MUSIC REVIEWS
Dexter Gordon
The Complete Blue Note Sixties Sessions
Blue Note
As the first to translate Charlie Parker's bebop mode to the tenor saxophone, Dexter Gordon was a serious player in L.A.'s highly charged Central Avenue scene early in his career. An ear for melody, long loping phrases, and a larger-than-life sound were the hallmarks of his style; his laid-back rhythmic approach strategically placed key notes slightly behind the beat. However, a bout with drugs and the upsurge of the cooler West Coast jazz movement found Gordon spending most of the 1950s in relative obscurity.
Gordon expatriated to Europe in 1962 and recorded prolifically thereafter, and this six-CD set captures the meticulous planning that went into those sessions. As the published letters included in the liner notes reveal, New York producer and Blue Note Records owner Alfred Lion was consistently outlining Dex's future, always considering his most appropriate repertoire and consciously combining him with the very best of sidemen.
Gordon's comeback with Blue Note has resulted in some of the finest postbop ever put to disc. Unlike his later playing, which was so relaxed as to lull the listener, these recordings swing hard, often at medium uptempo, and always hit the pocket. With an outstanding pool of musicians including pianist Sonny Clark, bassist Paul Chambers, drummer Philly Joe Jones, and trumpeters Freddie Hubbard and Donald Byrd, Gordon also waxes poetic on a number of beautiful ballads.
The set incorporates nine albums recorded over twelve sessions, including the classics Doin' Allright and A Swingin' Affair. Nine previously unissued or rejected tracks are added as a bonus; listeners will appreciate recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder's penchant for incredible sound. Three decades later, these timeless tracks still feel fresh - caught at the apex of Gordon's recorded legacy. Kudos to Blue Note for its classy presentation of an important and exciting body of work and for resurrecting this leader of straight-ahead jazz.
notdunjusta
New Dog
Only innovative outfits such as the unique collaborative Dogon will survive ambient's inevitable shakeout. American Paul Godwin and Venezuelan Miguel Noya bring an improv ethic to their chillscapes, having already conducted a transcontinental jam in San Francisco and Caracas via the Net last year. Pre-Colombian rhythms steep in delicate folds of electronica, fashioning structures that defy any genre. Some tracks are entirely improvised; others play like commercial jingles under heavy torsion. Dogon captures the best of progressive ambient: whispers from the interstice between dreaming and waking.
Miracle
Beggars Banquet
Minimally transcendent and pared down to basic elements of guitar, bass, and percussion, this is not the slick solo CD you'd expect from reggae master Bim Sherman. Instead, Miracle aches with John Coltrane's spiritualism, pushed to extremes and reduced to elegant simplicity. When Sherman sings "Bewildered" or "Must Be a Dream," he mixes rich, bluesy vocals with a Silent Way-era Miles Davis sound and evokes recent rhythms from Pharoah Sanders - credit the latter to tablist Talvin Singh. Catch a hint of Jamaican lilt in his voice, close your eyes, and feel Bim reaching for heaven. A true miracle.
Brand New Knife
Big Deal
Shonen Knife has distilled some 20 years of new wave, punk, and alternative rock into an album that transcends genre. With lovely vocals and harmonies and generous use of melodic, rhythmic hooks, the Japanese trio makes three-chord rock magical again. Subject matter includes toys ("Magic Joe"), food ("Fruits and Vegetables"), and roller coasters ("Loop Di Loop"); humor distinguishes them from the angst-ridden rockers who clog the airwaves today. The music's simple beauty and the obvious joy the band gets from its work combine to make Brand New Knife an enchanting disc.
Jesus Christ Superstars
Mute
As a performance-art troupe, Laibach made waves in the former Yugoslavia, but fear not these goofball shockheads. Jesus Christ Superstarsé@ééés of conceptééven technorock, telling the story of Christ's death and resurrection and exploring the teleology of his passion. But given such a solemn premise, this Slovenian export exults in prophecy, doom, and the sheer terror of apocalypse - and emerges as something akin to Spinal Tap. Though Superstars is a sine qua non for those who like their metal laced with fire and brimstone, Laibach doesn't seem to get its own jokes.
The Pawn Shop Years
Rykodisc
With the Nuns, rock-and-roll lifer Alejandro Escovedo once opened for the Sex Pistols and later founded Austin's gritty Rank and File and The True Believers. During the 1990s, he's explored emotionally devastating material on solo discs with his self-titled orchestra. But Esco still bugs out when the mood hits - here fronting a ragged quartet named for a T. Rex song. For Buick MacKane, garage glam is an obvious inspiration: severalcuts recall Escovedo's heroes The Faces, and his feedback-drenched Stooges cover, "Loose," proves him for what he is: a middle-aged rocker who wears it well.
Fly by Night
Accurate
Tubaist Marcus Rojas has long played in jazz ensembles known for expanding traditional musical boundaries. Spanish Fly, a band mingling New Orleans and Manhattan styles, finds Rojas paired with slide guitarist Dave Tronzo and trumpeter Steven Bernstein, plus guest drummer Ben Perowsky. This album is an immeasurable leap from the first, presenting an eight-part suite composed for the San Francisco Ballet. Full of vocalized growls, slurs, and shouts, the group's sound has a rumbling and roaring vitality that only jazz well-seasoned with funky blues tidbits and streetwise humor can offer.
Return of the DJ Vol. II
Bomb
A growing number of DJs are taking hip hop back to the old school, unearthing the myriad possibilities of utilizing turntables as their only songwriting instrument and - literally - making beats from scratch. Following last year's highly acclaimed Return of the DJ compilation, Vol. II reads like a who's who of some of today's most respected international turntablists, each with their own impressive collage of the music's history and theory. Check out Phoenix's Radar and Z-Trip on "Private Parts" for the funniest selection of sources and Montreal's Kid Koala for his dazzling technical proficiency on "Static's Waltz."
Four Manifestations on Six Elements
Barooni/Staalplaat
Though Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, and La Monte Young are hailed as the pioneers of minimalist music, the portfolio of Charlemagne Palestine is equally reductive, relentless, and compelling. These six pieces (four for piano, two for electronics) use repetition as a means for exploring rhythm, texture, and the very essence of the music Palestine dubs the "golden sound." Not to be confused with vacuous New Age pablum, Palestine's work offers sonic sculptures to be thoroughly inspected and savored at every moment.
