Destined for big fame and fortune as the talent-laden house combo at the Whiskey A Go Go, Buffalo Springfield might have unseated The Byrds as Hollywood’s reigning folk-rock/country band. The quintet served up an intoxicating brew, fueled by heavenly guitar-picking and the combined vocal trill of Stephen Stills and Richie Furay, which recalled the harmonies […]
Joe Vanderford
Posted inMusic
Re-Birth of the Cool
On what day did the music die? For jazz buffs, the answer certainly isn’t contained within the elaborate Jesus-meets-Elvis imagery of Don McLean’s tired old rock staple “American Pie.” The answer is, in fact, Sept. 28, 1991. Ten years ago. That’s the day the restless spirit of Miles Davis abandoned its worn out bones and […]
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Tim Buckley
On the cover of the CD, Buckley stands precariously atop a curbside bank of slippery snow, a tangle of skinny legs topped off by a then-trendy turtleneck and white-boy afro piled high, curl upon endless curl. The place: some nameless Greenwich Village alley. The time: probably 1966. Notice the backdrop, a brick wall plastered with […]
Posted inMusic
Hooked on Sonics
“History will bear this out,” wrote Downbeat critic John Corbett, an insightful Chicago-based jazz scribe not prone to hyperbole. “Evan Parker is the most important saxophone innovator since the late ’60s.” Next question: Just who is Evan Parker, anyway? If you’re unfamiliar with one of the most mind-bending sounds ever to leap out of Adolphe […]
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The Brand New (Old) Heavies
From the very beginning, rock ‘n’ roll was built upon the steely foundation of electric guitar. Audacious guitar. Grit-under-the-nails guitar. The louder, the better. God bless Chuck Berry, who not only popularized the sound, but the look: a slippery duck-walkin’ strut topped by a lubed-up pompadour, with a low-slung Gibson as an accessory. Voilà: a […]
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Lee Morgan and Wayne Shorter; Johnny Hodges
The Complete Verve Johnny Hodges Small Group Sessions, 1956-1961 Johnny Hodges These exhaustive six-disc box sets were recorded during the same era, yet capture the hall-of-fame reed players at opposite ends of their storied careers. A tenor saxophonist on the rise, “Weird” Wayne Shorter was 26 when he debuted on Chicago’s Vee Jay label in […]
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Pass It On, Sister, Pass It On
The true test of one’s artistry, I believe, is to measure its impact upon the art of others. Go to any museum of contemporary art and–without a single piece by Picasso in sight–the eyes pick up his ever present vibe. See the obtuse geometry. Feel the tempestuous spirit. The air is thick with it. Yes: […]
Posted inArt
Heroes and Fools
“What is jazz?” Among the music’s cognoscenti, that’s been the proverbial riddle ever since young Louis Armstrong first puckered up and laid lips upon his horn. Yesiree, that was 90 years or so ago, yet the question lingers. Over the next several weeks, armchair musicologists will gather clues about what jazz is and is not, […]
Posted inMusic
The Good, the Bad and the Slack Key
Don’t know about you, fellow reveler, but as far as I’m concerned, there are only two kinds of holiday music worth celebrating: the good and the bad. I’m either on the hunt for goose-pimply exhilaration or–for the sake of a mocking cackle worthy of Scrooge himself–undulatingly deep X-mas blues. Like lyricist Johnny Mercer suggests, when […]
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Marshall Crenshaw
For better or worse, singer-tunesmith Crenshaw has never given a tinker’s damn about conforming to contemporary standards of cool. He is a man out of time, chugging along at a comfortable 45 rpm while the bloodless digital world whizzes past. His quest: to create the penultimate sugar cube, a three-minute packet of perfect pop. When […]
