Album Reviews

Low’s latest begins on a somber, fatalistic note with the dirge-like “Pretty People,” in which we’re reminded that along with the soldiers fighting today, and all the little babies, and all the lions and “..all the pretty people…,” we’re all gonna die.

Slinky “world music” with a distinctly American desert underpinning, yet incorporating Arabic tonal modes, Another Green World Eno-esque rhythms and an eclectic, dizzying array of instruments, acoustic and electronic, Califone’s latest album will literally leave you gasping for air as you vainly attempt to absorb even a pathetically small percentage of what’s thrown at you musically and sonically on what is a stupendous production and an even more remarkable recording.

I don’t know about you, but back in the winter of 1969, big band music was not exactly my “go to” musical genre. At 22 I was listening to Abbey Road which had just come out, and Tommy and Simon and Garfunkel and The Kinks, and Frank Zappa, not Duke Ellington, though I was into Monk, Coltrane, Miles and Cannonball. I drew the line at big band music.

The almost apologetic liner notes let you know that the music on this album, and indeed Mr. Hawkins himself, was essentially out of favor, except as an exercise in nostalgia and that Prestige’s “Moodsville” series, if not meant as background “mood music,” could serve that purpose, though it was perfectly suited for actual listening should the buyer so desire. Montovani is even mentioned in the notes!

Jazz vocalist Karrin Allyson’s tenth Concord release and her most recent to be issued on double 180g vinyl by Pure Audiophile, is yet another pleasing, eclectic and elegant set from the young, refreshingly unaffected vocalist.

Despite once having endorsed Bose, Herbie Hancock is clearly a good listener. For his first Blue Note solo outing back in 1962 when he was just 22, he led with “Watermelon Man,” an irresistible “crossover” tune that could attract a crowd beyond Blue Note’s usual buyers. While Hancock says it’s based on a childhood recollection of street vendors, the song’s groove was very much in tune with “the street” circa 1962. Hancock’s playing is funky but not flamboyant.