91.5 FM WUEV’s Paul Mattingly joins us this month to contribute notes on jazz. In an effort to show both new, old and in between, here he chimes in on an essential record for fans of the genre and its many forms.
Johnny Cash – American VI: Ain’t No Grave
(American Recordings/Lost Highway)
5
The last installment of the American… series, set to be released on February 26 – which would have been the Man in Black’s 78th birthday – begins with a line that somehow conjures every emotion: “Well there ain’t no grave that can hold my body down/When I hear that trumpet sound, I’m gonna rise right outta the ground/Ain’t no grave that can hold my body down.” Every syllable is, of course, pushed from the lungs of a man facing his own death; each line delivered with the real bodily pain of an artist in the very real twilight of his long, storybook life.
Recording sessions for Ain’t No Grave, under the gentle production of Rick Rubin, occurred during May 2003, less than four months before he passed and after his wife, June Carter Cash had died. “Johnny said that recording was his main reason for being alive,” said Rubin. “I think it was the only thing that kept him going.”
This time period has been well-documented. “There was a lot of stopping and starting, based on his health,” said Rubin. “But he always wanted to work. The doctors in the hospital kind of lectured me, saying, ‘He’s not going to stop, so you have to make sure he doesn’t work too much.’”
But work he did, and here, as with others of the American series, which began in 1994, Cash recorded cover songs that fit in perfectly with the themes, flow and overall narrative of the album. Kris Kristofferson’s “For the Good Times” is both melancholy and uplifting, reflective and forward-looking. “Redemption Day,” penned by Cheryl Crow, is a multi-shaded, minor-chord-verse to major-chord chorus that includes the lines, “There’s a train that’s heading straight to heaven’s gate/And on the way, child and man and woman wait, watch and wait/For redemption day.”
“Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream,” a song by Ed McCurdy, is a recollection – happy, in its own way – of a hopeful dream of impossibility. Impossible odds met with grit and optimism – something that can easily be said of Cash’s life and music, too.
Sung with that wavering, achingly elegiac voice “Oh death, where is thy sting?” on the never-before-heard Cash original “I Corinthians: 15:55,” the tone turns hopeful, arms open, spiritual: “Oh life, you are a shining path/And hope springs eternal just over the rise/When I see my redeemer beckoning me.”
I feel small trying to do justice to this work. All I know is what I feel, and listening to this makes me feel much the same way after listening to American IV: The Man Comes Around, which is simply that I felt it to my very marrow. The sadness and joy, and bravery and sorrow – sometimes all at once. This is what art is; this album is when art succeeds.-- Dylan Gibbs
Various Artists – 2010 Grammy Nominees
(Capitol)
4.5
Ignoring, for a moment, the fact that the Grammy Awards are kind of a joke anymore, this CD isn’t necessarily a bad compilation. Whoever put the tracks in order made the right decision in placing Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling” first. It’s arguably this year’s “party” anthem. Hell, I sometimes listen to it when I’m getting ready to go out with friends. It’s fun, ridiculous, and danceable.
Along with that track, there are quite a few serviceable hits from Colbie Caillat (“Fallin’ for You”), Green Day (“21 Guns”), and Lady GaGa. “Poker Face,” which hasn’t recently received the near-constant play that “Bad Romance” has, is still a good contribution.
Country isn’t left out either, with solid outings from Zac Brown Band (“Chicken Fried”) and Lady Antebellum (“I Run to You”). The latter is one of my favorite bands from last year. I’m glad to see them represented on this compilation.
There is a surprise, however. I expected to see Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” on this one, instead of “Life in Techinicolor II.” Likewise, I was shocked to see a cut from Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton. I caught their performance on PBS a few weeks ago, and was really impressed.
In short, if you like popular music and haven’t picked up the singles/albums represented on this disc, it wouldn’t be a bad purchase. -- Doug Messel
Herbie Hancock & the Headhunters – Headhunters
(Columbia)
5
I love all music. But it seems I have gravitated to jazz as I have become more chronologically-challenged. This transition came with the prominence of jazz fusion in the 1970s. Jazz-rock, also called fusion, combines jazz improvisation and chord progressions with the rhythms of rock. It is usually more electronic than acoustic, featuring synthesizer, electric bass, electric guitar, electronically-processed woodwind and brass instruments, and a great deal of percussion. This is probably as much of a definition as you’ll ever need.
I was into AOR, Southern Rock, 50’s rock, the Beatles… you name it, and I liked it. Well, maybe not Sonny and Cher, but you get the picture. Then, some friends of mine turned me on to this music that I really didn’t understand. It had a groove and a heart I just couldn’t deny. Along with this “new” music, there was, as there is today, this beacon of jazz here in the Tri-State, WUEV 91.5 FM. And, as I have heard it said more than once, it is the only place for jazz in the Tri-State.
If you want to get a good vision on the history of fusion, you won’t get it here. Not today, anyway. That is what search engines are for. But I do want to talk about one of the first albums (gawd, is he that old) I ever really enjoyed. It was Headhunters by Herbie Hancock.
This was Hancock’s twelfth studio release in a career that was already heading him into the Hall of Fame. Released in October 1973 on Columbia, it is thought by many to be a defining moment of fusion. Though it only has four songs as its content, this slightly more than forty-one minutes would not only change the landscape of music forever but open my rock-sodden mind in a way that I would always appreciate.
The album was also the name of the sextet that Hancock fronted throughout most of the seventies. It included Bernie Maupin (Saxes, etc.), Paul Jackson (bass), Harvey Mason (drums), and Bill Summers (percussion). While they added Dewayne McKnight (guitar) on later releases, all the “guitar” parts on this project were done by Hancock with synthesizers.
Of the four tracks, the only one previously heard was the one that is probably the most famous, “Watermelon Man.” It was originally featured on the 1962, hard-bop release, Takin’ Off. Hancock and Mason reworked it and gave it an instantly recognizable intro featuring Bill Summers blowing into a beer bottle, an imitation of the hindewho, an instrument of the Mbuti Pygmies of Northeastern Zaire. “Sly” is dedicated to his funkiness, Sly Stone, while “Vein Melter” is a gradual pleaser that features Hancock and Maupin. And “Chameleon,” another jazz classic, features a funky bass line played with an early ARP Odyssey.
After its initial release, it was remastered and released in Quadraphonic, 4 channel sound. I am not an engineer so I won’t try to make you believe I really know what that was. But, it sounded great.
If you are starting a jazz collection, or adding those “classics” that round out a great set, then Headhunters is a must. And, even though it’s a “classic,” give it a listen; it sounds as fresh and vibrant as it did the day it was released. And then the next time you’re out at one of the local venues and you hear “Watermelon Man” or “Chameleon,” your music brain will cause you to jump into that river I like to call “Jazz and All Will be Fine.”-- Paul Mattingly
Will Kimbrough – Wings
(Daphne Records)
4
Most of the time I’d avoid something like this—even though Wilco’s one of my favorite bands, I can only handle some of their folksy stuff for so long—but Will Kimbrough’s Wings is a pretty impressive, solid album. It gives me this sort of Bob Dylan vibe, but not in a bad way. The first three tracks (“Three Angels,” “You Can’t Go Home,” and “Wings”) are a particularly strong opener, and the rest of the album follows through nicely. -- Doug Messel
The ishmaeLites – Comin’ Home to Indiana
(Weirdo Records)
2
From its opening strains (which detail a brief Biblical history from Adam to Ishmael), this interesting album sells itself as an “alternative epic of Indiana.” What follows that track is sort of a rambling exploration of state myths and “characters.” Musically, Comin’ Home… just isn’t much fun to listen to. It’s kind of a jarring, asymmetric adventure into how much you’re willing to put up with before switching tracks or just changing to something else. I suppose if you’re not into radio friendly, verse-chorus-verse, it might work. For me, it doesn’t. -- Doug Messel
