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Outsight
Outsight: Escape To New Jazz With ESC
NEWS AND VIEWS *******************
ESCAPE TO NEW JAZZ WITH ESC
The moniker of label and distribution house EFA comes from the German phrase, Energie Für Alle (Energy For All). That motto and the manifesto "life is too short for boring music" fueled the label on to longevity and the celebration of its 20th anniversary in 2002. The birth of this label happened during the exciting birth of punk, new wave, and the singer/songwriter genre. These still provide a context for some of the most exciting independent music today. Infused with a pioneering spirit, EFA continued to expand outward and this philosophy can also be found in the EFA Jazz Department. EFA's Cologne-based ESC Records, which also has an office in New York, was founded in 1995. ESC Records makes a point to work with the elder statesman of adventurous jazz in obtaining new recognition for new recordings. Bill Evans, Maceo Parker and Randy Brecker are among the artists on the roster. A new recording from Joe Zawinul, "Faces & Places," on the label shows this septuagenarian has lost no interest in new sounds. The international array of percussionists (India, Africa and South America are represented) presents a bright spectrum of rhythm to this focused, well-crafted opus of shrinking world, pan-ethnic international jazz. Les McCann also has a new album on the label, Pump it Up. Similar to the new, electronic direction of George Clinton, this '70s jazz pioneer and early advocate of the synthesizer uses contemporary studio wizardry to create a bawdy old school funk party. A litany of funk icons appear on this album and special appearances include Billy Preston playing organ on "Tryin' to Make it Real." Bill Withers' ballad "You Just Can't Smile it Away" gets excellent treatment in a duet with Dianne Reeves. Maceo Parker himself provides alto sax on "Funk It (Let the Music Play)." Les McCann was a previous guest on the Outsight Radio Hours. Hear him talk about his approach to music here.
Listen to or Buy Zawinul at CDNow
Listen to or Buy McCann at CDNow
PROTO TRACKS
Proto Tracks offers a subscription to receive an audio CD every other month with a booklet describing the tracks handpicked from hard-to-find labels. Focusing on electronica, the subscription offers techno, breakbeat, 2-step, house and more from new, independently released recordings. This independent venture has no label affiliations. Its Website helps the listener find out more about the sampled music and actually buy the source album. For the artist interested in appearing on a Proto Tracks CD compilation, and getting this respected third-party editorial endorsement and recognition, it is absolutely free. If you'd like to be considered for Proto Tracks, e-mail or send material to Proto Tracks, PO Box 78294, San Francisco, CA, 94107.
COMPOSER PAYS FOR PIECE OF SILENCE
In London, England a legal battle over a minute's silence in a recorded song has ended with a six-figure out-of-court settlement. British composer Mike Batt found himself the subject of a plagiarism action for including the song, "A One Minute Silence," on an album for his classical rock band The Planets. He was accused of copying it from a work by the late American composer John Cage, whose 1952 composition "4'33"" was totally silent. For the full article from CNN go here.
ANTI RECORDS GETS NICK CAVE FOR NORTH AMERICA
A new album is slated for early 2003 from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on the label that now also includes Tom Waits, Merle Haggard, Solomon Burke and Daniel Lanois. The Cave deal is a licensing agreement with UK label Mute for the Australian band. Daniel Miller, Mute MD, comments, "I'm very excited about this new relationship with Anti for Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds. I'm sure the affinity and enthusiasm the label has for the band will bring them to a far wider audience in North America." Cave himself characterizes the news positively, "I couldn't be more pleased to be working with Anti in North America."
NEW FROM AUM
After the mood-changing traditionalism of 2001's Corridors & Parallels, David S. Ware seems to have wholly left behind the vivid hand-waving of his early multi-note cosmic jazz. On his new AUM Fidelity release Freedom Suite, Ware explores the possibilities of Sony Rollins' 1958 trio composition of the same name. Ware's quartet, featuring Matthew Shipp (piano), William Parker (bass), and Guillermo E. Brown (drums), exhibits a controlled and thorough examination of the pieces' possibilities as one saxophone great pays tribute to another… AUM Fidelity's other new release, Going to Church from Maneri Ensemble, recalls the free jazz origins of this label. Again, versatile keyboard virtuoso Shipp plays his role in an ensemble led by a saxophonist (Joe Maneri). The extemporaneous studio session was purposefully devoid of prior arrangements, resulting in a protean shape-shifting sound featuring microtone master Maneri joined by his son Mat on viola. Expatriate bassist Barre Phillips (Ornette Coleman, Naked Lunch soundtrack) is on hand to offer his experience and talent kept honed by his participation in the European improv scene. Roy Campbell, a peer to Shipp in the NYC Now Jazz scene, offers his distinctive trumpet styles while Randy Peterson plays the drums…
Listen to or Buy Ware at CDNow
Listen to or Buy Maneri Ensemble at CDNow
THE COLONEL'S SECRET RECIPE
Terminus Records brings to CD yet two more early albums from Col. Bruce Hampton and The Late Bronze Age. Hampton et al produce wacky and sophisticated rock with a humorous and Dadaist approach that makes them the Southern analogue to Capt. Beefheart and Frank Zappa/Mothers of Invention. This round sees Outside Looking Out and Isles of Langerhan, released in 1980 and 1982, respectively, making their CD debut. Digitally remastered and repackaged, these releases each feature bonus tracks. It is not the singing that makes these albums, but the ambitious fusion of progressive rock experimentation with rich percussion, strings and a funky horn section. The nine-minute bonus track to Outside Looking Out is "Seven Men in a Bazooka." This track is marked with a distinctively world music feel thanks to the flute playing the main theme. Isles of Langerhan is stylistically based on the same formula as on Outside Looking Out. Characterizing this opus is its opening title track. The disc is much tighter in delivery and adheres to higher production values than its comparatively loose and informal predecessor. While it may that the zany Georgian is going for a more commercial feel here, the crazy wisdom is left largely intact in spirit, though musically the tracks are more predictable. The bonus tracks are "A Sensitive Pond and the Sailor" and "Jack The Rabbit." "Jack The Rabbit" is a high-energy number with a psycho-grass feel while "A Sensitive Pond and the Sailor" is a reflective acoustic guitar interlude preceding a breezy Mexican boogie that could exist on a Jimmy Buffet record. Featuring less instrumentation and less risk-taking, Isles of Langerhan is more for the Hampton completists.
Listen to or Buy Outside Looking Out at CDNow
Listen to or Buy Isles of Langerhan at CDNow
PUNK'S NOT DEAD
Punk's not dead - it's just been repackaged onto CD and DVD. An excellent source for punk DVDs is Cherry Red Records. Peter and the Test Tube Babies have been keeping the punk flame lit since 1978 and the DVD title Cattle and Bum + Manchester 1983 compiles video footage on the band from 1983 to 1992. This is the first official DVD title from the group. Cattle and Bum gives an overview of the band's later career on video through live video, promo videos, TV footage and home videos. The editing quickly takes us from scene to scene for a fast-paced tour that maintains interest. There is also a jocular "Making Of" featurette that goes along with the group's self-deprecating sense of humor. Manchester 1983 is a complete concert that predates most of the Cattle and Bum material… Cherry Red released another DVD debut in Joker in the Pack, this time for The Adicts. This DVD includes two promo clips for "Viva la Revolution" as well as the title track. Additionally, there are two features previously thinly distributed on VHS. Now remastered, Live at the Manhattan Club captures the band during the 1983 tour riding on the strength of their nationally charting "Bad Boy" single. Also included, "Up Yer Tower" takes us to the previous year during the venue's 1982 punk festival. Improved picture and sound combined with the band's colorful A Clockwork Orange apparel make for entertaining viewing of the seminal group… On the CD front, TKO Records continues to mine the vein of reissued punk, this time with an ANTiSEEN title Drastic/E.P. Royalty. Beside the double-7" format, the label also combined the group's first two 7" EP releases onto a CD. The angry punk rock on these early documents show the Southern punk outfit's bilious output started out just as spiteful as it is now. However, this early sound is often much more of an ominous doom-punk, with some tracks, like "Nothings Cool" classifiable as Gothic… Meanwhile Anagram Records, The Cherry Red punk archive imprint, offers much cheerier material in the anthemic, uplifting but still punkish sounds of Tenpole Tudor on Wünderbar. These post-punk pioneers hit the scene in 1979, paving the way for skinny tie bands and power pop in general as they played in support of The Clash, The Ramones, The Pretenders and more. This compilation includes all the group's Stiff Records singles as well as the Eddie Tenpole and Tudors singles released by the fractured group's halves after Eddie refused to tour the U.S., marking the end of the band. All tracks are remastered and bassist and producer Dick Crippen wrote the sleeve notes… Also on the Abstract imprint is The Very Best of Punk and Disorderly. The 41 tracks on this 2-CD set come from a golden era of punk when real punk acts charted in England and the whole genre was fertile with innovation and energy. Brought together here are a live version of G.B.H.'s "City Baby Attacked by Rats," three Peter and the Test Tube Babies tracks including "Banned from the Pubs" and a video track of "Moped Lads." Also present are Chaos U.K., Dead Kennedys, The Adicts, U.K. Subs and much more… The Butthole Surfers' DVD Blind Eye Sees All: Live in Detroit 1985 is one of the MVD Punk DVDs available at http://www.musicvideodistributors.com/punk. Recorded two years before the group's high water mark Locust Abortion Technician and now remastered to 5.1 Surround Sound, this concert still reverberates in the Detroit scenester community among those that were there at the Traxx gig. Interspersed between the songs of the gig is the semantically acrobatic group bed interview that often appeared in VHS form to be laughed with or at, depending on your point of view. Special features on the DVD include bonus 1991 live tracks as well as additional audio and a photo gallery…
More on Cattle and Bum + Manchester 1983 from CDNow
More on Joker in the Pack from CDNow
More on Drastic/E.P. Royalty from CDNow
More on Wünderbar from CDNow
More on The Very Best of Punk and Disorderly from CDNow
More on Blind Eye Sees All: Live in Detroit from CDNow
JOE TEX
Joe Tex created a spectrum of humorous soul novelties ("Skinny Legs and All," "It Ain't Sanitary") and swinging dance hits ("Show Me", "I'll Never Do You Wrong"). Under the guidance of Buddy Killen, Tex recorded for Killen's Dial Records and other record labels through the '60s and '70s. Working doggedly, Tex had uneven commercial success. Still, he had significant popularity on Southern Soul, thanks to his up-tempo material ranging from proto-disco to southern morality odes, all backed with a blend of the Nashville sound. Continuing a series begun by Connoisseur Collection with volumes planned but not released, RPM Productions issues Volume 3 and Volume 4 of the complete Dial recordings. Volume 3 gives us the two albums that came out on Atlantic in 1968: Live and Lively and Soul Country. The three bonus tracks here include the single hit "Men are Getting Scarce." Volume 4 takes us to the following year with Happy Soul and Buying a Book, both also sold through Atlantic. The bonus tracks here are "Betwixt and Between" and "Chocolate Cherry." Both CDs offers extensive liner notes from Clive Richardson.
Listen to or Buy Live and Lively/Soul Country at Amazon.com
Listen to or Buy Happy Soul / Buying a Book at Amazon.com
JAZZ VOCALISTS
Sue Matthews is a sophisticated jazz vocalist whose elegant, effortless phrasing echoes the mature New York style. One at a Time is her third solo project and out on Renata Music. This versatile vocal stylist populates her album with a variety of renditions taken from jazz ("Rocks in my Bed"), blues ("Wild Women Don't Get the Blues"), early R&B ("Caledonia") and even includes a version of "Amazing Grace." Here, all-star band support includes Stefan Scaggiari (piano; Concord Jazz), Keter Betts (bass; Ella Fitzgerald), Paul Langosch (bass; Tony Bennett), Paul Bollenback (guitar; Joey DeFrancesco) and Steve Abshire (guitar) in various arrangements from track to track… On Open Wide (Purple Chair Music), Jen Chapin and Stephan Crump opts for original music in an acoustic setting. Minimal in instrumentation, but maximal in expression, Open Wide is rooted in cool jazz styles but enlivened with a subtle hip swing due to Chapin's delivery. Besides performing at New England folk festivals, singer and songwriter Jan also performed on jazz-funk records in Switzerland and Germany…
Listen to or Buy Sue Matthews at CDNow
Listen to or Buy Open Wide at Amazon.com
WOMEN ON DISC
The back-to-school season brings a new crop of female singer-songwriters for enlivening drab dorms or making late-night homework sessions more bearable. First up is Andrea Perry Two (Trust Issue Records ). Andrea plays all instruments on this album, save drums. That is taken up by SearCh who adds a lickety-split style that in its horizontal motion keeps this album moving forward. Perry sings in a charming, heady voice reminiscent of Kate Bush. Some songs feature piano or keyboards, others guitar. Plushly upholstered in multi-tracked vocals singing poignant personal poetry, Two is number one material… Jenn Lindsay hails from the NYC anti-folk scene. Her record Gotta Lotta (No Evil Star) is for those that like their acoustic singer-songwriter unpretentious, honest and daringly non-cute. Think early Ani DiFranco crossed with Lach… Stacey Board offers a musical diptych in her self-released Drive. The first group of songs is in an uptempo, heartland Sheryl Crow style. The latter and larger group of songs is delicate and emotional folk-pop… Redoubtable Aimee Mann comes on board with Lost in Space (SuperEgo Records). The title may sound wayward, but this is the most right-on Mann solo release yet. She has matured into a sophisticated singer-songwriter somewhere between Chrissie Hynde and Lucinda Williams. Right down to the packaging, this is a coherent and stylistically intriguing release. For the thick booklet, Mann enlisted Zero Hour Publications graphics artist Sean (Evans) to add his portrayals of urban existential despair as apt visible accompaniment to Mann's complex and revealing song-testimonies on substance abuse and the class of missed personal connections that mirror the unfortunate detachment corporate music has had for her talent… Mia Doi Todd has a languid, easy delivery that borders on the melancholy on The Golden State (Columbia). The Mitchell Froom-produced CD borders on trip-hop by combining artsy-sad vocals from Todd with chilly beats…
Listen to or Buy Perry at Amazon.com
Listen to or Buy Board at Amazon.com
Listen to or Buy Mann at CDNow
Listen to or Buy Todd at CDNow
D.O.A. CELEBRATE 25TH ANNIVERSARY
Legendary punk pioneers D.O.A. mark their 25th anniversary next year. In 2003, Canadian punk pioneers D.O.A. entered their 25th active year as a band. Sudden Death Records, the label of singer Joey "Shithead" Keithley is very happy to announce that D.O.A.'s tenth studio album Win The Battle was released in the United States October 15th on Sudden Death America and distributed exclusively by Big Daddy Music. The album includes a cover of ZZ Top's "La Grange." Also, Keithley is re-issuing the band's classic second album, Hardcore '81, also on Sudden Death America. In early 1981, D.O.A. released the album on a Canadian indie label and set up the now historic Hardcore '81 Festival in Vancouver that included Black Flag. From there, D.O.A. headed out on the lengthy Hardcore tour that criss-crossed North America and helped hardcore to spread. The album has been out-of-print for over two decades. The vinyl will be re-released in an edition faithful to the original with liner notes and newly unearthed D.O.A. photos. The CD version includes 1984's Don't Turn Yer Back On Desperate Times EP recorded live as a John Peel session as the bonus tracks.
DVD REVIEWS ***********************
Joe Cocker
Live
Quantum Leap/Music Video Distributors
After his brilliant showmanship in the '60s, Joe Cocker pretty much faded from view in the following decade. His successful comeback that once again made him a top name in the '90s and into the 21st Century began quietly in the '80s. This live show from 1981 in Italy captures the rebirth of Joe Cocker in his second career as an outstanding, soulful rock performer. The 10-song set before a small audience begins with "Feeling All Right" and includes "Delta Lady" and "Jealous Kind" before ending with "With a Little Help from my Friends." The DVD features include individual song selection, biography, an interactive quiz and more. (3.5)
More on this video title from CDNow
Ozzy Osbourne
Ozzy O: Unauthorized
Trinity Home Ent./Music Video Distributors
For this DVD, the "unauthorized" appellation seems more a legal necessity than an advertisement in muckraking. For, rather than in the sordid approach of paperback expositions, Ozzy O: Unauthorized contributes as much to the hagiography as it does to the humanization of this near-mythical figure. Pasted together from numerous sources both video and audio (though not featuring any Ozzy or Sabbath songs), this provides a well-directed and detailed collage of the somewhat mysterious artist. An actor posing as an over-zealous metal fan used to bumper segments is the only content weakness in this documentary. Including much in the way of candid interviews and litanies of Ozzy's substance abuse history, this DVD goes far to straighten out all the biting off of the heads of flying creatures. Including interviews with the fans the brought the "dead" bat to the Des Moines concert, detail is given to this as well as the dove decapitation that occurred in front of record executives and presaged his successful solo career. (3.5)
More on this video title from CDNow
The Chameleons
Live at The Gallery Club & The Hacienda, Manchester
Cherry Red Records
Like The Psychedelic Furs, The Chameleons fused Goth and post-punk pop during the '80s, a decade ripe for such a genre marriage. Interesting, their oft chilly delivery comes across on this DVD as perhaps lack of live experience if not even stage fright. These John Peel Show favorites are shown trying out material exclusive or nearly exclusive to these shows and in some cases never performed again. Thus, what the rare videoed performances lack in production value and stage presence they make up for in rarity and historical significance. This is a must for any fan of The Chameleons specifically and British post-punk music generally. (3)
More on this video title from CDNow
Puppetry of the Penis
Tackle Happy
Music Video Distributors /Eclectic DVD
Simon Morley and David "Friendly" Friend brought to the stage an apparently not unknown Australian male pastime of genital origami or "dick tricks." In this funny documentary, the pair travels the subcontinent on a Spinal Tap-like tour where increasing resistance from the blue noses causes cancellations and venue limitations for the daring duo's nude act of "twisted" humor. Only some of the penis poses ("Fruit bat," "Uluru") are specifically downunder in theme. "The Wristwatch," "The Hamburger" and others cross most cultural boundaries. A series of interviews with a comedic radio show keeping tabs on the disaster-fraught tour adds to the laughs and segments the story into chronological episodes. (3.5)
More on this video title from CDNow
JAZZ ON DVD
Music Video Distributors has several jazz DVDs available. As part of the Cool Summer series documenting the Harvest Jazz Festival at the Paul Masson Vineyards (California), there is a Dexter Gordon & McCoy Tyner disc. Top of the bop tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon is especially loquacious in the stage chatter and off-stage interview that breaks up his three-song set on this DVD. Brilliant jazz pianist McCoy Tyner is somewhat lost in the ensemble setting for this three-song set captured here, but the playing from all is superb and the final cut "The Seeker" includes special guest vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson… Also on MVD, Jazz Collection is a 2-DVD set featuring noted jazz greats Art Blakey, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon and more including bassist Willie Dixon. The 2-hour DVD set is the first two volumes of the Jazz Collection in The Legends Series and features artists displaying their talent live…
More on Cool Summerfrom CDNow
More on Jazz CollectionCDNow
CD REVIEWS *************************
One Man Army
Rumors and Headlines
BYO Records
The band's third album, its first on BYO Records, is rooted in old-school punk. The opener "Victoria" is anthemic and recalls early melodic Brit post-punk styles (Toy Dolls, for example) while the fast, buzz-saw "It's Empty" recalls another class in that school. One populated by G.B.H., The Exploited and the like. Still, the jaunty, melodic style is highly accessible ("S.O.S.") and this might be partly due to the production efforts of Kevin Army. Through his work with Green Day and Operation Ivy, Army knows well musical styles with both popular appeal but within the context of punk sound history. Indeed, the band's first two albums came out on Adeline Records, the label of Green Day's Billy Joe Armstrong. While it remains to be seen if the San Francisco trio will gain the heights of popularity attained by Green Day, their upbeat U.K. sound guarantees this record will long be called upon as a touchstone in West Coast neo-punk. (4.5)
Sonic Youth
Murray Street
Geffen
Sonic Youth is exceedingly admirable for their integrity and adherence to their artistic vision of arty noise-rock. However, this, their sixteenth album since forming in 1981, is somewhat sluggish. It is still a very good album and after a career this long, I think it is OK to have your best work behind you. The Kim Gordon-led pieces are stand-out and particularly vigorous. Thurston Moore continues to head toward a more melodic vocal style. During the recording of this album, recording at their own studio was interrupted, and their masters and instruments were locked into their studio within an area cordoned off after the events of September 11, 2001. This is the second album in the group's trilogy about lower Manhattan culture preceded by NYC Ghosts and Flowers. For their trademark sound of sophisticated noise, the group continues to successfully rely on the production prowess of Jim O'Rourke. (3.5)
Voltaire
Boo-Hoo
Projekt
Voltaire is a neo-Gothic styled comedic musician and also a visual talent. Voltaire is the creator of the Oh My Goth comic book series. His wry and wicked humor come across best on the biting opening track, "Future Ex Girlfriend" about the base nature of initial attractions. Voltaire adds acoustic guitar to his vocals, but it is the bright and present sounds of violin and cello that really dress up this CD and make the music a match of the cutting humor. This is the breakup record for those that want to laugh about it and hit the clubs, not sit home and cry. (4)
Various Artists
156 Strings
Cuneiform Records
Henry Kaiser is our "curator" in this 19-track museum of experimental guitar. The purpose of this CD is to exhibit the current state of acoustic guitar innovation. Participants range from the versatile Richard Thompson to avant-guitar stalwart Fred Frith. Frith is, of cour
Outsight is non-mainstream music news and views. The content is wholly based on new releases and a focus on the the eclectic and overlooked.
