Music Blog for January 2009

Shown above is the Washburn X5 Mini. It's cool for kids learning or something portable with a full neck size. It's inexpensive too.

January 30, 2009—Soft Machine had a long and productive run and still exists today in the guise of Soft Machine Legacy. Sometime in the mid-‘70s the group had seven albums under their belt and were in a regrouping phase. Drummer Marshall and keyboardist Ratledge were still on hand from the second and first major phase of the group’s existence, respectively, but there were also several fairly new members as well—Jenkins on reeds, Babbington on bass. They switched labels from Columbia to Harvest and, most importantly, added guitarist Alan Holdsworth to the fold, a young, extraordinary musician at the beginning of his career.

The LP “Bundles” came out in 1975, simultaneously heralding the beginning and the end of this lineup, as Holdsworth left shortly thereafter to join Tony Williams’ New Lifetime. Just before that a live date was recorded, which found its way recently onto MoonJune Records (check out their site). That’s excellent music but I have already reviewed it for Cadence. “Bundles” was the beginning of this short-lived incarnation and it is really worth a listen for what Holdsworth brings into the band. Yes, there is a subtle continuation of the shift from Jazz-Rock to Fusion, if such categories ultimately matter in the long scheme of things. But what is most remarkable is how Ratledge’s initial concept and compositional clarity is widened by Holdsworth’s presence. And there are strong pieces by all members save Babbington. Misty minimalist excursions, forward-charging anthems and everything in between are present. It is a continually shifting prism of light twirling on a string. Well, no, maybe it isn’t. It’s great music. Holdsworth had then much of everything he was to carry forward into his playing with Williams and later his own series of bands: that wonderful tone and melodic sense, the Rock drive and the dazzling runs of sophisticated note patterns. I am sorry I missed the album when it first came out. But it sounds good here in 2009. It sounds as good as anything out there now in this sort of bag. Grab onto the disk if you can find it. Enjoy it. Enjoy the weekend. -- Grego

January 29, 2009—From the evidence of his latest CD “Ecstatic Variations in a Neon Haze” (Innova), composer-pianist Christopher Adler is one of bright lights on the West Coast today. The Minimalist style of modern concert music has been a large contributor to the new music heard in the past 30 years, sometimes to mixed results. The key to Adler and his success in this idiom is probably contained in the classic idea of VARIATIONS. This can be opposed to the “process” favored by the early work of Steve Reich and others. With Mr. Adler there is periodicity and repetition, but the forms of change in his music seem to be driven by a non-mechanical musical sensibility not always at the forefront in other similar musics. How can the set of transformations undergone in any particular piece be understood? Adler’s solution is always to create musical interest by letting the variations follow an inspirational path guided by pure invention. What could be a snooze becomes just the opposite.

The five pieces represented on this disk vary also in the ensemble colors available with the instrumentation at hand. The larger group pieces, “Iris” for flute, guitar, cello and marimba, and “Ecstatic Variations” for acoustic and electric guitars, oboe, bassoon, and piano, create sound color-texture and nicely wrought, idiomatically conceived parts that mesh together for a very interesting aural experience. But this is no less true of the smaller ensemble writing. For example the long standing duet of Adler on piano and Alan Lechusza on winds, here soprano sax, puts in one of the more exciting performances of the disk, “I Want to Believe.” There is a jazz-like attention to velocity and color and a drive to the music that engages. The title cut stands out for me as well in its effective use of guitars and its ability to unveil an arsenal of musical ideas in a relatively short time period. This is music as essential as it is essentialist, no doubt as interesting to play as it is to hear. Listen and you’ll learn as well as enjoy. You might even get the urge to dance. Get this CD at www.innova.mu. Signing off -- Grego

January 28, 2009—Little Axe is singer-guitarist Skip McDonald and selected friends. The music combines dobro and electric guitar, contemporary rhythms and old-time stomps, pre-Urban and Folk sensibilities in the Afro-American tradition with the forms of contemporary R & B and Rock. Blues based yet with a foot in the present, the 2004 release “Champagne and Grits” (Ryko) gives you a take on the roots that ends up with a music for today. That to me is a most welcome turn of events and I found myself responding to it with pleasant surprise. It’s good music and a good bet if you value change in continuity. Signing off -- Grego

January 27, 2009—We turn to the final installment in our survey of recent Tzadik releases. Today’s is part of Tzadik’s New Japan series and it is brash, uncompromising, yet exciting music. Multi-instrumentalists Haino Keiji and Yoshida Tatsuya team up for “Uhrfasudhasdd,” a second installment of their fearless assault on the senses. This is an extreme music of Metal-derived loops and longer cycles using electric guitar, bass, drums, keys, vocals and found sounds in various stages of electronic transformation. It is like a bracing dip in an ice-cold stream—not everybody will welcome the initial discomfort, but those that do know they will feel the better for it afterwards. I did. Signing off -- Grego

January 26, 2009—Brandon Bethancourt heads up an outfit known as Alaska in Winter for today’s CD. He plays most of the instruments and writes the material. Their CD “Dance Party in the Balkans” (Milan) is an unusual mix of songs that have bitter-sweet, naïve and melancholic qualities. Some of it sounds like it came from the “Twin Peaks” soundtrack in that series' more “innocent” moments. It is decidedly unusual fare and remains mournfully tuneful throughout. The band and these tracks were born out of a period Bethancourt spent with his laptop in, yes you guessed it, Alaska. When? Winter. The vocals are sometimes vocodered for a robotic despair, sometimes not. Zach Condon sings on a cut. What else? I can’t say I dislike it. I don’t. There are haunted moments. It certainly seems winter-like in its icy outlook on the world. It makes you wish spring would come sooner than it will. Sign off -- Grego

January 23, 2009—The impressively prolific John Zorn has recently released his 22nd (!) volume of music for films, “The Last Supper” (Tzadik). It is scored for percussion and a small group of vocalists. That might not sound very exciting on the first blush of things, but this is no ordinary music. The vocals are in the wordless, post-Swingle Singer mode and much of what they sing is loosely in the hocket style, which some medieval composers and the Pygmies of the Congo region of Africa have in common. Hocket involves phrases where individuals or specific groups are responsible for particular notes in a phrase, in alternation back and forth. The results for this Zorn creation are repeating and varying lines where male and female vocalists work together to create mesmerizing and musically fascinating results. Zorn is no dogmatist so this technique is used but not overused. The percussion ensemble functions as a contrasting accompaniment to the vocals and also has spots where it takes over and provides layered rhythmic grooves that hypnotically reinforce a kind of primal quality that is apparently an important part of the film.

This music is not run of the mill Minimalism, new age tribal drum circle stuff, or anything else of the common run of musics that can be heard ad nauseum as backdrops for modern films or just as backdrops. Neither does the music sound like an afterthought to the film. It stands on its own as a very interesting and innovative musical space. I must say it’s one of my favorite things thus far this year and you should listen to it if you want to shake yourself out of the doldrums of everyday sameness. May your weekend bring you good things -- Grego

January 22, 2009—Bassist Michael Bisio has that triple threat ability so important for a viable career in the Jazz world. He is an extremely able bassist with capabilities that allow him to swing like mad, solo with imagination and maintain an important voice on the free-er channels of contemporary improvisation. He writes and arranges pieces that are well structured and memorable. And he is an astute bandleader, knowing how to pick musicians that each add an important voice to the group sound. All of this is quite apparent in a CIMP release of a 2006 session: “CIMP 360: Circle This.” The room balanced, record-it-as-it-sounds engineering of CIMP releases works to great advantage with this group. They have a give and take approach to their playing and, with each player attuned to the others, thrive when simply let alone to find their natural group sound.

These are wonderfully seasoned, modern improvisers. Reedmen Avram Fefer and Stephen Gauci contrast well together. Both can be gritty or purer in tone and they adjust their playing perceptively depending on what the other is doing. There are some exciting two-horn improv moments, such as on “Times that Bond,” that stoke fire while remaining phrase-articulate. And their solo spots sum up where modern sounds can go when gifted musicians are allowed free reign. These are players with a rich vocabulary and eloquence of expression. Bisio and Rosen team up as a strong rhythm section that can bear down or support the horns with sound color and flexibility. Bisio’s compositions and arrangements cement the quartet’s direction with variety and subtle nuance.

It’s one of those CDs that can stand endless playing while remaining fresh. That’s because there is nothing stale about it! There is much that is right in the Jazz scene of today. And much of that can be found on “Circle This.” Check it out for a bit of the thrill of discovery. You can find out more or order this CD by going to the Gapplegate Links page and clicking on Cadence. Once there click on the CIMP banner. Signing off -- Grego

January 21, 2009—The re-appreciation of authentically primitive guitar bands (dubbed Garage Rock) has had its ups and downs. Face it, some original Garage Bands were unselfconsciously, downright rotten. . . . all thumbs, grooveless, vocally challenged. And there’s a subtle difference between rotten-interesting and rotten-rotten. But perhaps the worst situation was when a rotten Garage Band tried to polish up its act.

Perhaps a case in point is Tommy James and the Shondells, whose hits have been collected into a compilation by Rhino called “The Essentials.” Their first hit, “Hanky Panky” (1966) was rotten even by most standards of the day. It had all the elementary qualities of “Louie Louie,” but was even more basic in that it was a kind of simple riff that followed a Blues progression (without much in the way of soulfulness). The lyrics were the slightest bit risqué for the time: “My baby does the hanky panky.” Gosh, can we meet her? I remember even then thinking that this was a throwback, a retrograde product of a teenage world that was rapidly changing. Though the song was ever-present on the airwaves, I knew nobody in my neighborhood that bought the record. It was something one would be embarrassed to own. The Electric Prunes, they were cool. But Tommy James was not. Somebody must have liked them—maybe the girls, I don’t know.

The band went from bad to worse when the Shondells tried harder and harder to create Pop hits of a slicker variety. “Mony Mony” still had that high school dance sound, Fender amps glowing, the bass player trying his best to play a few notes and a compulsively peppy energy level. But there were songs like “Crystal Blue Persuasion” and “Sweet Cherry Wine” that attempted a kind of Pop respectability, trying to join the bandwagon the later Young Rascals had managed to get going. James, et al. didn’t really pull it off. The aspiring Garage Band musicians I knew reached a consensus. This wasn’t a band with any cache. Those were tunes a local band did not cover without being labeled unhip. So what of this compilation? If you were there back then and you liked these songs, I suppose you still will. The rest would probably best stay clear. Signing off -- Grego

January 20, 2009—New York based composer Annie Gosfield could be considered my neighbor. I live just outside Manhattan and so am a part of the NY Metro sprawl. Since my tightened budget does not allow for cultural events or all but the most necessary commuting I don’t get into the heart of the city often and it is probably not likely I will make face-to-face contact with her in the near future. Nonetheless we both belong to an invisibly connected universe of cultural workers and, whatever it means, a New York sort of outlook on it. Ms. Gosfield’s music is well represented on the Tzadik release “Lost Signals and Drifting Satellites.” Now I find myself responding to her music almost instinctively. Is it the shared aural and cultural values of this metropolis that make that possible? It could have something to do with it. But most importantly Ms. Gosfield has absorbed the vocabulary of Modern Music to speak it fluently and with originality, and that sounds a chord of resonance with me.

Her short quartet “Lightheaded and Heavy Hearted” comes off skillfully and sincerely as something that comes after late Bartok and brings a personal touch to the genre. The title cut, “Lost Signals and Drifting Satellites” is perhaps the most captivating of the pieces, combining thoughtfully constructed solo violin passages with washes of gongs, percussion and electronics. In its own way it reminds me of my youth and the local hours I spent listening to the family short wave for the sorts of static and bleeps that I believed were raw audio satellite transmissions. I don’t know the truth of that but this music reminds me of what has become of local sectors of outer space in the years following the heyday of the space program and those sessions I had with the radio. Parts of our above-earth space vacuum must be like certain abandoned industrial sectors of Passaic, NJ (I am thinking of Robert Smithson’s photoessays on the latter topic, done in the late ‘60s). No longer functioning as intended (the satellites drifting, perhaps long since out of service), they exist now emptied of their original meaning, there as a symbol of time passed.

The remaining two pieces further explore the sound poetry of where we are now through prepared piano writing of style and earthiness, effective string writing with gongs and percussion, as well as electronically processed sounds of nameless machines and power tools. Gosfield’s music is not exactly casual, but it certainly isn’t formal either. There is a wondrous, restrained expressiveness and interesting juxtaposition of sound classes, none of which wear out their welcome on repeated hearings. I do recommend this disk for anyone who would like to know something of where new music is right now. It’s here, looking backwards to the ended century and the close of the American Machine Age as well as forward to tomorrow and what that will bring. That’s somehow appropriate music for today’s inauguration and the beginnings of a new epoch. Signing off -- Grego

January 19, 2009—I took a look at the Mountain Goats’ site before sitting down to pen these lines. They have a bunch of releases and it appears that bandleader/singer John Darnielle put his most personal thoughts and experiences into the lyrics on the CD up for consideration, “The Sunset Tree” (4AD), recorded in 2004. Now as an outsider to band lore this doesn’t mean anything to me, other than that he spills his guts obliquely and there are those who will care. Not that I don’t, but hey it’s like listening to a stranger on a train confessing details of his life that you're not really sure what to do with. All I can say is “bully” for this guy.

There are 13 songs of a folksy-songwriter sort, Erik Friedlander plays some nice cello arrangements and the rest is pretty much all Darnielle. His voice doesn’t appeal to me much. It has a chipmonky rasp. Now I can’t say THAT is enough for me to turn something off, physically or mentally, so I didn’t. In fact I listened five times, the fifth as I write these words. It’s an acquired taste, but I’m afraid I haven’t quite acquired it yet. He feeds his kittens, dons or doffs his earphones, wants some lady to kiss him on the mouth. As a youngster I used to overvalue the appeal of my everyday life for others. Perhaps early adulthood makes you feel that way. Now I’m not so sure. This guy has something to say, but I’m not certain that it’s something so urgent you must rush out and pick up this CD. And it's ultimately all in the telling. I don't believe that this particular telling quite reaches the level of "art." Signing off -- Grego

January 16, 2009—There was a time when the latest Broadway hit show conquered the musical world with songs that were whistled by the population at large; those tunes were in the repeating memories of people everywhere. Both Pop and Jazz artists looked to them as a large part of the repertoire. They were all-pervasive. Then came the Rock revolution and the sort of harmonic sophistication latent in the song forms of such shows became rare. It was harder for songwriters to think in those terms, harder for the listening public to assimilate a style that was essentially in its declining stages, identified with a pre-Rock generation that began to lose its central status on the media scene. Up until then Broadway was Columbia Records’ chief moneymaker and a key part of American musical culture. The peak of the phenomenon probably coincided with Bernstein’s wonderful “West Side Story,” to be followed by “Hair” and a gradual decline. How many people knew and recognized the songs from “Cats” or “Phantom of the Opera?” Not so many. How many artists covered the songs? Again, few.

The situation seems to persist. And so we turn to today’s music, Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd” (Nonesuch) as performed by the revival cast. Here’s a show that has at least a few songs that have entered the mainstream, with performances by various Jazz and Pop concerns—notably “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd,” “Not While I’m Around,” and “Pretty Women.” I have heard versions of these by various artists; some come off better than others. But the musical quality of the show is pretty high and there’s a kind of provocative “Three Penny Opera” vibe in the street theme, the chamber instrumentation, and the off-color, crime oriented story.

This particular cast is very good and the two-CD format gives you a generous dose of the score, seemingly most all of it. It has a vaguely operetta-like feel, and that's not such a bad thing. Both the sound of the music and the plot look backward as they proclaim their contemporary relevance. It is rather enjoyable, no matter what your musical background may be. And perhaps it marks the return of the Broadway hit as part of our overall musical vernacular, or the beginnings of it. Who can say? It’s very decent music regardless. Signing off for the week -- Grego

January 15, 2009—Modern concert music remains vividly alive and filled with a healthy vitality. The rigid formalism of the Serialist and Post-Serialist days seems to be gone, the wacky eccentrisms of later Stockhausen and Cage are perhaps not as central now as they were around 1985. What has happened can be looked at on a number of levels. There seems to be a more informal, music-first, words-about-the-music second approach. Innovation is perhaps downplayed for various sorts of sonority. Much of the acoustic-electric and instrumental language is of a flow, a lucidity that communicates with a directness. The sound of Jazz-derived Free Improv and the modern concert piece can be similar on the surface. Both camps have learned something from one another. The improv folks have gotten something of the use of space and sound from the concert people, the latter have been influenced by the spontaneous fluidity and timbre pallet of the improv people. This is a drastic simplification, but good enough for the purposes of this morning’s blog. And in the realm of electro-acoustic and Minimalist musics, there are other factors in play too.

With all that in mind we turn to British ex-pat, Australian based composer Chris Dench and his CD of chamber pieces, “Beyond Status Geometry” (Tzadik). This is a welcome addition to the repertory. Four pieces are represented. The earliest piece (1985-6), a percussion quartet that gives the title to the disk, has a delightful bombastic quality. The two later chamber works, “Light-Strung Sigils” and “Permutation City” have a more conventionally concert oriented sound but are marked by solid invention and inspired levels of performance. The final piece, a solo piano excursion, has a wistful yet robust expressionism that somehow manages to suggest and transcend the piano sounds of Ives and Cecil Taylor while remaining in a world of its own. Dench is well worth your attention and I look forward to hearing more from him. Signing off -- Grego

January 14, 2009—In the very last days of the presidency of G. W. Bush, it’s probably a good time to bring up Neil Young’s CD of several years ago, “Living with War” (Reprise). One thing I appreciate about the course of Young’s long and interesting career is that you can never be sure what he is going to do next.

Now I am not here to tell you what to think about politics (or anything else), but surely Neil spoke to a large segment of the public that had become increasingly certain that the Bush regime was a failure. The CD is filled with anthems expressing the despair of the time. Obviously with a new presidency about to come into play, these issues begin to be a part of the historical past. “Living with War” is by no means Neil Young’s best record. It captures a moment, with musical high points that include a rousing version of “America the Beautiful.” May Americans continue to be worthy of those words with a renewed dedication to what is good and great about their legacy. So onto the inauguration and a new chapter in the history of the present. Signing off -- Grego

January 13, 2009—I never paid a lot of attention to NRBQ. They were to me one of those bands who were around, but I never thought to listen very closely. Then I reviewed a recording by NRBQ’s Terry Adams and Marshall Allen, the irrepressible Sun Ra alumnus. It was full of adventure and whacky good humor. My thinking altered, I checked out NRBQ’s Greatest Hit compilation, and that was OK but not especially overwhelming to me. Then I grabbed today’s recording, NRBQ’s “Message to the Mess Age” (Aardvark). This one had the irreverence and tang that attracted me to the later duet album. On this recording NRBQ has the dada humor of some of Steely Dan, a little of the wryness of the Police, but it is only as a reminiscence, not a copycatting. It’s musical music and it has a variety of moods and grooves. “Girl Scout Cookies” has a sublimely ridiculous lyric that might tickle you. It’s something to hear if you have not.

What’s coming up? A few more Tzadiks, Jazz from Cadence and other sources, more Rock known and unknown and the beginning of a series on creative commons jamband downloads for those who are curious but limited in funds. Signing off -- Grego

January 12, 2009—Enter the world of Brown Wing Overdrive’s CD “ESP Organism” (Tzadik) and you find yourself on an electro-acoustic planet that transforms the jaw harp, vocal sounds, percussion, kalimba. electronic tones and world noise into a 45 minute collage that is over the top. It’s a trio of electro-acoustic sound weavers. The transformations of the organic sounds can be pretty simple—echoes, loops, filters, distortion, abrupt splices. It is not a virtuostic kind of sound tapestry. It is rather nutty, though, and there seems to be a certain sense of humor involved.

Disks like these are not for those seeking the peace and solace of cosmic tones. It can be jarring and it does not aim to provide a soporific backdrop to a new age cocktail party. Far from it. It’s a kind of “bad boys play with noise” music, and that can have its attractions. In the dismal heart of winter their refusal to cover it all up with pleasantries fits in with the harshness of the climate and post-holiday post-elation. Well so it is. Try this one if you want something that participates ever so slightly in another mad world, perhaps not this one. Or perhaps it is, if you follow the news. Perhaps they are a creative transformation of what is insane in the world right now. Signing off -- Grego

January 9, 2009—Big Bill Broonzy was one of the last of the Folk-County Bluesmen, one of the original players to follow in the wake of Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson and the others. He recorded through the thirties and forties, gradually going to a more electric style until the early fifties, when he reverted to the acoustic roots of his music, becoming a part of the folk revival movement. He enjoyed genuine success in his remaining years before leaving this world in 1958. Sometime in that later period he recorded an album for Folkways Records, “Broonzy Sings Country Blues.” I believe I was in 7th grade when I stumbled upon a copy of the disk, rather badly warped, for something like ten cents at a local junk shop. I had learned by that point that guys who had nicknames like “Little,” “Blind,” “Big,” “Fats,” etc., were bound to be cool, so based on such a slim bit of guidance I picked the record up. Only half of the disk would play, the other skipping relentlessly in response to the warp, but what was playable got my attention!

Years went by, I had sold off my original record collection to help pay for school, Folkways' director Moses Asch had passed away, and the record went out of my memory. The Smithsonian acquired the Folkways catalog a number of years ago and began reissuing everything—as a regular CD issue, a CD-Rom dub, or a download. I remembered that old Broonzy record and sure enough, it was again available. So here I hear it all once more after so many years, this time without the skips, and hey, it still makes for great listening. Bill plays some very nice picking guitar, is in strong voice and covers a repertory of gems. He was in full flower, despite the years of scuffling that were behind him. So it’s something to check out if you have the interest. Set your search engine to “Folkways,” get to the Smithsonian site and you’ll find that and a zillion other recordings of Folk, World, and generally wonderful things. Signing off again -- Grego

January 8, 2009—Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar is simple in conception. Pick up a steel-stringed acoustic guitar with standard tuning, tune down (slacken) various strings until you get a chord, then the fun starts. It’s a Hawaiian style that came out of the steel guitar efforts that were so influential to Country music in the early to mid-20th century. You can put Hawaiian music into a number of phases: 1. The original chants (vocals and percussion, mostly) that were a part of pre-contact times and reflect an ancient Polynesian component found on many islands in the area. 2. The guitar music that came about as indigenous elements fused with the music of Spanish-speaking Gaucho cowboys who rustled cattle in Hawaii from the mid-to-late 19th century onwards. This also includes the ukulele music that spread as a craze in the United States in the early 1900s. 3. Choral music that developed when missionaries tried to teach sacred songs but it all ended up with a Hawaiian twist, a similar development to what happened on other Polynesian islands; 4. Steel pedal guitar styles that have been a trademark of much of the music associated with Hawaii, became huge in the US in the ‘50s and were reinforced on the islands through things like the long-running radio show “Hawaii Calls” as well as ever increasing influxes of tourists with their demands to hear such music. 5. The slack key tradition which is an outgrowth of #s 2 and 4 especially.

So we have a CD called “Hawaiian Slack Key Masters Collection, Volume 2” (Dancing Cat). It’s a generous sampling of the music—16 tracks of the slack key in various combinations: guitar alone, with or without vocals, and/or in tandem with the ukulele, a second guitar, and/or an acoustic steel guitar. Now I am not sure why this should be so, but some of this reminds me alternatingly of Leo Kottke or Ry Cooder. And some of it just sounds Hawaiian to me. There is nothing by Gabby Pahinui, one of the more famous adepts in the music. But what IS here has a laid-back feel and will satisfy the casual listener who wants to mellow out as well as the acoustic enthusiast who will find the various picking and playing routines revelatory and instructive as well as quite enjoyable. Signing off -- Grego

January 7, 2009—I don’t know much about singer-songwriter Kate Gaffney, save what I know from listening to her last album “The Coachman” (Dig). She has a nice voice, a little reminiscent of Edie Brickell but only a touch. Most of the songs are quite good, in the style of a slightly country-influenced songwriter Rock. She is joined by a sympatheic supporting cast, notably guitarist Steve Kimock of jamband fame. The final, title cut goes for nearly 20 minutes and has a jam component. It’s good to hear people stretching out like that. I hope for her success. The album gives you a most decent listen. Signing off -- Grego

January 6, 2009—Jack Bruce has made big contributions to the music world since his career launched in the ‘60s. First of all, as an electric bassist he pioneered a bottom heavy electric sound and technique that influenced a generation of players, especially through his work with Cream. Second, he is a superb vocalist and has lent his distinctive voice to Rock and Fusion classics. Third, he writes songs that innovate with harmonic-melodic quirks that set him way above the pack. And they have the quality of memorability. What else? As a music stylist he has been at the forefront of progressive trends and has freely extended possibilities in the music by being one of those whose blends of sounds seem effortless and beyond the experimental. He has consistently fashioned WORKING models for others to appreciate and emulate.

His first album after the breakup of Cream in 1969, “Songs for a Tailor” (Polydor) still sounds fresh. The CD release version I have brings in several alternate takes that are different enough from the originals to not function as mere fillers. The album brims over with strong tunes and all of the things that make Jack the opposite of a dull boy (since he works and plays at the same time. Ugh. OK, so that was pretty strained but it’s early in the day and early in the first post-Holiday week and year so you’ll excuse me.) This is a landmark recording and belongs in the collection of those inclined to want to have and hear such things. Later -- Grego

January 5, 2009—Who is Pendulum? I don’t know them, but I did receive their recent CD “In Silico” (Atlantic). It’s Dance Rock, which means the beat is prominent yet there is a Rock insistence throughout. Synthesizers are very present, skillfully programmed and executed, and many of the vocal tracks have been altered by a vocoder device, giving them that robotic quality. All that said, this isn’t the sort of disk I would normally spin for my own edification. Yet once I played it a couple of times, I found it definitely of interest. It has some memorable moments and gives you a blast of hooks and riffs that keeps the fires burning in your ears, so to speak. Good luck to us all in this new year -- Grego