More Landon Caldwell

Starting with the careening "From Out of Nowhere" driven by Roddy Bottum's doomy, energetic keyboards, Faith No More rebounded excellently on The Real Thing after Chuck Mosley's was fired. Given that the band had nearly finished recording the music and Mike Patton was a last minute recruit, he adjusts to the proceedings well. His insane, wide-ranging musical interests would have to wait for the next album for their proper integration, but the band already showed enough of that to make it an inspired combination. Bottum, in particular, remains the wild card, coloring Jim Martin's nuclear-strength riffs and the Bill Gould/Mike Bordin rhythm slams with everything from quirky hooks to pristine synth sheen. It's not quite early Brian Eno-joins-Led Zeppelin-and-Funkadelic…

In 1992, Warner Bros. figured that lightning could strike twice at a time when oodles of (mostly horribly bad) funk-metal acts were following in Faith No More and the Red Hot Chili Peppers' footsteps. They sent the former into the studio, where they went in, recorded, and released a bizarro masterpiece. Mike Patton's work in Mr. Bungle proved just how strange and inspired he could get given the opportunity, and with that try-anything-once spirit now brought to his similarly minded colleagues in his more famous act, nothing was ignored. "Land of Sunshine" starts things off in a similar enough vein to The Real Thing, but Patton's vocal role-playing comes out as smarter and more accomplished, with the lyrics trashing a totally smug bastard with pure inspired mockery…

Heavily influenced by Spock’s Beard, apparently, themselves heavily influenced by the likes of Gentle Giant, ELP, King Crimson, and Pink Floyd, No More Pain dwell in 60s and 70s progressive rock, with a modern edge to it. There’s nothing new that’s brought to the table here, nothing that’s a game changer, and they probably won't be very influential. That being said, "The Post Human Condition" is a great album for fans of the genre, and for those who actually like the standard prog rock formula.
While they use pretty much all common tropes of the genre and stick to the paradigm, it never (well, almost) sounds cliché or overtly retrograde…

Born in Manhattan and raised in Miami, Bobby came from a show business family. His mother and father both sang and were the hosts of one of the first musical variety programs on television, "Suppertime." Bobby grew up listening to show tunes, the music of Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, as well as The Beatles. These early influences are prevalent in Bobby's singing and songwriting.

It's a tribute to Bobby Caldwell's consummate songwriting skills that his three original compositions – including the previously recorded, melancholy would-be classic "Stuck on You" – fit in perfectly alongside standards by the likes of Cole Porter and Sammy Cahn/Jimmy Van Heusen on the very tradition-minded Blue Condition. Best known for easygoing R&B-flavored adult pop vocals, Caldwell reaches back and superimposes himself in front of lively big-band arrangements that recall classic Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Bobby Darin recordings. He never approaches those idols in terms of vocal distinction, but that doesn't seem to be his point. He's more reflecting upon his inspirations than trying to emulate them, rewarding longtime fans with the sort of artistry they suspected might exist all along. The uninitiated, however, might enjoy all the surrounding pleasantries and wonder why we need another guy out there doing classics when he clearly doesn't measure up to those standards vocally.

The vocalist and multi-instrumentalist was born in Manhattan, a location that provided him with a bass in jazz as well as the Great American Songbook. He also called Memphis his home, which is where he likely heard plenty of blues; country and R&B. Caldwell also lived in Miami for a time, where he soaked in that international city’s Latin influences. The artist brings all of those influences together on House of Cards, his latest album and his first featuring all original recordings in seven years. House of Cards includes country, Latin and blues tunes. However, Caldwell is jazz and soul singer, and the best tracks on House of Cards features the vocalist performing tunes that swing and tell stories guys who win at cards and lose at love.

Bobby Caldwell has been a favorite among fans of sophisticated R&B and contemporary jazz since 1978, the year the singer, songwriter, and guitarist hit the Top Ten of Billboard's Hot 100 and R&B charts with "What You Won't Do for Love." Originally from Manhattan and later raised in Miami, Caldwell was exposed to a wide variety of musical influences by his parents, hosts of the television variety show Suppertime. Only a few years after he started studying piano and guitar, he opted to enter the music industry, but it wasn't until the following decade that he signed to the T.K.-distributed Clouds label and broke through with What You Won't Do for Love, his first of several albums.

Contemporary jazz singer/guitarist Bobby Caldwell was born August 15, 1951, in Manhattan, NY; his parents, Bob and Carolyn, were the hosts of the television variety show Suppertime and exposed the child to a wide variety of musical influences. Caldwell began studying piano and guitar at age 12; he initially pursued a career in rock & roll but was equally adept at playing jazz and R&B and at 17 took his band on the road to play the Las Vegas circuit. From there the group moved on to Los Angeles, but despite recording an album titled Kathmandu, Caldwell enjoyed little success and eventually returned to his parents home in Miami. There he began work on his 1978 breakthrough album What You Won't Do for Love, scoring a hit single with the title cut. Efforts including a 1979 self-titled LP, The Cat in the Hat, and Carry On followed, and although Caldwell enjoyed a strong following at home, he became a superstar in Japan. He shifted creative gears with 1996's Blue Condition, a collection of big band-era standards; the similarly themed Come Rain or Come Shine followed three years later.