Reviews – Page 61 – Rock Salted

Dave Van Ronk With The Red Onion Jazz Band – In the Tradition

Dave Van Ronk With The Red Onion Jazz Band – In the Tradition Folklore FL-14001 (1963)

Dave Van Ronk’s music is tedious. It is so imposing and yet at the same time rather unfocused in its energies. He was a below average singer and only a good (but not great) guitarist. Although bits of this — the parts without the horns — seem to have had a big impact on the sound of early Tom Waits, Van Ronk kind of falls down compared to Waits. My biggest gripe with Van Ronk is that he clearly had too high an opinion of himself. He saw himself as a huge innovator and great talent, at least he thought that whatever he did have should have bestowed upon him great influence. Looking back on his albums, it is hard to find anything that holds up to even the level of fair-to-middling. He had his talents and his interests, but everybody does. He makes his case that his talents and interests are (or should be) considered better, more influential, more important than what other people have, but this comes across as more self-serving than he lets on. This is epitomized by his appearance in the Bob Dylan documentary No Direction Home, in which he displays a kind of “sour grapes” attitude, clearly still after all those years, thinking that he should have been bigger than Dylan, even as he feigns that he got over all that years ago. His professed innovations in singing more gruffly and such were really just adaptations of afro-American music to white middle class settings, and his supposedly innovating guitar arrangements seem like a joke compared to what the American Primitive guitarists (John Fahey) were doing around the same time, and later. But all that aside, Van Ronk has better stuff out there than In the Tradition.

The Rolling Stones – Emotional Rescue

The Rolling Stones – Emotional Rescue Rolling Stones Records CUN 39111 (1980)

Like Black and Blue, this is one of those Stones albums that lacks any certifiable “hits” but is nonetheless pretty decent all the way through, for the most part. It’s rather light fare, vaguely bluesy rock with little undercurrents of disco, ska/reggae, and punk circulating throughout. Probably not the first Stones album that comes to mind and yet this has to be near the top of the second tier in their catalog. I do rather like “Let Me Go” and “Dance (Part 1).” This one has grown on me through the years and it is one of the better later period Stones albums. Oh, why not say it, “Let Me Go” deserves to be considered up their with the band’s best songs too.

Walt Mink – Bareback Ride

Walt Mink – Bareback Ride Caroline CAROL 1737-2 (1993)

Solid 90s alternative rock. Reminiscent of Smashing Pumpkins, Matthew Sweet, and that sort of thing. Good guitar. But thing is, these kinds of records grew on trees back then. Also, John Kimbrough‘s vocals — super nerdy like They Might Be Giants or The Dead Milkmen — just…don’t work. It was really the lack of an effective vocalist that kept these guys an underground phenomenon.

Sufjan Stevens – Come on Feel the Illinoise

Sufjan Stevens – Come on Feel the Illinoise Asthmatic Kitty AKR 014 (2005)

The darling of college radio and the American “indie” rock press, Sufjan Stevens’ Come On Feel the Illinoise (often mistakenly identified as Illinois) is a sedative for the youngest national public radio demographic. That said, the album is even still a bit of a disappointment. It marks a significant downward slide from Stevens’ wonderful, if flawed, Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lake State. It’s also a lesser effort than his inconsistent but rewarding Seven Swans. The problem, in short, is that Stevens has become the Cole Porter of christian rock. Now, many might say that comparing someone to Cole Porter would be a complement. Understand that it is no complement here.

Cole Porter wrote finely crafted lyrics that wandered aimlessly and unwittingly amid the melodramatic. Porter’s sense of harmony was extremely limited, and he often dwelled on the same harmonies across countless songs. His only redeeming quality really was his blunt use of melody. He could, after all, write some memorable refrains from time to time. Delivering those, without any dressings, was about his only talent.

Sufjan Stevens fairs much the same. Come On Feel the Illinoise is his second entry into a purported series of albums inspired by and ostensibly about each state of the United States. Moving beyond the borders of his home state of Michigan, here he muses on historical persons and events in an effort to pull sentiments from isolated events. Mostly, these quaint attempts overplay the basic implausibility of constructing something genuine in set pieces built around historical tidbits that are the equivalents of popular newspaper headlines. The album also underplays any sense of unity in the subject matter, so that the songs feel like a journal entries documenting a loose tour of the most peripheral regions of the state of Illinois. The pessimism inherent in that approach is only addressed, if at all, through periodic invocations of christian dogma.

The songs tend to recycle ideas from Stevens’ previous albums. Familiar rhythms and harmonies return again and again. In those respects, Stevens works from a limited palate. Repeating himself has offered only slight improvements over his earlier work. This leaves his melodic sense to carry the album. Rather, it carries a few of the album’s songs. The magical “ Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Step Mother!” is buoyed by soft and lively guitar and banjo phrases that gently sway and gently ascend. “The Tallest Man, The Broadest Shoulders” also comes alive with a lively tempo. “Come On! Feel the Illinoise!” adds lovely counterpoint to the vocals through recurrent string arrangements. Unfortunately, these are rarities. Most other songs are ultimately too ambitious for Steven’s songwriting skills.

Sufjan Stevens has talent. That much is clear from his previous albums. Yet when it comes to songwriting, and historical research, he has proven to be a bit of a philistine. He should get less of his history from the likes of children’s books and newspapers and more from Howard Zinn.

Come On Feel the Illinoise relies too much on an assumption that history offers an escape from reality. On its own merits, the album seems like just another “inoffensive” pop album. It’s a better pop album than most, sure, but not on the level of achievements of the greatest American pop songsmiths. Sufjan Stevens’ self-satisfied righteousness is holding him back from becoming a mature songwriter. It’s time for him to grow, musically.

Don Cherry – Symphony for Improvisers

Don Cherry – Symphony for Improvisers Blue Note BST 84247 (1967)

Cherry leads an all-star cast through a “suite” with plenty of space for raging solos. Some bag on this album because Cherry refined and perfected the style later on Eternal Rhythm, etc. But taken on its own this is still fine stuff. The uniformly excellent performances make it worthwhile. Saxophonist Gato Barbieri has hardly sounded better, Karl Berger is stunning on vibes, and bassist Henry Grimes is sublime. Count this among Cherry’s best.

Johnny Cash – The Johnny Cash Show

Johnny Cash – The Johnny Cash Show Columbia KC 30100 (1970)

Thanks to the mega-success of two live albums recorded in different prisons at the tail end of the 1960s (At Folsom Prison and At San Quentin), Johnny Cash was offered his own TV show on the ABC network that premiered in June of 1969. It was filmed at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, the former home of the Grand Ole Opry. Cash had been banned from the Opry a few years earlier after he smashed out all the stage lights with a microphone stand in a drug-fueled fit. But now he was back as the main attraction. The show marked the absolute pinnacle of Cash’s popularity. Broadcast to millions of homes across the country (and rebroadcast internationally), he went from being a star to a cultural icon. It was a whole new level. The program was a musical variety show, sort of a country music counterpart to The Lawrence Welk Show. A lot of big stars appeared on the show over its run. A sampling of recordings from guests — and Cash — was posthumously featured on The Best of The Johnny Cash TV Show: 1969-1971. There were country stars, but also rock, folk and comedy performances. There were regular appearances by familiar supporting musicians like The Carter Family, The Statler Brothers and Carl Perkins. An orchestra was regularly featured too.

Cash met Kris Kristofferson on the set. Kristofferson was working as a janitor at the auditorium at the time, yet to really make it as a musician. Cash performed Kristofferson’s great “Sunday Morning Coming Down” and made it both a hit and the definitive reading. It’s the clear highlight here.

Cash did a regular “Ride This Train” segment on the show, named after Cash’s 1960 concept album, that featured medleys and stories about Americana themes. It was a part of the show that Cash felt strongly about, but the Network tried to cut it to please advertisers. Cash did more religious content over time, and even went so far as to make announcements about his christian faith.

This album, The Johnny Cash Show, only scratches the surface of what was on the TV show. Only a small fraction of the series has been released on album. It’s a shame because there were actually many great and interesting performances on the show, worthy of attention. But what is here is good stuff. “Sunday Morning Coming down” is definitely the highlight. Yet every last track is enjoyable. There is a kind of smoothing over of Cash’s routine. Don’t expect his trademark rock-inflected boom-chicka-boom rhythm or any joking around. This is clearly “professional” music aimed at as wide an audience as possible. Though it doesn’t really lose much, if anything, in cleaning and polishing every facet. But it is a different side of Cash’s music than just about any of his other albums — even if some video releases into the 1980s have more similarities.

The show ended in March of 1971. Cash later wrote that he was exhausted from the schedule and felt he had done everything he could with it when it ended. But it was the network’s decision more than anything, as rural-focused programs were dropped in favor of more urban programming, not to mention Cash’s refusal to cave-in to advertiser demands. The show did give Cash tremendous exposure, which enabled him to tour incessantly in the following years. His touring act picked up much of the content and form of the TV show, resembling a sort of traveling Vegas show.

Ironically, while “The Johnny Cash Show” was one of the major successes of his career, and the entire reason many fans knew him in the first place, it became a sort of forgotten aspect of Cash’s legacy for younger listeners. This album going out of print probably has something to do with that. While it might not be everyone’s favorite side of his music, it deserves more attention than it has tended to receive.

Gary Burton – Alone at Last

Gary Burton – Alone at Last Atlantic 1598 (1972)

Excellent solo outing from one of the biggest innovators of the vibraphone. Burton’s greatest contribution was proving that a jazz musician could take the ostensibly fixed-tone free bar instrument and produce bent notes (by pressing one mallet into a bar to change its natural frequency while impacting it with another mallet). Alone at Last is something of a template for other great virtuoso solo albums like Bobby McFerrin‘s The Voice and Sonny Sharrock‘s Guitar.

John Cale – Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood

John Cale – Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood Double Six Recordings DS047 (2012)

It’s 2012 and both John Cale and Bob Dylan have new albums What do they have to offer? On Tempest, Dylan is operating in old man mode. He’s interested in a time-worn kind of songwriting, that could have very well passed for something written decades ago — even before Dylan’s career began in the early 1960s. It’s updated, a little. But the key is that he’s not really interested in what is happening around him in the music world. His style exists on its own, carried as long (or as short) as that takes him. As it turns out, it finds him stuttering, with some stellar tunes (like “Duquesne Whistle”) and some that are much less than that. In all Dylan is largely back on his bad habit of lazy blues riffing (what he really cemented with World Gone Wrong). And there you have it. Dylan remains Dylan, a sometimes insightful but always unshakable and inscrutable curmudgeon.

Cale’s approach could hardly be more different. As usual, his lyrics are sly, a little bit witty, with clever and intelligent themes but often fumble about short of a poet’s touch. But what stands out is his clear intent to sound contemporary. He has auto-tuned vocals that could easily have come from the latest R&B/hip-hop/dance hit. He’s pretty competent, and not for a second does he seem to lack an understanding of contemporary pop. Though he never seems to really, really love what he’s offering here. At times, there are hints of some of his old songs from the 70s like “Mary Lou,” seamlessly re-purposed, though by the same token it’s also hard not to think of them being re-used in place of an original hook. In the end, this is a continuation of the interest in modern musical production methods that began with Hobo Sapiens, though Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood, despite always being eminently listenable, lacks the pathos, the silly humor and personal feel of that former achievement (which has held up quite well almost a decade later). It may be a reality of making the songs more amenable to live performance. Despite some stellar support Cale has struggled to make the Hobo Sapiens songs work in concert.

Dylan may be less than a year older than Cale, but on this evidence they seem to inhabit different worlds. It’s a wonderful thing to find musicians still active after all these years having the freedom to take such divergent paths. Neither really delivers at his best. For Dylan, he soars and he sinks, and the sum total is an uneven affair that is best taken in only select doses. For Cale, he rides an even keel, and even gains some momentum across the album, but you probably won’t find any of his tunes stuck in your head.

Anthony Braxton – Saxophone Improvisations Series F

Anthony Braxton – Saxophone Improvisations Series F America Records 30 AM 011-012 (1972)

Anthony Braxton is a guy where either you appreciate his drive to create unique music with little or no commercial appeal, or you don’t. You either admire his efforts to zig when everyone is expected to zag, or you don’t. Another analogy: the question of coloring within the lines or not. Braxton (hypothetically) colors in the lines sometimes, and sometimes not, but he’s also written two dozen new coloring books in the meantime, some of which have no lines whatsoever to color within or without, but he still says they are coloring books.

This album is similar in many ways to Dona Lee [Donna Lee], which was recorded just a week prior. Though here there are only original compositions, no standards. Also, rather than group material, this album is played entirely solo. So comparisons to For Alto are sure to abound, though already Braxton’s sound had opened up a bit from that earlier recording, adding more lyrical elements to his abrupt, cold attack. This album features compositions from his “Kelvin” series. While those who seek out unique and uncompromising jazz will surely admire this, there is a sinking sensation that Braxton is trying to be self-consciously “different” and that holds it back just slightly. His real breakthroughs as a performer and composer were still in the future, swiftly approaching. This one is perhaps most appealing in how it demonstrates “how he got there.” Choice tracks: “NR-12-C (33 M)” and “JMK-80 CFN-7.”

Anthony Braxton – Dona Lee

Anthony Braxton – Dona Lee America Records 30 AM 6122 (1975)

An album documenting Anthony Braxton really coming into his own, with his best work just around the corner. His own playing is more assured than before. The tendency with Braxton’s early recordings is for the willful complexity of his compositions to be alienating. Incorporating some standards into his recording repertoire evidences how he softened that alienating effect and strengthened his playing across the board by expanding his palette. The band here is good, though not as nimble and imaginative as some of the great bands Braxton would lead in later years. While the rhythm section here is certainly competent, like some early Cecil Taylor and Ornette Coleman albums one gets the feeling the rhythm section isn’t quite ready to go to all the same places as Braxton. Just a week after recording the material here Braxton recorded the solo performances on Saxophone Improvisations Series F and the next month recorded his first Creative Music Orchestra piece RBN—-3° K12 at the Festival of Chatellerault in France. And a few months later Braxton was back in the United States and presented a spring concert in New York City, portions of which were later released as Town Hall 1972, which bears similarities and features some arguably superior performances, although the song selections on that live album put less weight on Braxton’s growing use of standards juxtaposed with new music than Dona Lee.