Live Concert Review: GUH at The Artel, Kingston, Ontario

Live at The Artel
GUH
live in concert
Kingston, Ontario
June 12, 2010

Escaping the oppressive heat and humidity of my home in the Eastern Ontario summer, I left at the last minute to catch GUH, a Toronto band, in concert at The Artel in Kingston. Even though they’ve been performing live and releasing recordings since 1991 and have toured the world, I had never heard of GUH before this Kingston engagement on June 12, 2010. Having now seen GUH in action, I’m surprised that I had been unaware of the band or that they don’t have a higher profile in the Canadian and international jazz scene.

GUH got my attention almost at the beginning of the first piece they played and held my attention throughout their performance. This music defies categorization, yet it’s easy to hear what it is not. It is not American pop, is not jazz standards, is not the blues, is not perhaps any sort of music to which a label can be attached. The closest I can come to defining the music of GUH is as a sort of progressive jazz-fusion, yet that’s not really accurate either. This music is something very special.

Throughout a concert that lasted almost two hours without an intermission, the full-house audience was rapt as the music carried them into wide and varied musical realms that were both diverse and consistent. There were wonderful musical surprises at every turn as these musicians played their phrases like kites soaring and floating above and through the audience. Not just sonic, this music tends toward a tactile and visual sense that lends to its magic.

Hearing GUH for the first time, I could sense powerful and lasting roots in the progressive jazz of the Forties and Fifties and the later jazz-fusion born of that movement. Throughout this concert could be heard the influence of the most creative artists of that era. Laid over that foundation, I could hear the newer sounds of the jazz greats who came out of cities like Detroit and Montreal in the Seventies and moved forward the leading edge of jazz. Floating through this mix: influences of many genres and cultures adding colour and depth to the sound. There’s something else in this music as well, something subtle and new that cannot quite be defined.

This is not music everyone will enjoy. Its closest relatives are the leading edge of progressive jazz or perhaps the works of modern “classical” composers such as Stravinski or Glass. To some ears, it can sound harsh and strident or even not musical at all. To listeners firmly ensconsced in more standard musical forms, this music may seem quite incomprensible. I know excellent musicians with broadly eclectic tastes in music, who reserve their greatest dislike for so-called “atonal” music. Most musicians I know, no matter how brilliant, claim to have no idea how to play such music, which breaks through the formal bounds in which they’ve learned to play and listen. This is music to which you must either be naturally attuned or which you must learn to understand and love.

I suspect this music is not so new after all, but reaches back into our primitive roots. The formal nature of most music we hear performed today has been built up gradually over several centuries of our rational age, during which influential segments of society had perceived a need to civilize and control every aspect of life, including art. From the sweet melodies of Henry VIII and Versailles through European classical music to the popular musical forms of the Twentieth Century, the old music has been usurped and changed to suit the mood of the day. We are natural multitaskers, designed to receive and evaluate many messages in order to survive what had been a very dangerous world. I believe our “primitive” music reflected that world and took the listener along many diverse paths, real and fantastic. Through a half-millenium of control by one powerful establishment or another, music has been reduced to reflect only one world and is expected to follow only one path and a single beat, with only rare and brief side-excursions. Bands like Dead Can Dance or Girls against Boys in some ways reflect a return to our musical roots. GUH simply takes this trend a bit further.

In many ways consistent and uniform throughout this concert, both in sound and quality, the music also presented the audience with a broad and varied soundscape crossing both time and distance. With eight musicians playing at least ten instruments plus chanted non-verbal vocals, the range and affect of the music was powerful and all-encompassing. This acoustic band managed to fill the room with unexpected volume yet had the control to pull back the sound to suit any mood. Even the twin drum kits seemed to have volume control knobs attached. A full symphony orchestra couldn’t have affected greater emotional range.

I earlier mentioned the varied soundscape that weaves its tapestry across this palpable landscape of jazz. Whole segments were overlaid with sounds reminiscent of the psychedelia of some forty years ago, drifting mistlike through the sensibilities of the audience. At times, the rhythm came together and solidified into a clear reggae/ska backbeat picked up at times by other elements in the mix. The two drummers ranged broadly from primitive tribal rhythms to the bravura booming of drummers in big swing bands and symphony orchestras. A Middle-Eastern flavour permeated several pieces, highlighted by what sounded like some sort of Arab flute but was actually some very clever playing on the bagpipe. Occasionally, this sound shifted from authentic Middle-Eastern to the sort of adaptive musical line to be heard in pieces such as Dick Dale’s “Misirlou” and other Sixties surfing music. These are just the most obvious variations among many heard in this concert.

Around the centre of GUH’s concert, the band played a traditional Turkish song. I’ve mentioned that in some ways this band’s music harks back to music that predates the much more structured and constrained forms of Western music over the past four centuries. Here’s the beginning of proof. This traditional song from Turkey fit seamlessly into the flow of late-Twentieth Century compositions from GUH.

While the past 19 years has seen some ebb and flow in band membership, I believe most of the personnel at the Kingston concert was among the same group who had originally formed GUH in 1991. The eight players I saw were: Henry Muth on highland warpipes, wooden recorder, and plastic recorder; Brian Cram on trumpet and euphonium; Tom MacCammon on trumpet and percussion; Jason Baird on alto saxophone; Jason Clarke on Electric guitar; Blake Howard on drum kit; Andrew Henry on drum kit; and Julian Brown on electric bass. (I’ll appreciate if someone from GUH – or someone who knows – will send me any corrections to this lineup.)

I highly recommend seeing a live performance by GUH should the opportunity present itself. Experiencing the creative energy of these artists and the power of their music will be well worth your while. This current GUH tour was only Kingston, Montreal, and Toronto, but hopefully they’ll be on the road again soon and will visit your town.

Discover the music of Guh at myspace.com/houseofguh, where you’ll also be able to listen to eight of their songs. You can learn more about The Artel, a very special arts space, at the-artel.ca.

Support this independent roots music CD reviews blog.

You make good things happen. Thank you.

I had forgotten what a pleasure it is to open a small package and discover a world of wonderful words and music flowing from it. For me it’s like those magical boxes in the movies that are packed with a cornucopia of marvelous things let loose on the world as the lid is opened just a crack. As an artist and as a reviewer, I marvel at the number of very talented artists there are creating and performing their songs and at the variety and high quality of those artists’ performances. It is truly a very amazing and positive thing. Now that I’m again writing reviews on a more regular basis, I’m constantly surprised at this creative community of writers and musicians. You are truly special and important people.

As my regular readers and the artists who submit their releases know, I’ve taken periodic breaks from writing these reviews, this last one quite long. I do believe it’s very important to support independent artists and to provide them with positive and helpful feedback. (Certainly, as an artist myself, I appreciate any feedback that will help me to improve my art.) Life sometimes gets in the way of writing reviews. The fact is that writing these reviews can be a full-time job. However, not only do I not receive any payment for writing these reviews but I also have to pay a number of out-of-pocket expenses to get and keep the reviews online. I don’t mind. If I won a big lottery, I would spend all my time making art and writing reviews. As it stands, rent has to be paid and groceries bought. When the bills get too pressing, the reviews suffer. As I find more effective ways to maintain cash-flow, I’ll start being a bit more regular about posting reviews here.

I want to thank each and every reader for your support of these reviews and some of you for comments you’ve sent me both publicly on this blog and by private e-mails and letters. I also want to thank the artists, who have been so patient with my often slow process as they wait for me to finally review their releases. I wish that I could send a personal note to each of you. My thoughts and my thanks do go out, not only to all of you as a community, but to each of you as the wonderfully creative individuals you are. Thank you.

Keep on writing those powerful lyrics. Keep on making the music. The world really does need it now more than ever. Your positive vibes help to keep our world on an even keel.

Support this independent roots music CD reviews blog.

CD Review: Princess Nut (Aural Heather)

Princess Nut
Aural Heather
RPW Records
2008
10 Tracks

I recently had the pleasure of seeing Heather Haley and Roderick Shoolbraid, who together comprise Aural Heather, perform live in a small room. Aural Heather’s words and music are well suited to such an intimate “chamber music” setting, reaching out and touching each listener at a personal level. The intricate interplay of of Haley’s words and Shoolbraid’s music works well in a studio recording and it was a pleasant surprise to see this duo carry it off so well in a live setting. These works are complex enough to have foiled a less talented duo.

To many listeners, these performances may be quite a new experience. In fact, while there is a certain freshness to Aural Heather’s presentation, performances and recordings in this genre have been available for at least five decades. If they are little known to the general public, it’s perhaps because artists in this genre have tended to be somewhat underground, playing to artists, intellectuals, and the coffee house crowd. Only occasionally has a recording of spoken word and music that edges toward experimental slipped over onto mainstream radio. One or two of the songs on this release may be able to make that crossover, or at least get played on college radio stations.

I’ve long found it interesting that styles in the arts often divide not north-south between Canada and the United States but east-west with the distinction appearing to be between artists working west of the Rockies and artists working in central Canada and the American states southward from there. In performance of spoken word with music, the west-coast style is quite distinctive. The performance of Canada’s Aural Heather falls quite firmly into that west-coast spectrum.

At root, these performances might be described as poetry read over somewhat experimental music. Of course, such a description is quite inadequate. It’s true that Heather Haley writes some quite powerful poetry and she reads and sometimes sings it over music created and performed by Roderick Shoolbraid. However, this is no poetry reading, no academic professor reading to a gathering of bored students, no jaded beatnick addressing equally jaded coffee house denizens. The poetry and music here is vital and alive. The performance has its own energy that goes beyond just the two performers and draws in the audience. There is a merging of the words and music that takes on a life of its own.

Neither is the content fey or artsy. In her poems and lyrics, Haley takes on real life issues and is clearly not one to hold her tongue. Among her topics are the murders of women in Vancouver that went ignored and uninvestigated for decades, drug culture in British Columbia, anorexia and bulemia, Wonderland (the movie about porn-star John Holmes’ drug involvement), and more. Shoolbraid’s music avoids the stereotypes of sweet electronic music or the schlock of Walter Murphy’s pop hits. Shoolbraid’s music abounds with rocking beats, solid blues riffs, surfing fills that would do Tangerine Dream proud. Put these words and music together, and the whole truly is greater than the parts.

Watching this duo in live performance and listening to a recording of Aural Haley differs only in the fine details. If there are flaws at all in this recording, they are technological and have nothing to do with the performances. At times, the sound is overmodulated and so becomes muggy. It’s possible that a bit too much compression may be enhancing this effect, adding to the mugginess of the sound. In my opinion, use of reverb is also excessive on this release, although a certain amount of reverb or echo is necessary in places to fill out the sound. Often, I find that digital recordings feel empty and are thus unsatisfying. This is usually because some producer has gone overboard cleaning up the sound until all depth has been removed. I’m happy to report that this recording has lots of “room” and feels close to analogue at times.

I’ve mentioned that Aural Heather stands firmly within an established literary and musical tradition. In that context, as I listen I am reminded of other east-coast artists. Shoolbraid’s spoken performance on “My Mountain” is reminiscent of Jock Blaney’s wonderful performances in the group 2nu2.com or the readings of Rod McKuen in pieces like “The Mud Kids.” Haley’s sung bits remind me of a number of other artists, especially at times of the recordings of California artist Belita Adair. Her spoken style reminds me of Sheryl Crow’s popular hit “All I Wanna Do” and of recordings by fellow Vancouverite Wyckham Porteous. Aural Heather is in good company, and is the equal of any of that company.

Whether you’re a long term fan of this artistic genre or it’s something you’ve not yet discovered, I highly recommend giving a listen to Aural Heather’s Princess Nut, subtitled Spoken Word Songs. You’ll find it’s quite an experience.

You’ll find more information on Aural Heather at the RPW Records website. You can look up Heather Haley at www.heatherhaley.com and you’ll find Roderick Shoolbraid at myspace.com

Support this independent roots music CD reviews blog.

The Reviews are Back and Here to Stay!

Once again, I’ve taken quite a long hiatus from writing reviews. For this, I apologize to my readers and to the artists who continue to send me their releases on a regular basis. While I have no excuse for this lapse, I do have reasons. Simply making a living has taken up a lot of my time. I’m also working on a number of personal projects with my own art as well as preserving my father’s photography and trying to finish and release an unfinished film of his. Sometimes, I just get tired. I suspect most of my readers are also artists, so I know that you understand.

I’m going to take a new approach in hopes of getting more reviews online sooner. First, I’m no longer going to worry about maintaining chronological order of arrival, the administration of which actually takes up a lot of time and energy. Second, I’m going to listen fewer times and write faster, hoping all the while to not sacrifice either depth or quality in my reviews. Third, I’m going to schedule time into my life to do this rather than only do it when I can find time to do it. Fourth, I’m going to ask my readers to contribute to the cost of releasing these reviews online. I’m hoping this will work out well for all concerned: the artists, the readers, and me.

At the end of each review, you’ll notice a button. If I won a lottery or was independently wealthy, it would be my greatest pleasure to write these reviews as part of my contribution to the arts. The fact is that I am neither a lottery winner nor independently wealthy. Like the songwriters and musicians I review, I am a working artist making at the best of times a modest income. Writing these reviews and publishing them to the internet takes up a great deal of my time and also costs me out-of-pocket for server space and other necessary services. If you feel, as I do, that it’s important to support independent musicians, then I will appreciate if you could donate whatever you feel is appropriate or you can afford. All donations will be very confidentially managed through the secure services of Paypal.

Thank you for your support, for your comments, and for making wonderful words and music just when the world needs it most.

As always, the scope of this reviews site is quite broad, encompassing folk music, roots music, and roots-related music. This includes any and all music which at some level derives from our musical roots, especially blues, jazz, rock and roll, spoken word, and some classical or popular music genres.

If you want to submit your new CD release for review, here’s the address:

Music Reviews
Roots Music Canada
Unit # 6
710 Division Street
Kingston, Ontario
K7K 6T9
Canada

If mailing from outside Canada, please mark the value on the customs form as ncv (no commercial value) or assign a very low value and list the CD as a sample. If you fail to do these things and the CD arrives with duty owing, I will return it. I cannot afford to pay duty for a project which already leaves me out of pocket.

Support this independent roots music CD reviews blog.

Music DVD Review: The Platters & The Coasters (Rock ‘n Roll Legends: The Platters & The Coasters)

Rock ‘n Roll Legends: The Platters & The Coasters
The Platters & The Coasters
Quantum Leap Group Ltd.
2005
Running Time: 60 minutes

This is the fifth of six reviews of DVD releases selected from the Quantum Leap “Rock ‘n Roll Legends” series featuring stars of the late-Fifties and early-Sixties. This DVD series is quirky and uneven, yet manages to be both interesting and entertaining.

These nostalgic releases feature live performances by popular stars, often years after they were in their prime, mostly at Little Darlin’s, a nostalgia club in Florida, but also at other locations. Some performances are taken from television or movies, including a documentary from Canada’s National Film Board. A horde of other popular stars, and some not so well known, make guest appearances. The visuals, on clips often apparently dubbed from old film stock, range from disconcertingly blurry to quite good but never flawless. Usually, the music makes up for the lack of visual clarity.

There’s a “Fanzone” that includes biography, discography and other background information. As well, the “Quantum Leap Propaganda” section features a variety of interesting, sometimes documentary plugs for events and products as well as web links.

While this “Rock ‘n Roll Legends” series includes other DVD releases, in these six alone, you can see performances by some 25 vintage artists, singing not only their own hits but other popular songs of the era. Any one of these releases provides an interesting, if eccentric, window on this past time. Together they present a fascinating pastiche of popular music as it was a half-century ago.

This release includes two powerful sets performed live at Little Darlin’s, The Rock ‘n Roll Palace in Orlando, Florida. On its own, either set would make this release worth owning. Together, the sets by The Platters and The Coasters provide priceless memories of a long-passed but important musical era.

The Platters perform nine songs in slightly different order than listed on the package. The performance is solid and brings to life the spirit if not the exact sound of the original hit recordings. There are some surprises here. Some of the songs are not The Platters hits but covers of hits by other artists and B-sides of The Platters hits. I was especially interested and pleased to hear the wonderful R & B song “He’s Mine” in this set. A B-side with a female lead vocal and lively doo-wop backing vocals, this song is a real rocker that brings some variety and excitement to the set.

The partnership between songwriters Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller with The Coasters may have determined the success of Rock and Roll and was certainly a powerful influence on the direction the genre would take following The Coasters’ first hits. Here, The Coasters perform six of their most popular releases penned by Lieber and Stoller, rocking out with their familiar blend of solid R & B rhythms, slightly off-colour lyrics, and comedy. This set is fun and may also make you want to jump out of your seat and dance.

The section for “Artist Profiles” includes a reasonably complete history of The Coasters over the past half century and a less complete history of The Platters that’s primarily a listing of the group’s regularly shifting personnel over the years. This makes intereting if not exciting reading.

The “Quantum Leap Propaganda” section is an eccentric mix of archival footage, rough edits and promotional material, including three quirky, clip-packed video presentations plus a brief commercial for the Quantum Leap website. Rather than finished productions, these short videos seem more like samplers pieced together from diverse sources. The viewer never knows what will come next. The purpose of “Quantum Leap Propaganda” appears to be to sell other Quantum Leap releases. At the left side of each title bar in these segments is what appears to be a release number indicating the release on which that clip may be found. Here again, the visual quality is often less than desirable and the editing is rough and amateurish, but the viewing experience is interesting and sometimes even educational.

A seven minute feature that appears on a number of Quantum Leap releases, the “W.P.M.A.” video plugs the World Peace Music Awards, a large televised concert event that features hundreds of well-known musicians and is broadcast worldwide. This production appears to have been pieced together from two earlier pieces advertising the concerts in San Francisco, California (2002) and Nagasaki, Japan (2005) plus other, not always related, materials. Although now out of date, this short video is still interesting to watch.

“Pure Pop” also seems to be standard fare on many of the releases in this series. Almost seventeen minutes long, “Pure Pop” is a pastiche of interesting clips assembled in a chaotic attempt at a documentary film featuring a half-dozen or more popular stars in interviews, commentary and performance. The clips include part of a documentary on New York songwriters featuring Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield; a musical performance from The Frank Sinatra Timex Show featuring Sinatra, Joey Bishop, Sammy Davis Jr. and others; a segment on Dusty Springfield featuring commentary from Petula Clark and others and a performance by Springfield of her signature song, “I Only Want To Be With You;” John Sebastian joking with his audience and then singing “What a Day for a Daydream;” very cool blues sung by Bonnie Koloc, a blues instrumental featuring the trumpet of Arturo Sandoval, and a long lost music video of “The Longest Time” by Billy Joel; and a dramatic segment from the movie “The Fabulous Dorseys.” Again, the purpose appears to be to sell other Quantum Leap releases. At the left side of each title bar is what appears to be a release number. Although the visual quality is inconsistent and often leaves a lot to be desired, this piece is interesting and perhaps educational to watch.

“Beauty & The Beast” is the least music-related of these bonus sections, featuring primarily documentary selections. At about seventeen minutes long, “Beauty & The Beast” includes segment on award-winning underwater explorers and marine conservationists Ron and Valerie Taylor, incuuding dramatic footage of sharks in their natural habitat; sections of travelogues on northern Australia’s wilderness, some of the more rugged areas of northern England, and the American desert, this last presented with only dramatic music and no narration; a singularly unfunny selection of bits by American comic Tom Green; a tour of the 2004 Chelsea Flower Show presented by a woman dour enough to invite parody from the likes of Monty Python; and black and white features, probably released during or very shortly following World War II, about the American submarine-hunting aircraft carrier USS Guadalcanal and about the British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, when it was launched the only first line fleet carrier in the world. The usual cautions apply about segments having poor visual quality and being incomplete, apparently intednded as teasers to sell the complete releases.

If you want to hear two of the most influentual groups to bring R & B to American mainstream audiences, and ultimately to the world, and change forever the sound of what would become Rock and Roll music, this is a DVD for you. Cranked up loud, the fifteen songs on this release will rock your house. These two sets are filled with energy that may make it impossible for you to not get up and dance.

You can find information on the newest configuration of The Platters at the The Platters website and the history of The Platters since they formed in 1953 at Wikipedia. You can find a history of the coasters, information on the newest lineup, and other interesting facts at The Coasters Official Website and at Wikipedia and at various unofficial websites. Also check out the Quantum Leap Online Catalogue.

Support this independent roots music CD reviews blog.

Music DVD Review: Martha Reeves (Greatest Hits Live)

Greatest Hits Live
Martha Reeves
Quantum Leap Group Ltd.
2005
Running Time: 54 minutes

This is the fourth of six reviews of DVD releases selected from the Quantum Leap series of “Rock ‘n Roll Legends” featuring stars of the late-Fifties and early-Sixties. This DVD series is quirky and uneven, yet manages to be both interesting and entertaining.

These nostalgic releases feature live performances by popular stars, often years after they were in their prime, mostly at Little Darlin’s, a nostalgia club in Florida, but also at other locations. Some performances are taken from television or movies, including a documentary from Canada’s National Film Board. A horde of other popular stars, and some not so well known, make guest appearances. The visuals, on clips often apparently dubbed from old film stock, range from disconcertingly blurry to quite good but never flawless. Usually, the music makes up for the lack of visual clarity.

There’s a “Fanzone” that includes biography, discography and other background information. As well, the “Quantum Leap Propaganda” section features a variety of interesting, sometimes documentary plugs for events and products as well as web links.

While this “Rock ‘n Roll Legends” series includes other DVD releases, in these six alone, you can see performances by some 25 vintage artists, singing not only their own hits but other popular songs of the era. Any one of these releases provides an interesting, if eccentric, window on this past time. Together they present a fascinating pastiche of popular music as it was a half-century ago.

Although this release features only five of Martha Reeves’ hit songs, it provides almost nineteen minutes of energetic live performance by Reeves and her original Vandellas. Performed live at Little Darlin’s, The Rock ‘n Roll Palace in Orlando, Florida, these songs capture the spirit of the original hit recordings combined with the energy that can only come from a live performance. It should be noted here that order of performance on the DVD is not same as listed on the package. There are two different performances of “Dancing in the Street” included here, providing a sixth performance track. I would question inclusion of the first version, which seems to be performed with a lack of enthusiasm by all concerned. The second version is a powerful performance and perhaps the best in this set. This one could have stood on its own without inclusion of the weaker version earlier in the set.

Special guest star on this release is Sam Moore who, with his partner the late Dave Prater (1937-1988), had been very influential in soul and R&B music for more than a decade. Moore gives gutsy performances of four great Sam and Dave hits.

On this release, the “Fanzone” features an extensive biography of Martha Reeves and history of her career with The Vandellas along with a very limited discography of their album releases only. These sections make interesting reading but, the visual quality is far less than ideal.

The “Quantum Leap Propaganda” section is an eccentric mix of archival footage, rough edits and promotional material, including three quirky, clip-packed video presentations plus a brief commercial for the Quantum Leap website. Here again, the visual quality is often less than desirable and the editing is rough and amateurish, but the viewing experience is interesting and sometimes even educational. Rather than finished productions, these short videos seem more like samplers pieced together from diverse sources. The viewer never knows what will come next. The purpose of “Quantum Leap Propaganda” appears to be to sell other Quantum Leap releases. At the left side of each title bar in these segments is what appears to be a release number indicating the release on which that clip may be found.

A seven minute feature that appears on a number of Quantum Leap releases, “W.P.M.A.” is a plug for the World Peace Music Awards, a large televised concert event featuring hundreds of well-known musicians and broadcast worldwide. This promotion appears to have been pieced together from two earlier pieces advertising the concerts in San Francisco, California (2002) and Nagasaki, Japan (2005) plus other materials. While now out of date, this short video is still interesting to watch.

“Cool Soul” is a bit of a misnomer. Over its running time of more than 12 minutes, this musical section contains nothing that could properly be called soul music. Rather, it’s an eclectic sampler of a variety of musical genres, featuring clips of live performance and documentary footage. The clips include everything from solid funk through peaceful acoustic Spanish guitar, rousing big band swing, parts of three songs by Willie Nelson, and a segment from a documentary on the life of reggae master Jimmy Cliff. Misnamed or not, this segment is interesting and entertaining to watch.

At just over fourteen minutes long, “Sport” includes documentaries featuring archival soccer footage with voice-over commentary in Italian, surfers talking about a giant wave alternated with surfing footage in black and white and colour, a biography of soccer player Diego Maradona, a segment of a documentary about Formula One race drivers, a Sensei demonstrating the various stances in Shotokan Karate, brief footage of several Ultimate Kickboxing matches, and an excerpt from the movie Joe Louis Story Interesting? Yes. Educational? Probably not. The clips are just too short and clearly meant as a tease so that those interested will be tempted to buy the DVD release.

Featuring ten live performances by two of America’s most influential soul and R&B artists, this release combines pure nostalgia with the power of great performances. This release will be enjoyed by the generation who originally bought the records made the songs hits and by their children and grandchildren as well.

Find a treasure trove of information on the Martha Reeves and the Vandellas at the Miss Martha Reeves website or at Wikipedia. Read more about Sam and Dave at Wikipedia and at various unofficial websites. Also check out the Quantum Leap Online Catalogue.

Support this independent roots music CD reviews blog.

Music DVD Review: Shirelles (Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow)

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
Shirelles
Quantum Leap Group Ltd.
2005
Running Time: 45 minutes

This is the third of six reviews of DVD releases selected from the Quantum Leap series of “Rock ‘n Roll Legends” featuring stars of the late-Fifties and early-Sixties. This DVD series is quirky and uneven, yet manages to be both interesting and entertaining.

These nostalgic releases feature live performances by popular stars, often years after they were in their prime, mostly at Little Darlin’s, a nostalgia club in Florida, but also at other locations. Some performances are taken from television or movies, including a documentary from Canada’s National Film Board. A horde of other popular stars, and some not so well known, make guest appearances. The visuals, on clips often apparently dubbed from old film stock, range from disconcertingly blurry to quite good but never flawless. Usually, the music makes up for the lack of visual clarity.

There’s a “Fanzone” that includes biography, discography and other background information. As well, the “Quantum Leap Propaganda” section features a variety of interesting, sometimes documentary plugs for events and products as well as web links.

While this “Rock ‘n Roll Legends” series includes other DVD releases, in these six alone, you can see performances by some 25 vintage artists, singing not only their own hits but other popular songs of the era. Any one of these releases provides an interesting, if eccentric, window on this past time. Together they present a fascinating pastiche of popular music as it was a half-century ago.

In the world of popular music, the Shirelles are both important and
influential. The first all girl group to ever score a number one record, the Shirelles are touted as the first ever girl-group, defining the genre and becoming the template for all who followed. For a while, they had as powerful an influence on my generation as The Beatles had later. I can remember in my mid-teens sitting with a group of friends in the cafe of the main bus depot in downtown Calgary as we played “Soldier Boy” over and over on the jukebox, all of us singing along at the top of our lungs. Needless to say, we were finally thrown out of the place. There you have it, the ultimate girl-group as an incentive for rebellion.

This release features “Soldier Boy” and six other Shirelles hits performed live at Little Darlin’s, The Rock ‘n Roll Palace in Orlando, Florida. The sound is true to the original hit recordings, but with the energy that only a live concert can bring to the music. These are solid, well-written pop songs penned by some of the best songwriters of their era and they stand up very well to the test of time. This is a fun concert to watch and may even inspire you to get up and dance to the music. Who knows, you may even want to sing along, over and over again.

The four bonus tracks feature two more of the great girl groups of the Sixties, The Angels and The Dixie Cups. The quality of the performances by these two groups is also outstanding and well worth the time spent watching. I was especially taken by The Dixie Cups’ version of “Iko Iko” with its blend of African and Caribbean sounds and rousing rhythms.

The “Fanzone” On this release features a extensive history of the Shirelles along with a very comprehensive discography of their releases throughout their career. Even though the visual quality is far less than ideal, these sections do make interesting and informative reading.

Here, as on all of these releases “Quantum Leap Propaganda” is an eccentric mix of archival footage, rough edits and promotional material. It includes three quirky, clip-packed video presentations plus a brief commercial for the Quantum Leap website. The visual quality is often less than desirable and the editing is rough and amateurish, but the viewing experience is interesting and sometimes even educational. Rather than finished productions, these short videos seem more like samplers pieced together from diverse sources. The viewer never knows what will come next. The purpose of “Quantum Leap Propaganda” appears to be to sell other Quantum Leap releases. At the left side of each title bar in these segments is what appears to be a release number indicating the release on which that clip may be found.

“Cool Soul” is a bit of a misnomer. Over its running time of more than 12 minutes, this musical section contains nothing that could properly be called soul music. Rather, it’s an eclectic sampler of a variety of musical genres, featuring clips of live performance and documentary footage. The clips include everything from solid funk through peaceful acoustic Spanish guitar, rousing big band swing, parts of three songs by Willie Nelson, and a segment from a documentary on the life of reggae master Jimmy Cliff. Misnamed or not, this segment is interesting and entertaining to watch.

At just over fourteen minutes long, “Sport” includes documentaries featuring archival soccer footage with voice-over commentary in Italian, surfers talking about a giant wave alternated with surfing footage in black and white and colour, a biography of soccer player Diego Maradona, a segment of a documentary about Formula One race drivers, a Sensei demonstrating the various stances in Shotokan Karate, brief footage of several Ultimate Kickboxing matches, and an excerpt from the movie Joe Louis Story Interesting? Yes. Educational? Probably not. The clips are just too short and clearly meant as a tease so that those interested will be tempted to buy the DVD release.

A feature that appears on a number of Quantum Leap releases, “W.P.M.A.” is a seven minute plug for the World Peace Music Awards, a large televised concert event featuring hundreds of well-known musicians and broadcast worldwide. This promotional piece appears to have been pieced together from two earlier pieces advertising the concerts in San Francisco, California (2002) and Nagasaki, Japan (2005) plus other materials. While now out of date, this short video is still interesting to watch.

With eleven vintage hits and featuring live performances by three of the seminal girl-groups, this release is definitely a worthwhile addition to anyone’s collection of Sixties popular music. This is one that I’d definitely recommend, not just for fans in my generation but for younger listeners who’d like to discover some of their music’s roots.

Find a treasure trove of information on the Shirelles at the Official Homepage of The Shirelles and find even more at Wikipedia. You can learn more about The Angels at The Official Website of The Angels. You can find out about The Dixie Cups at The Dixie Cups Official Website or at Wikipedia. Also check out the Quantum Leap Online Catalogue.

Support this independent roots music CD reviews blog.

Music DVD Review: Johnny Tillotson (Rock ‘n Roll Legends: Johnny Tillotson)

Rock ‘n Roll Legends: Johnny Tillotson
Johnny Tillotson
Quantum Leap Group Ltd.
2005
Running Time: 60 minutes

This is the second of six reviews of DVD releases selected from the Quantum Leap “Rock ‘n Roll Legends” series featuring stars of the late-Fifties and early-Sixties. This DVD series is quirky and uneven, yet manages to be both interesting and entertaining.

These nostalgic releases feature live performances by popular stars, often years after they were in their prime, mostly at Little Darlin’s, a nostalgia club in Florida, but also at other locations. Some performances are taken from television or movies, including a documentary from Canada’s National Film Board. A horde of other popular stars, and some not so well known, make guest appearances. The visuals, on clips often apparently dubbed from old film stock, range from disconcertingly blurry to quite good but never flawless. Usually, the music makes up for the lack of visual clarity.

There’s a “Fanzone” that includes biography, discography and other background information. As well, the “Quantum Leap Propaganda” section features a variety of interesting, sometimes documentary plugs for events and products as well as web links.

While this “Rock ‘n Roll Legends” series includes other DVD releases, in these six alone, you can see performances by some 25 vintage artists, singing not only their own hits but other popular songs of the era. Any one of these releases provides an interesting, if eccentric, window on this past time. Together they present a fascinating pastiche of popular music as it was a half-century ago.

This release features two live sets by Johnny Tillotson, a total of ten vintage performces at two separate clubs in Orlando, Florida. The first set of four Tillotson hits was recorded at Little Darlin’s, The Rock ‘n Roll Palace. The second set, including five Tillotson hits plus a lively interpretation of Arthur Crudup’s “That’s All Right, Mama” was recorded at the Church Street Station Theatre. While “It Keeps Right On A Hurting” is included in this second set, it’s not listed in the set listing on the case. These two sets are quite different from one another. The Little Darlin’s concert is pretty standard golden oldies revival material, with the performances pretty much replicating the sound and style of the original recordings. At Church Street Station, Tillotson seems more relaxed, less the pop music performer and more a guy enjoying playing his music and interacting with the audience. This is a country music concert complete with steel guitar and all the musical frills that entered country music in the Sixties. The performances here are Tillotson at the top of his form, performing some of his top country music hits.

The bonus tracks on this release feature two classic sets. In a blast from the past, The Dovells perform their rocking hits “The Bristol Stomp” and “You Can’t Sit Down” at Little Darlin’s. New Seekers’ vocalist Lyn Paul sings a slightly rocked-up version of Johnny Ray’s “Cry” then takes a softer approach on a pure country interpretation of Tammy Wynette’s “Stand By Your Man” to an appreciative country music audience at Church Street Station. Here again, the bonus sets are quite different from one another and make an interesting contrast.

The “Fanzone” on this release features an extensive biography of Tillotson along with a very limited discography of his album releases only. These sections make interesting reading but, once again the visual quality is far less than ideal.

“Quantum Leap Propaganda” is more than just propaganda. It includes three interesting, if quirky and a bit rough in many aspects, clip-packed video presentations plus a brief commercial for the Quantum Leap website. Rather than complete finished productions, these short videos have the look and feel of samplers pieced together from diverse sources. The viewer never knows what will come next.

Showing up on several of these Quantum Leap releases, “W.P.M.A.” is a seven minute plug for the World Peace Music Awards concerts, a large event featuring hundreds of well-known musicians and broadcast worldwide. This promo appears to have been pieced together from two separate pieces advertising the concerts in San Francisco, California (2002) and in Nagasaki, Japan (2005) plus other materials. While now out of date, this short video is still interesting to watch.

Like the W.P.M.A.” promo, “Pure Pop” seems to be standard fare on releases in this series. At almost seventeen minutes long, “Pure Pop” is a pastiche of interesting clips that comes across as a chaotic attempt at a documentary film. It features a half-dozen or more popular stars in interviews, commentary and performance. The purpose appears to be to sell other Quantum Leap releases. At the left side of each title bar is what appears to be a release number. The clips include part of a documentary on New York songwriters featuring Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield; a musical performance from The Frank Sinatra Timex Show featuring Sinatra, Joey Bishop, Sammy Davis Jr. and others; a segment on Dusty Springfield featuring commentary from Petula Clark and others and a performance by Springfield of her signature song, “I Only Want To Be With You;” John Sebastian joking with his audience and then singing “What a Day for a Daydream;” very cool blues sung by Bonnie Koloc, a blues instrumental featuring the trumpet of Arturo Sandoval, and a long lost music video of “The Longest Time” by Billy Joel; and a dramatic segment from the movie “The Fabulous Dorseys.” Although the visual quality is inconsistent and often leaves a lot to be desired, this piece is still interesting to watch.

Perhaps the weirdest addition to the “Propaganda” section is the seventeen minute “How To” featuring a Holiday Spanish lesson, various artists in segments on painting with watercolours, a tutorial on Beginners Modern Jive, demonstrations of a boxing martial art called Muay Thai, a brief documentary on professional golfer Donna White meant to introduce a series of golf lessons, sailing lessons, lessons on playing acoustic guitar, and a video called “Women Fight Back” featuring martial arts training. Each of these segments is incomplete starting mid-stream and is clipped before the end. This video quality ranges from not very good to just plain awful. Again, there’s what appears to be a release number at the left side of each title bar So the purpose of this “How To” section may be to market other Quantum Leap releases featuring these various lessons.

Featuring thirteen live concert recordings, this release is worth owning for the music alone. As for the rest of it: well, those bonus segments do make for fun viewing. They’re silly and quirky enough to probably make good party-time viewing. I’d recommend this release for anyone who enjoys the old music and the stars who recorded it or for any Johnny Tillotson fan who’d like to see him in a live performance.

Find out more about Johnny Tillotson at the Johnny Tillotson Official Website or at Wikipedia. You can look up The Dovells at The Dovells Home Page or at Wikipedia. You’ll find information on Lyn Paul at The Lyn Paul Website or, again, at Wikipedia. Also check out the Quantum Leap Online Catalogue.

Support this independent roots music CD reviews blog.

Music DVD Review: Bobby Vee (Rock ‘n Roll Legends: Bobby Vee)

Rock ‘n Roll Legends: Bobby Vee
Bobby Vee
Quantum Leap Group Ltd.
2005
Running Time: 45 minutes

This is the first of six reviews of DVD releases selected from the Quantum Leap “Rock ‘n Roll Legends” series featuring stars of the late-Fifties and early-Sixties. This DVD series is quirky and uneven, yet manages to be both interesting and entertaining.These nostalgic releases feature live performances by popular stars, often years after they were in their prime, mostly at Little Darlin’s, a nostalgia club in Florida, but also at other locations. Some performances are taken from television or movies, including a documentary from Canada’s National Film Board. A horde of other popular stars, and some not so well known, make guest appearances. The visuals, on clips often apparently dubbed from old film stock, range from disconcertingly blurry to quite good but never flawless. Usually, the music makes up for the lack of visual clarity.

There’s a “Fanzone” that includes biography, discography and other background information. As well, the “Quantum Leap Propaganda” section features a variety of interesting, sometimes documentary plugs for events and products as well as web links.

While this “Rock ‘n Roll Legends” series includes other DVD releases, in these six alone, you can see performances by some 25 vintage artists, singing not only their own hits but other popular songs of the era. Any one of these releases provides an interesting, if eccentric, window on this past time. Together they present a fascinating pastiche of popular music as it was a half-century ago.

Rock ‘n Roll Legends: Bobby Vee features five of Bobby Vee’s biggest hits performed live at Little Darlin’s, The Rock ‘n Roll Palace in Orlando, Florida. The music is energetic and well-performed and the songs retain the sound of the original hit recordings. The audience is lively, filling the dance floor throughout the perfomance, and Vee is clearly having a ball interacting with them. There’s something a little off-centre about doing the bunny hop to “Walking With My Angel” or asking the dancers to twist to “Rubber Ball” but Vee and his audience carry it off. The track-listing on the package does not match the actual order of songs as performed.

Guest artists on this release are Danny and the Juniors, here called The Original Juniors, featuring three original members without the late Danny Rapp (1941-1983). Also performing at Little Darlin’s, The Original Juniors do a respectable job performing this music, sounding slicker and more “Vegas” than the original recordings I remember. Even so, this is good Rock and Roll, performed with sincerity and energy.

On this release, “Fanzone” features an extensive biography of Bobby Vee along with a comprehensive discography of his releases over the decades. These sections make interesting reading but, once again the visual quality is far less than ideal.

“Quantum Leap Propaganda” is more than just that. It includes three interesting, if rough in many aspects, clip-packed video presentations plus a brief commercial for the Quantum Leap website. Imagine the movie That’s Entertainment produced not by a professional but by a YouTube amateur and you’ll have a good idea what to expect in these video presentations.

Running almost seventeen minutes, “Pure Pop” is a pastiche of interesting clips that comes across as a chaotic attempted documentary film. It features a half-dozen or more popular stars in commentary and in performance. The purpose appears to be to sell other DVD selections. At the left side of each title bar is what appears to be a release number. Some of the clips you can see include part of a documentary on New York songwriters featuring Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield; a performance from The Frank Sinatra Timex Show featuring Sinatra, Joey Bishop, Sammy Davis Jr. and others; a segment on Dusty Springfield featuring commentary from Petula Clark and others and a performance by Springfield of her signature song, “I Only Want To Be With You;” John Sebastian joking with his audience and then singing “What a Day for a Daydream;” performances by Bonnie Koloc, Arturo Sandoval, and Billy Joel (in a long lost music video); and a segment from the movie “The Fabulous Dorseys.” Here as well, the visual quality leaves a lot to be desired but is more than made up for in historical interest.

At about seventeen minutes, “World Music” is set up along the same lines as “Pure Pop”, including the embedded release numbers, but features concert and interview clips of a variety of contemporary artists from around the world. Also included are clips of a children’s entertainer (a character garbed as a large indefinable animal) and documentary clips of dance teachers at work. Because of the music, the visuals, and the tight, fast pacing, this selection maintains a high interest level. For the most part, this section flows better and seems more unified that “Pure Pop” until near the end, where, for no apparent reason, there’s a short documentary clip on the rise and fall of communism.

“W.P.M.A.” is a seven minute plug for the World Peace Music Awards concerts, a large event featuring hundreds of well-known musicians and broadcast worldwide. While this promotional piece seems more unified than some of the other material on this release, it also seems to be pieced together from two separate pieces advertising the concerts in San Francisco, California (2002) and in Nagasaki, Japan (2005). This now outdated advertisement is mostly of interest for the documentary content included to support its cause.

Combining the pop rock of Bobby Vee with sanitized versions of Danny and the Juniors’ rock and roll, this release is a worthwhile investment for anyone interested in this vintage music. The additional video segments, while clearly advertisements and not that well produced, are just plain fun. I’d definitely recommend this DVD to anyone seeking a couple of hours light entertainment.

You’ll find more information on Bobby Vee at the Bobby Vee Home Page or at Wikipedia. You can look up Danny and the Juniors at the Official Danny and The Juniors Site or at Wikipedia. Also check out the Quantum Leap Online Catalogue.

Support this independent roots music CD reviews blog.

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.

Support this independent roots music CD reviews blog.