Jazzman Blues

Heartattack and Vine is Tom Waits' seventh and final album for Asylum. As such, it's transitional. As demonstrated by its immediate predecessors, 1978's excellent Blue Valentine and 1977's Foreign Affairs, he was already messing with off-kilter rhythms even in the most conventionally structured blues and jazz songs, with nastier-sounding guitars - he plays a particularly gnarly style of rhythm on this entire album. Five of these nine tracks are rooted in gutbucket blues with rock edges and primal R&B beats. By this time, his singing voice had deteriorated to a gasping-for-breath whiskey-and-cigarettes growl that could make words indecipherable from one another, but his jazzman-inspired phrasing more than compensated…

Heartattack and Vine is Tom Waits' seventh and final album for Asylum. As such, it's transitional. As demonstrated by its immediate predecessors, 1978's excellent Blue Valentine and 1977's Foreign Affairs, he was already messing with off-kilter rhythms even in the most conventionally structured blues and jazz songs, with nastier-sounding guitars - he plays a particularly gnarly style of rhythm on this entire album. Five of these nine tracks are rooted in gutbucket blues with rock edges and primal R&B beats. By this time, his singing voice had deteriorated to a gasping-for-breath whiskey-and-cigarettes growl that could make words indecipherable from one another, but his jazzman-inspired phrasing more than compensated…

This Final Performance Tribute all began on Les Paul's 90th birthday when luminaries from the musical world gathered to celebrate at New York's historic Iridium Jazz Club. Les and friends 'jammed' every Monday for the next four years until the legend left us. Great moments from many of those cool sessions are presented in this tribute to the man who created a sonic boom with the solid-body electric guitar. It's all here…

In the liner notes for Back East, saxophonist (and sometime flutist) Jerry Vivino states early on that he’s “not Joe Lovano” and that “I know my limits.” What Vivino is saying is not that he can’t cut it, but that jazz is not his fulltime gig. Like his younger, guitar-playing brother Jimmy, Jerry has had a long career in the world of late-night TV bands (currently on Conan), a gig that’s necessitated him being versatile and on his toes even if he isn’t a candidate for virtuoso jazzman of the year. So, no, he isn’t Lovano, but don’t worry, he can play—very well. And that same honesty displayed in the liners permeates his music…

Are You Experienced on Hybrid SACD from Analogue Productions! Newly remastered by Bernie Grundman, from the original analog master tapes!