Muddy Waters - At Newport 1960

Tracks: I Got My Brand on You//(I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man//Baby Please Don't Go//Soon Forgotten//Tiger in Your Tank//I've Got My Mojo Working//I've Got My Mojo Working (Part 2)// Goodbye Newport Blues

NOTE TO THE READER - Since first reviewing this album I have listened to it yet again, and I like it a lot more than I did initially. 8.5/10

I don't go into albums hoping to be disappointed. In fact I listen to very few albums that I dislike, since I try to pick and choose and avoid stuff that I know I won't enjoy. The problem with a list like this, however, is that it frequently thrusts me into contact with things that, while excellent representations of their style and times, are not the sort of music I'd ever really want to listen to.

Which is a long way of saying that I guess this is pretty good, but it's not really my thing. I don’t know, it’s not really my thing. It’s a very well-played album, and the melodies are generally very strong, but Muddy Waters sings everything in such a stiff style that it doesn’t really resonate. Ok, so this is a brilliant album by the standards of electric blues – it’s just that I’ve never been a huge fan of electric blues. So, while I don’t really care for it all that much I will give it very high marks and urge people to go listen to it I guess. I like Howlin’ Wolf – is that enough?

Putting aside personal reservations, this is a very impressive album. The arrangements are dense and complex, folding tinkling piano and smooth underwater harmonica together over a plodding, boom-bap drum beat through which Waters occasionally sees fit to slither his rather impressive guitar. There’s some nifty slide work, and lots of fancy bends, and in the end the guitar sounds almost as much like the harmonica as the harmonica does. Then, Muddy, while he may have a vocal rhythm I’m not all that taken with, does have a wonderful deep voice, like a piece of oak. And he changes it up a bit, too – you get long, slow stuff on “I Got My Brand On You”, while “Tiger in Your Tank” is positively snappy – lots of toe-tapping fun. Hell the bridge on “Tiger in Your Tank” even rocks, and hard, with some amazing slithery guitar work. After “Tiger in Your Tank” things pick-up significantly, actually – Muddy Waters sounds much more natural in his vocals and everything swings without the stiffness of earlier on. The apex of this is the two-part “I Got My Mojo Working”, which lasts seven minutes and roars along on a snare drum, a snappy piano vamp and the handclaps of the audience. There's call-and-response vocals and amazing propulsive drumming and it's one of the hardest rocking things we've had so far. And then they do it all over again.

You get lots of pretty good stuff here. Technically, it’s very impressive, and the material is very strong. Most of the problems I have with it might actually be attributable to the fact that this is a live recording, and so loses a lot of the dense, low-fi, smoky charm of a studio recording.

I will never be the biggest fan of this sort of stuff, but it’s a very fine album, and managed to impress me despite myself. I think I think the problem might just be that it's one of those albums that isn't brilliant overall, but which has a few tracks that are good enough to make it essential listening. It’s a great example of Chicago blues, anyway, fusing gospel, jazz and, well, blues, into something extremely impressive - and Waters had an obvious hand in fellows such as James Brown and the Rolling Stones. I just wish Waters actually cared what he was singing about on the earlier songs, instead of just using the lyrics as a vehicle for his up-beat shouting. I mean, he did a great slow song with the closing "Goodbye Newport Blues"! It's a genuinely affecting song in which Muddy seems to really care about what he's singing, talking about his music and his life instead of cliche nonsense about doing chicks. I guess he just had to work up to it. This is a problem with live albums, I suppose. On the one hand you capture the moment but on the other you have to spend half the album waiting for the moment to arrive.

I am doing a bad review of this album but I don’t care.

7.5/10

Download: Muddy Waters - I've Got My Mojo Working Mp3

Download: Muddy Waters - Goodbye Newport Blues Mp3

28. The Incredible Jimmy Smith - Back at the Chicken Shack (1956)

Tracks: Back at the Chicken Shack//When I Grow Too Old to Dream//Minor Chant//Messy Bessy//On the Sunny Side of the Street

I feel as though I should like this more than I do. I mean, it’s on the list isn’t it? That means it must be either very good or very important – or possibly both. Well, in this instance I know it’s the latter. Jimmy Smith is apparently responsible for popularising the use of the Hammond organ in jazz, which is kind of a big deal. He does make a good case for it – he mimics an upright bass with considerable alacrity, carrying the songs on simple walking lines and some interesting comping and subtle melodics. Every now and then, he busts out a solo, and he does quite well there, too. As a consequence of all the organ everywhere, the result is a feel much closer to the blues than to straight jazz, and it’s probably for this reason that people tend to type this as a new, hybrid form – soul-jazz.

In keeping with this “soulful” bent, things are by and large quite laid back and relaxed. There aren’t many grand gestures here. The result is something extremely pleasant and listenable, more about a sustained and cheery mood than anything else. The organ chugs along, there’s some subtle yet persistent drumming back in there somewhere, and the solos are for the better part taken by a smoky sax on the right and a gently Latinate guitar on the right. It’s extremely cool and soothing.

Unfortunately, this also translates into it not always being immediately dazzling. I do like this album, but I doubt I could ever care about it. I have always liked the Hammond, but at the same time I’ve never been all that fond of smoky, switched-on blues. This is the sort of stuff you’d expect to hear playing in a middle-brow art house cinema before the film starts. I don’t have much of a problem with it, I suppose, but it’s not doing much to excite me beyond featuring an organ.

Which, I suppose, is unfair to Jimmy Smith. Look at the cover – he’s not trying to change the world. I’m basically criticising this for being exactly what it sets out to be – pleasant, frequently silly mood music for summer afternoons spend frying things on a hotplate. Smith’s captured the feel of late February wonderfully, and he’s owed props for that. This is a charming, unpretentious little album, worth checking by anyone with a fondness for either soul or jazz. It swings when it needs to and grooves fine most of the rest of the time, and that’s probably enough. The title track builds gradually in insistency throughout its length without ever breaking a sweat, and is ideal for either slow dances or fucking. “Minor Chant” has a neat little melody that I’m sure I’ve heard somewhere before and some pretty cool break-out drum solos. And “Messy Bessy” has a great mid section where everything falls in together and gradually just gets more, I don’t know... “Intense” seems like an inappropriate word to use in connection with an album this determinedly relaxed.

So! I put this album on again intent on giving it a poor review, and instead it works its magic on me and I end up reviewing it poorly. I do feel less tense, now. I have taken a nap in two years, but now I sort of want to. I can almost feel Smith, reaching out from the aether, gently rubbing his key-polished fingers into the rigid cords of my trapezius. No real high or low points, just sort of there, but in a good way. I suppose in that sense it manages to sum up most everything I love and hate about jazz in one package.

And hey! It's basically all the good parts of the first Doors album with a sense of humour and none of the shit, so it's worth it just for that.

7.5/10

Download: The Incredible Jimmy Smith - Back at the Chicken Shack Mp3

Tracks: Made to Love//That's Just Too Much//Stick With Me Baby//Baby What You Want Me To Do//Sigh, Cry, Almost Die//Always It's You//Love Hurts//Lucille//So How Come (No One Loves Me)//Donna, Donna//A Change of Heart//Cathy's Clown

The Everly brothers do have a lot of good ideas. They take the basic Buddy Holly country-rock template, graft on their impressive close-harmony singing, and then flesh things out with wide-ranging borrowing from other fields of pop and rock. Album-opener “Made to Love” boasts a surfy Link Ray beat and vocals that wouldn’t be out of place in a doo-wop song. “Cathy’s Clown”, the most interesting track in sonic terms, features a staggered marching-band beat over which the Everlys caterwaul melancholically in a style directly comparable with the early Beatles (who ripped-off this song). It has more in common with an old-fashioned pop song of the type one expects Doris Day to start belting out than the bluesy nonsense of Elvis and his like, complete with time changes and several clearly distinct sections.

Obviously, the levels of writing are considerably higher than usual, with a lot more chord changes and a more sophisticated approach to melody. And the arrangements are fascinating - guitars are layered and positively swirl, while “Always It’s You” boasts a glockenspiel and elaborate studio delay effects – gone is the irritating cheapness which has dogged all the rock albums on the list up to this point, and I for one thing that it’s about damned time. And hey, Roy Orbison ripped-off both “Love Hurts” (“You Got It”) and “Lucille” (“Pretty Woman”), so there’s that.

So, the Everlys have a lot of interesting ideas. Unfortunately they aren’t always being put in the service of memorable songs. “Made to Love” is a great catchy fist-pumper with empty-headed yet oddly endearing lyrics about women being programmed for love (Ah! To hear Dietrich cover this). “Donna, Donna” is similarly grand, yet less affirmative and more about how badly Donna screwed the Everlys over. And “Cathy’s Clown” is simultaneously the oddest song here and intensely enjoyable. All good there – the problem is, that’s only three songs on a twelve song album.

The other tracks aren’t worthless, they’re just not hit-you-in-the-face amazing. Lyrically, this is a very shallow affair – the Everly Brothers do an admirable job of capturing the Teenage Condition, but unfortunately the Teenage Condition is exceptionally tedious, relying as it does almost entirely on gut-reaction tear-jerking and pleas to the heart - a quick read of the track list tells you all you need to know. And look at the cover! Are you sad? Well, no fear - the Everly Borthers will date you even if no-one else will. If you can give yourself over to an entire album of self-absorbed whining then it’s a lot of fun, but you’re probably better off either ignoring the lyrics or listening to this just after the captain of the varsity football team gave Becky Winthrop his pin instead of you. And I mean ugh! She is such a slut! I mean, everyone knows she went down on Buck Jones in the back of his Plymouth after the Castle Beach Clam Bake. Oh god I am so fat... And if I don’t lose at least ten pounds then how am I ever going to marry Frankie Avalon?

Putting personal matters aside, this is a pretty good pop album. It has a few great moments, and is uniformly enjoyable – and how many albums can you point to where all the songs are good? Not many, really. And I may have complained of the simplicity of the lyrics, but on the other hand it does add a nice bit of immediacy to things. Plus, all the songs are short – about 2:20 on average – and both very slick and highly melodic. It may be sort of inconsequential, but then again pop music isn’t meant to be art. It’s meant to be a fun time or a simplistic augmentation of your current emotional state. And on that level, and as an interesting and important progresion in the development of rock, this more than delivers.

7.5/10

26. Miriam Makeba – Miriam Makeba (1960)

Tracks: The Retreat Song//Suliram//The Click Song//Umhome//Olilili//Lakutshn, Ilanga//Mbube//The Naughty Little Flea//Where Does It Lead?//Novema//House of the Rising Sun//House of the Rising Sun//Saduva//One More Dance//Iya Guduza

Well, this is a nice album, although I get the feeling they may have included it more because it’s Miriam Makeba’s debut than anything else. Is this an important album in the history of African music? Well, it has “The Click Song” on it, and that was a big hit in the West, so maybe it is. I poke about on the net and no-one ever seems to mention this that much. Miriam Makeba is a big deal, anyway, what with having been a major anti-apartheid and civil rights activist and getting exiled from South Africa during a trip to the USA - so I suppose it warrants inclusion on that point alone.

Of course, saying all that makes it seem as though I don’t think much of this. It’s good, though. Quite good. Frequently, very good, and perhaps at times even great. Makeba does a lot of different things here, and she manages to do most of them well. This suits her background – a South African with a jazz background and strong interest music folk, classical and pop. I guess that makes her a lot like Nina Simone, although Simone would have been less inclined to fill her album with jaunty calypso numbers about naughty fleas wanting a bite of Brigitte Bardot. Ah, but then I don’t actually know if some of these songs are calypso – they sound like calypso, but then where exactly is the line between Afro-Caribbean and straight-up African? I don’t know much about African music, and almost everything I do know is limited to West Africa, with folks like Fela Kuti and Bembeya Jazz National and Konono No.1 and all that jazz (quite literally). Miriam Makeba may have lived in Guinea for a time, but that was all well into the future and there isn’t all that much that’s Guinean about the music here. So, my frame of reference for South African music is limited largely to this, and to Paul Simon’s Graceland. And there isn’t much that sounds like Graceland here, either.

Putting my incoherent rambling aside. The predominant modes here are down-tempo jazz with a light guitar backing, like you might expect to here on a 50s Julie London album, and big boisterous African-style tunes (no I do not know the name of the genre) with lots of call-and-response vocals and deep, chanted rhythms. But, Makeba mixes it up, and the results on both fronts are something curiously quintessential in character. Some of the most revelatory moments are the ones where she just sings a cappella as a lead-in to some of the songs. Her voice really is extraordinary.

There are some very good songs here, and only two that even approach bad. “House of the Rising Sun” is sort of mangled, since Makeba attempts a sort of jazzy deconstruction and doesn’t quite pull it off. Her voice is beautiful – something that holds true for all the songs here – but as a composition it’s a little disjointed. “One More Dance” has immense novelty value, as it is just so incredibly weird. Basically, Miriam duets a rather standard song in the vein of “Baby it’s cold outside”, with the difference being that the song is about her putting off going home to tend to her dying husband, and the man she is dueting with is, throughout the song, in paroxysms of laughter. Actually I don’t know if it’s fair to call the song bad, so much as it is just so extraordinarily weird.

On the flipside, however, we have three songs that are absolutely extraordinary. Firstly, there’s “Mbube”, which is sort of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” except that it is far more complicated and fun and exciting, does not have the wimmuways, and is generally just better all round than the more well-known version. Hell, it's just glorious really. Secondly, there’s “Where Does It Lead”, which is an utterly beautiful folk ballad which is really the main reason I mentioned Nina Simone in the second paragraph. Makeba sings at full force over a sparse, faintly Latin guitar backing, and it’s really just utterly mesmerising stuff. There’s a sort of stiff, classical character to the vocal which gives it an otherworldly air. And then there’s “The Click Song”, which gets its name from the fact that it’s sung in Xhosa, and as a consequence features a quasi-tango rhythm lots of, well, clicks. But then it also features these delightful little growls, and they remind me of an African housemate I used to have who would get angry sometimes, and who I had something of a crush on. So. Lola, if you are reading this – you are pretty.

Between all of this is a lot of other great stuff. “Novema” is a lazy, up-lifting song with wonderful rhythm. Makeba has such a tremendous ability to put joy into her songs. It helps, I suppose, that a lot of them are just overlapping rhythmical interplay seemingly built around the concept of shouting joyously. This is a quite an understated album, really, and mostly just coasts along in a series of cheery, laid-back grooves. I have absolutely no idea what Makeba is singing about, but it sounds great and that’s really enough for me. I mean, “The Retreat Song” sounds happy as hell, so I have no idea what they’re retreating from. Although she may just be happy to run away. Who knows? People who speak the language, and ethno-musicologists, probably.

I have realised at this point that most of what I could say about this album is kind of just repeating myself. It’s really good, anyway. The fact that I don’t understand the lyrics means that I can’t really appreciate it as a particularly deep experience, but the mix of African and Western styles combined with the generally blissful, earthy tone meant that I enjoyed it anyway.

Although it is kind of funny to hear stereotypical late-fifties “oohing” choirs on an album like this. It certainly pushes the gospel aspect forward a bit.

8.5/10

Download: Miriam Makeba - The Click Song Mp3
Download: Miriam Makeba - Mbube Mp3
Download: Miriam Makeba - Where Does It Lead? Mp3

25. Elvis Presley – Elvis Is Back! (1960)

Tracks: Make Me Know It//Fever//The Girl of My Best Friend//I Will Be Home Again//Dirty, Dirty Feeling//Thrill of Your Love//Soldier Boy//Such A Night//It Feels So Right//Girl Next Door Went a-Walking//Like A Baby//Reconsider Baby

Yes, Elvis is back and better than ever! I couldn’t resist saying that, and I’m sorry. It’s not even particularly accurate – I mean, yes this a better album than Elvis Presley was, but that’s not really saying all that much. And there’s the fact that I said most of what I have to say about Elvis back in my review of his debut... Well, let’s get on with it.

Firstly, just what is Elvis back from? The army and a corresponding drop in public profile, that’s what. Elvis got called-up in ’57, and after finishing filming on King Creole he was promptly shipped-off to Germany for two years, where he would no doubt spend a great deal of time mucking-about in tanks and making lewd comments about bratwurst. And fun as that may be, it also meant two years without new Elvis! These days a two-year break between albums might not seem like that big a deal but back in the late fifties, acts were popping-out two or three albums a year -often more. And now such a drastic ebb in the tide of Elvis. How would the world survive in such a horrible state? It’s like the Ruskies finally dropped the bomb and we’re suddenly living on tinned beans and old lingerie catalogues. How terrifying.

Well, the stop-gap solution was that RCA did a bit of a Buddy Holly, and kept releasing singles and albums from a stockpile they had accumulated during intense recording prior to his enlistment. And it worked. So even though he was half-way around the world he’d never really gone away (what a relief). But he couldn’t do live shows and he couldn’t do media appearances, and so people started to get a bit antsy. This is a guy who was arguably more about the image than the music, after all. And then throughout there was the deep curiosity as to whether, when he finally did get back from Germany, Elvis would still have “it” (whatever the hell “it” is).

The short answer is, yes, although “it” may in fact be at least a couple of years out of date. While there’s nothing really wrong with Elvis is Back, it’s not the most instantly exciting stuff. It’s just a solidly enjoyable slab of turn-of-the-60s pop rock, with no real highs or lows. If that’s enough for you, then great! Although personally I’d sort of hoped, given his reputation, that Elvis might deliver something a little more exciting given all his years of experience.

Still, it’s a qualitive leap of considerable proportions from the rather scatter-shot realm of his debut. Which is only to be expected - by this point they’d been putting out his albums for several years, and had a very clear idea of both who Elvis was and how he (or his creative team) should be presenting himself. So this is a very polished effort. The songs are all catchy, immediately likeable and well-performed. Personally I’m not all that taken with Elvis rather muddled attempt at “Fever”, but considering the Peggy Lee version is one of my absolute favourite songs that’s only to be expected. I mean, it started-out as a rock tune so maybe, when compared to the original, this is a dazzling work of genius. Maybe. To my ears it just sounds poorly mixed and Elvis is a little off the beat. Those finger-snaps are just ill-advised.

But hey, there’s a lot of other stuff that’s actually pretty good. A few songs even manage to step beyond being “pretty good” and into the realm of genuine, rocky greatness! “The Girl Next Door Went Walking” is just such fun. I am a fan of any song built around a double entendre, it’s true. It’s better than “Dirty, Dirty Feeling”, anyway, which has great rhythm but features a rather bizarre and perhaps ill-advised “minstrelesque” vocal. Still, that’s immediately followed by “Thrill of Your Love”, which is a gorgeous piano-led ballad with very clear R&B influences but without the silly voice, so it all balances out. Ah, and there is a much bigger emphasis on balladeering by this point, which is good, since Elvis really does excel at ballads. “Soldier Boy” is just lovely, and has obvious resonance (however manufactured) with Elvis’ own recent past. It doesn’t have to be true, it just has to get the bobby-soxers swooning. Oh god! And the break-out chorus on “Such A Night”. Heh, and then all the little orgasmic moans. For a guy who reportedly had so much trouble with women, Elvis sure could be a sexy devil. I suppose the Jordanaires help more than a little. Actually scratch that the Jordanaires help a whole lot. The see-sawing backing vocals on “Like A Baby” are just amazing.

Anyway, this broader variety is what really makes the album work. It’s short, and it changes it up a bit, and the result is something that’s constantly entertaining even if it’s not especially deep. The lyrics are decent, the songs are fun, and Elvis throws himself into the performances without ever lapsing into the twitchy lunacy that marred his earlier performances (although doing a sub-par Ray Charles impression on “Reconsider Baby” may be just as great a crime – the song works, but not till he drops the mimicry and goes his own way). The songs have a focused, restrained compositional approach that lets them rock-out without ever becoming annoying. So, it’s not as raw and dirty as a lot of black music Elvis is drawing on, but if I wanted that I would just go and listen to Howlin’ Wolf or something. By this point in his career, Elvis seems to have a much surer sense of himself as a "pop" rather than a "rock" musician, and his music is nothing if not the better for it.

So, this is one of those albums where I start writing the review with one opinion and by the end of it I’ve done a complete 180. Elvis delivers a solidly enjoyable rock album that ticks all the boxes for what I’d want from something of this period, and frequently manages to veer into something like greatness. I never really bought the Elvis myth, and even if I still haven't changed my mind, albums like this are enough to make me understand where all the obsessive whack-jobs are coming from. Hell, if it weren't for "Fever" I might even give this album a 9.

Anyway, pretty darn good.

8/10

Download: Elvis Presley - The Girl Next Door Went a-Walking Mp3
Download - Elvis Presley - The Thrill of Your Love Mp3

Joan Baez – Joan Baez (1960)

Tracks: Silver Dagger//East Virginia//Fare Thee Well//House of the Rising Sun//All My Trials//Wildwood Flower//Donna Donna//John Riley//Rake & Rambling Boy//Little Moses//Mary Hamilton//Henry Martin//El Preso Numero Uno

We’ll never get anywhere at this rate...

Well, here’s the 60s, and we open with one of the most iconic styles of the decade – folk – and one of its most iconic figures – Joan Baez, naturally.

It’s difficult to say all that much about Joan Baez as a musician. Yes, she was seemingly everywhere when it came to activism and hobnobbing. She introduced the world to Bob Dylan! She developed a specialised form of yoga which allowed her to splinter into several thousand simulacra of herself, thus explaining her ability to appear in footage of seemingly every major political event of the early to mid 60s. She and her friends got together at a concert once and pestered Tom Waits off the stage. All fascinating and admirable of course, but leaving that aside is there really all that much to say about a young woman crooning along to a guitar?

Well, to Baez credit she did do it first. The album was recorded live with her sitting down on the floor in a hall somewhere or other – as Baez put it, at the time it was probably all she knew how to do. Well, thankfully she did it well. Not only does she possess a truly extraordinary voice, with a steady vibrato and near-inhuman control, but she was also a pretty good guitarist, and for some reason no matter how tired I sometimes get of rock music, I can always stomach a lightly handled acoustic guitar. Although putting good points aside, Christ but she doesn’t half belt at times. The high notes are enough to level a bunker.

Lyrically, we get the standard selection of songs from the folk repertoire, most of them kind of depressing. There’s even an alternative version of “Silver Dagger”, which we last heard on the Louvin Brothers album. Hey, that’s kind of neat. This seems to have been before the song-writing trend really took off in folk, back when it was all about being an interpretive artist and being “authentic” and such nonsense. All well and good but somewhat limiting. Then again, can Joan Baez even write? I don’t know – but she does fine singing these tunes and it’d probably be best if I focused on that a bit more. And hey, she slips in a few Spanish-American ditties too, which is only appropriate given her last name and gives the album a little something to make it stand-out amidst all the more resolutely blues-oriented stuff. The fact that "El Preso Numero Nueve" is actually pretty great is just the icing on the cake. Honestly, she gets angry and I fall in love a little.

But, like I said, there’s not much to say. On the one hand, this is groundbreaking stuff – it doesn’t sound like the 50s at all. Baez puts her stamp across everything, thoroughly updating some rather elderly tunes. “The 60s” have definitely arrived. Clear, clean production and a dynamic approach which is just sort of.. different. The results are, quite frankly, fucking amazing. I mean, look at a song like "The House of Rising Sun", which by a simple switch of gender pronouns turns from being a poor me story about debauching into a harrowing tale of girls trapped in prostitution. That's impressive And yet through the whole album we are mercifully spared overt politicising, with Baez instead couching her criticisms within the simple humanistic stories of the folk tradition. That's one of the things I've always like about folk and gospel music. But on the other hand, so many people have followed in her footsteps that close analysis seems almost irrelevant. Although having said that, as much as Sandy Denny owes to Joan Baez the two don’t really sound much alike.

Anyway, I’m not sure what I’m even talking about anymore. This is a very good, very beautiful album. As an interpreter of songs, you’d be hard-pressed to find many better. At turns eerie, funny, sad and just sort of there (in a good way). And then you have haunting and delicate tunes like "Mary Hamilton". Oh god, and the part where she sings "HE shall turn robber" in "Henry Martin". It's a song to send chills down your spine, her voice doing little tumbles like a trapeze artist.

Oh great now I have a crush on Joan Baez.

8.5

Download: Joan Baez - Silver Dagger MP3

Download: Joan Baez - Henry Martin MP3
Download: Joan Baez - El Preso Numero Neueve MP3

23. The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out (1959)

Tracks: Blue Rondo A La Turk//Strange Meadow Lark//Three to Get Ready//Kathy's Waltz//Everybody's Jumpin'//Pick Up Sticks

I'm back! Assuming anyone realised I was gone. My excuse? Well, I guess I like the Fifties so much I just never wanted it to end. But, end it must. Doff your slacks and clear-out your bomb shelters, the Fifties are out of time. So here's Time Out.

There are so many strange things about this album. Strangest of all is that it reached number 2 in the charts. Listening to the dizzying, jagged rhythms that open "Blue Rondo A La Turk", it's fair to say that it doesn't seem like the likeliest of pop hits. I mean, look at the cover - it's a piece of thoroughly modern art. The music, meanwhile, consists of a range of carefully studied fusions of contemporary classical music with Eastern traditional music and jazz, most of it in funny time signatures.

The time signatures are, of course, the point of the album (yet another pun - what is with jazz albums and puns?), although the greater bulk of the music is in 4/4 or waltz time, which makes it slightly less impressive. Still, consider - up until around this time, damned near every single jazz tune had been in 4/4 or waltz time. The most adventurous time signature we've had till now was double waltz on Kind of Blue. "Blue Rondo A La Turk" opens in 9/8 and sounds like a thunderstorm in a glass factory. "Take Five" is in 5/4 (yet somehow managed to be a top ten single). The reason for this is that apparently the Quartet went on a military tour of the Middle East, where they were exposed to Levantine dance rhythms. They thought to themselves "Hey, if the Turks can swing to this then why can't we", and of course the rest is history.

People were angry with Dave Brubeck about this. They told him he'd gone to far in mucking about with the 4/4 foundations of jazz. And then they went and said that a lot of the music on this album wasn't even jazz to begin with. And to be fair, a lot of the music here is not always especially jazzy - but if it's not jazz, then we'd have to invent a new category of music for it, so let's just call a spade a spade and head for the club. Really, Dave Brubeck's piano sounds like a Picasso painting more than anything (he owes a debt to Monk - that much is obvious). I really hate these wags who go about trying to declare something "jazz" or "not jazz". Most of the time they're just fusty old jerks who want to sit alone at home doing possibly illegal things to their Duke Ellington collections. Things evolve! Everything evolves! It's like those punk rock guys who think that keyboards are the tool of the devil and it's wrong of you to ever use more than four chords in a song. This album was integral in opening jazz up to a whole host of "Bach to Jazz" and treacly semi-classical albums. To my mind, jazz is just putting the blues on classical or the classical in blues, and if that's not good enough for you then go back to Dixie and have a lot of fun with your marching bands.

In the spirit of this album's spirit, I've decided to break with convention myself and present my notes for each of the individual tracks:

Blue Rondo A La Turk – Truly amazing composition that regrettably lapses into what is actually a pretty solid bit of bop. I say “regrettably” because, firstly, it doesn’t really fit the strange nature of the rest of the piece. This is nightclub jazz that suddenly appears out of nowhere halfway through an elaborate bit of dazzling minimalism-meets-jagged, see-sawing Eastern folk. Still, the fact that they tie such disparate elements is what ultimately makes this song so impressive – this is basically a full-on classical suite in the jazz idiom.

Strange Meadow Lark – A very pretty piece. Opens with an pretty, angular extended solo piano introduction in a semi-classical mode . There is very little, if any, blues on the intro. It’s tied to the blues in the same way one of the Beatles’ chamber-pop tunes is. This is a large part of what got Brubeck dismissed by some folks – he wasn’t bluesy or traditional enough. The main body of the song is much more “jazz” and “blues”, and sounds oddly like “I Guess I’ll Have to Change My Plans”. The sound of the clarinet does a lot to make this album, but then the harmonic innovations are also quite impressive. Jazz should evolve, or it’ll become a museum piece. The solo piano outro is also gorgeous. The solo piano here really makes this piece, and I wish they’d focused more on that than on a pleasant but ultimately inconsequential jam.

Take Five – This song still sounds quite like nothing else. Like Brubeck and Co inventing Krautrock and funk ten years early. That jerky little piano riff is utterly captivating, and the drumming is truly exceptional. The drum solo taken here is astonishing, like cannon fire. My favourite quote regarding this album is clarinettist Paul Desmond’s remark that “Take Five” wasn’t written to be a pop hit, it was written to be a drum solo for Joe Morello. The funny thing is, however, that Brubeck and Co are at their best performing things that soundly like fully-composed songs. But the thing that really sells this is the supremely melodic clarinet playing. Who doesn’t know that melody? It’s astonishing. One of the finest melody lines ever produced and single-handedly responsible for the mega-selling status of what is actually a pretty weird album, when you think about it. This song doesn’t sound like music created by humans.

Three to Get Ready – This has a lovely little rising piano melody that can only be called “charming”.

Kathy’s Waltz – Lovely little clarinet bit here, swinging around like a circus melody and utterly gorgeous. There’s a piano transition that sounds exactly like “All My Loving” by the Beatles. Utterly gorgeous crashing solo piano closer that brings back the “All My Loving” melody but buries it under lots of water chords.

Everybody’s Jumpin’ – this is one of those instrumental songs where you can actually hear the clarinet and piano cry “Everybody’s Jumpin!”. It doesn’t need words. And then Brubeck goes off on these utterly astonishing, chiming piano chords that just repeat and repeat like a jack hammer, faster than I’d thought possible. Amazing.

Pick Up Sticks – Most straightforward here. Nice cymbal clatter. Plenty of jaunty piano comping. Lovely clarinet solo. Very “Kind of Blue”. Certainly the most succesful bit of straight-up jazz on display. Brubeck’s trademark jerky piano is all over the place with some love chords doing utterly wonderful, clattering things. This is Brubeck’s chance to shine and he does some astonishing things with chords. And then Morello comes in to close the track out on beats that sound like wood being chopped.

And there you have it. Is this a great album? It's a pretty good one. Unfortunately the experimentation which makes it so unique and compelling also undercuts the strengths of some of the songs In the end, however, this is a remarkable piece of work - it's not just "Take Five" with a few extra tracks tacked on, no sir it isn't. It's not the best jazz album we've had so far, either, though it's certainly interesting and unique, and it certainly managed to do its job in breaking new ground as to what you could get away with in jazz while still being popular.

So basically I guess the lesson we learned today is that people will let anything slide if you've got a way with melody.

8.5/10

Download: The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Blue Rondo A La Turk MP3

22. Marty Robbins - Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs (1959)

Tracks: Big Iron//Cool Water//Billy the Kid//A Hundred and Sixty Acres//They're Hanging Me Tonight//Strawberry Roan//El Paso//In the Valley//The Master's Call//Running Gun//Down in the Little Green Valley//Utah Carol

Review:

The last country album we had was Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, and a very stripped-back and rootsy affair it was. Here on the opposite end of the spectrum, Marty Robbins presents us with a very slick, polished effort – from the cover art to the ooh-oohing backing vocals to the sweeping, cinematic storytelling of the lyrics, this is Hollywood all the way.

But then, there’s nothing wrong with that is there? This is a slick album, but it’s also a damned good one. Marty Robbins may not be a technically dazzling lyricist, but he tells straightforward stories with great power and clarity. “Big Iron” and “El Paso” are entire little films unto themselves, with amazing sweeping narratives and striking imagery. Robbins’ tendency to uncritically accept that the girl is always to blame may make songs like “El Paso” and “They’re Hanging Me Tonight” a little irksome to anyone who tends to think to much about these sorts of things, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re masterpieces of narrative music. “Cool Water” is honest to goodness desperation distilled. These are fine songs. The fact that they’re about cowboys shooting each other is just the icing on the cake.

I have to admit I have a soft spot for this album. When I was younger my dad used to always have the radio on Magic 693 AM, where Marty Robbins was a perennial favourite. Thankfully, a song like “The Master’s Call” is all the defense I need against any pundits or wags who might feel the need to mock me. Yes, it’s an overly earnest song about finding Christian redemption after almost being struck by lightning, but it’s also got some dazzling imagery and one of the most astonishing hooks to come along so far.

Although, speaking of those hooks does tend to lead me around to the melodic construction of a lot of these songs. There’s actually a fair bit of stylistic variation here, with Robbins throwing-in everything from Hawaiian guitars to Irish folk music and what sounds like nothing so much as laika on one track. “They’re Hanging Me Tonight” even manages to step right out of country and western and become an honest to god pop song! It could have been by damned near anyone. But be that as it may, he does tend to rehash his vocal delivery. That’s at least in part a hang-over from the material, but the fact that Robbins’ vocals are up front and centre for the entire album does mean that things can get a little samey at times. Thankfully, however, this was 1959, when people knew how to keep their albums short and sweet. The fact that I listened to this on vinyl, and had to get up and turn the thing over halfway through, didn’t hurt either.

There are a number of important aspects to this album, I suppose. Firstly, the massive chart success of both the album and its singles point very clearly towards the future of country music. Big, glossy songs by the likes of Glen Campbell, that’s what. I like Glen Campbell, but you can’t help but get a little teary eyed for depressing murder songs that sound like they were recorded through a soup tin. Oddly, however, this album also points forward to the sort of outlaw country that would get popular in the late 60s and early 70s, and is comprised mostly of the very same murder songs I was just lamenting. It’s a nice glimpse of a time when the two traditions hadn’t entirely splintered yet.

Another interesting thing about all this is that Marty Robbins wrote most of the songs here. That wasn’t an entirely novel occurrence by 1959 (a lot of the rock acts so far did likewise), but you do have to remember that this was still a period when, in pop music, many acts performed songs which had been written for them by stables of song-writers (usually Neil Diamond, for some reason). The most important initial contribution of the Beatles, after all, was the idea that a band should play its own songs. Robbins may not be spearheading anything, but this album does point to a growing trend.

In the end, though, all that really matters is the music. As I’ve said, it’s pretty solid. There’s some filler here, unfortunately – I have no real fondness for “Strawberry Roan”, and the second half of the second side just sort of blends together after a while. But the good stuff is just so amazingly good that it doesn’t really matter.

8/10

Download: Marty Robbins - The Master's Call Mp3
Download: Marty Robbins - El Paso Mp3

And here are the Beasts of Bourbon lamenting the death of a great man:

21. Miles Davis - Kind of Blue (1959)

Tracks: So What//Freddie Freeloader//Blue in Green//All Blues//Flamenco Sketches//Flamenco Sketches (First Take)

I don’t know that bop ever sat very comfortably with Miles Davis. Even as far back as The Birth of the Cool, he wasn’t really playing by the rules. So it makes sense, some ten years down the track, that he would be the one to sit down and push things... somewhere else?

“Somewhere else” certainly seems to describe this album. Davis had experimented with modality before, but here you have an entire album freed-up from rigid chord structures and opening into a whole new sonic universe. The bassist and pianist lead through on loose scales, and often the songs are built around little more than a two-note vamp. The result is that each of the players is free to do a lot more moving around within the parameters set for them, giving the songs on this album a very open and airy sound despite there actually being an awful lot going on at any given moment. It’s certainly a contrast with the “busy” sound of a lot of the other jazz albums we’ve had to this point (I am thinking of Brilliant Corners in particular).

This is a very lovely, pretty album. “So What” drifts down out of a cloud of Bill Evans’ gentle impressionist piano (most of this album sounds like Satie or Debussy), and then suddenly slides into life on a truly wonderful, bouncing bass riff, accented by a two chord sting that shifts around from piano to trumpet and so on throughout the song. And then the drum kit snaps into life, the bass starts walking down into the depths of an ocean of cymbals (the production by Teo Macero is exceptional, and key to the album’s success), and Davis comes in on some wonderful, low, peaceful trumpet. The start of “So What” is one of my favourite starts, to any song. And the rest of the piece is quite nice, too. It just sort of wanders around, while the soloists (Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderly!) take turns.

This sets a pattern for the rest of the album. With the exception of “Blue in Green” and “Flamenco Sketches”, which trade in less rhythmic, more mournful tones, you get a very steady procession of brisk, beautiful, simple rhythmic and harmonic frameworks over which is presented some truly lovely soloing. Evans’ classically influenced piano work is wonderful throughout, and one of the cornerstones of the album. Coming back to this album after a long time away, I was initially dismissive of Paul Chambers’ bass work; after a bit of thought, I’ve decided I really do quite like it. Yes, it’s omnipresent and “busy”, but it works, and the frequent interplay between the soloists and the lines that Chambers is playing is a great deal of fun. And then you have Jimmy Cobb on the drum kit, doing all sorts of weird things. A repeated snapping, cracking sort of noise that carries the momentum through stretches of “Freddie Freeloader” is one of my favourites, but then you get these neat little fills that have the habit of spinning the entire song around so it sounds like it’s just started again, which contributes a great deal to the constant feeling of freshness.

Of course damned near anyone reading this is shaking their head at this point; they’ve both already heard this album, and know just how bad a job I’m doing of describing it. Well, I’ll stop describing it then, and talk about more general things. Although honestly, despite never having written on Kind of Blue before I feel as though I’m repeating myself. What more can one say about it? This is one of the most revered and beloved albums in history. At some point, it went from merely being “a very good jazz album” to “the very good jazz album”. People have written whole books on the thing! Its influence in contemporary popular, classical and jazz music is inestimable.

But why is that? I don’t know. I guess a part of it might be that, like most great works, it’s helped to create a world of which it is a cornerstone. People might point to Kind of Blue and declare it a masterpiece because it so obviously is – it’s been so influential, and so many people love it, and ergo so on and so forth... Well, I won’t deny that Kind of Blue is a masterpiece, but if we lived in a world where jazzists hadn’t been sitting around, feeling hemmed-in by bop, wanting a new language to fiddle with, would people still praise this? I mean, if Kind of Blue hadn’t been a massive success, then would we consider it a massive success?

Well, the swinging rhythm and the tight, focused soloing on “All Blues” makes me say “yes”. But then let’s consider another Miles Davis album, his On the Corner from 1972. A completely different album. Can-like, mind-bending funk-rock that frequently sounds like someone tuning a spaceship's radio in to the frequencies of a Jovian Sabu tribute night. It’s a great, great album, but it was a critical and commercial disaster on its release. If hip-hop hadn’t come around to give people context for the sort of things he was doing, would it’s stature as an artwork ever have recovered to the levels it did?

I’m not sure what my point is. I guess my point is that Kind of Blue is a brilliant album, but no album with “Blue in Green” on it can be considered “the greatest jazz album of all time”. What the hell does that even mean? That’s like declaring Ege Bamyasi the greatest rock album of all time. They’re both utterly amazing, but it’s just sort of ridiculous to do such a thing. It has it’s stature as “the only jazz album non-jazz fans own”, “the best-selling jazz album of all time” and “the first jazz album most people buy” (it doesn’t get to keep its “recorded all in first takes” stature, as apparently the tracks included are only the first complete takes). It’s certainly absolutely beautiful on its own terms, but I guess I dislike hagiographical statements. I don’t see why the fact that everyone likes it makes it perfect.

The real strength of Kind of Blue, I feel, is that it hangs together. Davis has done some individual tracks elsewhere that are better than the lesser cuts from this album, and other people certainly have (anyone who tries to tell me that “Goodbye Porkpie Hat” isn’t as good as almost anything here will get slapped). But, as an album, it works. I think this might be because they find one simple, compelling idea and run with it. The Jesus and Mary Chain of jazz!

I don’t know. It’s a masterpiece. I get bitter about masterpieces because I can’t complain about them as much.

“Flamenco Sketches” is pretty (both takes).

10/10

Download: Miles Davis - So What Mp3

And here we have Davis' legacy in action:

19. Ella Fitzgerald - Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George & Ira Gershwin Songbook

Tracks:

Review:

Well here you have it – an album so long, and so self-indulgent, that it almost derailed the whole project only a month in. Which isn’t really fair to Ella Fitzgerald, I suppose; her album is a chore to listen to from end to end, but then this isn’t the sort of album you should listen to from end to end. It’s a catalogue of the music of the Gershwins! You pop it on if you want to hear “I Got Rhythm”, or leave it playing around the house. It conveniently collects the majority of their tunes into one handy package – if you consider what must have been something like a 5 x LP box set convenient.

And, amazingly enough, this all holds up pretty well. Going into detail on the individual songs would be a maddening and time-consuming task, but thankfully this set lends itself to being discussed in broad terms. And, in short, it’s generally pretty good, but not great. Well, a couple of the songs are sort of great – the explosive instrumental section of “Just Another Rhumba”, for example, and “’S Wonderful”, which is just such a happy and charming little tune. Actually, most of disc 1 is pretty good. And, you know, Ella is pretty good. Not great, but good. Maybe a little flat?

This is the George & Ira Gershwin songbook, and so the focus shouldn’t be entirely on Ella Fitzgerald. Nelson Riddle did the arrangements on this album, working with Ella for the first time, and a lot of the time the instrumentation is more compelling than the vocals. That may sound harsh, but consider this – firstly, Ira Gershwin wasn’t that great a lyricist. In fact, most of his songs could be best described as “inane”. His strength lies in very simple, emotional pleas for companionship and in jokey novelty tunes, and when he plays to that strength you get some great stuff. But then, sometimes you don’t. Although, having looked on the internet, some of these songs seem to feature alternate lyrics, which means I may not have all the evidence at hand to give him a fair trial. In any event, the songs succeed more on emotional and melodic levels than lyrically. Is anyone going to defend “Stiff Upper Lip” as anything other than an awful bit of stereotyping performed badly?

Secondly, Ella sings almost everything in a very measured and deliberate manner. This is Gershwin! It should swing more. Take “Boy Wanted”, which could have gone-off like a rocket, but which instead plods along very pretty but ultimately less than dazzling. And then, Ella’s voice isn’t placed anywhere near far enough forward in the mix, thus making it seem rather small and thin and “away in the distance”, which is a pity. But then you have the wonderful vocal glissando that opens “Soon”, or the low vocal on the pretty “Somebody from Somwhere”, which comes complete with swirling harps and begs to be performed by Judy Garland, or “A Foggy Day”, which also has a lovely little brassy bridge.

In the end, this whole album is a mixed bag. You have some good songs performed badly (“Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off”, or “The Man I Love”), some bad songs performed well (“Somebody from Somewhere”), and most of the songs are neither particularly good nor particularly bad. They are just, well, alright. The insistence of Riddle and Fitzgerald on performing every singly song in an “pop” style, adapting the material to themselves rather than themselves to the material, is a bit annoying. These are show tunes, damn it! They deserve to be swinging, trashy and rough. When Ella complained in one song that Gershwin “won’t stop pounding tin” I had absolutely no idea what they were on about. As a document of Gershwin’s music it might be argued that this fails because, ultimately, it’s far too reverential, prettying-up the tunes of a duo who’d already been canonised. Most of these songs are nothing but barely-dressed lust, and where is the sense of that? Ella does the pretty, reflective tunes well, but I just don’t know... Is it wrong to simply not like Ella Fitzgerald much? I feel guilty about it, but fuck it! This is my blog! I don’t like Ella Fitzgerald much! I think she has a fine voice but she’s a mediocre interpreter of songs.

I guess if I had to sum up, this is an album of exceptional instances and general consistency, rather than a full-on wower, but then, you can’t really expect much else can you? It’d be preposterous to assume that George and Ira Gershwin wrote only great songs, and it’d be equally idiotic to suggest that every single song that Ella Fitzgerald recorded was going to turn-out spectacular. This is an important album, because it provides a glimpse into all the strengths and weaknesses of both the Gershwin brothers and Ella Fitzgerald, and as a consequence you get a fascinating document of three of the most important figures in modern music.

8/10

Download: Ella Fitzgerald - 'S Wonderful Mp3

18. Sarah Vaughan - At Mr. Kelly's (1957)

Track: September in the Rain//Willow Weep for Me//Just One of Those Things//Be Anything But Darling Be Mine//Thou Swell//Stairway to the Stars//Honeysuckle Rose//Just A Gigolo//How High Is The Moon?//Dream//I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself A Letter//It's Got to Be Love//Alone//If This Isn't Love//Embraceable You//Lucky In Love//Dancing in the Dark//Poor Butterfly//Sometimes I'm Happy//I Cover the Waterfront

Ah! These things move in packs. Now we have another stripped-back set by an excellent interpreter of songs, albeit this time in the jazz and pop vein rather than country and blues. And damned if it isn’t good – this might well be the item for which the phrase “understated charm” was coined. See also: "deceptive simplicity"; "unselfconscious grace".

Sarah Vaughan’s voice is certainly gorgeous. She navigates the rhythms of her small backing band perfectly, and dips up and down her register with complete fluidity. There’s very much a sense here of the voice as instrument, with the lyrics a vehicle for the singer as opposed to being the point of the song. I’m sure the lyricists who authored Vaughan’s selections would appreciate your paying some attention to what’s being said, but I find with this album that I’m far less interested in the “what” than the “how”. Vaughan’s got phrasing that’d put a sax to shame, and she takes advantage of the fact that she’s mostly singing languorous torch songs to stretch out and let her voice go places. Not that she ever has any Mariah Carey moments, mind. You can hear Vaughan putting care and thought into each little twist of her voice, rather than indulging in spontaneous masturbation. It’s kind of an interesting contrast to Ella Fitzgerald’s album which is coming up tomorrow, where Ella has obviously tried to clearly and cleanly interpret the songs of Gershwin and has completely sapped them of individual personality in the process (although it’s still a good album).

And speak of the Devil (or the first lady of song, at least) – there’s actually a tribute to Ella on this album. You see, it’s a live recording, made at the Mr. Kelly’s night club of all places, and as a consequence there are quite a few muddles and missed notes. In “How High the Moon”, for example, Vaughan forgets the word halfway through and starts doing comical scatting a la Ella to fill out the time. And then you’ve got “Willow Weep for Me”, where she ends-up with a few bars to spare and starts cracking jokes. And then you have all the little bits of inter-song banter, none of it as fancy as the stuff on the Jack Elliot album, but still very charming nonetheless. Flirting with the audience and such. The thing that’s most fascinating is hearing the contrast between her singing voice, with it’s considerable range, and her small and squeaky speaking voice.

So, this is a very nice album. Maybe not a great album, I suppose, but a lovely antidote to all the over-orchestrated nonsense that we’ve been having lately. And then, what is a "Great Album" anyway? This makes me smile, damn it! It's pretty! And such a wonderful late night album! The tracks may blend into each other a bit at times, and sometimes the lyrics get lost behind the performances, but isn’t that at least sort of what you want from a late night album? I’ve listened to this half a dozen times, and never any earlier than ten o’clock at night. It’s an anodyne to worn nerves and a pick-me-up for the downtrodden. It’s, at base, just a woman with a pretty voice singing some silly love songs, but it’s also a really pretty voice. Hell it might even be the prettiest voice! It’s damn near perfect! You get the swinging tunes and the torchy tunes and it's all so happy and smooth.

So! This is a very charming, joyful album, and one that I am very happy to welcome into my library. It’s simple and simply wonderful, with every song a delicate little machine running its course into the next and so on till the end. Nothing much to say about it, nothing much to criticise. A blissful album! Sustenance for the soul. It makes you happy to be alive, I argue.

8.5/10

Download: Sarah Vaughan - Thou Swell Mp3

17. Ramblin' Jack Elliot - Jack Elliott Takes the Floor

Tracks: San Francisco Bay Blues//Ol' Riley//Bill Weevil//Bed Bug Blues//New York Town//Old Blue//Grey Goose//Mule Skinner Blues//East Texas Talking Blues//Cocaine//Dink's Song//Black Baby//Salty Dog

Another review, but hopefully a short one (it’s 12:45 AM on a school night, after all). This is a charming little album. It’s just Jack Elliott with his guitar, taking a swing at the American folk repertoire and managing nothing but hits. Elliot has a funny sort of voice – when he talks, he sounds like Ira Kaplin doing a cowboy impersonation, but when he sings he has a style which owes such a debt to the blues that at times it sounds like he’s stolen Skip James’ pipes by way of Hank Williams and hooked them up to an air-raid siren. At one point in “Mule Skinner Blues”, for example, Elliott actually holds a yodel for a full twenty seconds. It’s wonderfully expressive, and perfectly suited to his principle choice of subject matter – being funny little stories of the misfortunes of life. We are treated, for example, to just about the most resistant goose to ever be cooked, and to a farmer who strikes-up a friendship with a destructive bill weevil. You get little bits of regional history, and instruction on what the hell a Talking Blues is (basically, it’s folk-rap).

You might think, being just a guy and his guitar, that things could get pretty dull pretty quick. Thankfully, that’s not the case. “Ramblin’” Jack gets his name less from any roaming he might have done than due to a habit of letting loose with long and meandering stories. What this means is that most of the songs are introduced with a wry observation of some form, and in one case this even extends to a song in which Jack pretends to have Woody Guthrie in the studio with him, and the “pair” duet on a number.

It’s not all laughs, though. There’s a couple of prison blues (or rags, if you will), and “Old Blue” which tells the story of the narrator’s dead dog. It starts out quite jaunty, but by the end you can almost hear him crying as he sings “dear blue, I’m coming too”. Then “Black Baby” is the touching story of a guy going away, telling his gal not to worry and to take care. Bittersweet, more than anything. Utterly gorgeous vocal delivery. Of course, then you have "Salty Dog", which is, well, "salty".

Really, there’s not much to go on about here, but it’s all wonderfully done. Elliott’s guitar is very fine, and he busts-out the harmonica on a few numbers. You get some weepers and some up-beat party tunes and some stuff in between. Elliott himself is a curious character – a Jewish New Yorker and the son of a doctor, he ran away from home in his teens and remade himself as a cowboy in the mid-West. Well, he does alright by these tunes, and leaving questions of authenticity aside that is really all that matters. We don’t want to re-open the Mudrooroo debates, after all. It’s the music that matters, and Elliott is one hell of an interpreter of songs. This is one of my favourite albums so far. It’s at turns hilarious and touching. The links to early Dylan are pretty obvious (Dylan actually billed himself as “Son of Jack Elliott” for one of his first performances, and they hung-out a bit), but Elliott has a much better voice and, until we actually get to Dylan, will do just as nicely.

8.5/10 (maybe a 9? It's all arbitrary anyway... OK yes Jack Elliot you may have a 9)

Download: Ramblin' Jack Elliot - East Texas Talking Blues Mp3

16. Billie Holiday - Lady in Satin

Tracks: I'm A Fool to Want You//For Heaven's Sake//You Don't Know What Love Is//I Get Along Without You Very Well//For All We Know//Violets for Your Furs//You've Changed//It's Easy to Remember//But Beautiful//Glad to Be Unhappy//I'll Be Around//The End of a Love Affair

Review:

I’m tempted, rather than reviewing Lady in Satin, to instead quote a poster on Amazon who states that this album “appeals only to voyeurs of human tragedy and misery”. That may be a bit harsh, but it does sum up a lot of the problems I have both with this album and with many a consumer’s approach to art. You see, this is an album built around self-pity, and sold to people who care less about the music coming out of their speakers than the biographies of the musicians. Do people even talk about Billie Holiday's music anymore? Lady in Satin is an emotional rather than a musical experience, but as a person with little to no emotional investment in Holiday I am instead left with what is at best a fair-to-mediocre bit of orchestral pop.

So, let’s get down to specifics. At this point Billie Holiday’s voice was more or less fucked. It’s there for all to see. She keeps a level of control in her vocals which is impressive when taken in contrast with how raspy they sound, but that said, half the time they don’t even manage to stay in tune. In one instance she even resolves the song on the wrong note. But, I think we can blame this at least in part on the stunningly ill-conceived orchestral backing. It’s big. It’s really big, so big that half the time the instruments are so loud that they drown out Holiday’s voice, and it’s almost nothing but strings and big “woo-ooing” choirs of angels. Now, I actually happen to like big, sappy arrangements with woo-ooing choirs of angels, but they’d be out of place on a Minor Threat album and they’re out of place here.

This really is the crux of the problem. Holiday’s voice had been ravaged by drugs, alcohol and smoking, but it still had a certain slow flexibility and a heart-felt quality that would have worked marvellously with a smaller, les flamboyantly cheery band. While it must have sounded hideous and terrifying in 1958, fifty years of Punk music and Tom Waits albums have given us a world where the charms of such things can be a little better appreciate. I don’t see why Columbia didn’t give her the sort of spare treatment that had served her well previously. I guess they must have decided to try and push her as a slick pop singer and buried her vocals under the arrangements to distract people. Well, that’s all well and good, but it didn’t work. Ray Ellis’ arrangements are for the better part astonishingly tedious. So much is going on, with the warm-toned trumpet solos and swooping cellos and harps, and yet rather than become compelling the instruments instead weave together like the fibres of one big bundle of cotton wool. I tried listening through this twice and both times I almost fell asleep.

By this point you can probably tell that I don’t agree with the general assessment that this album is difficult to listen to. If this were a gut-wrenching emotional roller coaster I'd actually like it, but from poor song choices to bad performances, it’s not anywhere near challenging enough.

Ok, so now that I’ve finished savaging the thing I can tell you what I like about it. And I do like a few things. This isn’t an awful album, by any means. It’s never less than pleasant, and in a few songs everything comes together to even become down-right interesting. So! If you want to spare yourself a lot of trouble, and having to sit through the mumbled tedium of “Violets for Your Furs”, then you could do worse than pick-up “I’m a Fool to Want You”, “Glad to Be Unhappy” and “The End of a Love Affair”. None of these songs are spectacular, but the first is still quite beautiful, in a simple and guileless way, while “The End of a Love Affair” is the closest thing to an emotionally genuine moment on the whole album. Who, after sitting through this whole bizarre mess, isn’t going to feel a bit when Holiday hisses out “so I smoke a little too much, and I joke a little too much, and the tunes I request are not always the best, but the ones where the trumpets blare”. It’s actually affecting, and it goes a long way towards salvaging the album from pointlessness.

Well, that’s about it, and I hope I’ve made my point. Billie Holiday as encapsulated on this album is certainly a very pathetic individual, but I am not going to give any album top marks just for “authenticity”. I’ve always been a cynical bastard – I’m the kind of guy who gets put-off by novels or films which are described as “powerful”. I find something repulsive in the way that Kurt Cobain can off himself and suddenly he’s no longer just a pretty good pop-rock composer, but instead a tragic genius whose work finds absolute vindication in the act of his death. To suffer is not noble. To withstand and overcome suffering is noble.

I’m sorry. It’s just that I’ve seen too many people get caught-up in the beauty of their own demise, and wind-up fucking themselves completely as a consequence. Billie Holiday you were a fine singer but this is just not all that good an album, and no amount of sadness in your life is going to change that. The self-absorbed, self-pitying, self-destructive artist is a bullshit construct. We make fun of Doors fans for buying it, and it wouldn’t be fair to let you off on this count. If this really was your favourite album, then it was obviously for deeply personal reasons. I respect that. I respect the bad situation you found yourself in. But yeah. The album's not much chop.

5/10

Download: Billie Holiday - The End of a Love Affair MP3

15. Tito Puente - Dance Mania (1958)

Tracks: El Cayuco//Complicacion//3-D Mambo//Llego Mijan//Cuando Te Vea//Hong Kong Mambo//Mambo Gazon//Mi Chiquita Quiere Bembe//Varsity Drag//Estoy Siempre Junto a Ti//Agua Limpia Todo//Saca Tu Mujer

Review:

Well, the cover more or less sums it up. It’s sexy! It’s cheesy! It’s for dancing! To be honest I know absolutely nothing about Tito Puente. He was in the “Who Shot Mr. Burns” two-parter of The Simpsons, where he performed that mambo about Mr Burns. I know that. And he wrote the oft-covered “Oye Como Va”, which is an OK song in both the original and the Santana version but which, to my mind, reached its peak with Amaral’s Trinidad Cavaliers Steel Orchestra and its bizarre steel-drum break-dance interpretation. So, I guess I know that, too. Um...

Oh! I also know that Tito Puente is considered El Rey, or the King of the Timbales, which is something that seems justified gauging by the contents of this album. I mean, I’m no expert when it comes to the timbales, but Tito Puente clearly knows his way around a drum kit. Which is good, since this is a dance album...

Honestly I don’t have much to say here. It’s a very solid album, but it’s not the sort of thing that demands deep analysis or extended descriptions. Well, maybe it does, but I don’t speak Spanish and as a consequence I can’t give a thorough reading of “Mi Chiquita Quiere Bembe”. According to Google that means “My babe wants Bembe”, but that’s not much help since I don’t really know what a Bembe is. Perhaps it’s some sort of beverage?

So what we have here is a lot of mambo, done very well, all quite danceable and integrated with numerous other styles about which I know nothing. You get extensive deployment of a great brass section, spidery piano and a killer vibraphone - and if there’s one thing I like it’s a vibraphone. Unlike the Machito album, this isn’t all instrumental – most of the songs are actually songs, you know, with singing. And sung well! There’s a lovely melancholy to the vocals that works as a nice counterpoint to the buoyant music. This is especially evident on the very sad-sounding and very pretty “Estoy Siempre Junto a Ti”.

Agh I really am having trouble finding things to say about this. “Hong Kong Mambo” uses the Chinese riff, but it’s pretty cool and very Les Baxter. “Mambo Gazon” is hypnotic and driving, built around layer upon layer of repeating horn figures and some mesmeric chanting that bursts out into a brief instrumental breakdown. It’s certainly the best song here, and maybe the only one that really lodges itself in your mind.

And there is the problem. Dance Mania is a lot of fun to listen to but afterwards I couldn’t really remember much of it. Although after a while, the grooves star to wear themselves into you. I found myself singing along to “Mi Chiquita Quiere Bembe” (which, incidentally, has a marvellous shuffling percussion break in the middle). Each of the songs manages to shift through a few distinct movements, and they’re all quite complex and interesting tunes. But, in the end, it’s just a sunny album to dance along to. You can bop along! It’s not overly confronting! It’s got understated charm. The ditties are catchy!

In the end, I quite like this. It’s not earth-shattering music, but there’s a level of skill and craftsmanship brought to these songs that I really appreciate. They’re really far better mad then they probably had to be. As a guy who owns more than his fair share of “Tango for Lovers” cocktail schmaltz LPs, it’s refreshing to here this done right. It’s actually swank! And I can’t not dance to “Agua Limpia Todo”, what with the little “la la la” chorus and all.

Ok, so final thoughts? It’s pleasant and friendly and it sort of sneaks up on you. I was considering writing this off as sort of vapid, but once you get into the swing of it, it’s a lovely listen. I want to strut about the Caribbean wearing a Panama hat and photographing missile bases. But I don’t know that I’d ever call this a particularly great album. It’s very, very good, however, and exceeds perfectly at being a fun little party record. I will admit, however, that I am a massive dork, and so if you don't count Doris Day among your musical idols you may not get quite as much mileage out of this.

So, yeah, this is pretty good stuff. Unlike my review, for which I apologise profusely. This is what happens when you haven't made-up your mind yet and find yourself listening to the album over as you write your post.

8/10

Download: Tito Puente - Mambo Gazon Mp3

Download: Amral's Trinidad Cavaliers Steel Orchestra - Oye Como Va Mp3

And! Los Simpsons en Espanol:

14. Little Richard - Here's Little Richard (1957)

Tracks: Tutti Frutti//True Fine Mama//Can't Believe You Wanna Leave//Ready Teddy//Baby//Slippin' and Slidin'//Long Tall Sally//Miss Ann//Oh Why?//Rip It Up//Jenny Jenny//She's Got It

Being born in 1986 as I was, I never had the opportunity to hear first-wave rock before it got defanged. I suppose that happened pretty quickly (Elvis Presley being the most famous victim), but still. Growing up with Flying Purple People Eaters and with Christina Ricci and Casper the Friendly Ghost dancing to spectral Bobby Day impersonators, it’s easy to lose touch with ones roots. I suppose this is in part a reflection of changing standards – what was shocking and frightening in 1955 is now just sort of pleasant. How many people listen to Swing and remember that at one point this sort of stuff was considered atonal, barbarous rhythm-mongering?

Which is all appropriate, given that today’s album is by Little Richard. I guess like everyone I knew about Little Richard. The guy was on Sesame Street. “Tutti Frutti” is a pop standard. But the lack of perspective which comes with close familiarity somehow numbed me to the fact that he is actually a demented homosexual in a sequined cape howling out frantic stompers that would give Napalm Death pause. It probably didn’t help that I always confuse him with Lionel Richie.

Anyway, this is a very loud and very wild album. If you ever find yourself wondering “Why is rock so loud, and wild?” then this is the album to check-out. Most of that can be attributed to the astonishing power of Mr. Penniman’s voice. The music here is well-written and well-performed, but it’s not really all that different from Fats Domino’s stuff – which is, I suppose, fair enough, given that a lot of these songs were actually recorded up to two years prior to the album’s release. Things chug along on barrel-roll piano riffs, and lots of groovy saxophone riffs keep things interesting and occasionally even funky. The lyrics aren't much to write home about and most of the songs use well-worn blues structures. The main selling point on these songs is the over-driven pace, the rough sound and the naked sexual aggression that fills most of these songs, and epitomised in the weird animalistic yowling of Little Richard. There’s a visceral punch to these songs matched only by the stompers on The Atomic Mr Basie. James Brown certainly owes something to this. Plus, they’re catchy! And about sex and drinking! If any album were likely to get you starting a band, this’d be it.

Having said all this, the hard-hitting punch of the album is also what makes it a bit wearing after a while. This is a problem with a lot of hard rocking albums, I suppose. Too little variety in the song structures, for one thing. I realise it was early in the game, but look at how many different styles Buddy Holly got into his album! I’m not saying all artists should be obligated to cram their albums with dazzling variety, but Here’s Little Richard needs something to shake things up a bit. And, to be fair, he does throw a few googlies now and then. The bizarre “Wop-bop-a-loo-ba” opening “Tutti Frutti”, most famously, but there are also the weird, funky back-up singers that sound like old men in “True Fine Mama”, and the Ray Charles-like “Oh Why”, which slows things down a bit for a pity of self-pity. And then it’s straight into the groovy little “Rip It Up”, where the backing track gets to shine.

I do like this album, but I don’t see why just because this stuff was pioneering it should be immune to criticism. Stuff improves! Who’s going to argue that the Hendrix version of “All Along the Watchtower” isn’t the definitive one? Only dickwits and nerds, that’s who. We have a Ray Charles album coming up, and if I give this a 9 then what the hell am I supposed to give that? A 12? This is good stuff, it’s fun stuff, and it beats-out Holly for consistency and Domino for thrill-factor. But, ultimately, it gets a bit wearing and I don’t like it quite as much as either. Some would argue that you’re really supposed to be drunk or dancing when this is one, and that’s probably true, but I don’t drink and I’m currently nude and lying in my bed, so both those options are out. I have the same complaint about Born to Run if that makes you feel better.

Anyway, I don’t want to waste my time apologising for my decisions. This is a very fine album the historical importance of which is difficult to overstate, and considering this sort of stuff was never really my thing the fact that I like it as much as do is a testament to, well, something. Look I don't know it's pretty good but there is just something about saxophones that makes me ant to mark things down

Incidentally, I should probably say a few things about "Tutti Frutti". Did you know that it was originally about anal sex? It was a joke song Richard played on the gay club set, but they had him change the lyrics to avoid controversy. The funny thing is that the replacement phrase, "aw rooty", sounds an awful lot when sung like "I wanna rooty". This is funny, to Australians at least, because in this country the word "root" is a milder form of "to fuck". And so, through some sort of cosmic justice, the explicit lewdness of the song has been allowed to shine through.

And there you go.

7.5/10

Download: Little Richard - True Fine Mama MP3

13. Machito - Kenya (1957)

Tracks: Wild Jungle//Congo Mulence //Kenya //Oyeme //Holiday //Cannonology //Frenzy //Blues a la Machito //Conversation //Tin Tin Deo //Minot Rama //Tururato

With spring in the air and the global superpowers on the verge of becoming banana republics, it seems only appropriate to welcome a little mambo to the blog. Not to imply by my introduction that Kenya is artistically impoverished. Machito is one of those rare few individuals to whom one could accurately apply the term “mambo visionary”, and his music displays a dazzling breadth of imagination; so much so, in fact, that half of his songs stop midway and change into different songs entirely. Thus, we get an album that comes across like the coked-up lovechild of Herb Alpert, Tito Puente, Esquival and Fela Kuti. Not that I’m complaining.

The title is accurate, anyway. Machito fuses American big-band styles and a sense of bop jazz improvisation with Cuban and African popular forms, and you end-up with a great dance album. On my personal favourite, “Oyeme”, you get a hypnotic hand percussion-and-bass introduction on a five note pattern that could be right out of a Lee Perry dub number. It suddenly bursts into what sounds like African High Life music, with a series of tense, escalating riffs on the brass section, and then a wonderful sax solo right out of bop comes squealing along in the right channel, basically preempting John Coltrane. It’s great. The overall impression is of the sort of music that James Bond might have had a car chase to in Dr. No. If you ever found yourself longing for more songs like Yoko Kanno’s “Tank”, this is the place for you. Well, actually “Frenzy” is the place for you, as the intro is more or less identical to “Tanks”. Aptly named number, too, and with one hell of a drum break.

However, not all of the songs are as good. The slowerer numbers tend to sound a bit syrupy. The title track is just sort of tedious, the sort of whimsical horn you’d expect to hear soundtracking a bad comedy Western, while “Holiday” is pleasant but very much in the tradition of the Tijuana Brass. None of the songs are outright bad, but they do tend to blend together after a while. What saves them are the interesting introductions to several of the tracks, and the tendency for the orchestra to cut out at points and lead into sudden, expansive Afro-Cuban percussion solos that must have set the dance floors on fire at the time.

So, a really good album. For a guy whose prior experience with Latin music of the 50s had mostly been Doris Day and the Grace Chang musical Mambo Girl, this was a pleasant surprise. It never really gets dull, although after the first listen the novelty might wear a bit thin. This is a party album and as a consequence not all th tracks bear great scrutiny. There are dozens of wonderful moments, however, which are more than enough to keep it interesting, and it benefits strongly from both having much better production than and being not quite like almost anything else on the list to this point. The arrangements are really quite interesting, hard hitting but lush and complex, and the way the horns and bass float over the watery drums is oddly precise, but wonderful. It's great stuff. I guess I was wrong when I said there wasn't much exotica on the list. I can't wait for the Yma Sumac.

8/10

Download: Machito - Oyeme Mp3

And for no real reason, here is Grace Chang singing a song:

12. Miles Davis - Birth of the Cool (1957)

Tracks: Move//Jeru//Moon Dreams//Venus De Milo//Budo//Deception//Godchild//Boplicity//Rocker//Israel//Rouge//Darn That Dream

Review:

Well, another review and we now welcome the wonderful Mr. Miles Davis to the blog. Unfortunately, this is not one of his best albums. Which is an unfortunate way of phrasing it I suppose, as it makes The Birth of the Cool sound like a bad album – and that it most certainly is not. It’s just, well, I don’t know – bop. I had never actually heard a bop recording by Davis before, having listened to anything prior to Kind of Blue. He does it well, I suppose, although even in 1949 he wasn’t playing by the rules.

As I understand it, Davis managed to get together a nonet, and Gil Evans to write arrangements. They set-out to do something, though I’m not sure what entirely. I do know that they wanted to smooth-out bebop a bit, and to introduce some of the more elaborate, carefully orchestrated arrangements and complex structures from both classical music and previous forms of swing, rather than the simple ‘verse-solo” sort of thing we saw a few albums back with Thelonious Monk. So, Davis had a deal to cut twelve sides with Capitol (these being pre-LP days), and used the opportunity to capture some recordings by his nonet. They were released to very little public interest or approval, and then seven years later when Davis’ star had risen they got a snappy reissue in LP format.

In terms of both historical importance and influence, this is a big deal as albums go. The title is a misnomer as this isn’t actually Cool Jazz, but it would go on to influence Cool Jazz. The more elaborate structuring, while still incorporating numerous solos, would lend itself to the development of the classical/jazz hybrid Third Stream, too (Davis’ own Sketches of Spain is a good example of this). Add to this that it was the first important role Davis played as leader, and his major recording (if I’m right) and you get a lot of reasons as to why someone should be interested. I mean, it’s not going too far to argue that Miles Davis is one of the most important figures in 20^th century music.

Having said all this, while the formal innovations of Birth of the Cool are interesting, and while it’s a pleasant listen and certainly a decent album by most criteria, this doesn’t do much for me. A treasure house of ideas it may be but that doesn’t mean I want to listen to it all the time. It’s nice. I especially like the sudden rising note two thirds of the way through “Moon Dreams’ that leads it away into what seems like another song entirely. But, in the end, I don’t care much for it. The songs are small and friendly and ultimately, just sort of... well, I don’t know. I can’t explain why I don’t much care for this. A lot of people seem to have similar reactions. I’ll put it on to listen to it. I like it. I just don’t love it.

Having said that, this is the sort of album that rewards repeated listens. It’s a good album for paying close attention to, and I can see myself loving it if I give it more time than the dictates of this blog allow. One exception to this, however, is the vocal number "Darn that Dream". It's atrocious. The singer is really quite awful. It makes me feel better about marking this down.

So, a mixed review! Still, as debuts go it's top stuff. Swings, too.

Actually, I changed my mind. It's great. I think the thing that throws you is that it's just sort of difficult to know exactly what to make of such a chimera. Anyway the potential click I was speaking of just happened. Get this! It grows on you.

8/10

Download: Miles Davis - Godchild Mp3