Music Notes
By 
I saw The War on Drugs at the House of Blues in Boston this week. It was a pretty good show. You know, that band is what it is–a solid A-/B+ band with good musicianship and pretty good (sometimes great) songs that are limited at the top end of greatness but also have a very high floor. They are basically a groove band–someone at the show said that this really “shreds.” Well, no it doesn’t. They hit a groove and they play it out. That’s totally fine. When they really have a home run song, especially the really outstanding “Under the Pressure,” it’s pretty transcendent. When the songs are more in the solid category, then the groove they hit is pretty much as the song. In other words, the music and lyrics don’t transcend each other. So it’s a high quality band with great popularity (show was really packed, though some of this is that some of the people in the band are from Boston, including the lead singer; Dad seemed proud but not that into the music!; maybe he likes being the grandfather to Krysten Ritter’s baby more) that I think serves a lot of what people who aren’t huge fans of the Dead like from the Dead–something to get stoned/drunk to. Anyway, solid show. Would I go all the way to Boston after a day of teaching to see them again? Probably not, but I would if they played in Providence.
I also had an interesting sound moment at this show. I got there a bit later than I would have liked (you teach two classes in southern RI and drive up through Boston traffic to get to a show!) and so I couldn’t get real close to the stage unless I went onto the side. I did this and mostly it was fine. I could see them just fine and the sound was mostly good with one big exception–I could not hear the saxophone at all. But I did finally move, largely because an aggravating group of people probably around 40 but wishing they were still 23 was in front of me that included two big tall guys (like 6’6″) and some really annoying women they were with (“WHO HAS A JOINT!” screamed out was the last straw for me to move). So I went to the back. And there I could hear the sax just fine. Here’s the set list if anyone cares.
We lost the great Pig Robbins last week. There are few piano players with more credits on great songs in American history than Robbins. He was a member of the Nashville A Team, those great session musicians called in for the best artists and cuts. It took him awhile to get there–it was only after Floyd Cramer began his remarkable solo career that he rose to the very top. Then he stayed there for decades. His most well-known work to pop audiences is being the pianist on the Blonde on Blonde but I have to remind our Dylan-loving readers that ol’Bob is not the be all and end all of music. Among Robbins’ other great recordings are Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces,” Hank Snow’s “I’ve Been Everywhere” (note, this is not a Johnny Cash song!), Charlie Rich’s “Behind Closed Doors,” Loretta Lynn’s “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’,” George Jones, “White Lightning,” and Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.” Plus several thousand more, including crossing over into playing on many R&B hits of the era. Yeah, I’d say that’s making your mark.
The blues guitarist Jimmy Johnson also died this week. The drummer Sam Lay also died; like Robbins, he is defined primarily as having played with Dylan, which is just ridiculous. Again, Bob is not the be all and end all of music! I imagine that when Joan Baez dies, the Times is going to mention Dylan in the headline.
This is far from complete because it doesn’t include all of the Sun Ra movies, but this is a good guide to Sun Ra on film.
This list includes way too many recent films to be a comprehensive list of the 10 best jazz documentaries, but there are some good ones here, especially I Called Him Morgan, about Lee Morgan. I was never a big fan of the Chet Baker documentary Let’s Get Lost, which seemed to be romanticizing his terrible addiction and behavior as much as anything else. And the Clark Terry documentary Keep On Keepin’ On is more a sweet movie about an old man mentoring a young talent than a great film about a great musician, although I’m not quite sure I’d use that term for Terry anyway. About Ken Burns Jazz documentary, the less said the better. The Miles Davis documentary from 2019 is pretty good though, even if it short-changes the early 70s creations way too much.
What are some really great songs that no one has heard of? I have been thinking of this lately because I have a couple of favorites that truly transcend music but they from off the radar screen artists, or maybe on the edges of the radar screen. So here’s 2, with some brief explanations.
Let’s start with Paul Kelly’s “Every Fucking City.” This is one of the most clever songs you’ve ever heard, a story of a man traveling Europe, breaks up with his girl, and travels around the continent pointlessly trying to find her. Because it name drops so many cities, but then they are all the same, it works as a traveling song that if anything actually surpasses the huge Hank Snow hit “I’ve Been Everywhere” (as said before, not a Johnny Cash song!!!). I just think it is first rate material from the Australian Springsteen. If you ever get a chance to see him in the U.S., every Aussie in a 100 miles radius will be there.
The second song that is requiring me to express the need for this subject is Jerry Joseph’s “Sugar Smacks,” off of his excellent record from 2020, The Beautiful Madness. This is pure raw punk writing (if not the music per se) about the hell of the modern world–about MeToo, about racism, about drugs, about guns, about hopelessness, about anger, about whatever the fuck has happened to our lives. Joseph had been on my radar screen for years due to his old band The Jackmormons, but just barely, like I had heard of them but that’s about it. I was watching a Patterson Hood streamed show during Covid and he and bunch of other Portland musicians (some of the Decemberists were in on this) got together and filmed a little live performance in an empty theater to promote it. And I was like, holy shit what is this! They did two songs–the other was the almost equally awesome “Dead Confederate” which tells the story of taking down a Confederate statue from the perspective of the statue–“Selling people was good work if you could get it”–is among the lyrics. Turns out Joseph is a serious trip–like he would occasionally pop into Afghanistan and teach songwriting to young kids before the Taliban took back over the place like of trip. And then when they did take back over, he was able to use his connections to get some of the girls out of the country! Anyway, check this shit out. It’s mindblowing.
Album Reviews:
Dave Douglas/Andrew Cyrille/Uri Caine, Devotion
Having not enjoyed an Andrew Cyrille release last week, I needed to remember why I love the great drummer so much, so I checked out this 2019 album with the pianist Uri Caine and the trumpeter Dave Douglas. It’s really Douglas’ project and it sounds like his work, which consistently manages to push the envelope while also remaining tremendously accessible to a general jazz audience. In fact, I’d say this is really Douglas’ genius. Nearly all of his albums are well beyond enjoyable. It’s like he’s taken the second Miles quintet, listened to everything that’s happened in jazz since, and then merged it all together with music that sounds as great as Sorcerer while also being of the moment.
A-
Childish Gambino, 3.15.20
This project led to some divisive responses and I can see why…..There’s some moments where Gambino is at his best and other times that one wonders what the heck is going on here. There are definitely highlights. Still, it feels more than a little half-baked and disjointed. Minor work, major artist.
B
Mannequin Pussy, Perfect
This EP from 2021 is one of the best punk albums I’ve heard in some time. Surprisingly melodic and even power pop in some places, especially on “To Lose You.” Sometimes this is very hard core, sometimes it sounds like a Girlpool album. So stylistically this is all over the place, but as a whole, it’s an interesting band with lyrics, like so many punk bands these days, that are about love and building community in a difficult world than about anger and hate. Definitely worth hearing the back catalog.
A-
Dave Douglas and Joe Lovano Sound Prints, Other Worlds
I enjoyed one Dave Douglas album so why not double down? It’s not as if there’s a shortage of his music that I haven’t heard given the number of albums these jazz guys appear on every year! This is him and the saxophonist Joe Lovano co-leading a band with Lawrence Fields on piano, Linda May Han Oh on bass, and Joey Baron on drums. This is a band put together some years ago as a tribute to Wayne Shorter but on this, their third album, they only play original tunes. But what there is still is a lot of respect for Shorter’s space mind–both musically and in terms of his love of science fiction that has influenced a lot of his work in the last few decades. A lot of this could also have been borrowed from the great second Miles quartet; like the other Douglas album, this is where he operates. And like that as well, he works from a place that he can basically improve on it, not copy it.
A-
Buck Meek, Two Saviors
This is a country-adjacent solo project by the Big Thief guitarist. It’s alright, but not really more than that. I guess it fits into the kind of whispered Americana you might get on a Gillian Welch or Dave Rawlings album, but the songwriting isn’t up to that speed. I totally get Meek wanting to hang out with his friends, record a few songs, have a good time. It’s functional music so it’s not not worth releasing. But the world didn’t per se need this either.
B-
As always, this is an open thread for all things music and art and none things politics.