Tippett Moholo Minafric Orchestra - Live 2008-09-02 Sant'Anna Arresi

For those who are familiar with Louis Moholo's "Viva la Black" from the 1990's (and who may have seen my posts of two albums by this group), I want to point out that this is a re-incarnation in a different size and shape, relaunched in 2004. The constant element is Louis Moholo himself. The new elements are Keith Tippett, who contributes a fair number of the compositions, Julie Tippetts, and the Minafric Orchestra led by the Italian trumpeter Pino Minafra.
As Owen, a frequent and competent commentator on all things Moholo, said, "So, it’s a different Viva la Black [...] for sure, but by no means is it a lesser Viva la Black." listen here

The Smashing Pumpkins - Oceania 2012

Following up on, and in many ways amending, much of the bombastic overcompensation of 2007's Zeitgeist, Smashing Pumpkins 2012 release Oceania is an exuberant, gloriously melodic, fluid return to form for Billy Corgan. While Zeitgeist certainly contained many of the elements that make for a classic Smashing Pumpkins release -- including slabs of distorted guitars, passionate vocals, and poetic lyrics, not to mention drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, who was the sole remaining original member besides Corgan and who subsequently left the band -- there was something cold and perhaps a bit too calculated about the production. Ultimately, Zeitgeist didn't do much to dissuade audiences that Corgan, undeniably the mastermind behind the best Pumpkins work, was now overvaluing his abilities in an attempt to recapture fans disillusioned by his various side projects. Thankfully, none of these concerns are applicable to Oceania. Ostensibly an "album within an album" of the greater 44-track Teargarden by Kaleidyscope concept project, Oceania works as a stand-alone album. Conceptual conceits aside, these are some of the most memorable and rousing songs Corgan has delivered since 1993's Siamese Dream, the album that Oceania most closely mirrors in tone and aesthetic. Which isn't to say that Corgan is treading old ground; on the contrary, there is something fresh and inspired about the songs on Oceania. Admittedly, kicking the album off with the heavy psychedelic acid rock groove of "Quasar" -- in which Corgan croons several EST-era-style affirmations including, "God right on! Krishna right on! Mark right on!" -- is a move that almost begs comparisons to Smashing Pumpkins' euphoria-inducing 1991 single "Siva." A similar sentiment comes to mind with the latter album rocker "The Chimera," a classic rock-sounding groover that sparkles with crisscross laser-beam guitar lines recalling the jewel-toned guitar heroics of Queen's Brian May. But these are welcome comparisons, born out of Corgan finally delivering a gorgeous and cohesive set of songs that balance some his more arch, cerebral inclinations with his generously romantic and sweepingly cinematic gift for revelatory guitar rock. Elsewhere, we get the soaring "Panopticon" and the minor-key, prog rock-inflected drama of "Violet Rays." However, Oceania is perhaps best represented by the euphoric mid-album ballad "Pinwheels." Starting with a repeated keyboard line and building to swells of acoustic and electric guitar before settling into one of the most swoon-worthy melodic anthems Corgan has ever written, "Pinwheels," much like the rest of Oceania, is a masterpiece of pop songcraft and rock production. As Corgan croons on the song's chorus, "Sister soul, lovers of the tune, sing!/I got you/I got you." On Oceania, the Smashing Pumpkins definitely have us. AMG. link removed

Marion Brown - Why Not 1968

Alto saxophonist Marion Brown was an underappreciated hero of the jazz avant-garde. Committed to discovering the far-flung reaches of improvisational expression, Brown nonetheless possessed a truly lyrical voice but was largely ignored in discussions of free jazz of the '60s and '70s. Brown came to New York from Atlanta in 1965. His first session was playing on John Coltrane's essential Ascension album. He made two records for the ESP label in 1965 and 1966 -- Marion Brown Quartet and Why Not? -- and also played on two Bill Dixon soundtracks. It wasn't until his defining Three for Shepp (including Grachan Moncur III and Kenny Burrell) on the Impulse! label in 1966 that critics took real notice. This set, lauded as one of the best recordings of that year, opened doors for Brown (temporarily) to tour. He didn't record for another two years because of extensive European engagements, and in 1968 issued Porto Novo (with Leo Smith) on the Black Lion label. In 1970, Brown recorded Afternoon of a Georgia Faun for the ECM label, his second classic. This date featured Anthony Braxton, Andrew Cyrille, Bennie Maupin, Jeanne Lee, and Chick Corea, among others. In 1973, he cut his second Impulse! session, Geechee Recollections, with Leo Smith. Brown registered at Wesleyan University in the mid-'70s, studying ethnic instruments and black fife-and-drum corps music and maintained a regular recording schedule. He also recorded with Gunter Hampel in the late '70s and '80s, as well as composer Harold Budd on his Pavilion of Dreams album (issued on Brian Eno's Obscure label), Steve Lacy in 1985, Mal Waldron in 1988, and many others. There are numerous duet and solo recordings that may or may not be sanctioned. Due to health problems, Brown didn't record after 1992. After the turn of the millennium he lived for a while at a New York nursing home before moving to an assisted living facility in Florida. Marion Brown died in October of 2010. AMG. listen here

Patti Smith - Banga 2012

In the eight years since Patti Smith's last studio effort of new, original material, Trampin', she's toured, assembled art installations, had her photographs collected for global exhibition, and written Just Kids, a National Book Award-winning memoir. On Banga, Smith marries together her various forms of literary expression with rock and pop in an iconic assemblage. Her collaborators are (mostly) familiar: guitarist Lenny Kaye, drummer Jay Dee Daugherty, bassist Tony Shanahan, guitarist Tom Verlaine, her children Jackson and Jessi, and guitarist Jack Petruzzelli. Italian band Casa del Vento and Johnny Depp also appear. The album is saturated with poetry, sung or spoken -- sometimes both. Its themes range from a non-didactic reflection on environmental crisis, the dominion of art as man's greatest gift to the divine -- as well as its own species -- homages, elegies, and love songs, all offered with authority and tenderness. Musically, the album is absent the dynamic, free-form chaos that marks her earlier recordings, but is better for it. This is true even when the band stretches to improvise forcefully on a theme by Sun Ra in the glorious "Tarkovsky (The Second Stop Is Jupiter)." This is not to say that Banga doesn't rock; it does, all over the place: in the aforementioned cut, in the dramatic "Fuji-San," and in the blistering title track (named for a dog in Mikhail Bulgakov's Master and Margarita). But there are the pop songs, too: the hooky "April's Fool" (a song about nomadic lovers that echoes the themes in Just Kids), the sweet ballad "This Is the Girl," for Amy Winehouse, and the elegant waltz "Maria" (for Maria Schneider). "Mosaic," driven by Daugherty's mandocello riff, is a lush, sensual rocker that spiritually counters the rebellion and betrayal in the album's title cut. "Amerigo," with a lilting backdrop of strings, explores Amerigo Vespucci's vision after discovering the New World. Smith imagines that after encountering its indigenous people, his colonial ideology was turned inside-out. At over ten minutes, "Contantine's Dream," offers a feverish juxtaposition of painter Pierro Della Francesca's death, his painting (the title of the cut), a dream she had of Saint Francis weeping at the current state of the environment in the 21st century, and the ecstatic vision of Columbus as he saw the New World for the first time-- on the same day De Francisca died. Smith's poetic skill -- she improvised the lyrics on the spot -- is astonishing. She pulls it all together with visionary social and spiritual context. The set closes with a lilting cover of Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush," underscoring the previous tune's apocalyptic meaning albeit more gently with a children's chorus on the refrain. Banga is an event; it's not only provocative and expansive lyrically, but abundantly enjoyable musically. As an artist, Smith embodies the highest calling of her vocation: she completely absorbs everything she encounters, then gives it back to the culture in a manner that holistically edifies it. AMG. listen here

Nick Haeffner - The Great Indoors 1987

Nick Haeffner's 'The Great Indoors' is a great, lost, quintessentially English project. Echoes of Nick Drake, Kevin Ayers, John Cale, Pink Floyd and Robert Fripp loom large, but Haeffner's originality eclipses his folk, psych- and art-rock influences. There's a deftness, a lightness of touch here that is delightful. Vocally, he's no Caruso, but if you like Eno's vocal work, you'll love this. 'Steel Grey', 'Don't Be Late', and the title track are classic pastoral meditations. The album was recorded in the late eighties, but hasn't dated and is ripe for re-evaluation. listen here

Hayvanlar Alemi - Guarana Superpower 2010

With their first real Western release only arriving on LP after a decade of playing in Ankara's clubs, Hayvanlar Alemi combine art music, psychedelia, and touches of the further exotic on Guarana Superpower. As guitarist Ozum Itez and percussionist/drummer Isik Sarihan move through the album, they delve into straightforward experimentalism in tracks like "Mega Lambada" and the title track. The duo touches on surf rock proper in the mood and instrumentation of "Snakesurfing," and briefly flirts with the fuzz-rock of Southeast Asia in "Mavi Sepet." Little ground is left uncovered in terms of electric guitar eclecticism here, with jazz, rock, and more infusing the whole and resulting in a large dose of psychedelia. Fine playing all around holds the set together, and makes it worth a listen. AMG. listen here

Neil Young And Crazy Horse - Americana 2012

Getting the band back together for the first time since 2003, Neil Young corrals Crazy Horse through Americana, a collection comprised primarily of old folk songs -- not the weird, forgotten ones scholars have excavated, but the familiar ones taught in elementary schools from sea to shining sea. Ornery git that he is, Neil doesn't follow his own concept to the letter, finding a way to shoehorn the Silhouettes' rocking doo wop classic "Get a Job" and the British commonwealth anthem "God Save the Queen" into Americana, their presence suggesting a possible political component to the record. Or perhaps those were the songs Young felt like playing that day. With an album as ungainly as Americana, either concept is possible and any clarity is crushed by the Horse's heavy-footed stomp. Here, once again graced by the presence of guitarist Frank Sampedro, who sat out 2003's rock opera Greendale, Crazy Horse stumble and lurch as they pound the same three chords they've been bashing out for 40 years, time not adding acumen but rather eroding whatever finesse they ever possessed. Always garage rock primitives, Crazy Horse sounds downright amateurish on Americana, as if they woke up one morning and couldn't remember how to play their instruments. Each cut plays like a first take, none worse than "Get a Job," where the band struggles mightily to achieve some semblance of swing and misses. Sometimes, this cacophony can be oddly compelling, particularly when a children's chorus -- the better to underscore these songs' origins, perhaps -- are brought into the mix, inevitably leading to everybody tripping over each other. It all winds up as an ungodly mess: Crazy Horse do, as Young asserted they would, make these songs their own, but by doing so, they've made them so nobody else would ever want them. AMG. listen here

Adrian Belew - Young Lions 1990

Young Lions is as solid an album as Adrian Belew had put out in some time, including his work with the Bears. Apparently, the relative chart success he had with his last effort fueled the desire for another single, and no less a luminary than former employer David Bowie was brought in to write and duet with Belew on "Pretty Pink Rose" (they even did a video to support it). While that song and "Gunman" (the pair's second collaboration on the album) are little more than a reprise of Bowie's work with Tin Machine, they clearly relieve Belew from having to scrap together all the material himself. Leaning on a not-too-distant King Crimson standard, "Heartbeat," and the Traveling Wilburys' "Not Alone Anymore" leaves Belew holding the bag for an even half-dozen originals, which reduces the filler ratio that plagued some of his earlier efforts. From the energetic opener, "Young Lions," to the Motown-inspired "Looking for a U.F.O.," Belew comes up with some off-center pop/rock songs that hold up under inspection. His work with the Bears had smoothed out the guitarist's rough edges, but on his own, Belew is more nimble and quirky, as "Men in Helicopters" and "Small World" demonstrate. Like Mr. Music Head before it, Young Lions presents Belew's assets in a very palatable package. Despite the lack of a real standout single, Belew's one-man performance on Young Lions is worth hearing. AMG. listen here

Caetano Veloso - Livro 1997

Caetano Veloso continues his free-thinking explorations of tropicalismo on this ambitiously arranged, elaborately packaged suite of songs devoted to whatever happens to cross his mind. Veloso says that he was listening a lot to the collaborations of Miles Davis and Gil Evans around this time, and Jaques Morelenbaum's charts often reflect their darkly urbane ethos. Yet for Morelenbaum's yin there is also the yang of the battering Bahian percussion that dominates many of the rhythm tracks. "Livros" in Portuguese means "books," so Veloso gives you a sample of his book Verdade Tropical in the booklet notes and pays eloquent tribute to them on the title track: "Books are transcendental things/But we can love them with our hands." He is alternately awestruck and appalled by the ambiguities of New York City on "Manhata"; here, the arrangement definitely contains haunting echoes of Evans. He can venture into atonality on "Doideca" (12-tone, but pointedly translated in the booklet as "loony"), recite the horrors of a slave ship voyage, tell someone off ("Nao Enche," which means "Piss Off"), or simply sing "How beautiful could a being be" over and over, presumably to a child, in falsetto to a hot groove. One of the most amazing songs is an epic about the life of Alexander the Great; it comes off like a great saga song. Finally, he runs down a long list of all his favorite Brazilian singers, seemingly leaving out no one, only to close with "Better than this there's only silence/And better than silence, only Joao." Can't add anything to that, except don't miss this CD if you love Brazilian music. AMG. listen here

Camper Van Beethoven - Popular Songs of Great Enduring Strength and Beauty 2008

Popular Songs of Great Enduring Strength and Beauty collects 18 cuts from mercurial post-punk/indie pop/garage folk legends Camper Van Beethoven, marking the group's first foray into the murky world of the "career overview." Like the band's nearly 25-year career, Strength and Beauty is built on the CVB holy trinity of endurance, charisma, and attitude, all three of which were put to the test when the band approached Virgin Records about buying back the rights to 1988's Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart and 1989's Key Lime Pie. In keeping with big-label stereotypes, the answer was no, so CVB re-recorded five tracks for the anthology, doing everything in their power to re-create the magic as faithfully as they could. David Lowery's voice tries admirably to emulate its '80s incarnation on classics like Key Lime's "All Her Favorite Fruit" and "When I Win the Lottery," and the musicianship and production are top-notch, but fans who held those final two records close to their hearts during the ensuing Cracker years will notice the difference. That said, the rest of the album is top-notch, featuring enough instant classics like "Take the Skinheads Bowling" and "The Day That Lassie Went to the Moon" to turn a whole new generation on to punk-infused, ska-kissed Americana. At best, it's a tasty sampler on which to judge whether or not a listener is ready to dive into the mammoth five-disc Cigarettes & Carrot Juice: The Santa Cruz Years, and it dutifully doles out all of the quirky charm, genre-bending musicianship, and good-natured invective that infected so many people during the band's heydays. AMG. listen here

Peter Cetera - Peter Cetera 1981

Having tasted success with Chicago throughout the '70s, Peter Cetera decided to launch his solo career at the dawn of the '80s with this ten-track exercise in rock. In an immediate departure from the successfully safe formula Chicago utilized to exhaustion, Cetera employed a stellar crew of guest artists to reinforce that this was his project. The Beach Boys' Carl Wilson and Ricky Fataar make guest appearances, as does Toto wunderkind Steve Lukather, to complement Cetera's distinctive voice and bass playing. They waste no time in getting going with the rocker "Livin' in the Limelight," which features Lukather delivering a blazing guitar solo and Cetera trying to be as hard rocking as any soft rocker could possibly be. Think Don Johnson's "Heartbeat" and you're still nowhere close. Things simmer down a bit, and even return to Chicago-friendly territory, with "Mona Mona" and "On the Line." But the mandate remains the same: to distinguish this record as a solo endeavor, even though many songs here would lay the blueprint and signal the direction Chicago would take with Chicago 16 and the chart-topping juggernaut Chicago 17. For anyone but die-hard Chicago/Cetera fans, this is nothing more than a passing fancy, and those looking for Cetera's safe and accessible ballads will be mildly disappointed. But fans of early-'80s rock will be pleasantly surprised if they approach this record with open ears. AMG. listen here

29th Street Saxophone Quartet - Pointillistic Groove 1983

The 29th Street Saxophone Quartet, a cooperative group that worked on and off into the mid-'90s before disbanding, made their debut recording in 1983 for Osmosis, a Dutch label. Although they had been working together since 1981 as a unit, they are still finding their way on this early effort, most of which was recorded live at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam. Each of the musicians wrote original pieces for these sessions. Alto saxophonist Bobby Watson, easily the most recognizable player due to his status as a prominent alumni of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, is also the quartet's most accessible composer at this point, contributing two strong originals. Fellow alto saxophonist Ed Jackson (who had previously worked with George Russell, Ran Blake, and Jaki Byard's Apollo Stompers) composed "Pointillistic Groove," an uneven work with a conversational exchange between the horns and a tedious laughing sax routine that fails to hold the listener's attention. Better is his stirring arrangement of "Anthropology." Baritone saxophonist Jim Hartog penned the somewhat eerie "Still," which makes great use of unison lines, as well as arranging the standard "Love for Sale." Even though this initial effort doesn't quite reach the heights of the group's later recordings, fans of the 29th Street Saxophone Quartet will likely want to track down this now hard to find LP. AMG. listen here

Celia Cruz - Cuba's Queen of Rhythm 1991

Celia Cruz was one of Latin music's most respected vocalists. A ten-time Grammy nominee, Cruz, who sang only in her native Spanish language, received a Smithsonian Lifetime Achievement award, a National Medal of the Arts, and honorary doctorates from Yale University and the University of Miami. A street in Miami was even renamed in her honor, and Cruz's trademark orange, red, and white polka dot dress and shoes have been placed in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institute of Technology. The Hollywood Wax Museum includes a statue of the Cuba-born songstress. According to the European Jazz Network, Cruz "commands her realm with a down-to-earth dignity unmistakably vibrant in her wide smile and striking pose."

One of 14 children, born in the small village of Barrio Santos Suarez, Havana, Cruz was drawn to music from an early age. Her first pair of shoes was a gift from a tourist for whom she sang. In addition to spending many evenings singing her younger siblings to sleep, Cruz sang in school productions and community gatherings. Taken to cabarets and nightclubs by an aunt, she was introduced to the world of professional music. At the encouragement of a cousin, Cruz began to enter and win local talent shows. Although her father attempted to guide her toward a career as a teacher, Cruz continued to be lured by music. In a 1997 interview, she said, "I have fulfilled my father's wish to be a teacher as, through my music, I teach generations of people about my culture and the happiness that is found in just living life. As a performer, I want people to feel their hearts sing and their spirits soar." Enrolling in Cuba's Conservatory of Music in 1947, Cruz found her earliest inspiration in the singing of Afro-Cuban vocalist Paulina Alvarez. Her first break came when she was invited to join the band la Sonora Matancera in 1950. The group was revered as the Latin equivalent of the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Cruz remained with the group for 15 years, touring throughout the world. She married the band's trumpet player Pedro Knight on July 14, 1962. With Fidel Castro's assuming control of Cuba in 1960, Cruz and Knight refused to return to their homeland and became citizens of the United States. Although they initially signed to perform with the orchestra of the Hollywood Palladium, Cruz and Knight eventually settled in New York. Knight became Cruz's manager in 1965, a position he held until the mid-'90s when he began to devote his attention to serving as her musical director and conductor of her band.

Leaving Sonora Matancera's band in 1965, Cruz launched her solo career with a band formed for her by Tito Puente. Despite releasing eight albums together, the collaboration failed to achieve commercial success. Cruz and Puente resumed their partnership with a special appearance at the Grammy Award ceremonies in 1987. Signed by Vaya, the sister label of Fania, Cruz recorded with Oscar D'Leon, Cheo Feliciano, and Hector Rodriquez in the mid- to late '60s. Cruz's first success since leaving Sonora Matancera came in 1974 when she recorded a duo album, Celia and Johnny, with Johnny Pacheco, trombone player and the co-owner of Fania. She subsequently began appearing with the Fania All Stars. Cruz's popularity reached its highest level when she appeared in the 1992 film The Mambo Kings. Cruz also appeared in the film The Perez Family. She sang a duet version of "Loco de Amor," with David Byrne, in the Jonathan Demme movie Something Wild. In 1998, Cruz released Duets, an album featuring her singing with Willie Colon, Angela Carrasco, Oscar D'Leon, Jose Alberto "El Canario," and la India. Cruz continued to record and perform until sidelined by a brain tumor in 2002. While recovering from surgery to remove the tumor, she managed to make it in to the studio in early 2003 to record Regalo de Alma. Her surgery was only partially successful and she died July 16, 2003. The passing of the "Queen of Salsa" left a huge gap in Latin music, but also a remarkable catalog to document her reign. AMG. listen here

Ali Hassan Kuban - Walk Like A Nubian 1991

From the first note, I knew this was a winner. Kuban immediately brings to mind Abdel Aziz el-Mubarak - the tones and melodies are very similar, but Kuban has sped up the Nubian traditional rhythms and given them a raucous party feel anchored by a perfect electric bass. He has also incorporated James Brown's "jerk" dance into the beat in a way that's hard to notice it's so seamless. The instruments are tar, winds, accordion and percussion. If your friends won't dance to this, get new friends. AMG. listen here

Pablo Milanés y Chucho Valdés - Mas alla de todo 2007

Along with Silvio Rodriguez, Pablo Milanés was one of the crucial figures in Cuba's nueva trova popular-song movement of the late '60s; sponsored by Fidel Castro's government, the collective of nueva trova musicians were essentially supposed to reconfigure and update traditional Cuban folk musics for the nation's new, modern, post-revolutionary society. Milanés gained renown for his highly poetic lyrics and smooth yet emotional singing, becoming one of the most popular and respected Cuban musicians and songwriters of the late 20th century, and releasing a hefty number of records. He is a controversial figure to some -- exiles despise his staunch support of Castro, while others criticize his musical forays into sentimental, orchestrated jazz-pop -- but his status as one of the most important links between traditional and contemporary Cuban music has remained virtually unassailable into the new millennium. 
Cuban pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger Chucho Valdes is a highly accomplished and influential figure in the world of Latin and Afro-Cuban jazz. Born in Quivican in 1941, Valdes is the son of the similarly influential Cuban bandleader Bebo Valdes from whom Chucho first received piano lessons. Having exhibited musical talent from a young age, Valdes eventually enrolled in the Municipal Music Conservatory of Havana, graduating at age 14. Inspired by such jazz pianists as Art Tatum and Thelonious Monk, Valdes quickly formed his first jazz trio and began a fruitful period that found him landing several high-profile performance jobs in hotels around Havana including performing with the Sabor De Cuba Orchestra which was directed by his father. These performances continued throughout the '60s and allowed Valdes not only to perform with the best musicians in Cuba, but begin to formulate his own unique ideas about mixing jazz, classical and Cuban styles of music. In 1970, Valdes and his combo became the first Cuban jazz group to perform abroad after appearing at the Jazz Jamboree International Jazz Festival in Poland.

In 1973, formed the innovative and highly influential Latin jazz ensemble Irakere. The group featured various members of the Orquesta Nacional de Musica Moderna including such stars of the Cuban music scene as trumpeter Arturo Sandoval and alto saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera. With its unique mix of jazz, rock, funk, classical and traditional Cuban rhythms, Irakere was an explosive and creative ensemble that quickly caught the attention of international audiences. Although there have been many compilations of Irakere, it was the band's Grammy winning 1979 self-titled concert album, recorded at the Newport Jazz Festival a year before, that really sparked international interest in the group. Although the band's line-up has changed over the years -- D'Rivera defected to the United States in 1980 and Sandoval (who did not defect until 1990) formed his own group in 1981 -- Irakere continues to perform and record with Valdes and new members.

Although Valdes never left Cuba, the four-time Grammy winning and three-time Latin Grammy winning virtuoso has kept a high-profile touring schedule and in 2006 was named the Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Since the '80s, Valdes has released a steady flow of albums including 1986's Lucumi (Messidor), 1998's Bele Bele en la Habana (Blue Note), 2000's Live at the Village Vanguard (Blue Note), 2002's Fantasia Cubana: Variations on Classical Themes (Blue Note) and 2010's Chucho's Steps. AMG. listen here