February 1, 2009

Wave Mechanics Union: Second Season: Progressive & Classic Rock as Jazz
HX Music
Format: CD

Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment

Halfway through Wave Mechanics Union’s arrangement of the Who’s "Won’t Get Fooled Again," I thought there was a good chance my reaction to the rest of Second Season, the band’s collection of jazz interpretations of rock tunes, would be tepid. But after hearing their takes on Queen’s "Killer Queen" and Led Zeppelin’s "The Rain Song," I was warming up to the disc, and by the end I was charmed. The arrangements, by drummer Ralph Johnson and trombonist Ryan Fraley, are witty and well thought out, and the song choices are attractively unpredictable; only "Eleanor Rigby" is hackneyed. King Crimson’s "Elephant Walk" retains its swaggering sense of fun while swinging hard, and "The Great Gig in the Sky" sounds as it might have if Pink Floyd had been drinking martinis instead of taking something heavier. Singer Lydia McAdams is a delight throughout, approaching each song with freshness and passion. The recording, by Fraley and Johnson, clearly separates the sections of the band in the large-ensemble tracks, and seems a bit crowded only on the Police’s "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da." I would have brought McAdams’ voice a bit more forward in the mix, but overall, the recording sounds remarkably good. I even found myself liking "Won’t Get Fooled Again.". . . Joseph Taylor

Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment

The title of the album is Afrofunk Big Band, and a quick headcount of this hyper-rhythmic ensemble shows that Chopteeth aren’t kidding. Big is the band -- 15 pieces -- and big is the sound. The group is based in the Washington, DC, area, but its members have been culled from around world, including the US, Kenya, and Romania. Their unifying force and inspiration are the music and legacy of the originator of Afrobeat, the Nigerian-born Fela Kuti. Chopteeth has a good grasp of the style that Kuti and others made popular in the 1970s, and here delivers 10 tracks that pulse with grooves undeniably reminiscent of the founder. Driving percussion and bleating horns provide the foundation for electro-fused guitars and chunky keyboards. "Wili Nineh," based on a traditional Malian initiation song, features griot singer Cheick Hamala Diabate bequeathing a rite-of-passage blessing on the band, essentially informing that, while not all of the members are descendants of African musical ancestors, the music they’ve created is authentic. Instrumentals such as "Snake Eyes" and "Herky Jerk" unite pan-African rhythms with rock’n’roll licks in dank, groovy blends. Despite the size of the band and the smallness of the studio in which they recorded, this album closely captures what I would expect from a live Chopteeth performance. Be prepared to be overtaken by an irresistible urge to dance every time you listen. . . . Shannon Holliday

Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment

New York Electric Piano is a trio comprising Pat Daugherty on piano, Tim Givens on bass, and Aaron Comess on drums. For its fourth release, King Mystery, the band adds Till Behler on saxes and flutes, singer Deanna Kirk, and two musicians whose specialty is electronics: Leon Gruenbaum on samchillian (an instrument of his own invention), and Mal Stein, who contributes soundscapes. Daugherty’s Fender Rhodes on many of these tracks gives King Mystery an undercurrent of 1970s fusion, but overall the disc doesn’t feel dated, in large part because Gruenbaum and Stein weave unusual tones and textures throughout. In short, King Mystery is jazz you can dance to. Daugherty writes tunes with strong grooves, which Comess (who drums for the Spin Doctors) responds to with subtlety and drive. Givens is rock solid, intelligently supporting even the most hectic tunes. Songs like "Road to Newport" show the band’s straight-ahead jazz chops, while "10 to 11" and "Temple Tantrum" drop hints of Herbie Hancock, Weather Report, and Bill Bruford’s Earthworks. Two tracks feature charming vocals, though after that the band gets back to playing on its own pretty quickly. The recording feels a bit closed-in; this music needs more aural space. Despite that quibble, King Mystery is an intelligent, fun jazz disc. . . . Joseph Taylor

Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment

Beirut’s The Flying Club Cup (2007) is an aural odyssey. Listen to it and be transported to Parisian cafes, a fanciful circus, or high above the clouds looking down from a hot-air balloon. It launched the band into near-overnight stardom, if only the fickle, nearly-over-in-a-night stardom of the indie underground. Overtaken by their unexpected success, the band canceled a spring 2008 European tour and retreated to Mexico for a Latin American holiday sans stardom. Little was heard from them again until late 2008, when they announced the February 19 release of a double-EP release on Pompeii Records under the overall title New Recordings from the State of Oaxaca. Don’t call it a comeback. Though packaged together, the two new discs are very different ventures released under lead singer Zach Condon’s two different recording monikers, Beirut and Realpeople, and are dichotomized by opposing themes: the Beirut EP, March of the Zapotec, is a dogpile free-for-all of every acoustic instrument imaginable times two, while Realpeople’s Holland unveils electrified, synth-laden "bedroom recordings" from a pre-Beirut solo project by Condon. The six Beirut tracks, conceived in Mexico, are aided by a regional (i.e., small village) band of 17 members in addition to Beirut themselves, who contributed conceptually and in the studio to the album’s production. The five Realpeople tracks, meanwhile, are elaborate, self-indulgent arias intended "to give the listener a unique perspective on yet another side of Zach’s artistic vision." The result is an unfortunate hodge-podge of mariachi fusion paired with syrupy synth-pop and ardent 1980s-scene exaltation. Unique? Yes. Artistic? Maybe. Recommended? No. . . . Shannon Holliday

Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Picture Quality
Overall Enjoyment

When, in 1975, Patti Smith released her first album, Horses -- a key record in the development of punk rock -- she was a New York City poet and occasional record reviewer. Smith’s life as a writer, painter, singer, and political provocateur are on display in Dream of Life, photographer Steven Sebring’s highly impressionistic portrait of her. The film, shot mostly in grainy black and white, is filled with lovely images, but it’s not linear. It tells Smith’s story through a series of disconnected incidents shot over 11 years, with a small bit of context provided at the beginning, when Smith recounts the story of her arrival in New York, her friendship with the late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, and her involvement in the city’s art scene. For Smith, art is everything, and in Dream of Life she discusses poetry, music, and painting in reverent tones. She holds French poet Arthur Rimbaud and the Beats (William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso) in especially high regard, and pays tribute to those departed friends and influences as well as to her late husband, Fred Smith of the MC5. Patti Smith presents the permanence of art as an antidote to life’s swift passage, and Dream of Life celebrates her childlike openness to experience. The film is overlong by about 20 of its 109 minutes, a few scenes meander, and some may wish to skip the political rants. Nonetheless, it’s a fascinating portrait of an unusual artist. . . . Joseph Taylor