Boogie Down Productions – Edutainment – Jive/Zomba, 1990.
🎤:
This BDP album really lives up to its title, KRS-One is weaving ballad, narratives about all types of contemporary problems, that are still relevant 36 years later. It is pretty clear that he is intentional about his role as an educator and it foretells rap as a popular, learning device (a la Hamilton). It is not easy to make political, historical commentary that is also lyrical and catchy, which is done well here.
“30 Cops or More”
Overall = 5.2 (10) – Good, but no real memorable tunes for me.Get it!
Eddie Grant – Killer On The Rampage – CBS, 1983.
🇯🇲🇬🇧💰 ⚒️:
Me, 10 years old, jamming to “Electric Avenue”. Unfortunately it is the only song I truly like on this album and maybe also from Eddie Grant generally. It is a great song though. Mr. Grant was from the U.K., but has a strong reggae style in all his recordings, many of the other songs on this reminded me of songs by The Police, who were pretty popular at that time too I loved the weird electronic sounds and vocal effects. It is, as my daughter would say, “A Vibe”. “Electric Avenue”
Overall = 4 (10) – The song is a 10, but the rest of the album only listenable. Get it!
LaVern Baker – See See Rider – Atlantic/Sequel, 1962.
🗣️ 🏙️🪨🔈🧀🪦⨻:
This collection of recordings occupies a “tweener” type space. It is a vocalist feature, but also seems to be catering to a younger audience with Rock & R&B tinges to the music. Many songs offer big orchestration and others are novelty tunes. It has a creepy doll cover. This further makes me wonder who the target audience was? Mrs. Baker has a strong voice, which handles most of these settings well (though some of these settings may not be serving her voice in return).I bought this album for that creepy doll cover, which really has no bearing on the music at all. Weird choice! The music is ok, best when it leans into bluesy material and Mrs. Baker lets it rip. “Trouble In Mind”
Overall = 4.2 (10) – Best when the organ joins the fray. Get it!
Ludwig Van Beethoven/Johannes Brahms – Beethoven: Triple Concerto, etc. Oistrakh – Rostropovich – Richter – EMI, 1975/1993.
🎼🗣️ 🎼❤️ 🗝️🎟️:
Live music! When searching for the track it appears this performance was both audio recorded and filmed. It is considered a masterwork, but the music slides into the background for me. Most Classical and Jazz music is recorded as a live performance of the material, not as in a concert performance, but all the musicians performing together in real time. Popular music is often performed in isolation, or performed to a recording, then layered in the recording studio. It is two deeply different things, though anytime multiple people are recording there must be consideration of group sound and how performing together clicks. We are lucky to have documents of live performances by masters of their craft. “Double Concerto for Violin & Cello in A Minor, Op. 102: II. Andante”
Overall = 7.5 (10) – I won’t put this on frequently, but it is Classic Classical music.Get it!
O.M.S.T. – Roy Ayers – Coffey – Universal/Polydor, 1973/2001.
🎥🎺𖫪 🎬⑉:
This is from the “soundtracks to films I haven’t seen” collection. I’m familiar with Pam Grier and seen other films featuring her, but I never saw Coffey. It is the kind of music that is sometimes soundtrack and sometimes score. There are bits that are simply cool themes that never evolve into something fully realized, just passing through. Most of the music doesn’t resolve, because it is essentially accompaniment music to the film scenes and themes. The music disembodied from its vessel won’t always work as something to listen to for enjoyment. I tend to listen for the craft and there are plenty of quality moments throughout this music. Sometimes the adventure in Film music appeals to the image over the audience. Think the stabbing strings from Psycho or the chromatic accelerando of Jaws those iconic motifs are not really songs, but they support the moments in the films and our ears readily accept their dissonance, intensity and drama. This music conveys similar things, but in a Funk, Soul Strings and Jazzy manner. “Coffy Is The Color”
Overall = 5.7 (10) – Iconic film music. Get it!
Etoile De Dakar – Dakar Sound vol. 1: Etoile 2000 – Dakar Sound, 1980/1993.
🌎🇸🇳 🫧❂ 🗝️⚒️ ⚙︎🎸:
This collection features Senegalese star Youssou N’Dour in one of his earliest bands and also some seriously nasty guitar playing. It’s a good thing. Thick with grooves and vamps, pretty stretchy in terms of solos. It is a different cultural expression, but this is a jam band that thrives in a groove, introduces tasteful modern technological timbres to their sound and draws from worldly influences. I love the guitar interplay too, it’s not just one great guitarist and they have clearly different timbral personalities. I believe this band had a variety of incarnations, and subtle name changes, in their history. I don’t know enough about the other time periods to know if their sound changes along the way. “El Carretero”
Overall = 9.1 (10) – This is a hot side! Get it!
Lucio Battisti – Amore E Non Amore – BMG/Runt, 1971/2006.
🌎🫧🇮🇹🪨 🧀:
This set of songs have a split between really interesting orchestrated Pop instrumentals and Rock music as pictured through an Italian lens. The instrumentals intrigue me much more and the the Rock pieces don’t really work for me. I imagined a show like The Sopranos attempting one of the Rock pieces in a seen and I just couldn’t imagine an American of Italian descent appreciating these songs either. Perhaps it was more about bringing American Pop to Italians. I think the simplicity of those songs exposes the borrowing and lack of proper cultural immersion to support that. “7 Agosto di Pomeriggio”
Overall = 4.3 (10) – Give me more of those cool instrumentals.Get it!
Gal Costa – Legal – Mercury/Universal, 1970.
🌎🫧🇧🇷🧀🗝️🪨⚒️🪦 :
There are a lot of American/Euro Pop influences on this album, not all of them work out, but there are a few great songs and lots of energy. “Lingua Do P” This song starts with a Rock backbeat and then swings into a Brazilian accordion jam, I love it. Some of the other songs stick with the Rock feel and they don’t really make it for me and maybe they do not serve Mrs. Costa’s voice either. I find her best songs to be lightly trippy, fast and effervescent, where her voice dances across a rich groove. At the time, I believe Brazilian artists wanted to present the international influences on their music to their fans, perhaps it just doesn’t age well for me, though some other recordings mix it in in a way I enjoy.
Overall = 6.1 (10) – Not her greatest, but it has its moments. Get it!
& Aquarela Do Brasil – Philips/Polygram, 1988.
🌎🫧🇧🇷🧀 🗝️:
This is a later career recording, by then Gal Costa is considered a Brazilian treasure. That means: big production; an array of songs drawn from many styles and time periods; a heavy American Pop influence – which includes some Disco Cheese and absurd musicianship that bubbles forth, even on the slightly Fantasy Island, banal song choices. There are great Sambas, Bossa Novas and other songs mixed in, the album never over saturates, but the music is more celebratory than revelatory. “Na Baixa Do Sapateiro”
Overall = 5.5 (10) – Solid, later release from Gal Costa. Get it!
VA – Caribbean Carnival Series – Pan Woman: Steelbands of Trinidad and Tobago – A&M, 1991.
🌎🇹🇹 ❂✺ ⚒️:
I think this was a sort of budget, find it at your local Caribbean shop, type of pick up, but this is a solid collection, which showcases a lot of variety in the Steel Drum genre. The timbre of the steel drum could become irritating if not for the interesting array of material, always funky and grooving, with a sunny demeanor. Not all budget items should be considered to equal sub-par quality and this collection I would recommend to people of any level of interest. “Pan Blues” by the Harmonites.
Overall = 6.8 (10) – Carnival! Get it!
Duke Ellington – High Life: 1928-1929 – Membrane International, 2004.
Beyond Category 🎺🥁🏌🏿♂️ ❂ ⎄ 🎨 ✪ 🗝️ 🪄⌛️:
A lot of historically significant material, including some radio broadcasts from The Cotton Club, a few classic Ellington pieces; lots of tour -type, location shout out songs with the names of different places and also some interesting Pop songs. The Ellington sound is forming, though this period features a lot of Banjo which won’t really be part of the signature band sound going forward. Many of the songs share composership, which was a signature payback method for sharing royalties in this time period with its approach to publishing of songs. Ellington often shared composer credit for his songs with his manager Irving Mills and in reverse I believe Ellington’s sidemen would contribute themes that he would then arrange and expand on, they also shared authorship. Sometimes, this can be retroactively perceived as a type of theft and some of the musicians may have felt this way themselves, but there are lots arguments about the subtleties of this practice and whom deserves credit for the actual writing of the songs. I think there are benefits and draw backs to every scenario. Most of Ellington’s sidemen stayed in the band long term, there was loyalty and all benefited by being in the most important band in America at the time. “Arabian Lover” Strange tune for Ellington! It really suggests at a collective improv with a sense of free-ness that won’t arrive for another 30 years.
Overall = 8.1 (10) – The band is clicking. Get it!
Miles Davis & Thelonious Monk – Live At Newport 1958 & 1963 – Columbia/Legacy, 1994.
Selim Sivad 🎺 𝍍🎶✪ 🗝️🗝️ 🗝️🗝️🗝️🪄🎹🎟️⌛️🎷:
An interesting double disc which connects 2 revered ensembles performing at the Newport Jazz Festival. The concerts are 5 years apart, but both feature Hard Bop mastery and iconic bands, lead by legends. So the music is of critical importance. Miles’ sextet is performing right around the release of Kind of Blue, but this is not the music from that, yet. Around this time I think Miles began to consider curating his recordings as conceptual albums, a practice which isn’t to far off from a well designed set list. This set goes with a complex tune up front, and fast! Followed by a Blues, a slower tempo ballad and then a few signature set enders on the back end. The band is in fine form, exhibiting its incredible sense of contrast: Miles’ lyricism and gift of surprise; Trane’s intensity and commitment; Cannonball’s lithe, exuberance; Bill Evans’ lush splendor and a rhythm section so in sync and swinging. It’s near perfect. “Fran-Dance”
The Monk recording is also important, it features Pee Wee Russell’s weird self on a few tracks and Monk’s touring band playing several classic Monk compositions. Russell fits right in and though this music is of a similar genre and popular status, it is really different from the Miles side. Monk is always inside a tune and his compositions are structurally sound, whereas Miles edits and refines things into a sort of lyrical magic, Monk builds and scaffolds. The sidemen bring different contrasts to both of their styles. “Light Blue”
Overall = 8.5/8.1 (10) – Nice, live documents of two iconic bands. Get it!
Prince – Parade – WB, 1986.
The Purple Patch Ƥ𖫪 🫧🦄🫦 🎬🫧 ⎄ ✪ 🗝️💰 💰 💰⚒️ :
This album is a soundtrack to a somewhat unsuccessful (at least if viewed as a follow up to Purple Rain) Prince film and one that some fans consider dimly. Musically I consider this a sensuous, masterpiece, composed to follow the film in a natural way, which yielded several hit songs despite following the narrative threads in the music. It has some fantastic orchestration from Clare Fischer and their collaboration resulted in many brilliant Psychedelic Pop confections.
The first half is a medley, with songs segueing into each other. Following “Mountains”, there are three solid Single type songs: the Funktry masterpiece “Kiss”, “Anotherloverholenyohead” and the magnificent elegy to loss “Sometimes It Snows In April”. The loss expressed in the song is for the fictional character in the film Christopher Tracey, yet the pain and desertion feels authentic and one wonders where Prince was drawing from. I think these songs show compositional growth and still hold many a sick groove. “Life Can Be So Nice”. I wonder if there will ever be a score + soundtrack master release of this material?
Overall = 9.6 (10) – Amazing music, only a couple places feel incomplete from being part of a film, but otherwise a flowing masterpiece.Get it!
Found Sounds 