Month: February 2013

Album Review: Allen Stone’s “Last to Speak”

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Allen Stone’s vocal style reminds me of the classic soul and R&B singers of the 60s and 70s.  Growing up in the small community of Chewelah, Washington (population 2,606 as of 2010!), it can be hard to imagine a voice as soulful coming from such an isolated city, especially since his dad was a pastor, and he grew up on gospel music, so you’d expect more of a secular influence.

Allen’s first full album release is “Last to Speak”, which, unfortunately, is only (as of the date of this writing) only available in a digital format.

It is a strong debut and gives the listener a craving to follow this talented singer to see where he evolves and takes his music.  Though lyrically the music leans closer to folk than I necessarily would prefer, there is no doubt this album highlights the wide range of musical influences that Allen Stone has been able to cultivate at his young age (25 as of the date of this posting).

Elements of classic soul, popular music and R&B are used to tell various stories of heartache, social and religious commentary and self exploration, reminiscent of Stevie Wonder’s work during the late 70s and early 80s (Allen Stone has stated that Stevie Wonder was one of his idols).

I’ll admit that the album sequence could have been better.  I would have put “Running Game” and “False Alarms” (in that order) before “Last to Speak”. That’s just a personal preference.

The vocal production is raw.  It isn’t polished, softened or auto-tuned, and it shows all of the natural tendencies of Allen’s voice.  I saw Allen Stone in concert in 2012, and I can guarantee you that what you hear on this album is how it sound live and in concert.

1.  Shelter-I would have picked a different track to open up the album – ****

2. Quit Callin – *** 

3. Better Off This Way – ***** 

4. Reality – I’m a big fan of the keys that open this track – ***** 

5. Figure It Out -I really love the chorus of this song- ***** 

6. Poison – For a song about that’s social commentary, I didn’t think the  music matched the message-*** 

7. Running Game – Solid bass line – ***** 

8. False Alarms – ***** 

9. Vibe With Ya – **** 

10. Breathe Anymore – **** 

11. Last To Speak – Strong social message – **** 

ALBUM RATING: ****

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Beck Reimagines David Bowie’s “Sound and Vision”

Wow.

Sometimes covers put a new spin on old material. Sometimes the cover surprises. Most of the time, covers disappoint.  Some covers make you want to blog about it …

If you aren’t familiar with David Bowie’s “Sound And Vision”, listen to the video below: 

Beck “reimagines” this David Bowie staple and the YouTube description states the following:

“The Hello, Again performance started with an idea — Beck would reimagine David Bowie’s classic, “Sound and Vision.” But it became more than another cover. It became an experience that presented a fresh take on the possibilities of the once familiar, for both the audience and the performers.

In collaboration with Beck and a “band” of more than 160 diverse musicians, Director Chris Milk created a concert experience that was fully immersive for both the audience and the performers. By capturing the concert with 360-degree cameras and binaural microphones, online viewers will have the opportunity to experience the show from any and every seat in the house. Coming soon to http://www.hello-again.com.”

Check out Beck’s “re-imagining” below: 

All I’m saying  … if Beck ever tours with this, I’m the first one in line for tickets.

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The Robert Glasper Experiment at The Roxy 2/8/13

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I’ve always prided myself in being a jazz aficionado.  I’ve tried to educate myself in the history (I’ve watched Ken Burns’s documentary twice) and cultural significance (I wrote my senior Anthropology paper on the influence of Jazz Music on society and culture) of Jazz Music.

I don’t listen to much radio these days, and the music that I “discover” tends to be through word of mouth.  I’m a Jill Scott fan, and one day she posted a tweet that caught my attention:

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Now, I had heard good things about Robert Glasper (I knew that he was nominated for a 2013 Grammy), but I really didn’t pay too much attention to his music, so this tweet caught my attention.  I mean, Jill Scott is so incredibly talented, that if another musician were to give her musical fits, that musician MUST be as, or more, talented than she.

I started pulling up some video from YouTube, and was instantly hooked.  It was like a modern day version of Guru’s Jazzamatazz albums.  I noticed in one of the YouTube videos a link to purchase tickets to an upcoming show he was to have at the Roxy, and with the Grammy’s that same weekend, I thought it may be a good idea to purchase a couple of tickets to catch the his show.  After all, his latest album “Black Radio” had tons of features on it, and who knew how many musicians may have decided to swing through that evening.

I went to the show with a friend, and I’m glad I bought tickets ahead of time  I smirked a little bit when the people in front of me in the box office line were told that tickets had sold out.

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We got inside while DJ Shafiq was spinning, and were relaxing comfortably when Taylor McFerrin took the stage.  It was my first time listening to Taylor McFerrin’s music. He’s a talented producer/vocalist who is signed to Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder Label. His show consisted of a freestyle improvisation where he riffed on a vocal pattern, stored it in his computer module, and looped it while playing keys or singing over the looped elements.  All of a sudden, he started to sing Bobby McFerrin’s “Thinkin’ About Your Body”.  I mentioned it to my friend in passing.  It wasn’t until the next day that I realized he was Bobby McFerrin’s son. LOL.

After Taylor’s set, The Robert Glasper Experiment took the stage.

My friend trying to sneak a peek of the Robert Glasper setting up.
My friend trying to sneak a peek of the Robert Glasper Experiment setting up.

The set was amazing.  I do not, unfortunately, know all of Robert’s music by heart (yet), but I think that they MUST have played the following songs, because the featured artist’s came on stage to perform as well:

Bilal: “Letter To Hermoine”

Bilal and Lupe Fiasco:  “Always Shine”

LaLah Hathway: “Cherish The Day”

Ledisi:  “Gonna Be Alright (F.T.B.)

And although they weren’t featured on any of the tracks on “Black Radio”, Marsha Ambrosious and Elzhi (of Slum Village) stepped up to the stage to perform as well.  Ms. Ambrosious was kind enough to snap a picture of me after her set.

Lalah Hathaway
Bilal and Lupe Fiasco
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Marsha Ambrosious

The vibe and setting in the Roxy was intense.  Whenever the band started going off an a jazz riff, I kept thinking to my self, “This is what it must have felt like to be at a John Coltrane or Miles Davis show, back in the day.”  People were entranced.  The music enraptured.

The Robert Glasper Experiment performed with an intensity and focus that is impossible to measure.  The beats were on point.  The solos amazed. The performance was brilliance animated.  Here are a few snippets.

And the kicker was that it was all accessible. Though Jazz is the foundation for American black music, people seem to lack a certain appreciation for it.  This evening, the people in the audience ate it up with a spoon.  Maybe it was because all of the guest artists made it seem to be more of an R&B or Neo/Soul show, but at the heart of it, it was all jazz.  Pure, unadulterated jazz put through an R&B filter.  The results?  Amazing.

The Robert Glasper Experiment won a Grammy the following night.  I’m glad I got to experience the music before the win.

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In Memoriam | J Dilla | 1974-2006 | “We reminisce over you”

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A lot of people don’t know this, but before I went to law school, I worked at a small boutique entertainment law firm in Santa Monica, CA.  One of our clients was the production company that had signed Slum Village as an artist.  One of the first albums I got my entertainment law hands dirty with was “Fantastic, Vol. 2”.  I took great pride while working on the project because I knew there was something special with the talent in that group, particularly the talent of the producer J Dilla, who produced the ENTIRE album, which is amazing.

When I entered my second year at law school, I decided to work part-time, splitting my time  hustling in the class room, and hustling in the office.  Though J Dilla decided to move on from Slum Village, he produced a couple tracks off of Slum Village’s next album, “Trinity (Past, Present and Future)”.

James Dewitt Yancey, pka J Dilla, born February 7, 1974, passed away February 10, 2006 from a blood disease, and I remember feeling a great sense of loss.  He was part of my professional evolution and maturation, and is a reason why I love this business so much.  To work, albeit somewhat remotely, with talent makes it all worthwhile.

His instrumental album “Donuts” and his first solo album “The Shining” are 4 and 5 star albums based on my own personal rankings.  NPR, in their obituary, stated that J Dilla “was one of the music industry’s most influential hip-hop artists, working for big-name acts like A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Busta Rhymes, The Pharcyde and Common.”

This is a terrific four part interview of J Dilla from back in 2003. You want and in-depth take of his come up and the way he produced, and what inspired, his music? You need to set aside 40 minutes of your day and listen to this interview.

Here’s a great video of man who lucked out and scored a storage unit of J Dilla’s record collection. I hope all of that wax is being taken care of.

Below are some of my favorite J Dilla Tracks.  RIP, Mr Yancey.  Truly a visionary.  Lost but not forgotten.  “We Reminisce Over You”.

Note:  If any of the links don’t work, let me know, and I’ll find an alternate version:

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Happy Bday, Bob Marley!

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Nesta Robert Marley, OM, pka “Bob Marley”, was born February 6, 1945 and passed on May 11, 1981.  He is an icon in reggae music and is credits with helping the spread of both Jamaican music and the Rastafari movement throughout the world.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  As such, rather than post original recordings of Bob Marley performing, I figured that I’d share some of my favorite covers and renditions of those songs that he made so famous.  In no particular order, here they are:

NOTE:  If any of the video links don’t work, please comment such, I’ll find a replacement.

Good music, is always good music, regardless of who sings the song.

Young bud nuh know storm (experience teaches wisdom).  Respect, Bob.

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Music Splurge: Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Humble Pie

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This past weekend I stopped by record store to do a little “research” on two band’s whose music I don’t own:  Humble Pie and Emerson Lake and Palmer.

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I recently blogged about Steve Marriott, and I was particularly drawn to his work with Humble Pie, specifically his live performance of an Ike and Tina song called “Black Coffee” [Click here to read the blog and check out the video].  I made it my quest for the weekend to find it on vinyl.

I figured I’d start with their first albums, so I bought “Lost and Found”.

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This album was a double LP compilation for the United States which contained their first two albums originally released in the UK: ” As Safe As Yesterday Is” and “Town and Country”.  Both individual albums received excellent reviews.

If you didn’t already know, the original incarnation of Humble Pie featured Steve Marriott and Peter Frampton, and both of these albums, and particularly as a compilation, really shows the musical genius of the members of the band.

The musical stylings of “As Safe As Yesterday Is” covers blues rock to hard rock.  In fact, this album was the inspiration of the term “heavy metal” as it was used in a Mike Saunder’s 1970 Rolling Stone article to describe an element and stylings of the sound on the album.  The quote is as follows:

“Here Humble Pie were a noisy, unmelodic, heavy metal-leaden shit-rock band, with the loud and noisy parts beyond doubt.”[Click Here For Source]

“Town and Country”, on the other hand, is a predominantly acoustic album.  Though Humble Pie tended to lean towards the “heavier” stylings throughout their career, this album seems to demonstrate the bands more “sensitive” side.  More country than  city.  I think any music enthusiast can probably draw from the album that this may have been a foreshadow of the type of music Peter Frampton would pursue in his solo career.

In my opinion, this compilation album was the perfect introduction, at least for me, to the band.  “As Safe as Yesterday” reveals a new band putting together a new, rough and raw sound that they’d develop, while “Town and Country” was just the opposite.  A very insightful album, and highly enjoyable.

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I bought “Rock On” because this was the last album that Peter Frampton performed on for Humble Pie.  Based on what I’ve read, it was this album which solidified Humble Pie’s legacy as being a preeminent heavy blues/rock band.

The production quality of this album is quite stunning, and it’s probably because Glyn Johns produced it.  While listening to the album, it really felt like I was in a club listening to the band play live, but it is so clean.  Peter Frampton kills it on his guitar parts, and Steve Marriott wails through blues riff after blues riff.

A terrific album and worth every penny.

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I probably didn’t need to buy this album, but it was the only vinyl in stock that had a recording of “Black Coffee”.  Mission accomplished.

Emerson Lake and Palmer

Progressive Rock.  Some love it.  Some hate it.  For me, I just have to be in the mood for it.  Emerson, Lake & Palmer was on of the largest progressive rock bands during the 1970s.  Their self titled, debut album was an album that I thought I should have in my collection because it was, if you are in the mood for it, an album that you can drop the needle on and just let play.

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I’ve only listed to this album once in it’s entirety, and it’s just simply overwhelming.  I’ve studied music.  I’m familiar with jazz music.  I’m familiar with classical music. I’m familiar with rock music.  With Emerson, Lake and Palmer, it’s like the edges all blur and … you’re just overwhelmed by their musicianship.  I’ll be honest with you, I can’t hum a single musical passage from the album, but I’ll guarantee you that it blew my mind.

The other Emerson, Lake and Palmer album I bought is a live concert recording of the band titled “Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends: Ladies & Gentlemen, Emerson Lake & Palmer”

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Let’s just say I’m holding off on that one for a little while.  I’ll need a good two hours to listen to the four sided album, and I understand that I need to listen to it loud … really loud.

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Laura Mvula’s “Jump Right Out”

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I’ve been on a jazz/neo-soul/R&B kick the past week, and one of the artist’s that I’ve been playing over and over again is Laura Mvula.  I posted a live performance of her song “She” a little while ago: https://musicofmymind14.wordpress.com/2013/01/18/laura-mvulas-she-live-lauramvula-youre-amazing/.  I felt like sharing another video of hers.  The song is amazing and the video, with its cool stop-motion, paper animation is quite fitting.

For your aural pleasure, Laura Mvula’s “Jump Right Out”.  Enjoy.

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