| SoundStage! Music Online Editor's Pick
Archives September/October 1999 John Coltrane - Blue Train SnapShot! Rating:
Rob Wasserman - Trios SnapShot! Rating:
Holy Modal Rounders - Too Much Fun SnapShot! Rating:
Utah Phillips - The Moscow Hold SnapShot! Rating:
Carl Sonny Leyland - I'm Wise SnapShot! Rating:
Copyright © 1999 SoundStage! |
If you don’t
own Blue Train, you should buy it. It’s a certified classic, Coltrane at his
hard-bopping best. But should you buy this version? If you want the very best sonics, the
answer is yes. This 24/96 DVD sounds airy and detailed, always easy on the ears too, even
though the original recording is over 40 years old and in mono. But the Blue Note CD
reissue, The Ultimate Blue Train [Blue Note 53428], is an exceptional remastering
that includes alternate takes of "Blue Train" and "Lazy Bird" and
multimedia materials, the best of which is a black-and-white video clip of Coltrane and
Miles Davis trading chops on "So What" (yes, first-track-on-Kind of Blue
"So What"). Although the CD sounds a bit thicker than the DVD, it’s a huge
improvement over the so-so standard-issue CD, and it costs half what the DVD does, making
it, with its fine sound and extras, a bargain....Marc Mickelson
An interesting twist
on a covers album, Trios is a collection of eclectic pop tunes from mostly
well-known songwriters with one man and instrument at the center. In this case, Rob
Wasserman lets his upright electric bass do his singing on songs from the likes of Brian
Wilson, Bruce Hornsby and Chris Whitley, all of whom do sing on Trios.
It’s an interesting idea and makes for an understandably diverse collection
that’s also a bit uneven in quality. There’s the bouncy "Put Your Big Toe
in the Milk of Human Kindness" with Elvis Costello, but also the banal
"Dustin’ Off the Bass" with Willie Dixon. Edie Brickell’s two
contributions, "Zillionaire" and "American Popsicle," are fun, but a
little opaque in spots. The sound is delicate and spacious throughout, terrific overall.
To his credit, Wasserman lives in the foreground part of the background, stepping out
front on three solo pieces that are engaging in a rhythmic sort of way. My first thought
is to say that you can only do so much with a bass, even a unique one, but Wasserman seems
determined on Trios to prove that it can be as much as with any other instrument....Marc
Mickelson
There’s an old
Steve Martin bit about how a banjo can make any song sound upbeat. I suspect the same is
true of the Holy Modal Rounders, the band from which Rounder Records took its name. On
this first recording in over 20 years, Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber, the heart of the
Rounders since the early ‘60s, along with Dave Reisch on bass spin their web of
idiosyncrasies and musical bliss on a bunch of covers and two originals. But don’t
let this description of Too Much Fun or the Rounders’ cult-act status scare
you. This is a collection of well-built acoustic folk that's utterly playful by design.
Even the perspective on some songs, with lead singer in the right channel and backup
vocalist left of center, keeps you guessing -- and thus engaged....Marc Mickelson
The Moscow Hold collects some of
folk singer/raconteur Utah Phillips’ best monologues recorded over a 20-year span. It
begins with the 15-minute "Railroading on the Great Divide/Moose Call," which is
spiced with music, narrative interludes and jokes, including a wicked swipe at
Leonard Cohen, and proceeds from there through tales both large and small, all with twists
and colorful asides. Phillips is a very literate storyteller, not relying on hokey
countryisms or making a character of himself. He’s more political than Garrison
Keillor and more prone to off-the-cuff one-liners too. Unlike most of the discs we review,
The Moscow Hold will make you laugh -- more than a few times....Marc Mickelson 
Playing honky-tonk
piano with the sense of tradition Carl Sonny Leyland displays is accomplishment enough,
but on this disc, the sideman extraordinaire and member of Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite
Boys shows he can sing and write a mean tune too. Yes, there’s a bit of Jerry Lee
Lewis in Leyland, but also the spirit of a musical traveler who has distilled the sounds
of Kansas City and New Orleans on the way to Chicago. On "Ruthie Lee," Leyland
bangs and howls, showing how perfect his voice and delivery are for his kind of music,
while on "Sunny Road" he plays a slow blues that simmers. At no time on I’m
Wise does Leyland sound less than completely authentic, which, given how deeply this
sort of music is embedded in the aural memory of just about everyone over 30, is testament
to how well Leyland knows his craft and how carefully he practices it....Marc
Mickelson