The Hang Ups Second Story 1999

In 1999 this little pop-rock band from Minneapolis made one of the finest power-pop records ever. What does that sound like? Put The Raspberries, Big Star, Badfinger (especially Badfinger), Todd Rundgren and Marshall Crenshaw (and, by association, The Beatles) in a blender and blend on high.

Brian Tighe wrote a batch of great songs, and some lovely ones. The band is just right all the time. Don Dixon produces one of his best sounding CDs. Everything works.

Melody Gardot The Absence 2012

I was looking forward to this release because I liked her first two so very much. Then as the release date approached, I heard it was her Latin-influenced record, and I got nervous. I like some Latin music, but usually only when performed by Latin artists. I've been disappointed by American or European artists attempts at incorporating Latin styles. Then the record arrived.

The album is produced by Heitor Pereira, a Brazilian-born guitar player and composer for film scores. He also plays guitar throughout, and even gets a duet vocal. There are Brazilian, Cuban, African, and Caribbean sounds incorporated in most, but not all, of the songs. She sings in English, Portuguese, French and maybe some Spanish. And yet it is still a Melody Gardot recording in every way, including all the best ways. And I think the reason for that is songwriting. Gardot wrote all of the songs on this record (three have co-writers), and the quality of her songwriting has certainly not diminished.

Mira kicks things off on an upbeat note. Amelia follows, it's guitar- and drum-driven sound is as smooth as an old Scotch in a small Brazilian bar. The soft kiss-off of So Long (Don't wait up for me, darling, 'cause I'm not coming home), and the slow tango of So We Meet Again My Heartache, with it's vaguely familiar melody and lovely string arrangement, both feature great lyrics and singing. Lisboa ends the first side, and is just a little too languid for its own good.

Impossible Love has a fabulous gypsy-sounding orchestration that features the bandoneon (the classic tango "accordion", actually closer in size and sound to the concertina). The cabaret style jazz-pop of her first two records surfaces on If I Tell You I Love You, which also has a fine lyric. Goodbye is a Brazil via New Orleans march, with a sultry-snarly vocal and great clarinet solo. Se Voce Me Ama is the vocal duet with Pereira, and while it is slow, the guitars and vocals are very pretty. The lush arrangement given to My Heart Won't Have It Any Other Way is delightful. Sinatra would have done this song for sure if she'd written it in 1955. The closing Iemanja is a quick-paced African/Caribbean piece with a rollicking chorus.

It's grown on me as I've listened to it more times. If there's a gripe, it's that there's a lot of slow songs, but that claim can be made for her previous work as well. And there are some luminous, albeit slow, performances on most of them. If you haven't heard 2009's My One And Only Thrill, you really should. Larry Klein did a great job with that record. So this one gets 1/2 star less, and that may just be a matter of taste. If you're fan of Norah Jones, or much closer, Madeleine Peyroux, you should know about Melody Gardot by now. If not, you're welcome.

The (Young) Rascals 1966-1972

The Rascals were one of the better blue-eyed soul/R&B bands of their time. And then they became something different and lost their audience. You can't blame them for trying to stretch out, but their best material was always danceable fun, and the jazz-lite styles they incorporated later, sometimes fairly successfully, just didn't serve the same purpose.

The first four records are the work of a hot outfit from New Jersey out to prove something. With a fabulous drummer in Dino Danelli, and the organ and soulful voice of Felix Cavaliere, you didn't need much more, but the vocals of Eddie Brigati (and brother David) and Gene Cornish's tasty guitar made for a great vocal group, as well as a rhythmically tight band.

From 1966 to 1968 those four records (Young Rascals 1966, Collections 1967, Groovin' 1967 and Once Upon A Dream 1968) contained solid singles and pretty good filler, too. Cavaliere and Brigati were a fiery hot writing team, and the band had three #1 singles (six in Canada) and five more singles in the Top 20. This era is perfectly documented on their 1968 Time Peace: The Rascals Greatest Hits. It is indispensable, and ranks as one of the better greatest hits records of the sixties. With Good Lovin', Groovin, I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore, Mustang Sally, A Beautiful Morning, and How Can I Be Sure, it's a classic.

The records that followed this golden era were a mixed bag. Freedom Suite 1969, a double LP, was a good single disc, that made a good follow-up to Once Upon A Dream, and contained their last #1 single, People Got To Be Free as well as highlights A Ray Of Hope, Any Dance'll Do and Island Of Love. The second disc was useless, featuring two loosely-structured "jams" clocking in at 5 and 15 minutes, plus a 13 minute drum solo.    

1969 also saw See, a troubled record that didn't sound enough like The Rascals. Jazz, Gospel and Blues elements were introduced to no great effect, and only the title track, I'd Like To Take You Home, Carry Me Back, and Hold On are much worth hearing. Search And Nearness 1970 followed, and it deserved the pallid sales figures it achieved. Right On was good, and I Believe played the pop-soul-gospel card nicely, but the Vanilla Fudge-styled bombastic arrangement of The Letter is criminal, and the rest does little to hold your attention.

After founding members Eddie Brigati and Gene Cornish left, and a label change, Cavaliere and Danelli teamed with Buzzy Feiten (guitar) and various jazz bassists and horn players to produce Peaceful World 1971. By this time they had lost their original audience entirely. The record is nearly great, and a darn fine jazz-rock record, especially considering the times. Cavaliere also wrote some of his punchiest tunes. In And Out Of Love, Bit Of Heaven, Happy Song, and Love Letter are all single-worthy. The jazz-trance-rock of Sky Trane, the stomping gospel of Love Me, and the tribal beat of Mother Nature Land pay extra dividends. Feiten is a hot and funky guitarist, and he's all over the record. It should have been a big seller.

Island Of Real 1972 was the last try. The record has its moments, but mostly it plays like an unfocused Peaceful World. And the songs just are not as strong. Lucky Day (a Happy Song rewrite) and the funk-jazz of Saga Of New York are both fine, as is Feiten's Jungle Walk, but the rest never comes together.

Time Peace is well worth it, and there are some fancy Anthologies that might interest some. The best looking comprehensive single disc is probably The Ultimate Rascals, although Time Peace might still be the better choice for most. Peaceful World is a gas, and a unique record. A great sixties singles band becomes a light-jazz-gospel-soul band, but looses its audience along the way.

Frank Sinatra Moonlight Sinatra 1966

Frank Sinatra actually invented the "concept" album, although the idea came to mean something more in the rock world. For Sinatra, the concept was really more of a theme. Sinatra made In The Wee Small Hours (ballads) in 1955 and Sings For Only The Lonely (heartbreak) in 1958, both during his heydays at Capitol Records.

Moonlight Sinatra came out on Reprise Records, and Sinatra's sixties records were more hit-and-miss than his work for Capitol in the fifties. While this one didn't chart very high, especially given that it was released just before the #1 Strangers In The Night, also from 1966, it holds up much better today than most of his work from the era.

Nelson Riddle did the arrangements, and as always, Riddle's work is interesting all on its own. Sinatra is in fine form, and his Moonlight Becomes You that opens the record is lovely (And why wasn't it released as a single?). All the songs have "moon" in the title, and while that sounds like a hokey idea (even in 1966), Sinatra and Riddle pull it off with aplomb. The whole record is good, the songs are consistently winners, and Frank's gives them his full attention, especially compared to some of his tossed-off work in the sixties. Moonlight Serenade, I Wished Upon The Moon, and Oh, You Crazy Moon are standouts, but the record is made to be played through, as opposed to being a vehicle for one or two singles. A lesser-known record that deserves renewed interest, it is a wonderful find in a used record shop. The fact that the only CD version is an import is some kind of crime.

Paul Butterfield's Better Days It All Comes Back 1973

I never think of myself as much of a blues fan. I can surely enjoy some of it, and I own my share, but I almost never want to get through an entire blues record after the first time.

I was rooting through the stacks as I stumbled on this gem from 1973. A great take on the blues, the Better Days band was a more organic, country blues sounding outfit, than the Paul Butterfield Blues Band recordings that preceded the Better Days project. This is their second, and last, record. It will be released this month as a reasonably priced two-fer with the first, albeit slightly less brilliant, Better Days self-titled debut, both on one CD.

Too Many Drivers licks things off in fine rocking style, a hot blues answer to Drive My Car. It's Getting Harder To Survive is a stomping blues with a funky piano riff. The spare country blues of Mose Allison's If You Live benefits from the fine guitars of Geoff Mudaur and Amos Garrett, as does the entire record. Butterfield belts out Win Or Lose with conviction, and his harmonica is scorching on this driving blues-rock. Take Your Pleasure Where You Find It is another rhythmic blues, and a fine ode to hedonism. Ronnie Barron serves up a great vocal on Louisiana Flood, and adds more of his funky piano to the title track, that closes the record.

Only Small Town Talk, a nice Rick Danko composition, but not really a blues, and Muldaur's weak Poor Boy disappoint. And you might like those more than I do.

The band is hot, Butterfield is a fine singer, as are Barron and Muldaur, the harmonica is smokin', and the piano and guitars are deep in a groove. They don't make them like this anymore.

The Beatles Rubber Soul 1965

I've never really strayed from this being my favorite by the world's most famous band. And while I'm sure there's a decent rebuttal, I believe that the American version, with two less songs, is the better, more cohesive record. I bought the CD not long after it came out, and the shock of the difference in the two versions took some time to get over.

The American version was this:

Side one

1. I’ve Just Seen A Face

2. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)"

3. You Won't See Me

4. Think for Yourself

5. The Word

6. Michelle

Side two

1. It’s Only Love

2. Girl

3. I’m Looking Through You

4. In My Life

5. Wait

6. Run for Your Life

The UK version was this:

Side one

1. Drive My Car

2. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)

3. You Won't See Me

4. Nowhere Man

5. Think for Yourself

6. The Word

7. Michelle

Side two

1. What Goes On

2. Girl

3. I'm Looking Through You

4. In My Life

5. Wait

6. If I Needed Someone

7. Run for Your Life

 

The UK version has four songs that the American version does not: Drive My Car, Nowhere Man, What Goes On, and If I Needed Someone. Drive My Car and Nowhere Man are good, but they don't really fit the rest of the record. In the context of this record, the American version's I've Just Seen A Face, and the harmonies of It's Only Love just make better sense.

There's a few that come close, but song for song, this record can hold it's own against all comers.

Within the Beatles' catalog, it's right in the middle, in so many ways. Still a touch of innocence, some new innovations and inspirations, but without some of the excess of later works. Lennon and McCartney still writing together, everyone maturing, and the band firing on all cylinders.

Diana Krall Live at the State Theatre, Cleveland, April 28, 2012

I had the pleasure of seeing Diana Krall live last weekend, and with a few small exceptions, it was a lovely night. Krall was in fine voice, her vocals one of the evenings' highlights. And when she applied herself to the piano, she played with aplomb. The opening run of I Just Found Out About Love, How Deep Is the Ocean? (How High Is the Sky?) (with a touch of Leon Russell's Song For You on the side), So Nice (Summer Samba) from her most recent Quiet Nights LP,  and I’ll String Along with You, were all excellent, with ensemble playing and solos by all- Krall herself, Anthony Wilson, guitarist extraordinaire, bassist Robert Hurst and Karriem Riggins on drums- all stellar players, with Wilson and Riggins especially hot. Walk On By, played too fast, but saved by Wilson's incendiary guitar, and the amazing I Was Doing Alright, in tribute to Oscar Peterson, concluded the first "band" set.

Krall then played four songs solo at the piano, and Dylan's Simple Twist of Fate (great vocal) and Fats Waller's If You’re a Viper were very good, and I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter was fine. Her under-prepared Don’t Fence Me In was the only disappointment of the night. It may have been her Mom's favorite, but it deserved more thought.

The band returned for the Krall-Costello-penned Abandoned Masquerade, followed by Exactly like You, and a remarkable version of Tom Waits' Jockey Full of Bourbon, and all three were killer, the band firing on all cylinders, including Krall herself. An encore of the title cut from Quiet Nights sent the crowd home in a mellow mood.

At just  eighty minutes it felt short,  but it was good, what there was of it. The backing trio could have played a brief 20-minute opening set, and I would have felt more amply rewarded for my dollars.

Small gripes. You may not like her jazz-pop style, but if you do, well, she's outstanding in person.