Archived Editions of Chromatic Musings

Blogcritics' review Random Thoughts

Ray Ellis gives us a once over and likes what he hears...

The trio that comprise the Canvas — Shahin (guitar), Casper (bass) and Brett (drums) — are enamored not with fame, but with the joy of playing music. They don't even use their last names. And play music they do — building on a basic jazz groove, and evoking at various points, elements of funk, ragas and blues — all coming together in a sound that can only be described as universal. It's not what one would expect to come out of Arlington, Virginia, but then again, Liverpool was an unlikely music hotbed at one time. It has always been my practice to not review an album before at least three listens - the catchy hook wears thin by then. It's the albums that offer something new on each listen — that something you didn't hear before — that catch my attention.I'm on my seventh listen on this one, with no signs of putting it away.

Thanks for the nice words, Ray!

Katie Melua's Call Off The Search

I've finally gotten ready to do up my review of Call Off The Search. I got this CD about a week ago, and I've listened to it a few times, always meaning to write this review but never quite getting around to it. My recent trip up to Fodera gave me an nice stretch of time to listen and focus on the material, though.

First, some full disclosure: While this CD is within the general genre of CDs that I would consider purchasing, I did not buy this CD; it was given to me by the record label in return for this review. Feel free to take what I say with whatever grain of salt you see fit.

Melua's biography is interesting enough; she hails from Russia and comes to the US by way of London. She's a young girl (like seventeen or so, if I am remembering her bio sheet correctly), and this is her debut album.

Her voice immediately reminds me of Rickie Lee Jones. Melua's singing seems very empheral; the words that lept to mind on my initial listen were "waifish," "thin," "light," "mousey" and "breezy." While I can appreciate that kind of singing, it doesn't really float my boat. I tend more towards the throaty, full bodied style of vocalizing.

Most of the songs feel very similar: moody, slow, almost morose. Actually, as a note to the executive producer of this CD -- placing half a dozen dark, downbeat, slow songs in a row might just lead to your target audience to start thinking of placing their head in the gas oven. And there are only so many varieties of slow songs you can string together on an album before it gets to be sleep inducing.

Highlights from this disc:

• Call Off The Search -- A very Norah Jones-ish kind of torch song with a chantuese motif going.
• Crawling Up A Hill -- A movin' tune with a strrong 60's hipster kind of feel to it. Melua's range and dynamics are showcased on this one.
• Learnin' The Blues -- Yet another torch song. This is probably the best vocal song for her, as she really extends her range.

Some not so highlights:

• Blame It On The Moon -- As I was listening to this CD and taking notes, I had to restart this song four times. There's so little there there (my apologies to Gertrude Stein) that I lost focus on the music.
• Belfast (Penquins And Cats) -- The only thing that kept my attention were the lyrics (not often that you hear a song that talks about both penguins and cats unless it's focusing on Berke Breathed's Bloom Country).
• Mockingbird Song -- I can't really be objective on this one; my mother used to sing this to me when I was a child, so I have a huge built-in bias to like this tune. Having said that, I would have picked a different arrangement. The bluesy feel didn't do much for me.

I don't think I could recommend this CD. It just doesn't have much to say. I will say that it's for people who think that Norah Jones is just a bit too edgy.

Mass CD reviews, take #1

I've been sitting on a bunch of CDs lately, having listened to them a number of times but not being motivated enough to write up a review that's to my normal standards (you know, these songs are good and this is why, these songs are suck andthis is why). So, here's just a dump of some thoughts on a bevy of CDs I've listened to recently.

Prince -- Musicology:
This disc opens up with the title track, and it's a monster groove. A heavy James Brown style vamp over a limited number of chords, with a pumpin' drum line. Unfortunately, the rest of the disc never reaches this highpoint again. The majority of the CD consists of a retro-feel R&B groove, with strong shades of D'Angelo (which makes me wonder who's influencing who these days).

Jos Stone -- Soul Sessions:
The girl's got pipes, no argument there. I heard her take on the White Stripes tune Fell In Love With A Boy and recognized her ability immediately. What I didn't care for is the profusion of cover tunes. I'd like to think that kind of vocal talent would include a little writing ability as well. In any case, her ability makes her worth another look when her next disc comes out.

Norah Jones -- Feels Like Home:
I wanted to like this album. I really did. Her debut disc I rather enjoyed, and I had heard a taste of some of the material when I saw her perform out at Wolf Trap a year ago or so. I don't know what happened between then and now, but whatever life was in those songs got sucked out and thrown away somewhere along the road. The tunes have a very country-ish feel to them (which isn't a bad thing) and not so much of the sorta jazz feel that I was liking on the last album. I'd say that the best two songs on the album are either the opening release (Sunrise) or the duet with Dolly Parton (Creepin' In).

The Gipsy King's Roots

The 14th release of the French Flamenco-style band marks a return to a more traditional style of playing. Gone are the synth arrangements, absent are the drum kits, leaving only guitars, vocals, a double bass and the occasional hand percussion. Roots marks a nice change of pace for the Gipsy Kings, moving away from the accessible pop style they have been doing for the last several albums back to a down home feel.

Some highlights from this disc:

• Bolerias -- Good instrumental. Lots of ghost notes for the percussive feel.
• Fandango (Nicolas) -- A guitar line and a vocalist. You can imagine a group of men, sitting around a campfire, singing of their sorrow and joy.
• Boogie -- A completely apropos title, as this is a very upbeat, joyous tune, packed with a fun attitude.
• Soledad -- Another warm, inviting instrumental.
• Petit Noya -- A nice, happy sing-along kind of tune.

The above listing might make this disc sound like all sunshine and light. That is not the case; quite of a few of the tunes are bittersweet and melancholy (Amigo and Como Ayer, for example).

If you like flamenco (or flamenco style) music, I'd recommend this album. These guys have been doing this since dirt was invented, and they're very good at what they do.

Hoobastank's The Reason

The other day, I was wandering around Best Buy, and I decided to pick up the latest release from Hoobastank. The Reason is their second outing. I kind of liked their first release, so I thought I'd give this a shot (particularly since Best Buy was loss leadering them at $9.99).

This CD stays within the same vein as the first album, and that's neither good nor bad. On the one hand, they stay true to the sound that won them their fans the first go 'round; on the other hand, they aren't showing all that much growth.

Highlights:

• Out Of Control -- a high energy, with some vocal treatment that reminds me of Linkin Park.
• What Happened To Us? -- a good tune, well built with interesting melodic structure. I can hear some jazz influences in both the drum and bass line during the intro and vocal section.
• From The Heart -- actually, the song doesn't do all that much for me, but the drum line was rhythmically interesting, so I can dig that part, at least
• The Reason -- the song is okay, but what I'm enjoying the two part harmonies that are throughout the tune.
• Never There -- good groove, nice two part harmonies again.

Some not-so-high-lights:

• Escape -- shades of the eighties with a seventies rock disco drumline thrown in to complete the muddle.
• Just One -- kind of a punkish song. It's almost as if Estrin (the writer of the music) turned on the radio one day, heard Blink 182/Green Day/SR 71 and thought, "I can do that".
• Let It Out -- "who cares if you don't like it". Well, now that you've told me you don't care that I don't like it, I suppose you won't be all that hurt when I say this is probably the weakest tune on the album.

This was a pretty decent rock album. Their vocal harmonies probably serve to be their strong suit, and they use them to the furthest extent they can.

Indigo Girls's All That We Let In

The latest release from the Indigo Girls has been playing in my CD player for about the last two weeks pretty continuously. I've been a big fan of the Girls since 1990, when I was dragged to one of their shows by my girlfriend at the time (at that show, they played a four thousand person hall like a forty person club). I really enjoyed their last album -- easily their best in years -- so I had really high expectations for this outing.

They mostly met them. Having heard them play quite a few of the songs during tours the year before the disc was released, I had heard some of the music already, but in a very stripped down setting (at most, Emily and Amy playing acoustically). The album has significantly more instrumentation than that; sometimes for the better, other times for the worse.

Some highlights from this album:

• All That We Let In -- This is easily my favorite song from the album. Emily's vocals are haunting and carry such a melancholy feel. However, the live version with just Emily singing and playing a guitar joined by Amy on harmonies was so much more powerful in its starkness.
• Free In You -- A really pretty song. As usual, I'm drawn to songs that prominently feature Emily's vocals.
• Perfect World -- A song with Amy out in front. One of the better upbeat tunes on the disc.

Some of the stranger things on the album:

• Heartache For Everyone -- An almost ska song. Rather out of character.
• Come On Home -- Honky-tonk tune.
• Tether -- A really blues-ed out song feature Joan Osborne on backing vocals.

All in all, this is a pretty good album. I still think that Come On Now Social is a better disc, but I'll be playing this one quite a bit as well.

Kai Eckhardt's Honour Simplicity...

To the best of my knowledge, this album marks Kai Eckhardt's debut as a solo artist. I've been looking forwards to this cd for some time: It's almost always a good thing when an artist you respect steps out on his own. Having studied with Kai, I really wanted to like this album a lot -- I really did. But I just can't quite get there.

One of the things that I did like immediately is that the entire album is recorded in a single shot; no overdubs, no edits, nothing like that. At least according to the liner notes. (Yes, I'm one of those geeks that reads all of the liner notes either before I put the CD in or as I'm listening to the first song or two.)

Some highlights from the actual music itself:

• Re-United -- This song has a real jazzy feel to it. Lots of nice rhythmic variation over the 9/8 sections, and the 4/4 breakdown towards the end of the tune was a welcome change of pace.
• Captured Flow -- A solo bass tune (which is to be expected on a bass player's album). It's very nicely done. All of the high end was rolled off for some reason, though.
• Queen of Cups -- A good tune. Kai uses a fretless for a nice sound.
• Remember Yourself -- This song reminded me quite a bit of some of the work that Kai used to do with Trilok.

The rest of the music on this album seemed to be either overindulgent noodling or unremarkable jazz-ish tunes. Interesting to listen to for about two minutes, then wearing out it's welcome in pretty short order.

The hardest thing about this album actually buying it. When I went out to SF, I hunted around for the CD in the usual haunts but could never find a copy anywhere. I finally ordered it from the only website I where I could find it in early January, hoping that it would come before the Garaj Mahal show at the end of January. It didn't, so I ended up buying a copy at the show. The ordered CD arrived three days later.

Would I buy this album again? Perhaps. I don't think I would go through the hassle that this purchase was (ordering from the UK, etc), but I would consider picking it up if I happened across it one day at Tower.

Isaiah William's Let The Kid Play

Isaiah Williams' debut cd Let The Kid Play is a good rookie outing for an amazingly talented musician. With most songs either being covers or written by Drue (Isaiah's father), the album comes across as a little raw, with a tendency towards overplaying and being about thirty to forty-five seconds too long.

As an example, the first cut (with the same title as the album). It's a very out there tune, but way too busy for its own good. The bass line has so much slapping in it that it overwhelms the melody as well as crowds the drumline. On Top Of The Off (towards the end of the disc) also falls into this category. It's a well done drum solo, but a bit repetitive and probably too long in the running.

Some of the more interesting songs on this album are:

• Seven, walking through several time signature changes (9/8 segments, 4/4 chorus and 7/8 verses) while holding it all together with a nice feel. Isaiah has a good solo overtop one of the 9/8 segments.
• Groove Attack, which features the native DC sound of Go-Go.
• Glory, a showcase for Drue's highly competent basslines.
• Feel'n Good, a solid groove tune with a nice jazz feel. The middle section of this song has a neat way of dividing the 4/4 meter into a heavily syncopated pattern.

There are even two Christmas tunes on the disc. For those who don't know me, I generally detest Christmas songs. Isaiah's take on The Little Drummer Boy (which is a great choice for the title, if nothing else) is to slow it way down and inject a lot of funk into it. Joy To The World becomes a heavily bluesed out meditation.

Victor Wooten guests on two tunes -- Chick Corea's Spain and Larry Graham's People Make The World Go Round. I really enjoyed the version of Spain, but I was far more into Victor's playing than any other of the accompanists. Victor and Isaiah do trade solos back and forth towards the end of the song. Jeff Coffin and Futureman also make appearances. Actually, the final track on the disc is Futureman interviewing Isaiah. It's interesting both to listen to how Isaiah thinks and approaches music, but also to hear how he's pretty clearly a nine year old kid.

Garaj Mahal's Mondo Garaj

Garaj Mahal's latest album marks the first time I have ever heard any studio work from this band. To be honest, the studio album does not live up to the performance Garaj gave a few nights ago. It's good, but the show was much better.

As with the live show, there are a number of musical influences throughout the songs -- Zdecko, hip-hop, Indian ragas, blues, 70s rock. The entire disc is musically accomplished, but it just doesn't feel as charged as the live show did. I do know that this is an unfair comparison, but it's still what I think and feel.

The disc opens up with an interesting bass lick from bassist Kai Eckhardt and then goes into an interesting 2 bar groove. While the groove is actually in 4/4, it feels more like a 7/8 measure attached to a 9/8 measure, resulting in a rather interesting feel. The next tune (Hindi Gumbo) lays down a Cajun/Zdecko shuffle and drops a very Indian guitar line over top of it. It comes together rather well. Junckt calls to mind a darkened heroin den of the late 1800's, with men in suits reclining on red cushions, smoking a hookah. Poodle Factory uses a 6/4 groove during the chorus quite effectively; it's a good counterbalance to the lyrics. The last three cuts on the disc are all very mellow, but didn't particularly resonate with me.

I think that if I were to buy any other of Garaj's albums, I would probably pick up one of their live ones.

Mike Stern's These Times

Mike Stern's latest album These Times does not seem as strong to me as his previous outing. Don't get me wrong; the disc is certainly competent enough, with rock solid performances both by Stern and his supporting musicians (Will Lee, Victor Wooten, Dennis Chambers, Bela Fleck and Richard Bona just to name some of the cast).

The disc opens up with a late 70's blues/funk melody over a syncopated Latin-ish rhythm. The two follow up songs promenently features Bona for a mellow, together feel (and Fleck's banjo work on I Know You adds a graceful counterpoint to both Bona's singing and Stern's guitar work). The album wanders from a bluesy feel, to world influences, to bebop and again. It's almost a sampler of sorts, held together by Stern's cohesive playing style.

Mike Stern's Voices

With Mike Stern's upcoming show at Blues Alley looming, I've been trying to familiarize myself with more of his repertoire. I've been listening to his prior album Voices for a few days, and I do like what I'm hearing. The overall feel of the album is reminiscent of Pat Metheny's work -- much more so than Stern's earlier outings.

Stern is pretty clearly walking down the world music street; and that's just peachy with me, as I rather like world music. Featured heavily in the first two tracks on the disc is Richard Bona, an artist from Cameroon who is quickly becoming one of my favorites. Elizabeth Kontomanou and Phillip Hamilton round out the vocal work for the remainder of the album.

Some highlights:

• Spirit is probably the best track on the disc; an open declaration of humanity.
• What Might Have Been is a melancholy sojourn through pining over possibilities. You can feel the cigar smoke wrapping around your body as you sit at the bar, nursing a whiskey and thinking of your lover who just left you.
• Wishing Well is probably the most Metheny-esque of all the cuts. The guitar tone is spot on for Pat’s sound and the vocal track moves with the guitar in synchronized harmony

Bona's Munia

Richard Bona's latest release Munia: The Tale has been on almost constant play in my CD player for about the last two weeks. I'm only now getting around to writing about because I've just been enjoying it too much to try and put things into words.

Much like his last work, the album opens with an acapella invocation and then leads into a joyous Kalabancoro (which also has Salif Keita sitting in on vocals). Actually, the whole CD brims with joie de vivre. Engingilaye is another tune that resonates with sheer exuberance, and Balemba Na Bwemba drives home a strong groove. Bona has been a good (if underrated) bass player for years, and on this album, he finally opens up in the closing track (Playground) to let some of his ability shine through.

Sung almost entirely in his native language of Douala, Bona sings, arranges, composes and plays his way through a melange of world styles (rumba, bossa nova, even a little rock). Not jazz for the hardcode be-bop folk, but high quality jazz nonetheless.

Dennis Chamber's Outbreak

Dennis Chambers has finally released his own solo CD. I was completely blown away by his playing when I saw him at Blues Alley last year. I have been looking to get a recording of his playing since then, so when I saw his solo CD Outbreak, I jumped at the chance to pick it up. I have not been disappointed. Chambers is a master of his kit and it shines through on every cut of the disc.

I've gone through the disk about three or four times now, and it's got a good funk/jazz groove going on. The tunes have a very strong late 70's funk feel to them. Some stellar people sit in on the disk (Gary Willis, Will Lee, John Scofield and others).

The stand out song on the disc has to be Groovus Interruptus. Within two measures of the start, the urge to nod your head to the beat cannot be denied. Other standout tunes are Roll Call (which has a nice drum break by Chambers towards the end), Paris On Mine (great groove and laid back feel) and Baltimore, DC (nice go-go like groove to it). In Time is a good walk through time signatures (4/4, 9/8, 17/8 are there, maybe one or two more).

Outbreak is a well titled album. Chambers has been famous for years with jazz musicians; maybe this CD will help his popularity grow to a wider audience.

Sarah McLachlan's Afterglow

So I picked up Sarah McLachlan's new album Afterglow on Wednesday. And I'm just now getting around to listen to it. Yes, it's been a busy few days, and having to pull a 6am to 2pm shift at work on a Saturday morning isn't helping anything. I do so love monitoring a production system.

But, back to the actual point of this posting. I had read a few other reviews of this album, and they had given it less than glorious marks. My own take on it is that she has made a safe, album, several good songs, nothing too risky. She seems to be growing more towards the mellow side, which would make sense, since she's getting older (aren't we all), not to mention being a mother now.

Instrumentation-wise, this album's gotten away from some of the more free ranging guitar work that was somewhat prominent in Surfacing . I think that's a good thing. Her voice held it's own against the loud, feedbacking guitar, but she's better suited towards a piano backdrop, with the guitar as spice, not as the main course.

Some of the better tracks:

• Train Wreck (I can so sympathize with this point of view)
• Push (I caught her concert on the tube the other night. She wrote this song for her husband, saying that it was her first really good love song. You can really tell that she’s not just feeling the emotions – she’s living them.)

Some of the not so good tracks:

• Perfect Girl (it feels like she’s trying to evoke many of her past songs; the organ from Fear, the rhythmic pattern of I Will Not Forget You – it just felt like a patchwork quilt rather than a song)
• Stupid (and only because the self-loathing was so extreme as to be beyond the pale when compared with the other songs on the album)
• Drifting (not just an song title, but a fair description of the song).