Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Album Review: Delbert McClinton- Prick of the Litter

Hey all, got a new review up @glidemag which you can read Right C'here!!!
It is of Delbert McClinton and The Self Made Men and their newest album, Prick of the Litter. It is a solid disk of ballads and slow blues tunes that are written with McClinton's trademark smirk constantly showing up.

The disk isn't world changing, and if you can't get past McClinton's voice and then just pass on bye, but if you like interesting song and honest playing than give it spin.

Support the artist, buy the album, peep some video below:

Monday, January 30, 2017

New Father John Misty Album April 7th, Single, Documentary and Essay

In 2015 the album that we thought about the most was Father John Misty's I Love You, Honeybear. We reviewed it and then it ended up very high on our year end list. Now word comes that the next album from Joshua Tillman's alter ego will be coming out in early April and we are very excited for it, especially because it is titled Pure Comedy.

To accompany the upcoming release, Father John Misty has released a single, a documentary and a super long essay on what to expect of the album.  

Here is the the title song single: 


And a documentary of the making of the album:


and click that read more tab for the long essay Tillman wrote on the new album, it is pretty great:

2016 Recap: Favorite Albums, Shows, Etc

With all the hectic happenings at the end of the year, things can be missed. This is just a catch up post to point out a few of our favorite things from 2016 that shouldn't go unnoticed. There were many strong releases, great live shows, amazing musical moments....2017 has a lot to live up to.

 In case you missed it here are our Best of 2016 series of posts...

Our picks for best album art of 2016, where we check out some creative album art from the last year.

Our picks for best live show of 2016, what an amazing year for live tunes...all of these were jaw dropping nights in their own ways.

Finally our onetwothree, part picks for best albums of 2016.  Again all of these are fantastic and worth your time and attention.

Feel free to let us know your choices in the comments and thanks as always for reading and exploring...as the patron saint of this blog stated:

What are those of the known, but to ascend and enter the Unknown? 


Friday, January 27, 2017

Full Show Friday: Holly Bowling River Street Jazz Cafe May 5, 2016

We search the murky back waters of youtube to find full concerts and post them to the site weekly, come back every seven days to help us celebrate Full Show Friday's. These shows are of varying quality and may not be here for long so enjoy them while you can...As always, please support the artist every which way, but especially by seeing them live (if they are still playing)...This week...Holly Bowling!!!
Not gonna lie here at RtBE, we almost stopped our Jazz Jan series this year as it is clearly our least read series/event on the site every year. We like it and think it gets us through a shitty winter month every year, but clearly friends and readers do not. Then we heard Holly Bowling.
Wow. 

Here's the deal, she is a classically trained pianist who interrupts the songs of Phish and The Grateful Dead in her own way. Not only that but (as you can see from the set list and hear in the full show) she will recreate jams from specific nights, experiment on her own and bring cool as all hell perspectives to the songs. This isn't a cover show, this is a blessing for the ears, any fan of the two iconic jam institutions should be required to check her work out.   

We always like to segue back to our more rock focused coverage with the last Full Show Friday of January, but none have been more perfect. We are so happy that we found this show and Miss Bowling in general and are happy to showcase this show as our last Full Show Friday for Jazz January in 2017.  Enjoy:
Holly Bowling
River Street Jazz Cafe
Plains, PA
May 5th, 2016

Set One:

The Curtain With
Unbroken Chain
Piper
Gorge 09 sally jam
Crazy Fingers
It's Ice
Frankenstein
It's Ice

Set Two:

Help on the Way
Slipknot!
Sand
Eureka 92 tweezer jam
Steam *
Terrapin Station Suite
Free **
Slipknot!
Franklin's Tower

Encore:

Taste

* w/ Slipknot! & Help on the Way teases
** w/ Sand tease

Thursday, January 26, 2017

NOLA Jazzfest Announcement Tomorrow!

The best music/cultural/whatever festival in America, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is announcing their music lineup tomorrow.

RtBE has already given our predictions and wants for the show which we hit every year, but we can't wait to see who will be playing and which weekend. The announcement usually comes in the morning so we don't have to wait to long to see whose headed to the big easy in the spring.

Until tomorrow, some Rebirth Brass Band for y'all:




Album Review: Ayumi Ishito - View From A Little Cave

Ayumi Ishito
View From A Little Cave
*** out of *****

The debut from album from the Brooklyn based saxophonist and composer Ayumi Ishito is a swirling mix of easy brass, dynamic shifts and rolling sound.

The album was recorded with her longtime quintet, Ayumi Ishito :: tenor and soprano saxophones Matthew Albeck :: electric guitar, Takafumi Suenaga :: acoustic and electric pianos, organ, synthesizer, Yoshiki Yamada :: electric bass and Carter Bales :: drums, who have all been playing together since 2011 and gel excellently.

Opening with the title track the five piece glide with ease, letting Ishito blow relaxed tones while also focusing heavily on the electro-keys of Suenaga. The tempo slows for the bass and drums to take over for "Still Shallow" leading to some gorgeous high points while "Road Song" stays mellow and gives the guitar room to roam.  

The band is effortless and at times the pacing can seem a bit too easy going, but when they lock in the unit can really cook. "Sleepwalking" is an avant-garde blast of angular sounds wrapped around easy listening while the reggae groove kicks up for "Walking On Mars". The closer "Thirsty For It" falls into a light rocking pattern, ending the album pleasantry. A fun first release from Ms. Ishito and company.
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Yet another cool bandcamp find for our Jazz focus this January. Support the band, buy the album, stream it on bandcamp or below.

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

"Love Rocks NYC" Benefit Concert Announced

A great non-profit is hosting a New York City benefit in March as designer John Varvatos & Greg Williamson, will help raise money for God's Love We Deliver with a pretty kick ass concert at the Beacon Theater titled Love Rocks NYC.
The lineup is chock full of our favorites, Mavis Staples and Aaron Neville both showed up on our year end review, guitar greats Warren Haynes, Gary Clark Jr. and Derek Trucks will be there and our nod for our favorite live set from last year Dr. John is on the bill.

Tickets go on-sale this weekend, and we will be grabbing one as this show is right up RtBE's alley. To prep, lets see some of the artists on stage:







Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Album Review: KWahtro -Sync

Hey all, got a new review up @glidemag which you can read Right C'here!!!
It is of the new KWahtro album titled Sync from Keller Williams and crew. Williams has been around for a long time, we actually saw him at Gathering of The Vibes waaay back in the day. 

This disk is actually one of the best that Williams has been involved with and the main reason are the incredibly talented backup players who bring a very jazzy vibe to things (fitting in with our Jazzy January month).  

We wrote enough about it, so lets just listen to some tunes:

Friday, January 20, 2017

Full Show Friday: Gregory Porter 2016

We search the murky back waters of youtube to find full concerts and post them to the site weekly, come back every seven days to help us celebrate Full Show Friday's. These shows are of varying quality and may not be here for long so enjoy them while you can...As always, please support the artist every which way, but especially by seeing them live (if they are still playing)...This week...Gregory Porter.

This week we add some vocals to our Jazz Jan Full Show Friday's with the robust voice of Gregory Porter. This is a full live show from last year, pro shot with pro sound. The playing (by Chip Crawford - piano Jahmal Nichols - double bass Emanuel Harrold - drums
Keyon Harrold - trumpet) veers a bit towards "easy listening" but the singer is the true focus this week. Enjoy:

Thursday, January 19, 2017

New Spoon Album Hot Thoughts Due St. Paddy's Day, New Single Released

One of our favorites Spoon are set to release a new album of their wound tight pop rock. This release is titled Hot Thoughts and the cover art is here:
Lovin' that purp' vinyl
You can pre-order the album now, and even more excitingly the band released the title track for ear hole consumption:


It is a bit dance heavy and electro for our ears the first go around, but we will give it sometime. We loved their last effort, They Want My Soul, and ranked it high on our year end list, but weren't too much of a fan of Transference. Let's see, any which way we are excited to give it a listen.

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Album Review: Run The Jewels- Run The Jewels 3

Hey all, got a new review up @glidemag which you can read Right C'here!!!
It is of the newest Run The Jewels album succinctly titled Run The Jewels 3. We loved RTJ2 and ranked it very high in 2014, and this is more of the same excellent hip hop; we wouldn't be surprised if it shows up on this years Best Of List.

This go around there is a little less lighthearted fun and silly throw away rhymes, but the situation has gotten even more serious in the country so, Killer Mike and El-P have adjusted accordingly. The dexterous word play and frenetic beats are exhilarating, this is the first great album of 2017.

Support the artists, buy the album, peep some video:

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Album Review: The Flaming Lips - Oczy Mlody

Hey all, got a new review up @glidemag which you can read Right C'here!!!
It is of The Flaming Lips newest release Oczy Mlody. In looking at the bands career, RtBE loved them at the beginning with their weird guitar based rock (especially after seeing them up close on the second stage of Lollapalooza) and the band clearly reached their peak with The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. We enjoy At War With The Mystics but after that it is really downhill and now it has been over 10 years since we can say the band has made an album we enjoy. 

That is sad because they, if anything, constantly try. It is just some of their experiments aren't that freaky (their takes on Sgt. Peppers and Pink Floyd) or are complete messes (The Terror). This disk is clearly more upbeat, but not anything approaching a return to form.

If you want languid prog influenced music about Frogs and Fairies check it out, if not skip it. We may return to at during our year end rankings, but that will be the only time and we doubt that is in a positive fashion.
Support the band, buy the album, peep some video:

Monday, January 16, 2017

Happy MLK Jr. Day: March on Washington 1963

This is a tradition here at RtBE. While we are including this in our Monday Dylan series, this is a necessary break from the routine.
We here at RtBE have lots of heroes and most stem from America's hard fought past. We have talked about the godfather of this site, we will probably touch on Lincoln at some point, but the man who we celebrate today is right up there with all of them. Martin Luther King Jr. is an American who deserves to be honored right alongside the greatest our country has ever produced.

We are happy to dedicate this Monday to him and to help celebrate the day we will post a 10 minute clip of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and others performing songs at one of the most monumental days for democracy, the1963 March on Washington DC.

Dylan plays "When The Ship Comes In" with Baez helping out, "Only A Pawn In Their Game" solo and joins a group for "Keep Your Eyes On The Prize".



Have a great day and make sure to watch this, MLK's last prophetic public words:


It is still so incredibly moving.

The full speech is located here and worth listening to as well:

Friday, January 13, 2017

Full Show Friday: Dr. Lonnie Smith & The Jazzinvaders 2012

We search the murky back waters of youtube to find full concerts and post them to the site weekly, come back every seven days to help us celebrate Full Show Friday's. These shows are of varying quality and may not be here for long so enjoy them while you can...As always, please support the artist every which way, but especially by seeing them live (if they are still playing)...This week...Dr. Lonnie Smith & The Jazzinvaders

It's Jazzy January again here at RtBE, so get ready to kick off 2017 with some different styled shows every Friday. For this series we skew into new (or more recent) jazz lands. Keeping it current proves there is amazing live jazz still being performed no matter what Ken Burns says.

The great Dr. Lonnie Smith! We have not yet featured him during our Jazzy Jan feature so why not now. This show is from 2012 with the Jazzinvaders and for fans of funky stuff, give it a listen immediately. This is some great live jazz, fresh, kicking and instantly listenable unlike a lot of the genre's freakier moments. More info below, but the most important thing is you  Enjoy:


In August '12 The Jazzinvaders spent some days in the studio with Hammond legend Dr. Lonnie Smith. During this session over 10 tracks were recorded. The new Jazzinvaders album ft. Dr. Lonnie Smith was released early 2013 on Unique Records.

Line up: Dr Lonnie Smith (Hammond organ), Phil Martin (drums), Linda Bloemhard (vox), Rolf Delfos (alto sax), Jan van Duikeren (trumpet), Guido Nijs (tenor sax), Berthil Busstra (Fender rhodes) and Ton van der Kolk (bass).

Setlist:
00:00 Nelson
08:45 Song For Lonnie
16:06 No Cure
22:33 Little Sunflower
29:46 Buzzin'
36:38 Tie Am
43:44 Mellow Mood
54:08 Hey Hey Yeah Yeah
1:03:40 More of That Stuff
1:10:09 What The Bleep
1:21:20 Move Your Hand (Encore)

Bookings info: Music & More - http://www.musicandmore.nl
Band website: http://www.jazzinvaders.com

Camera: Rick Keus, Simona Petescu, Frank Montis
Video edit: Ton van der Kolk
Audio mixing: Danny Gras

Thursday, January 12, 2017

2017 Jazzfest Lineup, Predicted Today

Soon the lineup for the 2017 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival will be announced but we got the early scoop...


Actually no we don't...but since it is fun to predict, lets look into the crystal ball and guess who will be and who should be playing. We will exclude local acts (even though they are the main reason we go) including nationally touring NOLA acts like Dr. John, Galactic and Trombone Shorty who will all be there. Lets just talk about the bigger national touring artists for now....

To get in the southern festive NOLA mood, here is a great video done by Jeronimo Acero that my friend the fantastic Lu Brow sent north to warm me up during the winter.
Now on to the predictions....

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Album Review: Zvjezdan Ruzic - The Knightingale Cabaret

Zvjezdan Ruzic 
The Knightingale Cabaret
*** out of *****

Most of our finds during Jazzy January are more the scaled down trios, electronic experimenters of funky players, not this time. Zvjezdan Ruzic has put together a large musical suite that he calls The Knightinale Cabaret and this is a solid large scale album. 

The musical excursions all run long (shortest of the six is still over eight minutes) but the fullness of sound and lush production flow throughout. Ruzic is a Croatian piano player and composer and he brought together a slew of great players from neighboring countries. The players, trumpet - Tomaž Gajšt, soprano sax - Vojkan Jocić, tenor sax - Lenart Krečič, bass - Luka Veselinović, drums - Adriano Bernobić, vocal - Alba Nacinovich all work wonderfully together.

On the opening "Moreska" the group is locked in, moving fluidly together while still giving soloists time to experiment inside the frame work of the song. The upbeat, cascading number won the Porin Award in Croatia for the Best Jazz Composition and with its pacing, playing and joyous feel it is easy to see why as it is the standout track here.

The swelling, theatrical drama is amped for the title effort, which has Eastern European moods running through it while "Bigot Land" is more stop start and aggressive. "Alkar Salko", opens with ease and grace before dipping into darker places led by Ruzic piano while "Lindo" plays with a tension under the surface

The disk closes with "The End of Act 1" (which showcases Nacinovich's vocals) indicating there may be more coming from this group of players and that would be a good thing as the dynamic Knightingale Cabaret is welcomed listening for any jazz fan.
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Support the artist, buy the album, stream it from bandcamp or below:

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Album Review: Evil Eye - Doin' It All For My Baby

Evil Eye
Doin' It All For My Baby
**and1/2 out of *****
A jazz quartet from Brookyln, NY Evil Eye deliver some free form jazz on Doin' It All For My Baby. Originally the disk was released in 2007, but it is out of print and the band just recently uploaded it to bandcamp.

The group, Jonathan Moritz- tenor sax, Nate Wooley- trumpet, Mike Pride- drums, vibraphone, percussion, Ken Filiano- bass flow along together exploring space and sound along with various textures and tempos. Opening with "Amhorikkka" is a frenetic opener, with pounding drums and skitter brass showing the band is willing to get after it from the beginning. This track has a punk rock feel with screeches and cymbal smashes while the following "There Certainly Are Not Great Writers" cools things almost to a crawl. These drastic shifts song to song make Doin' It All For My Baby an interesting but never an easy ride. 

On "Moore For Mom" the group catches an easy groove before Wooley's Trumpet disintegrates and stops the flow dead. Mortiz sax takes things up and things start progressing again until almost nine minutes of engaging jazz travel. "Mend More Ills" plays with lots of empty space and feels sparse while closer "When We've All Rehearsed Out Separate Parts The Real Thing Will Happen" takes this a step closer and just deals with minimalist drone. 

What initially grabbed us was the cool album art, a hippo USA? Sign RtBE up, and while the hippo was created by Elodie Blanchard, the music made by the Brooklyn foursome was worth the adventurous ride, even without the obvious Huey Lewis Jazz cover.  
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Support the band, buy the album, stream it on bandcamp or below:


Friday, January 6, 2017

Full Show Friday: Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah Live from Berklee College of Music 2015

We search the murky back waters of youtube to find full concerts and post them to the site weekly, come back every seven days to help us celebrate Full Show Friday's. These shows are of varying quality and may not be here for long so enjoy them while you can...As always, please support the artist every which way, but especially by seeing them live (if they are still playing)...This week...Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah


It's Jazzy January again here at RtBE, so get ready to kick off 2017 with some different styled shows every Friday. For this series we skew into new (or more recent) jazz lands. Keeping it current proves there is amazing live jazz still being performed no matter what Ken Burns says.

Our favorite find from 2016's Jazzy Jan was Christian Scott who blew our ears away with his Stretch Music. We made a choice to showcase his live show right there and then...but we saved it til this months Jazz showcase. Why not kick it off with it? More info below the video o nthe players and recording. Enjoy:

Christian Scott performs at Cafe 939 in Boston, MA with a diverse group of musicians from a wide variety of backgrounds and also has a conversation with WBGO's Simon Rentner. Full line up listed below.

Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah - Trumpet, Reverse Flugel, Sirenette

Braxton Cook - Straight Alto, Alto

Lawrence Fields - Piano, Keys

Kris Funn - Bass

Corey Fonville - Drums #1

Joe Dyson - Drummer #2

Dominic Minix - Guitar

Warren Wolf - Vibes

Elena Pinderhughes - Flute & Additional Vocals

Thursday, January 5, 2017

Album Review: missingNo.-Epoch EP

missingNo.
Epoch
** out of *****
missingNo. are a seven piece collective that have focused on covering and playing video game music in jazz style. We have covered other artists who dabble in this realm but none that do it this well. If you were to play Epoch for die hard jazz fans and never mentioned the source material they would love it, the only downside is the EP runs four short songs.

The opener is from the game Chrono Trigger and is called "Corridors of Time" and has a majestic timeless feel to it. This music could have come about from the big band era of the 20's or recent electro artists, but in missingNo. hands the track is classy. A more playful number is the almost Latin flavored "Pokemon Center" which showcase the collectives percussion.

An upbeat, ska injected "Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?!!" comes from the Adventure Time based game of the same name and is energetic with a chugging guitar, and while fine a bit of a depature from the other more nuanced tracks here. The last tack is "Korobeiniki (Tetris Type A)" the bands take on some Tetris music, and it combines some of the rock elements with the more jazzy feel of things mixing an matching (even going traditional) until the end.

A great idea and excellent execution from the Vancouver based band as they combine their love of gaming and jazz into a product any music fan could love.
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Support the band, buy the album, peep some video stream it on bandcamp or below

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Album Review: Medline- Old Souls Carnival

Medline
Old Souls Carnival
*** out of *****
The newest release from the French-Chilean artist Medline (Orlando Diaz Corvalan) is titled Old Souls Carnival and the producer/player/mixer/masterer combines festive sounds with electronic beats and breaks for a full, immersive experience.

The opening title track is cinematic with sparse and swirling sounds while "Moon Crescent" inserts hip-hop breaks into the beats and flow. This song would work excellent with some rhyming over the flutes, drums and assorted sounds while "Wild Sour" falls directly into hip hop with vocals and rhymes from Stainless Steel.

The album moves in an angular, at times rambling style. Not always tight, the disk wanders into interesting nooks and crannies "Flying Dervishes" with its disjointed vibrations and horn breaks is a good summation of things. The spacey "Dreams and Nightmares" explores more of this terrain while "When Truth Blasts" is grounded and sludge filled.  

Medline moving towards hip-hop is clearly the way that he feels comfortable, however he never limits his sounds, allowing the tracks to develop a life of their own. Fans of adventurous music should give this Old Souls Carnival a ride.
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Moving into the electronic side of our Jazzy Jan with this fun album. Support the artist, buy the album, stream it at bandcamp or below:

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Album Review: Thomas Zaruba- Slow Down

Thomas Zaruba
Slow Down
**and1/2 out of *****

Sometimes the title of an album can be a throw away, or a connection to a hopeful hit single and sometimes the title of an album can say it all. Thomas Zaruba's most recent work is a contemplative reflection and an urge to simply Slow Down in this trying and supremely fast times.  

This is a solo piano album from the composer/player Zaruba who is based in Paris, France and it slowly rolls through easy moving scales and progressions. The tempo never rises above a gentle stroll as Zaruba takes his own advice and lets the notes breath in space. The tracks here are fairly the same with the player moving from one tone to the next, but never changing the palette, repetition can be a bit dulling at times, but this is also a mood album and that is half the point.  

The tracks that we liked best are the seasonal sounding "Kozel" and the closing "Still Seeking" is a peaceful and pleasant way to end the disk. Some numbers aren't as successful with the mood as "Seventh Day" feels a bit out of place while "Shadow and Light" feels repetitive in the album itself and overly sleepy.

With instrumental Jazz sometimes the message doesn't get through, Zaruba succeeds this way, he also wrote some notes that really nail the feeling  he is going for. An example is: "In the right proportion silence brings introspection, and sadness is replaced by joy." Keep that in mind as you Slow Down.
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Some solo piano work as we begin Jazzy January. Support the artist, buy the album, stream it on bandcamp or below:


Monday, January 2, 2017

Dylan Cover #262 Mountain with Ozzy Osborne "Masters of War"

In this ongoing Monday Series we will be exploring various artists versions of Bob Dylan song's. Today's tune is a cover by Mountain playing "Masters of War":

This month we will focus on the band Mountain's fairly recent Dylan Cover album Masters of War
Thoughts on Original:
From the first time we tackled a cover of this tune:
Ranking as one of his most accusatory and cutting tracks Dylan condemns the whole "war machine" on this classic and vital song (the "hope that you die" line is so fucking cold, it is brutal). Often misrepresented as an attack on war itself (Dylan always said he wasn't a pacifist) this track calls out the government for using war-as-business (the Cold War in particular) and business-as-war models when lives are put on the line for meaningless reasons. As alive and burning now as it was in 1962 when he wrote it, a tremendous song.
Cover:

Thoughts on Cover Artist:
January we are going to focus on Mountain. Here is some info on the group, we have never really known them or been a fan outside of classic rock radio. Regarding the bands decision to do a full album of Dylan covers here is the rationale:
After 5 to 6 years on a recent worldwide Mountain tour, we were asked to record a new CD. During the touring Leslie heard Neil Young's rendition of Blowin in the Wind and decided to perform it acoustically at our shows. The reaction was clearly overwhelming leaving Les and I to a serious look, again, at the musical and political significance of Bob Dylan's repertoire. I personally felt that Leslie's vocal power would match the power in Dylan's lyrics. The melodies simple and direct would match Leslie's lyrical guitar expressions. The drum feels were spontaneous and most of the basic tracks were first takes in the studio. Personally, I just tried to punctuate the hell out of the song. It took about 3 years to contemplate exactly what Dylan material we would decide to record Mountain style. The final result is Mountain CD MASTERS OF WAR
Thoughts on Cover:
A nice fit with the heaviness of the band and the heaviness of the topic, and a pretty easy choice to be the title track of the bands full Dylan cover album that we will be focusing on this month. The added Ozzy vocals are excellent as the crown prince of darkness gets to sing some of The Bards angriest lines and helps elevate this cover. 

With lead singer Leslie West, like lots of heavy metal singers he likes to show off and the vocal ticks aren't our favorite but it comes with this territory.   

Sunday, January 1, 2017

...Hello 2017

Happy New Year! Here's hoping that 2017 is everything you hope it becomes. We are personally happy to see 2016 leave and will be wishing for better in the New Year, who knows where we will go...



And while we can...