Satan Deiphago

Mother Mojo was an excellent follow-up to Satan & Adam's first-rate debut, Harlem Blues. The duo hasn't abandoned their minimalist guitar and harp blues, but there is a loose energy that keeps the music fresh and consistently engaging.
The pair's sound is beefed up intermittently by percussionist Sammy Figueroa, but their telepathic sense of interplay emerges unscathed. Satan, billed as Sterling Magee when he recorded for Ray Charles' Tangerine label during the late 1960s ("Seventh Avenue," a remake of Magee's "Oh Wasn't She Pretty" from that era, is irresistible) owns a wonderfully raspy voice not unlike Brother Ray's. He powerfully delivers the churning title cut, the message songs "Freedom For My People" and "Ain't Nobody Better Than Nobody," and a torrid remake of Solomon Burke's "Cry To Me."

Taking their name from the 1960s B-movie Satan's Sadists, Portland, Oregon's Satan's Pilgrims' spirited blend of retro-surf and foot-stomping garage rock evokes the raw power and instrumental prowess of the Ventures, the Sonics, the Wailers, and the Kingsmen – it also draws from horror movies, Joe Meek productions, and the British Invasion. Like contemporaries and labelmates the Fathoms and Space Cossacks, the band caught the resurgent early-'90s surf rock wave brought forth by the arrival of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, which reintroduced the world to Dick Dale's "Misirlou," and rode it to nominal commercial success via essential outings like Around the World with Satan's Pilgrims (1997) and their eponymous fifth studio long-player (1999).

"Siniestro" is the ninth album by the Pilgrims and marks the 25th year of the five original members staking out their own special corner of the surf instrumental genre. Bobby, John, Ted, Scott and Dave are extremely excited by the 15 original and new songs that they have written, arranged and recorded themselves for “Siniestro”. That’s right, no producer or engineer on this one, they have made “Siniestro” just the way they want it. Recorded by the band in the abandoned Mt. Hood Masonic Lodge in Portland, this recording captures the live feel of a large reverberating room with the band getting back to their surf roots while clicking on all cylinders…

The colourful catalogue of Finland’s Svart Records spans material old and new, but seems to specialise in scarce gems from the forested country’s underground music history. In this case, we have a tour de force of several decades’ worth of Suomi synthpop and disco. ‘Satan in Love’ by Emilia is a notorious inclusion and alone speaks volumes of the quality on offer. Loistava homma!

Big Satan - I Think They Liked It Honey (1997) {Winter & Winter 910 005-2}
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© 1997 Winter & Winter | 910 005-2
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Modern Creative

Tim Berne (alto and baritone saxes) has been at the forefront of progressive jazz since the early '80s. On this release, the artist regroups with longtime musical associates Marc Ducret (electric guitar) and Tom Rainey (drums) for a truly mesmerizing set that rings with ominous overtones and intricately constructed fabrics of sound. Over the years, Rainey and Ducret have supported Berne-led dates, and here the trio pursues a fire and brimstone approach that packs a walloping punch. On pieces such as "Bobby Reconte une Histoire" and "Dialectes," the band melds shuffle grooves with complex unison choruses and linearly devised progressions amid slight shifts in strategy.

Phillip Johnston's Transparent Quartet - The Merry Frolics of Satan (1999) {Koch Jazz - KOC CD 7885}
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© 1999 Koch Jazz | KOC CD 7885
Jazz / Progressive Jazz / Modern Creative / Post Bop / Stage & Screen / Saxophone

The Merry Frolics of Satan is a recording of eight scores for the amazing silent films of George Méliès , the French pioneer of the fantastic. They are performed by The Transparent Quartet, and were originally premiered with the films at the Walter Reade Tjeatre at Lincoln Center in New York City on Nov. 15, 1997. They have subsequently been performed at the Clevelan Institute of Art, the Wexner Center, the Teatro Verdi in Florence, the Erie Art Museum, and Etnafest in Catania, among others. This CD was originally released on Koch Jazz, but has now gone out of print. It is the second CD released by The Transparent Quartet.

Mundell Lowe's score for the exploitation flick Satan in High Heels is an immensely enjoyable collection of exaggeratedly cinematic jazz. Lowe runs through all sorts of styles, from swinging big band to cool jazz, from laid-back hard-bop to driving bop. He pulls it off because his big band is comprised of musicians as skilled as Oliver Nelson, Al Cohn, Phil Woods, Urbie Green, Joe Newman and Clark Terry. They help give the music the extra kick it needs, and Satan in High Heels winds up as a terrific set of humorous and sleazy, but well-played, mainstream jazz.