ROCK • A • RAMA

ROCK .A. RAMA

AN EVENING WITH HERBIE HANCOCK & CHICK COREA (Columbia);TOMMY FLANAGAN AND HANK JONES—Our Delights (Galaxy)::Two very distinct developments of the piano duet premise—Herbie and Chick (sounds like the names of two second bananas in a WWII comedy) like to stretch out mixing a little blues, a little bombast and a lot of impressionistic experimentation while Tommy and Hank prefer compact renditions of jazz standards with the swing unrelenting and the bop pervasive. Both records are excellent on their own terms with the Columbia side recommended for long pensive evenings and the Galaxy side for more extroverted digging.

TYLA GANG —Moonproof (Berserkley):: Sean's back where he started, walking a beat. At least Yachtless is o.k. for when you're Bud braine^ & don't wanna slosh your drunkishness all over a good LP but are still conscious enough to demand a tart chorus or two. Nothing here tho to itch the earsjn the least & the plodding disinterment of "American Mother" will have Help Yourself fans (all 3 of 'em) weeping. Vinyl is appropriately duck vomit yellow, the same color

This month's Rock-a-Ramas were written by RichardC. Walls, j.m. bridgewater, and Richard Riegel.

as Tyla's stringy beef gravy fantasy of becoming an American Grease Lord & the next Charlie O'Connell. Sucks de luxe. (Note to the cultishly inclined: Ex-Helps. Man • Ken Whaley is alive and balding ) j.m.b.

JOHN HIATT—Slug Line (MCA)::Trans lating E. Costello into 100% American, as inevitable a pop event as the sudden emergence of all the Springsteen clones a few seasons back. Hiatt's copped Elvoid's attitude down cold, but he still has a way to go in appropriating all the ins & outs of the Divine Mr. Twerp's peculiarly bent insights. Besides, Hiatt's voice sounds more like Graham Parker's. Memo to Mr. Hiatt: no more disco-baiting songs, okay? Only stultified hippies fall for that shtick. R.R.

HAMMER—Black Sheep (Asylum):: After futzing away the 70's as a premier fusion keyboardist (one of the more dubious of honors) Jan Hammer has opted for a straight rock aggregation and the result is a surfeit of acid nostalgia. Hammer plays a keyboard strapped around his neck like a guitar and it sounds like a guitar too—and tho he doesn't think he's Jimi Hendrix yet, one listen to his cover of "Manic Depression" and you can dig that his brain ha^s definitely locked into the '67-'68 ethos. A tonic for people who miss melting trees and slashing guitars. Nice ballads too, very British, very white. R.C.W.

JAMES TAYLOR — Flag (Columbia); BRAINSTORM — Funky Entertainment (Tabu):: Both of these albums feature flash graphics which may or may not aid & abet their sales out in the meat-marketplace of the record discounters. Taylor's jacket, as you've all noted by now, is two intensely-hued signal flags, which might merely spell out "J.T.", fpr all this land' lubber knows (didn't experience the conspicuous consumption of yachting in my youth, Jimmy), while Brainstorm's package is lavished with that disingenuous sleaze Polydor applied to James Brown's covers when he first came over from King. And the music? Brainstorm: nice, sax-shivered disco. Taylor: no. R.R.

BRINSLEY SCHWARZ-1970-1971 (Cap itol)::Pleasantly innocuous dippity dum that will remind you now why you didn't buy them then. The Brinsleys certainly \vere good enough, particularly beginning with Silver Pistol; the problem was that they never were able to negotiate being had If there's ever .need of soft core evidence to prove that Nick Lowe wasn't hatched from a 3 minute egg laid by Kentucky Fried Chicken ad jingle, this is it j.m.b.

ARTHUR BLYTHE—Lenox Avenue Breakdown (Columbia):: Blythe's arrival on Columbia has been well documented by now and it's' generally agreed that this record is, for Columbia at any rate, one of the best jazz releases so

far this year. Blythe's alto sound is jubilant and ripe and the arrangements are clever and upbeat. Nothing groundbreaking or earthshaking here, just positive, forceful jazz...during a more fecund season this might have gotten buried, but things are a little slow right now at the Big Deal labelsand this sounds pretty good.

R.C.W.

DIXON HOUSE BAND-Fighting Alone (Infinity)::Disco-advocatesto the contrary, it looks like pompo-rock (also known as "progressive" rock, in some benighted locales) is here to stay on Middle America's airwaves. Being the accommodating sort of guy I am, here's my suggestion for living out pompo-rock's reign with grace: since all these "progressive" groups are more or less interchangeable, let's toss out the past-expiration-date product like Yes & Styx & Kansas, and rotate the stock with the newest shipments of these synthesized-in-their-ownjuices lemmings. You can have Aviary and Tycoon, and I'll take the Dixon House Band: clean, opep sound (for this stuff), keyboards more primitivo than most, always threatening to break into their "Louie, Louie" Northwest roots. Plus guitarist Chrissy Shefts, who rolls up all your April Lawton/Suzi Quatro/Ann Wilson female-axehandler fantasies into one sexual objective correlative. Sis boom bah! R.R. VARIOUS ARTISTS—New Music: Second Wave (Savoy)::The second wave documented herein is the one that crested in the mid-60's after Cecil, Trane and associates had laid the groundwork for the new musical freedom a few years earlier. It's* by no means an inclusive sampler since most of the action was on other labels but Archie Shepp, in full growl, with the absurdly lyrical John Tchicai is worth checking out as is Paul Bley with Sun Ra alumnus John Gilmore. The rest is odds and ends and odds.

R.C.W.

KENNY AND THE KASUALS-Are Back (Mark Records. Ltd. EP):: "Shake It" is obvious „ ly the intended show piece of this 4 song set. a meticulously crafted pop tune written by Kenny Daniel and original Kasuals guitarist Jerry Smith that works well, primarily because of the vocal by K D . who sounds like he's either about to. or can't quite, shoot his wad. But I prefer "Live at Casa Chaos." a triple barrelled blow-out medley of Ricky Nelson's "Waitin' in School," Scotty McKay's "Rollin' Dynamite." and Joey Dee's "Pepperment Twist" guaranteed to kill the lame. > j.m.b.

JOHN KLEMMER—Nexus (Arista Novus):: Tenor saxist Klemmer's problem has always been that he consistently brings vast amounts of energy to unworthy projects—echoplex workouts, sappy attempts at "romanticism", low yield fusion mutables. This time out, however, the context, a collection of duos and trios with bass and drums, allows Klemmer to unleash his energy in a series of dazzling solos that ar^ both rooted in the modern tradition and committed to the kind of personal exploratory expression that makes jazz so exciting. This record burns. R.C.W.