The world of pop music was hardly ready for the Velvet Underground's first album when it appeared in the spring of 1967, but while The Velvet Underground and Nico sounded like an open challenge to conventional notions of what rock music could sound like (or what it could discuss), 1968's White Light/White Heat was a no-holds-barred frontal assault on cultural and aesthetic propriety…
The Gift of Love pairs R&B legend and Tony Award-winning actress Melba Moore with veteran R&B star Phil Perry. Co-produced by Chris "Big Dog" Davis, Preston Glass, David Nathan, and Dwayne Palmer and released on Shanachie, the set contains 11 upbeat, uplifting, and inspirational songs that run the gamut from contemporary gospel to adult contemporary. These duets are structured in an old-school soul style, but the sonic presentation is up to the minute for radio…
The act of switching to Columbia did not have a substantial impact upon Jean-Luc Ponty — not yet, at least — for his debut with the label found him mining the repeating, sequencer-driven lode that he was exploring while on Atlantic. But there are two areas where there is a difference: the material is superior to that of Fables, more memorable and immediately winning in melodic and arpeggiated content, and the sound quality is considerably improved over that of much of his Atlantic output. The rhythm section of Fables returns, with Pat Thomi replacing Scott Henderson on guitar, and as before, they take a definite back seat to their leader's violins, synthesizers and electronic devices.
Here is a stunning debut CD by the UK band The Gift, what an incredible level for a new band! The album Awake & Dreaming has a running time of 70 minutes and contains two epic compositions, separated into 19 songs in total. Despite the long running time and many songs, the music doesn't fail to generate excitement for one single second. In contrary, it is loaded with strongly build-up songs featuring lots of spectacular breaks (especially the second part of this CD) with sensational keyboardwork and excellent, often powerful guitarplay.
This largely successful Savoy reissue CD brings back an obscure session led by Charles Moffett who here mostly plays vibes and a bit of trumpet in addition to drums. He is teamed up with the underrated (and largely forgotten) tenor-saxophonist Paul Jeffrey, bassist Wilbur Ware and drummers Dennis O'Toole and seven-year old Codaryl Moffett. On some selections both O'Toole and Codaryl play drums and the latter proves to be able to hold his own even at such a young age; in fact Codaryl contributed two of the five originals. The songtitle "Avant Garde Got Soul Too" pretty well sums up this adventurous but often surprisingly melodic set.
Singer Susanne Abbuehl has a unique approach to setting verse, getting inside the texts, exploring their inner melodies and rhythms, setting them free to float and sway. The approach is beautifully realized on “The Gift”, recorded in the South of France in the summer of 2012. Poetry embraced on this occasion includes words by Emily Dickinson, Emily Bronté, Sara Teasdale, Wallace Stevens, and Susanne’s own lyrics. In the seven years that have elapsed since the release of “Compass”, Abbuehl’s band has been reorganized. Wolfert Brederode remains an important, central presence. New to the ensemble are Matthieu Michel, a highly intuitive musical partner since 2009, whose flugelhorn is a wonderful second voice here, and Olavi Louhivouri, whose sensitive drumming was previously heard on Tomasz Stanko’s “Dark Eyes”.
Although it didn't enjoy the major label hype that his current output does, Walker's HighTone encore just may be his finest album of all, filled with soulful vocal performances, bone-cutting guitar work, and tight backing from the Boss Talkers and the Memphis Horns. Honestly, you can't go wrong with any of Walker's remarkably consistent HighTone discs - but give this one the slightest of edges over the rest.