Jaco Pastorius - Curtain Call (Live) 1986

Dubbed "the last live American performance of Jaco Pastorius" (liner notes), the posthumously released Curtain Call is the most refreshing of Pastorius' post-big-band live recordings. Sparked by the superb sound quality and enthusiastic, energetic performances, the CD features the only available live recordings by Pastorius of "John and Mary," Herbie Hancock's "Speak Like a Child," and Miles Davis' "So What!," plus the often recorded favorites "Invitation," "Continuum," and "Teen Town." The refreshing aspect, aside from some rarely recorded live material, is the personnel and the absence of guitar. Brian "Whitey" Melvin (drums) and Jon Davis (keys) recorded with Pastorius on three of Melvin's studio dates, but never live. Pastorius is at his most lucid in years thanks to Melvin's spiritual guidance, and Davis and Melvin seem to be playing expressly for Pastorius here. Without having to compete with a guitarist, a rejuvenated Pastorius has center stage, start to finish, his prominence and clarity reaching new heights on the final three compositions, "Mercy, Mercy," "So What!" and "Teen Town." Truly awesome. AMG.

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Houndmouth - Good For You 2021

Houndmouth was formed in 2011 in New Albany, Indiana, a town across the river from Louisville, Kentucky. Founding members included guitarist/vocalist Matt Myers, keyboardist/vocalist Katie Toupin, bassist/vocalist Zak Appleby, and drummer/vocalist Shane Cody. The driven group of musicians quickly built a loyal following based on its fervent live shows and was soon sharing stages with like-minded bands such as Drive-By Truckers and the Lumineers. In 2012, the group issued a self-titled four-song EP, and in 2013, Rough Trade released the band's full-length debut, From the Hills Below the City, a hearty collection of ragged, country-informed rock & roll. After a lengthy bout of touring, including stops at major festivals like Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and Newport Folk Festival, Houndmouth returned in March 2015 with Little Neon Limelight, another set of lean country boogie and late-night laments. The following year, Toupin left the band to pursue a solo career, leaving the remaining trio to quickly readjust their live act just before a major tour. Houndmouth carried on with a new set of touring members including keyboardist Caleb Hickman and saxophonists Graeme Gardiner and Drew Miller. A sleeker, more pop-forward sound emerged on 2018's Golden Age, their third album and first without Toupin. Following the release of the album, Houndmouth collected various Golden Age demos as the four-song EP California Voodoo. The next year, a two-song release, California Voodoo, Pt. II, offered up two brand-new studio-recorded songs. In 2021, the band began releasing singles in anticipation of their fourth studio album. That album, Good for You, arrived in November of that year, with production from Brad Cook, who had previously worked on albums by Houndmouth peers Waxahatchee and Hiss Golden Messenger. AMG.
 

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Hukwe Zawose - Bagamoyo 2008

Hukwe Zawose, or Dr. Hukwe Zawose to give him his full title, is probably Tanzania's greatest musical treasure. Growing up in Doduma, he was a cattle herder with plenty of time to himself and a love of the countryside that's evident in his music and his championing of folk traditions. His initial instrument was the ilimba, or large thumb piano, which his older brother also played. He then added the stringed izeze, his father's instrument. His gifts were quickly evident and he began going around the villages as a musician. He recalls, "when I was a young man my voice was so sweet that people would often cry when I sang. In fact, sometimes I would hear myself and even I would cry, wondering what I had done to deserve such a precious gift." Eventually, Julius Nyerere, the first president of the newly independent country, heard about him and summoned him to the capital, Dar Es Salaam. There, the young man found favor with his traditionally based music and became a founding member of the Master Musicians of Tanzania, a group also known as the National Music Ensemble of Tanzania. The band was based at the Bagayomo College of the Arts and even as he was playing with them, Zawose was developing his own wagogo style, mixing traditional stories with political lyrics in Swahili. By now he'd become a master of the thumb piano, with a huge sound to match his remarkable voice -- reportedly he has a five-octave vocal range. He'd also become prolific in areas beyond music, fathering a total of 15 children by four wives, and playing in a duo with one of his sons, Charles Zawose. By the mid-'80s, Zawose and his son were touring outside Africa; at the end of the decade with the Master Musicians; he then released Art of Hukwe Ubi Zawose in Japan, a record that brought him to the attention of world music enthusiasts for its stylish singing and playing. Folkloric and acoustic, it offered the kind of insight to Tanzanian music that none of the pop bands of the coast could match. It was followed by Tanzania Yetu and Mateso on the English indie Triple Earth, and Zawose left his ensemble behind to make his home in London, becoming an established part of the WOMAD festival circuit, which he still regularly plays. That, in turn, led to his first solo disc, 1996's Chibite, which one critic called "a startling music stripped down to raw elements." After that, Zawose returned to Tanzania, although he continued to tour regularly around the globe. He was in no hurry to release another album, and it wasn't until 2001 that Mkuki Wa Rocho appeared on the small Womad Select label in a limited pressing. Zawose, an honorary Doctor of Music, continued to play but spent his later years teaching music in his native land. He passed away in December of 2003 at the age of 65. AMG.

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Lake Street Dive - Bad Self Portraits 2014

Bad Self Portraits is eclectic Boston band Lake Street Dive's third studio album and the group's sixth release overall. Produced by Sam Kassirer (Josh Ritter, Erin McKeown), the album comes two years after the group's cover EP, Fun Machine. Rather than revisit that album's neat gimmick of a jazz-soul band covering contemporary pop songs, Lake Street Dive instead delve into a substantial batch of their own blue-eyed-soul and Southern rock-inflected originals. Once again, the album showcases lead singer Rachel Price's resonant, old-school singing, which is still the main reason to listen to Lake Street Dive. Of course, with her band backing her at various times with harmony vocals, jazzy trumpets, crunchy tube guitar riffs, and woody jazz basslines, there's always something rootsy and unexpected happening around her on Bad Self Portraits. There is buoyant creativity to many of Lake Street Dive's arrangements, and cuts like "Bobby Tanqueray" and "Seventeen" reveal such time-tested influences as late-'60s Muscle Shoals-influenced soul and Dusty Springfield-esque pop. AMG.

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Hallelujah the Hills - I'm You 2019

Hallelujah the Hills arose from the ashes of Boston's late lamented the Stairs. When the Stairs collapsed at the end of 2005, lead singer/songwriter Ryan Walsh and drummer Eric Meyer announced the formation of their new band. Named after Adolphus Mekas' 1963 cult comedy, Hallelujah the Hills settled on an initial lineup of Walsh and Meyer, David Bentley (cello, guitar), Joe Marrett (bass), and Matt Brown (synth, samples, guitar, melodica). Trumpeter Brian Rutledge joined a few months later, and Elio DeLuca replaced Brown on keyboards in early 2007. Incorporating elements of Guided by Voices' lo-fi power pop, the woozy marching band music of Neutral Milk Hotel, and the off-kilter warblings of David Byrne, Hallelujah the Hills' live shows quickly won accolades from The Boston Phoenix and Salon.com. That ramshackle democracy can be heard on the band's debut album, Collective Psychosis Begone, released on Misra Records in June 2007. AMG.

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Gizmodrome - Gizmodrome 2017

A fun, rollocking album. This title is reminiscent of Stewart Copeland's early work as Klark Kent and contains some fleshed-out ideas from his previous solo work as well as his video game compositions. The other musicians help flesh out the ideas, making the music more engaging. The lyrics carry the stamp of Stewart Copeland's sense of humor, but the backing vocals add character to the songs, making them still interesting after the first listen and the joke is over. The musicianship is stellar but does not upstage the content of the songs themselves, a typically tough task for supergroups to accomplish. A fun album, showing off how fun it is to make interesting music with musicians who just want to include the listener in all the fun they had in making it. AMG.

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Gary B.B. Coleman - Too Much Weekend 1992

After a career as a local bluesman and blues promoter in Texas and Oklahoma, Gary Coleman found his niche when he signed over his first album, a self-produced outing originally issued on his own label, to the fledgling Ichiban company out of Atlanta in 1986. Since that time, both Coleman and Ichiban have made their marks in the blues field: not only did Coleman release half-a-dozen of his own albums, he also oversaw production of the bulk of Ichiban's hefty blues catalog, bringing to the studio a number of artists he'd booked or toured with in his previous career (Chick Willis, Buster Benton, and Blues Boy Willie, among others). A singer/guitarist on-stage, Coleman often took on a multi-instrumentalist's role in the studio. His music remained true to the blues and to the King legacy saluted in his "B.B." moniker and in his acknowledged debt to fellow Texan Freddie King.

Coleman began listening to the blues as a child and by the time he was 15, he was working with Freddie King. Following his association with King, Coleman supported Lightnin' Hopkins and formed his own band, which played around Texas. Gary also began booking blues musicians into clubs in Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado. He continued to play gigs and book concerts for nearly two decades. In 1985, he formed Mr. B's Records, his own independent label. He released his debut album, Nothin' But the Blues, the following year. The album was popular and gained the attention of Ichiban Records, who signed Coleman and re-released Nothin' But the Blues in 1987.

If You Can Beat Me Rockin', Coleman's second album, was released in 1988. That same year, he began producing albums for a number of other artists, as well as writing songs for other musicians and acting as an A&R scout for Ichiban. Between 1988 and 1992, he released six records and produced another 30, including albums for Little Johnny Taylor and Buster Benton. Coleman continued to be active until his untimely death in the mid-'90s, both as a performing and recording artist, as well as a producer. AMG.

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Triptides - Alter Echoes 2021

Alter Echoes is the second album Triptides have made since moving to L.A. from Indiana, and their first in a fancy studio, one that boasts a pedigree ranging from the Standells to Pink Floyd. It's also their first for Alive Naturalsound Records, and after all that, it's not a shock that it is their sunniest, most polished, and hardest rocking album to date. The band's leader Glenn Brigman and the new lineup of bassist Stephen Burns and drummer Brendan Peleo-Lazar decided to strip away any remaining vestiges of the lo-fi, reverb-heavy group they once were to become something bright, clean, and super jangly. The album is loaded with songs that have a tight rhythm section backing some seriously chiming 12-string guitar, edging away from psychedelia just a bit in favor of super-charged folk-rock with a kick. Tracks like "It Won't Hurt You" and "Let It Go" show off how the arrangements and sound have both tightened and expanded without losing any of the hooks in the process, "Hand of Time" displays some hard rock crunch, and on "Now and Then" the group bop along happily like they are auditioning for Where the Action Is. Even though they've cleaned up a bit, there is still plenty of psychedelia wafting around the edges of the arrangements, be it phased guitar strums, hazy shades of organ, or the occasional bit of purple prose in the lyrics. Along with changing up their overall sound, the band also try out some new things stylistically. The center of the album is anchored by a few straight-up ballads. "Elemental Chemistry" rolls along slowly like late-period Rain Parade jamming with early-'70s Pink Floyd, "Shining" is a soft rock-meets-prog rock adventure built on keening slide guitar and electric piano, and "Moonlight Reflection" comes across like a vintage Todd Rundgren song complete with lovely vocal harmonies and piano. The best of the batch is the very Zombies-sounding "She Doesn't Want to Know," with Brigman doing his best Colin Blunstone as the group vamps jazzily behind him. These stretches out of their comfort zone work well for the band, giving the record more depth than previous efforts. They may be slightly less retro now -- very slightly -- but any disappointment this alteration might bring is balanced out by the reliably good songs and performances. AMG.

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Trio Curupira - Curupira 2000

The Trio Curupira was formed in 1996 by young musicians and composers of the state of São Paulo. The pianist, André Marques has been member of Hermeto Pascoal's group since 1994. Determined to develop a unique work, the result of musical and cultural research based on the authentic music of Brazil, they go through all kind of rhythms and break down any stylistic borders. 

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Live Wire - No Fright 1980

An excellent and sadly overlooked British pub rock band that came along with the renewal in English rock from punk to new wave.
The band released three albums of top-notch riffy rock from 1979 to 1981. This is the band's second from 1980. If you're into riffy English pub rock, Live Wire is highly recommended. The group's bassist also visited Sniff'n The Tears, which can sometimes be compared to Live Wire, but this band sounded much tougher. Guitar-based rock like Dire Straits at their rockiest, but with the pub rock attitude.

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David Bowie - ChangesNowBowie 2020

This is not a singles/hits album like the other ‘Changes’ releases.
Instead, these are 1996 alternate performances of classic Bowie tracks and very good ones at that. They aren't better than the originals but instead offer a really nice alternate approach to the songs. AMG.

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The Weight Band - World Gone Mad 2018

Keeping the spirit and the music alive that helped define an era, members of The Weight Band were either actual players in The Band or are directly and deeply connected to their legacy. Touring nationally for the past four years featuring members of The Band, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson, and Levon Helm's band. The Woodstock-based Weight Band is not a tribute to The Band but rather a continuation of where The Band and its members left off. Members include Jim Weider, Marty Grebb, Brian Mitchell, Albert Rogers, and Michael Bram… Songs were written by The Band, Levon Helm… and Colin Linden. Summer 2018, The Weight Band releases its first full-length, 11-track studio album World Gone Mad in Europe. It features eight original tracks, guest vocals, and slide guitar from Jackie Greene on a cover of a Jerry Garcia-Robert Hunter song, and writing contributions from the late Levon Helm on previously unreleased songs. The Weight Band originated in 2013 inside the famed Woodstock, New York barn of Levon Helm when Jim Weider and Randy Ciarlante both former members of The Band performed Songs of The Band with Band founder, Garth Hudson, alongside Jimmy Vivino and Byron Isaacs. Inspired to carry on the legacy of the unforgettable rock group, Weider, Ciarlante, and Isaacs began performing fan favorites from The Band catalog to audiences across the country, inviting Marty Grebb and Brian Mitchell to complete their sound. The Weight Band later added Albert Rogers and Michael Bram to make up their current lineup with Weider, Mitchell, and Grebb. Together, after four years of touring, The Weight Band has recorded a new album of original material, capturing The Band's musical tradition and packaged it for today's vibrant Americana base. Released in Europe in September 2018, World Gone Mad is an Americana/Roots Rock masterpiece of the Woodstock sound.

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Trey Anastasio - Lonely Trip 2020

Since co-founding the seminal improv rock outfit Phish in 1983, guitarist, composer, and songwriter Trey Anastasio has explored a wide variety of musical pathways ranging from atonal fugues and elaborate charts with Phish to adventurous free jazz on his first solo project, Surrender to the Air (1996), to collaborations with the likes of Tom Marshall, Les Claypool, Philip Glass, Stewart Copeland, and others. Anastasio pursued many of these projects during the 2000s, a period when Phish embarked on several extended hiatuses and breakups. After releasing a shiny, pop-oriented eponymous solo album in 2002, the guitarist formed Oysterhead -- a group featuring Claypool and Copeland -- and instituted a large solo band that supported him both on record and in the studio. Once Phish became active again during the 2010s, Anastasio continued to pursue extracurricular musical ideas in his solo career, including Lonely Trip and Mercy, a pair of albums he largely recorded on his own during the COVID-19 pandemic. AMG.

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Caroline Davis - Heart Tonic 2018

Reared in Chicago where she attained her Ph.D. in Music Cognition at prestigious Northwestern University, alto saxophonist/composer Caroline Davis recently migrated to New York, while nestling into its fertile jazz and improvisational environs. And while this vibrant quintet date is perhaps more conventional than some of her freer works, Davis' complex harmonic fabrications ring loud and clear via these noteworthy compositions. Moreover, the album title refers to Davis' heart research to obtain a better understanding of its properties due to her father's heart ailment, serving as a principal force behind this production.

Davis' effervescent attack is often tempered by her warmly articulated phrasings and contrasted by soaring climactic buildups amid sinuous and knotty unison choruses executed with trumpeter Marquis Hill. However, the group abides by a democratic mode of operations; hence, the artists' teamwork is evident throughout the production. As the quintet imparts lovely melodies and balances the tightly coordinated frameworks with variable currents, modulating cadences, speedy bop movements, dabs of jazz fusion, and the Latin element.

The quintet blends a piquant Afro-Cuban groove into an airy, yet buoyant vibe, along with zesty soloing spots by the frontline on "Loss." Yet the following track "Constructs," is an invigorating, up-tempo bop sojourn, and "Air," is a cheery ballad, solidified by bassist Tamir Shmerling's pliant bottom-end and drummer Jay Sawyer's gentle cymbal swashes and snappy rim-shots. However, the primary theme implicates a march progression, expanded by Julian Shore's animated piano solo, leading to melodic subplots as the band steadily raises the pitch with an upward trajectory, followed by a soothing fadeout.

The album finale "Ocean Motion," is formed with intricate percussion treatments within a simmering Latin motif, including knotty unison phrasings and the hornists' extended notes, shaded by Shore's dark synth passages. But the musicians rebuild the primary theme with regal statements and movements akin to fitting pieces into a puzzle, intensified by Sawyer's burgeoning press rolls and polyrhythmic undercurrents. Even though Davis hovers near a straightforward modern jazz approach it's not a grassroots effort where everyone plays it safe, partly due to her vast musical resources, distinct creative sparks, and multidimensional approach to composition. Whereas, her band rises to the occasion with great aplomb and a penchant for dishing out meticulous plot developments on a continual basis. AllaboutJazz.

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Laibach - The John Peel Sessions 2002

Laibach is a Slovenian group whose music, performances, and entire aesthetic have been immensely influential across nearly the entire genre of industrial music, especially the martial industrial style. Its members prefer to be known as a collective rather than reveal their individual names; they've been accused of being fascists and practicing Germanophilia because of their music's Wagnerian thunder and their military attire. According to Laibach, "We are fascists as much as Hitler was a painter." Since fascism needs a scapegoat to flourish, the members of Laibach mocked it by becoming their own scapegoat and willingly sought alienation. Showing a ridiculous lust for authority, Laibach's releases featured artwork influenced by anti-Nazi photomontage artist John Heartfield, and the group's live shows portray rock concerts as absurd political rallies. In interviews their answers are wry manifestos, and they never break character. While Laibach's early recordings such as the group's self-titled 1985 effort were more experimental, the group became more popular when they began incorporating covers of well-known rock songs on 1987's Opus Dei. They soon began recording entire albums of covers, beginning with a take on the Beatles' Let It Be in 1988. Laibach's music became more sample-based and techno-influenced on early-'90s releases such as 1992's Kapital, while 1996's Jesus Christ Superstars was heavier on guitars. During the 21st century, the group has interpreted national anthems (Volk, 2006) and show tunes (The Sound of Music, 2018), in addition to performing historic concerts in Korea. 2022's Wir sind das Volk contained music written for a theatrical production based on the texts of German playwright Heiner Müller. AMG.

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