Big Satan

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.

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.

Blood Red, composed by Mikko Hassinen, is a kind of soundtrack to a fictional story taking place in late 16th-century Istanbul.

According to Jack White, Get Behind Me Satan deals with "characters and the ideal of truth," but in truth, the album is just as much about what people expect from the White Stripes and what they themselves want to deliver. Advance publicity for the album stated that it was written on piano, marimba, and acoustic guitar, suggesting that it was going to be a quiet retreat to the band's little room after the big sound, and bigger success, of Elephant. Then "Blue Orchid," Get Behind Me Satan's lead single, arrived. A devilish slice of disco-metal with heavily processed, nearly robotic riffs, the song was thrilling, but also oddly perfunctory; it felt almost like a caricature of their stripped-down but hard-hitting rock.

Pere Ubu unveil their new album, Trouble On Big Beat Street, nearly four years after their previous record for Cherry Red, The Long Goodbye. The Modern Dance (1978) marked the end of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Trouble On Big Beat Street marks the end of The Song. Pere Ubu ended with The Long Goodbye (their last album, also on Cherry Red, from 2019). Pere Ubu begins again with Trouble On Big Beat Street.

The Erskine Hawkins Orchestra was riding high during the era covered by this Classics CD, and their recording of "After Hours" (included among this reissue's highlights), which features pianist Avery Parrish, would keep the momentum going. Such numbers as "Satan Does the Rhumba," "Uptown Shuffle," "Gabriel Meets the Duke" and "Junction Blues" show why the Hawkins band was one of the most popular in Harlem during the 1930s and '40s.