And so we face... 2019

2018 has been a bit of a year, and I have found myself listening to familiar music rather than plunging into new, challenging sounds. Jazz reappeared on my radar, but as the posts on Jazz were the least read I have written here you may not be bothered about that. A few of the new releases I did buy however...

Magic Dance: New Eyes The best AOR artist since Work Of Art this and his previous album Vanishings are worth a listen if you ever liked Toto or similar bands. I love it.

Manhattan Transfer: The Junction Their most contemporary album in many years, and first since leader Tim Hauser's passing. 

Kamasi Washington: Heaven & Earth Topped best of year polls all over the place, except the ones in the Jazz press oddly. Accessible, just confrontational enough to sound dangerous, but not as good as his previous disc 'The Epic'. Also rather derivative of 60's Miles Davis and John Coltrane. I doubt his formula will stretch to another album without the holes being obvious.

John Coltrane: Both Directions At Once Speaking of whom, Coltrane in 1963 taken from his work in progress tapes, at the peak of his powers. the interst of this is not the "lost" status of the session, but listening to Coltrane's ideas develop over the different takes of this release and as pointers to Crescent, and later albums. If you are new to this sort of Jazz, try Kamasi first and then move on to the real thing. 





My wish list on Google Music and iTunes contains lots of music from 2018 that I will get to in time. Christine and the Queens, Nolwenn Leroy, and others. I'll get back to you about those.

Musical Lucky Dips

Remember at school fetes they had a bran tub, a lucky dip, see what present comes out, well Missing Records in Glasgow was having a clearout last week. Bags of 10 unboxed CDs (or DVDs) for £1. A quick rummage and £4 later I have 50 cds (bonus bag for spending so much) to try.

When I opened the bags (about 3 seconds after I got home) they divided in to 4 categories. "Great that'll do", "not really for me", "need to listen to this" and "never heard of it". Only one disc was something I already had, Miles Davis 'On the Corner', but you can't complain about a duplication like that.

Great That'll Do...
I'm surprised at the quality of music, but I suppose if there's no sleeve it's unsaleable whatever it is.
I got, Neil Young 'Decade' (both discs). I don't know why I didn't have this already but I don't. Ditto, Queen's 'Day At The Races'  or Lou Reed's 'Transformer'. Other straight on the iPod discs are 2 Otis Redding compilations, Coleman Hawkins and Astrud Gilberto albums. The Doobie Brothers 'One Step Closer' was the follow up to Minute by Minute and had Michael McDonald steering them into the gap between Steely Dan and Supertramp, but it's really quite good and joined Fairport Convention 'Live' and Neil Young's 'Americana' on the pod pile.

Not Really For Me...
Into this pile went Iron Maiden, The Proclaimers, a disc with a picture of bagpipers and Bruce Springsteen's 'Nebraska'. All worthy I'm sure just not likely to get a play, so not worth the megabytes they would occupy on the pod. Sadly Chas & Dave also ended up here but may sneak out for one play of their hits.

Need To Listen To This...
The Doors 'Soft Parade', Frank Sinatra, I still suffer from a prejudice against him handed down from mum who wasn't keen on him. So certainly getting a play as she has proved wrong on other counts. Bad Company and Flaming Lips also went into this pot and as I have never listened to the latter but always suspected I might like them worth a go.

Never Heard Of It...
This is why you have to love a lucky dip. The chance of finding something new and great you ahve never come across before.
Fyfe Dangerfield - 'Fly Yellow Moon'. If he could make up his mind if he wanted to be Passenger or Coldplay Fyfe might turn out ok. As it's a 2010 album his moment may have passed. Best song "She Needs Me" which is ELO over the backbeat of ZZ top's Sharp Dressed Man. Worst one a karaoke cover of Always a Woman that was in a John Lewis ad apparently. Also he sounds like a character in spy film.
Fang Island - 'Major'. Very odd, sounds like Green Day playing the theme from Friends
Mike Heron - Where The Mystics Swim - yes the Incredible String Band man, and there is bits of ISB about this, but also hints of Americana, Tom Petty and Van Morrison. Mexican Girl and A Song For Robert Johnson are favourites after a couple of listens. Great album and I'm looking forwrd to getting to know it better.
Other star albums from this pile. The Horsies 'Trouble Down South' Country with chiming African guitars and Fred James '100 years of the Blues'. It will take a while to work though the pile, but following my last post about wanting to hear new rather than the same tired old stuff, this was a great way of proving my point.

Postcript:
Just played The Doors, what a load of old tosh.

Reversing Into The Future

I talk about Bill Nelson a fair bit here, that's because he is really rather good. He is our most undervalued guitarist, along with Robin Trower, and continues to expand his musical horizons with every album. Where many of his generation are seated comfortably on their past glories Bill is fighting back against the past.

Look here for my general appreciation of his work. You will find that I'm not bothered by Be Bop Deluxe, they were certainly a great band in their time, but Bill regards their work as of it's time and gone. There is a new cd box set of Sunburst Finish out now from Cherry Red, and Bill has joined in the promotional round for it, albeit somewhat reluctantly. He recently played a show in Leeds to celebrate his 70th birthday, including a live stream for those unable to get tickets. Bill felt the need to warn that there would be no Be Bop Deluxe numbers in the set as the Facebook groups that follow him are dominated by posts about that 6 or 7 year part of his career, at the expense of the subsequent 40 years. Spending your entire life talking about work you did in your early twenties must be as frustrating for others as it is for Bill, and I for one have pretty much stopped buying the likes of Mojo, Classic Rock and so on because I just want to hear about something other than the Beatles, Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd. And that from an obsessive magazine buyer.


Now I'm all for reliving my youth, as the posts on this blog will testify, but as the fans view of what constitutes the "classic" parts of a band's legacy tends to be only a small part of the whole, usually centered somewhere from 1971 to 1974. Steely Dan actually did a "rarities" show back in 2011, as a relief from the run of identikit set lists. Yes are another offender in the same-dozen-songs-all-the-time stakes, as are many other 70s bands. Does this mean I'm alone in being bored stupid with live albums that repeat the same old stuff time and again. As live work and the CDs & DVDs that result from it are the staple of most artist's income now then how many versions of, for instance, 'Roundabout' do you need? You can pick from 2 studio and 15 different live versions. Please play something else! In career of 40 or even 50 years they must have written something else worth an airing.

So, hooray for Bill Nelson who won't revisit the past, continues to plough forward and is thanked for it by his current fans. Robin Trower too, although he hasn't departed as far from his roots as Bill, but still regularly produces new work that is the equal of much of his 70s output. Yes he still plays the fan favourites, but includes new songs and rings the changes on his back catalogue as the set list on the right shows. Try his recent album Time And Emotion for a feel of where Robin is now.

We all like a bit of familiarity, but repetition to the point of boredom must make for stale performances, jaded listeners and diminishing box office returns. Lets be adventurous and allow our artists to mature and grow, and especially to play something we haven't heard in a while, or indeed ever. The prospect of another favourite feeling they have to apologise for not playing the old stuff is not one I'm looking forward to. It's embarrassing for them and for us.