One Track Mind: Keith Jarrett Trio, “Autumn Leaves” (1994)

by Pico

That Keith Jarrett, he’s one amazing individual. Consider:

· In the middle of the domination of jazz by wanking electric guitarists and keyboardists in 1975, KJ sits down in front of an audience in West Germany armed with only a piano, starts playing whatever came out of his head for about an hour and the recording becomes a best seller, single-handedly putting the fledgling ECM label on the map.
· Survives a disastrous turn as a folk-pop singer/songwriter.
· Was one of Miles Davis' most enthusiastic electric pianists…which you wouldn’t know given how much he later disparaged what Miles was doing with his music at the time.
· Continues to play at a very high level despite recently suffering from chronic stress syndrome.

WE'VE MOVED!: Dablog by DaSlob is now ... SOMETHING ELSE. Find the remainder of this review through the new link.

Ernie Isley Walks The Fine Line Between Rock and Soul

by Pico

I think I can say this with high confidence that The Isley Brothers were among the best and underrated R&B bands of the 1970’s. It wasn’t just Ronald Isley’s creamy smooth falsetto or killer material like "Footsteps In The Dark", these guys made more than a passing nod to rock. Exhibit A is that unforgettable endless guitar soloing on "That Lady", and the lil’ brother who played it, Ernie Isley. Even today, with The Isleys reduced to just him and Ronald (now calling himself Mr. Biggs), whenever he gets his space on a song, you can’t miss his Hendrix-filtered blues lines. But Ernie had a bit of a career outside The Brothers, and while it wasn’t a story about selling a lot of records, he showed plenty enough acumen as a songwriter, singer and of course, axe-slinger, to merit at least a blog article extolling his virtues. I’m happy to oblige.

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In Other News: From Slate, Johnny Cash -- cornball

Can pop music be both great art and shameless kitsch?
By Jody Rosen
Aug. 15, 2006

These days, it's hard to find anyone who isn't a Johnny Cash fan. Three years after his death, he's become one of those rare musicians held in near-universal esteem. Everyone knows he's great, and his music is touched with such timeless and ineffable cool that hipsters still love him despite his embrace by the unhip. Cash's posthumous career, needless to say, is going very well.

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Forgotten series: Leon Russell

NICK DERISO: Another in our series on forgotten albums and artists ... LEON RUSSELL:

It's, of course, fitting that singer/songwriter/keyboardist Leon Russell's real last name is "bridges."

Claude Russell Bridges, born April 2, 1942, would one day write a tune called "The Masquerade" that, in jazz singer and guitarist George Benson's hands, hit No. 1 simultanously on the jazz, pop and R&B charts.

It's the footnote on Russell that got a thousand feet tapping. And powerful imagery that defines his life’s work in music.

WE'VE MOVED!: Dablog by DaSlob is now ... SOMETHING ELSE. Find the remainder of this review through the new link.

In Other News: Pitchfork's 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960's

by Pico

Their first installment of the bottom 50 just out today and while it's easy to dismiss these "best of" lists, this one holds much promise.

No Rolling Stone Magazine fixation on the British Invasion, Motown or Dylan here, no siree.

Oh, there's some nods to those areas and rightfully so, but these guys casts their nets much wider without much regard to genre or popularity.

I mean, picking a track off of Mingus' Black Saint & The Sinner Lady takes commendable balls. Already, we have representation from Johnny Cash to Albert Ayler to Bembeya Jazz National (who?!). All mixed in with Stevie Wonder, The Kinks, Cannonball Adderley and two helpings of Loretta Lynn. And we've still got 4 evermore enticing installments left, friends.

Can I even profess to know half of these tracks? ....well, probably not. But there's enough there to understand these guys really did their homework, and makes you want to know more about those obscure ones.

And so, that rare moment where a list is the result of a thoughtful, fair-minded process and not so much a collective ego trip of ex-hipsters longing to reclaim their cool cards deserves a moment of recognition. Follow along this week in a back alley foray down the Nineteen Sixties.