‘Drunken’ in the mystical sense. . . Back in the day, Emmy Lou Harris was it. I’m talking 1973, and seeing her save a performance by a sadly bombed Gram Parsons. Although by then—at 19—I could sing the praises of Dolly and Loretta and, yup, Linda Ronstadt, seeing Emmy Lou sing like an angel in that very dark context was my first encounter with the living deep soul of pure country.
Ahh, but my cosmic cowboy phase soon moderated. Ha, blame it on Blue Note records! The upshot was that outside of a handful of leading lights,( like Rodney Crowell, Rosanne Cash, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Dwight Yoakim,)ccountry and country rock gems had to wind and roll their way onto my radar screen. I didn’t go searching for nuggets and still don’t. So, Wilco sparkled, so did Steve Earle, Will Kimbrough, and but a few others. Americana? Whatever.
The world wide web, of course, significantly improved the ol’ radar system. Nowadays, it’s a snap to dig out a glittering lead out of the various expert discussions happening on mp3 blogs and in forums. It’s funny to not keep up and yet find an embarrassment of riches.
Miranda Lambert tripped my trigger as soon as I checked out a hot tip about her second record, Kerosene. I liked her verve, and wasn’t hip enough to be cynical about the slick Nashville country-rock-pop settings. Her next record, Ex-Girlfriend, rocked harder and in those edgier settings, Lambert loosed a record full of oft pissed off, personal gestures about the man woman thing.
With Revolution, her record from earlier this year, Lambert has crafted a real diamond in the vein of the best countrified singer-songwriters, such as Rosanne Cash. Even though the arrangements are still a bit too shiny, Lambert has waxed a killer set of very personal, witty songs about growing up ‘country’. In a way, she’s a country Sheryl Crow, and that’s a-okay in my book.
Years ago a fellow jazz fanatic asked me what my favorite instrument was ‘in jazz.’ I blurted out “saxophone.” He told me I had to narrow it down. I thought for a minute, and gave him the correct answer, “Piano!” What had I been thinking initially?
Still, I can’t narrow it, the saxophone, down. You wish for me to weigh preferences between Coltrane and Parker and Lacy? Nocando. . . .between David Murray, Jackie McLean, and Hamiett Bluiett? Idontthinkso.
SAX GLADNESS unissued live recordings
1 The Heath Brothers f. Jimmy Heath – Prince Albert 14:23 (Dec. 1, 1983, Tokyo)
2 Benny Golson – Whisper Not 9:34 (1988, Kyoto)
3 Lucky Thompson – On Green Dolphin Street 6:35 (Nov, 22, 1968, Rotterdam)
4 Dexter Gordon – Society Red 16:17 (Sept. 13, 1988, Tokyo)
5 Booker Ervin – You Don’t Know What Love Is 8:13 (Feb. 18, 1966, Hilversum)
6 Sonny Rollins – Night & Day 11:31 (1965, Stockholm)
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Abdullah Ibrahim mixed into a snap of his web site’s splash screen. abdullahibrahim.com
An amazing thing happened the other day. I caught wind that my favorite musician, and friend, Abdullah Ibrahim, had released a new recording, Bombella. But, there was a rub: it wasn’t available anywhere nearby as one of those old fashioned compact discs! One could download mp3s from Amazon or eMusic. I tracked the record to the label, Intuition (Germany.) Yet, it wasn’t out at HMV-UK, or FNAC-Paris.
The desire for instant gratification “at the highest fidelity” being what it is, I went back to check out the link that popped first on google, to an outfit called soulseduction.com. There indeed was the record in downloadable form, in mp3, and, could it be? wave files. Pure digital. Was soulseduction a scam? A pirate haven?
As it turned out, no, soulseduction is a download-only distributor in Switzerland that had licensed Intuition’s catalog and new releases. Bingo! Quick international transaction and 800mb of music was on its way through the wonder of the internet. This isn’t the wave of the future—only an odd type of muso will take the trouble of downloading and burning full digital audio. Still, there the new recording was playing through the monitors after 45 minutes. $19.00.
Let me offer the briefest of reviews: a spectacular record.
Consider its context: Dr. Ibrahim is the most sophisticated and creative musician the continent of Africa has produced. Africa’s music tradition goes back about 50,000 years. Ibrahim has made tens of records during his visionary journey to extend that tradition. Almost every recording is very very good. Bombella exceeds the implied high standard. My guess is that in a month or so I will feel this record is as good as anything he has released.
