Bunny & The Echoman

Reggae fans overlook this one at their peril. Originally released as two separate albums on Bunny Wailer's own Solomonic label, this CD brings together the dub versions of songs from Blackheart Man, his solo debut, and Bunny Wailer Sings the Wailers, his tribute to the band he originally founded with Peter Tosh and Bob Marley.

Bunny Wailer is not only known as an original member of reggae group The Wailers, but also because of his fantastic solo career. His second album Protest is full of solid reggae rhythms and conscious lyrics. It's subtle with a lot of slowly growing repetitions and the great Peter Tosh appears on the guitar. As the title suggests, it is more of social commentary, Bunny protests against vanity and rallies for human rights. All over this one needs to be in everybody's Reggae collection.

Beach Bunny's new EP Blame Game, via Mom+Pop Music, follows the band’s 2020 Billboard Top 10 debut album Honeymoon, which received 4 STARS from Rolling Stone - and a print profile - a multi-page critic’s essay from The New Yorker and features with The Cut, i-D, Paper, Nylon and many more. Where Honeymoon centered on the highs and lows of new love, Blame Game takes aim at toxic masculinity, sexism and the emotional labor of unreliable relationships. Blame Game was written in quarantine and recorded in Chicago over a week in August. The four new original songs are produced by Joe Reinhart (Hop Along, Joyce Manor, Modern Baseball, Remo Drive).

Bunny Brunel is best-known as a virtuosic electric bassist who is featured in high-quality fusion settings. This particular recording is quite a bit different for Brunel is heard exclusively on acoustic bass, performing advanced jazz standards including pieces by Wayne Shorter, Steve Swallow, and Herbie Hancock along with two of the bassist's originals, "Stella by Starlight," Charlie Parker's "Relaxin' at Camarillo," and "Someday My Prince Will Come." Guitarist Mike Stern has plenty of solos, pianist Billy Childs gets in his spots, and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta is fine in support, but Brunel clearly controls the music. On the concluding "Twelve Bars for Leberstraum," Chick Corea guests on piano.

Bunny Berigan began his prime stretch of solo recordings with this collection of songs cut between 1935-1936. Berigan still worked as a sideman for the likes of Benny Goodman during this period, and he even did some session and film work, but it is his own material which has solidified his reputation as a top figure of the big band era. And while later sides from 1937-1939 would trump some of the ones included here, this collection still brims over with exciting and tight material from a variety of Berigan contingents. In addition to his first stab at "I Can't Get Started" (somewhat inferior to the classic version from 1937), Berigan is featured on a bevy of small group and a large ensemble highlights, like "Chicken and Waffles" and "Blues"…

Having made a name for himself in the bands of Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman, trumpeter Bunny Berigan set out on his own in 1937. Heading up a big band that included such shifting personnel as drummer Buddy Rich, tenor saxophonist George Auld, trumpeter/arranger Ray Conniff, and pianist Joe Bushkin, Berigan blazed brightly and briefly, until alcoholism and a lack of discipline forced him to break up his band in 1939. This Classics disc features tracks cut before things went south. Covering the years 1937-1938, the 20 sides find Berigan and company in their prime, with sparkling solos coming from Berigan, Auld, Conniff, and Bushkin. While the disc sags a bit with some requisite filler by vocalist Ruth Gaylor, instrumental highlights like "Wacky Dust" (a possible cocaine-reference here?), Ellington's "Azure," and Irving Berlin's "Russian Lullaby" ensure this batch of mostly solid swingers stays fresh.