iJazz therefore i am: September 2008

Friday, September 19, 2008

My Crazy Uncle

Oh how I searched for this one! I first became acquainted with Uncle Festive in 1987; I liked what I heard, but it honestly took me awhile to understand what I was listening to. I must have read a review about their Say Uncle release, because I was on a mission to track it down for a good 2 years - hey, this was pre-internet - no online ordering or downloading! I've lost track of these guys, don't know what's happened to them after all these years, although I still see the names popping up here and there. 1987 was when I first went digital, so these guys have been a part of The Soundtrack Of My Life from the early years!

Listen to 'Say Uncle' and 'N'Gaoundere'

Homegrown

It's 2001, I'm traveling back and forth, between my new home and my old house, 142 miles door to door - weekly. Still hitting the record store in the old town on weekends; so I'm in there one weekend, pawing through the Jazz section, finger tips dirty from the dust on the top of the jewel cases, and I hear this crazy-ass hyper Acid Jazz. Immediately I walk over to the counter to see what their playing; it turns out to be some local kid named Wasik, who's got this group called The Waz; well that was good enough for me. Organigalactic was just another adventure and unexpected find for The Soundtrack Of My Life!

Listen to 'Impressions' and 'Dig?'

Only The Good Die Young part 1

An incredible artist, truly. I first became familiar with Michael Brecker through his association with the group Steps, then of course that led me to the great Brecker Brother recordings; that's pretty much how The Soundtrack Of My Life works, discovery through association. Sadly, Brecker passed away, way too soon, in January of 2007. It was 1990, when he released his 3rd solo recording; the MCA/GRP merger had taken place and GRP assumed responsibility for the Jazz division of MCA; so I was excited to see his Now You See It....(Now You Don't) with it's lime green and blue M.C. Escher cover art. The usual suspects that Michael kept company with at this period of his career are all helping out on this one, especially the late great Don Grolnick and the ever quirky Jim Beard.

Listen to Beard's 'Ode To The Doo Da Day' and Grolnick's 'Dogs In The Wine Shop'

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Island Fantasy In The Snow

I stopped into a local stereo dealer, 1991, not far from where I lived, think I needed something done to my cassette deck (remember those?!!); the shop had this real elitist attitude - you know the type. Anyway, they had this music playing, very Caribbean, instrumental, I liked it! Turns out it was a local guy, from the snow belt, making this really great Island type music - I bought the CD, from these stuck up assholes at the stereo store. Mike Smiarowski's Island Fantasy, love it, especially with a little Sailor Jerry's Spiced Rum, some cola and a wedge of lime! (actually I'd love it even more if I was on Tybee!) Turns out that The Soundtrack Of My Life is a small world indeed, the keyboard/producer of this excellent disc is Chas Eller of the Burlington, VT group Kilimanjaro, who I've been a fan of for a very long time. Smiarowski has three releases that I'm aware of; before the Fall creeps upon us and Summer is nothing but a memory, check this guy out, and if you can't find any Sailor Jerry's, you can always substitute Captain Morgan's!

Listen to 'Mellow Yellow' and 'Isle of Jabeam'

Perfection

7,000 Jazz CD's, 100 gigabyte's of Jazz, a long abandoned collection of Jazz on vinyl; who do you define perfection? Not favorite but perfection, in terms of the perfect recording? For me, it's Spellbound, the 1989 release by Joe Sample. I've always loved The Crusaders and the individual works that Joe Sample, Wilton Felder and Stix Hooper released, especially when they were still together on an active basis. By 1989, for all practical intents, The Crusaders were history, Sample moved from their longtime label, MCA (now under the GRP banner) to Warner Bros, and the result, Spellbound, was just an amazing piece of work, perhaps his greatest work ever - this coming from someone who played the shit out of his first two solo releases, Rainbow Seeker and Carmel, never expecting it to get any better than that! I still look forward to anything Sample releases, and it's all good - but nothing like Spellbound - I really think that the prescience of Omar Hakim on drums and Marcus Miller on bass is what drove Sample to such perfection!!

Listen to 'Spellbound', 'Somehow Our Love Survives' and 'Bones Jive'

The Journey

I got my first CD player in 1987, prices had finally dropped to around $500 for a player! I remember how excited I was, after all, The Soundtrack Of My Life was finally going to go digital! I had been salivating over a player for about 18 months, but I wasn't in the position to afford one. How things have changed; 21 years and 7,000 Jazz CD's later, I barely use my CD player (which isn't even a CD player, but a BOSE 3-2-1 system) and I may have purchased 4 physical CD's this year - that coming from someone who was up to a 5 CD a week habit! Don't get me wrong, I'm still as addicted to my passion as ever - Jazz, it's just that now, I purchase it online and download it immediately - nothing like a little instant gratification, huh! No more stereo system, just a Mac Laptop, a pair of Harmon Kardon Sticks, an Apple Airport Express with iTunes, and a 1 terabyte hard drive to store my treasure; the more things change the more they stay the same - the method of delivery may have changed but the drug of choice remains - The Soundtrack Of My Life. I mention all this, because in 1987 my choices for CD's were limited; one of the 'early adopters' was the DMP label, which was recording Thom Rotella at the time. The only reason I discovered Rotella was because he had music out in CD format, and I was looking to purchase CD's of music that I didn't already have on LP. Rotella's 1989 release, Home Again, is a masterpiece! But my memories aren't of 1989 when I purchased this one, but of Fall of '92, living in Raleigh, NC, sitting on the floor of the living room Sunday mornings, reading the paper, and cranking this CD - full of hope & dreams!
Listen to 'Gonna Love You', 'Moon Over Venice' and 'Journey'

Cut-Out Magic

It had to be 1981, I was at the mall doing what I did best - rummaging through the bins at the record store, Cavages to be exact, a long gone local music emporium. I came across Tom Scott's 1978 release Intimate Strangers - it was in the cut-out bin, I can't remember what I paid, but it was probably no more than $4 or $5. I remember what really attracted me to the Lp and Scott in particular, was his playing of the Lyricon; over the last 20 years or so, many saxophonist who want to play a wind synthesizer have either gone the route of the Yamaha Wind-Synth or the Akai EWI, but in my opinion, neither sounds as good as the Lyricon (check out any early Tom Scott or Richard Elliot for yourself). I loved this album, and it was in heavy rotation for years on The Soundtrack Of My Life, I was able to finally track down a Japanese copy of the CD a few years ago. The whole first side of the Lp was a suite, a sort of Love Story in music - how I wish I were a musician!

Listen to 'Intimate Strangers Suite Part 2' ('Getaway Day' & 'Night Creatures'), 'Breezin' Easy' and 'Puttin' The Bite On You'

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Mark Whitfield

Sometimes, a new artists or recording just comes out of nowhere and takes your breath away; in 1990, Warner Bros. released Mark Whitfield's debut, The Marksman; going back through Whitfield's recorded output over the last 18 years, The Marksman truly took my breath away in 1990 and still does today. An incredible debut recording, that still holds up after all these years and after all the attempts by various producers to place Whitfield in surroundings which really didn't suit his style or try and turn him into something that he wasn't. Once again, it was summer time when I bought this CD, I saw an ad in Billboard for this release, evidentially, Warner Bros. and Tommy LiPuma (the guy who ruined GRP) were really pushing this release; after all, 1990 was at the height of the neo-conservative, back to the past, young guys in suits - who had no new original ideas of their own, let's play the music of our elders instead of pushing the envelope forward movement (i.e., see Wynton Marsalis, et al). Through all the bull-shit, Mark Whitfield was and is a true talent; I'm not sure that his recorded output has lived up to his potential, but The Marksman is truly a significant part of The Soundtrack Of My Life, and I continue to follow his output and career to this day.
Listen to 'The Marksman' and 'Medgar Ever's Blues'

Foreplay

Ah yes, Foreplay; an activity that according to most, gets lost in the overall scheme of things. Fourplay, an all-star Jazz Group, that, while it doesn't get lost - we just don't get enough of!! Who couldn't use more Fourplay - that is, Bob James, Nathan East, Harvey Mason and Larry Carlton, who replaced original member Lee Ritenour. It was Summer of 1991 when Fourplay released their debut recording on Warner Bros.; although James, East, Mason and Ritenour had all collaborated many times in the past, and more recently (1989-1990) as an ensemble on Ritenour's and James' releases, this was their first deliberate effort to compose and record as a group (super-group?). Needless to say, the anticipation for this release (at least mine!!) was huge (Tom!). Fourplay didn't disapoint, nor for the most part have any of their subsequent releases as a group, over the the last 17 years - where the hell has the time gone? (suggestion; live every day as though it may be your last! 17 years? What the hell?). Fourplay is set to release their newest recording as a group later in September, titled Energy. I've been listening to a pre-release for the last 3 weeks, and rightly so, I should write a review for ContemporaryJazz.com; as I've listened to Energy, I can't help but think back to this first release of theirs from 1991, yes Ritenour is gone, replaced by the capable and more blues oriented Carlton, but Energy so reminds me of this first recording, it's giving me a writers block!
Listen to 'Bali Run', 'Eastbound', 'Max-O-Man' and 'Wish You Were Here'

B3

I don't know, maybe it was 1979 or 1980, I was either 18 or 19 years old; we would go to a rock club on Broadway, near Penora, to listen to Talas every week. I can't remember the name of the club, but the bass player of Talas was unforgettable, Billy Sheehan. After those late Seventies, early Eighties gigs, Sheehan moved out West to LA, and the rest of his bio and accomplishments are well documented. Although predominately a rock bassist, in 1997, he, along with B3 organist John Novello and drummer Dennis Chambers formed Niacin and released their first self-titled recording on Chick Corea's then new imprint, Stretch Records, via GRP. This never was, nor did Niacin pretend to be a Jazz group; these guys were clearly on the rock side of the fusion fence. I remember when I came across this CD, it was at a Media-Play; remember that place? Another mega-media store that ruined the mom & pop local vendors - these guys even sold instruments?? (talk about not doing one thing right - but certainly doing everything??). I obviously was aware of Sheehan through his local rock roots and Dennis Chambers was a session drummer who I was well aquatinted with, but I had no idea of who Novello was, and although he's a very talented player, to this day, after having picked up all their releases, both domestic and import, I still don't know a whole lot about him - but he's good! You don't really get to hear much organ nowadays, unless it's in a greasy fried chicken sort of funk setting, so it's really great to hear a true rocker go off on his B3.
Listen to 'No Man's Land', 'Bullet Train Blues' and 'Hell To Pay'

Orchestral

The beauty of The Soundtrack....... and of Jazz in particular, is that improvisation and great music takes the shape of many different forms and can borrow, rightly so, from many diverse sub-genres. Case in point, just about anything that classical arranger Claus Ogerman has released; unfortunately, those releases have been few (very few) and far between. I believe I have them all, but as with most things GRP*, coupled with that incredibly fertile period of 1988-1992 or '93, the 1991 release, Claus Ogerman Featuring Michael Brecker is a standout. Often I've tried to answer my own question as to why this particular Ogerman release stands out more than the others; the strongest justification that I can come up with is Ogerman's use of a full complement of instrumentalists, a band, on each song, as opposed to just an orchestra and the featured soloist that he's written for. There are times, when I just want the music, The Soundtrack Of My Life, to take me somewhere else - that place where only a true orchestral arranger, such as Ogerman, or Vince Mendoza can take me. My ear isn't advanced enough to listen to and appreciate true classical music, for me, this is about as close as it gets.

*I tend to listen to The Soundtrack....... in an organized sort of way, maybe it's my obsesive compulsive, over the top, organized, anal personality; in any event, I have a tendency to 'mine' a specific style, period, artist or label - before I'll move to the next 'chapter' of The Soundtrack Of My Life. With well over 8,000 recordings, it may be years, possibly a decade, since I've listened (discovered again?) a particular recording. I probably should learn to relax, or be more spontaneous in my music listening habits, unfortunately, that's probably not going to happen at this point in my life, but it does lend itself to some pleasant re-discoveries.

Listen to 'Corfu'

Monday, September 01, 2008

Ink

It was in 1982 that I discovered the German Fusion group Passport. I had no idea who they were, had been hearing that they were the European equivalent of Weather Report (no!); but one thing I did know, I was fascinated with the cover of Blue Tattoo. So I did what I had to do, buy the album; 26 years later and 43 hours (and counting!) of ink, I'm still fascinated by Blue Tattoo - not just the cover, but the compositions and the group as well! It's been hard tracking down any new releases by Klaus Doldinger or his group, other than their output on Atlantic years ago, but when I find something, it still has that Passport sound. Little did I know that The Soundtrack Of My Life would lead to 43 hours of needle time, but hey, there's worse things!

Listen to 'Radiation', 'Blue Tattoo' and 'Rambling'

Remember When

Remember when you could look forward to great new releases........?

Soul

It's not often that you get to hear an artist commit to record two different renditions of one of their compositions; but that's exactly what you get with Loran's Dance. Grover Washington Jr first graced us with Loran's Dance on his hard to find Reed Seed album, and later graciously lent it to Idris Muhammad for the Power Of Soul release. The arrangement by Bob James is slightly different than on Reed Seed, but the intensity of GW Jr's tenor sax is awesome. Loran's Dance has been a favorite of The Soundtrack....., if you're unfamiliar with this version, do yourself a favor and check it out!
Listen to 'Loran's Dance'

Diamond In The Rough

There used to be a time, when it was all about the hunt; walking into the record store, picking through the Jazz bins, hunting for something I either didn't have or didn't know about. The internet has been invaluable to me; the ability to search down long out of print or hard to find recordings - but unfortunately, it's also taken the mystery out of the hunt, I'm no longer surprised as much as I used to be when I come across a recording that I don't know about. One incredible surprise happened in 1989, in a mall record store, with a paltry Jazz section; I came across a Herbie Mann release, Jasil Brazz, which was being sold for $3?? I'm thinking, what's wrong with this picture? I knew nothing about the release, but hey, for $3 how can I go wrong! Jasil Brazz is a diamond in the rough, an outstanding recording of lesser known tunes by some of Brazil's most well known contemporary composers. Ah, The Soundtrack Of My Life, these are the moments I've lived for!
Listen to 'Guarde Nos Olhos' and 'Esquinas'

Parallel Realities

Parallel Realities, that could be the definition of The Soundtrack Of My Life; at least it feels that way - the way the music can take me away, alter or enhance my mood; isn't reality perception? It was 1990, MCA released an all-star project under Jack DeJohnette's name, Parallel Realities, with Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock and Dave Holland. I've considered this as much a Pat Metheny project, more so, than DeJohnette's. I caught this amazing quartet on tour in support of this release in the summer of 1990; it was a balmy night, we had indoor seats at Artpark in Lewiston, NY, on the banks of the Niagara River gorge. I was there with two other couples, casual fans of Metheny's who had a hard time understanding the music and what they were witnessing that night. I true all-star fashion, the group took the stage one member at a time (DeJohnette, Metheny, Hancock, Holland), jamming on their respective instrument until the complete group was assembled - what followed was an improvisational masterpiece, using the songs on their release as guide, nothing more, as they re-invented each piece. Years later, I came across a Japanese import of a live recording from that 1990 tour, it sounded just the way I remembered it!
Listen to 'Jack In', 'Nine Over Reggae' and 'Nine Over Reggae live'

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