Fillmore The Last Days 1972

It's an artifact. Similar to the Woodstock soundtrack, it is variable quality of performances across a wide spectrum of musical styles. So it's not like the record you'll sit around listening to frequently.

The music does have San Fransisco in the late sixties in common. There's more of a unity of sound, at least to a small degree, because of that filter.

There are certainly highlights. The 9-minute White Bird by It's A Beautiful Day is a fine jam, as is Keep Your Lamps Trimmed And Burnin' by Hot Tuna. Santana's Incident At Neshabur gets a good reading. Tower Of Power show off the horn section on Back On The Streets Again. The Sons Of Champlin have fun with Poppa Can Play.

There are also long stretches without much excitement. Not that much of it is bad (the closing jam session gets awful close), but it's a dated sound today, and many of the song selections are weak choices (Boz Scaggs' meandering Baby's Callin' Me Home, the Grateful Dead's take on Johnny B. Goode, again).

You might feel differently, especially if you loved some of these acts. Elvin Bishop, Cold Blood, Stoneground, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Lamb all show up and play songs. They're OK.

It has it's occasional moments that might make it worth it for the avid fan of the San Francisco music scene. I don't know how many of them are left, and besides, they probably own this already in it's original 3-record vinyl set. The sound is good, but not great.

David Bromberg How Late'll Ya Play 'Til? 1976

David Bromberg's records suffered from too much. Too much different styles. Too eclectic. This record suffers from it, too. Bromberg could do so much so well that, well, he did.

Or you can just relish a super-hot band featuring violin and horns and playing everything from country, New Orleans jazz, horn-heavy rock, and Chicago blues. Quite a bit of blues, and Bromberg is no slouch on guitar. And his nasal vocals can be heartfelt, broken, or uplifting. The stylistic range of the music is broad.

So forget the commercial aspirations that this record represented in its time, and everything else, and just enjoy a singular artist and rocking band. The live half is great, with Will Not Be Your Fool and Sweet Home Chicago. The studio sides offer the staccato-funk of Danger Man, the New Orleans funeral dirge of Dyin' Crapshooter's Blues, and the over-the-top crazy of Great Big Idol With A Golden Head. In between there is the lovely Kaatskill Serenade (it'll break your heart) and the nostalgic Summer Wages. Americana is this record.

Live From Darryl's House

Live From Darryl's House is a made-for-internet TV show. It's been delivering quality musical content since 2007, and more recently has shown up on cable on VH-1 Classic. The show features Darryl Hall (of Hall and Oates fame), an extremely talented house band, and various guests. The episodes include some interview segments, and often conversation over a meal with the band and guests. They include 5-8 songs, with at least one or two of Hall's songs in the mix.

One of the most amazing things is how cool Darryl Hall is. I mean, Hall and Oates didn't exactly go out on top, and the eighties music they specialized in sounds dated these days. But Hall's outstanding pipes are quite intact, and his Philly soul-flavored songs are really good, and everything gets class A treatment from this hot band.

And then there's the guest list. Not every episode is going to appeal to everyone, but there's mostly good ones. I'm very partial to the Cee Lo Green episode, not just for Cee Lo's great songs, but Green also helps incinerate Hall's One On One and I Can't Go For That (No Can Do), inspiring the band to exalted funkiness. Shelby Lynne, Joe Walsh, Fitz and the Tantrums, Sharon Jones, Booker T. Jones, Smokey Robinson, Todd Rundgren, Nick Lowe and many more make appearances, and frequently there are extra good live versions and inspired song choices.

It's worth checking out, and you might just be there for a while. Live From Darryl's House

Rickie Lee Jones Girl At Her Volcano 1983

I was deliberately looking for something unusual, something different, something I liked but hadn't heard in along time. This idea sent me to the back bedroom, where vinyl records that overflow from the living room stacks reside. And just look what I found!

This 1983 Rickie Lee Jones product was originally released as a 10-inch vinyl EP with seven tracks. That's the one I pulled out and listened to.

Side one opens with a nice reading of Lush Life, recorded live, and featuring wonderful piano and a distinctively Rickie Lee Jones vocal. You either like her or you don't. It's a very different thing from you either love her or hate her.

This is followed by Walk Away Renee, a magnificent baroque pop song given an incredible arrangement and super-dynamic recording. The synthesizer break is nearly orchestral. The original Left Banke version is lovely, but this is even more than that.

Hey, Bub follows, and it's a pretty, slow ballad. Then she tackles My Funny Valentine (the other live recording), and it is a bold vocal showcase that Jones almost pulls off. It's good but not great.

Side two opens with Under The Boardwalk, and even though we didn't need another version, even back in 1983, well, here it is and it's a cooker! Jones is joined by four other vocalists, and the song gets another magnificent recording. Close-miked and dynamic. Bests every version but the original Drifters.

Rainbow Sleeves gets the big orchestral torch song treatment, and deserves it, but it's still just OK. So Long, another slow ballad, is pretty and delicate and benefits from stunning orchestration with electric piano, oboe, and strings.

It's jazzy and eclectic, bur really it is a vehicle for Walk Away Renee and Under the Boardwalk. These two songs are well more than enough to cover the cost- and it's available in reasonably-priced used vinyl, CD, and download versions. Two great songs given covers worthy of their remarkable originals, from a sometimes brilliant artist willing to take chances for her art.

Frank Zappa Wazoo 2008

The Zappa Family Trust has been very busy ever since Zappa's untimely death in 1993. From 1966 to 1993 Zappa released 62 original studio and live albums. Since 1994, there have been 32 posthumous releases, some which had been planned and attended to by Frank himself before he died.

Gail Zappa has taken some heat for releasing too much material, while others await whatever might be doled out with anticipation. Some of this material is of questionable value, and only for the obsessed fan, but some of it betters many of the releases from Frank's lifetime, or adds a new and unique look into Zappa's work. The Zappa Family Trust has specifically stated the desire to document previously unheard live performances of rarely heard band line-ups.

Wazoo is the documentation of Zappa's short-lived 1972 Mothers Of Invention/Hot Rats/Grand Wazoo 20-piece big band, generally referred to as the Grand Wazoo (verses the Petite Wazoo 10-piece band that followed it). The music is Zappa's version of big band jazz, and as such, it is splendid. The songs are mostly culled from The Grand Wazoo 1972, Waka/Jawaka 1972, and the then future Studio Tan 1978. The performances are the usual startling precision of Zappa's live troupes, but with the biggest brassy jazz band that ever explored Zappa's jazz ideas. It is a performance that well deserved release. The recording is excellent. The band is on fire.

Some of the material is challenging for sure. The Grand Wazoo, Big Swifty, and The Adventures of Greggery Peccery are all lengthy pieces, and they demand your attention. This isn't background music. If Zappa's large jazz ideas interest you though, this is as good as it gets. It is the live jazz companion to the modern classical of The Yellow Shark. It's that good. Think what you may of Gail Zappa's motives, but we needed this record.

Diana Krall Glad Rag Doll 2012

I saw the cover and wondered why Diana Krall needed sex to sell her new one. I figured I'd dislike it since T-Bone Burnett produced, and his recent work has been disappointing. The idea of Diana Krall doing old-timey Americana music (which I learned from several reviews) didn't appeal to me. So I came to this record with significant negative bias.

As it turns out, I like the record more than I thought I would, and less than any other Diana Krall record. And I dislike it for none of the reasons I thought I would, but I still dislike much of it.

Krall loved the music of her father's music collection from the twenties and thirties, and the cover photo outfit is a tribute to the Zigfield girls of the twenties. And T-Bone Burnett does a respectable job, at least within the context of the time period inspiration. The band is excellent, with Marc Ribot on guitar, Jay Bellerose on drums, and Dennis Crouch on bass all standouts, and several others adding depth and color to the proceedings. Krall tackles an upright piano and almost gets it to boogie. The period music is performed today, by a modern band, and there is little attempt made to play the songs in an authentic 1920's style, and that's good.

So the problem isn't T-Bone, and it isn't the band. Krall sounds a little out of place sometimes, but mostly she handles her role with her usual charm and talent. The problem is the songs themselves.  They aren't that interesting, aren't that unusual. Too many of them can rightly be called "ditties". On a record filled with songs from 90 years ago, it's telling that the best song is newer, Julie Miller's Wide River To Cross, a beautiful gospel-country number that Krall just kills.

Other highlights include We Just Couldn't Say Goodbye, a swinging cabaret-styled tune that gets a nice piano part from Krall, and There Ain't No Sweet Man That's Worth The Salt Of My Tears, with fine piano and guitar. I'm A Little Mixed Up is a walking blues that again features Krall's piano and Ribot's guitar to good effect. Here Lies Love sounds a little like a New Orleans march, and Krall finally gets a little jazzy on the piano. There's a slow, swampy version of Doc Pompus' Lonely Avenue that sees Ribot cut loose with a Frisell-styled guitar break, and again, some jazz piano.

That's six of thirteen. The rest of the songs are fatally flawed in one way or another, but mostly it is the inferior song quality. Krall's talent is mismatched to the material, and while the band is talented, they too seem uncertain of what to do to make these songs interesting. Krall's vocals are good throughout. But her wispy, sultry style doesn't always work with the material, and her lovely jazz phrasing is wasted on these overly simple pop songs.

If she'd tried to branch out by going too far into a more challenging jazz style than her usual territory, she probably would have taken more heat for her efforts, but maybe we'd have a better record to listen to than this. These may be Krall's favorite memories from childhood, but they do not add up to a great new record.

Gerald Evans and Margarita Denenburg, Duo Piano, Stocker Center Studio Theatre, April 16, 2013

Cleveland has a lively music scene, and many opportunities to hear great music of many varieties.  I don't take advantage of this nearly as much as I should, but I just felt like this was one I couldn't pass up. So I went and saw two incredible pianists play magnificently together. The program was: Copland's Billy The Kid, Lutoslawski's Variations On a Theme by Paganini, and Stravinsky's The Rite Of Spring, all in arrangements for two pianos.

The two pianists worked fluidly together, with contrasting yet complementary styles, playing both to and off of each other. The music was interesting and the piano interplay was awe-inspiring. The Copland was raucous fun, the Lutoslawski fast and furious. Both were performed with technical brilliance.

The Stravinsky, which came with an informative introduction by the artists, was breathtakingly beautiful, and really let the souls of these fine performers shine. I thought the first part of the program was magnificent until they played this fascinating arrangement of The Rite Of Spring for two pianos. Amazing.

A little taste of some outstanding northern Ohio talent.

They'll do it again Saturday the 20th at Heidelberg University and Saturday the 27th at The Cleveland Music Settlement. If you get the chance, you gotta go.