ROCK • A • RAMA

ROCK 'N' RAMA

This month's Rock-a-ramas were written by Richard C. Walls, Michael Davis and Richard Riegel.

VARIOUS ARTISTS—Honkers and Screamers/Roots of Rock 'n' Roll Vol. 6 (Savoy):: Here's a real room clearer, 30 cuts from '48 thru '61 featuring five of the all time frenzied tenor sax players—Lee Allen, Big Jay McNeely, Hal "Cornbread" Singer, Sam "The Man" Taylor, Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams. The emphasis here is on loud, rough-textured funk played with a heavy back beat and it's clearly a pre cursor to Heavy Metal aesthetics (blitz level), punk (compact catharsis), and the Archie Shepp blow-outs of the 60's and 70's. Tho this is vintage stuff it's hard to imagine listening to it with scholarly detachment 'cause this is party music, Jack, and if you ain't in the mood to party, then you're gonna be blown back. Better believe it

R.C.W.

THE ATLANTICS—Big City'Rock (MCA/ ABC)::This album got lost in the corporate shuffle of conglomerates colliding, which was especially unfortunate in that it also happens to be one of the best releases of the year. Anybody who's ever complained about the Cars' "dehumanized" rock (actually, that was what I always liked about them) should check out these fellow Boston bombers. The Atlantics play pre-European power-pop straight up, nonstop riffing with direct lyrics about all that essential boy/girl stuff, just like the Beatles and all those folks used to sing about. Bobby Marron's vocals are really intriguing, as they reach way back before the British Invasion, to invoke earnest and melodramatic archetypes outta Gene Pitney, of all role-models. Highly recommended. Nifty concert-uerife cover, too.

R.R.

THE A'S (Arista)::Does pubrock exist in America? The A's, who've been Philly-dogging the club circuit around their home town for many a moon of their young lives, answer in the Affirmative on their debut LP. These guys aren't "new wave," whatever that meant, but they are energetic and cheeky and angry, and some of 'em are Italian, and there are odd echoes of. Richard Hell vocal frenzy and Stranglerian organ-diddling. In short, I love 'em and their album. As "A" Rocco Notte has it: "Don't get trapped in South Jersey Italian disco bands." Yep, my daddy's very words. R.R.

AXE (MCA)::Styx's clones may make me moan but the nurds can never hurt me. Actually, only half of this album is Styxy Stuff; the other half is Foreigner meets Boston. Don't ya just love bands who borrow from the most obvious sources? M.D.

CEDAR WALTON—The Pentagon (Inner City):: Walton, who has been more omnipresent in 79 than usual, is the kind of jazz pianist who gives competence a good name— tho you know you're not going to be dazzled, you know that if you have a taste for modern mainstream improvisation (a taste which is—as in fables of cannibalism—once .acquired, forever undiminished), then you're gonna be Sated. This album's candy for jazz buffs, short (about 30 minutes) and sweet (jazz standards, standard standards, and a revival of Kenny Dorham's "Una Mas"). Snack down. R.C.W.

DARLING—Put It Down To Experience (Charisma)::Myself, I've always been interested in the fallout groups that inevitably accompany changes in pop-music fashion. All those thirdstring British Invasion groups, for instance maybe their music wasn't always so hot, but it was still fun watching all those hack bands try to adapt themselves to the beatgroup imperatives. Darling are Britain's answer to Blondie, if anybody's asked the question. Much like darling Debbie, Darling's Alice Spring has already lived out a wealth of past lives, as a child actress; etc., and now it's time for' her move into the realpolitik of Pop. Ms. Spring has recruited a sympathetic gang of punky males to twang the instruments, and they've written some clever songs, but she ain't got D. Harry's voice—Alice sounds more like Genya Ravan, which is O.K. too. Oh, yeah, they even had Richard "Instant" Gottehrer produce this. R.R.

OLIVER LAKE—Shine! (Arista Novus)::Like most avant-garde jazz musicians to emerge in the 70's, alto-saxist Lake is seriously, and gracefully, stretching his compositional muscle. On the album's first side, the hot infinity-is-now group improvs are temporally tempered by arrangements of elan abated passion and sweetness (a string quartet is ingeniously employed). On the second side, featuring a trio for altoguitar-drums, the composed stretches are less obvious, the improvisational passions unabated. The range of proffered and suggested emotions seems limited only by the listener's willingness and ability to partake of creative moment— seems because Lake has his own limits, chosen and otherwise. Not a brilliant record, but certainly luminescent. R.C.W.

SNIFF 'N' THE TEARS—Fickle Heart (At lantic)::Fans of Dire Straits may be interested in this group, which invokes a similar formula— subtle country-rocking, English-accented, framed by lead-guitar figures -even if it doesn't deliver exactly the same sound. Besides, percussionist leader Luigi Salvoni looks like Ray. Davies translated into Italian. Not to mention that this is the only LP of 1979 (so far) to use the word "slipstream" on two different cuts. R.R.