Mark Keresman, June 2014

Miles Davis ★★★★

Miles at the Fillmore - Miles Davis 1970: The Bootleg Series Vol. 3

Columbia/Legacy

What can one say about Miles Davis—jazz trumpet wizard, bandleader, caustic personality—that hasn’t been said before? While Davis played some of the best jazz (acoustic/straight-ahead division) of the 1950s and ‘60s, his approach changed drastically circa 1968. Inspired by the electric, high-energy wallop of James Brown, Sly & the Family Stone, and Jimi Hendrix, he embarked on a phase that’s still stirs controversy among fans of jazz in general and Davis in particular. This four-CD set of live recordings from 1970—including over two hours of previously unissued music—features the dizzying heights of electric Miles along with a few lows. Hold the hate mail, pilgrims—there are stretches where the band (saxophonist Steve Grossman, keyboardists Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett, drummer Jack DeJohnette, bassist Dave Holland, and percussionist Airto Moreira) rambles unfocusedly. But more often than not the combo chemistry astounds and crackles like a thunderhead. Miles was not a fan of avant-garde jazz—he was quoted re: Eric Dolphy: “I’d like to step on his foot”—but Fillmore finds him harnessing the elasticity of free/out styles and interlacing it with funk grooves and rock audacity ‘n’ crunch. (Supposedly Miles was impressed by an early Led Zeppelin gig.) Plus, this improves on the slightly murky sound of previous Fillmore editions. For Miles-ophiles, nearly essential; for fans of electric sounds in general, it’s worth brown-bagging some lunches to afford. (31 tracks, 250 min.) legacyrecordings.com


Radney Foster ★★★★

Everything I Should Have Said

Devil’s River

Eliza Gilkyson ★★★★1/2

The Nocturne Diaries 

Red House

Claudia Schmidt ★★★★★

New Whirled Order

Red House

Some singer/songwriters are easy to categorize—but those aren’t our concern today, boys and girls. These three performers could be filed under “folk” if it weren’t for the “country” and/or “rock” in their approaches (or vice versa). While Radney Foster is no stranger to the country charts, both on his own and with the duo Foster & Lloyd, there’s not much Music City/Nash Vegas gloss on Everything (his first new set since circa ’09). Foster’s songs are essentially country, but are charged with crackling Louisiana flavor(s) and wiry, roots-y rock a la The Band. (Foster’s voice has a plainspoken quality akin to that of the late Levon Helm.) Everything is both contemplative and suitable for a night of mod honky tonkin.’ (12 tracks, 45 min.)  radneyfoster.com

Eliza Gilkyson is not only a fine songwriter but has such an enchanting voice, sort of a cross between Lucinda Williams and Carole King. Nocturne Diaries mixes introspe
ctive folk, country waltz ‘n’ twang, and gauzy, atmospheric production in a set which scrutinizes our world’s troubles (child abuse, gun-toting youth) in a manner that doesn’t wallow in the morass or preach but instead seeks to find hope. Diaries is a genuinely comforting listen without being soppy, and that’s a rare and valuable thing. If you like the Americana of Rosanne Cash and Mary Chapin Carpenter and/or the sleek modern folk of Suzanne Vega and Patty Larkin, seek, find, and benefit. (12 tracks, 51 min.) redhouserecords.com

Claudia Schmidt is the most eclectic of these three, drawing from assorted folk styles, jazz, blues, and pop, in manner not unlike Joni Mitchell circa 1972-75. In fact, imagine a deeper-voiced Mitchell and you’ve a hint to Schmidt. She’s also got a puckish sense of humor (“whatever doesn’t kill you makes you wish that you were dead,” in “Strong Woman Has a Bad Day Polka”), plus a sense of elegant, slightly baroque-flavored pop (“Sea of Forgiveness”) and swing (the torch-y “Sometime Ago”). She draws from assorted wells of American music and makes it sound like the most natural thing in the world—a gem, this is. (12 tracks, 53 min.) redhouserecords.com


Phil Coulter ★★★1/2

Echoes of Home

Shanachie

Woo ★★★1/2

When The Past Arrives

Drag City/Yoga

Q: What do these two seemingly divergent platters have in common, by an Irish folk and pop musician/mega-producer and a pair of idiosyncratic South London brothers? A: It’s a folk-based simplicity. While Phil Coulter has had successes in the pop arena as well as the stage show Celtic Thunder, Echoes finds him going back to basics, playing assorted Irish, Welsh, and Scottish melodies solo on piano and in duets with Billy Connolly (yes, that one), Paul Brady, and legendary piper Finbar Furey. Traditional? While the old 88s are hardly a “traditional folk” instrument, Coulter and company render these melodies in a manner both stately and understated. Some of Echoes is a bit schmaltzy—but overall it’s infused with such dignified warmth, prettiness, and elemental straightforwardness it’s hard to carp.  (15 tracks, 49 min.) shanachie.com

Woo is a pair of siblings, Mark and Clive Ives, playing assorted guitars, keys, reeds, bass, and percussion, and Past Arrives consists of recordings spanning 1977-2013. These fellows weave short pastoral instrumentals with temperate rhythms—imagine Cluster and/or Brian Eno playing sly, delicately wry variations on Ry Cooder, Aaron Copeland, Henry Mancini, and Hawaiian melodies. It’s easy to imagine a beachfront idyll featuring James Garner and Doris Day with “Life So Far” and baby animals frolicking to “Teddy Bears.” “H2O” evokes a fantasy meeting between Leo Kottke and Benny Goodman, pensive but with a jazz-y lilt. Both/either of these discs are ideal de-stress units. (15 tracks, 44 min.)


Francy Boland Trio ★★★★★

Playing With the Trio

Schema/Rearward

Belgian pianist Francy Boland, drummer Kenny Clarke, and bassist Jimmy Woode were the nucleus for the Clarke/Boland Big Band, a multinational combo that was one of the steadiest and swingin’-est European big bands 1961-72. Clarke, incidentally, was one of the premier bebop drummers, up there in the pantheon with Max Roach and Art Blakey, and Woods was a member of the Duke Ellington posse. While orchestral pursuits took up most of their time, these fellows made time for extracurricular activities—ergo, this 1967 trio set. Boland was something of an underrated pianist—while classically trained, he swings like a proverbial mofo from the git-go, based in the blitz-ing bop of Bud Powell but sharing the melodious, earthy approaches of Bobby Timmons and Vince Guaraldi. The opener, “Nights in Warsaw,” could’ve been a hit then, and if mainstream radio played instrumentals, could be one now. Clarke dazzles without ever playing a solo and Woode is rock-solid. If you value the gregarious, immediate jazz of Cannonball Adderley and Gene Harris and/or Medeski Martin & Wood in their less-electric moments, this is an absolute must. (9 tracks, 38 min.) ishtar.it dragcity.com


The Baseball Project ★★★★

3rd

Yep Roc

Take members of The Dream Syndicate, Young Fresh Fellows, and REM and their collective love of the Great American Pastime of Baseball, and what do yez get? The Baseball Project, wherein facets of facts and mythology of the game are celebrated in song…and what songs they are! There’s the ramshackle Dylan-ish folk-rock of “They Played Baseball,” the sweet soul of “Extra Inning of Love,” the Bo Diddley-esque big beat of “Hola America,” and the drolly elegiac Paul McCartney-like tribute to “The Babe” (Ruth, natch). TBP gleefully slip into an assortment of gregarious pop/rock styles as need be with equal panache. (18 tracks, 62 min.) yeproc.com