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Bozo Mark's Hot Pix In The CD Player
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It's probably been over a year since I last listed any new CD pix herein. As I explain elsewhere on this site, my webmaster and I parted ways and it's taken me this long - again, big thanks to Mike Diehl! - to figure out how to do this stuff myself. But I'm back in the saddle, and I've got a ton of things to recommend...so, what I'm going to do is touch on everything that's gotten me excited musically in the last year, and I'm going to do it in three separate categories: Beatles Tribute Albums, Other Interesting Current Stuff, and Oldies But Goodies. Have fun, and I hope you find something that interests you...
| 1. Beatles Tribute Albums |
I wandered onto Amazon.com early one morning when I couldn't sleep, and I did a search for Beatles tribute albums. Most of these popped up then, and I'd recommend going online if you want to find any of them.
The Beatles In Bossa Nova (Movieplay Brasil) is the Brazilian Tropical Orchestra, and pretty much what one might expect - almost Muzak instrumental versions of the standard tribute repertoire...but somehow this speaks to me. Maybe it's the combination of songs I love with a style that I love, but this is worth a listen.
Paul Schwartz's Revolution (Astor Place Recordings) is a concept that's been used before - using Beatles songs as themes for classical music. However, three things make this better than some of the others: a) Schwartz works with a chamber music instrumentation (from five to eleven pieces, often interesting combinations of strings and woodwinds) than the usual full orchestra, b) the pieces are neatly organized as a Baroque-styled dance suite, and c) some of the songs are far from the usual well-beaten covers path, i.e., "Across The Universe", "I Want You", and "Revolution". Recommended.
The Lennon/McCartney Songbook, Vol. 1 & 2 (Warner Music Japan) is a compilation collection, and I appreciate the intelligence that went into the package. One disc is all black artists, the other white. The cover art features the silhouettes from Help, but they only use John and Paul - great touch, that. All styles of music are represented, from jazz to pop to bluegrass to soul and country. There is some dreck, of course (Ella Fitzgerald's "Got To Get You Into My Life" is a particular howler), but out of twenty tunes per volume I find thirteen and fourteen that I have marked worthy of a hearing, and I tend to program my player to spiral between the two discs for a great listening session.
Here Comes...el Son (Panama Music & Screenworks), Mellow Dubmarine (Snapper), Here Comes The Sun (Madacy), and Caribbean Steeldrums - Popular Beatles Songs (ARC) are all from the Caribbean. The first is Cuban, the second and third are reggae, and the last is self-explanatory. All of this music is great, and highly recommended. (As a side-note, Here Comes The Sun is part of a tribute series called Reggae Rocks, and I liked this Fab Four one so much that I also bought the Dylan and The Rolling Stones editions.)
The Beatles Gregorian Songbook (Experience) is the weirdest tribute album here, the strangest one I've heard in some time, and it is in many ways the most satisfying. Take the melodies, slow them waaaaaaaaaayyyyy down, add a decorative vocal flourish here and there, and you end up with one very cool - and very relaxing - CD. This is probably my overall favorite of all these.
The Persuasions Sing The Beatles (Chesky) is an okay set, but following as it does their terrific Zappa and especially the Grateful Dead tribute CDs, this is a little bit disappointing...and I'm not exactly sure why. Perhaps it's the minimal surprises in song choice (only "The Ballad Of John And Yoko"), or that no arrangements catch your ear in that totally unexpected way. This is a good collection of doowop Beatles, but not more than that.
The Blues White Album (Telarc), on the other hand, is simple and terrific. Take a bunch of blues guys (and one gal) and turn 'em loose on The White Album. This is a good one.
On Let It Be Jazz (Minnehaha), Connie Evingson takes on The Beatles. With the help of keyboardist/arranger Mary Louise Knutson, she chooses less-often-used songs, and does some very, very cool things with the material. For instance, the opening track "Blackbird" manages to combine McCartney's song with Harrison's "Within You Without You" and Miles Davis's "All Blues"...very hip. Recommended.
Also see the Fab Four Tribute Album page
| 2. Other Interesting Current Stuff |
In alphabetical order...Squeezebox - Accordian Music From Around The World (Ellipsis) is much, much cooler than I would have imagined, especially the left of center stuff - jazz, blues, and third world stuff. It's About Time (Big World) is by Othello Molineaux, the steel drummer who played with Monty Alexander (which is why he's up here with the A's) and Jaco Pastorius, and if you think steel drums is for Caribbean music, you haven't heard Othello swing, rock, and bebop. David Baerwald's Here Comes The New Folk Underground (Lost Highway) is a welcome return; after retreating into penning songs for soundtracks, Baerwald's caustic sentimentality is just what we need today in Dubya's world. On Looking For America (ECM), Carla Bley uses her big band to explore the national anthem, traffic patterns south of the border, and "Old MacDonald Had A Farm" - unbelievably funny and soooo musical! Mambo Sinuendo (Nonesuch) reunites Ry Cooder and Cuba, specifically guitarist Manuel Galban - the results sound like what the Ventures might have come up with had they formed in a Havana garage. The Art Of Being A Girl (Water Music) demonstrates what Julee Cruise can do without either David Lynch or Angelo Badalamenti, and it is very, very hip. Dr. John returns (after his Ellington tribute) to his original gumbo with Creole Moon (Blue Note), and he stirs up his usually terrific funky brew, spiced with great horn charts by my man Fred Wesley.
More Cuban music from Charlie Haden on Nocturne (Verve), which is a beautifully moody set featuring pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba. With Crossing Muddy Waters (Vanguard), John Hiatt delivers one of his most perfect albums, with songs that sound like lost traditional American folk songs and a spare acoustic instrumentation that complements them perfectly. Bobby McFerrin has always been into jazz, but on Beyond Words (Blue Note) he finally goes the distance, as he functions like a horn with both vocalese and scatting, most often with Chick Corea on piano. The third volume of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Will The Circle Be Unbroken is another great mixture of the old (Johnny Cash, Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs, Jimmy Martin, Willie Nelson, Vassar Clements) and the new (Iris Dement, Tom Petty, Taj Mahal, Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, Vince Gill, Dwight Yoakum). Buy Carlos Santana's box set Dance Of The Rainbow Serpent (Columbia), skip all the new-age airy-fairy vocal tunes, and you're left with a couple hours of great guitar - I'm often reminded of Zappa during much of it. I saw Anoushka Shankar on her father's farewell tour, and it was one of the top five concerts of my life; check her out on Anourag and Live At Carnegie Hall (both Angel) - she has so much more to offer than her sister, the dread Norah Jones.
So after a 20-year wait between Gaucho and Two Against Nature, Steely Dan only takes two years to deliver Everything Must Go (Reprise), instantly classic stuff from Donald and Walter, especially "Things I Miss The Most" - keep up the good work, boys! My friend Brad turned me onto They Might Be Giants, with Lincoln (Bar None) and Flood (Electra), and I really dig their marriage of the gloomiest lyrics to the peppiest tunes - and don't miss their great documentary, Gigantic. Dreams Fly Away (Rykodisc) is a wonderful retrospective of Linda Thompson's career, both with and without ex-husband Richard, and Fashionably Late (Rounder) is a lovely return to form after a 17-year hiatus. And for you Zappa freaks...Zappatistas - Live At Leeds (Jazzprint) is a cool Roxy-era-styled band (three horns, guitar, keyboards, bass, drums, and Ruth-like percussion) doing primarily instrumental versions of some of Frank's best. Finally, Corrie van Binsbergen is a cute little girl from Amsterdam who sounds so much like Zappa (both as a musician and a composer) that it's really really scary - you might have to do some searching to find her albums, but it will be well worth the effort.
| 3. Oldies But Goodies |
I went nuts in the last couple months, buying tons of stuff that I either had on LPs but had never gotten on CD, or just wanted to have in my collection. Lots of Best Of collections, plus some of what I considered essential albums. Here's an alphabetical list, from the sublime to the ridiculous, of the sum total of my musical influences...
ABBA, Allman Brothers, The Band, The Beach Boys, The Bee Gees
(The story of the Bee Gee's Greatest Hits, the beginning. I wanted this terrific Bee Gee's collection, a two-CD set with all their hits from the 60's to the present. I ordered it...waited...and waited. It never came. I emailed the dealer. No reply. I had to wait 30 days to file a claim. I waited. I filed. It would be 3-5 weeks of investigation. I got impatient. I ordered it again from somebody else. It came. Hooray! I opened it up. It was the wrong greatest hits, with only their 70's stuff. I sent it back. Got a credit to my account. I ordered it again from somebody else. I waited. It was out of stock. I got a credit to my account. (Amazon bills you immediately.) I ordered it again from somebody else. It came! Hooray! I opened it up. It was the right one! Hooray! I put the first CD on and heard "New York Mining Disaster". Hooray! I enjoyed all the great songs on disc one. I eagerly put on disc two. I heard - that's right, you guessed right! - "New York Mining Disaster". I had two disc ones. Arrgh! I sent it back. I got a credit on my account. I priced it new in town. It was easily seven bucks more than online. I ordered it from somebody else. It came. I opened it. It had a disc one and a disc two. Both played great. Finally. Worth waiting for (?). The story of the Bee Gee's Greatest Hits, the end.),
The B-52s, Blood Sweat & Tears (albums 2, 3, &4...I already had the first, Al Kooper one), Jackson Brown (1, 3, and 5), Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well And Living In Paris, The Buckinghams (!), The Captain & Tennille (!!), Chad & Jeremy (!!! - but their Of Cabbages And Kings is one of the greatest concept albums ever...trust me!), Elvis Costello (1 & 3), Marshall Crenshaw (the1st one - the only one you need, a perfect pop album), CSN(&Y) (1 & 2), The Eagles (the two greatest hits, plus Desperado and On The Border, their best albums), Fleetwood Mac (the last two with Danny Kirwan and the first two with Buckingham/Nicks), Steve Goodman (the No Big Surprise anthology and Jessie's Jig & Other Favorites), The Grateful Dead (Workingman's Dead, American Beauty, and Mars Hotel), Richard Harris (the two Jimmy Webb CDs, now available on one disc), Don Henley (1st three), Herman's Hermits, The Jackson Five, Billy Joel, Elton John, Kid Creole & The Coconuts (1st four), KC & The Sunshine Band,
The Lovin' Spoonful, The Mamas & The Papas, The Monkees, Wes Montgomery (last three, on A&M), Nilsson (The Point, Nilsson Schmilsson, Son Of Schmilsson, and As Time Goes By, aka A Touch Of Schmilsson In The Night), The Police, Billy Preston, Bonnie Raitt (2 & 3), The Roches (1st three), Simon (1st five) & Garfunkel (1, 2, & 4), John David Souther (1, 2, 3, & 5 plus the two Souther/Hillman/Furay Band CDs - I skip the Hillman and Furay songs), Cat Stevens, (1st two), Rod Stewart (all the great Mercury albums on three CDs), James Taylor (Greatest and JT), 10cc (2 & 3), The Turtles (Greatest and The Battle Of The Bands - another of the greatest concept albums...trust me), Jennifer Warnes (1st and Famous Blue Raincoat), Steve Winwood, and, last but certainly not least, Stevie Wonder (Innervisions, Fulfillingness' First Finale, & Songs In The Key Of Life). Whew!
Former "Hot Pix In The CD Player" Lists
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