Category Archives: Free Stream

Art Pepper: Presents West Coast Sessions! Volume 1 – Sonny Stitt

1980 Japan-only releases reissued with bonuses

After a gap in the first half of the ‘70s, alto saxophonist and West Coast Jazz icon Art Pepper returned to recording. By decade’s end he was under contract with Galaxy, and when a small Japanese label came calling, he had to get creative. Unable to record for Atlas as a group leader, he picked session leaders and took credit only as a sideman. The albums were issued only in Japan, previously anthologized in the box set Hollywood All-Star Sessions, and are now being reissued by Omnivore with bonus tracks. The first volume, a double-CD headlined by Sonny Stitt, combines two albums, Groovin’ High and Atlas Blues: Blow! & Ballade, and adds three previously unissued takes mixed from the original multitracks.

Recorded in July 1980 at Sage & Sound in Hollywood, Pepper and Stitt were joined by pianist Lou Levy, bassist Chuck DeMonico and drummer Carl Burnette for Groovin’ High, and pianist Russ Freeman, bassist John Heard and Burnette for Atlas Blues. The former leans on jazz titles from Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie Bernie Miller and Morgan Lewis, while the latter takes in the standards “Autumn in New York,” “My Funny Valentine” “Lover Man” and “Imagination” alongside Stitt’s “Atlas Blues” and Lester Young’s “Lester Leaps In.” The quintet swings with quotes from “Rhapsody in Blue” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing),” but the first session’s rhythm section tends to the frenetic, and Pepper and Stitt sometimes seem to be blowing at each other as much as with each other.

There’s unison playing to kick things off and pull them back together, but the uptempo pieces can feel like a boxing match of jabs and counterpunches. The ballads cool things down, with the quintet finding a tender groove for “My Funny Valentine” and Freeman offering a lyrical solo to close out the set on “Imagination.” The quintet finds a tender groove for “My Funny Valentine” and Freeman offers a lyrical solo to close out the set on “Imagination.” Omnivore’s reissue includes a 12-page booklet of photos, credits, studio diagrams and detailed liner notes from Pepper’s widow, Laurie. Laurie Pepper has kept the flame of Pepper’s music alive through biography, blog and archival releases, and now with this series of reissues, an important chapter in Pepper’s career is revived. [©2017 Hyperbolium]

Art Pepper on Bandcamp and CD Baby

Whitney Rose: South Texas Suite

Superb EP from retro-inspired country singer-songwriter

Crossing paths with the Raul Malo for 2015’s Heartbreaker of the Year appears to have been predestination. Rose’s retro sensibility first showed itself on her debut album, but with Malo providing amplification, Heartbreaker showed off the ways in which classic country and pop sounds can be reborn into new music. And unlike artists who flirt with the past only to heed the siren call of the country charts (I’m looking at you Sara Evans), the sounds that fire Rose’s imagination aren’t a passing fancy. She even offers Brennen Lee’s “Analog” as a thesis statement, with its jazzy style and relaxed tempo lauding the simpler, slower times of a pre-digital world. That said, Rose is also perfectly at home with the advances women have made, declaring her freedom of footwear in “My Boots” as a marker of independence, and lending the spotlight to Redd Volkert for a stuttering guitar solo that certainly would have made Merle Haggard smile.

Her adopted Austin offers both the Tex-Mex flair (courtesy of Michael Guerra’s accordion) and social inspiration for “Three Minute Love Affair.” Rose romanticizes the brief assignation of a spin around the dance floor with a vocal that’s lost in the possibilities of a partner’s embrace. A similar romanticism fuels the crooning on Teri Joyce’s “Bluebonnets For My Baby,” with Erik Hokkanen adding wonderful fiddle lines throughout. As a Canadian ex-pat, Rose was pulled to Texas by country music and the culture that fueled it, making it something more personally fundamental than music that happened to be on the radio. She imagines a hill country pedigree in “Lookin’ Back on Luckenbach,” but it’s the strength of her emigrant’s choice that is the real draw. The EP closes with a rousing band jam that hung so far off the end of “My Boots” that it was given its own track. It’s too short, just like the EP, but with a second Malo-produced album on the way, this will have to hold you. [©2017 Hyperbolium]

Whitney Rose’s Home Page

Michigan Rattlers: Michigan Rattlers

Confessional folk-tinged country-rock

The debut from this Americana duo – guitarist Graham Young and bassist Adam Reed (with guest drummer Mike Avenaim) – pops with urgency and confessional intimacy. Produced by Johnny K (Plain White T’s, 3 Doors Down), Young shares confidences through his lyrics and the exceptionally moving tone of his voice. He sings of midwestern boys discovering themselves and building the confidence to ask for a date, but the story is far from ordinary, as the discovery is bittersweet and the date is with a widower in need of emotional rescue. Young’s vocals are mixed a half-step forward of backings driven by bass and drums, and the lyrical emphasis turns the closing “Strain of Cancer” into a harrowing recitation of a divorcee’s dismantling by a vindictive ex. Relocated from Petoskey to Los Angeles, the duo recorded the EP live at North Hollywood’s NRG Studios, giving the set an energy that’s hard to achieve piecemeal. Five songs, fifteen minutes, great debut. RIYL: Ryan Adams, Jeff Tweedy, Tom Petty, Steve Earle, Gin Blossoms. [©2017 Hyperbolium]

Michigan Rattlers’ Home Page

Matt Costa: Music From the Motion Picture Orange Sunshine

mattcosta_orangesunshineSuperb evocation of late-60s psychedelic soundtracks

If you were making a documentary on a renegade 1960s LSD collective, Huntington Beach singer-songwriter Matt Costa might not be your first thought for a period-evoking soundtrack. But Costa’s roots in Orange County match those of the Brotherhood at the film’s center, and the seeds of his nostalgic musical constructions can be found in his catalog. The resulting soundtrack for the film Orange Sunshine is the sort of ersatz experience one gained from AIP’s exploitation films – music that is of the era, but doesn’t define it. Costa deftly evokes the ‘60s with fuzzed guitars, hallucinogenic flights, West Coast jazz odysseys, blue funk, folk fingerpicking, ragas and even a touch of strategically placed vinyl surface noise.

The compositions lean to mood-setting instrumentals, but the vocal tracks – particularly the Airplane-styled “Born in My Mind” – are spot-on. What rats this out as homage rather than artifact is the crisp fidelity – something that couldn’t easily be achieved on a shoestring budget in 1968. Most impressive is that Costa wrote, engineered, produced and performed the entire album – especially remarkable on “ensemble” jams like “The Fuzz.” Several of the cuts are under two minutes – often leaving you wanting more – but this works nicely as a standalone album of ‘60s-tinged psych, jazz, soul and rock, and provides a terrific complement to the film. [©2017 Hyperbolium]

Matt Costa’s Home Page

Tim Buckley: Wings – The Complete Singles 1966-1974

timbuckley_wingsthecompletesinglesThe singles of an album artist

Though singer-songwriter Tim Buckley flourished in an era in which singles – and the radio exposure they attracted – often led albums onto the charts, he was never a singles artist. His label dutifully released singles from all nine of his albums, placing none of them on the charts, and, at best, only distracting free-form FM stations from the albums they were more likely to play. So unlike artists feted with collections of the original mono singles that listeners remember from the radio (see, for example, recent sets by The Turtles and Buck Owens), the motivation for a collection of Tim Buckley’s singles is more obscure.

Which isn’t to suggest the music is less than magnificent, or the collection unworthy of your attention, but other than the previously anthologized “Once Upon a Time” and its previously unreleased B-side “Lady, Give Me Your Key,” most of these tracks are likely already in the collections of Tim Buckley fans. What the set does offer is a read on the label’s attempt to sell Buckley commercially, both in the US and UK, and a quick read of his nine year arc as a recording artist. It also provides rare mono single mixes for tracks 1-9, improved sound (courtesy of Michael Graves), and an interview with Buckley’s longtime collaborator, Larry Beckett.

Five of the singles turn up on the retrospective Best Of, suggesting that the label (or Buckley himself) had good ears. But with no hits, one’s left to wonder whether the label hadn’t the will to push Buckley on singles-oriented radio, or if his music was simply that of an album-oriented artist. The set’s 16-page booklet includes Beckett’s detailed reminiscences about collaborating with Buckley and the genesis of their songs. That commentary and the unreleased single are the catnip, but the whole set is an interesting view of an artist whose work was too complex to fit between a DJ’s talk up and the next jingle. [©2017 Hyperbolium]

The Tim Buckley Archives

The Legal Matters: Conrad

legalmatters_conradBeautifully harmonized power pop

The second album from this Detroit pop trio is awash in fetching melodies and beautifully crafted harmonies that will remind you of the Beach Boys, Badfinger, Rubinoos, Raspberries, Posies, XTC, Matthew Sweet and Fountains of Wayne. That’s heady company, but earned by an album whose sunny melodies, sweet lead vocals and complex backings are in perfect balance. The band’s themes of infatuation, pining, coupling, misunderstanding, discord and regret come to an emotional conclusion in “Pulled My String,” as Keith Klingensmith wallows in the emotion-blinding bleakness of heartbreak. His bandmates’ harmonies and strummed guitars strive to lighten the mood, but they can’t illuminate an exit. The prideful outsiderness of “The Cool Kid,” and nostalgic “Short Term Memory” broaden the topics beyond matters of the heart. There’s falsetto vocals that suggest Brian Wilson’s prime and a lovely vocal crescendo on “More Birds Less Bees,” and the album ends on ambivalent notes of optimism and introspection in “Better Days.” This is a terrifically poised sophomore effort from an incredibly talented band. [©2016 Hyperbolium]

The Legal Matters’ Home Page

Marley’s Ghost: The Woodstock Sessions

marleysghost_thewoodstocksessionsVeteran roots group records in Woodstock with Larry Campbell

Thirty years into their career, Marley’s Ghost is like a well-worn leather jacket. You can admire their tenure intellectually, but up-close, with your ears, you can’t help but be moved by the effortless music their tenure has produced. The band’s breadth, interpersonal chemistry and instrumental skills create performance from the seemingly simpler act of music making. “Seemingly,” because it’s anything but simple for skills to be so completely second nature. With Larry Campbell as producer and recording in Levon Helm’s Woodstock studio, the group leaned heavily on a connoisseur’s selection of traditional material that includes titles written by the Delmores (“Field Hand Man”) and made famous by the Stanleys (“Stone Walls and Steel Bars”), Bill Monroe (“In the Pines”) and Carter Family (“The Storms Are on the Ocean”). The harmonies flow easily from blues to bluegrass to country to Cajun, and in “Run on for a Long Time,” to gospel. The album closes with the fiddle tune “Uncle Joe,” leaving listeners dancing to this journey through American roots music. [©2016 Hyperbolium]

Marley’s Ghost’s Home Page

The Embrooks: Nightmare 7″

It’s been more than a decade since the Embrooks dropped their second album, Yellow Glass Perspections, and parted ways. But they’re back with a terrific pair of freakbeat tunes that include the garage, mod and psych influences that made their earlier work so exciting. They’re as good as ever, if not better! Shades of early Who, Small Faces, the Creation and more.

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