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April 30, 2024
 

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HIGH NOTES

Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 26, 2003
Jesse Davis Quartet
Jesse Davis was all set for a professional football career when he broke his collar bone. Sidelined, he picked up the alto sax instead and hasn't looked back. After winning numerous awards as a music student, Davis formed his own quartet in the early '90s and has released a series of solid CDs over the past 10 years. Though still in his 30s, he fits into the long line of alto sax players -- Sonny Stitt and Cannonball Adderley come to mind -- who give soloing on hard bop, blues and ballads all the weight and attack of an offensive line, only with a lot more grace and delicacy.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 19, 2003
Kenny Brown: "Stingray"
Some blues come smooth-planed and varnished. Other blues leave splinters. Kenny Brown's "Stingray" is the latter. Accompanied only by bass and drums, Brown eschews all slickness and gets to the core of hardworking blues.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 19, 2003
Radio 4: "Gotham"
The new dance-punk that's been coming out of Brooklyn the past year or so has mostly been produced by out-of-towners. As one of the few affordable bohemian enclaves left in New York City, the borough attracts a sizable number of fledgling rock bands looking to make names for themselves.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 19, 2003
RASA: "The Unknighted Nations"
RASA's album "The Unknighted Nations" seems very long, not because it is boring or painful, but because it is so varied and interesting. You want ouds? We got your ouds. You want a cello? We got your cello. You want an African-American rapper or a freaky sounding guy with a synthesized voice? A woman who sings a bit like Billie Holiday? We got them, too. All of these sounds combine to make music that is restless, a bit unsettling and distinctly nocturnal.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 12, 2003
Califone's "Quicksand/Cradlesnakes"
'Don't give it a name," Tim Rutili croaks on "Michigan Girls," the third cut on the new album by Califone. Rutili could be talking about the band's sound, which is like the blues but isn't; which feels like the kind of country rock that the Stones and Fleetwood Mac dabbled in in the '70s, but not exactly.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 12, 2003
Jamaaladeen Tacuma & Burhan Ocal's "Groove Alla Turca"
Given the number of cheesy Asian fusion records out there these days, "Groove Alla Turca" may seem like yet another dubious selection until the name Jamaaladeen Tacuma on the album's cover pops out at you ; the presence of Tacuma means funk -- unusual funk, but mean, greasy funk nonetheless.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 12, 2003
Cody ChestnuTT's "The Headphone Masterpiece"
Staring smugly off the cover of his debut double album, "The Headphone Masterpiece," DIY-soul upstart Cody ChesnuTT looks more than a little full of himself. High-fives from both critics and bands like The Roots and The Strokes could be to blame, but ChesnuTT's condition is probably more a case of delayed gratification than a swollen ego. After his band, Crosswalk, dumped him when record contracts fell through, the Atlanta native took refuge in a bedroom studio he dubbed "the sonic promiseland." He emerged years later, with this lo-fi odyssey through R&B, hip-hop and rock 'n' roll.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 12, 2003
Harold Mabern
Harold Mabern might possibly be considered old-school if he had ever been off the jazz scene. However, since the 1950s, he has consistently brought his tasteful piano playing to one important bop-oriented group after another. He was the harmonic force behind jazz classics such as Lee Morgan's many '60s and '70s hard-bop groups and George Coleman's '80s exploratory quartets and octets. Even though Mabern's piano playing is not that part of the group sound one notices first, he often acts as the stabilizing center of gravity. Listen for his playing on recordings with jazz masters such as Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Wes Montgomery, Miles Davis and Sarah Vaughn, and you'll hear how his subtle artistry makes those frontline players sound great.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 5, 2003
Steve Turre: "One 4 J"
Consider the "bone," as it's called among the jazz tribe. A vestige of ancient orchestras, fighting for survival amid competition from sultry saxophones, sweet clarinets and red-hot trumpets, the lumbering, awkward "bone" has always quavered near extinction. We're talking, of course, about the trombone, that odd, slippery, protuberant instrument. In its evolution, the trombone added counterpoint in the syncopations of New Orleans and heft in the swing orchestras, but with the be-bop demands of fast-fingered soloing and quick-shifting harmonies, the trombone ended up on the endangered instrument list.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 5, 2003
Q & Not U
Few words in the English language contain the letter q without the letter u (Iraq and Qi Gong being two exceptions). And in Washington D.C.'s thriving underground scene, very few bands lack some resemblance to hometown heroes Fugazi or any other post-hardcore project from the mind of Ian MacKaye.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 5, 2003
Definitive Jux
When Rawkus Records and Quannum Projects were sucked into Universal's corporate black hole last year, the breadth of so-called underground hip-hop shrank considerably. Whatever such a grab means for music in general, it inadvertently boosted the street cred of the scene's most aggressively indie label, Definitive Jux, formed a few years ago by El Producto, a founding member of one of Brooklyn's most innovative crews, Company Flow.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Mar 5, 2003
Dave Fiuczynski: "Kif"
As with the music of many virtuosos, it is possible to become overwhelmed by Dave Fiuczynski's electric-guitar technique and his unique tonal pallette. After the Law of Diminishing Returns sets in, many amazing aspects of his playing might fly past the ears of many listeners. Fortunately, "Kif," with electric cellist Rufus Cappadocia, contains enough hooks to grab listeners the first time through and keep them coming back for more.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 26, 2003
Sonny Landgreth: "The Road We're On"
Sonny Landreth's new release, "The Road We're On," marks a new peak for slide-guitar playing. Though blues guitarists often slip a bottleneck, roll a cut-metal tube or scrape a knife blade along the strings, only a few players become full-time slide masters.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 26, 2003
The Go-Betweens: "Bright Yellow Bright Orange"
At a time and in a place where the jangly iconoclasm of The Smiths held sway, the off-center pop songs of the Go-Betweens should have been chart contenders, but the group's popularity never grew beyond a cult. Some attribute the cool response to the fact that they were strangers in a strange land; Aussies in England who understood what the market demanded, but were too self-consciously arty to meet those demands.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 26, 2003
Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell and Tim Sparks:"Masada Guitars"
'Masada Guitars" finds three very unusual and accomplished guitarists -- Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell and Tim Sparks -- interpreting the simple, elegant tunes from John Zorn's Masada songbook. Zorn began composing this material in 1993 and, by the time he finished, he'd written 208 of his most lyrical songs.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 26, 2003
Bright Eyes: "Lifted or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground"
Connor Oberst has hidden under the moniker Bright Eyes for more than five years now, but he began recording in 1994 at the ripe old age of 14. From the start, his salted-wound confessionals and distraught delivery left precious little middle ground between fans and detractors. Some made him out as the indie Dylan or emo-Jesus; others called him a pubescent poster-boy for Zoloft.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 19, 2003
Salsa Day
It's derived from the day's date in Japanese -- SAn, maRU, SAn, get it? -- but it's really just a good excuse for a party. And a party it will be. This year, the third annual event will showcase West Coast salsa phenomenon Johnny Polanco y Su Conjunto Amistad and feature the vocals of Ray De La Paz, one of the most renowned singers in modern salsa.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 19, 2003
Liars: "They Threw Us In a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top"
It takes more talent than guts to defy categorization, but Liars, an art-punk quartet based in Brooklyn, has done so seemingly through sheer force of will. Out of the band's blend of angular beats, grating effects, compressed vocals, and nonlinear song structures comes a recognizable sonic manifesto intended to keep listeners continually off balance while pulling their butts onto the dance floor. Though Liars is invariably compared to Gang of Four, who believed you were more likely to get their Marxist drift while you were pogoing, the politics of Liars' debut, "They Threw Us In a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top," is no less compelling for being totally incomprehensible.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 19, 2003
Mary Lorson and Billy Cote: "Piano Creeps"
Aside from a newborn and an overlooked body of work, Mary Lorson and Billy Cote share a passion for film. After their band, Madder Rose, died from a bad case of under-appreciation in 1999, they began to compose music for motion pictures whenever they weren't wandering through each other's solo efforts. Lorson pinched the soft underbelly of jangle-pop with her project Saint Low while Cote's "The Jazz Cannon" set its sights on sequencers and samples. They scored several indie films during this time, including an HBO documentary on photographer Sally Mann. Lorson was particularly inspired by screen music's emphasis on mood over lyrics. Being a vocalist, she says that the loose, instrumental format was liberating, since there was never a need to "get to the chorus."
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Feb 12, 2003
ScoLoHofo: Oh!
The name ScoLoHoFo derives from the names of the four jazz heavies in this quartet: Joe Lovano, John Scofield, Dave Holland and Al Foster. The four musicians converged for tours in the late '90s and again last year, cutting this CD, "Oh!," at the end. The concern with a group like this is that their individual egos would get in the way. Unlike many all-star groups in the past, though, these four sync to create a work greater than the sum of its individual parts.
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