Part of the new Woody Mosaic box, it includes a cover of the Spiderman cartoon show theme song. Need I say more?
review by Scott Yanow
This Muse release finds the brilliant trumpeter Woody Shaw in fine form. Heard for the only time in his career on a full set with just a rhythm trio (pianist Cedar Walton, bassist Buster Williams and drummer Victor Jones), the focus is very much on Shaw's attractive sound and his creative improvising skills. He performs four stnadards (including "There Is No Greater Love" and "What's New"), plus his own "Spiderman Blues" and Walton's "When Love Is New." The music is reasonably accessible and swinging yet imaginative in a subtle way. Recommended.
"Reasonably accessible," hmm. I suppose if you do as many reviews as Scot Yanow, you'll eventually use every possible adjective pair.
Wow, that cover art is crazy bad! I suppose they didn't have rights to use Woody's image for the reissue, but still. ETA the original:
What's there to live for?
Who needs the peace corps?
Think I'll just DROP OUT
I'll go to Frisco
Buy a wig & sleep
On Owsley's floor
Walked past the wig store
Danced at the Fillmore
I'm completely stoned
I'm hippy & I'm trippy
I'm a gypsy on my own
I'll stay a week & get the crabs &
Take a bus back home
I'm really just a phony
But forgive me
'Cause I'm stoned
Every town must have a place
Where phony hippies meet
Psychedelic dungeons
Popping up on every street
GO TO SAN FRANCISCO . . .
How I love ya, How I love ya
How I love ya, How I love ya Frisco!
How I love ya, How I love ya
How I love ya, How I love ya
Oh, my hair is getting good in the back!
Every town must have a place
Where phony hippies meet
Psychedelic dungeons
Popping up on every street
GO TO SAN FRANCISCO . . .
Hotcha!
First I'll buy some beads
And then perhaps a leather band
To go around my head
Some feathers and bells
And a book of Indian lore
I will ask the Chamber Of Commerce
How to get to Haight Street
And smoke an awful lot of dope
I will wander around barefoot
I will have a psychedelic gleam in my eye at all times
I will love everyone
I will love the police as they kick the shit out of me on the street
I will sleep . . .
I will, I will go to a house
That's, that's what I will do
I will go to a house
Where there's a rock & roll band
'Cause the groups all live together
And I will join a rock & roll band
I will be their road manager
And I will stay there with them
And I will get the crabs
But I won't care
Because . . .
McGuire as himself or in Emeralds is probably the holder of the record for most releases I have long hesitated over purchasing because they are short but priced as full albums, though some of them, when I have grimaced and purchased, have turned into favorites. This one is 32 minutes and very nice, I am still deciding whether it's $6 nice.
Followed by:
Tidings III by Mark McGuire
Also $6, this one's 78 mins, so he doesn't always run short. It's nice too.
ETA, but marred (for my ear) by a lengthy narration in the second track of a bunch of New Age stuff about everyone being a star and having their own universe and how to reconcile all existing schools of philosophy and so on. Ugh. Cool when it quits and the guitar kicks in though. Hang on, there's singing now, not so sure about that either.
- "A collection of 5 songs and 4 instrumental pieces that explore equally - and simultaneously - spontaneous performance values, close compositional detail and extensive processing. Made out on the rocky coast of Maine with just a TV eye keeping tabs on a world skidding to hell in a handcart, all the basic work was done by MacLean and Cutler with Julie Thompson (voice) added later - alongside additional parts played by Frank Gross (bassoon), Michael Bierylo (laptop, samples, circuits) and Titus Abbot (bass clarinet and saxophone). These are complex, focused pieces, some highly rhythm-rooted - mostly at rapid bpm rates - generally wide open with a close receptivity to timbral nuance and non-linearity."
- ReR Megacorp
- http://www.smaclean.com/
Soundcloud streaming Jason Kao Hwang(composer, violin, viola), Taylor Ho Bynum(cornet/flugelhorn), Andrew Drury (drum set), Ken Filiano (bass).
- "Nested in the urban mountains of New York City, Jason Kao Hwangs EDGE quartet embraces both past and future with musical tales celebrating life and loss. Their instruments, resonant with human and animal overtones, sing through sharp lines vibrating between histories, cultures and genres. Founded in 2005, EDGE has released three CDs: EDGE (Asian Improv, 2006), Stories Before Within (Innova, 2007), and most recently Crossroads Unseen (Euonymus, 2011). Crossroads Unseen was selected as one of the top CDs of 2011 by Robert Ianapollo (NY Jazz Record), Troy Collins (All About Jazz) and Howard Mandel (Jazz Journalists Association. Stories Before Within was selected as one of the Top Ten Recordings of 2008 by Coda Magazine. All About Jazz selected their first CD, EDGE (Asian Improv Records), as one of the Top Ten CDs of 2006. In 2012 the critics poll of Downbeat Magazine voted Jason Kao Hwang as Rising Star of the Year for Violin.
Comments
- 361 minutes of amazing experimental soundscapes accompanying the fairy tale . . .
gorgeous Americana, somewhere between Guy Clark and Son Volt.
Part of the new Woody Mosaic box, it includes a cover of the Spiderman cartoon show theme song. Need I say more?
"Reasonably accessible," hmm. I suppose if you do as many reviews as Scot Yanow, you'll eventually use every possible adjective pair.
Wow, that cover art is crazy bad! I suppose they didn't have rights to use Woody's image for the reissue, but still. ETA the original:
Blue Sky Black Death - Presents "Skull and Bones"
Free on Bandcamp.
Craig
Robert Hampson:
Analogue Electronics, Concr
Hotcha!
Illuha - Interstices
Released today. Very nice.
The Bard of Walthamstow won
Seaworthy & Taylor Deupree - Wood, Winter, Hollow
Also released today. Also nice.
Boris and Merzbow - Sun Baked Snow Cave
Mark McGuire - Surrogate Channels
McGuire as himself or in Emeralds is probably the holder of the record for most releases I have long hesitated over purchasing because they are short but priced as full albums, though some of them, when I have grimaced and purchased, have turned into favorites. This one is 32 minutes and very nice, I am still deciding whether it's $6 nice.
Followed by:
Tidings III by Mark McGuire
Also $6, this one's 78 mins, so he doesn't always run short. It's nice too.
ETA, but marred (for my ear) by a lengthy narration in the second track of a bunch of New Age stuff about everyone being a star and having their own universe and how to reconcile all existing schools of philosophy and so on. Ugh. Cool when it quits and the guitar kicks in though. Hang on, there's singing now, not so sure about that either.
- "A collection of 5 songs and 4 instrumental pieces that explore equally - and simultaneously - spontaneous performance values, close compositional detail and extensive processing. Made out on the rocky coast of Maine with just a TV eye keeping tabs on a world skidding to hell in a handcart, all the basic work was done by MacLean and Cutler with Julie Thompson (voice) added later - alongside additional parts played by Frank Gross (bassoon), Michael Bierylo (laptop, samples, circuits) and Titus Abbot (bass clarinet and saxophone). These are complex, focused pieces, some highly rhythm-rooted - mostly at rapid bpm rates - generally wide open with a close receptivity to timbral nuance and non-linearity."
- ReR Megacorp
- http://www.smaclean.com/
Jason Kao Hwang(composer, violin, viola), Taylor Ho Bynum(cornet/flugelhorn), Andrew Drury (drum set), Ken Filiano (bass).
- "Nested in the urban mountains of New York City, Jason Kao Hwangs EDGE quartet embraces both past and future with musical tales celebrating life and loss. Their instruments, resonant with human and animal overtones, sing through sharp lines vibrating between histories, cultures and genres. Founded in 2005, EDGE has released three CDs: EDGE (Asian Improv, 2006), Stories Before Within (Innova, 2007), and most recently Crossroads Unseen (Euonymus, 2011). Crossroads Unseen was selected as one of the top CDs of 2011 by Robert Ianapollo (NY Jazz Record), Troy Collins (All About Jazz) and Howard Mandel (Jazz Journalists Association. Stories Before Within was selected as one of the Top Ten Recordings of 2008 by Coda Magazine. All About Jazz selected their first CD, EDGE (Asian Improv Records), as one of the Top Ten CDs of 2006. In 2012 the critics poll of Downbeat Magazine voted Jason Kao Hwang as Rising Star of the Year for Violin.
Innova Recordings 2008
Gold Panda - Half of Where You Live
V/A - After Dark 2
This is so freaking great. Compilation from the Italians Do it Better label. Link goes to full, free download as one track.
Craig