ROCK 'A' RAMA
COLLIN WALCOTT, DON CHERRY, NANA VASCONCELOS-Codona 2 (ECM) s: Brian Eno’s recent stuff has gone a long way toward making cross-cultural mix-’em, mateh-’em music hip again but he’s really only the most visible barrier basher. Trumpet great Don Cherry has gone much further afield: who else do you know who’s recorded with Ornette Coleman, Krzysztof Penderecki and Lou Reed? His playing here is fine as usual but equally important is the way his playfulness has affected Oregonian Walcott, who responds with subtle outrages like tympani solos and running down walking bass lines on his sitar.
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ROCK 'A' RAMA
This month’s Rock-a-ramas were written by Michael Davis, Richard Riegel, Ira Kaplan and Jeff Nesin. ’
COLLIN WALCOTT, DON CHERRY, NANA VASCONCELOS-Codona 2 (ECM) s: Brian Eno’s recent stuff has gone a long way toward making cross-cultural mix-’em, mateh-’em music hip again but he’s really only the most visible barrier basher. Trumpet great Don Cherry has gone much further afield: who else do you know who’s recorded with Ornette Coleman, Krzysztof Penderecki and Lou Reed? His playing here is fine as usual but equally important is the way his playfulness has affected Oregonian Walcott, who responds with subtle outrages like tympani solos and running down walking bass lines on his sitar. Fun stuff and easily as groundbreaking in its own way as Bush Of Ghosts. M.D.
PHIL SEYMOUR (Boardwalk):: An ambitious refugee from the old Dwight Twilley Band, and I never could understand what the big deal was about him, either. No, that’s too harsh; Mr. Seymour, reportedly the pride of L.A.’s Starwood, does sweet midrange pop that earnestly invokes all the early-Beatle, rockabilly, etc. icons, thereby pleasing many and offending none. And he’s much better-looking than Rex Smith, while he’s at it. (Spontaneous blindfold test when Teresa walked thru while this was playing: “She sounds like Melanie!”) R.R.
TELEVISION PERSONALITIES—“I
Know Where Syd Barrett Lives” (Rough Trade import 45):: An acoustic guitar tune just like Pink Floyd might’ve done once upon a time, with birds chirp-chirping just like Pink Floyd did at least once upon a time. Heck,^England seems to go through every other kind of revival conceivable under this lazy ol’ sun of ours, why not a Syd Barrett revival? There’s already been the Soft Boys’ cover of “Vegetable Man,” Knox’s version of “Gigolo Aunt” (especially recommended) and the Igloos’ “Octopus,” but if I had but 300 pennies, I’d spend them on this one. Such sentiment: “Aah...’cause I know where Syd Barrett lives.” PLUS an ending snagged right outta Bowie’s “It’s No Game (part 1).” Only better. I.K.
B.B. KING—There Must Be A Better World Somewhere (MCA):: B. has been so gracious and—in recent years—so malleable that well-meaning folks have been tempted to re-invent him. For some time it has seemed a
mortal sin to make a straightforward B.B. King album,,much less to try to perfect the form. But wait—the internationally famous surgical team, Drs. Pomus and John, have cut away the fatuous and the fat and delivered a wonderful hard core rhythm & blues record that—if it weren’-t for the state of the art sound—could almost have been made for RPM 25 years ago. If it’s been a while since you’ve reminded yourself just why B’s the very best, this is the one to get. ' J.N.
LEON RUSSELL & NEW GRASS REVIVAL—The Live Album (Paradise):: Leon’s trying harder on this album than he has in years (of wedded-bliss mush) to recapture his superstar whatchamacallit of those long-lost Mad Delaneys & Bonnies & Englishmen tour days, v when he was sitting on top of the known pop world. Russell’S new set abandons the cosmopolitan flash of world-traveller rock ’n’ roll for sweet-home-Oklahoma homilies—bluegrass (!) renderings of standards from the Stones, • Beatles, Ray Charles, even from Leon Russell himself—but that surDylanistic voice and pounding piano stage presence are just as commanding as ever. R.R.
BILLY KARLOFF & THE EXTREMESLet Your Fingers Do The Talking (Warner Bros.):: This Karloff character has hopped from one pop-music trend to another over the years, quicker than you can say “Robin Lane,” but he and his Extremes (who include Dolphin Taylor of the old TRB on drums) seem to have fouYid themselves a comfy cottage amid this chunky 80’s-ish Anglopop. Wry, often-misogynist, but just-as-often-droll lyrics: “Even when I’m sleeping/I sometimes think of you.” Karloff’s Cockneyesque, Chip & Dale-on-the-shoulder tone suggests dear old Ian Dury here and there, though Karloffs hardly so hyperactive in venting his spleen. More like if T.S. Eliot had been forced to mate with the Knack, and the offspring lived.
R.R.
HAWKS (Columbia):: Suchclean & brightsounding, crossroads-of-America power pop it fairly squeaks off the turntable; I bet these guys have been compared to the Beatles in the local papers out in their native Iowa, and more than once. Cheap Trick-like, as well, not so much in sound or attitude, as in the sense that the big record companies apparently weren’t interested in the Hawks, either, until their youthful exuberance was long since swallowed up by a rock ’n’ roll maturity of rather calculated energy and charm. (Found all the parts.) A Tom Werman production, it goes without saying...
R.R.
KURTIS BLOW (Mercury):: Yeah, rapping is real old news by now, probably even Mr. Blow himself will be dropping out of the genre now that palefaces like Blondie are cashing in on the style, but this LP is still the prime-time piece of the original rock. Neatest thing on here is how Blow’s raps—especially on the all-encompassing “The Breaks”—are so much more musical than most performers’ deliberate singing. And the snowballing rhyme schemes are as avantgarde as anything on yer MX-80 Sound disc of choice. Not to mention an organic ethnic answer to'Eric Burdon’s lifelong desire to be Black, too, while Kurti^ Blow’s at it. R.R.
