Donald Fagen, "Kamakiriad" (1993)

NICK DERISO: I was a huge Steely Dan fan, so I once bought even the individual releases, pining for those lost moments of the 1970s.

Meaning: I was ready to love Fagen's second solo album. Bought it out of the box, hoping for "Aja" with a '90s spin.

What I got was the same kind of boring vamps that characterized that too-obvious Motown schlock Fagen had been doing in the years after the excellent "Nightfly" album.

It seemed more and more that Fagen needed Becker, and badly.

Then, I noticed that Becker produced the thing. Oops.

A quick rundown: The drums sounded fake, the writing felt lazy, the concept was drearily antiseptic.

OK. There is, however, one distinct saving grace -- and a neat precursor to their successful reunion.

Nick's Pick was the Fagen tune that was co-written with Becker, "Snowbound" ... now, that was a lot more like it. True collaboration seemed to be the key.

Glad they got back to it.

One Track Mind: Israel Kamakawiwo'ole "Over The Rainbow/What A Wonderful World" (1993)

by Pico

I've never been much of a movie watcher, and less of a fan of movie soundtracks. But back in 2000 I rented the then-new release Finding Forrester, a movie that featured Sean Connery. And while the movie itself was good, I couldn't help but to notice what an outstanding and adventurous collection of songs chosen to adorn the flick. There was the music of early-fusion Miles, Ornette Coleman and Bill Frisell playing all over the film (Connerly frantically tapping out prose on a typewriter while Coleman's "Happy House" played was a pretty cool pairing of whack jazz and cinema). It was almost as if the job of picking the songs were left to, ahem, Nick and me.

Shortly after watching the movie I immediately purchased the soundtrack, an act I've only done once before when I regrettably bought the ill-fated 1978 "Sergeant Pepper" soundtrack. It was well worth breaking the twenty-two year boycott over.

While there isn't a weak track in the lineup, one song in the middle of it nonetheless stands out because it's the one that doesn't follow the pattern of adventurous jazz, and it's the only one with sung lyrics. That would be the mini-medley divinely sung by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, "Over The Rainbow" and "What A Wonderful World", a song that would later show up in more movies and TV shows.

Prior to this movie, I never heard of Kamakawiwo'ole and his kind of music is one I normally wouldn't be inclined to explore. But this Hawaiian native had become something of a superstar in his state for his appealing brand of Hawaiian pop, his ukelele and most of all, that angelic voice of his. "Iz", as he is affectionately referred to in the Rainbow State, was already dead for three years when I made my discovery; his persistent morbid obesity eventually did him in at the age of only 38. But as I discovered in a trip I made out there last summer, he is still widely revered and his CD's are sold in every corner store on the islands.

Now, "angelic" is not a term that's usually ascribed to a guy's voice, especially when the guy looks like he'd squash Ric Flair like a bug in the rasslin' ring, but that is just what his was. He possessed a soothing tenor like Aaron Neville, but it just seemed to flow out in a dreamy tone without any rough edges whatsoever. His relaxed vocal delivery matched the relaxed and gentle attitude of his native state.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking: if someone's going to tackle such over-covered standards like "Over The Rainbow" and "What A Wonderful World", it better be not just good, but out-freakin-standing. In this version, the absence of an orchestra and heavy arrangements takes out all the syrup from these tunes without any of the sweetness. Iz, armed with just a ukelele and his gentle pipes, makes an unadorned rendering in a Hawaiian lullaby style which puts all the focus on his effortless singing. Also effortless is the way Iz transitions from "Over" to "World" and back again. That said, I don't need to go on any further about it; you can listen (and look) for yourselves:



Purchase: Original Movie Soundtrack Finding Forrester


"One Track Mind" is a more-or-less weekly drool over a single song selected on a whim and a short thesis on why you should be drooling over it, too.

The Soft Machine, Middle Earth Masters (1967)

by Pico

One of the greatest unheralded rock bands to come out of the UK in the sixties was a group of musical misfits called The Soft Machine. This combo was among the earliest and most influential bands from Britain's Canterbury Scene in the middle of the decade; a loose fraternity that also provided the genesis for Gong, Caravan and Henry Cow. Like most of their Canterbury colleagues, The Softs consisted of well educated musicians who soon broke out of r&b and pop beginnings to take on increasingly experimental blends of styles. For The Soft Machine, that meant psychedelia, avant-garde and some of the first manifestations of jazz-rock.

The lineup of this group had gone through endless permutations; Andy Summers and Allan Holdsworth were among the musicians who had quickly passed through their ranks at various times. By the time of this recording this infant band had already gone through a change from it's original configuration; Australian guitarist Daevid Allen was forced to quit due to visa difficulties. Until the end of 1968, The Soft Machine was now a trio consisting of guitarist/bass player Kevin Ayers, organist Mike Ratledge and drummer Robert Wyatt.

About a third of the songs eventually made it into the Softs' first lp a year later; the rest never made it onto any proper studio albums (although a couple of them were recorded as demos earlier in the year). Stacks of live recordings from the classic lineup Soft Machine have been floating around for years, but official releases of live material dating to before the first album have been rare; the intensity of their performances in a club setting didn't lend itself well for making decent recordings.

One particular performance, set at Covent Garden's Middle Earth on September 16, 1967, was painstakingly scrubbed by mastering engineer Michael King, and released by the Cuneiform label last year. King wasn't entirely successful--the sparse vocals are still hard to ascertain in most places--but a good enough job to know that the patrons at the Middle Earth Club had a mind-blowing experience.

For those who have already followed The Soft Machine, the revelation in these masters are how far along this band already was in its march from a pyschedelic pop combo to a sweaty, nimble fusion combo that came into full bloom just two and a half years later on Third. The advanced group interplay and improvision to the degree performed here had to have been new to rock music at that time, even with the wrong notes played here and there. It might have been Miles Davis'Bitches Brew bands of 1970 before any other rock band played live with such an intense, loud and free-form groove without the reliance of an electric guitar to achieve it.

Ayers in this early stage of the bands' career was still the primary songwriter, and many of his tunes retained a pop sensibility to them. But the band members were clearly stretching his songs to their very limits. Ayers does play the frontman as guitarist and lead vocalist on the relatively mainstream pop of the first two tracks "Clarence in Wonderland" and "We Know What You Mean", but switches to bass after the jazzy instrumental "Bossa Nova Express" and the proceedings get more and more unhinged as he fades into the background.

Robert Wyatt was the man behind the drum kit. He combined uniquely agile percussion with a wispy, slight voice that compensated for its shortcomings with absurdist humor and a certain humanism that remains at the core of his music to this day. The huge downside in this live recording is that his vocals rarely rose to the front of the mix, as the band members were all playing rather loud. That mars what appeared to be a souful vocal performance on the Traffic-like "That's How Much I Need You Now". You still get a nice feel for his skin beating skills; on "I Should Have Known" he displays a style that combines Elvin Jones' polyrhythmic dexterity with the near abandonment of Keith Moon.

While Wyatt represented the main character in the band, Mike Ratledge was at the musical center. Cutting a tall profile in contrast to the 5'7" Wyatt with an appearance that suggests proto-Johnny Ramone, it was Ratledge's keyboard wizardry that was truly ahead of its time, rather than his looks.

Then, as it's been throughout his ten year tenure with the band, his fuzzy, adventurous and overpowering Lowry organ was the most recognizable aspect of The Soft Machine sound. Keeping a low profile on the aforementioned first two tunes, and tepidly emerging on "Bossa Nova Express", Ratledge cuts loose about 2:20 into the thirteen minute long "Hope For Happiness" with such an over-amped tone, he sounds much like a heavy metal guitarist in parts. It's impossible to think that Rod Argent or Jon Lord of Deep Purple didn't later take a cue from this guy. Combined with Ayers' fat bass and Wyatt's powerfully supple drumming, this sounded like one defeaning and scary power trio.

Ratledge's tour-de-force on "Happiness" was followed by the all out freak-fest of the totally dissonant (and appropriately titled) "Disorganisation". The kinetic chant of "We Did It Again" soon gives way to more of Mike's organ pyrotechnics. Ayers joins him with an over amped guitar on "Why Are We Sleeping" to create a garage band on steroids. Overall, Mike Ratledge would have sounded right at home in Jeff Beck's seminal first group, another band bringing the intensity of rock to a whole new level at the time, but didn't put their new sound to wax for another year.

In a far-out year and a far-out scene, The Soft Machine stood out. Way out. Listen to the Middle Earth Masters next to Piper At The Gates of Dawn and you will begin to wonder what was it that was so deadgummed freaky about Syd Barrett-led Pink Floyd. Relax, Floyd fans, Piper remains the better record without any argument. It just sounds a little bit more mainstream after experiencing what The Soft Machine was putting down at about the same time.

Purchase: The Soft Machine Middle Earth Masters

DaSlobGuide: Mardi Gras in New Orleans

NICK DERISO: As Mardi Gras dawns in a reborn New Orleans, we provide your cool-rocking road map to some recommended local hot spots. Now, most will say Preservation Hall, next to Pat O's. But that's overrated, and too crowded for our tastes. A sampling from elsewhere -- though the list is by no means complete:

1: DONNA'S BAR AND GRILL. This is on Rampart, across from Armstrong Park on the northern edge of the French Quarter.

She generally has brass bands here -- the best is the Treme unit -- but also makes room for more traditional stuff from small groups ked by the likes of Leroy Jones or Shannon Powell (pictured at right), who has a terrific show most Sundays. Powell played drums for Harry Connick Jr.'s Big Band, and has sometimes brought along Jason Marsalis (I once saw him on vibes, when he was working on a tribute to Lionel Hampton) as well as the swinging singer Germaine Bazzle.

Couldn't find a quick listing, but I've never had a bad time here. Plus, Charlie Sims' barbecue is excellent.

Donna's fun fact: Donna's has, over the years, issued music on its own label, called Rampart Records -- including "Kick Some Brass" by the Michael Foster Project and "Slippery Seven" by Mama Digdown's Brass Band.

1b: SNUG HARBOR. This is in the part of New Orleans known as the Faubourg Marigny, which is down past Cafe Du Monde to the east of the French Quarter.

Ellis Marsalis - the piano playing father of Wynton and Branford - is the mainstay. You'll also find guys like pianist Michael Wolff - who has played over the years with Sonny Rollins, Nancy Wilson, Cannonball Adderley and the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra.

What's cool about Wolff is that he is in the pocket, but he's not as conservative as so many of these younger cats who do acoustic jazz. He knows that sometimes, you've got to get a little outside.

The quote: "Groups like Return to Forever, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, electric Miles ...that's the music I grew up with. I remember the first time I heard 'Bitches Brew' on a juke box at this place in Berkeley, California." - Wolff.

2: FUNKY BUTT. This is down the street from Donna's on Rampart, at the Armstrong Park Arch.

The great, great jazz banjo player Danny Barker suggested the name for this club, in honor of Buddy Bolden's raunchy 'Funky Butt' theme song. During Bolden's reign as the cornet king of New Orleans, the song lent its name to a hall where Bolden often played. Appropriately, the current Funky Butt stands opposite of Congo Square, the heart of African culture during the mid-19th century.

Signature food item at the Funky Butt has been Red Beans and Anne Rice. Heh.

Funky Butt fun fact: There's a particularly voluptuous painting in the vestibule. It depicts, of course, a butt.

The quote: "What other city can say that it has a Funky Butt?" - New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.

3: MAPLE LEAF: For blues, I recommend as an offbeat choice the Maple Leaf Bar in the Riverbend section of uptown New Orleans. Your staple is Walter "Wolfman" Washington, a local master of blues, soul, funk and jazz.

Maple Leaf fun fact: Scenes from the film Angel Heart -- featuring the late, great blues man Brownie McGhee -- were shot here.

The quote: "When I was comin' up, all we had was one black station that was playing any kind of (good) music, period. But listening to these cats (Washington reveres B.B. King and Bobby 'Blue' Bland especially), it was like new voices and it stuck in my head. I must have known then that I was going to do something in that order -- blues. I fell in love with it." - Washington

4: PRALINE CONNECTION: I've had some great times at the Praline Connection Gospel and Blues Club in the warehouse district, a block over from the Riverwalk. They don't really do blues anymore, but the gospel brunches are still held Sundays at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Praline fun fact: They've done hip-hop at 11 p.m. on Fridays.