CD Music
Charles Lloyd & the Marvels: "I Long to See You"
March 2016
Blue Note Records B002427702
Format: CD
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
Veteran jazz saxophonist Charles Lloyd, who turns 78 on March 15, views himself as someone who stands at the crossroads of America’s folk musics: country, blues, R&B, and jazz. As quoted in California-based journalist Joe Woodard’s 2015 book, Charles Lloyd: A Wild, Blatant Truth, Lloyd believes that growing up in Memphis on the Mississippi River in the 1940s was “the right place, at the right time. There were great masters there.” Among those masters Lloyd played with were B.B. King, Howlin’ Wolf, Johnny Ace, and contemporaries Phineas Newborn and Booker Little.
David Bowie: "Blackstar"
February 2016
ISO/Columbia 88875173862
Format: CD
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
Any artist’s sudden and unexpected death alters our view of his or her final work -- whether it be Jimi Hendrix’s The Cry Of Love, Janis Joplin’s Pearl, or John Lennon’s Double Fantasy. No matter how hard we try, we can never truly divorce that final recording from thoughts of what went before or projections of what might have been yet to come.
John Abercrombie: "The First Quartet"
January 2016
ECM 2478
Format: CD
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
Reissues of early recordings from an established artist’s career are almost always instructive, and sometimes revelatory. While it is not unusual to gain a fresh perspective on the development of the artist’s music, it is much rarer to get insights into what factors influenced the musician’s personal growth.
Billy Gibbons and the BFGs: "Perfectamundo"
December 2015
Concord 37886
Format: CD
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
Starting in the mid-1960s, blues-based guitarists began to supplant lead singers like Mick Jagger and Keith Relf as the dominant frontmen in rock music. Players like Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page were suddenly thrust into the spotlight, and once Jimi Hendrix made the move from showy soul sideman to rock god there was no turning back. Even guitarists who could not sing -- Duane Allman comes to mind -- were promoted as solo artists.
Keith Richards: "Crosseyed Heart"
November 2015
Mindless Records/Virgin EMI 2361502
Format: CD
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
To hear Keith Richards tell the story -- as he does in a new Netflix documentary called Keith Richards: Under the Influence -- Crosseyed Heart came about because he said something outlandish to Steve Jordan, the longtime drummer for Richards’s side project, the X-Pensive Winos. What on earth could Richards -- who, for more than 50 years, has set the bar high for outlandish behavior -- have said to create such a reaction? According to Jordan, Richards -- having now documented his turbulent past in an autobiography and with the Rolling Stones spending more time off the road than on it -- mused about retirement.
Blue Buddha: "Blue Buddha"; Dave Douglas Quintet: "Brazen Heart"
Blue Buddha: Blue Buddha
Tzadik 4010
Format: CD
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
Dave Douglas Quintet: Brazen Heart
Greenleaf Music 1044
Format: CD
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
Jason Isbell: "Something More Than Free"
September 2015
Southeastern Records
Format: CD
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
Few things resonate in America as well as redemption tales. Alabama-born singer-songwriter Jason Isbell has a fine one to tell, bouncing back from an alcohol habit so bad it got him fired from the hard-living Drive-By Truckers in 2007, when he was just 28. Isbell's crash was particularly disappointing because he seemed to be living out the kind of disastrous self-destruction portrayed in some of the Truckers' darkest songs while proving himself to be the most promising young writer to come out of the South since Steve Earle.
Ryan Adams: "Ten Songs from Live at Carnegie Hall"
August 2015
Pax Americana/Blue Note B002263402
Format: CD
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
In an earlier, less-cluttered musical era, Ryan Adams would be a much bigger star. He has the charisma and the songwriting chops of Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty, but, at 40, he is a generation younger and remains a cult favorite -- far from a household name (except, perhaps, for those who confuse him with Bryan Adams). In some quarters, he is best known as the romantic partner of quirky women like indie-film diva Parker Posey and actress-singer Mandy Moore.
Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell: "The Traveling Kind"
July 2015
Nonesuch Records 2-548243
Format: CD
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
Close harmony lives at the heart of rural American music, a reflection of the fact that, in its early years, it was frequently created by family members or friends -- as much self-entertainment as anything meant to share with others.
Laura Marling: "Short Movie"
May 2015
Ribbon Music B00R8SN5U4
Format: CD
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
At 25, and after creating five albums, British singer-songwriter Laura Marling is no longer the startling young ingénue she was when she scored three Mercury Prize nominations, but she can still stun you with the freshness of her music and the depth of her emotion.
