Album Reviews

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Michael Fremer  |  Jan 01, 2010  |  0 comments

How rare and collectible is this record? A mint original sold for $678.00 back in 2004. I doubt it sounds as good as this double 45rpm reissue but I can’t be sure since I don’t have one.

Michael Fremer  |  Jan 01, 2010  |  0 comments

Modern Jazz Quartet fans will find this Milt Jackson solo outing surprising and in a sense liberating. While the vibraharpist remains his usual cool, resilient self, the addition of Kenny Dorham on trumpet and Jimmy Heath (brother of MJQ bassist Percy) on tenor sax gives the outing a bit more swagger and drive compared to the MJQ’s usual studiousness.

Michael Fremer  |  Jan 01, 2010  |  0 comments

I’ll throw my two cents into the “greatest rock vocalists” ring: Steve Marriott. He’s the one for me. His work with the original Small Faces stands above all else, but later Marriott joined Peter Frampton and the two formed Humble Pie with bassist Greg Ridley and drummer Jerry Shirley.

Michael Fremer  |  Jan 01, 2010  |  1 comments

Drop John Lee Hooker off in the parched environs of Paris, Texas and tell him to do his mournful thing and that it’ll be okay because Miles Davis will be right behind him with his mute trumpet following his every musical move the way Ali Akbar Khan followed Ravi Shankar's.

Michael Fremer  |  Jan 01, 2010  |  0 comments

Former Image Hi-Fi magazine editor Dirk Sommer and his wife Birgit Hammer-Sommer recorded and produced this solo double bass performance by Dieter Ilg using a purist analog chain direct to ¼” analog audio tape. Compression was neither contemplated nor used, nor was there any filtering or equalization of any kind.

Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2009  |  0 comments

You could accuse Herbie Mann (Herbert James Solomon) of “selling out” his serious jazz career for pop music stardom but that wouldn’t be fair.

Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2009  |  0 comments

Note: since this review was originally posted February of 2009, we have learned of the existence of a flat transfer made from the now missing master tape. The version reviewed here was almost certainly mastered from a digital transfer done using some analog "work parts" and some digital sources not clearly identified in Capitol's original CD reissue series.

Michael Fremer  |  Sep 01, 2009  |  0 comments

Caught in 1972 between The Beatles and Byrds pop/folk undertow and too early to catch the indie rock wave pioneered by bands like REM later in the decade, commercial failure was all but assured for Big Star, aided by what many at the time considered was a bad Memphis, TN based record company roll out with spotty distribution and less than stellar promotion.

Michael Fremer  |  Sep 01, 2009  |  0 comments

For the most part, the best Art Pepper could do in 1972 when this set was issued was listen to and talk about old performances and old tapes. He recorded only one album during an extended period of inactivity stretching from 1968 to 1975.

Michael Fremer  |  Sep 01, 2009  |  1 comments

Mac “Dr. John” Rebenack’s soulful plea for the resurrection of his beloved New Orleans comes on funky and optimistic on the opener “Keep on Goin’,” but on the next tune, “Time For A Change,” with Eric Clapton, Rebenack’s showing a little fed-upedness with lines like “Stop the money made at the cost of life.”

Michael Fremer  |  Sep 01, 2009  |  0 comments

This set, recorded May 1959 in Paris during a Jazz at the Philharmonic tour finds Sonny Stitt on the Oscar Peterson guest list mostly playing alto with some tenor thrown in for good measure.

Michael Fremer  |  Sep 01, 2009  |  0 comments

The proliferation of Blue Note reissues on double vinyl, SACD and most recently XRCD has led to the inevitable negative reaction with some people complaining that the label’s mythological status is overblown.

Michael Fremer  |  Sep 01, 2009  |  1 comments

For some reason, this album became a Top 10 hit in America, but the Brits knew better and stayed away. Recorded live at a Toronto rock festival during which Lennon had fallen ill, the album features the Plastic Ono Band of Lennon, Yoko Ono, Eric Clapton, Klaus Voorman (bass and cover artist for Revolver) and Yes drummer Alan White doing a blah set of covers the Beatles had done better (“Money,” “Blue Suede Shoes,” and Dizzy Miss Lizzy,” plus “Yer Blues”) along with two new Lennon tunes, “Cold Turkey” and “Give Peace a Chance,” the hit single that drove album sales.

Michael Fremer  |  Sep 01, 2009  |  0 comments

This extraordinary document recorded by Young during a two night stand at small club on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor back in November of 1968 is about as intimate and revealing a performance as you’re likely to find in the singer’s catalog.

Michael Fremer  |  Sep 01, 2009  |  0 comments

Look, if your idea of “jazz-rock” fun is David Clayton Thomas’ edition of “Blood Sweat and Tears, I’m not going to try to change your mind, but if you want the real jazz-rock and psych star of that era, you need to hear this ridiculously neglected Spirit album originally issued on Epic in the fall of 1970 that Sundazed has smartly resurrected.

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