Brian Setzer, former leader of the Stray Cats, admits that he’s no jazz-and-blues expert. “I don’t know a lot of those songs, to be honest with you,” he says. “But I think all that stuff is great, and it is there as a foundation. You take from it and learn…
Keb’ Mo’, Monday, July 25, at the Fox Theatre, with Koko Taylor, got his start as a multitalented L.A. session player and sideman to Papa John Creach and Monk Higgins. His first album, Rainmaker, appeared in 1980 on Chocolate City, a defunct division of Casablanca Records, under his given name,…
Vince Bell Phoenix (Watermelon) Bell’s singing is quite ordinary: He delivers most of these eleven fascinating songs in a voice he seemingly forgot to clear several years ago. And that, believe it or don’t, is one of the primary reasons Phoenix is so effective. The musicians who accompany this obscure…
King Sunny Ade was worldbeat before worldbeat was cool. A legend in his native Nigeria, where he began working as a professional musician more than a quarter century ago, Ade made his American debut in 1983 and quickly became a cause celebre among aficionados of African styles. His first tour…
Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge (Virgin) Of course, no one expected that this band would sound all that different without Bill Wyman–except maybe Bill Wyman, that is. And it doesn’t: Clearly, the Stones that remain have decided that they’re better off doing what they’ve done since time immemorial. Hence, Mick Jagger…
Right now, jazz pianist Cecil Taylor doesn’t feel much like talking. I know–because I found out the hard way. It’s easy to understand why I thought chatting with Taylor would be divine. Throughout his forty-year career in jazz, he’s remained among the most challenging practitioners of avant-garde sounds, redefining song…
Vassar Clements looks sturdy and functional, like a small-town mechanic who’s never too busy to stop and chat while pumping your gas. A man with a strong Southern accent and the manner of a kindly grandpa, he uses expletives such as “dad gum it” and generally addresses women–even strangers–as “hon.”…
Various Artists What Is Bhangra? (I.R.S.) Bhangra, according to this disc’s liner, is traditional music from the Punjab region of northern India that immigrants to England subsequently tricked up with pop, hip-hop and house touches. Sounds crummy, I know, but as judged by this compilation, the style is compelling in…
In Europe, New York and Los Angeles, rhythm and blues guitarist/vocalist Sammy Mayfield has made a name for himself as the musical director for legendary soul and gospel shouter Solomon Burke. But in Denver, where Mayfield was raised, he’s just another musician about town. He’s respected in musicians’ circles, but…
David Byrne David Byrne (Luaka Bop/Warner Bros.) Apparently this is the season for faded new-wave stars to search for their roots. Like Elvis Costello, whose recent Brutal Youth was a blatant attempt to return to the days when he got good reviews simply for existing, Byrne has temporarily abandoned his…
Blues harmonicat Charlie Musselwhite looks a lot older than his fifty-something years, but in his case, that’s okay: He’s earned every line on his face. After four decades of playing and living the blues, Musselwhite is indisputably among the top harmonica players alive, as well as one of the funniest…
Kokane Funk Upon a Rhyme (Ruthless/Relativity) I admit it: When I saw the cover of this album, I figured that the disc would bite. The reason was simple–there’s too much lame, redundant, boneheaded gangsta rap out there right now, and a recording by someone named Kokane (real name: Jerry Long)…
Rickie Lee Jones, Tuesday, May 17, at the Paramount Theatre, is a singer-songwriter whose soulful beauty and jazzy articulation has not been dimmed by the years: This Beat angel continues to tantalize her audience by uncovering new, deviant elements of her musical persona. She’s still willing to take listeners back…
John Trudell Johnny Damas and Me (Rykodisc) No getting around it: Trudell is dogmatic, didactic and driven to say more about most topics than many listeners are eager to hear. But he’s also utterly genuine, aggressively intelligent and as fierce as a radical vegetarian in a butcher shop when it…
Gil Scott-Heron got it wrong when he told us that the revolution would not be televised. It’s been televised repeatedly, and can be witnessed in all its glory in films and videotapes featuring the choreography of Alvin Ailey and performances by artists such as John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis,…
L’Impossible Trio, Friday, April 29, at Ricketson Auditorium, is an unlikely Paris-based threesome most stateside listeners have never gotten an opportunity to hear. Guitarist Phillipe Deschepper, tuba player Michael Godard and percussionist Youval Micenmacher began working together in 1988; since then they have conceived original compositions that often combine Middle…
In early 1993, when the editors of Musician magazine published their list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time, they praised Stanley Jordan as a one-of-a-kind talent whose recent albums “point to a leaner, more spacious style, which only means he’s getting wiser.” But when that article was written,…
Country blues singer-songwriter Rory Block knows how to play with pain. A solo artist who prefers to pick the steel strings of her guitar bare-fingered, she’s been known to perform entire shows at the starts of tours with blood dripping from her hands. Her calluses solidify as her time on…
Otis Rush Ain’t Enough Comin’ In (This Way Up/Mercury) If you’re curious as to what blues aficionados mean when they describe guitar solos as “stinging,” pick this up. Rush, who’s worked in something akin to obscurity since the mid-Fifties, is a lethal force, and when he straps on his weapon…
Ted Hawkins The Next Hundred Years (DGC) You would be perfectly justified in assuming that any good reviews given this album would be inspired less by the music than by the personal life of Ted Hawkins, a street performer who has spent most of the past several decades subsisting on…
Beck Mellow Gold (DGC) Yes, this is a complete mess: sloppy, sometimes incoherent, always erratic. Yet these very qualities make Beck Hansen, most recent beneficiary of David Geffen’s frightening hype machine, worthy of your attention. Because of the success of “Loser,” an indie single that manages to be amusing without…
Nine Inch Nails The Downward Spiral (Nothing/TVT/Interscope) There’s nothing you can do to make Trent Reznor happy. Give him a million dollars and he’ll hate you for trying to buy his affection. Introduce him to the world’s most beautiful woman and he’ll suspect that she’s diseased. Share with him the…
