RECORDS

RECORDS

Paul McCartney has released a solo album — a fact that is both musically and artistically exciting. However, he’s also managed to shroud this achievement in an aura of petty bitterness and childish behavior. While the American and Canadian releases of Paul’s album don’t contain them, the English release Contains four information sheets which make clear his feelings towards the Beatles, Allan Klein and Apple. The four sheets are labeled “General Information”, “Information”, “Lyrics” and “Interview.” The first three sheets are made up of several photographs, the lyrics of Paul’s songs, and a booklet of recording information.. It is the Interview sheet, where Paul conducts a solo interview with himself,* that drops most of the verbal bombs. He deliberately asked himself such things as:

Question: Is it true that neither Allan Klein or ABKCO have been or will be in any way involved with the production, manufacturing, distribution or promotion of this album?

Answer: Not if I can help it?

Question: Did you miss the other Beatles and George Martin? Was there a moment, e.g., when you xnought: “Wish Ringo wis here for this break?”

Answer: No.

Question: Assuming this is a very big hit album, will you do another?

Answer: Even if it isn’t, I will continue to do what I want — when I want to.

Question: Are you planning a new album or single with the Beatles?

Answer: No.

'Question: Is your break with the Beatles temporary or permanent, due to personal differences or musical ones?

Answer: Personal differences, business differences, musical difference's, but most of all because I have a better time with my family. Temporary or permanent? I don’t know.

Question: Do you foresee a time when Lennon-McCartney becomes an active songwriting partnership again?

Answer: No.

Question: What do you feel about John’s peace effort? The Plastic Ono Band? Giving back the M.B.E.? Yoko’s influence? Yoko?

Answer: 1 love John and respect what he does -but it doesn’t give me any pleasure.

Question: Have you any plans to set up an independent production company?

Answer: McCartney Productions.

Question: What are your plans now? A holiday? A musical? A movie? Retirement?

Answer: My plan is to grow up.

This self-interrogation leaves little doubt that McCartney had been looking for a way to voice his dissatisfaction for some time. Hunter Davies, the official Beatles biographer, blames a good deal of the current strife on the entrance of Yoko Ono into John’s life. Nevertheless, it is generally agreed that the main area of s dissension among the grbup is embodied in the presence of Allen Klein. The very fact that the first official word of Paul “quitting” the Beatles came from the office of New York attorney John Eastman (Paul’s brother-in-law) is most significant. Ever since Paul became involved with Linda, he’s wanted John Eastmen to represent the group. This, of course, ran contrary to the wishes of John, George and Ringo; all three of whom were, and are still, very high on Allen Klein. Thus the initial breakdown occured.

Lennon himself has been quoted as saying that McCartney had nothing to quit. Says John, “We haven’t really been a group in over two years.” He goes further to state that the last genuinely collective effort by the Beatles was Sgt. Pepper, released in the summer of 1961.

So, while Ringo was making movies, George was fooling around with electronic music and getting involved in Krishna Consciousness and John, together with Yoko, was making headlines at every turn and establishing the Plastic Ono Band, Paul seemed to retreat into quiet seclusion. (He even died for awhile, if you-,recall.) Now, in! 1970, Paul is the Beatle in the headlines, the Beatle on the move. He is no longer just the “cute one” or the “nice one”. He’s no longer simply Paul. The renegade Beatle is back — call him McCartney.

There’s really not a lot to say about McCartney. Paul wrote all the songs, sings all the vocals, plays all the instruments, and produced the entire album. It’s a classic ego trip. It’s also a remarkably enjoyable recording.

The first song bn the album is a little lilting “la la” chant called ‘The Lovely Linda.” Paul states in the interview that this was the first thing he recorded. It was recorded at home on his Studer 4 track machine. He' says that he originally recorded “The Lovely Linda” just to test his equipment, but it turned out so well that he included it in the album. The second cut is another very simple but extremely infectious tune entitled “That Would Be Something.” Paul appears to be fascinated by the drums throughout the entire album and on this track he mocks his own drumming with some excellently contrived mouth percussion. In this song, too, the lyrics are based on simplicity.

‘That would be something,

Really, would be something.

That would be something,

To meet you in the falling rain, momma

To meet you in the falling rain.”

These lines are repeated over and over again; yet, the repetition is never a strain. “Valentine Day” follows and is j the first of five instrumentals on the

album. According to Paul, this is also one of three tracks on the LP that were ad-libbed/on the spot. It features uncomplicated guitar riffs and a steady rock beat. For a home recording, it has a clear crisp sound but it is definitely the weakest cut on the record.

If you listen carefully to “Every Night”, you’ll hear shades of “You Never Give Me Your Money” — only “Every Night” is a faster version. It’s the first song on the album that can be identified as Beatles material. It’s a shining reflection back to the days of Rubber Soul. Still, the message of Paul’s happiness with Linda is, once again, driven home.

“But tonight I just want to stay in

And be with you.”

The next cut, “Hot as Sun”, is an instrumental which Paul wrote in 1959. It sounds somewhat like the Baja Marimba Band and vaguely like a television commercial that I can’t quite think of. It’s really a remarkable track when you remember that Paul is playing all the instruments himself. He somehow manages to sound like a full mariachi assemblage. “Glasses” is just some scat-singing to close out “Hot As Sun”.

“Junk” is a truly beautiful song in the classic McCartney tradition of “Yesterday”, “Michelle”, and “Here, There and Everywhere”. It’s a song of remembrances, memories — happy and sad.

“Broken heated jubilee . ..

Sentimental jamboree ...”

A song of emptying out the attic and finding moments, tokens and souvenirs of the past.

“Buy, buy, says the sign in the shop window

Why? why? says the junk in the yard.”

The melody of “Junk” is one of the gentlest and sweetest tha Paul has ever written. On the “Interview” sheet he states that “Junk” was written during the Beatles stay in India and was intended for Abbey Road but something happened.

Linda McCartney gets credit for photos and harmonies on the album. Her photographs are obvious and very well done, but her harmonizing is not readily apparent until the final cut of side one, “Man We Was Lonely”. Possibly the most significant references to the strained relationship between Lennon and McCartney are to be found in this lyric.

“I used to ride on my fast city line, i Singing songs that I thought were mine alone, .

Now let me lie with my love for the _ time,

1 am home, home, home.”

The song itself has a country and western flavor to it, with Paul adding a pronounced twang to his voice as the song moves along. In the chorus of this tune, declarations of Paul and Linda’s new-found love and happiness are brought to the fore.

“Man, we was lonely,

Yes, we was lonely,

And we was hard pressed to find a smile ■

“Man, we was lonely,

Yes, we was lonely,

But now we’re fine all the while.”

. Side two of McCartney opens with the other typ ad-libbed songs that Paul referred to in the interview. The first is “Oo You” which, with its strong lead guitar and similar lyric styling, is reminiscent of “Site’s A Woman”.

“Look like a woman Dress like a lady,

Talk like a baby,

Love like a woman,

Oo you.”

This is followed by “Momma Miss America”, another instrumental. In the opening guitar riffs, Paul pays homage to the Ventures and Santo & Johnny then switches to a more Chuck Berry oriented style. The parodying talents of McCartney are highlighted here, as well as some impressive 'lead guitar work. There’s even one or two Jerry Lee Lewis piano rolls toward the end of the cut.

“Teddy Boy” is yet another piece of delicately precisioned McCartney magic. Written in India, originally scheduled for the Get Back (Let It Be) album, ‘Teddy Boy” is one of Paul’s most poignant compositions. It deals with a young boy who can’t accept the fact that his widowed mother has fallen in love with another man. A man young Teddy doesn’t even know. The next track, “Singalong ; - Junk”, is an instrumental version of “Junk” from side one. Following “Teddy Boy” as it does shows off McCartney’s beautiful melodies to perfection.

“Maybe I’m Amazed” is certainly the most powerful song on the album. It comes remarkably close to “Let It Be” in its total sound and impact. Paul’s lead guitar is a dead-ringer for George Harrison. The organ, piano, even the over-dubbing by Paul on a back-up chorus is fantastic. McCartney sings the lead vocal with a desperate, pleading intensity which he has seldom equalled on previous recordings.

“Baby, I’m a man,

Maybe I’m a lonely man who’s in the middle of something,

That he really doesn’t understand.

“Baby, I’m a man,

Maybe you’re the only woman,who could ever help me,

Baby, won’t you help me to understand.”

The final cut on the album is the instrumental, “Kreen-Akrore”, It’s an interesting track, but following the monumental “Maybe I’m Amazed” — a distinct anticlimax. What “Kreen Akrore”, can best be described as is a tour de force for Paul on drums. He even augments his drumming with his own heavy breathing and occasional Harrison-type guitar riffs.

The physical structure of the album, much like the music contained within, is designed to further the image of the McCartney’s newly discovered peace, and serenity. With beautiful color pictures of Paul, Linda, their children, flowers and animals Paul seems intent on ramming his “personal happiness” down your throat.

Still, one is reminded of a story which George Harrison recently told the press in New York. He and John Lennon wrote Paul a letter asking him not to release his McCartney album on a date that would conflict with the release of the next Beatles record. When the letter was completed, Ringo Starr volunteered to deliver it because he didn’t want Paul to suffer the indignity of having it handed to him by some unknown messenger. At Paul’s house, Ringo had to stand there while both Paul and Linda screamed at him. When he returned from delivering his letter, George described Ringo as being so drained that his face was white.

Paul’s talent is without question. His sense of timing, his masterful way of developing a melody, his simplicity in writing basic, honest lyrics and his voice (the Elvis voice, the Little Richard voice) possibly the Beatles’ strongest instrument, certainly their most versatile one.

I like McCartney (the album) very much.

I like McCartney (the man) a little less.

Mike Monahan

ALICE COOPER - EASY ACTION STRAIGHT WS 1845

Alice Cooper is a band that is maligned by almost everybody in sight. Their first album, Pretties For You (Straight STS-1051), was almost Universally ignored. They were considered pretty much of a one-shot freak attraction, and perhaps people thought that if ..they were ignored they would quietly go away. Such is not the case,, my friends, and Alice'Cooper has

returned. Yet almost from the moment Easy Action was released it was subjected to the most paranoid put-downs imaginable. Alice Cooper possesses a rather marvelous capacity for frightening people, it seems, and most Alice Copper reviews exhibit an obvious element of defensive hostility. Rolling Stone, in their usual holier-than-thou manner, immediately axed the new album. Fusion called it a drag (get the pun?). Prather like it.

With the possible exception of the Stooges, Alice Cooper is the most overtly theatrical rock group in existence. It is not surprising, therefore, that Easy Action takes on many of the aspects of an outrageously bizarre Broadway musical soundtrack. On stage they are acting out a conscious (or subconscious, as the case may be) drama, a chaotic Punch and Judy spectacle on the landscape of contemporaty Amerika. For those unfortunate enough not to be able to catch the entire show, this album is supposed to serve as an acceptable primer and substitute. Therein lies both this album’s success and failure.

“Mr. & Misdemeanor”, the opening cut, sets us right up. “Here’s new pretties for you/Nobody likes us, but we adore you.” Not only have they correctly accessed the Amerikan situation, but they already know what our response to it will be as well, The use of piano on this and other cuts (most notable “Beautiful Flyaway”) is especially significant in that it lends these songs a sort of perverse Gilbert & Sullivan air, perfect for a reflective Amerikan musical. To drive this point further home, they even incorporate some lines from West Side Story (“Easy action/got a rocket in your pocket/When you’re a Jet, you’re a Jet all the way/from your first cigarette to y.our last dying day”) into “Still No Air”.

To my mind, the best cut on the album is “Return Of The Spiders”. Dedicated to Gene Vincent (whom they backed at the Toronto Rock Revival), it’s good driving rock and roll, spearheaded by Neal Smith’s wickedly mechanical drumming and some nice guitar interplay. Despite all the publicity about uncertain sexuality and outlandish psychedelia, at its core Alice Cooper is a rock and roll band, a fact made firmly manifest by jthis song.

The principle failure of Alice Cooper’s first album was that it tried too hard to duplicate the band’s live sound, rather than utilizing the possibilities a studio presents. This failure has been rectified somewhat, no doubt in part thanks to producer David Briggs (who produced Neil Young & Crazy Horse), but strong traces still linger. On the longer numbers (especially “Lay Down and Die, Goodbye”) they tend to overdo the freak-outish things. This technique works live,, but without that visual accompaniment it falls fiat.

Alice Cooper is a decidedly loose group, and this hurts them in some respects. Easy Action shows that they have made great strides in tightening up for the studio environment, but we are still left with a lot of rough edges. This is most apparent on their ' “prettier” numbers. “Shoe Salesman” is based on a nice idea, but lacks the precision mat .he idea demands. The -guitars aren | really working together, and Smith’s heavy-handed drumming is far from appropriate. “Refrigerator Heaven” has a lot of tough potential, but loses impact with its near sloppy execution. When Alice Cooper’s harmonies are right they can be truly effective, when they’re not, much is lost. All the songs mentioned in this respect work as far as they go, but the point is that they had the potential to go a lot farther. Easy Action indicated that they are getting it together more and more, however, and that the next Alice Cooper offering should be an even more solid step in this direction, if not all the wdy there.

For all of Alice Cooper’s shortcomings, I still enjoy this album and consider it an overall success. Their presentation somehow manages to strike close to home, and this may help to explain the paranoid reactions they seem to constantly evoke. I find it real. And after all, in the great Amerikan drama, are we not all accessories after the fact?

Ben Edmonds

LEON RUSSELL — LEON RUSSELL — SHELTER SHE 1001

This is a great record; but for all the wrong teasons. After all, it’s (somehow) a spper-session, maybe even a super-super session; I don’t know of any other album in existence that has the coterie of super-stars that this one -has and I also don’t know of another melange of pop stardom that takes itself less seriously.

The problem one constantly runs into (and one need only listen to Delaney and Bonnie On Tour to come hard up against it) is that of the super-proficient star complex. The “Ah, Gawdam, Eric Clapton’s On This Record and It Shore is Great” complex. Kooper’s complaint. Dig?

Leon’s solved it the best way he could. The whole thing’s a riff, killer songs not withstanding. It’s a goof, one that doesn’t offend me but does offend Some others. Well, man, it’s about time someone realized that having fucking CharlieWattsRingoStarrGeorgeHarrisonBillWymanEricClaptonChrisStainton StevieWinwoodDelaneyBonnieBramlettMerryClaytonJoeCocker on a record doesn’t make it no museum piece. It just makes it rock and roll and the closer it comes, the more right on.

This record comes super-close to perfection but it’s almost unnoticeable ’cause you’re just too busy having too much fun. Even the titles are a put-on, everything from “Dixie Lullaby” to “Give Peace A Chance” to “I Put A Spell On You”. “Hurtsome Body” is a pun that takes a listen or two to figure out but while you’re at it, it’s a song.

It opens, with a deceptive ditty, “A Song For You”, Russell singing with a Dr. John voice that never appears again. Then into “Dixie Lullaby”, a tune that can only be called a throwaway. But after that it’s almost all good stuff.

“Old Masters” is loveable for it’s admixture of partiotism and truth. (Implying that the two are mutually exclusive is exactly what I intended.) And it takes a lot of balls to mix “Masters of War”'with “The

Star-Spangled Banner”. Works better than even Jimi Hendrix’ feedback odyssey version.

Key to the whole thing — it works. Except for “Dixie Lullaby,” “Hummingbird” and “A Song For You” (the latter only because it’s out of context) the whole thing is spiritually closer to good-time rock and roll than anything since those early Kinks or Lovin’ Spoonful records.

Russell, who may become a legend himself, even has the nerve to invent a fable — “Shoot Out On The Plantation” is a story-song that, not surprisingly works. Like the best of the rest of the songs here, it’s caught a hook on the chorus - that leaves you with the song long after your last listening.

' Uptempo things like “I Put A Spell On You” (a goof on Screamin’ Jay Hawkins) excite, believe it or not. Pretensions are few, amazing considering personnel, but they do hurt when they crop up. Which is basically the problem with “Hummingbird”; it’s just ’way too self-conscious, like someone here was worried about details and shit.

. But the second side cooks. “Old Masters” slows it down somewhere in the middle but the rest is all driving, essential and spirited Rock and Roll, with deserved capitals. Russell has the courage to put “Delta Lady” on this record and he actually pulls off a version that’ll stand next to Cocker’s, in its own way.

Russell’s piano playing on the second side is just a mind-fuck. It gets a calliope effect (totally inadequate explanation for what’s there) that makes the song more than a parody of Cqcker. And if Leon Russell never played on those Ronettes records he was supposed to’ve, he sure listened to a lot of ’em. The difference is that the corners are left on Leon’s wall of sound, the edge is still there to be dealt with. And whoever plays bass on that cut is absolutely incredible. Reminds me of those McCartney gems on Abbey Road.

Now, one might be inclined to call Russell a messianic looking figure, if. you can relate to a tie-dyed" hair in the midst of apocalypse as messianic. “Prince of Peace” sorta ties the whole gospel-rock movement that’s shaping up together. “It might be the Prince of Peace returning.” Flash. The Dylanesque verse reminds me of “All Along the Watchtower” because it’s the same kind of self-parody that Dylan used to such tremendous effect on John Wesley Harding. And that is exactly the spirit of this album, that’s its primary virtue (or, if you can’t take it, its primary fault.)

Just like everybody knew “Give ' Peace A Chance” (“One more,” Abbie Hoffman said) was a gospel song but it took jRUssell and co-producer Denny Cordell (who also does’Cocker) to prove it. .It’s the same spirit that-made them throw in that single horn blast on the' album version of “Delta Lady” by Cocker. But, after a few listenings the song begins to take on a more serious aspect than that. Just like “Hurt Some Body” (do you begin to see the pun?) is a shouting blues mockery of everything you probably.love about “underground” music.

“How can you hurt some body, hurt somebody, hurtsome body like me?” What a killer post-Burroughsian, post-Joyceian sense of humor. “And now I’m over in England thinkin’ ’bout how it used to be.” Which probably means that Russell wrote these tunes in whatever time he was in Britain, which can’t have been very long. Like Smokey Robinson, he’s got a perfect feel for what makes a lyric work,

The last two songs are just more examples of genius, easily the two finest songs on the record just generally fine. They exemplify what I mean when I talk about having that hook. Dig “Pisces Apple Lady” —

• “She’s a Pisces Apple Lady

She took me by surprise

And I fell into a hundred pieces

Right before her eyes”

And , all that funky, screaming chorus and piano, adding up to the most soulful white thing you’ve heard since “Gimme Shelter.” (Which is where they got the name of the record label, one suspects.)

More funk, on “Roll Away the Stone”, this time with a difference. It’s gotta be George Harrison on guitar, simply because that thumping whoom guitar couldn’t belong to anyone else. But it’s anothersort of pun because the tune is almost Rolling Stones’ funk, especially right near the beginning.

But everything offsets everything, perfectly or nearly so. It’s not a simple blues tune, nor an r and b tune nor a rock and roll tune. Which probably means it’s a hit, if they pull it for a single. If only for the colossal piano playing (making Nicky Hopkins finest efforts look like that little dude in Peanuts by comparison) and Leon’s shouting vocal that pushes past everything else.

On and on. He is sure enough a monstrous mad dog and even the Englishmen couldn’t bring this set down into over-seriousness. He’s' good enough so that you shouldn’t forget the name.

Leon Russell, ladies, and gentlemen. Someday having him on your album may make it a super-session.

Dave Marsh

GASOLINE ALLEY — ROD STEWART; MERCURY.

I liked Rod Stewart’s first solo album pretty well. Nothing new, .you understand, but well done,, listenable, and much better than most of the stuff that’s / being ground out these days. I certainly never suspected that his second album would be as fine as it is. Never mind superlatives; the records I’ve heard in the last year that I liked better than this one can be counted on the fingers of one thumb.

With Gasoline Alley Rod Stewart emerges as a major songwriting talent and Ron Wood continues his development into one of the best, most tasteful rock and roll guitar players aroundThe title song is as good an illustration of the two in action as any. To begin with, iFs the first really new -Goin’ Heme song I’ve heard in a long time. As with most of Stewart’s originals, the song evokes a certain folky feeling, while retaining the energy-thatis. central to rock and roll. Wood’s, sinuous leads parallel and underlay the convolutionsof the melodic' line. There’s a feeling of completeness about the cut* a founded, finished' wholeness — it’s a satisfying entity, not just four or six or however many parts are being played — and it’s that kind of tightness, the feeling of hearing a finished product, something that you wouldn’t want to add to or take away from, that pervades this entire effort. Few records evoke this feeling of completeness; I am reminded of Beggar’s Banquet and Let It Bleed.

Anyway, Rod Stewart sings better than ever, more extreme in his throatiness, completely assured in his phrasing, and he writes these excellent songs.

“Gasoline Alley” is followed by “All Over Now,” the old Stones tune, on which (as on “You’re My Girl”) Stewart and Wood are joined by the rest of the new Faces (the personnel on the rest of the album consists of Stewart, Wood, Martin Quittenton on acoustic guitar, Mick Waller on drums and Ian MacLaglen of the Faces on keyboards). In their live performances, “All Over Now” is a free-form crowd call, done as an encore with great verve and at great length, and the album cut captures that feeling perfectly* even to Ron Wood throwing in a riff from “Gasoline' Alley,” the preceding tune, as part of the (shall we say) grand finale (“You’re My Girl,” the other Faces tune, ends the album in much the same spirit and reinforces my image of the Faces as the . goodtime band of the year — certainly the role they fulfill in this context).

Stewart's treatment of Dylan’s “Only A Hobo” amazed and delighted me when I first heard it. The upper register hoarseness with which he sings it doesn’t come off at all like a Dylan imitation, but captures perfectly the prairie feeling that you get from Dylan’s folkier songs (or from Aaron Copeland, for that matter). Stewart assumes a perfect Dylan stance, performs the song with great sensitivity, and I suppose shows his acknowledged debt to Ewan McColl (yes, yes and the Universal Folk Tradition Confronts The Existential Dilemma). A great song and a fine performance with typically good playing from the band and some exceptional fiddle riffs (did Stewart say Byron Berline, of “Country Honk” fame, played on this album?).

Whoever the fiddle player is, his playing here, and (especially) on “Cut Across Shorty,” a classic little folk tale about “A country boy named Shorty/And a city boy named Dan/Had to prove who could run the fastest/To win Miss Lucy’s hand,” is remarkable: country textures, but supersensuous and superfunky. The country boy wins in the song, too. Actually Ron Wood is near his peak on this cut as well; his playing is as tasty and economical as Keith Richard at his best, if you don’t mind invidious comparisons of that sort.

Actually, Stewart’s songwriting is strongest on the downtempo, catch-in-the-throat tunes. “Country Comforts" is a deceptively simple song that nevertheless evokes the little pleasures of living in the country. Not on a commune, or deep in the woods, but living among country people and getting involved in simple, human ways that transcend nationalities (the song’s about England) and the death culture’s manifestations. I have good memories of that kind of life, and tlie song made me kind of wistful and a little sad.

“Lady Day” and “Jo’s Lament” are love songs which I am not wont to try to explain. After all, I have to hold something of myself back. Anyway, I like them.

I’ve been, listening to this record steadily for about three weeks. My copy is an acetate and I’ve just about worn it out; I’m also afraid that constant exposure has kind of blunted my perceptions. It’s like an old friend to me now, and all those great discoveries you make about a new record (or pejson, I suppose) have lost their edge. Get it and make them for yourself.

Deday LaRene

PHAROAH SANDERS - JEWELS Of THOUGHT - IMPULSE AS 9190

Pharoah Sanders — Tenor Sax, contrabass clarinet, reed flute, African thumb piano, orchestra chimes, percussion; Leon Thomas — vocals, percussion; Lonnie Smith — piano, African flute and African thumb piano, percussion; Richard Davis and. Cecil McBee — bass and percussion; Roy Haynes and Irdis Muhammad — drums.

This new Pharoah Sanders record is both exciting and disappointing. Exciting because, as can be expected, there is music here that makes your senses tingle, that delights your feeling, like all good music should. Disappointing because there are a great many flaws where there shouldn’t be. Not from the man who created the music on Tauhid. -

Jewels of Thought consists of two songs, “Hum-Allah, Hum-Allah, Hum-Allah”, and “Sun In Aquarius”. “Sun In Aquarius” is the major work on the record, taking up part of the first side and all of the second.

“Hum-Allah” is a nice song. Leon Thomas is the leader here, singing a song ; “for Universal Peace”, and he doesn’t go into the monotonous skat-type singing that characterizes much of his work. This is possibly the only thing that I can really stand to listen to Thomas on, without feeling pressed. “Sun In Aquarius” again is a good piece of music and might remind some well-traveled listeners of some Coltrane works, most notably Meditations.

Pharoah Sanders has gone in several different direction in his music, trying to find something different, which explains the variety in style in his previous two records. It seems that this search coincides with some searching on the spiritual level in the artist himself. And maybe he is trying to attain a music on somewhat the same level as John Coltrane, but not through imitation. This would explain the extraordinary qualities of his previous records (Tauhid and Karma).

The first part, or section, of “Sun In Aquarius”, is a total assault on the listener, although it becomes tamer with repeated listenings, and what at first sounds like several horns playing at the same time is actually Pharoah on contrabass clarinet. This horn (or horns, if one thinks of it that way) is augmented by various percussion instruments including the African thumb piano, and I suppose everything else listed on the record — except Leon Thomas’ vocals — that comes in later.

Most of this tune is relaxed compared with some of what Pharoah has done, and yet, the energy is there, the tensions^are still there, that are present in all of Pharoah’s records. The most amazing moment of this record (or maybe just a perplexing one) is a staccato section played by what I would swear is a trumpet, but the liner notes don’t list a trumpet, so I’ll take it that it is actually a tenor.

Suddenly, after so long with the clarinet and the staccato section gone, Pharoah becomes lyrical, again reminiscent of something Coltrane might have done, and this section is very disappointing.

1 don’t mean that “Sun In Aquarius” disappoints because Sanders doesn’t sound like Coltrane; the last thing we need is another ’Trane imitator. What bothers me about this part of the tune is that Sanders sounds choppy, uneven. The song he is playing, while potentially beautiful, doesn’t seem to be played with much conviction, and this brings the effect of “Sun In Aquarius” down a little.

On the whole, however, this should serve as only a minor inconvenience. Jewels of Thought is not as good or stimulating as I might have hoped, and Pharoah seemsto be gradually aiming * his music towards those people who just need a slightly stronger elevator music to take up those hours when they do the least thinking (which is most of the time for some). He seemed to be doing this to a certain extent with Karma, while at the same time holding on to most of his old farts. A mean trick if you can do it. But something new better happen soon. Sanders seems to be clicheing himself toward the brink of oblivion, like some other “creative” artists (witness Herbie Hancock’s latest mediocrities) and in the process he may be losing something.

SONNY SHARROCK - BLACK WOMAN - VORTEX 2014

Black Woman; Peanut; Bialere; Blind Willy; Portrait of Linda in Three Colors; All Black

Sonny Sharrock, guitar; Gary Sharrock, bells; Teddy Daniel, trumpet; Dave Burrell, piano; Norris Jones, Richard Pierce, basses; Milford Graves, drums; Linda Sharrock, voice.

This is a lovely album by Sharrock, comtemporary black music", featuring guitar and voice in a unique controlled energy seesion — with sadness too and blues and feeling open, something missing in some of the harder, mote singly-directed givings of the new music.

It’s painful to have to explain why much of the music is so “formless” or to even have to say what is there — for those who must pour the music into more shallow cups ...

Some things you can expect: “Willy” is folkish, Scottish, a short guitar exercise, strong, ageless. “Three Colors” has two very melodic sections, then a free section with Linda's' voice following the trumpet solo in a long part that could be^ecstatic or murderous. Sharrock feeds incidental chords in a flowing forward style. Graves is fantastic, responding and lifting — this could be very irritating if you didn’t want it to happen but that’s a difficulty I can’t feel. “Peanuts44 is ecstatic, that’s all, but you’ll bring to it so many beautiful things or perhaps even jdespair — toward the end, I am reminded of the voices toward the end of the Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”.

This is the best Graves I’ve heard on record, the mystical metronome playing with intelligence a feeling for the passion.

Love-ly.

Richard C. Walls