Yeah, Los Hombres Calientes, volume 2. I don't know if this has been talked
about here, but it is simply AWESOME. I guess this is the kind of confidence
a young artist can have only if everyone in his family recognizes that he's
the baddest of the bunch, and the family's name is MARSALIS! Jason Marsalis
on drums, Bill Summers on percussion and all types of traditional
afro-instruments (everyone heard him on Watermelon Man!) and Irvin Mayfield,
who sounds a lot like the new soulful Wynton to me, on trumpet.
18, yes 18! trax. Your Afro-Cuban madness, with a twist; kind of like a
bunch of cuban musicians at a New Orleans street band march! Also incredible
ballads, with string writing as beautiful as the Kronos Quartet playing Bill
Evans. This record's got it all, and a beautiful recorded sound to boot. I
will be returning for this on vinyl! (There was a big feature on Bill
Summers in the winter Straight No Chaser)
(By the way, for Voodoo fans, there's a cover of Feel Like Makin' Love that,
in my view, pales in comparison to D'Angelo's funky cover.)
The next one I got, ouch! Ronny Jordan, A Brighter Day. This is on Blue
Note, (other than being swallowed by corporate conglomerates which whore its
glorious past, and except for a few bright spots, what has happened to this
label?) OK, yes, I was embarrassed buying this at Borders, and yes, I was
transformed into the world of yuppiness, and yes, I should have jumped into
my convertible BMW with my sweater wrapped around my neck with this fakely
cool smooth-jazz-in- urban-disguise record under my arm, BUT, there was a
Mos Def remix, so I suffered. And yes, the Mos Def remix is the best thing
on the record by FAR. And yes, this is like the guitar version of Courtney
Pine's Underground but with no where near the daring production values of
that underappreciated record. (Actually, it is pleasing, but it's just like
a candy bar for the soul.)
Charles Earland. Intensity. OK, I'll have to listen to this one more,
because it's Lee Morgan's last recording, but I'm not feeling it yet. I
don't like Lee way up in that Maynard Ferguson funk register, and I wonder
what would have happened to his music had he lived. Here's hoping he would
have kept the forward looking fire, but we'll never know. Charles plays the
super clean licks, but, I'm dejectedly not loving this.
I also got another Charles Earland record, called Bumpers and Grinders or
Movers and Shakers or something like that. Anyway, it has Bernard Purdie and
some others on it, it is a '98 release, and it is highly UNRECOMMENDED. The
sound quality is terrible, and everyone is going through their paces. I
think this was his last record, and only Earland or Purdie fanatics will get
anything from this.
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