Beyond The Best Dressed

Don't let the photos on some of Sara Gazarek's albums and promtional stuff–a barefoot young lady dressed more like a folk singer from the 60's–fool you. This lady is a jazz singer–and an up and coming jazz lion at that. Recording an album live–especially an acoustic jazz album–has to be somewhat schizophrenic for an artist. On one hand, there is the "electricity" that performing before a live audience can bring to a performance; on the other hand, any miscues or imperfections are likely to make it to the recording, too.

Billy Joel is a New York icon who became one of the most successful singer/songwriters of the late 20th century. He first rose to success in the mid-'70s with a melodic piano-led pop sound that merged Beatlesque hooks with elements of rock, jazz, Tin Pan Alley, and even Broadway.

Billy Joel is a New York icon who became one of the most successful singer/songwriters of the late 20th century. He first rose to success in the mid-'70s with a melodic piano-led pop sound that merged Beatlesque hooks with elements of rock, jazz, Tin Pan Alley, and even Broadway.

There was no shortage of good psychedelic albums emerging from England in 1967-1968, but Ogden's Nut Gone Flake is special even within their ranks. The Small Faces had already shown a surprising adaptability to psychedelia with the single "Itchycoo Park" and much of their other 1967 output, but Ogden's Nut Gone Flake pretty much ripped the envelope. British bands had an unusual approach to psychedelia from the get-go, often preferring to assume different musical "personae" on their albums, either feigning actual "roles" in the context of a variety show (as on the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album), or simply as storytellers in the manner of the Pretty Things on S.F. Sorrow, or actor/performers as on the Who's Tommy. The Small Faces tried a little bit of all of these approaches on Ogden's Nut Gone Flake, but they never softened their sound…

Pavlov's Dog lead singer David Surkamp was everything that was wrong with the band's Columbia debut Pampered Menial. Tempered here by Blue Oyster Cult producers Murray Krugman and Sandy Pearlman, who also recorded the first disc, the sound is more appealing to the ear. The question is, where was it going? Too pop for progressive rock, and too progressive for Top 40, the music is driving and more focused the second time around. There are some heavy guests to add to the festivities, Roxy Music's sax player Andy Mackay along with drummer William Bruford and Arista sax player Michael Brecker, though the tracks they appear on are not designated. "Valkerie" has a great hook, of "bring back the good old days," and the production here is cleaner than the first time around, but there is something very left field about this group, extremely non-commercial, even on a pretty ballad like "Standing Here With You (Megan's Song)"…