CD Reviews

Dennis Taylor | Steppin' Up

Kizybosh (2011)

By JON GARELICK | February 23, 2011

3.0 Stars

The set-up is familiar and unpretentious: a saxophone-fronted organ trio playing blues 'n' roots. Saxophonist Taylor - who died in October 2010 -spent his life as a utility session man, road-warrior sideman (Gatemouth Brown, Buckwheat Zydeco, Shelby Lynne), and respected teacher, and here (working with Hammond B3 man Kevin McKendree) he pours all of his experience into a mix of originals and well-chosen covers. Although there's plenty of improvisation, this isn't a jazz record per se - burning through the changes isn't what it's about. It is about grooves and melody and tone and soul. So there's the straight-up earthy swing of the title-cut original, the classic New Orleans shuffle of Dave Bartholomew & Fats Domino's "Josephine," Dr. John's early psych-swamp vamp "I Walk on Gilded Splinters," the modal aggression of "Here's the Deal," and even some 'Tranish squalling on Isaac Hayes's "Café Regio's." Delbert McClinton offers a charmingly relaxed vocal on the jazz standard "Since I Fell for You," and the slow blues "Back at the Teddy Bear Lounge" (from Nashvillian Taylor's Boston days?) casts a wry eye on the kind of bump-and-grind work that was long the staple of many an organ-sax combo. But for the deepest turn of Taylor's artistry, listen to the way he caresses the melody of "Lady Day." To quote Ornette, beauty is a rare thing.

Mulatu Astatke and the Heliocentrics | Inspiration Information 3
The idea behind the Strut label's Inspiration Information series is simple: pair "modern artists and producers with their musical heroes"
Amazing grace
The morning after I get back from the 41st annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, an oil executive is on the radio: “We’re throwing everything we have at it.” Meaning the exploded BP-leased well in the Gulf of Mexico, 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana.
artist: Tricia Rose, Brown University’s hip-hop scholar, discusses rap’s creative crisis
Some 40 years in, rap is nothing less than a cultural juggernaut. But it has not lost its power to provoke.
Bass Box | Mother Box
The debut full-length from Bass Box is worth a listen if only for its originality. I can't remember an album that explores as much of the contemporary musical canon — rock, pop, folk, jazz, R&B, gypsy, tango — all without use of the drums.
Dan Capaldi steps out from behind the kit
In addition to plenty of other projects, Dan Capaldi has played drums now for two of Portland's most important bands of the last five years: the brightly burning Cambiata and the still-on-the-rise Holy Boys Danger Club.
Review: George Michael | Faith: Remastered
Long before he was driving into storefronts and gladhanding undercover police officers in public restrooms, George Michael was in the closet and struggling to break free from having been in the short-shorts-wearing duo Wham! Faith did the trick, despite the ready-to-pin-up cover art.
Beth Ditto | Beth Ditto EP
Remember when Mary Beth "Ditto" Patterson was just a blues singer? The Arkansas-born belter used to wail punk blues for the Gossip - the trio who made her a star - like the second coming of Janis Joplin.
Review: Viktor Ullmann's The Emperor of Atlantis
The Boston Lyric Opera, with Boston Classical Orchestra music director Steven Lipsitt and a company of singers and designers largely new to Boston, has given us a memorable production of the opera that composer Viktor Ullmann and poet Petr Kien created in 1943 at the Terezín concentration camp, The Emperor of Atlantis, or Death Quits .
Faust | Something Dirty
Faust are like the anti-Who: only the rhythm section remains.
Turning on Turner - Letters
Review: Hot Suppa
When you sit down in one of the comfortable booths for the new dinner service at Hot Suppa, it is hard to remember the many years when Hot Suppa was closed in the evenings.
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Topics: CD Reviews , New Orleans, jazz, soul, More

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