By Nick DeRiso Otis Rush is the star-crossed guitar god, always in the right place at the wrong time. Close but no rock star. That despite his role as a principal architect of the modern Chicago blues-guitar vernacular, and a memorably emotional style of singing that echoes some of the genre’s most recognizable figures. He’s in his prime on “Live [...]
By Nick DeRiso “The Guitar Hero” moves away from the tabloid side of the Jimi Hendrix myth, instead delving into the American guitarist’s sweeping impact on rock music and the instrument. That makes director Jon Brewer’s film not so much a biography, per se, as it is tone-poem love letter to Hendrix’s muse, and how it finally ignited. I think, [...]
by Nick DeRiso A Bob Dylan song reimagined into something like the Beach Boys, and also something like the Beatles — and nothing like folk music — propelled the Byrds to their first No. 1. Oh, and started the folk-rock movement. Among other things. It begins with Roger McGuinn’s guitar, sustained and bright, which was then paired alongside a complex [...]
by Nick DeRiso “Double Fantasy” never felt dangerous enough to be a great John Lennon record. That started with this too-slick, of-its-moment presentation. I guess it shouldn’t have come as too much of a surprise, really, since the best of Lennon’s solo stuff after 1970′s “Plastic Ono Band” similarly suffered from dated, shag-carpety production. He loved a big sound, when [...]
by Nick DeRiso Spend enough time around rock music — or, at least, rock critics — and you’ll be convinced that any number of Seminal Works, Forgotten Gems and Timeless Standards are must-have items for your record collection. Even if they turn out to be, you know, retreads dressed up as brilliant pop redux (Gene Clark’s post-Byrds catalogue, many of [...]
by Nick DeRiso That George Harrison kept recording until just two months before his death at age 58 in November of 2001 was its own blessing. After all, he hadn’t put out a new album of solo material since 1987. But you wondered what would become of Harrison’s final works, since producer Jeff Lynne had decided to finish the project [...]
by Nick DeRiso All due respect to Nelson Riddle, but this didn’t seem like it would work. “Only the Lonely,” at first — even to Sinatra — felt temperamentally suited to Gordon Jenkins, the man most closely associated with much of Frank Sinatra‘s string-oriented, darker work. (See the very good CD “September of My Years,” featuring “It Was A Very [...]
by Pico It must have been quite a journey for a life that started out in the wide open ranges of Montana and ended up in the hustle and bustle of the New York jazz scene, but trumpet player Jim Rotondi got there with an assist from the late, great trumpet player Clifford Brown. Playing at first the piano at [...]
News that the Beach Boys were contemplating a reunion to celebrate the band’s 50th anniversary (or not?), got us to thinking … by Nick DeRiso Think Beach Boys, and many remember a group perhaps irrevocably reduced by its tragicomic storyline. Admittedly distracting plot points, beyond the 36 Top 40 hits (most of any U.S. rock band), include shocking revelations involving [...]
by Nick DeRiso You hear Beatles songs remade by jazz musicians with notable frequency, some more successful (Jaco Pastorius‘ glorious reading of the oft-covered “Blackbird” from “Word of Mouth”; a just-right “All My Loving” on “Basie’s Beatles Bag”; Ramsey Lewis‘ underrated “Hard Day’s Night” from “Finest Hour”) than others (almost all of the rest of that un-Fab 1966 Count Basie [...]
Don’t Miss A Thing
Bad Behavior has blocked 3501 access attempts in the last 7 days.
RSS
E-mail
Twitter
Facebook
Tumblr
MySpace
YouTube
Comments