9 11 2002

This series of the complete harpsichord concerti of C.P.E. Bach is one of the most important and monumental recording projects of the century so far… it is a whole planet of delights and amazing discoveries.

The original Gabin - a French actor known for his portrayals of jaded, faded anti-heroes in 1930s and '40s-era films - might have chuckled ironically if he had been told that, a half-century after his heyday, two Italian musicians would name a fledgling lounge music project after him. But if he had listened to the music, he would have understood. It's full of languid grace and melancholy and is undeniably stylish - exactly what you'd expect to hear in a Parisian café or supper club. Just to add to the effect, many of the song titles and lyrics are in French.
Gabin (2002). Milky, silken rhythms lace through this collaboration between Roman DJ Filippo Clary and jazz bassist Max Battini. Their perspectives find accord in the realm of what martini-addled old-timers might label "acid jazz"…

Culled from various live recordings Junior Wells made in his final year or so, Live Around the World: The Best Of is not a "best-of." Instead, it intends to present the legendary Chicago bluesman in a late-career renaissance - or, as Donald E. Wilcock says in his affectionate liner notes, "This album is not the last gasps of a dying legend." To a certain extent that's true, because Wells does not sound tired, weary, or disengaged. He turns in spirited, energetic performances throughout and his harp playing remains a marvel, never following expected routes, always melodic and invigorating. That doesn't mean the album itself is invigorating, something that is a worthy bookend to Hoodoo Man Blues, since it suffers from the problem that plagues so many contemporary blues albums - clean, precise production with perfectly separated instruments, plus the band's tendency to veer into funk vamps instead of dirty grooves…

RCA and the Elvis estate made no bones about their intention on replicating the blockbuster success of the Beatles' The Beatles 1 with their own single-disc collection of number one hits – hence, the 2002 release of Elvis: 30 #1 Hits. The idea of collecting all the number one hits is simple enough, but there are problems inherent with the concept, not the least of which is that RCA did this once before. Unlike the Beatles, who went through numerous changes in just seven years of recording, Elvis had nearly three times as many years' worth of material and hits to choose from. Also, he hit on a number of different charts – not just pop, but also R&B, country, and adult contemporary.

In 1970, Ashton, Gardner & Dyke somehow ended up supplying the soundtrack music to an obscure Western starring football star Joe Namath. Also important to the soundtrack's composition and performance was Deep Purple's Jon Lord, who co-wrote the score with Tony Ashton and shared keyboard parts with Ashton as well. Like many soundtracks, it's a jumble of pieces that might have served adequately as background music to specific scenes, but doesn't sustain much interest for a record listener. The musicians tap into a wide variety of styles and moods, mostly instrumental with occasional vocals, from good-time laid-back bar band boogie and dramatic pseudo-spaghetti Western orchestrations to atonal keyboard patterns, tedious hard rock-funk, and Latin cocktail jazz with bizarre scatting. The individual tracks, though, are neither too good on their own, or too similar to each other, failing to create an inviting mood.

Warhorse's self-titled debut was a progressive rock-heavy rock meld that was even less humorless than that of Deep Purple, let alone Black Sabbath, the band that they got compared to most frequently. There's a bit of art rock in the Hammond organ, and an operatic earnestness to Ashley Holt's lead vocals. Titles like "Vulture Blood," "Burning," "Ritual," "Solitude," and "Woman of the Devil" are indicative of the group's desire to set a menacing mood, although the songs don't really forcefully hit the mark for which they were probably targeted. A cover of an Easybeats song ("St. Louis"), of all things, is the only non-original. Angel Air's CD reissue adds bonus live versions of four of the album's songs, as well as a demo, "Miss Jane," of a tune that didn't appear on the original LP.

After writing and producing for other artists in the sixties, Kenny Young (he penned Under The Boardwalk for The Drifters) put together Fox in the early seventies, recruiting Australian singer Susan Traynor from Wooden Horse (she renamed herself Noosha Fox for this project) and Irish singer Herbie Armstrong to record the band' s first album in 1975, which also featured guest vocals by Queen's Roger Taylor. The band broke up after three albums. Traynor pursued a solo career as Noosha Fox while Young and Armstrong formed Yellow Dog.