Boogie Down Productions – By All Means Necessary – Jive, 1988.
🎤🆑 📝 ⚒️🎗️ 🏋🏽:
Both Public Enemy and BDP release their debut albums in 1987 and in a simultaneous inception they both brought the hard edged, woke Rap that hooked me deeply. When I am captured, deciphering the lyrical concepts and their meaning, while clicking to a beat, I am affirmed as a conscious individual. Both bands were speaking truths to me, as Dylan and Gil Scott Heron and others do, and it is a little sad for me that now, today, continues to feature such superficiality and power seeking greed, needing to affirm woke-ness. The criminality KRS-One is expressing on this album is even more relevant today, different culprits (in some cases) but similar results magnified for this century. “Illegal Business”
Overall = 8.4 (10) – A formative influence, that still cracks. Get it!
William Bell – The Soul of A Bell – Stax, 1967.
🔈✊🏿🗣️ ⎄:
William Bell had a sweet voice and was a good songwriter. I bought this album for it’s vertigo cover and though I had a clue, I am pretty pleased with my faith, as it turned out to be winner – which everyone loves. This was Bell’s first album and he had immediate success with “Everybody Loves A Winner”, but he is probably most known for the song “Born Under a Bad Sign” (though not found on this album). These are two dramatically different songs to have success with and Bell wrote some hits for other artists as well, his songwriting seems as critical as his voice.
Overall = 5.1 (10) – Solid Soul album. Get It!
Eek-A-Mouse – Eek-A-Nomics – Ras, 1988.
🇯🇲:
Weirdness! Jamaican weirdness (which is Level 8.5+ on the weirdness scale). Eek-A-Mouse has a somewhat squirel-ly delivery and many off kilter ideas, mix that with some thin sounding 80’s Dancehall beats and you have something. Mr. A-Mouse uses self reference as a device which creates some sort of peep into the World of Eek-A-Mouse. In some ways I find it interesting that this persona is musical in nature and yet the commitment to it brings an authenticity that suggests it can’t be an act. I’m a big fan of authenticity. “Glamity”
Overall = 3.7 (10) – Pretty Bongo?#&<!, but fun. Get it!
Mose Allison – Back Country Suite/Local Color – Prestige, 1957.
🗣️🗣️⎄🎺🎹 🏙️📀(not📔) 📝:
This 2Fer CD covers Mr. Allison’s first 2 recordings as a leader. Mr. Allison is most well known based on his song/lyric writing. His first album Back Country Suite features a suite of piano miniatures and only a few vocal pieces. One of which, “Blues”, was covered later on by The Who as “Young Man’s Blues” (this is the original, so “not” a cover 📔). Mr. Allison is a decent pianist and the the themes of the suite are interesting, but all the songs are around 2 minutes and most feel unresolved or incomplete – a frequent complaint of Jazz suites from a Classical perspective. I disagree most times with that analysis , but these pieces never take off fully and I think it perhaps would expand in live performance.
Local Color also features a song covered by English Rockers “Parchman Farm” covered on John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, which suggests to me that Allison’s profile is so high because several Brits were interested in his music, and then sustained because of his compositional skill. Solid recordings, but little there that resonates with me. “Blues”
Overall = 4.2 (10) – Pretty iconic song writer and singer, his initial recordings, but I’m not fully in this bag. Get it!
Johann Sebastian Bach – St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244: Arias and Choruses – Sony, 1978. (Arleen Auger, Julia Hamari, Aldo Baldin, Philippe Huttenlocher & Helmuth Rilling)
🎼🗣️🎻⎄ 🗝️ ⌛️🎗️💰🆑📀🎄 🦋:
It’s Christmas morning and I recall my Father telling me he was going to see St. Matthew Passion multiple times around the Holidays and how I wondered what he meant back then. It feels very appropriate to listen to this now around the Holidays. Situational listening, or situational hearing (?), is an underrated concept. There are things you will hear, conversation, humor or music where the right environment can entirely transform your experience and deepen the connection. Environment can be a stretch of time and Holidays carry a nostalgic echo of many past years.
I’m a fan of Bach. I study some of his cello music on saxophone and recognize a shared sense of harmony, voice leading, and embellishment, between Bach and Bird (In BeBop language generally). I am less familiar with Bach’s writing for voices and larger ensembles, and I have never really went to listen to this particular piece with any frequency. It is a Masterwork and I wonder how I can connect with a 47 year old recording of an almost 300 year old composition, but I am connecting. The right time and place, to feel a sense of glory. “Matthäus-Passion, BWV 244: 26. Ich will bei meinem Jesu wachen”
Overall = 8.7 (10) – One of those pieces people should hear, and probably hear live, at least once in their life. Get it!
John Carpenter – OMPSC – Christine – Varese Sarabande, 1983/1989.
🎥⎄ 🗝️🔌 :
John Carpenter the pioneering, electronic, film score composer has been vastly overshadowed by his popularity as the Film Director and also ignored a bit because his successful Horror films were considered less serious fare. These days (just ask Stranger Things) you can consider him influential as both a composer and electronic musician, as well as a greta director. His palate of keyboard sounds are pretty well integrated into my soul, as I saw these films as a child, usually late at night alone in my room. I can’t really imagine film sonic language existing without these Arcade emporiums of digital waves. I also recognize that Synth scores often meant a cheap music budget (no orchestra to pay) in the 80’s, but it could also be experimental and explorative.. “Football Run/Kill Your Kids” & “The Discovery”
Overall = 6.5 (10) – A dark, brooding, Ambient electronic score.Get it!
Manu Dibango – Lamastabastani – Melodie, 1995.
🌎🫧🇨🇲🎷🗝️🗣️ 👁️🗨️⛪️👣:
This 1995 release appears with various covers/titles, whatever version I purchased is light on any details, but this release focuses on Manu Dibango’s Saxophone playing on African Spirituals. It is very gentle and positive, a pretty rare combination to achieve. There are throbbing organs, a full choir, his saxophone and vibraphone at a languid pace, with thought and intent. Mr. Dibango was more well known for highly sampled and grooving music like “Soul Mokossa” this is entirely different and well worth the discovery. My copy has an anti-cover, a cover that made me want to avoid it. I’m so glad I ignored that reaction. “Elie”
Overall = 7.2 (10) – Pretty, lovely and spiritual too. Get it!
The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices Choir: Conductor Dora Hristova – Bulgarian Custom Songs – Gega New, 1993.
🌎🇧🇬🗣️ 🌾📣🎄👣:
Bulgarian choir performing traditional Christmas songs. Strange to arrive at several Holiday musics around the Holidays (without actively searching for them) and honestly I never knew these songs were Christmas songs during previous times listening to this, not until reading the liner notes. Bulgarian vocal groups open my mind to the endless variations of musical humans. The harmonies are wild, though the songs here are more familiarly organized and this group blends male and female voices. “Cheers To you, Master Of The House (For The Young Hostess)”
Overall = 6.7 (10) – Don’t say it! I give it a 9 as a Christmas album, a 6.7 if just as a choir album. Get it!
& “Horo” Orchestra Rousse: Conductor Vassil Purvanov – Bulgarian Folk Music – Gega New, 1994.
🌎🇧🇬🕺🏿 🌾📣:
Hectic, serpentine and hypnotic music for dancing. A Horo Orchestra, is a medium sized group that mixes traditional instruments, like: Ocarina & Wooden Pipes, with modern instruments like: clarinet & accordion. There are vocals here and there, but the focus is on the winding, intricate melodies. There is an effect of changing direction in the music which reminds me of murmurations of starlings and their rapid synchronized turns and twists. Gega New is a Bulgarian, tradition preserving, music label that focuses on historical music despite the “new” in its name. Mr. Purvanov is also a clarinetist, not only the conductor, who plays some traditional instruments too and despite the cover (unless there are many dancers as part of the orchestra) there are only 9 musicians and a few singers performing. “Petrovsko Elenino”
Overall = 6.1 (10) – Put this on to be busy to. Get it!$$$
Vinicius Cantuaria – Horse and Fish – Bar/None Records, 2000.
🌎🫧🇧🇷🗣️ ⎄🔮:
Not for this particular album, but Mr. Cantuaria was a mid-nineties discovery when I worked on South st. in a CD store. I was probably aware of Jazz-Bossa, but not really deeply into Brazilian Music or Brazilian Bossa Nova yet. I think I thought Bossa was a little on the cheese side – but was learning the tunes to perform for society gigs. This album is more experimental and maybe transitional, compared to the first album I discovered of Mr. Cantuaria’s. There are traditional sounding songs on this album, but he is more of a modernist and was playing in New York with a variety of contemporary Jazz musicians. This eras Jazz naturally mixes Afro-Cuban, Bossa Nova and any variety of traditional musics into their conceptual stew – Jazz is Worldly music today. “Quase Choro” Haunting and languid.
Overall = 7.3 (10) – I consider him an important composer over the last few decades. Get it!
Cachao – Y Su Conjunto Descarga – Maype, unknown/around 1960.
🌎 🗝️🇨🇺🔥 ⌛️🕳️:
One of the creators and progenitors of Cuban music and a partner in the creation of the Mambo. Descarga were Jam sessions and the music here sounds like proto-Salsa. Also Cachao was a hell of a Bass player. These 2 albums are collections, I believe, and I may have the same material on other reissues. There is also a variety of pieces, some featuring vocalists, some instrumentals, speaking to their spontaneity. “Tunas Se Quemo”
Overall = 6.4 (10) – Great, important recordings – possibly not the best release/reissue to hear them on?Get it!
& Jam Session with Feeling: Descarga Cubanas – Maype, 1958/1962.
🌎 🗝️🇨🇺🕺🏿🔥 ⌛️🕳️:
Descarga feature improvised arrangements and a jam session environment. This is Cachao’s 2nd Descarga recording, though it took awhile to be released after being blocked in Cuba and the label moving to America, then releasing it. This collection of pieces are applying the Descarga (Jam Session) concept to traditional songs. His first Descarga recording featured novel, new compositions. This is one way to progress innovation, it needs both original and traditional integration to survive – or it needs to feature both in a marriage, the old and new, giving a timeless quality. You can’t speak enough to the musicianship of all involved, I’d love a deeper, clearer understanding of how the parts were created, as everything sounds pre-crafted. “El Niño Toca El Tres”
Overall = 6.4 (10) – Popping, and maybe a little more nostalgic as they are playing traditional pieces here. Get it!
Duke Ellington – Braggin’ In Brass: The Immortal 1938 Year – CBS, 1989.
Beyond Category 🎺 ✪ ⎄ 🗝️:
Duke Ellington was intensely prolific in the Thirties. In fact, you have to double check song titles, year and spellings, because he writes so much material and re-records songs multiple times for different labels. You have to be diligent in your searching. I refiled and reorganized my Ellington section listening to this collection and wondered how complete I am? I have a solid 80+ Ellington recordings. Yet that isn’t very complete in Ellington’s world and so I’m taking a flier on the Complete ’27-’47 collection, 40 discs, that I found for a very lovely price. Still not complete, but immense and covering the first 2/5ths of his career! “Skrontch”
Overall = 8.5 (10) – Arriving at a golden era of the Ellington Orchestra. Get it!
Miles Davis – Four-Play – Jazz Music Yesterday, 1958-1959.
Selim Sivad 🎺 🎟️ ✪ 🗝️ 🗝️ 🗝️:
Miles Davis has many live concert recordings. This collection features 4 sets spread between N.Y.C. & Washington D.C. at a critical moment where one of the great bands of all time added a defining member, Cannonball Adderley. The sound is best, (and actually pretty good!) on the 1st and 3rd set, and we hear the band working through classic arrangements and material. This is a French bootleg release, many of Miles’ live recordings get tagged onto the bigger reissues, I’m not sure if there are other versions of these recordings out there. Again, this is one of the great bands ever to play, so no one really cares about the detractions that may exist in the sound quality, these are the greatest of improvisors stretching out. I chose “Weirdo” but was only able to add the entire Spotlight DC set, also featuring “Bye Bye Blackbird” and “Straight No Chaser”.
Overall = 8.3 (10) – Miles from this point releases albums, not blowing sessions, go to the live recordings when you want to capture that vibe.Get it!
Prince – Live in Detroit:11/30/82 – NPG/Warner Records, 2019 (*Issued in 1999 Box Set)
The Purple Patch Ƥ𖫪 🫧🦄🫦 🎟️🎸 ✪ ⎄ 🗝️:
Prince was one of the savviest artists of all time. There is a 2.5 hour Prince documentary Slave Trade dedicated to his innovative business sense. Most Popular songs tend towards the 3 minutes long frame and rarely have time for “solos” and popularity seeking, but hearing Prince perform his songs live suggests that the short instrumental breaks were transformed into expansive grooves for live exploration. Some of the “jam” sections on this performance are telegraphing some future Prince material, particularly the Psychedelic Pop side of Prince that is eminent. “Let’s Work”
Overall = 8.8 (10) – Live work by one of the greatest performers, and they stretch. Get it!
Found Sounds 