This Is Book’s Music

There’s a lot of good and great music out there, but it’s too easy to get lost in the deluge of crap that floods the promotional pathway. This is not within that deluge. They’re a UK duo called Elektralux, which sounds like an old model washing machine but in this case it’s something slightly familiar but not machine-based. It may clean you up nicely, though.

“Missing Out” (Naim) is their debut single, and while they both have rock roots (they were from a band called Countermine, they are bringing in a nice dose of pop to create something that distances themselves from their musical past but not too much. There’s even a bit of reggae stylee in their execution, and could prove to be popular stateside.

The single can be downloaded as MP3, WAV, and FLAC lossless files from their label, Naim, along with the two remixes that can be found on the 12″ single. Which means yes, vinyl junkies can also go to the aforementioned link to pick up your copy.

Sound is his toy box, coming from an environment were sound was essential, since his parents were both blind. Introduce yourself to William Fitzsimmons if you haven’t done so already. His album, Goodnight (Naim), is a look and listen into the world of sound captured by someone who doesn’t take the importance of sound for granted with his combination of folk and sample-based collages.

Geof Bradfield (tenor saxophone/blue clarinet), Greg Ward (alto saxophone), Jake Vinsel (acoustic and electric bass), and Dave Miller (guitar) are the Rebel Souls lead by drummer Ted Sirota, whose Seize The Time (Naim Jazz) is one of those jazz albums I wish everyone wanted to do and was able to do.

Here’s why. This album was recorded in analog and then mastered in digital (Dustin Cammack is listed as the “assistant recording engineer”), so already I’m sold. The end result is an album that sounds beautiful and it makes you wish you were there to witness these guys create this, there’s a vibrancy that just makes you smell the room so you can inhale the wood and whatever unknown elements may be lingering in there. Whatever odors that were in the room added something to the inspiration that made them play the way they did on this, with 12 songs that made them play solidly from start to finish.

How many songs by The Clash have you heard reinterpreted with a jazz mask? Probably not a hell of a lot, but it’s nice to hear a song transformed in a way not intended, only for it to stand out as a classic piece once again. It sounds like a rendition that would have been approved by a number of jazz legends. One of those legends could have been Charles Mingus, whose own “Free Cell Block F, ‘Tis Nazi U.S.A.” is brought forward into the so-called post-racial era of the world, only to reaffirm that deep in its underbelly, the song truly remains the same. “13 De Maio” gets a nice new coating, something that would make Caetano Veloso very proud, and Bradfield’s arrangement is sure to make everyone dance at whatever venues they will be playing together.

The liner notes by Sirota indicate that the songs written for and chosen to be covered on this album were selected with a purpose, as they are messages that are being said without words. Without getting too deep into that message (buy the CD and read it for yourself), he is basically saying there’s no better time than now to deal with the struggles of the world and turn it into something more positive for anyone. Perhaps Seize The Time will be the catalyst, however small, towards a better way of living.

(NOTE: This album is being sold not only in the CD and MP3 formats, but also as FLAC lossless files, WAV files, and HD WAV and lossless files (24bit 96kHz), so you can burn them to create a DVD-A disc or to play on your stand-alone music servers. Pick your option by clicking the appropriate icons below. I wish more labels would go out of their way to offer their music in this manner. Audiophiles, get ting-a-lay.)

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Eric Frazier not only released one, but two CD’s at the same time celebrating his performance at Cecil’s Jazz Club in West Orange, New Jersey. He could have released them as a double CD, but perhaps it was a way for people to not get too much in one sitting, so if they liked one, they can get the other.

Frazier is a conga player who shines throughout both of these live albums, and he occasionally takes a time out to sing too, although not too much. Live @ Cecil’s Jazz Club Volume 1 (self-released) begins with a fantastic rendition of Dizzy Gillespie‘s “A Night In Tunisia”. Frazier and his quintet (Larry Williams on drums, ,B>Quintin Franklin on bass, Yoichi Izeki on piano, and Gene Ghee on tenor sax) honor this song with so much class, you feel like standing up and saluting your speakers as you’re listening to this. It’s a brilliant performance amongs these musicians who carry this song for almost 15 minutes, and you truly feel like you’re on a journey. The adventures continues as the flip John Coltrane‘s “Impressions” into Latin jazz mode. Frazier also takes on Herbie Hancock‘s famous “Chameleon” and turns it inside out by removing the electric groove and allowing it to go natural once again, as nature intended.

Live @ Cecil’s Jazz Club Volume 2 continues the festivities with another set of carefully selected tracks, including “Softly As In A Morning Sunrise”, “Cantaloupe Island” (another Hancock classic), “Moody’s Mood For Love”, and Miles Davis‘ “All Blues”, and even though you have no doubt heard “All Blues” countless times in the past, everyone in the group help out to dust off the cobwebs and puts on a new outfit to make it feel good again to hear again, the familiar becomes unknown for 10 minutes as it presents itself in a new way.

Both albums were recorded and mixed well, this isn’t just a casual bootleg-style recording done on a cassette deck or some German microphones and a laptop. Everything is captured perfectly, and it will become a perfect compliment to your jazz collection.

(Volume 1)
(Volume 2)

One of my favorite DJ’s passed away today. Roc Raida, an original member of The X-Men/The X-Ecutioners, was reported to have not been feeling well due to a spinal injury. No word on official cause of death, but he influenced a world of people to look at their record players differently in the early 90′s, at a time when DJ’ing seemd archaic in hip-hop and turntablism was a term yet to be invented.

r.i.p.