Paul Motian – Garden of Eden (ECM)
On this new release master drummer MOTIAN looks back—not for the first time—at masters of bebop (and more) CHARLES MINGUS(“Pithecanthropus Erectus,” “Goodbye Porkpie Hat”), THELONIOUS MONK (“Evidence”), and CHARLIE PARKER (“Cheryl”). Aside from a cover of JEROME KERN’s Showboat tune “Bill,” however, the rest is original, and thus, while the lineup—saxophonists CHRIS CHEEK and TONY MALABY, electric guitarists JAKOB BRO, BEN MONDER, and STEVE CARDENAS, and electric bassist JEROME HARRIS—looks like a new permutation of Motian’s Electric Bebop Band, he’s not calling it that anymore. Motian’s subtly probing, elliptical compositions may lack the immediate appeal of the familiar bop tunes, but offer instead a seductively shadowy world of musical mystery that grows in fascination with repeated listening.
Tom Waits – Rain Dogs (Island)
Yeah, this has the original version of “Downtown Train,” which has been a hit for much more mainstream singers, but TOM WAITS recorded this album with a bunch of prominent downtown New York avant-gardists, and there was enough weirdness in its 19 tracks and 54 minutes to, as usual, keep it from charting in the U.S., though it surprisingly hit No. 29 in the U.K. Guitarist MARC RIBOT often stars, equally comfortable in avant-garde contexts or gutbucket blues; elsewhere guest six-stringers include KEITH RICHARDS and ROBERT QUINE. Equally important is drummer MiICHAEL BLAIR; the percussion on many tracks suggests a work crew driving spikes more than a drummer behind a kit. Everything that makes Waits great is on this album; it’s the perfect meld of his ‘80s angularity and his ‘70s sentimentality.
Four Tet – Everything Ecstatic (Domino)
I first heard Four Tet as bump music on Adult Swim, Cartoon Network’s three-hour bloc of goofiness (not for kids!). It was something from Rounds, a fairly mellow but still imaginative effort that’s a classic. Everything Ecstatic is more aggressive in tone, and more varied as well – and, I think, more imaginative. The track I love the most is “Smile Around the Face,” which sounds like an instrumental version of KANYE WEST’s “Jesus Walks” played by a merry-go-round carillon. My favorite electronic album of 2005.
The Turtles – Solid Zinc: The Turtles Anthology (Rhino)
They were so much more than just “Happy Together”! (Eight Top 20 singles, five Top 10.) This 51-track, two-CD set conveys the breadth of their inspiration, from their mid-1965 folk-rock cover of BOB DYLAN’s “It Ain’t Me Babe” to the increasingly eclectic offerings of their final years, which could ping-pong from surf music to ecology anthems to British Invasion-inspired sounds within one album. One of the group’s assets was a good ear for material. THE TURTLES covered ERVIN DRAKE’s “It Was a Very Good Year” a year before Sinatra hit the charts with it, used material from DAVID GATES and WARREN ZEVON before they were famous, and got “Happy Together,” “She’d Rather Be with Me,” and “She’s My Girl,” among others, from the writing team of GARRY BONNER and ALAN GORDON. The imagination of the Turtles’ arrangements matched their irresistible hooks, with gorgeous vocal harmonies and kaleidoscopically varied instrumental textures making every track distinctive. This is American pop at its best.
Martial Solal Trio – Balade du 10 Mars (Soul Note)
Not just my favorite French jazz pianist, MARTIAL SOLAL is one of the best regardless of origin. Born in Algiers, North Africa, Solal moved to France in 1950 and, with a tremendous technique, became one of the premier European jazz pianists. His style is a highly individual blend of the influences of players ranging from FATS WALLER and ART TATUM to BUD POWELL, THELONIOUS MONK, and BILL EVANS. This 1999 trio disc teamed him with Evans’s former rhythm-mates, bassist MARC JOHNSON and drummer PAUL MOTIAN, on a scintillating program including standards (a very modern-sounding “Night and Day,” “Softly as in a Morning Sunrise,” “Almost Like Being in Love,” “The Lady Is a Tramp,” “My Old Flame”), Monk’s ”’Round About Midnight” (as slightly retitled by Miles Davis), two Solal originals (“The Newest Old Waltz” and the title track), and Motian’s “Gang of Five.” While often featuring lush harmonies, Solal’s playing can also be excitingly angular, twisting in unexpected directions and making the hoariest old tunes sound fresh.
Ted Hawkins – Love You Most of All: More Songs from Venice Beach (Evidence)
Half scrabbling desperation and half shining charisma, the raw power and sincerity of the late TED HAWKINS’ roughly sweet, soulful singing and guitar strumming can stop listeners dead in their tracks. It had to, because for years Hawkins supported himself as a street singer. Communicating with stunning directness, he made passers-by stop, listen, and part with spare change. This was the second collection drawn from the 27 tracks of the then-49-year-old Hawkins’s 1985 Nashville recording session documenting repertoire honed on the Venice Beach boardwalk, all but one the covers that helped draw in listeners with their familiarity. The stylistic range—from HANK WILLIAMS’s “Your Cheatin’ Heart” to BOB DYLAN’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” to SAM COOKE’s “Chain Gang” and OTIS REDDING’s “Dock of the Bay”—is completely subsumed in his own style, featuring only the barest rudiments of musical technique but overflowing with emotion.
The Darkness – One Way Ticket to Hell…and Back (Atlantic)
My guilty pleasure of the moment is this over-the-top mix of QUEEN, FOREIGNER, and the like. Apparently the band takes it all quite seriously (although some lyrics are deliberately funny), but I find it deliciously silly. And yet, there are some pretty good songs here amid the overstatement and pomp, and Justin Hawkins’s banshee wail sounds good even as I crack up over it. Plus, “Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time” – the title of my favorite track on the album – is pretty much the philosophy that guides my life, even if not intentionally. Is Ticket as good as their debut? No. But it’s solid from start to finish anyway.
Tommy Johnson – 1928-1929 (Document)
TOMMY JOHNSON (ca.1896-1956) was more important to the development of Delta blues than the vastly more famous but later ROBERT JOHNSON (no relation). Most important was CHARLEY PATTON, but Tommy’s “Big Road Blues” with its rising bass line was much-copied (as was “Maggie Campbell”). Johnson was not a great guitarist—more than half his 14 recordings include a second guitarist or other musicians—but the parts are carefully structured, nicely proportioned, and distinctive (unlike peers who repeated a few flashy tricks). His striking high baritone voice is smoother than the Delta norm; occasional chilling falsetto leaps are nearly a trademark, but not overused. Though he outlived many of his peers, his self-destructive ways (“Canned Heat Blues” is about being so addicted to alcohol that he would drink Sterno) ended his life before he could become part of the folk blues boom. It’s some compensation to us that the sound on his important 1928 recordings is surprisingly good.
Jenny Lewis – Rabbit Fur Coat (Team Love)
Movie actress and RILO KILEY co-founder Lewis’s first solo effort is an often acoustic, country-infused album that puts her pretty, intimate vocals and quietly quirky lyrics front and center. She does rock out occasionally, complete with a TRAVELING WILBURYS cover, but basically this is a mellow, pretty disc that will appeal to NEKO CASE fans and other lovers of alt-country. It’s too bad the title track is an atrocious, rambling shaggy dog story with horrible phrase-making grasping for a salt-of-the-earth feel but just sounding clumsy, but that’s one easily skipped mistake on an otherwise enjoyable disc.
The Corrs – “What Can I Do” (East West)
It’s pretty uncool (even by my goofy standards) to like this Irish pop group, but I find this song from Talk on Corners irresistible. It has hooks everywhere, not only the verse and refrain melodies but also the swelling two-chord keyboard pattern in the verse, the bass line in the second verse, even the vocal background doot-doots that start the song and reappear frequently, and practically every single element in the bridge. Though far from cutting-edge, there are also strong beats derived from hip-hop on the second verse and second and third refrains, a superb contrast with the floating, percussion-free first and third verses. The way the production gradually adds more and more elements, ebbs on the third verse, then builds again to the coda, is textbook perfect without seeming contrived.
