Ben Wolfe Unjust

Eric Reed - Musicale (1996) {Impulse! IMPD-196}
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© 1996 Impulse! | IMPD-196
Jazz / Contemporary Jazz / Post-Bop / Piano

It is easy to be fooled initially by pianist Eric Reed's latest recording. He starts off the set with an effective tribute to Art Blakey and sometimes takes solos that are influenced by McCoy Tyner's chord voicings, but the music on a whole is actually fresh and fairly original, rather than just a copy of the Blue Note years. Except for the final two numbers (pieces by James Leary and Wessell Anderson), all of the music was composed by Reed, and these range from somber ballads and solid swing to the upbeat church feel of "Baby Sis" (which has a heated wah-wah solo from guest trombonist Wycliffe Gordon).

Every jazz pianist stands somewhere in the shadow of Thelonious Monk (1917-1982), and Eric Reed has embraced that shadow, with The Dancing Monk.
~ allaboutjazz.com

Arsenal of Democracy is the first solo recording by deconstructionist composer Julia Wolfe. Wolfe (b. 1958), who is the co-founder of New York's annual Bang On a Can festival, takes the orchestra from its traditional methods of emotional coaxing and replaces them with a ballistic immediacy that challenges the entire impression of what modern orchestration can achieve.

With influences as varied as Beethoven, Motown, and Led Zeppelin, Wolfe's compositions often contain bold, direct attacks, the body energy of pop music; the unreigned expressiveness of rock and roll; and, above all, a sheer delight in sound.

Initially coming together during a Fontana-era lull in The Pretty Things’ prodigious career, the band’s now-legendary body of work for music library de Wolfe as The Electric Banana saw their alter-egos become parallel universe superstars, their work utilised by film and TV producers in everything from soft-porn skin-flicks, a Norman Wisdom vehicle and horror classic Dawn Of The Dead to small-screen ratings winners like Dr. Who, The Sweeney and Minder.

Just as the title implies, 25 Years of Greatness is a career-spanning 32-track compilation covering most of the highlights of the Wolfe Tones' first quarter of a century. There is the important caveat, however, that like many folk groups, the Wolfe Tones have recorded many of their most popular songs several times, and this collection tends to favor more recent and/or more arranged versions of the Spartan originals that graced early albums like Let the People Sing. That's not as much of a problem as it would be with some groups, however, as the Wolfe Tones have wisely resisted any temptation to "update," "modernize," or otherwise ruin a traditional Irish folk style that has worked for them for so long; even the Fairport Convention-like electric track of the new "Rock On Rockall" has a bracingly traditional feel to it. This is the Wolfe Tones set to have if you're having just one, but there's plenty more where this came from.