Coding To Music

You’re how old? 19! Jeebus, you’re the Sidney Crosby of Jazz, I guess. This album is surprisingly great. Although I would say it’s really the baritone sax of Pepper Adams that makes this album as good as it is. Still, friggin’ 19???? Overall this is a keeper — 4/5 stars

It sucks/It rocks. Every song has a slash title, I don’t know why. The first half of the slash sucks (sl)ash but the second part for all six songs are solid fusion. Very enjoyable…as long as you can fast forward through the first half of every song.

Still a little groggy after awakening from listening to this drowsy album. I’m quite disappointed as Sly has some true classics. This one is definitely one to avoid — I’m removing it from my catalog

It came to my attention that some people might not know of this country’s 2nd best songwriter (2nd to …) . If you don’t, stop right now and go buy his eponymous classic.

This album was a bit of a surprise, I thought I remember it being subpar but upon my recent listen, it delivers. It’s not his best but it is a solid effort with such classics as “Be Here to Love Me Today” and “Our Mother The Mountain” (plus I like the way he says “Tecumseh Valley”).

I’m not sure I can even describe this album properly. It is subdued yet intricate, soft yet hard driving, mellow yet intense. The piano and composition provide a great canvas for the real stars — the bass and drum rhythm section. Andrew does one of my favorite techniques where the piano will provide a soft, mellow main rhythm while the drums and bass add their own, often quite intricate, rhythms to create a challenging polyrhythmic piece. 4/5 stars

I have a lot of Monk albums and sometimes each one doesn’t particularly stand out. This is especially true, I think, of his later work. However, this is a nice exception. The pieces are mostly Monk classics but Charlie Rouse on Tenor Sax and, notably, Charlie Higgins on drums make these stand-out performances. The highlights for me are Epistrophy and Evidence but every track is good. The AMG review is underservedly light. This is a 5 star album in my book

Is it wrong that I like Of Montreal? I feel like I shouldn’t be listening to them but dammit if they’re not catchy. They have a Beatles-esque Magical Mystery Tour quality that I find appealing.

A pretty good album by ELP. And sometimes they have what I like to call an “ELP button” . Lucky Man is a good example — perfectly good acoustic song and then keyboard effects overwhelm it out of nowhere. But, I digress. There are a few boring songs like Abaddon’s Bolero but some undiscovered gems like The Sheriff not to mention the famous Hoe-down.

what the? Only “Party of Special Things to Do” is worth listening to on this one. The whole thing sounds like CB was on some meds that made him “normal”. The rest of the tracks are uninspired and common. I’m not keeping this one

This was certainly a sleeper hit. I don’t think there are any commercial hits on here. But it is a hidden gem to be sure. To me it rates less than his 70s classics and some of his newer efforts (e.g., The Delivery Man), but it is his best of the 80s I think. The AMG review does a better job than I could do. Suffice it to say, its a keeper.

Another great gem in my collection straight from the Zappa vault. I was very pleasantly surprised when I went back and listened to this. It has some great extended jams. Unlike most fans, I don’t love Frank solos (that mid-range annoys me) but everything is in good proportion here. If you like The Grand Wazoo and/or Waka/Jawaka you should enjoy this one. Highly recommended.

This starts off really well — Roadhouse Blues, Waiting for The Sun, and Peace Frog. But then the filler starts in. And, by the end (Maggie M’gill), it really goes downhill. The first few tracks are good enough to give this one a 3/5 stars and keep it in the library

Wow, where was this one hiding. This is as good or better than My Favorite Things. The songs are long but not meandering. Freddie Hubbard and Eric Dolphy meld wonderfully into these tunes. And McCoy and Elvin are great as on all their Coltrane outings. I’m just sorry this was buried under my proverbial digital rug for so long. It’s a 5 star recording.