Satchmo's Jive Essence 42

as an avid jazz eater and fan of music myself i will be watching this thread with hungry eyes. awesome concept for a thread, and judging by other posts of yours i've seen i'm sure this thing will leave me impressed.

keep it up dude.
 
I do love Mr. Mclaughlin. Anyone looking for an introduction to him should check out Davis' "In a Silent Way", on which he played as part of Davis' second great quartet. Top top stuff.
 
#30 Kayo Dot - Choirs of the Eye

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And now for something not so completely different......

Throughout the course of this trip we've been deviating away from our comfort zone of the Rock based aesthetic; sometimes in small increments and sometimes in giant leaps, and sometimes back again.
For this particular entry I have to come clean and say that this is a new album, as well as a new band for me. As a matter of fact I've had this album for roughly 24 hours now, and while I certainly did think that perhaps it wouldn't be proper for me to begin flying the flag over this one so quickly, I also realized upon hearing it that it was something very special and worthy of attention.

It's not too frequently that something so avante garde doesn't make you immediately think "Ornette Coleman" when jazz comparisons are made. I would certainly make an exception with this album. my first impressions are of darkness intertwined with bittersweet beauty, a definite heavy metal aesthetic but the structure, even in the macro sense is very open and ethereal.The dense wall of noise breathes in an almost organic way giving rise to many surprises: horns, a beautiful electric piano, and spoken word at various points throughout the piece. There is a communication that is conveyed by the harmonic overtones that arise from the sheer density of sound that culminates on this record that is simply breathtaking and quite unlike anything I've ever heard. I liken it to receiving a blowjob from a sledgehammer.

This album and this band are quite new to me and because of that I'm going to leave you all with this vague and brief musing. Sorry if it sounRAB like a copout. Chastise me if you will or make further comments about this amazing album to supplement my first impression. If you want an up give me a PM. I couldn't let this one go without immediate comment. It definitely deserved immediate inclusion in this thread.
 
Bitches Brew is an interesting one... I like it, but considering the credit it is given in his overall body of work, it has always fallen short with me. Much prefer Silent Way, 'Round About Midnight, KOB, Sketches and Live Evil over it.

Alas, top notch review Satch.
 
Good call on howlin' wolf. I've been getting into some of his stuff lately, it's really good. I'm suprised you picked a compilation though.
 
In most ways you're right. However it can be argued that their really the same genre at different points in a progressive evolution. I do think if you examine the rhetoric of both soul and funk you'll see that funk has more superficial similarites to jazz while soul really captures the rhetorical essence more evenly across the board.
I chose really not to include it at this stage in the game for two reasons. One, because of it's overt similarities to jazz (keep in mind were progressing toward a jazz rhetoric and not away from it). And two because a lot of the fusion that was popular during the 70's heyday of fusion really fell into either the prog rock genre (eg. Return to Forever's Hymn of the 7th Galaxy) or the funk genre (eg. Herbie Hancock's Headhunter) as some of my future entries will show.



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I like this. why don't you bounce in and right a little review?
 
Yet Another Interlude...​



The summer of 97’ was a year in which I found myself exploring a lot of new musical concepts in my own playing style as a guitarist. Being strongly influenced by the jazz style of legendary guitarist Wes Montgomery and his often used technique of employing the underside uf his thurab as a plectrum to push out beautiful single line jazz melodies, my imagination and creativity was thirsty to explore the possibilities of this mode of playing. In other areas I was being strongly influenced by a lot of 70’s soul and funk music, folks like Sly Stone, Van Morrison, and Parliament Funkadelic were beginning to make their influence known in my playing and songwriting style. Around the time that this was occurring there came a night that seemed to take all of the disparate elements of everything that was turning me on musically and manifest them all in one package.

I took a trip down to Ithaca to The Haunt, My favorite music venue at the time, no longer at it’s legendary hole-in-the-wall location, to see a band that a friend of mine had casually recommended to me. Moonboot Lover, what kind of name is that for a soul band, really?

Nonetheless, I was pretty well guaranteed by my friend who was meeting me at the club, that it would be time well spent. The band was a 3-piece out fit that consisted of Hammond organ, drums, and guitar. It was hard to tell what was more enthralling about the whole outfit, Guitarist singer Peter Prince and his utterly infectious and high energy playing and soulful Van Morrison-esque singing, or the two brothers, Al and Neal Evans, Situated on opposite sides of the stage facing each other, obviously to me communicating with each other on a level that was far deeper than just music, which was the most glorious, soulful music that, at that time, I’d ever heard. I noticed at varying points in the show that Prince would lose the pick and opt to let his thurab and fingers do the work. It wasn’t so much that he was sans pick, as that that he was man-handling his instrument in such a dominating, visceral way. I was mesmerized by the results. it was like nothing I’d ever heard before, as if some barrier between his own passionate soul and the instrument had been lifted and what I was witnessing was pure joyous energy.

During the set break I took some time to talk to him. He was very gracious; smoking him out probably contributed to that fact, but we spent the whole of he set break talking about his playing style, a little bit about Wes, and everything that I observed about the pureness of his expression. During the second set there came a climactic point In the song that they were playing where he was about to go for his solo where he turned, look directly at me, and when he had my attention, flung his pick at me and systematically proceeded to tear apart my reality piece by piece, ever so emphatically that 5 minutes and 5 broken strings later, the show was over and my mind was sufficiently blown.

Fast forward 2 years later, I was 28, in college, playing in 2 banRAB, booking shows around the general area, doing live sound engineering with one of Upstate NY’s biggest reinforcement companies and still, somehow I had time for 2-3 shows a week. I’d taken the weekend off to go to a 3 day music festival called The Flash of Light Festival. At that time, it was something that I would normally not have time for, as the live sound production company that I was affiliated with already had cornered the market on upstate NY’s the 3 day hippie fest scene, but this was one of those rare weekenRAB where I had nothing booked, and It was especially fitting that the predominate theme of the festival was to represent the Jazz/soul/urban influences that were progressively making themselves known in the jam band scene.

I had thought that the highlight of that Friday night was going to be Charlie Hunter. I’d seen him before, but never with his Duo, and yeah it was hot, but as I was taking the time at my campsite to get sufficiently blazed and take in a few home brews after the show a sound that was new and at the same time vaguely familiar. I rushed up to the main stage area and immediately proceeded to be overtaken by the music which was very organ heavy and seemed to have one foot planted in both the jazz and funk vain. I knew that I heard this sound before, but where? I made my way closer to the stage and that, gracing its presence were to familiar characters that I knew I would never forget anywhere; Al and Neal Evans. But this wasn’t Moon Boot. The man at the center of the stage was someone I had never seen before, and he played in a style that was equally as infectious as Peter prince’, but extraordinarily different. By the end of the show I’d found out that his name was Eric Krasno, the name of the band was Soulive.
 
#26​

Soulive
Get Down!​


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I ended up spending the majority of the summer of 99’ following this band around. It also worked out in my favor that as soon as I latched onto them as my new-found obsession, they became a band that regularly began making appearances on the various stages that I was engineering monitors on, so consequently I got to know these 3 musicians pretty well.

Soulive is a band who are definitely a product of common influences and uncommon energy. Brothers Al and Neal Evans bring a cohesive platform to whatever they do. There is such simplicity in Al’s drumming that one hardly stops to think about it. it just works, between the two, it always has. Neil’s dual duty style of playing the bass line with his left hand while simultaneously playing harmony and melody with his right has to be seen live to truly be appreciated. The fact that the two are brothers is not lost in the mix. The musical foundation that they generate with just drums and organ provide a solid and cohesive platfom with which any solo performer, in this case Eric Krasno can utilize to get off with the greatest of ease.

But their sound, apart from being soulful, jazzy,funky, and infectious as all hell can be hard to pigeonhole. They are the masters of the off-kilter dominant jazz melody a la jazz guitarist Grant Green, who’s influence on Krasno is so transparently obvious that comparisons to him and the late legendary guitarist are something that he will never live down and will likely never be able to move away from. Much like Moon Boot Lover the band that 2 of the 3 merabers originated from, they are purveyors of energy.

This album, their debut, represents, to me Soulive in their prime. That, in a certain sense is unfortunate, because at the time when this was all going down I was riding the wave of what the future possibly held for these guys, and yes they did get signed to Blue Note for their follow up album with guest performers like Oteil Burbridge from Aquarium Recue Unit and The Allman Brothers, and John Scofield. Nothing was ever quite the same with any of the banRAB subsequent releases. They added on a sax player and at varying points, have had singers, but the truth is, lightning never struck the same place twice with these guys. So in this album what you have is purely the potential for greatness and the freshness of passion locked in a moment. It was amazing and this album still means the world to me.

This seven song EP is just under an hour long, and in it, you see many of the varying flavors of Soulive.So Live presents in greatest form, the banRAB propensity to stretch out in a relaxed way and let a lazy melody overtake the song. Both Krasno and Evan’s solos are a reflection of this. Uncle Junior is an upbeat funky nuraber that has made it’s way onto two subsequent albums, once with the Fred Wesley horn section taking over the melody, but here it’s Krasno’s baby and he shines throughout.Rudy’s Way, very similar to So Live is slow and plodding but still intricate in it’s melody. Cash’s Dream starts out with a very urban feel that is only disrupted by the melody which goes against the grain of the theme here you see Krasno and Evans doing what they're known for: synchronized melodies, which is something that can be found throughout. Turn it Out is a blending of their slower and more upbeat songs and has a more dreamy feel to it. Brother Soul is very gospel-esque blues nuraber which lets both Krasno and Evans go to town in a simpler, more refined 12 bar structure. The last song , and by far my favorite, Right On, is a live version of what was the song that for me encapsulated the essence of the banRAB live energy. I can’t hear this song and not dance. Krasno’s chicken pickin’ guitar and Neal mirroring every note of the melody, make this a beautiful high energy example of what put this band on the map, as well as the energy that they brought to every single show.

These guys were at one point a huge part of my life and I have mixed feeling for them now, as the trajectory of their career has gone in a direction that I think didn't represent their inherent greatness. This album though, is amazing, and a handful of their follow up releases are definitely not without their strong points, but with Soulive, this little time capsule will always be where it’s at for me.
 
Downloaded a few albums you reviewed in this thread Satchmo. I'm really loving the Minutemen. Its jazzy and funky with the raw punk energy. The vocals are unique and strong. The lyrics are philisophical at times but are always edgy, aggresive and always retain a sense of humor and sarcasm. It suits the music perfectly. The feel of the album is kept throughout the entire album, even when they start playing the more experimental stuff. Its even got the Jackass theme on it! What a great feeling, listening to a great album then all of a sudden corona starts playing. Had no idea that the song was from the Minutemen, such a nice surprise.

I also got The Low End Theory. I unknowningly downloaded a compilation of all of the songs the group got their samples from for the album at first which I am enjoying so far. Haven't got the chance to listen to much of the actual album yet, what I've heard so far is interesting.
 
#34 - (a preface)


I have fond memories of the summer of 92'. 21 years after the release of the previously reviewed Marvin Gaye album What's Going On I spent the majority of my time tooling around the city of Rochester NY in a beat up black 87' AMC Renault 4 door coupe with my non-racist skinhead friend Pete and a mutual but mysterious acquaintance of ours, a young scrawny deaf kid that we knew simply as "Deaf Jessie". He may have stood only 5'6", but with his candy apple red liberty spikes he more than compensated for the height advantage that Pete and I had on him. With me piloting the whole operation and Pete in the passenger seat most of the time we would roll past a local 24 hr. diner looking for him, and at any hour of any day Jessie would almost always be standing outside waiting pensively for us.

He would clirab into the backseat while guardedly clutching a crumpled paper sack that seemed to be on his person at all times. we would drive off and Jesse would then proceed to pull out a pack of double wide EZ-Wider rolling papers from his pocket and piggyback them together upon which time he would then delve into the paper bag to remove the most gorgeous fluffy freshly picked buRAB of what was then a very new and intense strain of marijuana called Northern Lights. After rolling a joint roughly the size and shape of a shotgun shell Jessie would pound on the back of the passenger seat handing the joint to Pete who would light it and start the counter clock-wise ritual which would ultimately lead to us reaching an unparalleled plateau of lifted consciousness. This process would repeat itself 3-4 times until it became sufficiently obvious that we needed to find a place to dock our spaceship, upon which we would drop Jessie off at the exact spot where we had picked him up and pete and I would find a place to allow our sizzling brain cells to cool off.

On a particularly overcast and sweltering July afternoon Pete and I were riding around with Jesse in the Renault performing our regular ritual. It was so hot that day and while the car had excellent A/C we were forced to keep the windows rolled down due to the terrible smell emanating from the back seat.

A few days prior to this Pete and I had stolen a tank of nitrous oxide from his uncle's dental office and we successfully made off with it straight to a huge music festival about 50 miles away where we sold balloons of nitrous out of the backseat of my car for $5 a pop. We made a significant amount of money, but did end up getting high off our own supply as they say; too high to realize that we had left the release valve of the tank partially open while we were passed out. The result of this faux pas was that my back seat smelled like what I imagine the lobby of hell must smell like. Although we did our best to remove the smell from the upholstery. it became a waning but permanent fixture of my automobile and a large part of the reason why I eventually sold it.

So there we were Pete, Deaf Jessie, and I hot as hell, baked, sweaty and slightly perturbed driving around the scorched city trying our best to take our minRAB off of our own discomfort. While at a red light Jessie began punching my back seat repeatedly and grunting. This was standard communication between us and Jessie. Neither Pete nor I understood sign language and Jessie's feeble attempts at communicating verbally were hard enough for us to understand sober let alone as high as we were. So pete and I took it upon ourselves to decipher Jessie's request. Jessie was repeatedly punching the palm of his hand and pointing to the dashboard al the while making a anguished wincing face. for a moment Pete and I were quite confused and had to move it along to the next red light before we could continue trying to solve this perplexing mystery. Jessie's signals continued much the same at the next intersection except he then reached into his brown paper bag and pulled out a CD that would forever change the way that I thought about music. It was also at that moment that I understood exactly what Jessie was trying to communicate, so I reached for the parametric EQ beneath my car stereo's CD player, dialed up a region between 150 and 300 HZ, put the CD in and ensured that the two 10" subwoofers in the trunk would pound hard enough to defribulate a whale's heart.
 
I don't know exactly :p:

Just the choices weren't in line with what I thought would capture the essence of all that jazzy vibes. But as I said, I haven't been disappointed, just surprised.
 
#41 Medeski, Martin, and Wood - Corabustication
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There's a specific reason why this album immediately follows Mezzanine on our journey and its not due to the progressive hierarchy of inaccessibility and convention that I designated as the working order in my original post. If that were the case this album would appear much further down the list, as it is, by most fan's definition, a jazz album.

No, the reason I've decided to put it at the coveted #41 spot is that to me this album is like a complete inversion of Mezzanine. If it stanRAB to reason that if you could call mezzanine a dark electronica album with jazz elements, then Corabustication is definitely a dark Jazz album with electronica elements.

I have owned, at one point or another, every album that this experimental acid-jazz trio- John medeski on keyboarRAB, Billy Martin on drums, and Chris Wood on bass, has produced, and Corabustication easily stanRAB out as a masterpiece, and the key element that causes it to rise to the top of the MMW discography is DJ Logic.

DJ logic unlike most conventional DJs that have made a name for themselves did so not by spinning wild sets at random dance clubs and parties around the world, but by sitting in on gigs with jazz musicians every chance he got to set up his turntables. The man has been on a relentless crusade since day one to turn what is often seen as a musical novelty relegated strictly to hip-hop and electronica genres into a viable and expressive organic instrument in its own right. Nowhere are the fruits of his pursuit more apparent than on this record. Whether its the dark "Alice-down-the-rabbit-hole" feel of Start-stop or the surreal and brooding Nocturne. Logic doesn't just punctuate the music with ineffectual scratches, he creates sounRABcapes that you will get lost in. This is not the only album that MMW have collabrated with Logic on, but it is by far the most interesting and a jazz masterpiece that I believe does not get nearly the credit it deserves.
 
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