A couple of weeks ago, Record Racks reviewed a new compilation of Thelonious Monk’s work. There were two other releases from this series that were released on the same day. One is from John Coltrane and the other was from the inimitable Sonny Rollins. Reviews of those can be found on the Indy Jazz Fest blog.
These are fantastic sets for the beginning jazz listener.
Kanye West featuring Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, Charlie Wilson and Bon Iver: Monster
So maybe you heard Kanye West’s recent proclamation to release a new song on Fridays from his G.O.O.D. Music label. Recently he made good on that promise releasing a song on his website called “Monster.” Everyone except the kitchen sink makes an appearance.
Kanye’s flow is pretty good on this one. Good summer time riding music. Is it classic Kanye? Maybe, maybe not. But it is pretty hot. It runs for a mindblowing 6:22, but for a track featuring so many guests, it’s an appropriate length. Indie hipsters may either be happy (or flabberghasted) as to why Justin Vernon from Bon Iver makes an appearance. Regardless he doesn’t sound out of place.
It’s good promotion for Ye’s upcoming November release.
Foundling (Mercer Street/IHT Records, 2010)
For the typical David Gray release schedule, Foundling is a rush job. To make that assessment out of context, though, is shortsighted. While Gray typically spaces new studio albums out at least three years apart, Foundling arrives just shy of a year after last year’s Draw The Line. While in the studio over the last couple years, Gray was essentially working on both albums at the same time even if he didn’t plan on it in advance. During the sessions the songs started to separate themselves in their sound. Leading up to Draw The Line’s release, Gray released web videos of his studio time and in the background you could see a list of songs being recorded. Some of what didn’t end up on last year’s effort shows up in Foundling or its companion bonus disc.
Much of what we hear on Foundling is tamer and more mellow. Keeping the arrangements stripped is akin to Gray’s Lost Songs album from a decade ago. Take “Forgetting” for example. Its slow and transfixing melody uses piano and acoustic guitar with just a slight touch of orchestration laid over top. Gray’s vocals are as quiet as we’ve ever heard from him, barely even sung and measuring just above conversational.
“Holding On” encompasses a hopeful tone and adds a crying electric guitar into the mix while still managing an overall acoustic feel. As the song builds, so do the vocals before he unleashes his powerful, “Unfurling from the ground,” line at the song’s climax.
Listeners who haven’t been following his career might not realize that one song on the album, “A New Day At Midnight,” is actually the title of his 2002 album. For whatever reason, he held the song for release until now (outside of a live version that appeared on some overseas iTunes stores in 2006). The song is nearly a mirror image of the live version driven by piano for a majority of the song. The main difference is the horns that enter for support halfway through.
The album isn’t all downtempo. The closer “Davey Jones Locker” ramps up midway through before quieting down again. The opener, while stripped, has a rhythm that is fun and frolicky befitting of a title like “Only The Wine.” Should it find its way into set lists at his shows going forward (he is currently on tour with Ray LaMontagne, whose album dropped on the same day), it could find its way to being a fan favorite as a singalong.
The bonus disc, which strangely isn’t available in the UK, is a continuation of the relaxed atmosphere from the main disc. The exceptions to the rule are the previously-released “Indeed I Will,” which was given away as a free mp3 through his website prior to Draw The Line, and the set’s lead single “A Moment Changes Everything.” The latter, an odd choice as a lead single since it’s technically not even part of the album it’s promoting, was written as a song for a soccer tournament years ago. It eventually was played on TV, and the label decided it wanted to use the song as a single. Gray himself has been quoted as not being too fond of it. However, the label wants a hit and radio loves upbeat numbers.
Gray certainly has stronger album material in the past, but it’s nice to see him get back to exploring simpler sounds and textures. Even if some material rings hollow (“When I Was In Your Heart”), passion prevails (“Morning Theme,” his first instrumental since “January Rain” on Lost Songs). That stirring passion has been his legacy thus far. It continues with Foundling even if it’s in a more subdued form.
To stream the album (the main disc, at least) in its entirety, head over to David Gray’s MySpace page.
The video, which is unofficial – an official version is forthcoming, has gone viral as the marketing people like to say. However, it’s well-deserved. Cee Lo, he of “Crazy” fame as part of Gnarls Barkley a couple of years ago, returns with a late summer jam called “F— You.” Is it too late for it to be the summer song of 2010? It’s quite possibly a better song than “Crazy,” but the question remains of whether its clean version, to be titled “Forget You,” will lose a little bit of luster.
Cee Lo worked with The Smeezingtons, who you might know better by their work with B.o.B. on “Nothin On You”. Philip Lawrence (representing Evansville, IN, where I spent a lot of my youth), Bruno Mars, and Ari Levine comprise the production group, and they have put together a fantastic track that recalls some great Motown songs wit the “ooo ooo ooos” as well as the “I pity the fool” bit which sounds straight out of a David Ruffin solo on a Temptations song.
Cee Lo has always been an interesting and versatile performer. He threw down one of my favorite rap verses and choruses in Goodie Mob’s “Beautiful Skin” and has a couple of solo albums under his belt that went under the radar that had some fantastic songs such as 2002′s “Basshead Jazz.” Then the Gnarls Barkley song came around in 2006, and his career caught a second wind.
As for the basis of “F— You,” Cee Lo haven’t we all been there? Elektra Records… if you wait until October 4th to officially release this, you’re really dropping the ball!
UPDATE: You can buy the song now on Cee Lo’s official website.
Thelonious Monk: We See
From The Definitive Thelonious Monk On Prestige And Riverside (Concord Music Group/Prestige, 2010)
Concord Music Group is releasing compilations of three jazz giants: Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, and John Coltrane on August 24th. If you’re a huge jazz fan, these probably won’t cover any new ground. However, if you’re trying to dip your toe in to test the waters, these collections serve as an excellent starting point. Each set covers a different period of the respective artist’s development in the 1950′s, a time when jazz was changing from band oriented to more soloist oriented.
Monk loved to pound keys that lay side by side. This is evident in various spots in “We See.” Backed by Ray Copeland on trumpet, Frank Foster on sax, Curly Russell on bass, and the legendary Art Blakey on drums, it’s just one of many sessions of a who’s who in jazz music. The tempo is nice and driving, although not fast by any means, but it’s deliberate and well-paced. Copeland takes a nice solo in the latter third followed by Foster, while Blakey and Russell provide a template upon which to build. In the final minute, they blend their sounds back together playing a similar riff to the opening.
“Tea For Two” is a unique take on the classic song. Oscar Pettiford helms the bass on this session and splits time plucking and bowing. The beginning is straightforward before a short bridge that crosses into the familiar swinging melody. A play on “Tea For Two” can also be heard in his most famous composition “’Round Midnight” if you listen closely. Even more special about “’Round Midnight” is that it’s the only song on the set to feature an unaccompanied Monk, allowing a glimpse into a private performance in a jazz world that is typified by collaboration.
Amos Lee: Ease Back
From Daytrotter Sessions (Daytrotter, 2010)
It doesn’t take a scholar to know that summer is coming to an end. On September 23, at least for those of us in the northern hemisphere, cool breezes will blow open autumn’s door. Perhaps this post is premature especially since it’s still in the mid-80s where I live, but it’s been overcast today and a bit cooler than it has been over the last week. Couple that with listening to some wistful music, and well, I’ve landed here feeling a bit fallish.
I’ll save you the cheesy segue and talk about the tune above and about where you can get more from the session from whence it came. “Ease Back” sounds like a song that you might hear while travelling on some country backroad… or for you big city folks, something you might hear from a busker at the steps of a brownstone. Acoustic music has always been special for me. You strip back the layers and get to the core of the song. Pair that with an honest voice, and it just doesn’t get any better.
This song encapsulates his genuine nature just as well as any, I suppose. The album version features soft drums, a slide guitar, and banjo to give it a roots music flavor. This version has what sounds like two guitars, unless Amos is playing both rhythms at once, which wouldn’t be impossible, and was recorded at a live session for Daytrotter.
I’ve long been a fan of their site where they offer alternate versions of songs from up-and-coming bands, and even those like Amos who already have made a name for themselves. Better yet, much of it is free as long as you sign up for an account (which also costs nothing). I’ve linked the site (long overdue) over in the blogroll section. They’ve got a ton of stuff from the likes of The Avett Brothers, Bon Iver, The Swell Season, Fleet Foxes, and Raphael Saadiq. There are literally hundreds of sessions awaiting for you to listen.
From Jungle Music: Mixed With Love… Essential And Unreleased Remixes 1976 To 1986 (Strut, 2010)
This 70-minute mix by Disco Sonitus certainly beats the hell out of selecting a single track to post from this compilation. Walter Gibbons was a pioneer in the 12” mix especially in the era when disco was really starting to explode. He garnered so much respect from his unique DJ mixes that he would get access to multitracks to create extended jams for the dancefloor. Many of the tracks on the compilation are just that… extended well into the 10 minutes and beyond mark.
Perhaps one of his most famous works is his work on Strafe’s “Set It Off” that would rule disco floors in New York and beyond. It’s an electro classic and crossed over into the mainstream conscience as it was remembered when it was compiled on the ESPN Jock Jams series from the ’90s. He liked it so much that he even decided to have it re-recorded as the Harlequin Fours, also on the compilation.
One trademark of Gibbons that he used in his productions were bongo drums, which you can clearly hear in the mix between Gladys Knight’s “It’s A Better Than Good Time” and Jakki’s “Sun… Sun… Sun” on the mix. With this style, he earned a reputation for creating Jungle Music (although it’s not necessarily what we think of as Jungle today). Even as disco faded, he continued his work with an electro meets hip hop vibe as showcased in Stetsasonic’s “4 Ever My Beat (Beat Bongo Mix).”
As if studying his unique ability to create symphonic stepping music isn’t enough to pique your interest, then pick it up just for the fact that there is a band called TC James And The Fist O’ Funk Orchestra. That name alone earns the compilation some cool points. If you heard the Bob Blank compilation that Strut put out a few months ago that also featured the Gladys Knight track of “It’s A Better Than Good Time,” you can get a good idea of the territory Gibbons’ work covered.
(Editor’s Note: I don’t even recall how I ran across The Second Disc to begin with, but ever since I’ve checked back nearly daily. Helmed by Mike Duquette and with the assistance of Joe Marchese, they cover the world of reissues and remasters of sundry genres including pop, R&B, film scores, and more. It’s a niche that they serve extremely well so I reached out to Mike to tell him how much I enjoyed the site. We talked back and forth through e-mail and agreed to do a post swap.)
By Mike Duquette of The Second Disc:
As a pretty devoted chronicler of reissues, remasters and box sets, I have seen a lot of great titles and artists pass into the realm of high catalogue status. Just last year alone, fans got a clutch of reissued material from Michael Jackson and The Beatles, two immortal forces who constantly remind us of the enduring power of popular music and its significance in American history. If journalism, as they say, is the first draft of history, then reissues are just as potent a form of journalism as anything in the pages of Billboard.
It makes you wonder, then, why one particularly potent genre of American music has gotten short shrift when it comes to the expanded treatment: rap music. It’s not that the genre has been forgotten entirely; rather, the catalogue titles of the rap world lack the frequency or the depth of reissues in the fields of rock, blues, jazz, soul and even soundtracks or alternative music.
One can only speculate the many factors as to why this is. There’s the lazy argument (that record companies are too racist to reissue them, an argument that fails to hold water since some of the best reissues out there are from prominent soul artists), the business-minded argument (sample-heavy records probably require too many clearances to make any kind of re-release profitable) or the oversaturated argument (that the major labels literally have no room in their schedules to repackage and reissue classic rap records). It’s this argument I tend to empathize with, but it’s not something I’m particularly happy about.
The fact is, there’s a trove of great rap music that deserves a rediscovery on CD. Rap, when done right, is some of the most richly traditional and genuinely fun music anyone can find. The rap scene has been fueling the pop and rock scenes (and vice-versa) for some three decades or so. There are so many acts getting some sort of representation – Run-D.M.C. had some expanded releases some years ago, and Death Row’s assets were bought by a Canadian company with intent to sift through the label’s vaults – but there are still many more deserving segments of the genre. Here are just a few of them.
Sugar Hill Records. Yes, there have been plenty of compilations over the years from artists like Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five or The Sugar Hill Gang. Rhino even did a thorough five-disc box set in the late ‘90s after acquiring the label’s assets. But there needs to be something comprehensive. Imagine sets that emulated Universal’s Complete Motown Singles boxes, with each and every single side and promo edit included alongside in-depth liner notes about how The Sequence, Spoonie Gee, Funky 4 + 1 and others helped define the basics of rap. Now that would be the joint.
Public Enemy. Forget N.W.A. – P.E. was The World’s Most Dangerous Group. With the thunderous rhymes of Chuck D and hype man Flavor Flav, the powerhouse scratching of Terminator X and the insane production techniques of The Bomb Squad, Public Enemy made some of the most danceable, rockable socially conscious music of the 1980s. That their catalogue has never been remastered speaks to the difficulties of music label politics (they were at one point in the past decade slated for expansion, but too much number-crunching and sample-clearing probably killed the project). Terminator X may have gone to the farm and Flav has become a national punchline, but someday listeners might get a taste of P.E. the expanded way.
The Beastie Boys’ Licensed to Ill. The past few years have seen a quartet of lavish Beastie Boys expansions, with one glaring omission: the band’s major label debut. (Since it was released on Def Jam and not Capitol, like the other reissues, it was left out.) Although it’s a bit rougher than its successors, thanks to the rock-oriented production of Rick Rubin, it certainly deserves as close a look as the others, if for no other reason to blast “Fight for Your Right” once more.
The DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince catalogue. Sure, they were one of the poppiest pop-rap groups on the market. Sure, the Prince is far better known today as a box-office titan than a rapper. But they pack more listenability than their soft-sided contemporaries (Hammer? Vanilla Ice? Please), and it would be a natural business move to reissue these CDs every time Will Smith puts a new movie out.
The works of B.I.G. and Tupac. It may have been American music’s biggest game-changer in the 1990s – the ridiculous East Coast-West Coast rap feud that injected needless gang propaganda into the beats and rhymes, turned hustlers into music execs, turned Sean “Puffy” Combs into a household name and killed two of the most promising young performers of their generation. Audiences and A&R execs have chosen to memorialize The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur through a string of seemingly endless posthumous compilations, where bits and pieces of new freestyles seem to magically get discovered every so often. (The phenomenon was best parodied by the latter-day Chapelle’s Show sketch, where Tupac rhymes about current events and random occurrences from beyond the grave.) Instead, it might be high time to turn the spotlight back on the albums both men released before their untimely ends. This would give that troubled era the context it really needs, lest history repeat itself.
Maker: Come Home With Me
From Maker Vs. Now Again (Now Again, 2010)
Maker constructs a patchwork of beats based around the Now Again catalog. It’s a continuation of their library series of which previous entries included Oh No (Madlib’s brother) and Koushik’s take on the Now Again crates. It starts off with a dusty drum loop on “Walk Away Son” and then ups the ante on the follow-up track “Shout” with another break and topping it with a funky bass riff. Add in a few horn stabs and some vocal drops staying true to its title, and you easily have the funkiest beat on the collection.
The mood turns darker in “The Love We Have,” which flips a vocal sample of Amnesty’s harmonies (sounds like “Can I Help You” upon a cursory listen) and showcases Maker’s uncanny ability to capture mood and range of styles. He furthers that stance on “Free” in a disco-like dub stepper. The BPMs are pumped up a few notches, and the track contains the album’s most amount of vocals. “We’re going to spread our wings/’cause we gotta get away from here” marks the hook while the rest simply add texture.
The track featured above, “Come Home With Me,” has a sound akin to something the Stereo MCs might do. It’s funky and provides an excellent soundtrack for poppin’ and lockin’ on a piece of cardboard. Muted with vocals of the title before the beat really kicks in show a penchant for leading you somewhere with one thing and then blindsiding you (in a positive way) with something else.
With beat tapes like this, we can only hope that Maker is shopping his work around. Until then, however, we’re left with this collection. I don’t mean to come off as saying that the album sounds incomplete without rap vocals. Clearly, the work stands on its own merits. It would just be fun to hear what a rapper such as Ghostface or AZ would be able to bring to the fold on soundscapes like these.
Unless you are in or travelling to Japan, the only way to score this set is through Stones Throw’s webstore. But hurry, only 1000 of these CDs were manufactured!
Bad Lupo Grande: Rockabilly Fever
From Rockabilly Fever 7” (Scion A/V, 2010)
Available today is a fantastic garage rock tune on the A-side called “Rockabilly Fever.” It’s reminiscent of Nick Curran & The Lowlifes’ recent set, which was also reviewed on Record Racks. What’s interesting is how the group is made up of primarily electronic dance musicians including Luca Venezia. I could see Little Steven’s Underground Garage show being a big fan of this one, and I wouldn’t mention it if I weren’t a fan myself. With about a minute left in the track, it really cuts loose before pulling on the reins to ease up and then digging its spurs in for one final blast of energy.
The B-side, “Domani,” is a more mellow production and an instrumental, at that. It’s still a guitar-driven piece but not nearly as raucous. The rest of the instrumentation, including some light orchestration, lends to meditative solemnity. You can hear a short clip of it in this video.