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November music reviews

The Chieftains Featuring Ry Cooder: San Patricio

Hear Music

Devising hybrid styles is par for the course for free-ranging guitar aficionado Cooder and collaborating with The Chieftains looked a cert for impact. But this fresh melding of cross-genre features is part happy marriage and greater part uneasy incongruence.

The album’s nineteen songs are tethered to the theme of commonality between Mexicans battling 1840s US expansionism and the San Patricios, the renegade Irish migrant battalion who deserted the American army to line up with the locals. Chieftain Paddy Maloney’s liner notes cautiously depict the turncoats as displaced and downtrodden men recklessly dreaming of “gold, god, or glory”, whose empathy for the oppressed Mexicans was embodied in the chords and conviction of their folk music.

The best of these songs evoke the despair of battle or the lost hope of the marooned migrant with plaintive anthems of fiddle, harp and pipes. Less palatable and more frequent are the more upbeat tunes, which seek fiesta-ish exuberance via an over-crowding of chorus and brass and Latino clamour. This is poignant in its Irish contemplation of lost causes, but undermined by the gratuitous fusion with which the Spanish connection is celebrated. Paul Green

Stanley Clarke Trio: Jazz in the Garden

Heads Up

Jazz bass player Clarke is joined by the very talented Japanese female pianist Hiromi Uehara, and his old fusion band mate, very busy drummer Lenny White. At first appearance this unlikely grouping of a delicately beautiful young Asian woman and two veterans in decades of jazz and jazz-rock fusion seems to be asking “what are the producers (Clarke and Dave Love) smoking?”

Well, whatever the motivation was, it all works out perfectly. Mainly because pianist Hiromi is one monster talent who is never intimidated, but always inspired, by the power and technical skills of her older band mates. Like most of the hot young jazz players around she has more than enough chops (technical skills) to burn. Though most importantly, she has that intangible emotional involvement of honestly beating into and beautifying the heart of any tune.

It doesn’t matter what style, hard-bop as on the Joe Henderson Isotope, or Miles’s Solar. Romantic - impressionist, Someday My Prince Will Come, her own elegant Sicilian Blue, the free improv duo with Stanley, Global Tweak or any of the seven other stylistically varied tunes, when Hiromi plays you think it’s Chick Corea, or Bud Powell, or Bill Evans except she seems better in this setting. Amazing.

I know this is supposed to be Stanley’s album, and I should tell you about him, though most jazz fans know he is a gifted lyrical improviser, monster technician, can superbly play all styles etc. And in this collection he gets plenty of space and time playing lead lines, wonderfully soloing and noodling. But the magic here is the melding of diverse talent styles into much, much more than just another jazz piano trio disc. Great recorded sound too. Highly recommended. John Paul

Elvis Costello: Secret, Profane & Sugarcane

Hear Music

By way of introduction to possible biases in the following review, I am a huge Elvis Costello fan. I like and own most of his recorded work and I've seen him perform live a couple of times. He's a hugely talented songwriter and also a gifted performer. I'm not one of those sad, misanthropic fans who only deigns to admire his earlier albums to the exclusion of his later work either. Even though, without a doubt he has made some truly awful albums along with the odd gem recently. For instance I actually like Painted From Memory, Costello's late 90's almost mawkish collaboration with Burt Bacharach. That's probably enough to get me kicked out of the 'real' Elvis Costello fan club in some folk's books.

Right, to the album at hand. When I first heard about this outing I was quite excited. In no small part because Secret, Profane & Sugarcane reunites Costello with the producer of 1986's brilliant King Of America, T-Bone Burnett. It was recorded with a small bluesgrass-style string band (featuring overhand slide genius Jerry Douglas) largely live-in-the-studio over three days in Nashville. There are thirteen songs, some co-writes and a couple of covers… and there are a couple of real gems amongst them, as you'd expect from such a gifted writer.

My All Time Doll is a strong tune if somewhat lost in a performance a little thin on musical snap, dynamics, or real grit. I can imagine the young Elvis and band on King Of America firing this one out with real passion. Another standout track is Sulphur To Sugarcane, which bounces along nicely and seems the better for the writing influence of Burnett. Overall though I have the feeling that this album may only get played every now and then. By contrast King Of America has been a playlist regular for me since the late '80s. I think this record suffers from an overdose of politeness, and 'muso-ness', for want of a better word. It's very well played, and there are a few good songs. But it never reaches the heights of the best of his albums. And I'm being polite too. Darren Watson

The Dandy Warhols: Best of the Capitol Years, 1995-2007

Capitol / EMI

You may not know that you know The Dandy Warhols. Their infectious songs have been appropriated for advertising purposes on more than one occasion. Most recently, Bohemian Like You was put to use selling Holdens. “'Cause I'm like you, yeah I'm like you, and I'm feeling so Bohemian like you. Woo!” Yeah, you know it.

The tracks on this 'best of' compilation are extracted from the Dandy Warhols' four albums on the Capitol label. While their first and latest albums were released by other companies (not counting Dandy Warhols are Sound, an alternate mix of Welcome to the Monkey House) it's probably safe to say the Capitol years reflect the band at the top of its game. It includes, Bohemian from Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia, released in 2000, and other major successes for the group like The Last High, Plan A, Not if You were the Last Junkie on Earth, and We used to be Friends.

The fi isn't especially hi, as you might expect, and is seems at its best around 2003's Welcome to the Monkey House. The band's earlier and later fascination for burying the percussion, especially the sad over-damped kick drum, is quite frustrating. Still, the sheer listenability of the tracks assembled here more than compensate for the lack of engineering gymnastics.

Although the Dandies hail from Portland Oregon, their influences are far from provincial. As a consequence, they've tended to chart better in the UK and Australia than the US, where they probably got chased out of bars by angry rednecks in their early days. The tracks on the album are arranged in chronological order, and there's a very obvious progression from melodious rhythm-guitar backed songs, to synth-orientated arrangements, and then back again. The newest stuff, Smoke it and the album's exclusive new track This is the Tide are noticably grungier in inspiration. Long time fans may be pleased to hear the Dandies retreat from experimentation with electronica, but I miss the inventiveness of that period in the newer songs. If you don't have any of the band's albums, but are quite partial to the music of young persons, you'll be glad to have this in your collection. Brent Burmester

Johnny Flynn: Been Listening

Transgressive

This charming and assured second album from upbeat ‘roadside poet’ Flynn is a significant supplement to the burgeoning catalogue of nu-folk rock. Sometimes robust and bustling, elsewhere sinewy and melancholy, and always commanding attention with its crafted sound and lyricism.

Flynn’s voice has the warm, worn and wise timbre of the archetypal English folk minstrel, yet he can deliver with a lightness and suppleness that allows refreshing subversion of the time-honoured conventions. Embedded in the traditional declamatory phrasing there’s a young strong eloquence forcefully upbraiding “nicotine-burning sycophants”, gently but not preciously recalling “stealing a kiss from fortune’s lips”, or counter-balanced in lilting harmony with Laura Marling in the plaintive ‘The Water’.

And the instrumentation is just as compelling: sawing cello off-set with twisting lamenting violin in Barnacled Warship, trumpets and mandolin strident in the distinctive kicking Kentucky Pill (the single release, but probably the song least congruent with the overall collection), and gracefully spare piano and harmonium in Amazon Love. Stirring stuff. Paul Green

Gypsy Kings: The Best Of The Gypsy Kings

Nonesuch

Bring on the Rumba Flamenco dancers, palmas and the stomp of tacones. Transport yourself to a flamenco festival in Jerrez or a heaving club on the Med, this compilation album would suit either venue.

Most of the tracks on the album are well-known songs. The third track Baile Me has a touch of salsa funk whilst Volare has been given a more funkier up-tempo beat and rhythmic palmas.

Gypsies created flamenco, although this collection deviates from the traditional flamenco music, with its pop influences, staunch flamenco dancers, singers and guitaritst cannot fail to enjoy the fiesta-mood of this album. Their style of Rumba Flamenco still embraces rhythmic palmas, feverish flamenco guitar leads and some cante jondo.

Overall, it is fun, light and enjoyable, but perhaps a handful too many tracks crammed onto one CD. Patricia Evans

Hayseed Dixie: Killer Grass

Cooking Vinyl

Bohemian Rhapsody truly ruptured, the vocalist sounding as though being asphyxiated ’…can’t do this to me baby...’, but he continues, ‘nothing really matter… anyone can see’. Yes, nothing really matters after this abysmal rendition!

Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik is slaughtered, what ever happened to respect for classics and legends? If you were a Sabbath fan, this version of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath would leave you reaching out for an abrasive device to remove any traces from your person.

Without criticising this album any further, their ‘Who put that condom in my shoe?’ says it all. This album is truly awful. Yes, I know these guys are not to be taken seriously, but this idea of fun-music just doesn’t cut it!

The accompanying DVD is ‘mildly’ entertaining and aptly rated M. This compilation’s only saving grace is the banjo-picking tutorial on the DVD.

Their comic-style rockgrass with ‘interpretations’ of classics is excruciatingly tedious and distasteful. Steer clear of it, leave it on the shelf. Let’s hope they can reduce pollution by not producing a ninth album! Patricia Evans

Etta James: The Essential Etta James

Legacy

Etta flaunts her primal, powerful and provocative voice over this collection of songs taken from the last twenty years of her work. The songs alternate through various genres, a reflection of her continually changing style over the years. The opening track, The Blues is My Business is raunchy followed by the love ballad, If I Had Any Pride Left at All. Rootsier sounds followed by softer – this is the style throughout the first CD, featuring covers of artists’ work such as Alice Cooper, Mick Jagger and Prince.

The second disc is essentially jazz oriented, music for a mellow Sunday afternoon, featuring old favourites, Night and Day, My Funny Valentine and the final track is the soulful ballad, At Last, but not least - a song recorded by many artists but the ultimate epitome of this fine piece of blues is Etta James herself. The second CD is more consistent in style - both very pleasing. A recommended collection. Patricia Evans

Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings: I Learned The Hard Way

Shock Records

If you're any kind of fan of soul music Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings should need no introduction. Their work in the 'classic' soul genre really is without peer in my opinion.

With a couple of good albums under their belt, I Learned The Hard Way is really more of the same. And that's no bad thing. It's chock-full of well-written songs performed with verve and authority – recorded through analog consoles and effects to analog eight track tape machines.

Any of their albums sound like they could have been recorded anytime between 1966 and '72. While some artists use this kind of equipment and 'retro-vibe' as a chance to play 'dress-up' for while, The Dap Kings are obviously committed to making great music in this genre – and they largely succeed with this album. There's a bunch of good songs spanning feels from Stax, to Motown, to funkier influences – but it's all authentic stuff and it stands up well against the 'real thing' to these ears.

Standout tracks for me are the opening track The Game Gets Old, which has a beautiful arrangement and perfect production, and Window Shopping, which is as good as anything Hayes-Porter wrote in Memphis in the golden age of southern soul. If you love soul music go out and buy I Learned The Hard Way and you will grow to love it. The CD sounds pretty good but get it on vinyl if you can. It rules! Darren Watson

The Killers: Killers - Live From The Royal Albert Hall

Island

The stock ‘live’ features are all here: boosted hoots and whoops of adoring audience, mass-clapped rhythms, mic to crowd for a chanted favourite chorus, and the increasingly jubilant celebrations as the heavyweight numbers are rolled out.

There’s no doubt the Killers have grafted hard and conjured a rock pop songbook that is still “soaking the spine” of millions; however, their impact is sold short by this recording. The muscle and pulse are here, but not the precision and subtlety of vocal inflection or instrumentation. Instead, it’s mostly a case of rushed-bass, over-percussive, over-faithful re-work of an original, with mandatory breathless “’hank you” before the next hit on the list.

The loyal will re-live their tribute night out; for the rest of us, this is another aspiring triumphant concert performance undone on disc. Paul Green

Jacques Loussier: Plays Bach The 50th Anniversary Recording

Telarc

Is it Classical music? Is it Jazz music? No, it’s pianist Loussier’s fusion of 11 proper Johann Sebastian Bach works with “jazzy” bass and drums accompaniment. An appreciative audience encourages their virtuosity.

Is it good? Well it’s all quite technically proficient. But the question is, does it work for you? Well, he’s got dozens upon dozens of albums over a half century of performing and recording. And he’s sold zillions of copies of his unique “fusion” treatments. But is it legitimate artistic work?

That last one is a tough question. Has JS Bach’s music ever needed rhythmic enhancement? Do punters tap their toes more when they have a bassist and drummer thumping out, and over-accenting the metre for them?

In an audiophile sense, like those smooth caramel sounding low power SET amps, if it makes you happy, fine. Listen to David Helfgott playing his “unique emotional” Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #3 too. But I think there are just some things that shouldn’t be, and needn’t be, dare I rudely use the term, jazzed up. John Paul

Branford Marsalis Quartet: Metamorphosen

MarsalisMusic/Universal

Jazz saxophonist Marsalis leads pianist Joey Calderazzo, bassist Eric Reevis and drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts in nine band compositions that emphasize his status as a true living musical treasure. For those lucky enough last February to hear them live in Wellington at the Michael Fowler Centre, this is the same group, with the exception of newest member Justin Faulkner drumming on that night. Some of the tunes played that night were “from the latest album”, but in the finest tradition of jazz, albeit compromised by the weakness of my musical memory, they were quite different than on this disc.

As an aside, confirming Branford’s natural spontaneity, after doing the opening tune, a band member asked “what song’s next?”, and somebody else said “where’s the set list?”. Whereupon Branford made this mocking great pronouncement, “set lists are for singers, we don’t need ’em, we’re players”. And boy, oh, boy, are they ever players. Then, and now on this disc, they are players.

Marsalis be-bop interweaves with pianist Calderazzo on the Jeff Watts composition The Return of the Jitney Man then takes it into spaces reminiscent, but not derivative, of the best Coltrane efforts. Bassist Eric Reevis shows his love for Monkish intervals with his tunes Sphere and Abe Vigoda which all the band expand upon in clever and entertaining extensions. Virtuoso pianist Calderazzo pens a gorgeous sad ballad The Last Goodbye where Branford plays a poignant parallel soprano lead line then lets the “impressionist” pianist take his tune into sorrow touching territory.

Branford refreshes our ears as he takes up the rare, for him, alto sax for his composition Jabberwocky that is one of those things, like brother Wynton does, sounds like NawOrlanz 2 step Dixieland heavily worked over by Charley Parker and T. Monk. Lots of wide interval notes lovingly bouncing along convoluted melody variations while always still feeling blues rooted.

Recorded quality is excellent, group playing is superb, creativity is by the bucketful, and this will reward you in repeated listening sessions. Buy it! John Paul

The Naked and Famous: Passive Me, Aggressive You

Universal

Even if you don’t think you know them, you do. It may not be by the name Young Blood, which was a number 1 single and won the Silver Scroll Best Song award recently. You will know it as the song that goes ‘...yeah yeah yeah yeeeahhh’.

TNaF debut album by the Auckland band is a revelation of sorts. It is exquisitely produced. If you want to test some speakers...use this.

For a band that is only two years and two EPs old, this is accomplished, mature and full of catchy songs.

It opens with the gloriously poppy All Of This. It shows how damn confident and carefree this band can seemingly be in one moment. Young Blood and second single Punching in a Dream may reference MGMT, but in turn MGMT referenced Flaming Lips. The Lips referenced... well... California Sunshine. TNaF wear influences on their (record cover) sleeves. The taut, creeping The Sun is surely their nod to Nine Inch Nails Something I Can Never Have. (Trent Reznor is a fan of the band).

80’s and 90’s influences abound, and that’s ok. Eyes is a slow burning 80’s crooner with layers of harmonies and gentle soaring chorus. No Way plays the 90’s loud-quiet-loud card perfectly. Essentially a ballad, it is delicate then drenched in nasty feedback, with more than a hint of My Bloody Valentine guitar pedal abuse for good measure.  This will be a monster when heard live.

Singer Alisa Xayalith range and ability to hold back and release when needed, is TNaF big payoff. She has a tone that can be soft and fragile and can just as effortlessly stretch and howl. Still, TNaF sounds like a band and hell... it’s a band a fire. Chris Mooar

Rolling Stones: Exile On Main Street (Re-issue)

As a separate article.

SMV: Thunder

Heads Up

The letters stand for S, Stanley Clarke, M, Marcus Miller, and V, Victor Wooten. All three are widely respected jazz rock fusion funk pop or whatever else they attempt to categorise, fleet fingered, string popping, growling electric bassists as. Thirteen original compositions from S, M, V, or co-authored, are presented.

They do make some very interesting sounds with their instruments. And they do have some occasional light help from master keyboard players Chick Corea and George Duke (on one tune each) plus real and electronic drummers and mysterious “effects” boxes, synths, and so forth.

This studio production is note perfect in that you hear individual parts and then realize this to be just an elaborate overly produced noodling jam session.

Three electric bass players, what can you expect? If you play that instrument you may justifiably love this disc, or if you particularly like electric bass tricks and tonalities, this may tickle your ears. But this is pretty much where it starts and stops, three electric bassists having thunderous fun with each other. John Paul

Paul Weller: Wake Up The Nation

Island Records

His tenth solo album. Some might call it lean, mean and truly rock n roll, however, Weller’s previous work with Style Council, with its soul influences suit his vocal range more so than the rock style of his recent work. Moonshine is a disappointing opener to this CD. Wake up the Nation, the title track is also very weak.

Throughout the album, I’d hoped for Weller’s exhilarating and stirring vocals to come through, but was treated to the occasional ballad, such as No Tears to Cry and Aim High.

Weller in the early days, inspired by Motown and soul then later fired up by punk would be the choice and style rather than the aggressive charge that leads him through this album, seemingly to try and win back popularity as a solo artist?

Overall a mix of allsorts, rock, soul, funk, jazz – a dog’s breakfast – a miss! Patricia Evans