Ryan Keberle @ Brooklyn Lyceum

Ryan Keberle
@ The Brooklyn Lyceum
Brooklyn, NY - December 21, 2008

Jazz isn't reviewed here often but a second engagement with Ryan Keberle made the case for doing so. Reviewing Jazz takes a certain appreciation different from the linguistic nut of rock n' roll. But it all makes sense when you hear Keberle and his four friends do a Miles-esque ballad, "Little Fatty". It just feels right.

New York Has A Major New Rock Station

This is an unexpected development. After 20 years of playing mostly terrible "smooth" Jazz, CD101.9 called it quits on February 5th. In its place is WRXP, and it's billing itself in a unique way. The station says it is independent-minded, in that the DJ's have control. It's not free-format like the immortal WFMU, and it's not a pure Indie rock station, but it says it has an independent spirit, at least in terms of operation. And one thing that sounds really appealing is the "intellectual" branding, as in the DJ's will not be shock jocks, but real rock music lovers. No shtick or gimmicks or dumb names.

But - as to be expected - it's far from perfect. As the dependency on radio has vanished (due to the horror of corporate playlists and the awesome power of the mp3 and the Ipod), there's no real need for this kind of station. Any time something sour comes on (and it seems to come on frequently), it just proves the lack of necessity for such a station. The station isn't working too well because they aren't as bold as they claim they are. In the 20 minutes I sampled, they played rather popular Van Halen (I fucking hate Van Halen) and Led Zeppelin tracks. Q104 is good for that. They also played some tepid modern rock that fails at contemporary pop stations. Counting Crows? Come on dudes. If I had caught the station's first three songs, I'd have flipped out in ecastasy: "Rock n' Roll" by VU, some R.E.M., and Costello's "Pump It Up" and later followed by, among others, the Flaming Lips...but it becomes very easy to pick apart the playlist after that, as is natural for a snob or for anyone really, in this consumer-in-control technological era.

If there is one real silver lining to this, it's that all those "smooth" Jazz listeners who were too scared to hear the good stuff, the real Jazz, on WBGO can now head that way and see what the JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZ is alllllllllllllll ABOUT, YA SEE!

Sonny, 'Trane, and Miles

Afrobeat Rules

Seun Kuti & Egypt 80
@ S.O.B.'s
New York, NY - July 1, 2007

Afrobeat Rules. So says the shirts for Seun Kuti and so it is that it is also true. The rhythms of Africa tossed and toiled into an American sound, evolved and evolved some more, one day becoming the work of James Brown and George Clinton, brought back to Africa, reworked, evolved, and brought back again, and this is Afrobeat. And this is Seun Kuti. The son of a famed Nigerian musician and social critic, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Seun is an extremely energetic and effervescent musician and singer. He leads a powerful, perfect horn section that is backed up by a non-stop, hard driving, rhythm section. It was a funky good time. A Jazzy good time. A soulful good time. It was all those great African-American-created musical good times rendered full of inter-continental vibe and swing. Afrobeat rules, indeed.

Artist of the Week: Miles Davis

Just because.

Artist of the Week: Sonny Rollins

Over the last year I have really gotten into Jazz. I started out with the basics, Miles' Kind of Blue, Coltrane's A Love Supreme, and a series of collections for Monk, Bird, Mingus, Dizzy, Duke, and Coleman Hawkins in addition to the collections of Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Billie Holiday that I had for years.

Kind of Blue is certainly my favorite singular Jazz record but I've finally settled on who is my favorite Jazz artist and it's Sonny Rollins. Like Miles, Sonny could flow between different sounds and make them his own but that's about the extent of the analysis I am going to try because I don't consider myself anything close to a Jazz expert and it would be a fraud to try to write as if I knew what I was talking about. I can (and do) do that with rock music but not yet - and maybe never - with Jazz. So all I can simply convey is that Sonny is my favorite Jazz artist and let his music speak for itself:

Jazz on a Sunday Night

Ryan Keberle's Double Quartet
@Knitting Factory Tap Bar
New York, NY - January 29, 2006

Two trombones, piano, bass, drums, trumpet, French horn, and tuba make for good, decent, and eclectic Jazz. Muzak-style Beatles covers aside, this project has potential in the local Jazz scene.