This Is Book's Music

When the buzz of Diana Krall started happening in jazz and slowly crossing over into pop, that’s when I decided to check out what she was about. People and critics were both praising and criminalizing her first album for Impulse called All For You (A Dedication To The Nat King Cole Trio), with some wondering if people are really getting into her husky vocal tones, her talents on the piano, or if she was being sold as another pretty face and sexy body doing jazz. It would lead to a number of cover stories in jazz magazines which questioned not so much Krall, but jazz’s outlook on music. There are countless jazz albums that are praised simply for showing a seductive lady, yet female jazz musicians are sometimes ignored or neglected, sometimes not even called worthy as their male counterparts. Meanwhile, many musicians were saying that it was and should never be an issue, that if one celebrates music, keep it that way, for nothing else should matter. Krall’s popularity kept rising, moving into the pop world but never quite embracing super stardom. Other artists would come and go, then there would be a younger generation stepping to the forefront. Suddenly, Norah Jones was the it woman of jazz, only for Jones herself to knock herself out of jazz while keeping her Blue Note credentials in her pocket. Krall’s buzz returned to normal levels, and she kept on touring, writing and making great music, all while maintaining a family with her musician husband, Declan. 19 years after the release of her debut album, Krall is still here, proud, and keeping audiences happy, although she’s very aware of public perception and balancing that with what she enjoys doing: making music.

Glad Rag Doll (Verve) seems to have a number of meanings. Her image has been molded into something sexy, and this time she allows herself to be seen with nylons and a garter belt. Very boudoir, right? The title itself may be tongue-in-check too: while it comes from the old 1928 song of the same name, one may view it as the music of a rag doll that is quite happy and content, Krall herself. One could easily see her throwing out the joke of her being treated as the equivalent of a “glad rag”, the slang term for a homemade disposable tampon. That might sound extremely disgusting, but she was treated as complete crap for no reason, other than that she was a woman being celebrated in “the man’s world of jazz”. Or if she is the simplified “glad rag doll”, she is now that doll grown up: mature, dignified, and not afraid to look and feel comfortable, even if one has to look a certain way to sell a few copies of an album. It’s okay, Krall is someone else behind the clothes, hair, and make-up. Any insults thrown her way can and will be shrugged off, but if you’re grown and mature enough, you may be welcomed into the concert hall.

Glad Rag Doll features songs that she had been listening through years of gathering and collecting 78rpm records, as a means to listen and enjoy, as well as to learn. Some of these may be songs by artists that are celebrated but aren’t well known, or for songs that are very obscure that it may take a bit of research time to find out about their background. Instead of placing a date or era on this material, she performs them in her own way as a means to bring them life, and maybe in a way to bring back the feeling of what it may have been like in the era when these songs were new, vibrant, and exciting, a return to simpler times when things weren’t so contrived. Krall has always been an incredible pianist, and while it may be her voice that lures some in, when she dances both of them together, it is that recipe that has made her a personal favorite. Pieces like “I Used to Love You But It’s All Over Now”, “I’m a Little Mixed Up”, “There Ain’t No Sweet Man That’s Worth the Salt of My Tears” are still as powerful now as they were in their original versions, and the many covers that may have been released. One may not remember the original artist or songwriters, but the power in them is in the lyrics and the melodies that give it strength. Outside of it being a reflection of what was, it could also be a response to what isn’t, in terms of what may be lacking in a lot of today’s music. Or maybe that’s not even a thought, it’s just a way to share an exchange of the songs that made her even more determined to share the stories of the past in her own way.

Then again, Krall has never forgotten the past in anyway. I remember when I bought her album The Look Of Love and it reached the final song, “Maybe You’ll Be There”. The compassion of the song with its longing for someone missed, complimented by an orchestra that pulled the heartstrings, is considered to be of the best, when the best music has no age or time limit. Music and songs don’t have to fictitiously die just because the human condition says it’s the right thing to do. Music ages, and so do we, and Krall seems to be someone who is at peace at time and age because it is her peace, no one else. We live and experience, and in time we depart. Until then, we grow wiser and hope to continue living and experiencing, whether it’s through out own intuition or the wisdom of those of the past. Glad Rag Doll is presented as a grand show, and at least through music, we don’t have to care about anything else but what we hear and why it affects us so deeply.

101 Crustaceans is a new band uniting some names that may be familiar to you: Ed Pastorini on vocals, guitar, and piano, Indigo Street on electric guitar and vocals, Oren Bloedow on bass and vocals, and one of my favorite drummers, Ben Perowsky. Train Bolt Roller (Riot Act) sounds like the origins of a machine starting up, finding out how its insides fit in with one another, and along the way we hear levels of well executed music that will lead people to realize that this machine is well oiled as is. Even though you may know the works of the individuals in this band, throw all of that out and put all of your faith in their capabilities. Ed Pastorini’s voice changes throughout the album, sometimes a few times within the same song, so you may hear John Lennon on the top, Karl Wallinger in the middle, with David Bowie creeping up during the choruses, and a pinch of Rupert Hine to wrap things up nicely. Musically, he and 101 Crustaceans will get into acoustic mode, rough it up as if they are galloping stallions, and unexpectedly create some noise that could easily put them in the indie/alternative rock categories. That would be a lazy way of doing it, but it’s one way of saying that this is the kind of music you’re not going to hear snuggled alongside whatever is in the Top 40 now.

The music goes through different emotions and textures, sure to excite those who don’t want to hear a band be comfortable with dormancy. The lyrics will definitely challenge the listener, for while you may hear about certain people being out of place, or places being out of reach, you’re not quite sure at first to take them at face value or allow the lyrics to drift in your mind before you choose to leave them up for interpretation each time. Train Bolt Roller is an album that doesn’t exactly pull you in upon first listen, but with each passing song, you don’t realize how deep you’re immersed in their creations until its too late.

Pastorini’s voice could lead to some mean chills up your spine, so when Street comes in with an occasional solo vocal or blends hers with Pastorini, it adds more depth into what they do. Bloedow’s bass playing is that punch that can turn the band’s gloomier sounds into a darkness undetermined, and when he adds deeper hollowness into Pastorini’s piano work, it’s haunting. Then you have Perowsky, always brutal when he plays in a jazz setting but showing even more versatility in this context, which might help cross him over to audiences who need to hear what this man is all about.

Another way to describe this music would be to say that if you have admired the works of John Zorn’s Tzadik label, but wish you could find something a bit more accessible, you might want to check out Train Bolt Roller. It still holds on to being eclectic for the sake of wanting to be as distant as possible from everyone, but still showing that they understand song construction that will appeal to fans of adventurous pop and rock. That in itself is rooted in everything from jazz to blues, gospel to different ethnic folk traditions, all of which results in something that will startle and excite anyone who doesn’t want to hear the dead formulas. Or one could say this sounds like the resurrection of discarded souls whose voices were only silenced by time and decay. May they speak proudly and loudly once again.

(Train Bolt Roller will be released sometime this fall or winter.)

The moment someone mentions Indian Handcrafts, it will lead to discussions of heaviness, music that will floor you like a safe crushing your bowels. However, another word thrown around with these guys is groove. Some of the best hard rock and heavy metal bands have a sense of groove that is often overlooked, but Indian Handcrafts know why it is a necessity: the best rock music is also the best fuck music. Civil Disobedience For Losers (Sargent House) know how to do this by blending up bits of The Stooges, Soundgarden, Monster Magnet, Led Zeppelin, Grand Funk, and marijuana brownies to create something that will make you want to find someone else’s wife and do figure 8′s inside of her. Yes, THAT kind of groove.

Anyone who remembers the band Big Chief will relate to what Indian Handcrafts are going here. This is a hard rock band who aren’t afraid to bring in elements such as gospel, pop, and soul and make themselves sound like they are about to start a revolution. The album definitely has a classic feel, reflective of their collective influences, but it’s not just done to be retro. “Bruce Lee” has the kind of texture exploration that may remind people of Black Sabbath’s Sabotage album.

In “Zombie”, they enter that warble-of-no-return sound that always made Sabbath’s songs work, one that countless bands from Seattle used in the mid to late 80′s that would lead to the foolish name of grungy. It’s that crusty guitar and bass crunch that makes you want to do dances and hand gestures you never knew existed until you realized those riffs and drum fills would make you want to dance. If the music isn’t heavy enough for you, “Lion At The Door” sounds like what would happen if W.A.S.P. were raised in Mountlake Terrace, Washington instead of Los Angeles, and I also think what works about thiis album too is while one can cite influences and references for days, in the end this is just heavy, raw rock at its best. One may go “oh that part sounds like the end of Kiss’ “Black Diamond” or “if Tad became a meber of Blackfoot, it would be this brutal” but after that happens, you begin to enjoy Indian Handcrafts for being Indian Handcrafts. The fact that Melvins’ Dale Crover and Coady Willis are on this, indirectly giving their seal of approval, should mean something.

Again, the best metal has always had some sense of groove, so while other people may want to throw in a Funkadelic comparison to explain this, you know that deep down, it’s unnecessary. You’ll find what you’ll want to find in their music but this is Indian Handcrafts, who create their rock to sound as thick as that soup in the fridge that your daughter thought was something from your engine. Disobedient rock? Isn’t that how it should be by default? Yes.

(Civil Disobedience For Losers will be released on MP3, vinyl, and CD on October 30th. You may pre-order yours below from Amazon.com by clicking the boxes below.)

With lyrics that talk about “pussy juice drippin’ down her ass”, you know it has to be guttural and when it is, it can only be from the mind and base of Project Pat. He and Nasty Mane are all about smoking choice weed, drinking, watching women dance, and the exchange of vaginal secretions, and they talk about this in Belly On Full 2 (Select-O-Hits/Money Train).

Over 16 tracks, both Pat and Mane head to the club, walk out, go back to the club, head somewhere else, and then just camp out at the club before they realize they should just put some mailboxes out front and call the club home. In their world, it’s all about partying, insuring that the weed is good and the joints are tightly rolled, and if you are a woman and raunchy as hell, then you are a “Ratchet Bish”. That lady not making the rounds? They talk about it in “Fuck A Bish”. When there’s good times, anything and everything is plentiful because they are Project Pat and Nasty Mane. Musically, the tracks are produced by Crazy Mike and Lil Awree, some songs done individually while one is a collaboration between the two. No samples, just solid drum machines, sequences, keyboards, and marijuana smoke.

Away from the partying and penetration, they’re both able to “thank God, the Father, for His Son Jesus who died on the cross and his alive today and thru accepting this we are Saved.” I’m sure if Jesus returned, Project Pat and Nasty Man would offer him some choice weed, some hooch, and fly coochie. Until then, one can listen to this and get high over the possibility of a spiritual buttfuck party with Jesus as a witness.

TKTTSM had planned on releasing their self-titled debut on Sumxuni two years ago, but that was scrapped and was put on hold for two years. Now it has been revealed. The Brooklyn duo of Johanna Stahley and Owen O’Mahony play aggressive pop with garage, hard rock, and psychedelic touches, and while listeners may wonder if certain sounds blend well with the other, you accept them for what they are and float away into their trippiness.

If you grew up with Schoolhouse Rock and loved the songs for “Unpack My Adjectives” and “Figure 8″, but wondered what it would have been like if those songs were indie rock, that would be TKTTSM. Vocalist Stahley reminds me of a more spunkier Blossom Dearie with the spunk of Gwen Stefani, and Miho Hatori, and I compare them with her because I’ll be honest, hearing the voice is a bit novel at first but then I settled in it and heard it for more than the surface. “I Wanted To” could easily be a hit song in the vein of The Cranberries or The Cardigans, complete with effective hooks and melodies that will make you want to create a physical mix tape and pass this to someone of interest. Then you get into a track like “Edumication”, which may be violent with references to cops and brains, but the music sounds like solid funk track from a spy thriller before it turns into something that might become a Katy Perry classic. Since Stahley is a songwriter who is getting her music out to the world, don’t be surprised if one day you may hear Perry covering one of her songs. My original review had me assuming the background vocal in “Dear Diary” was done by someone else, as I had compared the voice to being in a Hole/Courtney Love mode, a nice shift in emphasis. I was corrected by the actual vocalist: Stahley herself, which shows even more versatility.

TKTTSM. It stands for The Kiss Tried To Smack Me, but TKTTSM is pronounced as “tick-uh-tism”. What it means? I don’t know, but of hearing their music gives you a bit of an -ism of some sort and it helps you remember the TKTTSM name, then their magic has worked. A lot of pop music today sounds too mundane, but adding them into the system will definitely be a welcome relief. There’s much more than the surface, and they’re a group that will make you want to become a member of their fan club.

(NOTE: If you like what Stahley does here, look for the solo work she has released over the years.)

The term “alternative hip-hop” has been floating around since the early 90′s to describe the type of rap music that may not be hip or part of the current mainstream. Me’Shell NdegeOcello proudly said in the booklet of her 1993 debut album that “the alternative to hip-hop is silence”. It may sound big headed to think that, but while I know and understand the different variations of the music, sometimes all that is needed is simplification of what is heard, which may bring more people into hearing what is being presented. As Sixo, Scotty Trimble is someone who has done things differently in his career, although one has to wonder if it’s the music they’re listening to or the different MC’s that come across his tracks. Free Floating Rationales (Fake Four Inc.) is a mixture of tight instrumentals and vocalized tracks. On the vocal size, if you like the works from the Anticon crew, cLOUDDEAD, Reaching Quiet, Wordburglar, or Jesse Dangerously, these tracks will definitely be pleasing to you as they are funky, quirky, and nerdy when they have to be. Ceschi and Hologram Dagger contribute to “Blind Coats” and the sound could have easily been something from the Latryx catalog. The superfresh LEIF (kolt) gets deep and dope with the very nice “Rocker John” and as for the Anticon influnce, my online godfather Sole supplies some words of wisdom in “Government Bonds”, continuing on fighting the good fight he has done over the years to let people know about the deceit being passed to the general public as being “for the people”. Moka Only delivers a bag with some unknown substances to Sixo and comes up with “Paper Pathway”, and anyone who has been a Moka fan will not be let down by this track. The instrumentals here could… no, should be taken by many of today’s top notch MC’s and turned into some great music. Just make sure Sixo gets paid for it, okay?

Sixo: one of my favorite producers out now, teaming up with MC’s who are some of my favorite rappers of the last few years. This may very well be your hip-hop dream lineup and if it isn’t, reconsider your agenda. This is just damn good music, and while the hip-hop Illuminati might cry blasphemy because they feel this style of music is Illuminati to hip-hop, all I can say is fuck them. This album is far better than the constipated shit that’s stuck up the industry’s anus and being passed off as the real shit. Yeah, it’s shit alright, but not this.

Before I wrote this, one review called Heartbreakers (Lentonia) new-age pop, and I thought “really?” Phoebe Jean’s vocals are sometimes thick with that ethereal echo and reverb that makes people think the perceived distance in her way of singing is meant to be more meaningful. Fortunately in this case it is, as her lyrics are very haunting at times. Other times, her music sounds like it comes from the traditions of 80′s pop and soul, as the opening track, “King Size Bed”, has a beat that sounds like what would happen if Prince’s “Raspberry Beret” and Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” had babies. Add to that the sound of keyboards that sounds like a Fender Rhodes, and Jean could be trying to make Steely Dan sound funkier, and she’s not just throwing around different influences and effects just to make herself sound cool.

The album is credited to Phoebe Jean and the Air Force, and the Air Force in this case is Jean herself, she plays everything on it. I would define her as a storyteller, one that likes to do it in styles of music that go everywhere form NYC-based disco to club tracks with a passion for beats that sound influenced by some of the classic breakbeats. She could easily be someone associated with Lady Gaga, Pink, and M.I.A. but I think Jean has found a place in her apartment or bungalow and is telling everyone “hey, I love to sing and groove, and I love to get down with this.” New age? Not quite. Youthful and vibrant? Hell yeah.

Shingo Yuji is a jazz guitarist from Los Angeles who continues on the riches that musicians like George Benson, Pat Martino, Al DiMeola, Kazumi Watanabe, and Yoshiaki Masuo were able to provide in their music in the last 40 years. Now Yuji shows what he is capable of not only amongst his jazz brethrenm but all guitarists across the world. Introducing Shingo Yuji (Yujipan Music) has the kind of style that brings to mind the words “fluidity”, “strength”, “power”, and anything that can be used to explain power. “Shadows On The Sun” has him flipping riffs left and right, only to follow with a cover of Charles Mingus’ “The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines” where he smooths things out in a Wes Montgomery-like fashion and allows to let that mother breathe. In other word, it will sound like the guitar is speaking to you and you alone. Or without the journalistic ego, it just sounds very good.

With an album as strong as this, I hope he will continue to record and perform more, in order to take his music and career further.

New music from John Orsi means new worlds to explore, and for A Room For The Night (it’s Twilight Time), the six songs here are meant to be filled with surprises and delight, but you’re not meant to stay there for long. Look, listen, and head out.

The music here could be considered incidental music, the kind of songs that would create susprise in any action film or drama, in fact as I was listening to “Jaldi”, it’s clock-like precision and pace made me feel like it was an indication of time for someone in a movie that was trying to crack open a safe. Without cinematic themes in mind, it could also be the sounds of a Middle Eastern or Indian marketplace at peak hour, although when is it not peak hour at the marketplace? Or perhaps it’s Asian in nature, as it sounds like three or four gamelans at once trying to sound unique among one another but still coming through. A perfect example of this is the aptly named “Togetherness”, where one might hear a xylophone or vibraphone playing along with what sounds like a room full of clocks ready to strike at the same time but doesn’t. At times, Orsi’s work seems chaotic and peculiar but I think they’re both that on purpose. Behind each assembled track is a pulse that keeps not only each song working, but the EP as a whole working as one being. “Companion Wheel” combines synthesizers and distortion (sounds like a guitar at high volume but could easily be keyboards going through effects) with the heart of the percussion in the background, and I was wondering if I should listen to the song as an entry way, a means of escape, or simply existing within the orgy of sound. The EP ends with a subtle moral of sorts called “Two Trains Passing In The Night (not that many trains pass in my nights anymore)”, and while one can listen to this as the exit in this chain of songs because I see it listed as the final track, it can also be interpreted as a beginning to, or the final destination of solitude and meditation, or simply just finality in this project, the end of the stay in a room for the night. Now it’s time to head home. It’s also the album’s longest song, and with most of the album having limited time constraints (done on purpose), hearing this is almost orgasmic, or at least it’ll make you wide-eyed and wondering where each sound will lead. Going through the last track will make one assume this was an album going on for twice its actual duration (full length of this EP is 23:10).

The progressive sense I hear comes from hearing music mixed with machinery, traffic, and natural sound as a means to convey an aura. You are perhaps put into a city unfamiliar to you, and you’re hearing quick glimpses of an audio diary, page by page. Or maybe these sounds are partly familiar to you, and you know how to get back home through the unfamiliar. I could easily see a project like this taken to other musicians, composers, and sound producers to see how far this could go, so that one can say in the room for longer than a night, or to find different delights in different rooms along the way. To simplify this, it’s like hearing the non-musical portions of Pink Floyd albums and wishing one would create more music like that. You’ve now found that album, if only for one night.

Originally recorded in 1978 towards an album that was released on the short lived Seeds & Stems label, Down Beatrice Street features music performed by the Bob Szajner Triad, which included Roy Brooks (drums), Ray McKinney (bass), and Szajner (piano) performing a marathon 6-hour set of songs, and whatever brought them to certain songs and moments, that was that. Nine songs from these sessions resulted in the long-out-of-print album Jazz Opus 20/40, and seven of the nine tracks on that LP are here. “Back Little Thyroid Gland” and “No Bridge In Sight” are sadly missing, but in its place are eight songs from the session on October 8, 1978, and whether it was the power of music, a bit of liquor, an extra heaping of vegetables or what may have been in the air, it resulted in some powerful music and one is able to at bigger sense of what happened that day. What amazes me that McKinney and Brooks had no idea what songs Szajner was going to play at any given time. They were just told to follow and see what happens. No overdubs, no post-production, just the three musicians as is, and they did this for six hours. Also, the idea that on his 18th wedding anniversary, Szajne thought “I’m going to play music instead, I’ll come back later.” Well, he didn’t actually say that but sometimes a musician has to do what a musician has to do, and the world is thankful that despite whatever circumstances may have happened after these sessions, he did it.