Blaxploitation!

What a great CD series! These are British imports, so sometimes their perspective on what exactly constitutes "blaxploitation" differs from ours, but put any of these on and suddenly you're cruising the mean streets in your low rider (or so I imagine, says the pink guy.) "Volume 3: The Payback" features Curtis Mayfield ("Move On Up"), William DeVaughn ("Be Thankful for What You Got"), War ("The World is a Ghetto") --- and these are the full-length album versions, not the single edits. Volume 1 has more of what you'd expect ("Pusherman", "Superfly", "Theme from Shaft") but in both volumes, there are other, more surprising choices ("Also Sprach Zarathustra"? "Summer in the City" -- by Quincy Jones ??) Still, it all hangs together very well.
"Blue Funk" isn't part of the Blaxploitation series, but's it is very similar, raiding the Blue Note vaults to feature Grant Green, Jack McDuff, Lou Donaldson and Bobby Hutcherson -- fine, fine stuff indeed.

John Renbuorn

Like Bert Jansch (from an earlier post), John Renbourn was part of the British folk-baroque revival, and of course, John and Bert played in Pentangle. John's solo work featured 'early music' transcribed for guitar, and later albums explored American acoustic blues and Celtic music. While Bert Jansch and Davy Graham were probably more influential due to their eclectic styles, John Renbourn was more of an accomplished traditionalist than groudbreaking artiste. That being said, the album "The Lady and the Unicorn" was one of the first popular guitar albums to feature music of Dowland, Gervaise and Bach in guitar transcriptions. "Sir John Alot of Merrie Englades Musyk Thyng & Ye Grene Knyghte" included jazzier pieces along with trad folk, and "The Nine Maidens" was a collection of 'original' pieces (mostly further arrangements of olde tunes ala "Lady & the Unicorn"). Of the 3, "Sir John Alot" is my favorite; the flute playing is a nice touch, though I could use a little less bongo/hand-drum.

Jon Hassell: Lava Lamp Music

Jon Hassell plays trumpet, and if you've heard him, you know just how inadequate that simple statement is. Jon studied Indian vocal ragas, and that's probably the most obvious influence you'll hear. But he plays 'world music' in the best sense of the term, before it came to mean "adding a bagpipe player to a group from Africa". His earlier albums (including "Earthquake Island") sound like they could have spun off a Weather Report album, but soon he was electronically processing his horn sounds even further (with the help of Brian Eno on "Fourth World, Volume 1: Possible Musics"). Sometimes there's a high whining vocal effect, sometimes it sounded like he was blowing through a vacuum cleaner hose. Drum sounds were distant and murky. It was like Les Baxter & "Quiet Village" exotica all spiffed up and unearthly. Later albums grew even murkier, with the trumpet barely rising to the surface of the primordial sludge. For his ECM release "Power Spot", there were a few spots brightened by flute flurries.
Start with "Fourth World", which is basically the template for most of his later albums. "Aka/Darbari/Java" adds some choppy electronic trumpet manipulations and a gamelan sound, "Dream Theory in Malaya" features a Malayan water-splash rhythm and frog sounds, but both have long stretches where not a lot happens (which I totally get into). "Power Spot" has a little more instrumental variety, and the more recent "Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street", also on ECM, adds violin. The 'live' album "The Surgeon of the Nightsky Restores Dead Things by the Power of Sound" I find hypnotic, with a feeling you are on a train headed on a dark and mysterious journey. The 'live' is I suppose technically correct, but in this and also "Last Night the Moon...", original live recordings are used as a framework to hang studio enhancements.

Married to the Music

I was thinking this weekend about jazz artists who are married to other jazz artists, some even performing together in the same band. Cleo Laine and John Dankworth, Ella Fitzgerald and Ray Brown (briefly), Toshiko Akiyoshi and Lew Tabackin (there's a great crossword puzzle solution for you) -- but beginning in the '70s, Flora Purim and Airto was the couple that seemed to be everywhere. Flora worked with Chick Corea in various formats, and Airto was the go-to percussionist for just about everybody. Flora's album "Butterfly Dreams" is certainly of its era (the synthesizer doesn't wear well to my ears), and Airto's is kinda all over the map, stylistically. Still, both introduced a new way of hearing Brazilian music, and for my money, Flora's version of "Dindi" is definitive.

Ack, It's the Radio

I loved the radio growing up; I usually had my transistor radio permanently attached to my ear. Later, during the glory days of cool free-form FM radio, I still listened to the radio by the hour, even though I'd begun to develop a pretty sizable record collection. So you'd think that after the tape player in my car died (I know, I know -- my car came equipped with the very last cassette deck ever made), I'd still be able to enjoy spending time with my old friend, the radio. Uhh, no. I realize it's because I'm old and cranky (you kids get off my lawn!), but other than KING and KPLU, I'm hard pressed to find anything decent out there. CBC? Their format change pretty much leaves me cold. I'm lucky to be able to pick up KSER and KSVR when the wind blows just right.
But with all my carping, sometimes I do hear something I really enjoy. Latest is the 2010 album by Laura Veirs called "July Flame". Laura divides her time between Seattle and Portland, and she's got a great, 'unschooled' voice, quirky enjoyable songs, and a sympathetic partner in producer Tucker Martime. The song "Summer Is the Champion" really stood out amongst the radio dreck, so I guess there's still hope!

Kate Rusby

Kate Rusby sings a lot of trad British folk, arranged very tastefully (no slamming your jars of ale on the table!) but they're sensitively performed. There's something in Kate's voice that hints at melancholy, even thought she has a bright, high tone. "Under the Stars" (2004), and "Little Lights" (2001) were the 2 CDs that introduced me to Kate; if you like older LPs like the two Silly Sisters albums featuring Maddy Prior and June Tabor, I think you'd enjoy Kate.

Sundays, Bloody Sundays

This side of the pond, the Smiths made a minor ripple, but in Old Blighty, they influenced a lot of bands, including the Sundays. Like the Smiths, the lyrics hint at cynicism veiled in humor, and the chiming guitar style of Johnny Marr gets a wink and a nod in the Sundays. Harriet Wheeler's voice is school-girl clever, and when I listen to the Sundays, I feel like it's fall and I'm headed off to campus -- even though they came along long after I'd graduated. But there's such of sense of fresh possibilities, it's like the sound of opportunity. "Reading, Writing and Arithmetic" is probably their best, but the others grow on you, and the version of "Wild Horses" on "Blind" beats the Stones for me.