Miller's Crossing (1990) [dvd9] [2003]

Nobody really expected the Berlin Wall to come down in 1989, and so suddenly. Roger Waters especially, because he had once made a promise never to perform The Wall again after the 1980 tour until the bricks fell in Berlin. But they did, and Waters had no intention to renege on his promise. The Wall became a star-studded megaconcert to benefit the Memorial Fund for Disaster Relief, with larger bricks, bigger inflatable puppets, and a larger audience than any of the original Pink Floyd shows.

First and foremost, punters should be aware: Heritage of the Blues: Ridin' High Live is not a new live album by California bluesman Joe Louis Walker. This is a single-disc compilation from the two Live at Slim's dates in November of 1990 that were previously issued on Hightone. These sides have been remastered, and three unreleased tracks have been thrown in to the mix: "Alligator," "Prove Your Love," and "Personal Baby." That said, this is a very tight, completely rollicking set that showcases Walker at a turning point in his career when he was just becoming known on a national scale. His playing is fiery, raw, and stinging. His singing is full of emotion and good-natured blues grace, and his band kicks ass. The three new tracks do beg the question as to why they were left off the initial two albums, and revisiting "Don't Mess Up a Good Thing" with Texas blues and R&B goddess Angela Strehli still sends chills down the spine…

This is as close to Latin purist Mongo as we have heard in recent years, an eight-piece salsa band – including several members of the 1997 Tito Puente ensemble, like trumpeter Ray Vega, altoist Bobby Porcelli and tenorman Mitch Frohman – playing a brace of Mongo classics and Latin jazz pieces live before a hushed crowd in Seattle's Jazz Alley. There are no pop covers, one electric instrument (a bass), lots of extended jazz solos (Porcelli and Frohman really burn on the pioneering Afro-Cuban classic "Manteca"), and an unusual (for Mongo) emphasis on the timbales on many tracks, which shoves the rhythms closer to the salsified Puente manner.