Play/Mix – I’m a fan of this mix! Eclectic and diverse, maybe my favorite so far. And also, a new icon 🦋 Transformative, probably should have been on a couple recordings already!
The BeatNuts – Intoxicated Demons: The EP – Relativity/Violator, 1993.
🎤:
This is a little unusual as it is an EP version with part of a full album? I don’t think I knew that when I picked it up. It’s decent early 90’s Hip Hop which I enjoy, but it is really not anything iconic for me. I enjoy the beats, and the Jazz samples, that kind of production brings me back to my post-high school days. Lyrically it is a bit on the brawny and boastful side, yes some conscious lyricism too, but not as deep and maybe a less interesting collection of songs for me because of it.“No Equal”
Overall = 2.7 (10) – It’s alright. Get it:
Jimmy Cliff – Struggling Man – Island, 1974.
🇯🇲 🔭:
Maybe not Mr. Cliff’s best album, but a good album and a conscious classic. There is a moment in the 70’s Reggae where many songs cross over into a blend of Pop, Gospel, Blues and Rock music and this album has a good amount of that. A few tracks might not even be considered Reggae, aside from the artists performing them. That crossover quality is all the better when used to support the album’s message of unity and hope. “Better Days Are Coming”
Overall = 7.7 (10) – Light and positive, despite the title.Get it:
Andrew Bird – Weather Systems – Wegawam, 2003.
🇺🇸📣 🫧🌾:
Indie Pop which leans into traditional and folk influences. Bird was in the Squirrel Nut Zippers but approached this, his first solo album, mixing ihis roots with n a more Indie Pop sound. It still has a lot of Folk type instruments, he is a violin player, and the arrangements give it a concept album like feel, but I don’t think the songs are interconnected, The sound is cohesive throughout the recording. I can suss out some Classical, and Jeff Buckley, influences too.
Overall = 5.4 – (10) – Pretty, but it doesn’t really clutch me in. Get it:
Isaac Albeniz – Iberia – Suites Españolas – Naxos, 1997.
🎼🇪🇸🎹:
A Spanish, Post-Romantic composer and one of the most recognized Spanish composers in Classical music. These performances features pianist Guillermo Gonzalez and these pieces are Albeniz’s piano works. They are pretty, light and draw on Spanish Folk Music and regional traditions for inspiration. “Iberia Book One: El Puerto”
Overall = 4.2 (10) – It’s ok, the collection is a little same-ish and I possibly desire this music on guitar instead of piano.Get it:
Andy Bey & The Bey Sisters – Now Here! (& Round Midnight) – Prestige, 1964.
🗣️🎺:
This CD collects the album I reviewed in the last ItS and an earlier one Now Here! which I consider a stronger recorded example of Andy & the Bey Sisters. The arrangements are transformational to this well curated song selections. The band is stronger and a few moments of improvisation are included to contrast the arrangements. It is still a vocals album so they are, as they should be, the focus, but the later recording really didn’t include much more than a band in service of a vehicle for the voices, this recording feels more collaborative. “A Taste of Honey”
Overall = 6.7 (10) – A really solid vocal group album, my only complaint being the Mr. Bey isn’t featured as much and his voice is really special and deserves more emphasis. Get it:
VA – Soundtrack – The Book of Life – Echostatic, 1999.
🎥 🎞️🪨🫧:
A film either I haven’t seen or completely forgot after seeing. I’m sure my attraction was to it having PJ Harvey both in the film and on the soundtrack. Regardless, it fits into my “Soundtracks to Films I Haven’t Seen” list. It has a good mix of artists I don’t know and alternative Pop stars like Harvey and Yo La Tengo. The song that has always stuck with me was “Two People” by Hub(?). I recalled the song as being by a different artist (Joey Sweeney, who I believe at one point wrote for one of the Philadelphia free papers?) on this collection, but apparently not. It’s a pretty harrowing, desolate song about the end of a relationship. There is a natural flow between a few Score-like tracks (mostly instrumental) and songs, the PJ Harvey song, and most likely the other songs are available on the artist’s original albums – meaning they were selected, not created, for the soundtrack. Also “Waking Up” Miss Crabtree.
Overall = 5.4 – (10) – It’s a pretty strong unknown! Get it:
Atmosphere – Seven’s Travels – Rhyme Sayers/Epitaph, 2003.
🎤:
I haven’t listened to this in awhile. It is sort of from the end period of my keeping up with new Rap and Hip Hop artists. Atmosphere has a lot of good qualities: solid beats and samples, a song writer’s approach to structure, which creates nice contrasts and a tricky linguist. But I also do not always join the journey of what is being said, though sometimes I still enjoy the way it is delivered. “Cats Vans Bags”
Overall = 3.4 – (10) – Likable, butI don’t think I’ll revisit this much.Get it:
African Head Charge verses Professor Stretch – Drums of Defiance – EFA, 1998.
🇯🇲⚡️:
A sort of a hybrid album, African Head Charge is very Dub and Electronically creative, but this album also features a DJ as a contributing influence. I can’t find much information about Professor Stretch and the info in the liner notes is meager, but the resulting recording is a Bill Laswell -like Dub album. I don’t think these are remixes of songs found elsewhere? And sometimes the beats run too cute, but it gives a feeling of being lost in a dreamy fog with beats.“Run Come Chant”
Overall = 4.7 (10) – It’s got a certain drunken searching through your Tupperware, looking for a lid, vibe. Get it:
M’Bilia Bel – Bameli Soy – Shanachie, 1991.
🌎🇨🇩 🎸💃🏽:
Queen Cleopatra, Queen of African Rumba, and she has been performing for a half a century! As interesting as she is, I am compelled by the guitar work on this recording. African Guitar style is one of my loves. I enjoy deciphering how the layered grooves transform subtly throughout the piece and the interplay between guitars. It is also dance music which here is presented in lengthy jam-like performances, there are only 4 songs on the disc. The guitar sound wins the selected track, bright and dancing. It is a tone I would have avoided when I was a young guitar enthusiast – being too clean, too pretty, but this mastery is where the type of tone belongs. Beautiful and in its proper environment. Easy music to enjoy for any festive occasion. “Lisanga Ya Bambanda”
Overall = 5.2 (10 – There are other examples of this style of African music that I enjoy more, but this album is high energy and enjoyable. Get it:$$
& Exploration – Terrascape, 1997.
🌎🇨🇩🫧:
Six years later and not nearly as successful, leaning into some Pop music ideals and relying on guest artists. there are English language songs and a rap. I do like hearing her voice singing English, there is a completely different phrasing and not always can artist sing in multiple languages and retain their style. However, the sounds feel more dated than the earlier album and Mrs. Bel doesn’t appear (at least singing?) on a few of the tracks. “Levez Les Bras”
Overall = 1.2 (10) – I don’t recommend this, a few ok songs, but the previous album is much stronger. Get it:
Joe Bataan – SalSoul – Mericana, 1973.
🌎 💃🏽✊🏿🧀:
The best of the three Bataan albums I have reviewed for In the Stacks. Bataan is still mixing Soul, Rock and Salsa in a way which feels like an artist/label stab for a crossover hit. And I still don’t love his voice on the songs in English. Usually he is attempting a Soul singer style profile and it doesn’t quite make it, but all the grooves here are sweet. The English lyrics are also well intended, but so basic that I take exception to it. Somehow he had a few ringer titles despite the lyrical issues “Muchacho Ordinario” & “After Shower Funk”
Overall = 5.2 (10) – There are a handful of jams on this album. Get it:
Maya Angelou – Miss Calypso – Scamp, 1957.
🌎🇹🇹🗣️ 🐠 🧀🫂:
The surprise here is Mrs. Angelou as a singer. Most are familiar with her writing and activism. In her youth however she sang and danced, studying with Trinidadian dancer Pearl Primus. That influence and the popularity of Harry Belafonte at the time probably fed this early career creation. It sounds good, she can sing and the material is solid. I do have are questions of authenticity, this is researched traditions rather than authentic personal history. In several cases she employs an accent affectation which is not her natural voice. Also at the time this type of traditional music interpretation was considered acceptable, not appropriation, but thought of us celebration, which is why I offer the 🐠 Exotica icon. Many artists did this at that time and though they create somewhat of a Tiki Bar type of authenticity, and some can call this cultural appropriation (which is fair), it was at a time where probably no authentic cultural examples were being offered. However because of some of those decisions the music gets a little cheesy aura too., but those elements do not diminish the music for me. “Mambo in Africa”
Overall = 4.2 (10) – It has a certain novel charm.Get it:
Va – Așa Branca: Accordion Forro From Brazil – Rykodisc, 1990.
🌎🇧🇷🪗 ❂:
Forro is a Northeastern Brazilian Accordion Rock style which is featured in this collection. I have a hard crush on Brazilian accordion music, but I expected this to be older recordings. Almost everything on the collection is from the mid to late 80’s and the collection was released in 1990. Most of the recordings have singers, and it is a type of Pop music. The engineering suggests clean party music to me. I was already a fan of some of the artists here, but the style is relatively unknown to me. There is a sort of dizzying quality to the melodies, the rhythms and their pace. “Nilopolitano” by Dominguinhos (feat. Sivuca & Chiquinho do Acordeon)
Overall = 5.4 (10) – There is a mood to the collection, fun for the right occasions. Get it:
VA – 100 Kaba Bagpipes – The Magic of Rhodopa Mountain – Balkanton,
🌎🇧🇬 ❂ 👣 🔭 🤿 🕸️ ⌘🤘:
Ahh, haunting shivers throughout. An army of bagpipers droning, but it also is blended with voices, choirs and occasionally orchestras. I also have a crush on Bulgarian choirs and it is transformed ever more intensely by the droning pipes. I love to discover places and cultures through their music. I did not know that the Rhodopa Mountains existed before I heard this, but I imagine these sounds echoing through the mountain range. The cover additionally touts the inclusion of a “cosmic hit” – one of the songs was sent into space in a time capsule. I suggest that that is entirely deserved, sending this music into space. Sometimes this sounds like Balkan throat singing, but with a bag pipe drone instead of the throat and other times I feel a nordic vibe. Somewhere there is metal in these ancient grooves, I’d pay for a metal cover album.
SBOREN KHOR I ORKESTŬR OT 100 KABA GAĬDA – “Bela Sŭm, Bela, Yunache”.
Overall = 8.3 (10) – I’m so grateful this happened and was recorded. Get it:
Duke Ellington – Volume 3: Black Beauty 1927-1928 – Hot N’ Sweet, ?.
🏌🏿♂️🥁🎺 ❂🎹 🗝️ ✪
The beyond category, category. More early recordings, they sound a bit novel and not as refined as some of the other previous Ellington listening. And this collection (a French reissue?) has a lot of alternate takes of the same songs. I am sure I bought this for the song “Black Beauty” a favorite of mine. The song became a tribute piece for Florence Mills, with 3 versions on this collection. There are similar collections which take better care of the recordings, and I probably have some of these songs on other collections.
Overall = 6.9 – (10) – Great music, not the best representation of it. OoP:
Miles Davis – Chronicle: The Complete Prestige Recordings 1951 -1956 – Prestige, 1987. (New Sounds, Blue Period, The Compositions of Al Cohn, Quartet, All Star Quintet, with Sonny Rollins, All Stars V. 1 & 2, The Musings of Miles, Dig, The New Miles Davis Quintet, And Horns, Quintet/Sextet, Blue Haze, Collectors’ Items, Walkin’, Cookin’, Bag’s Groove, Relaxin’, And the Modern Jazz Giants, Workin’ and Steamin’)
🎺𝍍🎶 ❂ ⏺️ 🗝️ ✪ ♛⌛️🎗️🆑 🃁 🦋:
Selim Sivad category. So much music here, and the birth of Miles’ first great quintet. Also plenty of other fabulous guest appearances or other people’s albums that Miles was on, like Lee Konitz and Sonny Rollins. Miles departed this period as a Star, so he would only rarely record under other people’s leadership. There are also some real experimental moments and the forging of his trumpet style, particularly on the ballads. What a poet. Miles was a profound trumpet voice, everything he plays feels sculpted and perfect in the moment. This is not technique driven trumpet, or soloing, and I am here for that. The ensemble approach to Modern Jazz is being crafted on these albums, as well as his legendary leadership qualities.
During my graduate studies we did a chronologically re-listen to Miles’s recordings. One aspect of his brilliance was revealed from reading his autobiography in tandem to listening to the recordings. Doing that you can trace many of the Standards featured here to Jazz Real Books (Collections of Jazz Lead Sheets that students use to learn songs), Miles’s versions are the model for the interpretations. He was a great popularizer, and an exquisite curator, of songs. Songs like “Four” (written by Eddie Vinson not Miles, as he is often credited with) and “Dig” (By Jackie McLean) became Standards and were clearly picked by Miles from his relationships described in the book. Also many of these songs can be connected to specific concerts, tours or bands he was involved with and then adapted the songs for his own group, which is well depicted in the book.
I am halfway through this listen and there are about 5 iconic recorded moments (Sonny Rollins’s first leader recording, Charlie Parker as a sideman on Tenor, Jackie McLean’s first recordings, the legendary “Bags Groove” session with Thelonious Monk and the last 3 discs he forms his first Great Quintet featuring John Coltrane). Beyond these historical moments there are easily 30 Modern Jazz Standards presented in this collection in one of their finest renditions. It’s an extraordinary collection of music and difficult for me to pick out a particular track or tracks. I will probably choose from personal favorites, which might be from New Miles Davis Quintet – that cover with its dark blue scrabble is burnt in my mind and ear. The earlier version of “In Your Own Sweet Way” composed by Dave Brubeck and featuring Rollins. And “Just Squeeze Me”
Overall = 10 – (10) – A collection of historically significant recordings by one of the World’s iconic artists. OoP:
Prince – Dirty Mind – Warner Brothers, 1980.
Ƥ𖫪 🫧🦄🫦 🗝️ ✪🆑💰 🦋:
The most complete Prince album of his early years. Four classic hits, and overall a sort of dance beat suite. It is also clear he is writing these songs individually and building them in the studio, then the band enters the picture. Though artists like Stevie Wonder, Shuggie Otis, Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel were doing studio creation before him, I think Prince may have modeled the digital era version of doing it all yourself. The songs haven’t lost any energy or sensuality. “When You Were Mine” This, and a few other tracks, fall into my “Funktry” category, I think they are the first examples we have heard, but something Prince brings occasionally throughout his career.
Overall = 9.6 – (10) – A classic. Get it:
Found Sounds 