Soaring November 2016

When Temple of the Dog released their lone album in the spring of 1991, it landed to little fanfare despite being a sterling example of how the Seattle scene could push itself. The end result of two songs Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell had written in memory of former roommate and friend, the late Mother Love Bone vocalist Andrew Wood, Temple of the Dog was populated by luminaries of Seattle's soon-to-be-grunge-explosion…

Monsoon Wedding is Mychael Danna's second collaboration with film director Mira Nair, (Kama Sutra was the first), and he has again compiled a winning soundtrack. Danna explores a wide range of emotions, from solemn to celebratory, through different generations of Indian culture. The contemplative "Good Indian Girls" and "Hold Me, I'm Falling" feature Danna's trademark piano ambience over traditional Indian instrumentation, and the vivacious "Baraat" sounds like a Punjabi variation on Dixieland, while "Delhi.com" ventures into dreamy ethno-techno territory. Sukhwinder Singh's "Today My Heart Desires" serves up lively bhangra rock, and Laxmikant Pyarelal's "Today the Weather Plays Tricks on Me" (performed by Mohammed Rafi) swoons with strings and male vocals. In all, the soundtrack's pleasing variety of Eastern music mirrors the film's old and new worlds living within a singular culture.

Signs, the fourth studio album by the Tedeschi Trucks Band, poignantly addresses some of the major changes this 12-piece group has been through over the last couple of years. That said, it's hardly steeped in sadness, but acknowledges reckoning and acceptance while leaning on hope. In November 2016, longtime friend Leon Russell died. In January, Derek's uncle Butch Trucks committed suicide. In May, mentor Col. Bruce Hampton (to whom Signs is dedicated) suffered a fatal coronary on-stage during his 70th birthday celebration (which Trucks and Tedeschi witnessed). The same month, Gregg Allman died after a years-long battle with liver cancer. And in June, keyboardist Kofi Burbridge suffered a heart attack that required emergency surgery.

Pianist Guillaume de Chassy insists that Silences is inspired by the example of clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre's late-1950s trio recordings. To be sure, like those records, this album is marked by intimacy and introspection, a strong clarinet sound and no drummer. But Silences, recorded at a French abbey, doesn't sound much like Giuffre's records—nor indeed, like much of jazz, at first blush. It's not at first clear just what this piano-clarinet-bass formation is up to. The helpfully titled "Birth of a Trio" provides clues. It shows just how much this music shares with jazz—improvisation, first of all; and empathy, the musicians listening closely to each other, as for example when de Chassy's piano sidles up to Thomas Savy's soaring clarinet.

The '70s model of Yes runs out of gas. Recorded in a morale slump and an impending haze of drink, Tormato's decent tunes are sabotaged by Rick Wakeman's increasing penchant for cheesy textures and the band's thin overall sound…

The J. J. Johnson Sextet - Really Livin' (1959) {2015 Japan Jazz Collection 1000 Columbia-RCA Series SICJ 78}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 294 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 102 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 262 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1959, 2015 Columbia / Sony Music Japan | SICJ 78
Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop / Trombone

Reissue with the latest 2015 remastering. Comes with liner notes. One of the hippest, hardest albums that trombonist JJ Johnson ever cut for Columbia – a session we'd rank right up there with his amazing JJ Inc record, and like that one a really cooking hardbop record that maybe even rivals the best on Blue Note and Prestige at the time! As with that gem, the strength here is really the group – not just tremendous trombone from JJ, but great work from Nat Adderley on trumpet, Bobby Jaspar on tenor and flute, Cedar Walton on piano, Spanky DeBrest on bass, and Albert Heath on drums – all working with a soaring, soulful energy that's a lot more hardbop heavy than you might expect from JJ Johnson on some of his other projects for the label.

Ten years ago, White Lies released their monumental debut To Lose My Life, the album which kick-started their music career. To celebrate a decade of soaring success, an exclusive 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition will be released via UMC on 25 October.