dat@hpcnoa.UUCP (dat) (06/08/85)
Record Reviews
List of musicians reviewed in this (long) article;
Jazz : Count Basie, Darol Anger/Barbara Higbie, Kate Bush,
Chick Corea, Paco De Lucia and Dave Grisman.
Electronic : Tim Story, Bernard Krause, Steve Roach,
Tangerine Dream and Kitaro.
Pop : Cat Stevens, Dan Fogelberg, Donald Fagin,
Roger Hodgson and Steve Morse.
Some record reviews....three categories - Jazz, Electronic and
Pop...The final rating is one to five stars, where five stars is a
must-own and one star is 'barely worth the use of vinyl'. Note also
that these albums are not necessarily super recent or anything, just
stuff that I've listened to in the past week or so...
First off, Jazz albums;
Count Basie, "On The Road", Pablo Today jazz series
This is a good example of Basie music, and, with
the exception of being pressed on red vinyl (I have NO
idea why!) is also a decent recording. My personal favorites
on the album are 'Blues for Stephanie' and 'In a Mellow Tone'.
Good music from the 'mellow' big band era, but not the best
Basie music I've ever heard.
***
Darol Anger, Barbara Higbie Quartet - "Live at Montreux", Windham Hill
Another fine album from WH, this one is a good
sample of the crossover of classical, jazz, and traditional
ethnic musical forms (this particular album features a lot
of Indian music, as does the Shadowfax album "Shadowdance")
and is engineered as carefully as the other WH offerings.
(For a live album it is actually amazingly well recorded!!)
The music itself is very tranquil and enjoyable, and the
musicians are not only individually competent, but also
play exceedingly well as a quartet.
****
Kate Bush, "Never For Ever", EMI
Wow! Kate Bush is one heck of a wonderful singer!
Of all the music that I have, when I am in the mood for some
good music with top vocals I either pull out some Jarreau or
this album! For those of you who haven't yet heard anything
by Ms. Bush, you owe it to yourselves to buy this album and
give it a few plays. The musical quality is excellent, and
the vocals are not only wonderful and sweet but the topics
that Kate are singing about are not quite as throwaway as the
first hearing indicates. One of my favorite tracks on the
album, and one that really shows off Kates' voice, is 'Egypt',
a song about the dichotomy between the grandeur of ancient
Egypt and the poverty and terrible living conditions of the
modern day Egyptians.
***** (a definite must-own!)
Chick Corea, "Childrens' Songs", ECM
Chick Corea has a fascination as a piano player for
me - he wanders about a melody exploring all it's aspects
and sometimes hits a wonderous point in music which literally
takes my breath away. This particular album is a fine example
of Chicks' work and, in the framework of one to three minute
'songs' he manages to leave some of the more memorable melodies
I've heard in many years dancing through my mind...As is no
suprise with ECM, the recording quality is superb, and the
album is in a plastic (NOT paper) cover. Be warned, though,
it is all solo piano and no song is more than about three
minutes long, so it is a bit of a frustration in that a
nice melody just gets started and boom! onto the next song...
****
Paco De Lucia, "Entre Dos Aguas", Phillips (Spain)
Paco De Lucia is one of the most talented guitar
players on the current Jazz circuit (and certainly more
musical for my ears than the DiMeola school of playing!)
and this album is a wonderful slice of Spanish Flamenco
slightly Westernized (ie no strange men wailing in the
background). It brings back memories of the terrific
Spanish version of the play "Carmen" where Paco was the
guitar player for the Flamenco dance company...
The recording quality is fairly mediocre, alas, and the
quality of the pressing itself isn't too good, but the
music manages to come through all that intact!
****
Dave Grisman, "Mondo Mando", Warner Bros.
When I first heard this cross-over of bluegrass
and jazz I was a bit confused - I mean, who's ever heard
of a Jazz mandolin? After a few listenings, though, I
got hooked. This particular album, of all the Grisman
albums that I own, is probably the best. The music is
just incredibly upbeat and lively. You literally have
to hear this music to believe it!
The recording quality is so-so, though - I'm not too
impressed with Warner as a label.
****
<enough Jazz for now!>
Electronic music;
Tim Story, "in another country", Uniton Records
Tim is a pianist, synthesizer player with a flair
for the melody and music rather than a flair for programming
strange noises, and his albums (the other that I know of
and own is "Untitled") tend to be lovely mellow music, where
the synthesizer is used as a backup melody for the piano
on most tracks. "in another country" is leaning more toward
the Kitaro school of synthesizers, where a lush tropical
jungle of melodies compete for your attention, but even with
this bringing of the synthesizers to the forefront of the
listeners attention, the album is still very listenable.
The recording is very well done and in fact I actually realized
about half way through the first side how clean and well
recorded the album was! (ie it was VERY well done)
**** 1/2
Bernard Krause, "The New Nonesuch Guide to Electronic Music"
They say that the best things are in the strangest
places, and I guess that this album is another example of
this cliche'. The first track on the album, 'Once Below a Time',
is one of the most intriguing pieces of electronic music that
I have ever heard! The rest of the album is interesting in an
academic sort of way (ie here's this melody with a sine-wave
generator...now let's here it again with two slightly mistuned...
and now three, one three octaves below the other two...etc)
The recording quality is hard to gauge since I got the album
from the Public Library and it is, as might be suspected, very
mangled. I don't think that the first track warrants purchasing
the album, but if you have a chance to hear it, go for it!
**** for the first track
** for the entire album
Steve Roach, "Structures from Silence", Fortuna Records
This album consists of three tracks, "Reflections
in Suspension", "Quiet Friend", and "Structures from Silence",
and comprise one of the most tranquil albums I own. The
music is perfect for relaxing to ... very slow and very
mellow. The recording quality is quite good, but it's a
bit hard to tell since there isn't really a great deal of
dynamic range in the album! Of the three tracks, I prefer
'Reflections in Suspension'...
****
Tangerine Dream, "Richochet"
I recorded this album off the radio without really
listening to it, and afterwards when I did was pleasantly
suprised to hear a really good TD effort. A recent trend
with TD has been to get more noisy and less musical
(*** personal opinion ***) and this album does much to
offset the trend. It is very musical and a good listenable
album from a couple of guys (I think) that really know
their synths!
*** 1/2
Kitaro, "Silk Road I", Gramavision records (Japan)
I couldn't possibly have a list of record reviews
of Electronic music without adding one of my personal
favorites - Kitaro. "Silk Road I" is one of his best
albums, and manages to skillfully intertwine the melodies
and harmonies of more traditional music and emotions with
the lush electronic sounds of the synthesizers. For those
poised to start listening to Kitaro I would recommend this
as one of the better albums available.
The engineering and recording are well done, but nothing too
awe inspiring.
*** 1/2
Pop; (** no flames on the section heading please! **)
Cat Stevens, "Teaser and the Firecat", A&M
With the exception of my dream to own the
soundtrack to 'Harold and Maude' (anyone else seen this
wonderful film?) this particular album is probably my
favorite Cat Stevens album. It is loaded with such
terrific songs as 'Rubylove', 'How Can I Tell You',
'Morning has broken', 'Moonshadow' and on and on).
If you like Cat Stevens you must own this album...
no two ways about it!
*****
Dan Fogelberg, "Windows and Walls", Epic
While Dan is usually a mellow guy with some
worthwhile things to say, this album I found unusually
melancholy and depressing. 'Tucson Arizona (Gazette)'
is probably one of the single saddest songs I've ever
listened to...
The album is really good if you are in a mellow mood,
but I am afraid that I find Dans' other works to be a
bit more enjoyable in that I don't feel like crawling
under a rock and weeping my eyes out after listening to
them!
***
Donald Fagin, "The Nightfly", Warner
Ex-Steely Dan member Donald Fagin has created one
of the most listenable pop albums in years with an album
loosely tied about his memories of childhood growing up
in the Florida area. Really great music if you like the
Steely Dan sound (and even if you don't!).
****
Roger Hodgson, "In the Eye of the Storm", A&M
Roger is one of the members of Supertramp, and if
the lack of credits on the album means what I think it means
(that he played all the instruments) then I really wonder
what the point of the other musicians in Supertramp are!
This album is definitely a Supertramp-sounding album, and
is at least as good as "Even in the Quietest Moments" one
of the best Supertramp LPs. The songs are just super, and
they all are memorable danceable and generally bounce-about-
the-house-singing-along tunes! The ones that immediately
leap to mind as terrific are 'Give me Love/Give me Life'
and 'Only Because of You' (reminiscent of 'Child of Vision'
from "Breakfast in America"). If you like Supertramp
rush out and buy this album!!!
*****
The Steve Morse Band, "The Introduction", Elektra Musician
I heard Steve Morse play acoustic guitar at a
(Jazz guitar) concert I went to last year in San Diego,
and he was really terrific. Since the Dixie Dregs
presumably broke up, when I saw this album from Steve
as the leader of a group I thought to myself "let's see
how good he is in a group!" and bought it. Big mistake.
I was, and remain, very disappointed - in a group Steve
is 'just another noisy guitar player' and all that skill
and musical, lyrical sound that he got out of his guitar
in concert was subsumed by the terribly raucous 'hard rock'
that assaulted my senses.
*
(flames etc gladly accepted but please make them constructive and
intelligent - remember that I will be meeting you for the first
time via this mail and you'd hate to make a bad impression, wouldn't
you?)
From the Record Collection of
Dave Taylor
Hewlett Packard
Colorado Networks Operation
needless to say, this is not what I do for a living here at HP!!!mpm@hpfcms.UUCP (mpm) (06/10/85)
TO: All Cat Stevens fans everwhere
I too had wanted to get the soundtrack to the movie "Harold and
Maude". I don't think that there is a soundtrack album.
However, despair not! Get a copy of the (new) Cat Stevens album
"Footsteps in the Dark" (Greatest Hits, Volume II) on A&M. (Available
on compact disc.) It contains some of Cat's favorite songs that were
not on his Greatest Hits album. It includes THREE songs from "Harold
and Maude" that have not appeared on any other album.
By the way, if you have heard lots of rumors about Cat Stevens
and why he doesn't make music anymore, the liner notes for "Footsteps"
will clear them up. It also includes some comments on why (I guess)
there was never a soundtrack album for H&M.
-- Mike McCarthy
hpfcla!hpfcms! mpmnessus@mit-eddie.UUCP (Doug Alan) (06/18/85)
["I believe right now if I could, I would swallow you whole"] > [From dat@hpcnoa.UUCP (Dave Taylor)] > Jazz : Count Basie, Darol Anger/Barbara Higbie, Kate Bush, > Chick Corea, Paco De Lucia and Dave Grisman. ... > Kate Bush, "Never For Ever", EMI I don't really mean to flame, but I'm curious as to why you have classified Kate Bush as "jazz". I'm not really in favor of putting labels on music at all, but I think the jazz influence in Kate Bush's music is fairly minimal. To my ears, her major influences (up until her most recent album "The Dreaming", which is much stranger and than all her previous albums) are healthy doses of traditional folk music, pop, and progressive rock. If forced to put a label on "Never for Ever", I'd say it would be "Avant-Garde Pop" or something like that -- not jazz. In record stores they always put Kate Bush in the "New Wave" section (if they have such a section), which always annoys me to no end. I hate record stores that have different sections for different kinds of music! They always put Peter Gabriel and Bill Nelson in the "New Wave" section, but "Genesis" and "Be-Bop Deluxe" in the "Rock" section! When they have different sections for Rock, Pop, Folk, New Wave, Jazz, Experimental, and Electronic, where do you go to find albums by Captain Beefheart or The Residents or Laurie Anderson or Philip Glass or Fred Frith or Pat Metheny? It drives me batty! In any case, what is it that you hear in Kate Bush's music that would make you think it has jazz roots? I would think that Donald Fagin's album, which you put under "Pop" would have a much, much more jazzy feel to it. > Wow! Kate Bush is one heck of a wonderful singer! Won't argue with that! Not every vocalist has a four octave range! And sense enough to use it with gut-wrenching emotion rather than showing off their technical perfection. > Of all the music that I have, when I am in the mood for some > good music with top vocals I either pull out some Jarreau or > this album! Well I dunno about Jarreau... The 3 minutes of his music that I once heard seemed pretty insipid, if you ask me (not in vocal quality, but in musical content). > For those of you who haven't yet heard anything > by Ms. Bush, you owe it to yourselves to buy this album and > give it a few plays. The musical quality is excellent, and > the vocals are not only wonderful and sweet but the topics > that Kate are singing about are not quite as throwaway as the > first hearing indicates. I'm not sure about this bit about the lyrics. They aren't throwaway at all! Many of Kate Bush's lyrics have layered meanings, so they become more full of meaning the more you look at them. But none of them ever appeared anywhere close to throwaway, even initially, to me. Her layered meanings in lyrics and intricate layered music reach a wonderful pinnacle on "The Dreaming". > One of my favorite tracks on the > album, and one that really shows off Kates' voice, is 'Egypt', Ah, yes! "Egypt" and "Breathing", which is also on "Never for Ever", are two of the very very very best pieces of music ever comitted to vinyl! > a song about the dichotomy between the grandeur of ancient > Egypt and the poverty and terrible living conditions of the > modern day Egyptians. Hey, that's pretty good of you! It took me a long time to realize the meaning of "Egypt", because the lyrics don't contain the whole meaning -- it's the contrast between the lyrics and the music inbetween the verses that give the lyrics this special meaning. > ***** (a definite must-own!) Definitely! Good review! And if "Never for Ever" is five stars, then "The Dreaming" is at least 8! I'd be interested in hearing what you think of the "The Dreaming", though, considering your apparent disdain for "hard rock". "The Dreaming" is quite intense! "She's got me with that feline 'guise Got me in those Desert eyes" Doug Alan nessus@mit-eddie.UUCP (or ARPA)