“A portion of benefits from this compilation will benefit the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund,” it says right in the liner notes. So buy a copy. Know, however, that this set, well- nigh four hours of testimony over three discs, will comfort, ennoble, and enable you through any future floods, earthquakes, fire ant infestations, and [...]
On which we celebrate the Queen’s 49th anniversary in show business, actually, counting from her first single, 1960’s “Don’t Mess with My Man.” But given the Queen, who wants to count? This celebration only counts material from the last quarter-century, too, finding Thomas’ voice huskier and just a touch more mannered than over her first [...]
Ahhh, the return of Lady T, “Honey” if you want her “Southern name,” Mary Christine Brockert if you want the (snore) legal one. Documentary proof that someone (I didn’t say anyone) can turn herself black given enough passion, Ms. Marie devotes some of this third comeback album to exploring her roots in New Orleans. More [...]
Tribute albums: We smile, nod, applaud a good cause if one’s attached, take it home, play the first 15 minutes, file, excrete a few years down the road at the multi-family garage sale. And by that point, hey, we’ve forgotten the thing was up there. The family domicile weighs a little less. We fall for [...]
In which the imperial (not imperious) king of B3 soul and funk climbs out of his own hole to make friends with Neil Young and the Drive-By Truckers. One unlikely three-way, you’d say, and I’d agree. But given Booker’s landing at Anti-, he had to shake hands with the de facto Anti- house band, and [...]
Asleep at The Wheel’s been rolling since 1974, but this is their first showdown with Willie. I’m happy to report that nobody gets drunk (that wasn’t drunk before), and nobody goes off the road. Willie nips ahead of a beat, ducks behind the next one, mock-stutters, loses himself in his own larynx and finds himself [...]
For those who tuned in late, Sly and the Family Stone released seven essential albums, from 1967’s A Whole New Thing to 1974’s Small Talk. Go out and get them. I’ll wait. The seven-strong, five-black/two white, five-male/two-female lineup hardly erased the Negro Problem, but it had a hell of a time, and a heaven too, [...]
To New York Senator Jacob Javits, trying to praise him, James Brown was “Jamie Brown.” To Boston mayor Kevin White, whom the singer introduced at Boston Garden that fateful night, James Brown was “James Washington” (mixed up, perhaps, with Walter Washington, first black Mayor-Commissioner of the nation’s capital) until “Brown” stuck in Mr. Mayor’s mind [...]
The crux of pianist Aaron Parks’ fifth album as a leader: time and tide. Time, in that even from the first notes of the “Travelers” leadoff cut, Parks puts meaningful lapses into a pattern suggesting sifting snowflakes. At medium tempos, brisk tempos, double-or-quadruple time keyboard runs, he effortlessly switches between staccato stand-alone tones and slurred [...]
Under normal circumstances I’d cite Mavis as rusty on pipes, and nevertheless imbuing more history, more life, into one knowing “heh!”, than the usual suspects (usually one-third her age) manage over chart-topping “statements.” Under normal circumstances, I’d point to guitarist Rick Holmstrom with his ever-appropriate throbbing, twanging swamp monster menace, as the musical lynchpin of [...]
