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10/26/19
CALABRIA FOTI/Prelude to a Kiss: Talk about a no brainer, you could give this session an A for effort without even playing it. The jazz vocalist wanted to do something she really wanted to do this time out. That was to make a classic sounding vocal album with an orchestra at an iconic studio. The cherry on top here is a core combo that is a veritable A team/dream team of jazzbos. Airing out oldies that don't often get airing outs by classic songbag diggers, she hits all her chosen bulls eyes with room to spare on a killer date where all are shining mightily. If you thought these pros didn't have any room left for their games to be raised, listen here. Really well done throughout.
(MoCo 23-06)
DANIEL LIPPEL/Mirrored Spaces: This very ambitious double cd of premiere works by contemporary classical composers is going to strike you like you're listening to
Segovia on acid---with him being the one on acid. A set of solo classical and acoustic guitar with electronics thrown in as a side dish, this isn't solo guitar for a romantic evening with wine, music and thou but it is a rocket set to take you to guitar galaxies beyond the beyond. Way more John Williams than Frank Zappa, this is a fine adventure for the adventurous.
(New Focus 239)
JACKIE ALLEN/A Romantic Evening: She's been at it over 30 years and it's hard but easy to say that you've never heard Allen swinging like she is here. Bringing her Chicago cats to her adopted home in Lincoln NB, she drops a set that was the basis of a PBS special---and it is special. While the set list defines classic songbook liberally, in the end she makes all the songs her own for this portrait of an mature artist that has lived in the songs and knows how to hit them out of the park. With everyone shining for this stellar evening, jazz vocal fans have a wonderful treat on tap here. Hot stuff.
(Avant Bass)
EMILIO SOLLA TANGO JAZZ ORCHESTRA/Puertos-Music from International Waters: Some people just have that special sauce flowing through their veins. This modern, Grammy winning tango master is the future of the legacy with his modern ear for melody and mash up. Not Argentinean dock music in the purest sense, Solla casts his musical net to the waters here and hauls in quite the catch on his set of all originals. Bringing a big crew with some major names on board, this is a set that can be enjoyed by any jazzbo or instrumental music fan as easily as any hard core tango fan. Not really trying to make something for everybody, he succeeds at making something for all. Well done.
(Avantago 5)
NEKTAR/Skywriter-Devil's Door: With all the old space rockers coming around again, Nektar shows up to show they aren't out of it. A single that finds them in a different direction that in days of yore, they are riding a more prog tip on this single but it's going to whet the fan's appetite nonetheless. Now they have to come with some more.
(Cosmic Cowboy)
CRYSTAL BETH/Push Thru: It finally happened. Someone finally decoded the feedback of "Metal Machine Music" into something discernable----and it's new age/world music from another planet. A real groover for disaffected suburban youth that knows everyone else in the world is an asshole, this multi layered sonic adventure often takes you to hell and back while threading it's way through the whole of everything. Wild stuff that'll help clarify why you hate your parents.
(7D Media 1913)
BRUCE SOORD/All This Will be Yours: Lyric heavy music for teen aged deep thinkers that have no use for who is dominating the top of the pops this week because you'd have to dig pretty deep to find this on streaming services. Deep thinker stuff that provides a nice security blanket to pull over your head and find you aren't alone as the rest of the community is already there.
(Kscope)
VINNIE MOORE/Soul Shifter: A shredder of long standing that needs no introduction, Moore and his pals working out in mostly aggregations of power threes and fours, just plain serve up a bunch of original shredding that shows just how much room there is for this sound and genre to keep growing. Powerful power stuff throughout, this is a smoking instrumental work for the young and the young at heart that are really there for the real music. Smoking stuff.
(Mind's Eye 2)
DEAD PENS/Unaddressed: What we can learn from this alt.folk set that that an east coast hippie punk legend can surround himself with two chicks if he keeps it dark and a little spooky. It doesn't have to be emo to be strange stuff for the exurbs where they were finding crop circles not too long before subdivisions popping up.
(Bob the Organism)
SONIA JONSON/Chrysalis: Award winner Johnson is the kind of singer you want to call an artiste but that ‘e' at the end seems to add an uncalled for pejorative edge. In her first English language release, we find she knows what she's talking about in any language. A modern take on the classic vocal format, she shows she knows how to do it and do it right. Writing as well as singing, this do it all player knows how to keep you on board throughout. Well done.
(1911)
Volume 43/Number 360
October 26, 2019
MIDWEST RECORD
830 W. Route 22 #144
Lake Zurich, IL., 60047
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher
Copyright 2019 Midwest Record
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