Marc Benno - Sugar Blues 2003

Marc Benno came up playing guitar in various bands in Austin, TX, in the late '60s, then moved to Los Angeles, where he hooked up with Leon Russell and formed the duoAsylum Choir, which released one album in 1968 and recorded a second before splitting up. (The second Asylum Choir album was released in the wake of Leon Russell'scommercial success in 1971 and hit #70 in the charts.) He made four albums of mainstream pop/rock in the 1970s, the most successful of which was the third, Ambush, in 1972. AMG.

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Screamin' Jay Hawkins - At Home With Jay 1984

Screamin' Jay Hawkins was the most outrageous performer extant during rock's dawn. Prone to emerging out of coffins on-stage, a flaming skull named Henry his constant companion, Screamin' Jay was an insanely theatrical figure long before it was even remotely acceptable.

Hawkins' life story is almost as bizarre as his on-stage schtick. Originally inspired by the booming baritone of Paul Robeson, Hawkins was unable to break through as an opera singer. His boxing prowess was every bit as lethal as his vocal cords; many of his most hilarious tales revolve aroundJay beating the hell out of a musical rival.

Hawkins caught his first musical break in 1951 as pianist/valet to veteran jazz guitarist Tiny Grimes. He debuted on wax for Gotham the following year with "Why Did You Waste My Time," backed byGrimes & His Rockin' Highlanders (they donned kilts and tam o' shanters on-stage). Singles for Timely ("Baptize Me in Wine") and Mercury's Wing subsidiary (1955's otherworldly "[She Put The] Wamee [On Me]," a harbinger of things to come) preceded Hawkins' immortal 1956 rendering of "I Put a Spell on You" for Columbia's OKeh imprint.

Hawkins originally envisioned the tune as a refined ballad. After he and his New York session aces (notably guitarist Mickey Baker and saxist Sam "The Man" Taylor) had imbibed to the point of no return, Hawkins screamed, grunted, and gurgled his way through the tune with utter drunken abandon. A resultant success despite the protests of uptight suits-in-power, "I Put a Spell on You" becameScreamin' Jay's biggest seller ("Little Demon," its rocking flip, is a minor classic itself).

Hawkins cut several amazing 1957-1958 follow-ups in the same crazed vein -- "Hong Kong," a surreal "Yellow Coat," the Jerry Leiber/Mike Stoller-penned "Alligator Wine" -- but none of them clicked the way "Spell" had. DJ Alan Freed convinced Screamin' Jay that popping out of a coffin might be a show-stopping gimmick by handing him a $300 bonus (long after Freed's demise, Screamin' Jay Hawkinswas still benefiting from his crass brainstorm). Hawkins' next truly inspired waxing came in 1969 when he was contracted to Philips Records (where he made two albums). His gross "Constipation Blues" wouldn't garner much airplay, but remained an integral part of his legacy for quite a while.

The cinema was a beneficiary of Screamin' Jay's larger-than-life persona in later years. His featured roles in Mystery Train and A Rage in Harlem made Hawkins a familiar visage to youngsters who never even heard "I Put a Spell on You." He died February 12, 2000 following surgery to treat an aneurysm;Hawkins was 70. AMG.

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Onesko Bogert Ceo Project - Big Electric Cream Jam 2009

Awesome beyond belief "Tribute" to Cream featuring Mike Onesko (Blindside Blues Band) on Guitar & Vocals with Bass Guitar Legend Tim Bogert (Cactus/BBA) on low-end bottom kool and Emery Ceo (Blindside Blues Band) on Drums. This amazing set was captured LIVE without a net featuring 10 outstanding, killer "Big Electric Cream Jams" (68 minutes) that will trip your brain and rock your retro-70s bluesy heavy guitar power trio jam:house down to the ground!

All three bad-ass players lock in and nail down the Classic Cream riffage with style, precision and class that give the term "power trio" new meaning. Onesko, Bogert & Ceo dig in deep and pay legitimate, respectful musical homage to the late 60s British Supergroup. Tim Bogert is one of the greatest rock bass players in the world and the Man really delivers and lives up to his Legendary status on this outstanding Live power trio recording. Emery Ceo lays down thick, solid/powerful drum grooves and last but not least, Mike Onesko does an incredible professional job and seriously hits true Guitar Hero status on this phenomenal Grooveyard Records disc.

A truly remarkable Live power trio jam that delivers on many levels. Onesko and Co. are the Real deal. Excellently mixed and mastered by Don Moore from Texas. Fans of Cream, Blindside Blues Band and Top-Shelf bluesy heavy guitar power trio riffage tune in at all costs. Complete with an extended, killer improv Hidden Bonus Jam that will blow your bluesy Heavy Guitar mind. Long Live Power Trio Guitar Rock with the Big Electric Cream Jam.

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T-Model Ford - Pee-Wee Get My Gun 1997

Singer, songwriter, and guitarist T-Model Ford (James Lewis Carter Ford) played a raw-edged, visceral style of blues from the Mississippi Delta, accompanied much of the time by his drummer, Spam (Tommy Lee Miles). Ford caught a break when he opened up on a national tour for Buddy Guy and his band, playing respectable theaters and some festivals, but he was chronically under-recorded. He began playing guitar late in life and hadn't really toured much outside the Mississippi Delta until the 1990s and into the new millennium. He was well received at Antone's nightclub in Austin during the South by Southwest Music Festival, at the Chicago Blues Festival, and on tour with Guy and his band. When not on the road, playing mostly blues nightclubs, T-Model Ford and Spam set their instruments and amps up on Nelson Street in Greenville, Mississippi, where they would play for as much as eight hours straight. Ford's sound was raw, unadulterated Delta blues, and the music on his albums tends to sound sparse but is very rhythmic, given that his sole accompanist was the drummer Spam. His albums, all for the Fat Possum label, now based in Los Angeles, include Pee-Wee Get My Gun (1997), You Better Keep Still (1999),She Ain't None of Your'n (2000), and Bad Man (2002). After a six-year break from recording -- though he toured regularly -- Ford returned to the bins on the Alive imprint with Ladies Man in 2010; he followed it with Taledragger in 2011. Two years later, he died at home of respiratory failure after a short time in hospice care. 
Ford fits snugly into what has become the Fat Possum house sound: repetitive, raw electric guitar riffs, going off on one or two-chord vamps with stream-of-consciousness, improvised-sounding lyrics. The effect can be hypnotic or tedious, depending upon your taste. It's got more of a boogie, down-home feel that the usual Fat Possum release though, with Frank Frost adding keyboards to the usual guitar-drum duo combination on a couple of cuts. AMG.

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US3 - Hand on The Torch 1993

Hip-hop/jazz fusionisters Us3 have forged the most elaborate union between the styles since the early days of Gang Starr and A Tribe Called Quest. Blue Note's vast catalog gives them a huge advantage over several similar groups in terms of source material, and classic sounds by Art Blakey, Horace Silver, and Herbie Hancock provide zest and fiber to their narratives. Indeed, when things falter, it's because the raps aren't always that creative. They are serviceable and sometimes catchy, but too often delivered without the snazzy touches or distinctive skills that make Quest and Gang Starr's material top-notch. But when words and music mesh, as on "Cantaloop" or "The Darkside," Us3 show how effectively hip-hop and jazz can blend. AMG.

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Alvin Youngblood Hart - Big Mama's Door 1996

The debut recording of 33-year-old Hart is extraordinarily simple and simply extraordinary. Except for three cuts on which he's joined by Taj Mahal, Big Mama's Door is just Hart on acoustic guitar and vocals, and he's not doing anything fancy -- just playing prewar-style blues, mostly in a percussive Delta manner, recorded live to two-track. Yet he succeeds so well in blending technique and feeling, structure and spontaneity, tradition and freshness that he produces a minor gem of a blues record, evocative of the blues masters of the 1920s and '30s. He covers Leadbelly, Blind Willie McTell,Charley Patton, and the Mississippi Sheiks and does originals that replicate older blues idioms, not just in the notes but in the nuances, and in the personal commitment he brings to the material. AMG.

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Booker T. Jones - Potato Hole 2009

Potato Hole is Booker T. Jones' first solo album in two decades and the early buzz in the media has already termed it his most "audacious," but that's not exactly the case with this new set. It isn't audacious so much as it is moderately predictable, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Recorded quickly with producer Rob Schnapf in Georgia and California, Jones is backed here by Athens, GA'sDrive-By Truckers with Neil Young sitting in on electric guitar for nine of the ten tracks, most of which were written by Jones. This isn't the MGs, and nothing here is close to being as timeless as "Green Onions," but the album is a pleasant listen with a nice, funky, and kind of grungy groove that settles into a deep pocket, even if it never really completely catches fire. There's plenty of Jones' Hammond B-3, of course, but he branches out and plays both acoustic and electric guitar on the title track, and with up to five guitars going on some tracks, this is almost as much an instrumental guitar album as it is an organ one. If there's really anything audacious here, it would be the cover of Outkast's "Hey Ya," which sputters around more than it grooves, and Jones' B-3 lines simply can't approximate the sassy joy of André 3000's original vocal. Jones also covers Tom Waits' "Get Behind the Mule," which comes off more successfully, although, again, one misses Waits' vocal. The final cut, "Space City," is a lovely chill-out instrumental while the opening track, "Pound It Out," does exactly that, pounding things out, full of fuzzed-out guitars. Young, for those wondering, doesn't take over anything here but remains the consummate session player, showing a delicate sensibility on guitar that one wishes he'd apply more often to his own work. Again, there's no "Green Onions" track here, and nothing that'll end up as everyone's ringtone. Potato Hole isn't a slab of greasy Stax soul, either. It is what it is, a new Booker T. Jones album, and hopefully it won't take another 20 years to get to the next one. AMG.

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Unknown Mortal Orchestra - II (2013)

For his dense, mellow second album, Ruban Nielson continues to challenge himself and his audience by working within the detailed sonic framework crafted on Unknown Mortal Orchestra's 2011 debut. Like on Nielson's first outing, the songs are a hodgepodge of collaged headphone candy, revolving around his childlike vocals, wonder, and multi-layered production, but here, lighthearted pop melodies are obscured by a melancholy tone. There are hooks, but they are not quite as obvious. This can be a good thing, however. Even if II is not as sunny, fun, or simple, Nielson wears the badge of maturity well and doesn't fall prey to typical sophomore pitfalls or lose track of his original psychedelic vision. It's reassuring to find that even after signing to Jagjaguwar, the album still feels like a bedroom studio creation, because his most endearing quality is his creative craftsmanship, and it shines. Each song is carefully and imaginatively put together, with nothing excessive to tarnish the clean lines of the songwriting or arrangements. This is especially impressive considering that on this album, Unknown Mortal Orchestra use a wider spread of sounds, and additional instrumentation is added by members of the touring band. Hip-hop breakbeats acted as the backbone for nearly all of the early material, so adding live drums changes the dynamic, but never seems to complicate matters. Instead, it provides a sense of movement that allows Nielson to show off his guitar playing, which is never showy but is extremely clever; rotating from apt funk riffs, to prog scales, to fingerpicking. From the opening moments of the trippy, lo-fi intro "From the Sun" all the way to the funky-as-a-Hendrix-ballad closer "Secret Xtians," II takes risks and achieves greatness. AMG.

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Ami Koita - Songs Of Praise 1994

Koita sings the ancient songs of her native Mali in an Afro-pop style, with remarkable vocal dexterity. Rarely is danceable music so affecting and spiritual, and Koita devotes herself to her music totally. The liner notes indicate this disc combines two previous albums on a single disc, but there is no indication of what those earlier albums were called. AMG.

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Absolute Grey - A Journey Thru The Past 1988

If ever there was an example of a rock band that was in the wrong place at the right time, it's Absolute Grey. In the mid-'80s, Absolute Grey was playing intelligent, tuneful folk-rock with intriguing melodies, subtle but effective hooks, and a psychedelic undertow that would have allowed them to fit right in with the paisley underground bands blossoming on the West Coast or the jangle pop armies gathering in Athens, GA. But some trick of geography placed Absolute Grey in Rochester, NY, where they were pretty much on their own and, while they managed to attract a devoted hometown following, significant nationwide recognition escaped them. Then again, it's hard to say if Absolute Grey would have been an ideal fit anywhere else, either; their approach was a bit less trippy and significantly less retro than such paisley underground stalwarts as the Rain Parade or the Long Ryders, while the band's tone was notably cooler and more hard-edged than what R.E.M. or Pylon brought to the table. A Journey Through the Past is a posthumous live album, compiled by drummer Pat Thomas, that brings together eight original songs the band had never cut in the studio, along with two remakes and one cover (significantly, the Dream Syndicate's "Halloween"). The audio suggests a clean soundboard tape from a club show and, while most of the songs sound as if they'd be better served with a touch more production polish, the performances make it clear that this band was a strong live act (especially guitarist Matt Kitchen and bassist Mitchell Rasor), and the songs certainly merit preservation, especially the propulsive "Elements" and the darkly atmospheric "Hug Hug." Paisley Pop's 2001 reissue of A Journey Through the Past tacks on seven bonus tracks, including a jokey stumble throughBon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive" and a solid rendition of Green on Red's "Abigail's Ghost," while Pat Thomas' liner notes offer a glimpse at the band's history and working methods, as well as the differences that split up the band. AMG.

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Ahmad Jamal – Blue Moon 2012

Still going strong at the age of 81, legendary jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal's love letter to his favorite Broadway, Hollywood, and Great American Songbook classics, Blue Moon, is arguably one of his most accomplished efforts since his Chess/Impulse! heyday. The Pittsburgh virtuoso, once credited byMiles Davis as a major influence on his career, shows that age is no barrier to invention with six exquisite reworkings of postwar standards, from a romantic orchestral take on the title track to Otto Preminger's 1944 film Laura to a delicately whimsical interpretation of Charlie Parker's "Gypsy."Jamal's improvised cluster of chords remains as expressive and sprightly as ever, but it's when drummer Herlin Riley, who along with bassist Reginald Veal (Wynton Marsalis) and percussionistManolo Badrena (Weather Report) form the backbone of the record, is allowed to let loose that they really spring to life, from the syncopated grooves of the epic 13-minute adaptation of A Life of Her Own's "Invitation," to the Latin rhythms on the title track and Dizzy Gillespie's "Woody'n You," to the surprisingly contemporary R&B beats of Golden Boy show tune "This Is the Life." The simmering lounge pop of "Autumn Rain," the delicate "Morning Mist," and the tender solo "I Remember Italy," aDebussy-esque number inspired by his many travels, all of which are original compositions, are equally majestic. But it's his interpretative skills that ensure Blue Moon will go down as one of Jamal's modern greats. AMG.

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Cacique 97 - Cacique 97 2009

Lisbon has always been a stage for the meeting of several cultures, mostly due to the past of the city as the capital of a colonial empire in Africa and Latin America.

Nowadays it is a huge pot of creativity which attracts artists from all over the World and it is a privileged space where musicians find each other, share ideas and mix rhythms. It is from this mixture that, in 2005, afro beat collective Cacique..97 is born. With musicians with Mozambican and Portuguese origins, this collective incorporates members from groups such as Cool Hipnoise, Philharmonic Weed and The Most Wanted, well known projects in the areas of funk, reggae and the afro sound.

The passion for the music of Fela Kuti and Tony Allen has united these musicians for the pursuance of a common goal: to create a collective that mirrored the Lisbon mixture, by crossing the characteristic urban Nigerian rhythm which is afro beat, with the musical tradition of the African Portuguese speaking countries and of Brazil, whom has always been very present in the Portuguese capital.

Cacique..97 intend to give birth to a global soundtrack of the new times without losing the activist approach and the promotion of social awareness so fond to afro beat.

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R.L. Burnside - Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down 2000

Like jazz, the blues has its share of late bloomers -- artists who didn't start recording or didn't become well-known until they were well into their 50s or 60s. R.L. Burnside is very much a late bloomer; the Mississippi bluesman was born in 1926, but it wasn't until the 1990s that he started to enjoy the publicity he deserved. Recorded in 2000, Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down finds the veteran singer continuing to be fairly unpredictable at 73. Essentially, this CD falls into the Mississippi blues category -- Burnside maintains the earthy, down-home rawness that people expect from Mississippi country-blues. But Burnside certainly isn't without urban influences, and this CD illustrates his appreciation ofJohn Lee Hooker and early Muddy Waters as well as the Texas blues of Lightnin' Hopkins. Burnsidehas also been influenced by R&B; one of the few tracks that he didn't write or co-write is a cover ofAretha Franklin's 1960s smash "Chain of Fools." The producers (who include Andy Kaulkin, John Porter, and Brad Cook) try to make that track and others relevant to hip-hop by adding sampling and scratching -- and when they do, it sounds forced and unnatural. Some of the producing is simply too high-tech for an artist as raw as Burnside, but that doesn't make his vocals any less impressive. Despite its imperfections, Wish I Was in Heaven Sitting Down is a generally appealing document of Burnside at 73. AMG.

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