Allison Schlager

Ravello Records presents SOPRANO SUMMIT from revered saxophonist Paul Cohen. Alongside his work as a performer, Cohen is known for his passionate scholarship, rediscovering long-forgotten saxophone works as well as arranging related music for the instrument. In this, his latest contribution, Cohen presents an album of music for the soprano saxophone in chamber and solo settings. The range and diversity of the soprano saxophone is stunning, from Cohen’s arrangement of Percy Grainger’s Arrival Platform Humlet (solo soprano saxophone) to Amanda Harberg’s first piece for saxophone, Feathers and Sax, (soprano saxophone and piano) and Jeff Scott’s new work The Gift of Life (piccolo, soprano/alto saxophone and piano). SOPRANO SUMMIT is both a celebration of the soprano saxophone as a concert instrument and a revelation of new, lost, revived, and beloved works.

When it comes to the blues, it seems like there are two different camps – those who are staunch authentic blues enthusiasts, and those who like their blues amped up with a decidedly rock approach. On his 1994 live release, No Mercy, singer/guitarist Bernard Allison certainly falls under the latter category. As with the majority of modern-day blues-rockers, Allison focuses mostly on covers of vintage blues tunes, with the odd original (or more accurately, one lone original – "Next Generation") thrown in for good measure. With Allison backed by a group of studio pros, No Mercy captures blues at its most well-honed – the complete opposite of the grittiness of the original bluesmen – especially on such tracks as the album-opening "Rock Me Baby" and "Breakin' Up Somebody's Home." Also included are a pair of tributes to Bernard's father, Luther Allison ("Change Your Way of Living" and "Help") as well as a reading of "Tin Pan Alley," which is very reminiscent of Stevie Ray Vaughan's version (on his classic Couldn't Stand the Weather release). If you're an admirer of modern-day blues-rock, then No Mercy is certainly worth a spin.

The Mose Allison installment in Atlantic's Jazz Anthology series of 1970 is superior to most in that line simply on the grounds of time. Since Allison's songs were usually brief, Atlantic was able to fit 12 of them onto a single LP and thus provide a wider selection of his output, unlike others in that series that included only five or six tracks, making it serve as a pretty good capsule introduction to one of American music's most idiosyncratic individualists. Many of his most famous songs are here – "Your Mind Is on Vacation," "New Parchman," "I'm the Wild Man," "I Don't Worry About a Thing," and "Your Molecular Structure," along with covers like "Rollin' Stone" and a rushed live remake of his biggest "hit," Willie Dixon's "Seventh Son".

Bernard Allison got some valuable advice from his father, Luther, before the latter's death in 1997: "Don't be afraid to go outside of the blues," he said. "Don't let them label you like they did me." Bernard has obviously taken that advice to heart; his solo albums have been a rich mixture of rock, funk, blues, and R&B. Most of his recordings have been released in Europe, where he has made his home for a decade. The release of Higher Power comes a little while after his return to the States, and reflects a lifetime of both good times and bad. The album's most noticeable lyrical element is the recurring theme of recovery from addiction – "I've Learned My Lesson" (from which the album's explicitly AA-derived title is taken) and "New Life I'm In" are two of the most explicit blues-based odes to a 12-step program since Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Wall of Denial." On the funkier, less pious side are the soulful "Raggedy and Dirty" (charmingly, he pronounces that word "raggly") and the funky, vaguely misogynistic "Woman Named Trouble".