This Is Book's Music

John Lennon seemed to live life in a unique way once he met Yoko Ono. It seemed that for 12 years (until he was killed in 1980), he felt that if people were going to look at gawk at him, he was going to make sure he gave people something to look at. In this case, it meant something to listen to as well.

As a slight nod to Thanksgiving Day in the United States, I wanted to shine the light on a picture sleeve that referred to “turkey” and I came up with this. Lennon came out with some pretty cool sleeves on Apple, as I’m a fan of the sleeves for “Give Peace A Chance”, “Power To The People”, and “Instant Karma (We All Shine On)”, but this one was always a bit eerie, more because it always raised the question: why?

“Cold Turkey” was a song written about him dealing with his heroin addiction, complete with the sounds of his withdrawals. Personally, as someone who always liked Lennon’s weirder and experimental side, I love the second half of the song where it’s just him screaming in utter pain as the band continue a repetitive riff to where it comes off like a drone, before he eventually reaches a conclusion, and the last few notes are flipped backwards. Regardless of what people felt about him, he knew he had the power and since he now had his own record label (Apple), he was going to release whatever the hell he wanted. Before this, he released “Give Peace A Chance”, a song that was recorded in a Canadian hotel room with friends, guests, and members of a Hare Krishna temple clapping and singing. You could never do that now, nor would it be considered worthy of international attention, but that song has since become an anthem. A year before this, he and Ono recorded them making a private home recording in their bedroom, and then chose to take some photos of them in the nude. That became Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins. They married in the spring of 1969, and that lead to the creation of the more adventurous Unfinished Music No. 2: Life With The Lions and Wedding Album, the latter of which came with plastic replications of their wedding certificate, their wedding photo, and a piece of cake. Statistically, they were huge flops, so the only time a Beatles fan could hear him do “proper” music was on the singles he was coming out with, and Lennon wasn’t about to go the easy route with those either, at least not until 1970, when he knew that The Beatles had come to an end.

The B-side to “Cold Turkey” was also credited to the Plastic Ono Band, but was Ono’s side to shine with the incredible “Don’t Worry Kyoko (Mummy’s Only Looking For Her Hand In The Snow)”. When you turned the picture sleeve on the other side, you saw Ono’s X-ray of her skull. EMI/Odeon in Japan decided to combine both sides and show their X-rays side to side on the cover for their release.

Big Fresh have released an album where buying the vinyl or is a must, not a necessary one but an optional one. The cover is a slight hint: a flashback to a time when making sugarcoated bubblegum pop was not a sin but many felt it was, yet it resulted in not-so-guilty music pleasures. The cover shows four children playing a game called Moneychasers (Garden Gate/Redeye), which is the name of the album. Inside the album, you have a game board you unfold, along with a die and game pieces. Yes, it’s an album with a game that you can play along as you dance and eat popcorn.

The music is excellent, definitely will be a treat for fans of Redd Kross and Jellyfish. It is super sweet most of the time, but when they rock and pack a groove, you want to tickle your own piko. The horn sections makes one wish this was the kind of music that dominated today’s charts, but while it might be a flashback of days gone by, this is just proof of how good music can sound if you don’t limit yourself to trends and eras.

Kael Smith and Matt Herron are a musical duo who use the name Mombi as a means to let people know who they are. The Wounded Beat (Own) is the title of their 8-track project using this name, and I say this because a few may have known of Smith and Herron when they released an album as Khale.

The Wounded Beat sounds like nine inch nails drowning themselves in delicate sorrow, but without some of the harshness that has dominated Reznor’s sound and vision. Instead, you have music that mixes up some of the qualities that Necks and Jan Jelinek often have, where they’ll use sounds that might sound contradictory but balance it to where it fits in to form incredible ear candy. Lyrically, the voice of Smith may make it sound like someone who is completely sullen and not willing to turn around from the corner of a room to see sunlight. Take a deeper listen to the lyrics and you’ll hear the kind of motivating hope that will help bring in listeners to stay and hear more. Mombi is electronic folk, and you’re welcome to smell the grain.

The Monk Project (IPO) is a wonderful tribute to the late Thelonious Monk as performed by Jimmy Owens, who brings on Wycliffe Gordon, Winard Harper, Kenny Davis, Kenny Barron, Marcus Strickland, and Howard Johnson for the kind of session one dreams of hearing. All of these musicians have great track records, but it’s nice to hear them all on one place for one cause, and that is to honor Monk with their performances of “Epistrophy”, “Brilliant Corners”, “Pannonica”, and “Well You Needn’t”. Owens’ trumpet work is the emphasis here with occasional dabbling with the Flugelhorn, but to hear Strickland jump in with his saxophone work and Barron decorating the place with his sonic trims is just awesome. I know, not exactly the right word to use in a jazz context, but it is indeed awesome.

Jazz groups like the Neil Cowley Trio have always been around, where it’s a group of guys playing music that is jazz-based, but they reach into areas that are not exactly jazz. Or at least it’s not music that can be defined by so-called “jazz purists”. They’re up there with groups like Medeski, Martin & Wood and Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, but one might go “oh, it’s because they’re white?” No, because I also hear hints of the Modern Jazz Quartet in what they do too. What is it that they do?

Radio Silence (NAIM Jazz) is music by a jazz group who enjoy going through a wide range of styles, but still retaining their jazz core. I hear elements of pop, classical, and show tunes (or at least the few show tunes I know) mixed up with the kind of cocky attitude in the way they pack a groove with their love of soul and funk. But don’t expect voyages on the Mothership or anything. The title track is an exquisite journey into a deep soothing dream, that kind of “it feels tranquil, I never want to wake-up from this song and ooh, I hear stars falling”, while “A French Lesson” could be something you may expect to hear on a Kate Bush recording. When the album reaches its end with the 14 minute “Portal”, you can imagine them getting ready for their “return home” as they enter a metaphorical portal, unless this is a portal that’s meant to be a trip back in.

Fans you like Dave Brubeck, Herbie Hancock, or McCoy Tyner‘s piano work will love what Neil Cowley brings to his songs, a mixture of the flashy and the sensitive (dare I say “pretty”?) with the vim & vigor of jazz’s past. With jazz though, “the past” is a mental game but it does sound like the traditions of what came before. This is music for the future, both of the next generation fans and the music itself. The cover shows the group tuning in to a frequency that will be appealing to them. I feel those who pick this album will find the proper frequencies, thus avoiding any level of “radio silence”.

The title says it all, but also suggests a need to look further if you do not know what it means. S.P.T.A. stands for Said Person of That Ability, but is meant to be pronounced as a word: a “spitta”, or “spitter”, as in someone who spits, as in a rapper. In the last 25 years, as countless rap songs have suggested, a rapper is now a dime a dozen, and the problem is everyone thinks they’re a baker when they’re just opening up a can of soup and waiting until it boils. The problem with that is they’re waiting for a beep, and that soup has boiled over onto the stove. My point is that one of the major things to focus on in the S.P.T.A. equation is “A”: ability. A lot of people are able, but having an ability means action or “doing”, and someone seeing and hearing your capability. But being capabl… fuck it, here’s my review.

S.P.T.A. is an incredible album by J-Live, whom I’ve been a fan of since the days when it had taken 45 minutes to download an MP3. But away from technology and into the core of the matter is this: J-Live has been consistent in not only in his lyrics and style of speaking, but in who he chooses to represent him musically. He has always dabbled in his productions over the years, this album is no exception, but S.P.T.A. features contributions from Diamond D, Nicolay, RJD2, Marco Polo, The Audible Doctor, and others. Each of these guys produce their music differently from one another, and yet somehow manage to create a unified sound in the spirit of the target, which is J-Live. I know as a producer myself, we all have to claim that we have to put our egos on the side when making tracks for someone else, but the ego/confidence is in how these songs are made and for those who use samples, what sound sources are used. J-Live doesn’t have to say “oh yeah, don’t hesitate, Illastrate, uh-huh uh-uh”, but he allows them to shine. Or at least J-Live didn’t tinker with the formulas that the producers offered to him.

Then of course: the lyrics. The cover is a hint of what you’ll hear on the album. It’s basically J-Live talking to himself, or variations of himself, and at times those conversations get deep. He offers listeners a fan to truly hear what’s on his mind, because no one can understand him but him, but these songs are open doors into the logic, wit, humor, and talent of this guy. There’s a line in a song where he admits that he does not mind the slow climb in his career, a way of saying he’s honored to still be around and that people care enough to want to hear him create and release more music, when others have fallen and crashed in their perceived rise to the top. In the self-produced “Life Comes In Threes”, he brings in the musicianship of Rasheeda Ali, Jeff Nania, and Bryan Bryan Brundrge and layers them over a funky and jazzy soundscaps that sounds like he’s been in tune with Jazzanova or Shinichi Osawa as of late. Is J-Live suggesting that his career has been in three phases so far, and are we currently in the shirt? All I know is, I’d love to hear more work like this.

All of the songs stand out, but one of my favorites is “Great Expectations”, where he discusses what we all go through with everything from romance to wanting to be the best you can be, and realizing that sometimes we have to pop our own bubbles in order to understand reality. The references about rappers who believe in their own self-made hype, but get lost when they’re still on top of that balloon that rises in a mental room with no ceiling is very funny and true.

The triad theme of the album comes to a close with “Have A Glass”, where it’s simply J-Live with Lyric Jones revealing the moral of S.P.T.A., and within all of the verbal games came a story and a lesson or two that’ll make you want to play the album a few more times to understand its full strength. While I have come to expect work I value from J-Live, it’s also a reminder of how well an album can sound when you know what you’re doing, and how to do it.