CD Review: Music Written for Monterey 1965, Not Heard… Played in its Entirety At UCLA (Charles Mingus)

Music Written for Monterey 1965
Not Heard… Played in its Entirety At UCLA
Charles Mingus
Sue Mingus Music
2006
11 tracks

This is big music, not just in the size of the band but in the music’s emotional power. This is music with movements, like Mozart or Beethoven or any of the finest classical composers, music that moves you like the best jazz combos, music that draws your emotions to the surface like the most sultry torch-songs, music that lives on outside time and touches everyone who listens. If classical music had not ossified at the end of the Nineteenth Century, leaving only a few so-called modern composers to move it forward, this is what that music would have become.

In 1965, I was listening to new music by Charles Mingus on long-playing vinyl records released by specialized jazz labels. For me, the music was new and wonderful. I revelled in this innovative, powerful jazz that seemed to be moving the music forward. This new release of music written by Mingus and recorded in a live 1965 concert takes me back to that time but also allows me the perspective of hindsight. It’s through this prism of time that I’m now hearing this music.

After forty some years, I can hear the influence of Mingus in the music of so many other great artists, not just in jazz but across the spectrum of popular and more academic styles. More exciting is that today the music sounds just as fresh and exciting as ever, and every bit as innovative as it did so long ago. This refreshing music may continue to influence composers and performers for many decades to come, not just in America but around the world.

Although this release includes only 11 tracks of music, 19 total tracks if you count the bits of speech between the music, it gives the listener almost 90 minutes of music by one of America’s finest composers and his band. To listen is to be entranced by the beauty and power of this music as it carries the listener through highs and lows and from mood to mood. It’s electrifying and it’s elequent and it speaks to the world with the voice of America.

Like Ellington, Copland, Grofé, and only a few others, Charles Mingus has discovered the heart of America and set it to music that transcends time and space. This is the new music of the American spirit, the transition through the Twentieth Century, into the Twenty-First, and into the future. Jazz music will never be the same again.

While much and perhaps all of this music has a large, almost classical feel behind the jazz surface, two numbers near the end of the set stand out as different from the rest. Amid all the contemporary Mingus compositions, with “Muskrat Ramble,” written in 1926 by Ray Gilbert and Edward “Kid” Ory, the band swings into Dixieland mode as it shuffles toward the end of the set. Like a flashback in a movie, “Muskrat Ramble” fits right in and brings added depth and history to this otherwise modern set. The final song is a spoken word adaptation of “First they came…,” a poem attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the failure of German intellectuals to oppose the Nazis. Mingus adapts this poem to address racism and other problems Americans face, giving a heartfelt spoken performance of “Don’t Let It Happen Here” over appropriately moving musical backing.

Besides Charles Mingus on bass and piano, this concert features Hobart Dotson and Lonnie Hilyer on trumpet, Jimmy Owens on flugelhorn and trumpet, Charles McPherson on alto saxophone, Julius Watkins on french horn, Howard Johnson on tuba, and Danny Richmond on drums. Among them all, there’s not a performance that is less than excellent.

Anyone who would like to travel to the epicentre of modern jazz music, to the point where American music’s past takes on a new polish and becomes its own future, should definitely give this concert a listen. Without this recording, no collection of jazz music is complete.

This album’s jewel-case insert includes delightful, very informative forward notes by Sue Mingus, further notes by Fred Cohen and Sue Mingus, and various other notes, illustrations and commentaries, including an excerpt from the autobiographical book Beneath the Underdog, written by Mingus. More than just an interesting read, these notes bring a certain historical perspective to the life and music of Charles Mingus.

You can find out more about the late Charles Mingus(1922–1979), at Charles Mingus: The Official Site or at Wikipedia.

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CD Review: Soul Eclectic (Sophia Darcell)

Soul Eclectic
Sophia Darcell
GrooveCraft Entertainment Group
2006
12 tracks

Sophia Darcell is an interesting, talented singer. Her recording is well produced and professional, with a solid band backing up her vocals. It’s all there. Or is it? In my lifetime, I’ve known a lot of performers like Sophia Darcell, seen them perform and been impressed by their talent. They’re big stars in the hometown, perhaps even regionally, but they never break out of the box. Some intangible spark necessary to set the artist apart is missing.

Even though Darcell has had a respectable career to date, with tour dates up and down the U.S. east coast, one previous CD release, and reasonable amounts of airplay, her sound still feels like what one would hear in a local jazz club. There’s a comfort level that will bring in the hometown fans but may not be enough to hook the national audience in any big way.

Darcell has a full, rich voice and she uses it well, seeming to have a very good grasp of the essentials of popular jazz and R&B singing styles. There’s energy and often even passion in her singing. In some songs, she approaches but never quite achieves a level of sensuality usually present in torch songs. Listening to her sing is an enjoyable experience, but the emotions never reach out and grab the listener by the soul.

It’s problematic that, while this is Sophia Darcell’s album, I found myself as often listening to the backing musicians as I was her. In fact, at some points in some songs, the players in the band fully distracted me from her singing. To be fair, this is not so much that Darcell is not good at what she does but that the musicians are at least as good and sometimes add a lot more spice to this music than she does.

I was especially taken by the trumpet and saxophone tracks. Some of Ken Watters’ trumpet tracks are especially sweet, very reminiscent of vintage Freddy Hubbard. As soon as that horn starts blowing, I’m swept right out of Darcell’s vocal and into another lovely world. The sax tracks by Michael Burton and Sonny Calo are as sweet but, unfortunately, often too low in the mix and too often not there at all.

Some of the instrumentation is distracting for other reasons. The drumming sometimes tends toward the hokey, bringing memories of the bongos and congas in Nineties singer-songwriter folk music releases. There’s also a weird, distorted sort of electronic thing that shows up in some of the songs. I haven’t quite figured it out, but it could be created by electric guitar or by keyboard. However it may have been created, like some of the drum sounds it doesn’t belong in the cool, jazzy R&B sound being presented here.

It’s clear that Sophia Darcell has the talent necessary to succeed, and she certainly has access to talented musicians and a professional recording facility. She’s young, so may just need time and experience to discover that spark within herself that will set her on fire. Until then, I can’t see her rising above the regionality of the U.S. eastern seaboard. Still, that’s quite a respectable level of success for a young artist. Darcell has time to take it to the next level. I hope she’ll make the leap.

You can learn more about Sophia Darcell and her music at Sophia Darcell’s Joint or on MySpace.

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CD Review: Wake (Dead Can Dance)

Wake
Dead Can Dance
4AD
2003
26 tracks

Featuring a large orchestral sound that transcends definition, Dead Can Dance is in fact the creation of only two artists, Australians Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard. If this music could be placed within a genre, and I doubt it can, that genre might include a wide spectrum of artists such as Tangerine Dream, The Mystical Moods Orchestra, Clannad, The Cranberries, Girls Against Boys (GVSB), Loreena McKennitt, The Doors and diverse others. Common among these groups is an inherent sense of mystery that crosses the aeons yet is contemporary as tomorrow’s news. Like the others, Dead Can Dance fits this mold yet stands apart and unique.

There’s a lot here. This release includes 26 tracks spanning almost 20 years of recording, from 1981 through 1998. The set begins with the pair’s 1981 demo recording of “Frontier” and includes tracks from every release after that, including the 2001 box set, The Lotus Eaters. Also included is a thick, information packed, 24 page jewel case insert that includes extensive biographical information plus song lyrics and more. As retrospectives go, this release is very comprehensive.

High in Alberta’s Rocky Mountains, a cloud will envelope you as you drive, sometimes swirling and shifting around you, sometimes placid and enveloping, its shape and density changing constantly and the world within the cloud seeming changed and somehow more mysterious. The impressions are at once complex and yet the most simple and even primitive. Then, as quickly as it came over you, it’s gone and there is only sunshine. The music of Dead Can Dance is like that.

The music in these performances is dense and highly complex, rich with expression and with allusions to music from a multitude of ages and cultures, all rising and ebbing and flowing over the listener like some mystic cloud. It’s intellectual music that can challenge the perceptive listener and yet it’s music that’s easy to passively settle into and absorb. In all of its complexity, this music manages also to be involving at the most primitive level. The music and the voices are drawn from many cultures ancient and modern and includes sounds drawn from nature and modern audio science. The effect is electrifying.

Brendan Perry has a deep, rich baritone voice reminiscent of the late Jim Morrison, and a drawling vocal style to match. Often, his approach is not so much singing as rhythmic elocution, bringing the words and ideas to the forefront while still presenting a face that is very much of the music. There is a beauty in his presentation that’s unique and not really comparable to another artist.

In contrast to Perry, Lisa Gerrard brings to this music a mystical, primitive sound, often non-verbal and always dramatic. There’s an edginess about her vocal style that grabs the listener and draws him or her deep into the soundscape and into another world. Her sound is at the same time both very spooky and very classical. As Perry’s, Gerrard’s voice is unique, dramatic, and very striking.

As retrospective compilations go, Wake is exceptional in its depth and quality. I would highly recommend that any fan of Dead Can Dance get this CD and that anyone interested in avant garde music but not yet aware of Dead Can Dance at least give the music here a listen.

The beat goes on. Since their 2005 world tour as Dead Can Dance, Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard separately continue to explore the frontiers of world music, bringing new insights to our collective musical and intellectual perception.

There’s abundant information about Dead Can Dance online at fan sites such as the Dead Can Dance Within or Dead Can Dance websites. There is also a useful, if somewhat limited, report on Dead Can Dance available at Wikipedia.

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CD Review: Tenor Madness (Sonny Rollins Quartet)

Tenor Madness
Sonny Rollins Quartet
Prestige Records
2006
5 tracks

There are only five songs on this CD, but they’re songs no lover of great jazz saxophone should be without. The title song alone makes this a release worth owning. The others are the icing on the cake and the sweet cherries on top. Each time one listens to this set, it yields new surprises and delights. Wonderful!

Originally recorded by Rudy Van Gelder on May 24, 1956 and remastered by him in 2006, these songs feature not only Sonny Rollins on tenor saxophone but a classy jazz combo that included John Coltrane on tenor saxophone (on the title track only), Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums. In combination, the sounds they put out are some of the finest jazz of the last century.

“Tenor Madness” features two of the greatest jazz tenor sax players, Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, wailing together and separately within a marvelous ambience of solid drums and bass with grooving piano. This madness goes on for a thoroughly enjoyable twelve minutes plus. It’s a not to be missed performance.

Starting with the thrum of Chambers’ bass until Rollin’s rolls in mellow on sax, “When Your Lover Has Gone” is a mellow lounge rendition. It makes a sweet listen that would be ideal backgound for a quiet conversation between lovers, yet it’s up-tempo enough to allow for dancing just close enough. The instrumental mix is sweet and lovely.

“Paul’s Pal” has more of a swing to it, bringing the drive of Rollin’s tenor sax up front and dancing across the soundscape. Test yourself. Do you really think you can sit still while listening to this one? It’s unlikely. This song is sure to bring the dancers to the floor. There’s a very nice bass solo in the middle that showcases the talent of Paul Chambers.

The song “My Reverie” has always had a certain subtlety built in, like an expensive mattress that softly embraces you as you settle into it. This arrangement takes that soft comfort to its limits, creating a comfortable ambience ideal to back a candlelit dinner for two.

“The Most Beautiful Girl in the World” is like a party. At times it feels like relaxed conversation over cocktails and at other times it’s wild and rollicking. It escalates and pulls back, swings slow and powerful then moves up-tempo and rocks the room. There are bits and pieces of other songs in the solos, and every player gets a solo or two, including some great bits by Jones on drums and Garland on piano. This is an ideal song to end this set.

Of historical interest, this album’s jewel-case insert includes Ira Gitler’s original liner notes from the 1956 release ((Prestige 7047), Mark Gardner’s new liner notes for the 1969 reissue (Prestige 7657), and interesting new notes written by Gitler for this release. These notes give the reader a compelling historical and contemporary perspective on Sonny Rollins and the music he created.

At just over 35 minutes, this is a short set in today’s CD market but it out-values many releases twice the length. This is classic Fifties jazz at the top of its form, played by masters of the craft at the top of their careers. Any collector who doesn’t have this release already should definitely add it as soon as possible.

You can find a wealth of information on jazz great Sonny Rollins at the Official Home of the Saxophone Colossus or at Wikipedia.

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CD Review: Oy to the World! A Klezmer Christmas (The Klezmonauts)

Oy to the World! A Klezmer Christmas
The Klezmonauts
Satire
2006
10 tracks

The Canadian humourist Stephen Leacock once wrote about a man who, “…flung himself from the room, flung himself upon his horse and rode madly off in all directions.” Musically, that’s how this release feels. With only ten songs totalling less than one half hour duration Oy to the World! A Klezmer Christmas manages to cover a lot of territory. It’s Christmas music, Hanukkah music, Klezmer music, tango music, movie music, surfing music. It’s most serious and it’s seriously silly. And it’s just, well… wonderful!

A Jewish secular music form, Klezmer has existed possibly since as early as the year 150, has been documented since the 15th Century, and since the 19th Century has spread from its modern origins in Bessarabia across Europe and into the the Americas, influencing many forms of popular music including polka and tango. It’s a joyous, heart-stirring, practically irresistable form of music and an open invitation to dance.

The music on this release has the lively, exotic feel of an oriental bazaar, or at least the sort of oriental bazaar we see in old movies. Every song brings with it a sense of drama, the expectation that something wonderful may happen at any moment.

There’s a serious side to this experiment in cultural blending. The musicianship is superb, and the songs are filled with allusions to other songs, other genres, and other musical eras. Within the Klezmer envelope are included tastes of classical music, dixieland jazz, classic rock, pop music, and other forms that add to the overall delight of this release. The effect is a psychedelic blending of musics and cultures into something truly universal. Yet, at root this set is a classic work of humour, at times subtle and at other times quite outrageous.

As I listen, I’m flooded with memories of recordings heard long ago. There’s the irreverent clatter of Spike Jones’ “Nutcracker Suite” with all it’s insanity, “I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas” and “Yingle Bells” from Harry Stewart as Yogi Yorgesson, and even, or perhaps especially, “Who Stole the Kishka” by Frankie Yankovic and covered by probably every other polka band in North America. Not really a Christmas song, “Kishka” inevitably got a lot of airplay during each Christmas season for more than a decade.

The set begins conservatively enough with a quiet version of “We Three Kings” that escalates not all that gradually into a riotous splash of Klezmer that sets up the listener for the rest of the songs in the set.

The set ends in an equally quiet version of “Away in a Manger” that brings the listener out of the insanity and back to the real world. Peaceful and reverent, This is perhaps the most peaceful and traditional of any song in this set.

Set against the mostly instrumental selections in this set, the lovely vocal version of “Jingle Bells” in Yiddish comes as a delightful surprise. The instrumental bits between and around the vocal evoke memories alternately of B. Bumble and the Stingers’ hit “Bumble Boogie” (Rimsky-Korsakoff reformed as Boogie Woogie by pianist Jack Fina) and Spike Jones at his most riotous.

“Good King Wenceslas” begins with all the pomp and circumstance of a B movie about Arabia then swings into a Middle-Eastern melody over a bass line reminiscent of The Drifters and punctuated with heraldic horns that might hark back to Robin Hood. But wait! Is that just a bit of “Sunshine of Your Love” that I hear infiltrating this song? Yes, and then more classical allusions follow. The mind boggles. All this in just over two minutes.

“The Little Drummer Boy” lopes into sight quietly then, without warning halfway through the song, breaks into a wild drummer mode that can’t help but bring to mind the surfing classic “Wipeout,” right down to the guitar shots amidst the drums and those orchestral waves of instrumentation so endemic to all surfing music.

Be sure to listen for some echoes of old Clint Eastwood westerns in “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.” The effect is almost disturbing, but in a fun way.

The only original song on this release, “Santa Gey Gezunderheit” is clever and funny and a joy to hear. This is a well-written, humourous story that should become a Christmas radio classic, if only as an antidote to the perennial schmalz that fills the airwaves at this time of year.

If you prefer to take your music straight, conventional, and serious, this is not for you. Oy to the World! A Klezmer Christmas will appeal to the person who delights in the bizarre and the unconventional, who relishes the surprises in life and takes fun wherever it can be found. For such individuals, these songs will present an ecstatic kaleidoscope of musical colours. I recommend it highly.

You can learn more about The Klezmonauts at the Oy to the World! website. This website also includes a sampler page where you can download a full-length mp3 of the title song and listen to clips of the other nine songs.

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CD Review: Gently Weeps (Jake Shimabukuro)

Gently Weeps
Jake Shimabukuro
Hitchhike Records
2006
17 tracks

If you’ve ever thought of the ukulele as a simple instrument or even a type of toy instrument, the playing of Jake Shimabukuro will shatter that illusion. I first became aware of this young Hawaiian musician through a music video of Shimabukuro playing “While my Guitar Gently Weeps” which had been posted on YouTube, google and other websites. This young man’s performance was, at the very least, impressive.

Played by such popular artists as George Formby, Ukulele Ike (Cliff Edwards), Frank Crumit, and Roy Smeck in the first half of the last century, the ukulele has found its own unique place in the world of popular music. It’s been played by such musical luminaries as Arthur Godfrey, Don Ho, George Harrison, Buster Keaton, Herbert Khaury (Tiny Tim), Eddie Vedder, Eric Clapton, Chrissie Hynde, and many more.

The ukulele may seem a simple instrument but, in the right hands, it’s versatile and capable of making beautiful music. Jake Shimabukuro is a master of this instrument, taking it to its limits and even, if this is possible, beyond. The most recent player in a long tradition, Shimabukuro raises the bar, bringing this humble Hawaiian instrument to a whole new level of class and respectability. His virtuoso playing may even surpass that of the wonderful Roy Smeck, known in his day as the “Wizard of the Strings.”

I’ve never really understood the idea of so-called “bonus tracks” on CD releases. There’s really nothing “bonus” about them at all, and the whole idea seems just silly. Take this CD, for instance. It has seventeen tracks total. The packaging lists the first twelve tracks then adds the heading “Bonus Tracks” and lists five more songs. To me, that would suggest that somewhere there’s an identical CD available for the same price that includes only the first twelve tracks. I suspect that’s not the case. So why not just list all seventeen tracks and be done with it?

I could say a lot about each of these songs, but that would make a very long review. Shimabukuro’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is an exceptional interpretation of this classic. “Ave Maria” is soft and gentle, a lovely, old-fashioned solo instrumental. “Let’s Dance” is a lively dance number with a bit of flamenco flavour reminiscent of Jose Feliciano. Other songs appear to show the influence of Antonio Carlos Jobim, Clapton, and other guitar greats of the past forty years. Several tracks, such as “Misty,” have a cool, jazzy feel to them that harks back to mid-century. Others, like “Beyond the Break,” with a surfing music style that takes me back to Dick Dale, have a definite rock edge. Every song includes different elements that set it apart and demonstrate the versatility of Jake Shimabukuro.

While each of the instrumental songs in this set impressed me both for the consistent high quality of Shimabukuro’s performance and for the variety of style that set each song apart, I was especially impressed by the final track, “Wish on a Star.” It wasn’t so much Shimabukuro who impressed me on this one song in the set with a vocal part, but the wonderful voice of Jennifer Perri. This is a beautiful, sensitive interpretation of a quiet love song. Perri has one of the sweetest voices I’ve heard in a long time.

Jake Shimabukuro, a young man with an impressive talent, is clearly not one to hide his light under a bushel. This is a brilliant set of music by an accomplished young artist. I would definitely recommend getting this release, recorded while his light brightly shines. Already widely known, this young man is destined to become a star.

Learn everything there is to know about Jake Shimabukuro at the Official Jake Shimabukuro Website. You can hear four tracks from this release on Jake Shimabukuru’s MySpace page.

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CD Review: The Very Best of Jerry Garcia (Jerry Garcia)

The Very Best of Jerry Garcia
Jerry Garcia
Rhino Records
2006
26 tracks

I was never a Deadhead but I was listening when The Grateful Dead first hit the radio in 1965 and I liked what I heard. I only later became aware of Jerry Garcia as an individual writer and performer. Because Garcia was so influential in creating the sound of The Grateful Dead, I find it difficult, if not impossible, to separate the two. Perhaps the biggest difference is that, on his own, Jerry Garcia is far more eclectic and perhaps even more eccentric than was his most famous band, even at its most extreme. Listening to this double set of studio and live performances, I still like what I hear. I like it a lot.

To get the most out of these two sets, I recommend that the listener approach this music with no expectations. Rather than as a famous icon of a generation, think of Garcia as just another musician. Don’t buy into that “very best of” label. Don’t even accept that the music may be good because I’ve said it is. Just listen.

Given a career as long, varied, and eclectic as Garcia’s, I don’t believe that anyone can determine what is really the “very best” of an artist’s career. It’s all too subjective. What criteria are to be used? Who decides what is good, what is better and what is best? Even so, although it’s uneven in some ways, this 26 song retrospective presents a fairly complete picture of who Garcia was as a musician.

Almost half of the songs presented here had first been recorded by other artists. I find these eleven performances the most interesting. I’ve always found the term “cover” offensive because, when I was younger, this term had meant to perform the song pretty much as it had been on the original recording. Back then, and even earlier, artists had interpreted songs, performed them in their own manner without much, if any, attempt to be true the original version. I found no cover versions in these sets, but I did listen to some wonderful interpretations by a master stylist.

Written by Leon Chapeleau, “Deep Elm Blues” was first recorded in 1957 as the B-side of the rockabilly song “Wow Man” by Bobby Jackson, a disk jockey from Amarillo, Texas. It was subsequently recorded by a series of rockabilly and country artists. Somewhere along the line, the title morphed into “Deep Ellum” or “Deep Elem” and that version became a standard of The Grateful Dead. The 1987 live version by the Jerry Garcia Acoustic band holds true to this song’s rockabilly roots, intertwining elements of blues, country, and folk music. Rambling on for more than six minutes, this interpretation of “Deep Elem Blues” is unlikely to lose the interest of even the most jaded listener.

When I was a teen, two of the songs most discussed by me and my would-be musician friends were “Johnny Be Goode” and “Let it Rock” by Chuck Berry. To this day, they remain among my favourites. Jerry Garcia’s studio version of “Let it Rock” is a powerful interpretation. While it doesn’t replicate Chuck Berry, it echoes some lesser-known Chuck Berry sounds. Unlike many recordings of this song, my album cut from the 1956 Berry album of the same name is replete with Jazz and Blues references and sometimes wanders off the Rock & Roll track. I don’t know whether Garcia ever heard this recording, but his interpretation takes much the same approach, enriching this song with a variety of musical references. I could have listened to this track for six or even twelve minutes and still enjoyed it. Unfortunately, the track ends at just over three minutes with a fade that sounds like the original must have been much longer. In my opinion, Garcia or his producers should have taken the song’s advice and let it rock.

While both discs in this release span many genres, often mixing several in one song, they are different in overall approach. The studio disc tends to centre on Jazz, Blues, and mid-century popular music sounds. The live disc tends very much toward Country & Western or Folk music. What unifies the release is the sweet Rock and Roll centre that pervades every song on both discs.

It probably shouldn’t, but the Reggae on the live disc comes as a bit of a surprise. The two longest songs in the set are both based in the jumpy rhythms of this Caribbean music. At almost thirteen minutes, Jimmy Cliff’s “The Harder They Come” is a masterpiece, as is the almost twelve minute long previously unreleased track of “Dear Prudence” from the pens of Lennon and McCartney.

Garcia’s interpretations of Bob Dylan’s “Positively Fourth Street” [also long at nearly eleven minutes] and “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” [another Reggae arrangement] stand with the best recorded versions of Dylan’s songs. It appears that Dylan was correct when he said that “Garcia was the best at covering his songs and if he wondered how to perform his own songs live, he looks at how the the Dead/Garcia did it.” [Wikipedia]

Other performances with which I was especially impressed include the very folky “Catfish John,” the plaintive “Senor,” Irving Berlin’s classic “Russian Lullaby,” Clyde McPhatter’s R&B standard “Without Love,” and the rocking “Evangeline.” Even so, there’s not a bad song on these two discs. I’m sure that each listener will discover his or her favourites.

Depending on who’s listening, the 26 tracks on this release may or may not be “The Very Best of Jerry Garcia” as the title suggests, however they do present a solid retrospective of Garcia’s career. For collectors, for fans, for hard-core Deadheads, and for those who may just be curious about this man and his work, I recommend giving this double set a listen.

You can learn more about Jerry Garcia and his art at the Pure Jerry website. This website also includes a Pure Jerry Sampler page where you can download six songs (one disc) in mp3 format or listen to an entire set of songs culled from the Pure Jerry series in the summer of 1995. There’s also a comprehensive biography of Jerry Garcia at Wikipedia. Gordon Hake has created a website In Memoriam for Jerry Garcia (1942-1995) which includes many interesting links. You can find the latest information about The Grateful Dead at the Official Site of the Grateful Dead. You’ll find some limited information about this release along with clips of all the songs at the Rhino store.

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CD Review: Workin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet (The Miles Davis Quintet)

Workin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet
The Miles Davis Quintet
Prestige Records
2006
8 tracks

A long time ago but not that far away, in a world that was beginning to expand ever more rapidly, there existed a tightly knit community where excellent musicians were drawn together to play evolving styles of Jazz. That’s the real beauty of Jazz recordings made a half-century ago. The music feels as new now as it did then and playing with each great horn player is an equally great pianist, bassman, drummer, and so on. The result is magical. This reissued recording from 1956 is no exception.

Originally recorded on May 1 and October 26, 1956, these songs feature not only Miles Davis on trumpet but John Coltrane on tenor sax, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums. The sound they achieve together is flawless, a flowing resonance of the times in which this music was made but with a sense of timeless grace that holds up even fifty years later.

For a release with only eight songs on board, this set covers a lot of musical territory. Beginning with cool solo piano that is quickly resolved into a warm, comfortable, even sexy mix with Davis’ trumpet sliding soft in and around the keys, the first song sets the listener up for romance. The rest of the set blends seamlessly between this relaxed mood and livelier, swinging, groove sounds that wake the listener out of the trance with an invitation to dance.

In mid-century, the old genres had begun to meld together and then to break the mold and separate again into exciting new forms as distinct from one another as had been the old distinctions. This is as true of Jazz as of any other musical denomination. The old Jazz was giving way to the new Jazz. The music on this release shows the diversity and variations of this evolving music. Throughout can be heard smatterings of folk music and popular songs of the day, each enriching the sound of this Jazz. Among others can be heard allusions to “An English Country Garden” and the Blues standard “Corrina Corrina,” a touch of “Tweedlee Dee” and even a bit of Erroll Garner’s “Misty” threading through the improvisations.

As much as this is a Miles Davis recording, this release is an ensemble work featuring five equally stellar artists working in perfect synchronicity. There are moments of sweet communication among the instruments but there are also superb solo bits by each of these artists spread throughout the eight songs. And all of this only serves to complement the virtuoso trumpet work of Miles Davis. Workin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet would make an ideal addition to the collection of any jazz fan.

Of historical interest, this jewel-case insert includes both Jack Maher’s original liner notes from the 1956 release and new liner notes written by Joe Goldberg in 2006 plus a brief note from sound engineer Rudy Van Gelder, who made the masters for both releases. These notes give the reader an interesting historical and contemporary perspective on this artist and the music he created.

You can find a wealth of information on the late Miles Davis (1926 – 1991) at the Official Miles Davis Website or at Wikipedia.

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CD Review: Girl Time! (The ChoirGirlz)

Girl Time!
The ChoirGirlz
Riverdale Records
2006
11 tracks

Every time I play this CD, the final song comes far earlier than I might have hoped. This release is a sweet confection like my mother’s divinity fudge, rich and delightful and addictive. At only 41 minutes long, this set leaves the listener wanting more, lots more of this tasty treat. Debbie Fleming, Mary Ellen Moore, and Dorothy McDonall each have a lifetime of experience and it shows. Together, they are wonderful. This is perhaps the finest a capella singing trio in Canada.

On this release, The ChoirGirlz are only a capella for one song. On the rest of the songs, they are supported by members of the Canadian western swing band Bebop Cowboys. In part because the vocals are set against this Bob Wills ambience and in part because of some of the lyrics and vocal arrangements, at times I feel as though I’m listening to a reissue of an album from 1953.

Some listeners might compare this trio to fellow Canadians Quartette (Cindy Church, Caitlin Hanford, Gwen Swick, and Sylvia Tyson) or to the American Trio (Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Linda Rondstadt). When I first listened to these songs, I was transported back in time some fifty years. At first and now after listening several times, I’m reminded most of The Dinning Sisters, who had perhaps the longest successful career of any singing sister act, from Thirties Jazz to Fifties Rock & Roll. When listening to a couple of these songs, I’m also reminded of the British vocal group The Seekers.

There’s a definite country music feel here, but the sound evokes the country music of mid-century, before Rockabilly started to take hold and subtly change the music. It’s quiet music with a comfortable ambience that brings back those old times when the world was less dangerous.

Ten of the eleven songs on this release were written either by Debbie Fleming or by Fleming in partnership with her two singing partners. Listening to the CD, it soon becomes clear that the talent in this group transcends singing and harmonizing and extends to composing and arranging and writing lyrics. In fact, all of the lyrics are tightly written and expressive, ranging from humourous tales to touching family reminiscences.

It’s not obvious at first, but there’s a weird selection of songs on this CD. Of course, it may be just a Canadian thing or it may be that I spent far too much time watching Canadian children’s TV with my kids. While some of the songs are quite adult and some even tend toward a certain darkness, others tend to be what I would call “Sharon, Lois, and Bram” songs, the sort of song these performers would perform on The Elephant Show. “Favourite Book,” “Good Ol’ Jim,” and “Chocolate” especially have this feeling and, while it’s a bit more esoteric, “See BC” comes close. With these kiddie-crossover songs, moving adult songs, dark foreboding songs, and a gospel hymn all included I’m impressed how consistent and unified this set seems.

While I enjoyed all of the songs on this release, both for the excellent vocals and harmonies and also for reasons individual to each song, two of the more serious songs stood out as special favourites: “Tennessee Waltz” and “Back to the Light.”

“Tennessee Waltz” was on the hit parade when I was only five or six years old. So, believe it or not, was the gruesome “Waltzing Mathilda” by, I think, Mitch Miller. In my young mind, I somehow confused and combined the two songs. So I had a couple waltzing on the big patio of an antebellum mansion then breaking up, after which the man (or the woman sometimes) wanders off into the surrounding darkness and is murdered beneath a tree by the billabong. Although most covers of “Tennessee Waltz” present this as a sweet love song [it is not], The ChoirGirlz sing it with a certain dark sorrow which is enhanced by the mournful violin of Drew Jurecka. Immediately following the bridge, the dark closes in as the most bitter verse of all is sung with all the sorrow of “The Long Black Veil” and sets the song up to end in a very “Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte” mood.

While I enjoy the music of the Bebop Cowboys and it certainly adds to my pleasure listening to ten of these songs, where these three singers really shine is on a capella harmonies. The final song in the set, “Back to the Light” is the only a capella song on this release. This is a very old-fashioned, traditional gospel song written by Debbie Fleming. It reminds me very much of Hank Williams’ “I Saw the Light” or several of the Carter Family’s gospel songs. On this recording, the song is delivered in a very reverent, sincere fashion that makes it the ideal song to close out the set.

The second CD released by The ChoirGirlz, this one is a very special treat for anyone who enjoys sweet harmonies, country music with a bit of swing, or just plain excellent playing and singing. Just be warned, like divinity fudge, the ChoirGirlz just may be addictive.

Discover everything you want to know about Debbie Fleming, Mary Ellen Moore, and Dorothy McDonall at The Choir Girlz Official Website. Go to MySpace.com/choirgirlz to hear three songs from this new release by The ChoirGirlz.

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CD Review: Black Mountain Rag (Doc and Merle Watson)

Black Mountain Rag
Doc and Merle Watson
Rounder Records
2006
20 tracks

This music takes me back to another time and place when life was simpler, or at least in retrospect appears to have been, and country music was still considered to be folk or hillbilly music. It takes me back to evenings listening with my parents to radio broadcasts like the WWVA Jamboree from Wheeling, West Virginia, and Nashville’s Grand Ol’ Opry or watching my father play and sing country music and call square dances in some great barn in Southern Alberta. This is music that brings back the old times.

Doc Watson, who is only two years younger than my father, has been playing and singing longer than many musicians have been on this earth. During that time, he has influenced the playing and singing of many of the musicians who followed. His incomparable flat-pick guitar playing impressed many young guitarists to play lead acoustic guitar with a flat-pick. While, outside folk and old-time country music circles, Doc Watson has not achieved the wide audience recognition of a Pete Seeger or Woody Guthrie, he is one of the important artists of the last century in American folk music.

The 20 tracks on this CD [actually 24 songs if you count the medleys] bring the listener an excellent selection of Watson’s playing and singing. Ably supported by his son Merle and a dozen or so other musicians who appear on various tracks, Watson presents a potpourri of traditional folk songs interspersed with some countrified pop and jazz standards. While the music seems overall quiet and unintrusive, often from across the room a phrase or refrain would suddenly grab my attention and draw me away from whatever I had been doing at the time. What drew my attention was both the familiarity of what I was hearing and the excellence with which it was being performed.

Watson is known primarily for his work as a guitarist and this is where his main influence on younger musicians has been. Less recognized is his vocal style. Watson sings in a warm, dry baritone that brings to his words a veracity that makes him particularly effective as a teller of stories in song. It’s always a pleasure to hear Watson sing a song, as he does on seven of these tracks.

While many of the songs on this release are traditional American folk tunes adapted from the music of England, Ireland, and Scotland, other songs wander off into a variety of genres. On this release can be heard pop standards spanning the last century, jazz classics, and even a bit of klezmer.

“Below Freezing” especially stands out with its unique blend of musical styles. This instrumental has a jumpy contemporary sound that swings from modern jazz to a klezmer clarinet sound that’s purely European, all served up over a bed that keeps it grounded in American country music.

The medley “Liza/Lady Be Good” is a lively jazz piece with some very cool jazz violin complementing Watson’s fine guitar work. Again, the style is eclectic and even quirky. Behind the cool jazz instrumental is a clickety-clack rhythm track that sounds more like skiffle [or perhaps step-dancing] than jazz beats.

Old favourites like “Smiles” and “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” take the listener back to some comfortable Forties living room listening to a broadcast on the old Victrola. The always lively “Down Yonder” brings that same sense of time gone by but with a definite country edge.

Songs like “Black Pine Waltz” and “Devil’s Dream” [probably my all-time favourite reel] take the listener even further back to a simpler time and place. There are traditional-style folk songs (“Sadie” and “Leaving London”), songs of protest (“Mole in the Ground”), and even humourous tales (Phil Harris’ classic “Smoke, Smoke, Smoke”), adding variety and interest to this set.

If you want to hear one of the finest and most influential of American folk music artists, then this CD should definitely be added to your library. If you just plain love Doc Watson, then this one is a gotta-have album, a compilation of some of his best work.

You can find an extensive biography of Doc Watson at Wikipedia. If you do a search for “Doc Watson” in google or another search engine, you’ll find a wealth of additional information on this important American artist. Go to http://myspace.com/docsguitar to hear four songs by Doc Watson, including the title song of this release, “Black Mountain Rag.”

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