ChordStrike

New Music Tuesday: Dead Kenny Gs’ Operation Long Leash

 

What happens when you take three forward-thinking individuals fluent in jazz and punk and give them free reign to create an album garnished with afrobeat rhythms, Eastern melodies, atmospheric electronics, and equal parts cojones and subversion? You get the most recent recording from the Dead Kenny Gs, titled Operation Long Leash, released today on Royal Potato Family.

Keenly aware of jazz’s great past and the decline into the present’s smooth jazz, the trio – Mike Dillon (drums, vibraphone, timbales, tablas), Skerik (saxophone and electronics), Brad Houser (bass, baritone sax) – has diligently worked to preserve the best parts of the genre. The Dead Kenny Gs whip-smart jazz fusion is literally the antithesis of easy listening.

Alternately jaunty and scathing, the ten tracks on Operation Long Leash are up-tempo, more melodic and accessible than 2010’s Bewildered Herd. Epic riffs in a three and a half minute song makes opener “Devil’s Playground” damned near pop, were it not for underlying political statements across the album.

The title, Operation Long Leash, comes from the clandestine CIA operation in the late ‘40s to fund Abstract Expressionism as a means for Western culture to undermine the conformist ideals of the Soviet Union during the early years of the Cold War.

Fueling the fire is Jazz guitarist and co-conspirator Charlie Hunter sitting in on “Black Truman (Harry the Hottentot)” for some syncopated go-go space funk, while the dark “Black Death” features Dillon on a vocal diatribe turning his past heroin addiction into a metaphor for America’s addiction to oil.

The album is being supported by a 23-date tour and you can view the dates here, and you can purchase it over at Amazon.

-Court

SoundUnwound's editorial team write about the latest big music news and quirky stories which catch the eye. We also post a selection of these news stories on Chordstrike; for much, much more, visit SoundUnwound.com, the new music site from IMDb and Amazon. Follow us at twitter.com/soundunwound.

Free MP3 Jazz Samplers

For a limited time, we've got four free MP3 jazz samplers available:

     1. Trippin N' Rhythm

     2. X5 Jazz Legends

     3. Mack Avenue: The Road to Great Music

     4. Original Jazz Classics Remasters

The samplers are part of our annual jazz event, which also includes a set of four hand-picked jazz playlists:

     1. Classic Cuts: A mix of well-loved standards and modern classic jazz

     2. The New Standards: Jazzy takes on popular rock and pop songs from the 1980s through today

     3. Jazz Dance Classics: Classic dance tracks from the annals of jazz

     4. Instrumental Smooth Jazz Favorites: Soothing sounds, sensuous saxes, mellow guitars, tickling ivories

Get your jazz fix today...

     --Jason Kirk

R.I.P. Lena Horne, 1917-2010

Another one of the jazz greats, Lena Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010), has passed away aged 92.

Horne was the winner of numerous awards, including eight Grammies – one for the incomparable and underrated An Evening With Lena Horne – and has two stars on Hollywood Boulevard - one for music and one for movies.

Lena Horne began singing in the early 1930s, and continued her career well into the 1990s. During the course of her long career she duetted with such great names as Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, Tony Bennett, and Sammy Davis Jr.

In addition to being a performance star, Lena Horne was active in the Civil Rights movement. In the early 1940s she worked with noted trades unionist and peace activist Paul Robeson. During WWII Horne refused to play to segregated audiences and as a result, she ended up performing in front of a mixed audience of black US soldiers and white German POWs. Her association with Robeson, along with her uncompromising stand against segregation, led to Horne being blacklisted in the 1950s, but she refused to let it affect her continuing work for what she strongly believed to be one of her highest callings.

Horne died on May 9, 2010, at the NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital  in New York City. The circumstances of her death were withheld.

--James Petts

Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, by Terry Teachout

I recently had the mixed pleasure of reading the newest biography of the great Satchmo, entitled Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, by Terry Teachout. Having previously read Teachout's The Skeptic: A Life of H.L. Mencken, I'd expected a reasonably satisfying read, fueled by extensive research and delivered in rather pedestrian prose. As it turns out, that's exactly what the book offers.

My fellow blogger Dave Callanan named it one of the "Best Books of December" and had the following to say by way of justification:

"Crafted with a musician's ear and an historian's eye, Pops is a vibrant biography of the iconic Louis Armstrong that resonates with the same warmth as ol' Satchmo’s distinctive voice. Wall Street Journal critic Terry Teachout draws from a wealth of previously unavailable material – including over 650 reels of Armstrong's own personal tape recordings – to create an engaging profile that slips behind the jazz legend's megawatt smile. Teachout reveals that the beaming visage of 'Reverend Satchelmouth' was not a mark of racial subservience, but a clear symbol of Louis's refusal to let anything cloud the joy he derived from blowing his horn. 'Faced with the terrible realities of the time and place into which he had been born,' explains Teachout, 'he didn't repine, but returned love for hatred and sought salvation in work.' Armstrong was hardly impervious to the injustices of his era, but in his mind, nothing was more sacred than the music."

Frankly, I think that's rather higher praise than the book deserves, and Teachout himself all but recommends Armstrong's own Satchmo over the book at hand. Nevertheless, there's a lot on offer here for the trumpet enthusiast, the armchair jazz scholar, or the lover of musical Americana.

Among the most interesting sub-plots is the fluctuating opinions of Armstrong held by his fellow black musicians in the States. Dizzy Gillespie, for one, for years publicly declared Armstrong as just this side of Uncle Tom before eventually recognizing his trailblazing predecessor for the inarguable giant that he remains today.

Most surprising to me, though, was the fact that Armstrong was a life-long user and advocate of marijuana, to the extent that, in his early days, he even pushed it on a number of his sidemen before going into the studio. Teachout returns again and again to Pops' marijuana use, ladeling an almost disproportionate amount of ink on the topic. To wit:

"The word muggles was one of many synonyms for marijuana used by jazz musicians in the twenties. It was also called 'tea' and 'sh[*]t,' and those who smoked it were 'vipers'... [A]ll that is known for sure is that [Armstrong] started smoking it on a regular basis in 1928 and continued to do so for the rest of his life. He would later explain to an acquaintance that it 'makes you feel good, man. It relaxes you, makes you forget all the bad things that happen to a Negro. It makes you feel wanted, and when you're with another tea smoker it makes you feel a special kinship.' It was also, unlike alcohol, legal, though by 1931 twenty-nine states had outlawed its sale and use."

Those looking to pursue overt references in Armstrong's music should start with "Muggles"...

     -- Jason Kirk

Best Music of October, 2009: Double Booked by Robert Glasper

Robert Glasper is a man of many talents. Certainly, he's both an inarguably accomplished jazz pianist and a first-rate composer. But what Glasper does best is pick drummers. With 2007's In My Element, he provided Damion Reid with a platform to record nothing less than the drum performance of the year. For his newest album, Double Booked (Blue Note), Glasper teams up with Chris Dave, and the results are astonishing.

It's a concept album, sort of. The first half features Glasper, Dave, and bassist Vicente Archer. It opens with a voice mail from a worried Terence Blanchard, who has booked the Trio for his club but hears rumors that Glasper's Experiment has plans to play elsewhere on the same night. A handful of originals and a take on Thelonius Monk's "Think of One" follow. Throughout, the piano and drums intertwine with a complex integrity that sounds deceptively effortless. To call it virtuosity is almost demeaning. It simply must be heard. (And to be fair, Archer keeps up.)

Then comes the Experiment: Derrick Hodge replaces Archer with an electric bass, and Casey Benjamin adds saxes and vocoder. Bilal and Mos Def drop in for vocal cameos (welcome and disposable, respectively). The Experiment's five compositions -- including one each by Glasper, Hodge, Benjamin, and Herbie Hancock -- showcase what a second voice mail from the Roots' ?uestlove describes as "miraculous, spaced-out, past-geometry." The Experiment's songs differ in texture and depth from the Trio's set, but the adventurousness of the performances and the gorgeous lyricism of Dave's drumming fuse the album's halves into a single musical statement whose two chapters and two stars make for the year's best jazz album so far.

    --Jason Kirk

P.S. A few more words on Chris Dave, starting with two pieces of advice:

•    If you're a drummer, start listening to Chris Dave now. Right now. Go!
•    If you know a drummer, buy her a copy of Double Booked, immediately.

Why? Well, Dave might just be the best drummer out there right now. His most high-profile gig has been recording and touring with Maxwell, but the man's a collaborative dynamo, the list of musicians who call on him long, ecstatically diverse, and worth discovering on your own. YouTube abounds with disappointingly short clips of his performances, and picking one to include here is an excruciating exercise in unfortunate exclusion. But hey, ChordStrike's here to do the dirty work for you…

Les Paul 1915 - 2009

Instrumentalist, entertainer, and inventor of the guitar model that bears his name, Les Paul passed away today in White Plains, New York, at the age of 94.

Born in Waukesha, Wisconsin, on June 9, 1915, Paul began performing in public as a "honky-tonk" guitarist at the age of 13.  In the 1930s and '40s, he played with bandleader Fred Waring and many popular singers, including Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and The Andrews Sisters. It was Crosby that gave Paul an early tape recorder that he began to modify, allowing him to pioneer the art of multi-track recording.

An electronics enthusiast since his youth, Les Paul began experimenting with new guitar designs in the ‘30s.  As ensemble sound levels were growing with amplification, his goal was to improve tone and sustain, while minimizing feedback, so he designed an instrument with a solid body, reducing vibration in the frame and concentrating it in the string.

His initial design was given the unflattering name "The Log" because of the solid construction.  It was 10 years before a manufacturer picked up a refinement of this design, and the first Les Paul was produced by Gibson in 1952.  Since that date the "Les Paul" has gone on to be one of the most recognizable sounds in rock, famed for its dominance and versatility of tone.

In 2008, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame paid tribute to Les Paul in a week-long celebration of his life, which culminated with a live performance by Paul himself. He is the only individual to share membership of the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Until recently he continued to perform two weekly New York shows with the Les Paul Trio, at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City. -- Hugo Munday

Koko Taylor - The Queen of the Blues, dead at 80

While recovering from surgery to correct gastrointestinal bleeding, Koko Taylor, the Queen of the Blues has passed away at the age of 80. I've taken this from the press-release put out by Alligator Records today.

•

Grammy Award-winning blues legend Koko Taylor, 80, died on June 3, 2009 in her hometown of Chicago, IL, as a result of complications following her May 19 surgery to correct a gastrointestinal bleed. On May 7, 2009, the critically acclaimed Taylor, known worldwide as the “Queen of the Blues,” won her 29th Blues Music Award (for Traditional Female Blues Artist Of The Year), making her the recipient of more Blues Music Awards than any other artist. In 2004 she received the NEA National Heritage Fellowship Award, which is among the highest honors given to an American artist. Her most recent CD, 2007’s Old School, was nominated for a Grammy.

Born Cora Walton on a sharecropper’s farm just outside Memphis, TN, on September 28, 1928, Koko, nicknamed for her love of chocolate, fell in love with music at an early age. Inspired by gospel music and WDIA blues disc jockeys B.B. King and Rufus Thomas, Taylor began belting the blues with her five brothers and sisters, accompanying themselves on their homemade instruments. In 1952, Taylor and her soon-to-be-husband, the late Robert “Pops” Taylor, traveled to Chicago with nothing but, in Koko’s words, “thirty-five cents and a box of Ritz Crackers.”

In Chicago, “Pops” worked for a packing company, and Koko cleaned houses. Together they frequented the city’s blues clubs nightly. Encouraged by her husband, Koko began to sit in with the city’s top blues bands, and soon she was in demand as a guest artist. One evening in 1962 Koko was approached by arranger/composer Willie Dixon. Overwhelmed by Koko’s performance, Dixon landed Koko a Chess Records recording contract, where he produced her several singles, two albums and penned her million-selling 1965 hit “Wang Dang Doodle,” which would become Taylor’s signature song.

Koko Taylor was one of very few women who found success in the male-dominated blues world. She took her music from the tiny clubs of Chicago’s South Side to concert halls and major festivals all over the world. She shared stages with every major blues star, including Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, B.B. King, Junior Wells and Buddy Guy as well as rock icons Robert Plant and Jimmy Page.

Taylor’s final performance was on May 7, 2009 in Memphis at the Blues Music Awards, where she sang “Wang Dang Doodle” after receiving her award for Traditional Blues Female Artist Of The Year.

Survivors include Taylor’s husband Hays Harris, daughter Joyce Threatt, son-in-law Lee Threatt, grandchildren Lee, Jr. and Wendy, and three great-grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements will be announced.

•

The release then finishes with quotes from the press.

It's hard, even unfair to chose her best single recording. Certainly Live From Chicago: An Audience With The Queen ranks up there with the likes of B.B. King's Live at the Regal, as one of the greatest live blues albums of all time. She'll pull your emotions all over the map on this recording, with able assistance from lead guitarist Michael “Mr. Dynamite” Robinson. I'm also really partial to the 2007 "let-me-show-you-how-its-done" tour-de-force Old School cited in the release above.

May she rest in peace. -- Hugo Munday

The 100 Greatest Jazz Albums of All Time

Because of its long, storied history, jazz has existed in recorded form longer than the format, or even concept of the album has, which certainly complicates making a list of the 100 Greatest Jazz Albums of All Time. There were many incredible, influential, and vital jazz musicians who never released a single album--many, if not most of those who created and shaped the genre in its early days are included in that group. However, this is a list of the greatest jazz albums of all time, not the most influential or innovative jazz musicians of all time. Here are the rules we used to compile our list:

• Legitimate album releases only: no collections, compilations, singles, or EPs.
• Reissues, even those with tacked-on bonus tracks, qualify for inclusion.
• While we typically only allow one album per artist, due to the collaborative nature of jazz as an art form, and the drastically different styles played by single artists within one career, we will allow multiple albums by the same artists.

Don't agree with our list? Think we hit the right note? Let us know in the comments below.

Also, visit our 100 Greatest Jazz Albums of All Time page to see some artists we love who didn't fit the criteria, but whose importance can't be underestimated.

1. Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz to Come
2. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
3. Charlie Parker / Dizzie Gillespie - Bird & Diz
4. Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
5. Ella Fitzgerald/Louis Armstrong - Ella and Louis
6. Getz/Gilberto - Getz/Gilberto
7. Erroll Garner - Concert by the Sea
8. Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
9. Wayne Shorter - Speak No Evil
10. Thelonious Monk - Straight, No Chaser
11. Keith Jarrett - The Köln Concert
12. Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers - Moanin'
13. Chet Baker - Chet Baker Sings
14. John Coltrane - Blue Train
15. Eric Dolphy - Out to Lunch
16. Art Tatum - Piano Starts Here
17. Dexter Gordon - Go!
18. Count Basie - Count Basie at Newport
19. Alice Coltrane - Journey In Satchidananda
20. Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out
21. Bill Evans - Everybody Digs Bill Evans
22. Duke Ellington - Duke Ellington & John Coltrane
23. Naked City - Naked City
24. Louis Armstrong - Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy
25. Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane - At Carnegie Hall
26. Clifford Brown & Max Roach - Clifford Brown & Max Roach
27. Dizzy Gillespie - Afro
28. Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain
29. Pharoah Sanders - Karma
30. Abbey Lincoln - Staright Ahead
31. Charlie Parker - Charlie Parker With Strings
32. Cannonball Adderley Quintet - Somethin' Else
33. Billie Holiday - Lady in Satin
34. Coleman Hawkins - Body & Soul
35. Art Blakey - A Night in Tunisia
36. Stephane Grappelli - Afternoon in Paris
37. Andrew Hill - Compulsion
38. Thelonius Monk - Monk's Dream
39. The Bad Plus - Suspicious Activity?
40. Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
41. Herbie Hancock - Takin' Off
42. Benny Goodman - The Famous Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert 1938
43. Oscar Peterson - The Oscar Peterson Trio at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival
44. Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder
45. Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington - The Great Summit
46. George Gershwin - Gershwin Plays Rhapsody in Blue
47. Grant Green - Idle Moments
48. Sun Ra - Secrets of the Sun
49. Patricia Barber - Mythologies
50. Charles Mingus - Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus
51. Duke Ellington - Such Sweet Thunder
52. Carmen McRae - The Great American Songbook
53. Blossom Dearie - Once Upon a Summertime
54. Cecil Taylor - Unit Structures
55. Lionel Hampton & Stan Getz - Hamp & Getz
56. Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley - Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley
57. David Axelrod - Song Of Innocence
58. Weather Report - Heavy Weather
59. Albert Ayler - Slugs' Saloon
60. Branford Marsalis - Trio Jeepy
61. Roland Kirk - We Free Kings
62. Shirley Horn - Travelin' Light
63. Sonny Rollins - A Night at the Village Vanguard
64. Diana Krall - Live In Paris
65. Clifford Brown - Clifford Brown with Strings
66. Milt Jackson - Bags & Trane
67. Kenny Burrell - Midnight Blue
68. Etta Jones - Don't Go To Strangers
69. Herb Ellis - Ellis in Wonderland
70. Vince Guaraldi Trio - Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus
71. Rosemary Clooney - Blue Rose
72. Art Pepper - Art Pepper Meets The Rhythm Section
73. Helen Merrill - Helen Merrill
74. Oliver Nelson - The Blues and the Abstract Truth
75. Stanley Clarke - School Days
76. Brad Mehldau - Elegiac Cycle
77. Joshua Redman - Wish
78. Jason Moran - Artist in Residence
79. Ahmad Jamal - Ahmad's Blues
80. Moondog - Sax Pax for a Sax
81. Wynton Marsalis - Black Codes (From The Underground)
82. Duke Pearson - The Right Touch
83. Astrud Gilberto - The Astrud Gilberto Album
84. Chick Corea - Return To Forever
85. Bill Frisell - Blues Dream
86. Sarah Vaughn / Lester Young - One Night Stand - The Town Hall Concert 1947
87. Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass - Whipped Cream & Other Delights
88. Art Ensemble of Chicago - Full Force
89. Bela Fleck & The Flecktones - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
90. Jimmy Scott - Mood Indigo
91. Elis Regina - Elis & Tom
92. Pat Metheny Group - Offramp
93. Stan Getz - Stan Getz and the Oscar Peterson Trio
94. Skerik's Syncopated Taint Septet - Husky
95. Cuong Vu - Come Play with Me
96. Anthony Braxton - Five Compositions (quartet)
97. Madeline Peyroux - Careless Love
98. Jaco Pastorius - Jaco Pastorius
99. Max Roach - M'Boom
100. Robert Glasper - In My Element

--Alan Wiley

R.I.P.: Louie Bellson dies at 84

Before there was "Hot for Teacher," there was Louie Bellson. The Italian-American rhythm dynamo is best known for his work with Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, and Benny Goodman, but he was also a trailblazer of the double bass drum.

Bellson died on Valentine's Day in Los Angeles. Born with a mouthful of a name--Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni--Bellson composed thousands of tunes, published numerous books about percussion, and recorded dozens of albums. The last among these was the cheekily named Louie & Clark Expedition 2 (with trumpeter Clark Terry), a five-star cut and a fine swan song.

More knowledgeable fans of Bellson and his music are encouraged to craft a community biography for the Louie Bellson page at Sound Unwound, and those into Dorsey, Goodman, and their ilk would do well to tune into KUOW's "The Swing Years and Beyond." Seattle's NPR station plays five (!) hours of the stuff every Saturday night.

Here's a taste of Bellson's soloing circa 1950, posted by a high-strung YouTube contributor:

Rhythm in peace, Louie!

     --Jason Kirk

Blossom Dearie: 1926-2009

Though it was overshadowed by all of the hoopla surrounding the Grammy Awards this year, it should be noted that jazz vocalist/pianist Blossom Dearie passed away on Saturday, February 7. Though more popular in Europe, and especially Paris, than in her home country of the US, she's always been a favorite of mine for her unique delivery, and soothing style. Dearie's singular child-like voice gave her music an innocent, yet romantic quality (her self-titled album landed in the #22 spot in our 100 Greatest Romantic Albums of All Time list), that I've never heard captured by any other singer.

Though she's best known for her bebop music, my favorites all seem to come from her late '60s-mid-'70s period. Here are a few:

"Dusty Springfield"

"I Like London In The Rain"

"Sweet Georgie Fame"

Really, the truth is, you can't go wrong with Blossom Dearie. If you haven't had the opportunity to get to know her music, do yourself the favor--you will not regret it. Every time one of her songs shuffles into my earphones, it always brings a smile. She was an incredible performer who left a legacy of incredible albums in her wake, and will be incredibly missed. R.I.P. Blossom.

--Alan Wiley

Best Music of Feb, 2009: "The Happiness Project" by Charles Spearin

Charles Spearin, Canadian musician and founding member of Do Make Say Think, releases a solo effort called The Happiness Project on February 14. No accident with the date, methinks. Love abounds on this album. Not the romance of a couple, but the love of happiness that comes from connecting with a neighbor or a friend.

Spearin tells us he has long wanted to score the accidental music our voices make, when we speak. He invited neighbors into his apartment to tape them having a meandering chat, about what makes them happy. Listening to the recordings, he edited and then passed sections on to musician friends, to copy as closely as they could, on their instruments. Finally, Spearing sets these melodies, as if they were songs.

The opening effect is not unlike Steve Reich's post-phasing work, where a solo instrument (in this case a sax, guitar, bass etc.) slip-streams our "soloist", as they deliver their opening statements. Then Spearin goes his own way, snatching a phrase that interests him and riffing it out into their song. "Anna", reveling in the happiness of others, gets a floppy, jazzy combo, complemented by looped birdsong from the street outside. "Vittoria's" juvenile, halting speech grows into a syncopated brass / bass reed band treatment, replete with Hawaii 5-0 drum riffs. "Vanessa", deaf since birth, hears for the first time at 30, after surgery. Her arresting eloquence gets a beautiful, lilting loop at the moment of epiphany.

"Mrs. Morris" begins and ends the album, with her Caribbean musings on "happiness is love".  Her reprise is beautifully informed not only by the first, reverential treatment, that begins the album, but also every other track we've heard. 

Spearing finds a lot of music in all of us.  This record is a delight. -- Hugo Munday

Best Music of February, 2009: "For All I Care" by the Bad Plus

Even for a band whose renown rests largely on its virtuosic approach to iconic cover tunes, the Bad Plus practically outdoes itself with For All I Care. Wilco gives way to Yes. The Bee Gees meet “Barracuda.” Igor Stravinsky (“Variation d’Apollon”) nestles up against the Flaming Lips (“Feeling Yourself Disintegrate”). This gymnastic set list derives much of its whimsical strength from the addition of vocalist Wendy Lewis, who joins pianist Ethan Iverson, bassist Reid Anderson, and drummer David King for the majority of the album. Any singer would be hard-pressed to match the lyrical touch with which Iverson usually interprets vocal lines, and while Lewis’s clarion voice commands attention throughout, it leads a handful of these tracks away from the compelling uniqueness that generally marks a Bad Plus cover from the get-go. (Skip Nirvana’s “Lithium.” Just skip it.) Nevertheless, this foursome is certainly more than just a band plus one. “Comfortably Numb,” for example, gives Pink Floyd a serious run for its--er--money. For Bad Plus “purists,” the addition of Lewis marks a love-it-or-leave-it sidestep in the group’s well established tradition of reverent, playful caprice. For those who happen upon the Bad Plus for the first time here, get excited: For All I Care follows four much better albums, so you’ve got a lot to look forward/backward to.

And for a taste of the band's originals, check out the video for the song "Physical Cities." It's a heavily (but respectfully) edited version of the song, but it represents their compositional prowess in spades:

     --Jason Kirk

The 100 Greatest Romantic Albums of All Time

Do you love gettin' down with your significant other to hot, sensuous, romantic, sexy music? We sure hope so, because hot on the heels of our 100 Greatest Debut Albums of All Time list, and just in time for Valentine's Day, comes the 100 Greatest Romantic Albums of All Time. Does our list of tunes make you swoon, or is the heat you feel coming out your ears with anger? Let us know what you think of our choices in the comments.

1. Marvin Gaye - Let's Get it On
2. Nat King Cole - Sings For Two In Love
3. Al Green - Still in Love with You
4. Portishead - Dummy
5. Barry White - Plays for Someone You Love
6. Sade - Lovers Rock
7. Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
8. Joao Gilberto - Getz/Gilberto
9. The Carpenters - Close To You
10. Serge Gainsbourg - L'Historie De Melody Nelson
11. Aretha Franklin - I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You
12. Joshua Bell - Romance of the Violin
13. Otis Redding - Soul Album
14. Jeff Buckley - Grace
15. Sigur Ros - ()
16. D'Angelo - Voodoo
17. Slowdive - Souvlaki
18. Anita Baker - Rapture
19. Norah Jones - Come Away With Me
20. Andrea Bocelli - Romanza
21. k.d. lang - Ingenue
22. Blossom Dearie - Blossom Dearie
23. Madeleine Peyroux - Careless Love
24. John Coltrane - Blue Trane
25. Frank Sinatra - Songs for Swingin' Lovers!
26. Billie Holiday - Songs For Distingue Lovers
27. Air - Moon Safari
28. Bread - Lost Without Your Love
29. Dusty Springfield - Dusty In Memphis
30. Josh Groban - Closer
31. Isley Brothers - Between the Sheets
32. Chet Baker - Chet
33. Isaac Hayes - Black Moses
34. Diana Krall - The Look of Love
35. Jimmy Scott - Falling In Love Is Wonderful
36. Dean Martin - Dino! The Italian Love Songs
37. Massive Attack - Mezzanine
38. Roxy Music - Avalon
39. Air Supply - Now and Forever
40. Prince - For You
41. Roberta Flack - First Take
42. Boyz II Men - II
43. Enigma - LSD
44. Depeche Mode - Violator
45. Fiona Apple - Tidal
46. Harry Connick, Jr. - We Are In Love
47. Zero 7 - Simple Things
48. Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See
49. Theivery Corporation - The Mirror Conspiracy
50. George Michael - Faith
51. Paolo Conte - Reveries
52. Lou Donaldson - Lush Life
53. Carla Bruni - Quelqu'un M'a Dit
54. A Touch of Schmilsson in the Night - Harry Nilsson
55. The O'Jays - So Full Of Love
56. The Spinners - Mighty Love
57. Francoise Hardy - Ma Jeunesse Fout L'camp
58. Julee Cruise - Floating Into The Night
59. Nina Simone - Here Comes The Sun
60. The Dramatics - Me & Mrs. Jones
61. Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas
62. Willie Nelson - Stardust
63. The Softies - It's Love
64. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
65. John Lennon & Yoko Ono - Double Fantasy
66. Stevie Wonder - My Cherie Amour
67. Billy Ocean - Suddenly
68. Judee Sill - Heart Food
69. Usher - Confessions
70. Red House Painters - Red House Painters I
71. Roy Orbison - Mystery Girl
72. Erykah Badu - Baduism
73. Maxwell - Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite
74. John Legend - Save Room
75. Sarah McLachlan - Solace
76. Ray Charles & Milt Jackson - Soul Brothers / Soul Meeting
77. Jean-Yves Thibaudet - Satie: The Magic of Satie
78. Dave Brubeck - Take Five
79. Chris Isaak - Heart Shaped World
80. Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust
81. Bjork - Homogenic
82. Patricia Barber - Modern Cool
83. Nicolai Dunger - Tranquil Isolation
84. Michael Buble - Call Me Irresponsible
85. Jill Scott - Who is Jill Scott?
86. Tricky - Maxinquaye
87. Goldfrapp - Black Cherry
88. Keren Ann - Nolita
89. Shirley Horn - Travelin' Light
90. James Moody - Young At Heart
91. Jens Lekman - When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog
92. Bebel Gilberto - Bebel Gilberto
93. The Cure - Disintigration
94. Enya - Watermark
95. The Postal Service - Give Up
96. Rufus Wainwright - Rufus Wainwright
97. The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs, Vol. 1
98. Astrud Gilberto - Look to the Rainbow
99. R. Kelly - 12 Play
100. Seu Jorge - The Life Aquatic Exclusive Sessions

[The 100 Greatest Romantic Albums of All Time at Amazon MP3]

--Alan Wiley

Record Label Loyalty

In the decade or so since relaxed regulatory legislation begat new and ever more rapacious media consolidation, independent record labels have stepped up to the challenge by fostering loyalty through quality, charisma, and--occasionally--sheer stubbornness. Certainly, none among us shops exclusively by label, but certain imprints can be trusted to deliver a general level of quality that we can count on year in and year out.

From hip-hop to opera, there are great record labels out there that both focus on a particular genre and deliver the goods in a way that's bankable without being predictable. We ChordStrikers have our favorites, but when you work with music day in and day out, you court the possibility of missing the forest for the trees.

So for those genre junkies out there, what labels retain that magnetism for you? What label name would cause you to read a review in a magazine or online, assuming the artist or title didn't grab you on its own? What labels' releases do you check in on from time to time? Or as Morcheeba put it--albeit ungrammatically--"Who Can You Trust?"

      --Jason Kirk

Odetta is dead at 77

The only time I heard her sing live was at the memorial service for the writer, James Baldwin, in New York City.  During the service Odetta climbed into the pulpit.  She climbed slowly, as if she really didn't want to go there.  She raised her hands, closed her eyes and sang a medley of songs.  I remember "Amazing Grace" and "Motherless Child".   She just picked a note out of the air and filled that huge building by herself.  I'd never seen or heard someone cry so copiously, but be able to sing at the same time.  Somehow, what should be coming out, was coming out and what should be going in, was going in.  Her singing that morning has stayed with me.  It was about the most moving music I've ever heard. -- Hugo Munday

They’ve Been Hittin’ in Pairs All Year

First, it was Think of One's Camping Shaabi (packaged with a really interesting "making of" video) and K'Naan's re-issue of his 2006 Juno Award-winning The Dusty Foot Philosopher, a pair of albums that hit me rhythmically and harmonically just right. Though the first is a pop album of sorts and the second a straight-up hip-hop joint, they're both multilingual affairs that originate, each in its own way, in Africa. They’re also incredibly ambitious, undeniably flawed works of art that I share with my kids and will return to for years and years.

Less simultaneously, I fell for Hilary Hahn’s Schoenberg Violin Concerto Op.36/Sibelius Violin Concerto Op.47 and Patricia Barber’s The Cole Porter Mix. Both women are among my favorite delvers into what were once referred to as the serious arts. Both women work hard to make musical connections that challenge conventions, the repertoire, and themselves, demanding twin leaps of imagination and faith. Both women came through with albums that I will stick with, and that will stick with me in return.

Next came a hip-hop pairing; first, Saul Williams and, soon after, the Mighty Underdogs, a.k.a. the MCs formerly known as Quannum: Gift of Gab (Blackalicious), Lateef the Truth Speaker, Lyrics Born, et al. All command respect as lyricists. And performers. And their albums deliver. If you strive for rhyme, listen up:

        * Saul Williams, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust
        * The Mighty Underdogs, Droppin' Science Fiction 

Now, this week, another revelation...

I’ve been paying a distant attention to Brooklyn's Parts & Labor for a couple years now. The band's Stay Afraid (2006) and Mapmaker (2007) immediately grabbed my sustained attention, which flared and then burned away in a few days. Enter Receivers, due out on October 21. Hopefully, at some point you’ve come across an incredible album by some musician you’ve only been loosely acquainted with, and you suddenly feel as if you’ve always known she had it in her. Few feelings equate. Check out Pitchfork's free, full steam of the noise-pop mini-epic “Nowheres Nigh."

Catch your breath yet? Now give it one more go.

Then, in what’s become typical one-two fashion this year, along came Censored Colors. The culprits are called Portugal. The Man, and they got to me in 2005, going 65 on the I-5 a few miles outside of Portland, en route from Seattle, with their song “Chicago.” An gutter-scraping, indie-rock geyser of a tune, it was the first of more than a dozen songs from their 2005 debut, Waiter: You Vultures!!, that left me speechless but for a few gasping hyperboles. I still pimp its praises to anyone who isn’t immediately turned off by volume and rough edges.

Point is, Portugal. The Man (based in Portland, via Alaska) now returns with a mountainous pile of harmonic songs I can't get enough of (except for Parts & Labor breaks). Censored Colors requires a listener who appreciates encountering the fertile accidents that result when a sub-virtuosic composer/performer quite simply can’t be stopped. This is frontman John Gourley. Far better in the studio than on stage, the guy's nevertheless a prolific fountain of song and one of my favorite perennial unsungs.

Oh right, lists.

So this morning I spent an eye-opening, over-caffeinated hour with Tom Moon, author of 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die (podcast interview to follow; stay tuned and be patient). I’d picked at the book rather than properly read it, but this is how it goes with reference materials, right? Knowing nothing about Moon personally, I wasn’t sure what to expect of the guy who just published the Mt. Olympus of Music Lists.

Regardless, I was wrong to expect either an encyclopedic bully or someone who’d long since begun believing more in himself than in the music he wrote about. Instead, Tom Moon is unflinchingly approachable, a well-spoken, well-listened, humble guy who loves what he does and laughs reverently at having been blessed to nab a gig that amounts to every music writer’s wet dream, whether or not any of us would admit it.

     --Jason Kirk

P.S. Everything in pairs: I also recently finished The World in Six Songs, by Daniel Levitin (of This is Your Brain on Music fame). The Onion’s A.V. Club  gave it a C+. Such generosity inspires.

Best Music of September, 2008: Honorable Mentions & More

Choosing Patricia Barber's The Cole Porter Mix for my September "Best of the Month" pick was no easy task. There are a ton of noteworthy new and recent releases out there right now, enough to merit mentioning a few more, at least...

Honorable Mentions

The Mighty Underdogs – Droppin’ Science Fiction
Blackalicious’s Gift of Gab, Lateef the Truth Speaker, Lyrics Born, DJ Shadow, Mr. Lif, Chali 2na, MF Doom, and Julian and Damian Marley. All on Def Jux Records. And it’s even better than it sounds on paper. * CD

Joan Jeanrenaud – Strange Toys
This Kronos Quartet alum’s second solo effort is an edgy must-listen for cellists and fans of the instrument alike. * CD * MP3

Anat Cohen – Notes from the Village
Israeli-born Anat Cohen speaks with equally facile longing on both the sax and clarinet. With a band to be proud and a growing cache of street cred, she’s a horn player to watch and a New York voice all her own. * CD * MP3

Lafayette Gilchrist – Soul Progressin’
Whether or not you nuy into the hype that Lafayette Gilchrist is the next Thelonius Monk, the guy’s a showstopper, and what Soul Progressin’ lacks in sheer originality, it more than makes up for in muster. * CD * MP3

More Notable Recent Releases

Saul Williams – The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust
Trent Reznor’s touch takes the spoken-word guru to fabulously creepy new depths. * CD

Grupo Fantasma – Sonidos Gold
Horny, horny, horny! Bring on the ballsy, ballistic brass! * CD * MP3

Art Tatum – Piano Starts Here: Live at the Shrine (Zenph Re-Performance)
Like the pseudo-Gould version of Back's Goldberg Variations before it, this sounds as good as, if not better, than the real thing. * CD * MP3

Vladimir Horowitz – Horowitz in Hamburg: The Last Concert
More like a prayer card at a funeral than a must-have, this one’s still nice to keep around. * CD * MP3

Ximena Sariñana – Mediocre
Attention, Fiona Apple fans: Ximena Sariñana is no mere mediocre machine. * CD

     --Jason Kirk

Best Music of September, 2008: The Cole Porter Mix by Patricia Barber

Why it’s significant: Leave it to the intrepid Patricia Barber to take on so well-worn a songbook as Cole Porter’s with such smoldering originality. Of course, for 15 years now, Barber has been something of an Ella Fitzgerald meets the madwoman-in-the-attic, a sheen of peerless respectability masking her uncompromising taste for the respectfully subversive.

With 2006’s seminal Mythologies, Barber took the Guggenheim and ran with it, planting one foot in Ovid and the other in Harlem. Here, her unflappable taste for danger takes her deep into the Porter oeuvre. But in Barber’s hands, every old familiar lyric takes on new and usually devious entendre. Delivered in her heavily honeyed timbre, shopworn standards like “I Get a Kick Out of You” (with its new chord structure) and “You’re the Top” (with its new lyrics) suggest the fecund extra layers that their titles--generously interpreted--imply.

As usual, Barber’s top-notch band delivers a flawless performance. If the arrangements lean a bit heavily on the sax, it’s because one doesn’t record with Chris Potter and not give the guy some breathing room. “I asked Chris if he ever plays schmaltzy,” Barber explains. “He said no, but he could if I wanted him to.” And so he does, not least on “The New Year’s Eve Song,” the album’s closer and one of three Barber originals included here.

Despite the self-admitted “hubris” involved in including her own material amidst this most canonical set list, the gamble pays off (check out the incomparable “Snow”). Since Patricia Barber has never been interested in mere nostalgia anyway, the result is an album that--although it looks at first glance like a relaxing sinecure--packs all the daring, velvet punch that Barber fans have to come to expect. And (more importantly) to trust.

     --Jason Kirk

P.S. Check out this month's honorable mentions and other notable recent releases

Re: Hope For Jazz/Esperanza Spalding

As my colleague Renata noted in the post below, Esperanza Spalding is indeed young and talented, but she's  by no means new to the music scene. She used to be in a Portland, Oregon-based indie rock band called Noise for Pretend and when she was 'round about 16 years old she sang on one of my favorite songs of all time. It's a joint called "Go Figure, Another Warm Day in Paradise." Download it now and thank me later for making your weekend better.

-- Jeff Reguilon

[Photo Courtesy Hush Records]

The Great Fantasy Jazz Band Draft

If the rock n' roll idiom lends itself to supergroups, jazz music is tailor-made for fantasy bands. And if recent conversations are any indication, both hardcore jazz-heads and pedestrian enthusiasts warm to the idea of hand-picking fantasy jazz bands. My recent listening has gotten me really excited about a number of young up-and-comers, so to balance my own idiosyncratic ensemble, I picked the brains of a few trusty colleagues with following softball: Assemble your ideal jazz group. Pick anyone you like, living or dead. Who would fill your roster?

Illustration courtesy of Sam Kirk (206-240-1649)

I'm in the mood for...
Cuong Vu - trumpet
Rudresh Mahanthappa - reeds
Jason Moran - piano
Toby Summerfield - guitar
Reid Anderson of the Bad Plus- bass
Damion Reid - drums
Patricia Barber - guest vocals

Would these guys rip open a few new dimensions or what? Gettin' your own ideas yet? A few of my fearless ChordStrike cohorts did...

Alan Wiley wants:
Alice Coltrane – Harp
Pharoah Sanders – Sax
Charles Mingus – Bass
Lionel Hampton – Vibes
Ravi Shankar – Sitar
Archie Shepp – Drums
John Zorn – Sax
Jaap Blank – Vocals

Gabi Knight offered two handily labeled examples:

"The Dream"
Chico Hamilton - drums
Paul Chambers - bass
Wayne Shorter - sax
Bill Evans - piano
Don Cherry - trumpet

"The Nightmare"
David Sanborn - sax
Chick Corea - piano
Billy Cobham - drums
John McLaughlin - guitar
Stanley Clarke - bass
Ian Anderson - flute

Think you can do better?

Omnivoracious blogger Dave Callanan prefaces his dream team by saying, "Tough call to exclude Miles [Davis], but I just don’t see how he and Louis [Armstrong] could have coexisted in the same ensemble. Nod goes to Louis for 'Skokiaan' alone." Dave's list:
Thelonious Monk- Piano
Louis Armstrong - Trumpet
John Coltrane - Sax
Charles Mingus - Bass
Count Basie – Bandleader

Lastly, intrepid jazz fan and esteemed associate Eric Martin served an indulgent 10-top:
Joe Williams & Sarah Vaughan - Vocals
Chris Botti - Trumpet
John Coltrane - Soprano Sax
James Moody - Tenor
Bobbi Humphrey - Flute
Jack McDuff - Organ
Ramsey Lewis - Piano
Jaco Pastorius - Bass
Art Blakey - Drums

OK, so no Dizzie? No  Miles? No freakin' Bird? Are we a bunch of amateurs? Or do we know something you don't? Boast your draft here. We're leaving the door wide open, focusing for a month on All That Jazz, and awaiting your better ideas. Put us in our place. We dare you...

     --Jason Kirk