CD REVIEWS: 11.25.09

Saturday, November 28, 2009

By JH Weekly Staff

Pleased To Meet You
HANK JONES - OLIVER JONES
Five out of five
Jazz nuts are always on the make for the next coolest thing. But sometimes it’s worth putting your money on a good old thing. Given an extra $20 in my pocket and a selection of new releases, I, for one, will always put my double-sawbuck down on NEA Jazz Master Hank Jones.

The latest in the 91-year-old pianist’s discog  unites the Detroit-born elder with Canadian pianist Oliver Jones for the first time in the studio. Dense and elegant takes on wide-ranging standards result, as well as a tribute to the late great Oscar Peterson.
Hank’s solo “Monk’s Mood” settles the case, as the nonagenarian – who started playing professionally in the early 30s, under the sway of Fats Waller and Earl Hines; swung with Ella, Coleman Hawkins and Benny Goodman; and bopped with Billy Eckstein, Cannonball Adderley, even Charlie Parker – finds the fluid and lyrical in Thelonious’s notoriously bent and abstract fav. Long live Hank Jones!
                                                                     – Rich Anderson

The Devil Tried to Kill Me
DAVID MURRAY &
the gwo ka masters
Four out of five
For a guy with about 150 albums under his belt – everything from solo discs to big band dates, and including recordings that are arguably among the best cut in the past 30 years – reedman David Murray is not particularly well known outside of jazz circles. Still, each new release helps.
His latest, The Devil Tried To Kill Me (Justin Time Records), is typically fierce and independent, political and provocative, aggressive and tender. With Taj Mahal guesting on vocals on two tracks, and percussion provided by a crew hailing from Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, the music never stops – in fact it barely pauses to breathe. The drumming is ferocious, with rhythms and techniques unique to this island nation that won independence more than 200 years ago, and the bass playing, by Jaribu Shahid, is mind-blowing.
With a discography as vast as Murray’s, it may be hard for the uninitiated to know just where to jump in. This is as good a place as any.
– Rich Anderson

Sweet Surrealistic Queen
THE GORGEOUS HUSSIES
Two out of five
Do you watch “The Hills?”

I’ll back up. Whenever I review a pop-rock album, I try to ask myself first if the band is good at what it does, as I just don’t care for the genre. (But then, my blanket position against faux Angst – OK, the songwriters’ frustration might be real, however stylized the expression of it may be – doesn’t explain my long-time affair with Weezer).

If the pop band is good at what it does, I ask is it tolerable or somewhere along the lines of a well-produced piece of shit – sentimental and phony? (Think: anything done by anyone who’s ever been on “American Idol.”)
Having decided that the Gorgeous Hussies’ album, Sweet Surrealistic Queen, answers both these questions affirmatively, I wonder who would listen to the album for more than a review.

If you watch “The Hills,” and you like the music, Sweet Surrealistic Queen will be a step up for you.

p.s. The Gorgeous Hussies, from Salt Lake City, will play the Mangy Moose in January.
– Matthew Irwin

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CD REVIEWS: 11.25.09 | Planet JH News Article: General News

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