TV's Ralph Malph steps through the screen and tiptoes onto the record chart To a large extent, actor Donny Most's 1976 solo album is the archtypical celebrity cash-in. Though no stranger to music - Most had played in Catskills bands as a teenager - his shot at pop stardom was entirely the product of a staring role on Happy Days and the show's #1 rating. His label secured performing slots on Dinah, Mike Douglas and American Bandstand, but even Happy Days fever could only push the sugary pop single "All Roads (Lead [...]
A power-pop true-believer keeps plugging away Tommy Keene might have more aptly titled his latest release "One Man's Parade," as he's not so much following in anyone's footsteps as he's resolutely sticking to his own path. Those who first latched onto Keene through college radio play of his superb 1984 EP Places That Are Gone may be wondering where he'd gone, but long after the EP's incandescent closing cover of Alex Chilton's "Hey! Little Child" faded, Keene was still making records. Good records. Good records filled with sweet [...]
An 85-year-old blues legend burns up the stage Born in 1895, and having been an early blues innovator in the 1920s, Alberta Hunter became a living link to the jazz-age, and stars like Bessie Smith, Paul Robeson and Ma Rainey. In the late '50s she started a second career as a nurse, and mostly retired from music, but by the mid-70s she'd been lured back to live performance. In 1981 she recorded this live set at a New York cabaret called The Cookery. At 85, Hunter was still sharp-as-a-tack; not sharp for an 85-year-old, [...]
Jazz genius entertains listeners as he entertains himself Having finely gained fame as a pianist with his recordings on Riverside, Monk took this 1959 timeout from leading group dates to lay down an album of solo sides. Recorded in San Francisco's resonant Fugazi Hall (a spot popular with the Beats, and more recently home to the long-running Beach Blanket Babylon ), Monk revisited several of his own classics, as well as several standards. The pianist seems relaxed and playful, entertaining himself as much as playing for the record's eventual [...]
Joyful 1961 sessions of jazz legends Adderley and Evans This 1961 session, pairing saxophonist Cannonball Adderley and pianist Bill Evans has several interesting dimensions. Adderley and Evans, having played together as part of the 1958 Miles Davis Sextet, were familiar with one another, but initially only as sidemen. Evans had supported Adderley in a quintet setting, on 1958's Portrait of Cannonball , and here they play in a quartet setting with the Modern Jazz Quartet's Percy Heath on bass and Connie Kay on drums. Without a second horn in [...]
Texas-to-Los Angeles transplant carries a torch for classic country When we last heard from Lynda Kay, she was paired with Danny Harvey as the Lonesome Spurs, a minimalist duo whose self-titled release favored the sassy sounds of Wanda Jackson, Laurie Collins and Brenda Lee, and the melancholy country of Patsy Cline. Kay's solo debut doubles-down on the countrypolitan heartbreak, torching its way through a dozen originals that combine the soaring ache of Cline and Roy Orbison with the deliberate tempos, hard twang and sad instrumental flourishes of '50s and '60s country. Kay's [...]
Miranda Lambert shacks up with two girlfriends With Miranda Lambert having developed a reputation as "a bit of a rocker chick," her new trio with Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley provides an opportunity to indulge more of her East Texas country roots. The trio harmonizes in tight, veering lines that recall the Andrews Sisters, and trade opportunities to write and sing lead. Signed to Columbia, the production has Nashville production quality, but the backings include steel and acoustic guitar, and only occasionally venture into the contemporary country mold. The trio sings gritty songs of [...]
Jazz organist lights up Impulse in '63 and '64 After a six-year stay at Prestige, jazz organist Shirley Scott began a lengthy run of albums on Impulse! This two-fer brings together her first two albums for the label, 1963's For Members Only and 1964's Great Scott!! Each album splits its tracks between Scott's regular trio setting (variously featuring rhythms by Earl May/Jimmy Cobb and Bob Cranshaw/Otis Finch) and arrangements written and conducted by Oliver Nelson. Scott's Hammond fits well into each setting, leading the trio with terrific energy and verve, [...]
Hypnotic and forceful 1967 two-fer from legendary jazz guitarist After emigrating from Budapest in the mid-50s, Hungarian guitarist Gabor Szabo found his way into the U.S. jazz scene, first with Chico Hamilton, and starting in 1966 as a group leader. These two 1967 live albums come from the middle of a productive two-year stay on Impulse!, and collect performances from an April run at Boston's Jazz Workshop and a September date at the Monterey Jazz Festival. Szabo plays in a quintet of guitar, bass, drums and percussion. The song list mixes originals from Szabo [...]
McCartney's first post-Wings solo album A year before Wings officially disbanded in 1981, Paul McCartney followed the same path he'd trod as the Beatles fell apart in 1969: he retreated to the studio to record an album all by himself. Much like 1970's McCartney , McCartney II was an outlet for ideas that might not have fit his band, and an opportunity for the artist to explore more contemporary sounds. The results weren't as organic as the earlier solo album, often leaping ahead from Wings to contemporary [...]
60s/70s country hit maker takes a well-turned bow Country hit maker Connie Smith first broke through in the mid-60s, scoring a chart-topper with her debut "Once a Day," winning numerous awards and scoring on the charts through the end of the '70s. She mostly retired from recording in 1979, continuing to perform live, dropping a few non-LP singles in the mid-80s and a self-titled album in 1998. It's been thirteen years since that last full-length solo release, and as before, with no mainstream commercial aspirations to sway her artistry, she digs into a rich [...]
Coming on October 18th is a box set that many Phil Spector fans have been waiting for. The seven-disc set will include six original albums from Spector's Philles label: The Crystals Twist Uptown (The Crystals, 1962) He's a Rebel (The Crystals, 1963) Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah (Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, 1963) The Crystals Sing the Greatest Hits, Volume 1 (The Crystals, 1963) Philles Records Presents Today's Hits (Various, 1963) Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica (The Ronettes, 1964) and a bonus disc, [...]
Heavy guitar rock that echoes the James Gang You wouldn't be alone in thinking this Cincinnati band's third album was a long-lost James Gang platter. Not only is the band a power trio, but the vocals have the same keening tone Joe Walsh brought to "Walk Away," and the band's rhythm section finds the sorts of grooves once laid down in "Funk #49." All of which isn't meant to suggest that the Buffalo Killers are a carbon copy, but that their music is anchored unapologetically in the rock (not rock 'n' roll) music of [...]
Candye Kane and Laura Chavez tear up the blues Kane's first album after beating pancreatic cancer, 2009's Superhero , was rightly built on themes from the fight. This follow-up release extends the recovery, but more by doubling-down on the blues belting career she had before, than by living some sort of hyperaware second chapter. There's a pleasure in her singing that's perhaps a step more ferocious than before, expressing George Herbert's notion that living well is the best revenge, or in this case, the greatest triumph. But the scars [...]
Seminal power pop band live in 1978 Originally released as part of the omnibus box set Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Rubinoos , the band has released this period live performance on its own for separate download. Taped at London's Hammersmith Odeon on April 1, 1978, the concert shows off the band's stellar harmony singing, tight guitar rock, super-tuneful songs and broad stage humor. Jon Rubin's voice (which still sounds great today) is d-r-e-a-m-y, Tommy Dunbar shows off his killer guitar skills, and the band's rhythm [...]
As great as was everything Matthew Sweet gave to his third album, Girlfriend , what turned it up to eleven was the twin guitars Richard Lloyd and the late Robert Quine. Here's a vintage live performance of the album's title track, with Quine's unassuming appearance matched by the utter ferocity of his guitar playing.
Rocking alt.country from the heart of Long Island, NY This Long Island trio dropped a few demo tracks in 2009 (reviewed here ), promoting the catchy "One More Time" into a single and attracting some local attention. They've returned with a full album that leans on both their alt.country and rock roots. The Wilco influence is strong (unsurprising, given the band is named after one of Wilco's lyrical creations), and Pete Mancini's voice favors the reediness of Jeff Tweedy; but there's also a melancholy in his delivery that suggests Chris Bell, and a [...]
The simple pleasure of classic folk music If you grew amidst the 1960s folk revival, you may well remember a favorite Pete Seeger, Burl Ives or Johnny Cash record of great American folk songs. You might have been schooled by the Dillards (in the guise of the Darling Family) on The Andy Griffith Show , had parents who sang these songs as you drifted off to sleep, sang folk songs at camp or had a progressive grade school teacher who introduced these songs at music time. But it's probably [...]
The simple pleasure of classic folk music If you grew amidst the 1960s folk revival, you may well remember a favorite Pete Seeger, Burl Ives or Johnny Cash record of great American folk songs. You might have been schooled by the Dillards (in the guise of the Darling Family) on The Andy Griffith Show , had parents who sang these songs as you drifted off to sleep, sang folk songs at camp or had a progressive grade school teacher who introduced these songs at music time. But it's probably [...]
Word from Oakland, California is that the Shants (whose earlier Russian River Songs was reviewed here ) will release their first full-length album, Beautiful Was the Night , in September. There's a release party scheduled for Viracocha (998 Valencia St., San Francisco) on October 8, for those of you in the Bay Area. The band writes: The album is called Beautiful Was The Night (which is a phrase taken from Longfellow's epic poem Evangeline ). It was recorded in Oakland at Rec Center Studios and Tones [...]
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