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the music discussion is getting thin here and i rarely hear of anything that hasn't been discussed often. I miss finding new bands on here so whatever i wrote up 4 albums i listened to today that i think people on here won't have, although i don't have any idea if anyone will care about these at all.
Kenny dorham memorial album
Hard Bop, you've probably heard all this stuff before but this obscure Dorham date is enjoyable nonetheless.
Dorham's performance is agile and occaisonly showy, but not enough to be attention grabbing, simply skilled and tasteful
playing from someone who knew bebop in and out. Butch Warren on bass is a treat with his rugged arco solo on "stage west" and
it's nice to hear Charles Davis on baritone sax simply because it appears on less bop albums than other saxes.
The liner notes help to make an understanding of this perpetual everyman performer, always 'as good as anyone' but never
the best. reading about his childhood ambitions to become a cowboy or hobo, and about the jobs he kept while being a semi-pro jazzer
makes this an appropriate "memorial". Frankly this album won't come as a shock to anybody unless it's their beginning of
bebop exploration, and there's better places to do that. But if you like bop in general or Dorham specifically this is a well played
album, actually in lieu of all the different stuff that happened in 60s jazz, this recording from jan. 10, 1960 is a good
refresher on more or less where popular modern jazz was at starting the decade.
brazil classics 2; o samba
sort of one of those accessible 'world music' compilations yuppies ate up in the 80s. Frankly I usually enjoy these things,
why not if there's good tracks on it.martinho da vila and clara nunes leave the biggest impression on the record, especially
being 2 of the 3 artists with 2 songs on the lp version, but there's other good tracks, paulinho da viola has a pretty fresh track on here
Malo- Dos
trumpeter luis gasca has been replaced by forest butchel, who does great having plenty of dramatic or funky moments,
though i still miss the unique, umm.....salsa of gasca. Luckily bassist pablo tellez is still on this album, like last time
he has some really memorable basslines. 'i'm for real' is kinda a cheesy soul song, maybe a bit of philly influence,
i only say it's cheesy mostly because of the vocals going there at moments, the propulsive bassline of pablo tellez and soulful
horn charts really keep the song classy all the way until the long and sweet instrumental ending. this album has a really
full and warm production, superior to the previous album. I'm sure they were worried about being considered a santana
also ran, but they never were so they should have gone with it and let jorge santana loose more often like on the first lp,
rather than making malo sound like santana, malo was always more in the direction of funk so i thought the rocking guitars
on tracks like cafe made them more unique. the first 4 tracks of this record had precious little rockin, and jorge's
coming out on the track 'hela' isn't all that memorable. In the end, the long closing track 'latin bugaloo' gets everybody
in on an intense session so i can't complain. Very good second album by malo but the first is still better.
mandrill- beast from the east.
I only know their older stuff and this 1976 period is basically when the lineup was losing more members and the band was on it's way out
original bass player bundie cenac is gone and is replaced by someone named brian allsop who isn't pictured. i assume he's
a session guy, see i knew someone named that who was kind of a nerd. he was an ok pianist and trumpeter but not
great, the bands he was in were always soft, academic minded wasp nerd type, nothing wrong with it but not funky enough to
be in mandrill, too much maine and not enough 70s brooklyn. and that's basically what this new bass player is, competent.
even a little funky but just in a music school book way. no match for the force of nature that was bundie cenac, neck snapping
funkster and the goldmine continuosly milked by hiphop's finest producers. Also gone is the psychedelic hippie style of
some older material, and i do think that stuff was hit or miss, but i miss it. The latin aspects of the music are less than on
other albums, but there's more spanish on the record than usual for some reason. There is also some tough street talkin'
and even the n word. A long departure from the hippy band that bemoaned people "cussing and swearing, and threatening the other side"
What changed these men's temperment so much? Well band member Ric Wilson is now listed as Ric Wilson MD. I guess med school
showed him the reality of the streets in a way that being a stoned brooklyn funkster never could. This album isn't mandrill's
absolute best moments and is past their prime, however it's still solid and often more, and there are no really bad moments
like some records had so it's almost as enjoyable as the classics. the wind instruments don't get as much action as some mandrill lps
but much respect to carlos wilson for his sick flute solo on synthia song.
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