Cultural Detritus, Reviews, and Commentary
Paul Robeson – A Robeson Recital of Popular Favorites Columbia Masterworks 732 (1948)
All show tunes and orchestral pop. Robeson’s vocals are nothing short of great. Yet the rather generic orchestral backing does a disservice to the music. It’s worth noting that on this version of “Ol’ Man River” Robeson has changed (and improved) the lyrics.
Coleman Hawkins – At Ease With Coleman Hawkins Moodsville MVLP 7 (1961)
Mellow jazz leaning heavily on ballads. This is a precursor to Coltrane‘s John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman and Ballads. Good stuff.
Yesterday’s New Quintet – Angles Without Edges Stones Throw STH 2042-2 (2001)
Basically high quality muzak for hipsters who like jazz and hip hop. But still basically muzak.
Little Feat – Feats Don’t Fail Me Now Warner Bros. K56030 (1974)
Something definitely changed for Little Feat with Feats Don’t Fail Me Now. The reasons are quite apparent. Lowell George was no longer the dominant guitarist and songwriter for the group. His contributions were increasingly of a more ordinary and secondary nature. Paul Barrere and Bill Payne were taking on more of a role in place of Lowell. And so, the music focused more consistently on feel-good groove rock. There really weren’t any quirky, off-beat lyrics anymore, and the music as a whole was more steady and tame. That isn’t to say the Feat sounded bad. In fact, this is a pretty fun record. It just doesn’t sparkle with quite the charisma that the group’s earlier records had. You can still count this (along with the first three albums) as essential Little Feat though.
Sonic Youth med Mats Gustafsson og Merzbow – SYR 8: Andre sider af Sonic Youth SYR 8 (2008)
Gets interesting once Thurston Moore‘s soloing ends and Mats Gustafsson and Merzbow start to take over.
John Coltrane – Transition GRP GRD-124 (1970; 1993 reissue)
If this album was from anyone other than Coltrane, I might be tempted to praise it more. The performances here are all superb, and Coltrane is in his prime. Musically, it’s very similar to A Love Supreme, though without the same intense focus and unity of vision. At times, the performances here hint at what the group accomplished on Meditations. Perhaps the main drawback of the album is the fact that the second track “Welcome” is pretty weak by Coltrane standards and that totally disrupts the flow. But also Transition is an archival release that was tampered with on at least one reissue, which further hampers the allure of the album due to the fact that the added tracks had been previously released on another album (one of those being “Welcome”) and one of the original tracks (“Dear Lord”) has been omitted. Then again, those are petty concerns. In all, this is still a worthy and thoroughly enjoyable album, but I must admit that in terms of importance to both 1960s jazz and Coltrane’s discography it falls just shy of being essential.
John Coltrane – Meditations Impulse! AS-9110 (1966)
Meditations features one of the unusual line-ups of Coltrane’s post-Ascension recordings. Coltrane plays exclusively on the left channel with the talented Rashied Ali, a fiery and highly abstract drummer. The right channel features a young Pharoah Sanders blasting his aggressive and abrasive-but-warm saxophone, along with veteran Elvin Jones on drums. McCoy Tyner on piano and Jimmy Garrison on bass then bring balance to both channels.
John Coltrane had the most fully formed and beautiful tone of just about any saxophonist. His technical perfection was only surpassed by his unfathomable improvisational style. Coltrane could effortlessly assimilate any influence. More than simple imitation, Coltrane drew the very essences of these influences and developed them into new forms. Here, the abstract rhythms of Rashied Ali and the rough texture of Pharoah Sanders combine in this journey away from conventional structure. John Coltrane is generally the last word on anything he has attempted. Listening to him play reveals the all the joy and beauty of the universe. The limitless possibilities of a loving, peaceful existence unfold with the clarity of prophets. Here, he explores the most basic elements of humanity; however, he connects living elements to divine pursuit of Truths (yes, with a capital “T”), as explicated through his music.
“The Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost” sounds forced into unnecessary structure. The solos, particularly Coltrane’s, at times seem to lose sight of their original goals, and yet, the passion and faith never waiver. Coltrane had a gift for shrewd commentary. A serious and deeply spiritual person, he could reaffirm his faith while simultaneously criticizing the church (he believed in all religions).
“Love” begins the last three movements. The dissonance of Coltrane’s melodic line resolves to a three-note consonant line. Jimmy Garrison begins the song with a moving solo. Coltrane broke jazz conventions as he dove completely into free jazz. The first two songs are continuous performances, as are the last three. Songs begin with solos, only revealing a defined statement much later. On “Consequences,” the two saxophonists blur the beginnings and ends of their solos beyond identification.
Traditionalists generally jump ship after A Love Supreme (more precisely, before Ascension) and ignore all late-period Coltrane. Yet, the most rewarding material comes from his final years. Meditations features John Coltrane at his most intense (at his most passionate, Coltrane is not casual listening). It is a foolish thing indeed to attempt to explain what Coltrane achieved with this album.
Bob Dylan – Slow Train Coming Columbia FC 36120 (1979)
I’ve developed a theory that Dyan’s “christian” phase that began with Slow Train Coming was less about him converting to a particularly dogmatic strain of pentecostal christianity and more about him implicitly moving into the same camp as French academic charlatan Michel Foucault (maybe the “new philosophers” like André Glucksmann could be thrown into the conversation here too). The reasons some people are skeptical of this part of Dylan’s career are the same reasons some people are skeptical of Foucault’s neoliberal historicist/”identity politics” theories, which are complete bullshit and evidenced a questionable kind of pandering and opportunism (not to mention a huge over-reliance on revenge fantasies). But, anyway, this album was recorded in Muscle Shoals, and it has a smooth disco R&B/soul sound, like a mellower, less emotional counterpart to Bowie‘s Young Americans or even a more intellectual counterpart to the lily-white blues rock of Eric Clapton. It’s a little too easy listening for its own good, but it still manages to be decent with a few good new songs. The album benefits tremendously by having Dylan actually trying throughout, and having active involvement of producers other than Dylan.
John Coltrane – Stellar Regions Impulse! IMPD-169 (1995)
Stellar Regions was recorded on February 15, 1967. The recording masters were kept by Alice Coltrane for decades before release. What makes Stellar Regions an essential ‘Trane disc (it is phenomenal, perhaps the better of even A Love Supreme) is the dramatic changes evident in his music. His vibrato shifts from the wide style of John Gilmore and Albert Ayler to a quicker, gushy style resembling Ben Webster. He jumps from a rumbling low register to a smooth, clear higher one, like the vocals of Rev. Claude Jeter. Of course, tempos of the songs are much slower than as heard on Interstellar Space, recorded slightly earlier. In a sense, it is clear on hearing these recordings that Coltrane was dying. But this is without sadness. Coltrane’s music is completely at peace. While in his music he perhaps sees in the distance some great horizon yet uncrossed, there is also a total acceptance of what is within his reach. Jimmy Garrison is at his peak on “Jimmy’s Mode” with a solo tender but hip, questioning but aware, fluid but crisp. His solo finds where a delicate swing fits into Coltrane’s vision. As an artist, Coltrane was still in motion. As his battle alternated from confidence to uncertainty he added new perspective. He used every defilement to see clearly, and from there collected his many views and assembled, regrouped for further toils. This is the start of a new life. It is complete rebirth. Such a thing seems possible here. Stellar Regions is like a musical accompaniment to Arthur Rimbaud’s Les Illuminations [The Illuminations]. It is a spiritual recognition of the vast possibility beyond that grasped in the present. Yes, Stellar Regions communicates about all that needed be said before Coltrane went silent upon his July 17, 1967 death. This album is, along with Interstellar Space, Music. By that I mean this is the culmination of everything music — and Coltrane — was and is. What a wonderful thing.
Prince and The Revolution – Purple Rain Warner Bros. 25110-1 (1984)
In the All Music Guide, Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that David Bowie‘s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars had a “grand sense of staged drama” and that “Bowie succeeds not in spite of his pretensions but because of them . . . .” The same could very well be said about Prince’s most acclaimed and best-selling album (over 20 millions copies), Purple Rain. This was the soundtrack to a movie of the same name, which some say was inspired by Samuel R. Delany’s novel Dhalgren. Some of the songs were recorded live (“I Would Die 4 U”, “Baby I’m a Star” and “Purple Rain”), with later overdubs.
Purple Rain just appeals to so many people. There is something for the freaks, something for the squares (aside from the prudes). That wide appeal should not come as a surprise. This is basically a perfect album. Sure, it might be hard to find anyone picking “The Beautiful Ones” as his or her favorite, on an album that also boasts “Let’s Go Crazy” (a rock-gospel party anthem), “When Doves Cry” (an abstract, minimalist pop stunner without a bass line), and “Purple Rain” (a monster ballad to end monster ballads). Not only is there is no filler here, every song is great. It certainly helped that Prince was a prolific songwriter. He had about 100 songs lined up for the film, according to director Albert Magnoli, who had to cull that down to what worked best. The photographer Robert Mapplethorpe once mentioned in a 1977 interview, “It takes me a good week really to decide what negatives and that’s half of taking pictures, is the selection. *** And the framing is very important.” These are analogues to song selection and album sequencing for music. These things do put in perspective what it takes to make something like Purple Rain. A handful of decent songs is simply not enough.
Prince wasn’t exactly an unknown before this album and the movie — from 1979 to 1983 he had even appeared on television a few times — but they were what made him a worldwide superstar. His band The Revolution also played a significant role, with Wendy & Lisa noted for making key contributions. Prince became something of an egomaniac as a result of his fame. Mapplethorpe also said in that interview that all artists he knew were egotistical. This perhaps says something about what it takes to want to put one’s self in the spotlight.
There isn’t much to say about the music itself that hasn’t already been said so many times over. But this album still holds up decades later.