Gateway

So I have been listening to Homecoming and In the Moment by Gateway, which is basically a jazz trio of John Abercrombie on guitar, Jack DeJohnette on drums and piano, and bassist Dave Holland.

I have to say, while this falls very clearly into material made for the ECM label, it has a nice grit to it. Abercrombie has some corrosive qualities in his tone, although nowhere near the dissonant bliss of a Sony Sharrock. I had never really taken notice of him until now, and I am glad I got around to doing so. DeJohnette plays in his usual way -- tastefully and with a certain quirky charm. Holland, a man far too underrated as both player and composer (when I caught him last year with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock, he held his own damn well), and he shines here. An understated grace to his warm, rich tone.

Good stuff.

Fulfillingness

You know, as much of a joke as Stevie Wonder has largely become since the end of the 70s (with rare one-off tracks of brilliance like Skeletons and Overjoyed), it never ceases to amaze me how utterly peerless his 70s output was. Vivid, warm, innately human at its core. I pulled Talking Book and Fulfillingness' First Finale out and it is hard to imagine the R&B/Soul genre without songs like Superstition, You've Got it Bad Girl, I Believe, and one of my personal favorites, Boogie On Reggae Woman. Even lesser knowns are stunning testaments to a man gifted with an impeccable rhythmic sense and a melodic architect bar none. It is really wild to think one man conceived of Heaven is 10 Zillion Light Years Away and Creepin' on the same album. And it wasn't without substance. Love songs were tender but not contrived, and societal critiques were hopeful for the future even when damning the present.

Funk, Motown soul, jazz, and pop crafted into sweet confectionery.

He also had the most visceral, badass synth bass ever. The man must have a left hand like an octopus.

Back in the saddle again...

It has been many years since I played drums with any regularity, but a recent acquisition of a Pintech electronic kit with a snazzy Alesis brain module has had me itching to do something musically.

I hung out last Friday with my friend Greg of Mutant Audio, and I am taking the kit next week to his rather impressive home studio and we'll see what comes of it.

Download this..now!

It is labelled as DJ Logic, but it is in fact, a very well recorded live show by the Yohimbe Brothers (DJ Logic and Vernon Reid with various guests) and it smokes. No, it is almost at critical mass.

This is a legitimate download, so no legal worries or problems with your conscience.

24-7 Spyz - Gumbo Milennium

24- Spyz
Gumbo Millenium
1990 In-Effect Records

Personnel:
P. Fluid - Vocals
Jimi Hazel - Guitar, Vocals
Rick Skatore - Bass, Skatore
Anthony Johnson - Drums

At the beginning of the 90s, a slew of bands that mixed jazz, metal, punk, reggae and everything up to and including the kitchen sink arrived. 24-7 Spyz came from the depths of the South Bronx to assault the ears with a multiple-personality disorder soundwave that fell somewhere between Living Colour and Faith No More. However, where LC had a sound that was largely very developed and syncretic and FNM was very polished and overtly attempting to be avant-garde, 24-7 was simply raw and untethered. This was both a boon and a bane as the results could often end up exciting in their randomness, but the songwriting often suffered, especially lyrically.

Gumbo Millennium was their sophomore release after their debut, Harder Than You actually managed some minor MTV video play (I still remember the first time I saw their warped take on Kool and the Gang's Jungle Boogie and decided I had to pay attention to whatever the hell these guys did) and some radio time. It was an ambitious, if not alltogether uneven work. Songs throw together Suicidal Tendencies punk riffs over heavy funk basslines and corrosive metal solos in a patchwork quilt of genres. It shouldn't work at all, but more often than not it does. It's damn fun music, even when it isn't trying to be, and when it is, it's downright hysterical.

Starting with the brutish instrumental John Connelly's Theory which could be mistaken for Metallica if it wasn't for the fact that the drummer can actually keep time (yes, Lars has always and will always....suck), and then breaks into New Super Hero Worship, a stalking tweak-out tune that is like a mutant strain of Anthrax (the band not the bovine disease), but right as you are about to assume the album will be a mosh marathon, it cuts into a mixed bag of roots reggae on no-wave LSD (Deathstyle), funking about the Exxon oil spill (Valdez 27 Million?), ska-pop geopolitical rambling of We'll Have Power, and even a go-go meets booty-call polka anthem Culo Posse.

The band does seem to vacillate heavily between overlyearnest and somewhat trite political statements (i.e. Rascism) and the abjectly silly (Spyz on Piano), a short segue of all four members throwing down at a piano and verbally riffing about whatever comes to mind). They do sometimes manage to make strong compelling narratives, including the closer, Some Defender's Memories, which is more of a spoken word exposition done with Gil Scott Heron in mind.

While the whole band is tight, the powerhouse of this crew is clearly guitarist Jimi Hazel. His crisp, sharp riffs and clever soloing are not overbearing, but attentive listening shows the dude does not fuck around. While comparisons to Vernon Reid are inevitable (and not entirely without similarity), his style is much more grounded than Vernon (who has a much broader background in the avant-garde and jazz circles of NYCs underground, making his style considerably more cerebral) and less likely to go way out as much as make radical turns mid-song.

You might like this if you like:

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Mother's Milk
Living Colour - Time's Up
Fishbone - The Reality of My Surroundings
Faith No More - Angel Dust
Infectious Grooves - ..the Groove that Makes Your Booty Move

R.I.P Junior

Well, I'm a week late, but roots singer Junior Delgado passed away in his sleep. I really liked his work with Adrian Sherwood and Sly & Robbie.

A Simple Idea: Just Listen

So for the past few months I have been scrounging for some good venues for new tunes, and have lucked out with some solid podcast/streaming shows:

African Rhythms Radio, which has a slew of downloadable shows of good quality and funky mixture.

Blentwell, which links to various 'casts (look for the two part set by Mike Ryan and the Paul Rose dub mix session)

Bending Corners, which just features a few stellar sets that reside in a psychedelic, 70s fusion wonderland of loopy grooves and improvisational goodness.

Yes, these all are fairly complimentary idiomatically, but I am trying to find quality 'casts for post-punk and art-rock too. I'll pass them along when I find them.

Reg Strikes Out

In this lovely blurb, Elton John sings the praise of Eminem, and places him on par with folks like Hendrix and Jagger. This may be an idication of several things:

1. EJ is a giant idiot who has become even more irrelevant than when he was at the peak of his popularity (in which he was famous as the dandy pop answer to Liberace for showmanship, but irrelevant musically. Now he just as loud as Liberace's wardrobe as being worn by an old battered queen, and even more musically irrelevant)

2. He is a succubus for attention, and is willing to say ever more asinine things to keep the attention on him and gives him the apprearance of knowing about anything contemporary or interesting (and while Eminem may be the former, arguing the latter is a bit more difficult)

3. He is a succubus for attention , and realizes that now that he has sold what little credibility he had to Disney movies and musical sat Las Vegas, that he is a harlot for anyone "edgy" that he can try to orbit near. I am waiting for when he makes a public request to sing background vocals for Burzum or Cannibal Corpse.

4. Is in a state of Michael Jackson-style surreality, and does not realize how much of a complete buffon and social curio piece he has become.

5. All of the above.

In more interesting news, what happens when media moves from device to device with a fluidity that makes measurement a major obstacle?

Moraz + Bruford - 2 For 1

Patrick Moraz + Bill Bruford
Music For Piano And Drums - EG Records, 1983
Flags, EG Records, 1985

Patrick Moraz - Steinway D Concert Piano, Kurzweil 250 Synth
Bill Bruford - Acoustic and Electronic Drums and Percussion

Produced by Moraz + Bruford

Here is a pair of albums likely to cause some bit of constrenation among both jazz and art-rock fans. A duet of duets between Swiss keyboardist Patrick Moraz (ex-Yes and Moody Blues) and multi-percussion pioneer Bill Bruford (also ex-Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, and currently leading the latest iteration of Earthworks). They are neither really jazzy or rock, have some classical chamber music peculiarities, but ends up still being its own weird animal. And in some spots, is a great listen.

The first album, Music for Piano and Drums is the superior of the two releases. It is as stripped down as can be; no overdubs, no electronic instrumentation, no filler. The tracks are mostly serious, introspective pieces with subtle shifts and exhibit a very consistent sound that makes for a solid collection of tracks. Particular standouts include Eastern Sundays, Blue Brains and Symmetry. The dominant elements appear to be Moraz's sharp percussive style coupled with a fierce percussionist in Bruford, who eschews bombast for creative left-turns and odd-time wonkiness. Overall, it just works. It doesn't swing but it has some jazz-inflected improvisation, it isn't studied enough to be really classical (unless you are talking of somewhere in modern classical, a term that never made any sense to me), and rock (even the artsy-kind) is strategically placed in the backseat. The pair seem to have largely composed and performed in absolute equilibrium on this one.

Flags had potential to be a great follow up, with the minor introduction of electronic elements (Bruford in particular innovated the use of what he called "chordal drums" using electronic drumming to operate on a more melodic platform and use a far wider range of sounds), but it ends up hackneyed in a lot of places, particularly on the Moraz compositions, which mostly sound trite compared to works of the previous album. Some of it is downright Yanni-esque (the almost unbearable Karu comes to mind). There are a few saving graces here though, namely Machines Programmed by Genes the vivacious Infra Dig and the absolutely badass solo piece by Bruford; a cover of Max Roach's The Drum Also Waltzes that seems to hold itself suspended in space.

If you can even find Music for Piano and Drums and like much of the more third stream sounding works on the ECM label, then it really is a must have item. Flags is more for the completist Yes/Crim/Bruford/Moraz fan, and even less likely to be found.

Everything But the Trent

I am quite fixated on the last track of a year old Astrelwerks Label sampler from last year. It is Ben Watt (Everything But the Girl, Lazy Dog) and Sananda Maitreya (the alter-ego of Terence Trent D'Arby) which really is a brilliant track. It is TTD's classic vocal approach combining inflections of Stax, James Brown and Sam Cooke, but married to Watt's dancefloor science. An infectious bassline and faux Fender Rhodes vamp is propelled by a house beat and an overall vibe that puts this in a rare category for dance tracks: a great song.

This is not to say that many dance tracks are exceptional (on the contrary, many are staggeringly great), but this isn't a track, it's a song. TTD's vocal performance makes all the difference, as he actually sings a pithy narrative instead of just a one-line hook.

Idiot Lyric of the Week

One of my last cd purchases involved getting a free promo copy of a local hip-hop artist in my bag. I tried to listen to it all the way through (19 tracks) and made it to halfway through 8 before I pretty much wrote it off as mediocre cookie cutter gangsta rap. No inventive beats, no interesting rhymes, with the exception of one that wins an award for how utterly dumb it is:

"I got hoes, but I'd rather be with you"

Sung in mock L.L. Cool J "I Need Love" faux giving a shit but really just trying to wedge myself into your pants girl style

I won't even mention the artist, because he does not deserve more attention.

Belated X-Mas, Early birthday...

...any justification I can get you folks out there to buy me one of these. This may be what I finally need to archive my rather old tape collection, which in some cases has some real rare/out-of-print items, including segments from over a decade ago of Greg Stone's Stone Trek shows on the now defunkt KOME. I also have segments of live material from various funk and rock shows, dubs of so out-of-print vinyl (i.e. some Max Roach and the odd 80s pop artist) that I have rarely played the tapes for fear of wearing them too far before I could find a way to archive them properly.

Thank you Thinkgeek.