Album Review- Dalla In Jazz

Allow me to share an anecdote from my last trip to Rome.

The simple continental breakfast provided by a budget hostel was offered in a windowless room near the laundry facility.  The lights were automatically extinguished every time someone exited the room, requiring a guest to get up and manually flip a switch.  The Japanese and African travelers pretended to ignore the inconvenience.  The German and English tourists muttered amongst themselves.  A Californian couldn't restrain herself after the tenth blackout in about twenty minutes.

"F**king Italians," she screamed. 

The Italian experience can prove maddening to outsiders.  It's enchanting and annoying, beautiful and grating, lovely and obnoxious, sublime and confrontational.  That's how I feel when I listen to Dalla In Jazz.

The collection contains smooth jazz, smarmy lounge jazz, adventurous improvisational sounds worthy of Soul Note and ECM, Serge Gainsbourg-style sleaze (that's a good thing) and a couple selections with a Tunisian twist.  It's fair to say that I have no idea what's going on.  I had no prior awareness of Lucio Dalla when I began listening to the tribute album.  I'm only vaguely familiar with a couple of the musicians, but among the interesting aritsts now on my radar are Vinicio Capossela, Gegé Telesforo and the adventurous trumpet/accordion duo of Fabrizio Bosso and Luciano Biondini.

I love Italy.


---
I reviewed Rockfest.

---
Antennas Up made an amusing video for "Coming On".

---
Footage of Reach and an excellent band opening for Talib Kweli features drummer Ryan Lee on keyboards.

---
Helker may represent the future of rock and roll.  RIYL: Dio, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest.

---
I'm pleased to introduce you to LeCroix Winget.  RIYL: Michelle Shocked, Lightinin' Hopkins, Kimya Dawson.  (Via Beau Bledsoe.)

---
Last week I wrote that I was looking forward to hearing Joshua Redman's new album Walking Shadows.  Well, I loathe it.  The strings don't bother me.  The extreme conservatism, however, grates on me.

---
The lineup for the 27th annual JazzReggae Fest doesn't include a single jazz artist.  Even so, I approve of any festival that presents both Barrington Levy and Common.

---
After I listen to the new album by Red Line Chemistry, I'm going to check out this week's new releases by Anamanaguchi, Jason Boland, Will Calhoun, the Del-Lords, Dillinger Escape Plan, Eve, Juan Luis Guerra, Immolation, Jaga Jazzist, Glenn Jones, Mark Lanegan and Duke Garwood, Christian McBride, Laura Mvula and George Strait.

---
Kansas City Click: Hansel und Gretyl appear at the Riot Room on Tuesday.

Scribbling Idiots are part of Wednesday's bill at the RecordBar.

Alan Ferber and Matt Otto perform Thursday at the Westport Coffee House.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Review: Soweto Kinch- The Legend of Mike Smith

Every so often an album is released that seems to have been made exactly to my idiosyncratic specifications.  Ornette Coleman's harmolodics?  Check.  Intellectually ambitious hip hop?  Check.  Sprawling narrative?  Check. 

I'm compelled to believe that Soweto Kinch crafted his new The Legend of Mike Smith with me in mind.  Can there really be anyone else in the universe who loves The Streets' A Grand Don't Come for Free, Kendrick Lamar's Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City, Ornette Coleman's In All Languages, Steve Coleman's Sine Die and the first Run the Road grime compilation?

The Legend of Mike Smith is the story of a day in the life of an aspiring rapper in which the seven deadly sins lay a series of traps.  Kinch employs instrumental jazz and uncommonly eloquent hip hop to track Smith's saga over the course of 140 minutes.  While kept separate, the album explicates the natural symbiosis between the two forms.  Even so, I wonder if the absence of a single representative track will cause the album to get overlooked.  It's my understanding that the recording is a spinoff of a theatrical production.  And it's possible that those elements- despite my immediate enthusiasm- will ultimately prevent the project from standing up to repeated listening.

For now, at least, I'm over the moon for The Legend of Mike Smith.  The album inspires me to make grandiose comparisons.  It's the British answer to Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City!  It's the Sandinista! of the new millennium!  Or how about this- it's There Stands the Glass' 2013 album of the year.


---
Magic Slim has died.  He was one of my favorite touring artists during the last great blues boom.  Howard Reich wrote a fine obituary.

---
Kevin Ayers, best known for his work with Soft Machine, has died.

---
"Roses" is a track from Red Line Chemistry's forthcoming album.

---
The ACBs have a gory video for "Television."

---
After shoveling snow for ninety minutes on Thursday, I unthawed to Nicola Benedetti's Silver Violin.  Nodding out to the often syrupy album with the violinist's visage dancing through my head was exceedingly pleasant.  I may make crossover classical albums my new thing.

---
I'm digging these new reissues: Leon Thomas' The Creator 1969-1973: The Best Of The Flying Dutchman Masters and Pied Piper Presents - A New Concept In Detroit Soul.

---
Inspectah Deck's Czarface gets my seal of approval.

---
Chicago Red, the new release by Brad Goode, contains much of the same rhythmic funk and guitar skronk of Christian Scott's exemplary 2012 album Christian aTunde Adjuah.  So good.

---
Euphoric Defilement!

---
Kevin Eubank's new album The Messenger is a nice surprise.  RIYL: Weather Report, Charlie Byrd, Dave Holland.

---
The zeitgeist: Miranda Lambert's "Time To Get a Gun".  ("I could afford one if I did just a little less drinkin'.")

---
Kansas City Click: My official picks are published here.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)