one for Neil Diamond
is less good. It starts off well enough, with nine of the
songs Diamond recorded for Bang Records in the mid-1960s. Delightfully,
these early songs are in mono, as they should be, rather than the reprocessed
stereo that is often found. Plus the overall song selection is excellent.
So where’s the problem?
The problem is with the versions of songs included on this collection. To my thinking, a compilation should include the studio versions of songs. This compilation has ten of the 38 tracks as live versions. Even worse, some of the live versions (such as Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show) aren’t as good as other live versions.
The Essential Neil Diamond is a compilation that misses the mark. Michael Jones
Tord Gustavsen Trio - Changing Places
ECM
From the first notes of the first song I was enraptured. Changing
Places is a CD of timeless quality, an astonishing feat for a debut
album. The piano trio has been around in jazz for over 40 years and yet
there are still people who can surprise you with fresh, distinctive sounds.
What's not surprising, for me anyway, is that the freshness and vitality
comes not from America but Europe, in this case Norway.
All the tracks are written by Tord, who has a wonderful feel for melody plus the ability to reduce the songs to their essence. The spaces seem as important as the music itself on this unapologetically romantic album. As noted in an interview with iclassics.com, you could take the drums out of the mix and still be left with an amazing album, somewhat in the style of Charlie Haden & Kenny Barrons Night And The City. What this does is allow Jarle Verpestad to add colour and texture with the drums rather than simply providing a rhythmic backdrop.
The interplay of bass and piano is right up there with Bill Evans and Scott LaFaro at their best. Harold Johnsen's bass solo's are inventive and his touch throughout the album inspired. While tracks such is IGN shows that Tord is very happy really working the keyboard, generally he caresses a note or two into being, lets you savour them and then presents you with more. The other aspect that strikes me in this album is no matter how good the solos are you aren't hanging out for the next one. The gentle interplay of instruments is just as rewarding as the individual features.
I'll happily admit that I'm a soppy old romantic but honestly, I can't remember ever being so moved by an album. The tenderness of the playing on a song such as "Where Breathing Starts" is impossible to put into words. I know it's only the start of September but I'm 99.99% sure that I've found my release of the year. Craig Fenemor
Barb Jungr: Chanson – The Space In Between
Linn Records through Elite, Hybrid SACD
“The leading singer and song stylist of cabaret and chansons in
Britain” is
how the biography on her website describes
the performance of Jungr. That description is right on the money.
Originally released back in 2000, Chanson – The Space in Between has been re-released as a hybrid SACD. A distinctly European – particularly French – feel imbues this collection of songs, with several from Brel and even finds works from UK composers (Cole Porter’s I Love Paris and Elvis Costello’s New Amsterdam) fitting in marvelously.
Beautifully sung by Jungr with sensitive and sparse backup (mainly piano, double bass and violin) Chanson is a delight. The recording is superb.
Technical notes: this is a hybrid stereo SACD disc, which means it will play in both CD players and SACD players. Michael Jones
Jeannie Kendall: Jeannie Kendall
Rounder
"Psst"
"
Who Me?"
"Yeah - you. You want some, it's 100% pure."
"What sort of drugs you selling man?"
"It's not drugs son, it's country music."
Jeannie Kendall's duo albums recorded with her father, the late Royce Kendall, have been strong performers on the country charts since the 70's, producing a string of top 10 country hits. Unfortunately her father died during the recording of this album with only two songs in the bank. To complete the project Jeannie enlisted guests such as Allan Jackson, Alison Krauss, Rhonda Vincent and Allison Moorer. When you add Krauss's backing band, Union Station, into the mix you've got one classy group of muso's.
The songs selected are good without being great (don't expect any Lyle Lovett whit or insight) but what lifts this album above the pack is the pure, honest, bell like, almost bracing quality of Jeannie's voice and the beautiful harmonies with her guests. This is middle of the road country at it's best, with a strong twist of bluegrass thrown in for good measure. A few unlucky in love songs, a couple of tearjerkers and moderate tempo's put the Nashville feel all over the album.
Opening brightly with What Your Love Does To Me, Kendall soon drops into an easy paced set highlighted by the duet Timeless And True Love with Alan Jackson, Smokey Lonesome and one of the two songs featuring her father, Train Of Thought. The Colour Of Her Eyes would have done Red Sovine proud but it's sung so beautifully that you forgive the cheesiness of it all.
Like all good country albums it kind of feels like you've heard this all before, there's that comfortable, favourite pair of jeans feeling. So why don’t you go and put your biggest belt buckle on, get your hat looking just so, then sit down and lap it up. It's good. Craig Fenemor
Hugh Masekela: Hope
Triloka Records/Gold Circle Entertainment
Here's
one for the "hard to find but worth
the effort" file. Hugh Masekela is an African musical and social
legend that you may well have hidden away in your collection. (Check
the credits on Paul Simons Graceland DVD.) From his time with
South Africa's first significant jazz band, The Jazz Epistles, to years
spent in exile studying and playing in London and the States he became
one of the foremost anti-apartheid spokesman in the west. (He was also
married to fellow African legend Miriam Makeba for some years.)
Recorded live at Blues Alley, Washington in 1993, Hope essentially a collection of Masekela's personal favourites from the last 40 odd years. To quote Hugh this is "South African music in its truest contemporary form." What does that mean for us listeners? Heavily jazz influenced trumpet and flugelhorn with earthy vocals by Hugh, a tight backing band, funky bass lines, and African flavoured drums and percussion. On the whole this is joyful, passionate music, with great energy, and vitality.
Included is the US number one hit, Grazin' In The Grass which in the early 70's kept the Rolling Stones in the number 2 spot. Having spent a lot of his life in exile it's only natural that there will be songs of protest. Mandela cries hopefully for the release of the great man, but the highlight for me is the stunning Stimela. Telling the story of the conscripted miners, torn from their homelands to work in appalling conditions around Johannesburg. It's a powerful and unfailingly moving track, which doubles as a great test for your hi-fi's dynamic capability.
Well there you have it. One of those rare occasions where a great live recording is matched by great music. This is a cd that will have you dancing around in your room half the time, and gently swaying along for the other half. Enjoy. Craig Fenemor
The Persuasions: Sing the Beatles
Chesky Records through Elite, Hybrid SACD
Some thirty years on, this acappella
quartet “still ain’t
got no band”. Probably the best acappella group in the world, The
Persuasions turn their considerable vocal abilities to 13 Beatles songs
and one Lennon solo track (inevitably, Imagine).
While some song choices are predictable (Yesterday, Don’t Let Me Down and Imagine) who ever would have guessed that this album would feature Rocky Raccoon, the reprise of Sgt Pepper and (gulp!) The Ballad of John and Yoko?
Some arrangements work better than others, of course. I am particularly taken with the performances on two early Beatles tracks, Love Me Do and From Me To You, which bring the songs back afresh.
Recorded around a single microphone in a Manhattan church, The Persuasions Sing the Beatles sounds stunning. It’s the perfect disc for lovers of the human voice and the Beatles. My sample is a hybrid SACD, but the disc is also available as a conventional CD.
Technical notes: this is a hybrid multichannel SACD disc, which means it will play back in stereo in a CD player and in stereo or surround sound in a SACD player. The surround mix is very subtle, placing ambience in the rear channels, nicely placing the listener in the recording space. Michael Jones
Yellowjackets: Time Squared
Heads Up
Time Squared is a fresh offering of 11 original tracks from
the Heads Up label recording artist Yellowjackets. There is something
here for
every modern jazz musical taste, from up beat and quirky to measured
and mellow. The tunes showcase the musical diversity, and outright
abundant skill, of the four band members, Russell Ferrante (kybds), Jimmy
Haslip
(bass), Bob Mintzer (sax) and Marcus Baylor (drums).
As a collection of tunes, Time Squared offers much rhythmic and musical colour. The recording, produced by the band, is first-rate. After repeated listenings, my interest and enjoyment of each and every track grew. With Time Squared the Yellowjackets have produced a set of interesting and well-crafted tunes which seemed to leap with enthusiasm from my hi-fi with every playing!
If your musical interests include modern American jazz rooted in the 70s and 80s, and names like David Sanborn, Spyrogyra, Steps Ahead and Weather Report ring bells, it is a sure thing that you will enjoy this album. With 15 albums and a career spanning over 20 years the Yellowjackets are survivors, not to mention musical chameleons. Like many albums, this one deserves time to get to know and appreciate both the music and the players. Sit back, turn it up and enjoy the ride! Lloyd Macomber
The Zombies: Greatest Hits
Audio Fidelity hybrid SACD
If you saw this in a record store you’d
likely bypass this disc, as it looks like a cheap and nasty ripoff. That
would be a pity, as – awful
cover aside – this is the best sounding Zombies you’re likely
to find.
Below the first (Beatles and Stones) and second (Who and Kinks) rank of British acts of the 1960s were a third rank of acts who produced some fine music. One of these groups was the Zombies.
The Zombies produced three classic singles included here (She’s Not There, Tell Her No and Time of the Season) and one classic album (Odessey & Oracle – their last) between 1964 and 1968. Included is the original mono single mix of She’s Not There, as well as a stereo mix plus an alternate mono mix of Time of the Season.
Remastered from the original master tapes by noted mastering engineer Steve Hoffman (responsible for many great re-releases on the DCC label), Greatest Hits is the best sounding Zombies you’re likely to come across. There’s no New Zealand distributor, so you’ll need to order this disc from overseas.
Technical notes: this is a hybrid stereo SACD disc, which means it will play in both CD players and SACD players. Michael Jones
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