Jazz

 

This year I finally rediscovered my love of jazz. This comes after jazz as a genre spent many years in the wilderness in terms of my musical muse. I first heard jazz as a child and remember listening to the Bossa nova of Stan Getz and the gypsy jazz of Stephanne Grappelli and just how amazing that music sounded to me then. But as I entered my teenage years jazz largely disappeared out of my life, as I gravitated towards blues, rock, indie and other styles. In fact I completely went off jazz and remember feeling quite bored by it.

Well that has all changed now and I have fallen back in love with the mastery and mystery that comes with great jazz music and the players who make it. In the last twelve months or so three great jazz musicians in particular have enthralled me and represent some of the best music I have ever heard. Dave Brubeck, John Coltrane, and Miles Davis have captivated me significantly and in particular the albums Time Out (Brubeck), Blue Train (Coltrane), and Kind of Blue (Davis), all of them jazz classics and some of the best albums of all time. Davis is arguably the most influential and important jazz musician of all time and was at the forefront of key developments in jazz from the 1950s to the 80s, helping especially in the development of bebop, cool jazz and jazz fusion. Coltrane was a key player in the development of free jazz and helped to pioneer the use of modes in jazz music, while Brubeck was the pioneer of cool jazz and experimented significantly with unusual time signatures, as well as using contrasting rhythms and tonalities in his music.

To me these people and their compositional abilities, not to mention their abilities on their instruments are the jazz equivalents of Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven. Much like those composers were geniuses in their time, the likes of Davis and Coltrane are the musical geniuses of the 20^th century and had they been around alongside the greats of classical music they would have been right up there with those greats. In many ways jazz is very similar to classical music in that it can be highly sophisticated musically, structurally complex, while the emphasis on composition is at the centre of the jazz process. Not just anyone can compose and play jazz, while the great jazz players are set apart from their peers because of their un-matched genius musically much like the Bach’s of this world.

So what is it about this music and in particular these albums that makes it so amazing. Well for me this music has beauty, beauty in the way the pieces are carefully crafted and constructed with great attention to the smallest details like most great art is. This music is calming and has the ability to relax you completely after a few seconds, helping also to eliminate the stresses of life in one listen. This music has mystery and intrigue in that when you listen to a great Miles Davis track such as “So What”, or Coltrane’s version of “I’m Old Fashioned” you don’t know where it is going to go next and what direction it will head in. Dave Brubeck’s “Blue Rondo a la Turk” starts as a fast paced Middle-Eastern styled piano flourish before developing into a downbeat cool jazz number. It’s this intrigue which makes you want to listen and helps to draw you in even if the piece itself is seventeen minutes long. Finally, for me what makes this music amazing is the strong emphasis placed on improvisation and how jazz players are encouraged to play up a storm and showcase their skill and mastery of their instrument. Players like Coltrane in particular have this incredible ability to freestyle, an ability that is based on intuition, feeling and skill of which the results are incredible and make listening to jazz just that more interesting.

I’m glad I came back to jazz all these years later and I am now probably more into jazz than I ever have been. The great thing about jazz is that anybody can listen to it and get some appreciation out of what they hear. It transcends all ages and all musical tastes, while the enjoyment one can get out of jazz music shouldn’t be restricted by misguided views that its music for old people, or high brow in nature. Jazz is one of the best musical styles and can be enjoyed at all times irrespective of the mood, whether one is feeling down or up. It draws you in and once you’re hooked it becomes very difficult to escape its hold. I tried to but failed and I have a feeling now that that hold will not relinquish any time soon.

 

- Sam

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paul McCartney - Save Us (2013)

Paul McCartney - NEW (2013)

Paul McCartney’s new album “NEW” is his sixteenth solo studio release and his first album of new material in six years. This release sees McCartney trying different things and experimenting a lot more than he has done in recent years both in terms of the recording of the album, as well as the overall sound. What is different about this album is that McCartney used four different producers to help him produce this record, after he initially set out to trial his favourite producers before eventually deciding to use them all. Giles Martin (son of George), Mark Ronson, Ethan Johns, and Paul Epworth all appear on this record helping Paul behind the mixing desk, with their presence being highly noticeable and having a significant impact in the creation of the overall feel and sound of the album.

“NEW” musically speaking is very varied and probably represents McCartney’s most diverse release in years. Although many of the tracks retain a pop/rock feel to them, some of the recordings are not typical of the traditional pop/rock style that has served McCartney well as a solo artist over the years, a style which instead has largely been replaced with a noticeably strong electronic pop sound and some unusual arrangements as well. The presence of four of the best producers in the business has also ensured that all the material whatever the style has a contemporary slickness to it and a heavily produced feel.

As for the material itself, well the album begins with a full on pop-rocker called “Save Us" which contains some Queen-inspired backing vocals in the chorus in what is a highly charged ferocious start to the album. This is followed by the alternative pop of “Alligator” and “On My Way to Work”, both of which are largely in the traditional McCartney mould all be it with a bit of contemporary pop production to spice things up. “Queenie Eye” is another stomping pop-rocker with a very catchy chorus, while “Early Days” an acoustic folk number is one of Paul’s best songs in recent years and captures him in a tender reflective mood as he sings about the pre-Beatle days and in particular his friendship with John Lennon. This is followed by title track “New” which is probably the most Beatles-sounding song on the album, with its psychedelic pop feel resembling “Got to Get You into My Life” and “Penny Lane”. This is definitely one of the standout songs on the album and captures Paul having fun musically with a brilliant acapella doo wop vocal outro. At the latter end of the record Paul returns to the guitar pop/rock which he is most familiar with in the form of “Everybody Out There” and “I Can Bet”, before he really begins to experiment with a more electronic pop sound. Songs such as “Appreciate”, “Road”, and “Looking at Her” are very adventurous in terms of their arrangements and overly produced electronic sound, but unfortunately it is here where this album falls down and begins to lag. I am sure he had the right intent and I applaud him for experimenting and trying new things, but these songs to me represent a bit of a bore considering some of the quality that appears on the first half of the album.

In conclusion then, overall I would say that this album represents a pretty ambitious offering from Paul and I compliment him for mixing it up stylistically when other established acts of a similar ilk would be more likely to stick with a tried and tested formula at this stage of their career. Although the injection of electronic and contemporary pop influences offer mixed results, there are definitely a few songs on here that show Paul at his strongest musically and represent some of his best work in years. Considering he is still recording and touring at age 71, as well as the fact that his last record was an indifferent collection of old standards this album is a pretty good effort. Paul’s attempt on “NEW” to rework his sound to suit a more modern audience, while also his decision to experiment with some more modern influences shows he at least still has plenty of musical ideas to play with, not to mention the energy and desire to turn those ideas into a reality, something that I applaud and marvel at.

B

- Sam

 

 

 

 

Bob Dylan - Pretty Saro (2013)

Bob Dylan - Another Self Portrait (1969-1971) The Bootleg Series Vol. 10 (2013)

Another Self Portrait (1969-1971) is the tenth release in the long running Bob Dylan bootleg series, focussing this time on Dylan’s transitional period between 1969 and 1971 and in particular the albums Self Portrait and New Morning. This two disc compilation has plenty of variety and is made up of a mixture of unreleased recordings, demos, alternative takes, as well as a couple of live performances from Dylan’s 1969 performance at the Isle of White Festival.

What is interesting about this latest bootleg release was the decision to focus on the material recorded around the release of Self Portrait, an album which has garnered its fair shear of critics, and at the time of its release left fans and reviewers confused to say the least. The original album was made up mostly of covers of pop standards and traditional folk songs of varying quality, and contained hardly any new original material from Dylan. The reaction to this was poor despite the album still selling in the millions, with many expecting yet another Dylan masterpiece after his return post his serious motorcycle accident saw him release two of his finest albums John Wesley Harding in 1968 and Nashville Skyline in 1969. The story behind this inconsistent and confusing release is that Dylan had had enough of being in the spotlight and wanted to escape in order to live a normal life. To achieve this he thought that by releasing a sub-standard album people would go off him and his celebrity would die down allowing him to raise his family in peace. In the end this decision ultimately failed and the album still sold well despite receiving a lot of negative press. This album seemingly didn’t do Dylan any favours and simply had the effect of increasing the spotlight around him as people became more expectant for the real Dylan to stand up. So it seems in focussing on the period around Self Portrait on this latest compilation, Columbia Records who produces these official bootleg releases is partaking in an act of music revisionism, going back to an album and period which was initially panned (mostly by critics) and seeing if was actually as bad as made out. In response I can say that after having listened to this compilation, this period of Dylan’s career was not as bad as has been made out and in fact I think that many of these new recordings and alternative takes have done justice to the music Dylan was making at the time.

The recordings on this compilation are very simplistic with minimal production that conveys a very warm homely feel. Most of the tracks on here which are performed in a country and folk style are just Dylan singing and playing acoustic guitar and piano, accompanied only by David Bromberg on lead acoustic. Bromberg is one of the highlights of this compilation with his delicate folk touches and country flourishes really contributing nicely to the recordings and acting as a nice counter to Dylan’s strumming and rhythm playing. In listening to this material although they are all old recordings from 1969 and 1970, many of them sound fresh and new as if they could have been recorded yesterday, while at the same time despite the fact that the majority of this material in its varying forms has not been released until now it feels as if you could have been listening to these recordings for years as they portray a comforting familiarity which feeds the soul. Much of this I put down to how Dylan sounded at this time, with his voice in my opinion sounding at its best during the years between 1968 and 1970. A lot of people were put off by his country croon that he put on at times especially on Nashville Skyline, but I feel this added another dimension to his voice which suited tremendously the music he was beginning to record giving it a richly soft country feel as opposed to his early work where his voice could often could come across as a bit jagged and hard-edged.

Coming in at thirty-five tracks I don’t have enough room to focus on all the material on here, but I will mention some of my favourites from the two discs. “Pretty Saro” is a traditional English folk ballad from the 1700s which was recorded by Dylan for Self Portrait and has until now remained unreleased. It is done in a beautifully simplistic folk style and features one of Dylan’s best vocal performances, a definite highlight on this compilation. “Spanish is the Loving Tongue” is a song which was based on a poem from the early 1900s and was set to music in the 1920s. Here, Dylan’s recording is just him on piano delivering yet again another brilliant vocal performance, showing also that at times he had a mellower vulnerable side to his voice and could sing a love song just as well as a protest anthem. “Time Passes Slowly” is a Dylan original which was originally released on New Morning. This recording is an alternative take that features George Harrison on guitar and backing vocals (one of two tracks that Harrison appears on) and comes across as vastly superior to the original album version of this track. “This Evening So Soon” is another traditional folk song that Dylan makes his own and one where he is accompanied by Broomberg on guitar and Al Kooper on piano. Finally, “Bring Me a Little Water” is another unreleased recording this time from the New Morning sessions which sees Dylan mix it up a bit with something I like to call folk gospel. On this recording Dylan plays piano and sings with a soulful edge to his voice, while being accompanied by some female backing singers in what is one of the best songs on this compilation.  Why this recording was passed over for the original album I don’t know, but I sure am glad we get to hear it now forty-odd years later.

All in all this is a pretty good release and for me does well to somewhat destroy the myth about the Self Portrait period being a dud for Dylan. There is some occasional filler and the odd recording that could have been passed over such as an unreleased Basement Tapes recording which sounds almost inaudible, as well as a version of “All the Tired Horses” from Self Portrait which sounded as bad now as it did then, but if you sift through this there is definitely plenty of worthy material and stuff to capture your interest. I would also not that much like most compilations this is not a coherent consistent release and as a listener you should be prepared to go full circle from one style to the next, with Dylan taking you from folk to country to Americana and back again. This however does not take away from what is an overall highly satisfying and magical compilation which does a great job in highlighting just how wonderful this period was for Dylan musically.

A-

- Sam

 

 

 

 

Led Zeppelin - No Quarter (1973)

Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy (1973)

Released in 1973, Houses of the Holy was the fifth studio release by Led Zeppelin and in many ways was quite a significant moment in the history of the band. It was on this album when Led Zeppelin began to branch out musically and explore other musical sounds, as up until that point they had pretty much stuck within the confines of blues, hard rock and a bit of folk thrown in for good measure. On Houses of the Holy there is still hard rock and there is still folk, but there is also funk, reggae, progressive rock and even an eastern inspired song, with the band spreading their wings stylistically and experimenting with whatever they thought sounded good. Along with this somewhat change of direction musically, the band were also beginning to incorporate new production techniques into their recording which helped to evolve their sound more. Jimmy Page’s guitar playing for one on this album is more layered and less bluesy, while in keeping with the technological advances of the early-70s, keyboards and a mellotron also make an appearance. This combination of new styles and new sounds helped to make Houses of the Holy a completely different beast from the bands previous release, the classic Led Zeppelin IV. But despite this change in direction the results were just as good, all be it in a different way.

The album starts with fast-paced rocker “The Song Remains the Same”, a song which sounds more progressive than their previous work and contains heavy layers of multi-tracked guitar. This is followed by “The Rain Song” which is a progressive folk ballad that features a mellotron providing the orchestral baroque effects. This song was probably the furthest removed from Led Zeppelin’s traditional sound up until that point and was definitely a radical departure for the band at the time.  “Over the Hills and Far Away” is a folk rock track which starts with an acoustic folk section before transforming into a heavy guitar track much like one of their earlier songs “Ramble On”. This song highlights well how much the band was developing as songwriters, with many of their songs now beginning to feature different sounding sections as well as multiple genres.  

The middle of the album is where they really begin to mix it up stylistically, starting with “The Crunge”, a funk rock track that is a play on James Brown’s style of funk. As a track it is more a studio experiment rather than a complete song, and contains no bridge or chorus, something which Robert Plant is keen to point out in a tongue and cheek way at the end of the song. For me this is the weakest track on the album and I’m not sure whether their foray into funk was a good idea. They have better success in their stylistic experimentation on the next two tracks, firstly on “Dancing Days” which has a Middle Eastern feel to it, especially in the exotic guitar riff that makes the song sound so good. “Dancing Days” was actually inspired by an Indian tune which Robert Plant and Jimmy Page had heard in Bombay, an inspiration which can clearly be heard throughout the song and that gives it what I would describe as quite a hypnotic-like feel. They take their stylistic experimentation further on “D’yer Mak’er”, a reggae influenced track with a reggae drum beat and guitar riff. The title of the song is even a play on the word Jamaica leaving no doubt as to where the influence for this song came from.

The album concludes in explosive fashion with two of the better tracks on the album.
No Quarter” is a mellow progressive rock track which features John Paul Jones talent on the keyboards, something which in most unlike Led Zeppelin fashion dominates this song. This song more than any also highlights the changes the band was making in terms of song production, with studio effects and trickery featuring strongly. Things such as a compressed guitar track, as well as the use of the theremin and a moog synthesizer gives this track a magical quality and ensures it is one of the album’s standouts, as well as being one of the bands best songs. Finally, the album closes with heavy rocker “The Ocean”; a track which works well as an album closer with its heavy guitar and drum sound. This track also has the effect of reassuring the listener that the band still had the ability to rock out when they wanted to.

Although Houses of the Holy was a huge success commercially on its release, its critical reception was mixed, which leads me to believe that maybe the music press didn’t really know what to make of a traditional rock band playing reggae and funk. However, as time has passed it has generally held up quite well and has been acknowledged as a pivotal release in the bands career. In summing up I firmly believe Houses of the Holy is one of Led Zeppelin’s greatest albums and certainly is one of their most diverse musically. What this album showed was that this band was full of great musical ideas and that they were not just one trick blues rockers, while highlighting also their prowess as songwriters especially in their ability to mix up songs with different sections, tempos and rhythms. If you want to see how Led Zeppelin developed musically in the mid-70s Houses of the Holy would be the place to start, while if you ever thought that they were just a plain and simple hard rock band then this album I am sure will help to change your mind. Houses of the Holy for me is experimental and eclectic; it is full of magic, surprise and intrigue and captures strongly everything good about Led Zeppelin.

A

- Sam

 

 

The Stone Roses - I Am The Resurrection (1989)

The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses (1989)

If there was ever one album that came to single-handedly define a band it was this one, the self-titled debut album by Manchester quartet the Stone Roses. Released in 1989, not only would this album define the band’s sound, as well as enshrine their legacy, but it would also help to kick start indie guitar rock in the UK and go on to influence an entire generation of bands in the process.

Coming out of the popular Madchester scene, a scene which led to the growth of a style of music which mixed together elements of psychedelic rock, alternative rock and dance music, The Stone Roses album was based on a template of The Byrds meets rave culture, with the sound of this album an eclectic combination of 60s melodies and harmony, 80s jangly guitar and dance music. This album is arguably the best representation of Madchester as a style of music, with the individual talents of the band members and their abilities as players ensuring that the mixture of indie rock and dance worked well together. Guitarist John Squire is amazing at what he does and can change his style of playing between a more classic Hendrix rock sound to a more feel-based percussive-like playing. His jangly guitar contributes in a big way to the bands overall sound, while his use of phasing and echo helps to give a lot of the material on this album that dance-like feel. Bass player Mani has groove to burn, with his R&B and soul influences helping give the material a dance feel and an overall grove that holds everything together, while drummer Reni has an amazing feel for rhythm and timing to the point that at times his precision-like playing even sounds like a dance sample. Quite simply it is these three guys which make singer Ian Brown’s job so much easier, so much that he only really needs to serve the needs of the song without stretching too much vocally, with his backing band doing enough as it is in helping create what is almost a sonic-sphere of melody, harmony and rhythm.

The Stone Roses is one of those albums where it is quite hard to find a dud song, and as an album it is pretty much perfect from track one all the way through. Album opener “I Wanna Be Adored” is an enchanting atmospheric psychedelic number highlighted by a Middle Eastern styled pentatonic riff by John Squire. This is followed by “She Bangs the Drums” an indie anthem like no other, and “Waterfall” with that instantly recognisable guitar riff that chimes along throughout the song. If I was going to be picky, a couple of tracks in the middle of the album such as anti-monarchy folk pastiche “Elizabeth My Dear” and a backwards recording of Waterfall “Don’t Stop” don’t add anything to the album and could have been overlooked for something else, but what they do, do is set up nicely the run home in what surely represents one of the greatest run of songs to end an album ever.

The ending sequence starts with “Made of Stone”, a guitar heavy psychedelic indie swirl which features an electrifying solo from Squire and moves on to “Shoot You Down”, a slower number with a prominent bass line, bright guitar flourishes, and some of the most amazing harmony singing that sucks you in completely whilst giving a new definition to the phrase music to my ears. This then leads into the final two tracks, the jangle guitar infused “This is the One” and the epic finale “I Am the Resurrection”. “I Am the Resurrection” is the bands masterpiece and probably their most definitive musical statement, while as a track it is a perfect example of what the Madchester sound is all about stylistically. At eight minutes in length, the song starts as a straightforward indie rock song before at around the four minute mark transforming into a dance-rock track complete with a dance drum beat and funky bass riff. The rhythm section combines brilliantly with Squires infectious guitar licks to create one of the more original songs on the album and one of the best ever album outro’s in rock history. In marking a point where indie rock meets acid house, “I Am the Resurrection” is nothing short of being a truly brilliant ending to a fantastic album.

This album to me represents the perfect album. It is one of those albums which stand out from the really good albums and one which deserves a place under the category of amazing albums. This is also seen in how it seems not a year goes by where this album does not appear in a list of the greatest albums of all time in a music magazine or on a music web page. Its eclectic mix of indie rock, psychedelia, Beatles harmonies and dance music works so well together, while the songs themselves just ooze melody and rhythm. The band got it so spot on with this first release that they really needn’t have made another album, as it is this album and its melodically rhythmic nature which has come to define The Stone Roses and their sound. The Stone Roses is the perfect album for summer and is a great album to chill out to with a beer in the sun. I couldn’t recommend it anymore strongly, especially for those into indie rock, acid house, and classic 60s guitar rock. It will not disappoint, and I am pretty sure that after several listens you will become hooked just like me and millions of others have been.

A+

- Sam