Recording of the Month

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Thursday, November 21, 2024

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: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 February 2019

Shakey Pictures/Reprise 574192-1
Format: 2 LPs

Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ***½
Overall Enjoyment: ****

Neil Young rivals Bob Dylan for making large amounts of archival material available to his fans, giving them a clearer picture of how he creates his music, and how he presents it in concert. In April 2018 he released Roxy: Tonight’s the Night Live, comprising performances from a three-night stint at the Roxy Theater in 1973. He closes out 2018 with Songs for Judy, a collection of solo performances from a November 1976 tour.

: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 January 2019

Dunham DUN1007 (DAP-054)
Format: LP

Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ***½
Overall Enjoyment: ****

The last few years have been tough ones for lovers of soul music. Aretha Franklin died last August of pancreatic cancer, less than two years after Sharon Jones, the shining light of Daptone Records, passed away from the same illness. In September 2017, Daptone and soul lost another great when Charles Bradley died, of stomach cancer.

: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 December 2018

ECM 2618 6775896 (LP), ECM 2618 B0029060-02 (CD)
Format: LP, CD

Musical Performance: ***½
Sound Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: ****

Danish jazz guitarist Jakob Bro has recorded 15 albums as a leader since 2003, and has played as a sideman on nearly as many. He’s appeared on work by formidable players, including Paul Motian and Tomasz Stańko; other jazz greats, among them Lee Konitz, have appeared on sessions he’s led. Nor is Bro intimidated by playing with other guitarists -- Bill Frisell has appeared on three of his discs. Bro’s playing has clearly been influenced by Frisell and by Pat Metheny, two strong voices in jazz guitar, but that hasn’t kept him from developing an immediately recognizable style as both player and composer.

: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 November 2018

Sundazed LP 5460
Format: LP

Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ***½
Overall Enjoyment: ****

Don Van Vliet was born Don Glen Vliet in 1941 in Glendale, California, a city just outside of Los Angeles. He showed artistic talent at a young age, and had an opportunity to study art in Europe at age 13, but his father did not give his consent. He met Frank Zappa in high school in Lancaster, California, and the two bonded over their interest in blues and R&B. By 1964, Vliet was performing as Captain Beefheart in bands around southern California.

: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 October 2018

Role Play RPRV03 (CD), Park the Van PTV-LP70 (LP)
Formats: CD and LP

Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ***½
Overall Enjoyment: ***½

The Magic Numbers have released five albums, and while this British quartet comprising two brother-sister pairs has kept great harmonies and solid pop melodies at the center of their sound, they’ve also worked to keep things fresh. Their first two records, The Magic Numbers (2005) and Those the Brokes (2006), were straightforward in execution, letting the vocals and songs speak for themselves. The Runaway (2010) added string arrangements and a bit more instrumental complexity, and Alias (2014) worked in the occasional distorted guitar and sound effect.

: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 September 2018

Intervention IR-020
Format: LP

Musical Performance: ***½
Sound Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: ****

When I got my first apartment, in 1981, the first thing I did was order a cable-TV package that included MTV. In those days, MTV programmed nothing but music videos -- it was the only way I could hear the Clash and the Jam, let alone the English Beat. Punk and New Wave got little airplay on the local FM stations, so MTV helped me hear some great new bands.

: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 August 2018

Capital/Universal Music 00602567239109
Format: LP

Musical Performance: ****½
Sound Quality: ***½
Overall Enjoyment: ****

Steve Miller secured his place on classic rock radio in 1973 with The Joker, which began a run of popular LPs that continued with Fly Like an Eagle (1976) and Book of Dreams (1977). Songs from those albums still get heavy airplay, so your chances of hearing them in the grocery store or a cafeteria are pretty high. While those albums are well crafted and full of good humor, Miller’s best records, for me at least, remain his first four, all released under the name The Steve Miller Band: Children of the Future, Sailor (both 1968), Brave New World, and Your Saving Grace (both 1969).

: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 July 2018

Columbia 19075830351
Format: LP, 320kbps MP3

Musical Performance: ***½
Sound Quality: ***½
Overall Enjoyment: ***½

Leon Bridges’s debut album, Coming Home, was one of the most pleasant surprises of 2015. The fact that old-school soul music could be successfully championed and resuscitated by a 26-year-old singer showed that this music is still vital. Bass guitarist Austin Jenkins and drummer Josh Block, formerly of the band White Denim, helped produce Coming Home and were among those who played on the album. Both Bridges and the musicians who accompanied him displayed an uncanny understanding of music whose heyday was long before they were born.

: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 June 2018

Reprise 566051-1
Format: 2 LPs

Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ***½
Overall Enjoyment: ****

Neil Young wrote and recorded Tonight’s the Night in the late summer of 1973, shortly after two close friends died of heroin overdoses. Danny Whitten had been a singer and the rhythm guitarist for Crazy Horse, Young’s backing band, and Bruce Berry was Young’s roadie and friend. Young’s studio recording of the previous year was Harvest, which was hugely popular and put him firmly in the mainstream. Tonight’s the Night was a more emotionally difficult album, sloppier in execution -- and one of his best.

: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 May 2018

ECM 2577 (578 6780)
Format: CD

ECM 2577 (6730185)
Format: Vinyl

Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: ****

British saxophonist Andy Sheppard has recorded extensively as a sideman over the last 30 years, appearing on albums by Carla Bley, Gil Evans, Keith Tippett, and George Russell, among many others. He co-led three sessions with Carla Bley and Steve Swallow, and has released 14 recordings as a leader. Romaria, his newest, is his fourth for ECM. It’s his second outing with his current quartet, which comprises guitarist Eivind Aarset, double bassist Michel Benita, and drummer Sebastian Rochford. Their previous release, Surrounded by Sea (2015), also appeared on ECM.