ROCK • A • RAMA

ROCK A RAMA

CHICO FREEMAN — Tradition in Transition (Elektra/Musician):: If you're hip to the toweringly majestic 'Jackie-ing,' one of Thelonius Monk's obscurer magnum opuses, you've absolutely gotta hear the version here. Dunno who actually did the arrangement (coulda been Chico but more likely it was Jack DeJohnette), but the junior high school oompah band treatment they give it is as pure-Monk in spirit as these ears have ever heard in a Monk cover. Plus DeJohnette (on piano, not his more usual drums) inserts totally Monkish notes behind other people's solos, something even most Monk-derived full-time pianists are generally (for some reason) afraid to do. Rest of the LP is Chico, basically an overrated pseudo-modernist who occupies the same commercial space once controlled by people like Charles Lloyd and Wayne Shorter, blowing more thoughtfully, less glibly than is usually his stock-in-trade. If this was Downbeat: 4% stars. R.M.

THE PHIL WOODS QUARTETBirds Of A Feather (Antilles):: I don't think alto saxist Woods has ever made a record this intense before, chock full of long howling notes that threaten to melt your needle and which serve a romanticism that stops just short of schmaltz, thank goodness. Woods wears his heart on his sleeve, whether bidding farewell to Bill Evans, dancing thru Horace Silver's 'Nica's Dream' or milking 'My Old Flame' for maximum pathos, and how the listener responds to such unruly passion is a personal matter...I suspect it's good for your soul or, at least, could clear your skin up. Worth a try. R.C.W.

R.J.'S LATEST ARRIVAL(Zoo York):: Groups like this one' make me wonder why we continue to be so fascinated with British electron-funk (for all its inevitable qualities), when we could easily pick up on dozens of domestic (mostly black) bands who make with the keyboardtronic grooves and protect American jobs while-they're-at-it-etc. This record has plenty of the synth washes that squeeze your gonads dry, plus the bottom-line bass hum thwack you need to get through these crazy days. Just like Human League, matter of fact! Or, as the immortal Bard put it, 'REAL AMERICANS DRIVE AMERICAN CARS.'

R.R.

CHEETAH—Rock & Roll Women (Atlantic):: Well, the double your pleasure/ double our profits boys arc at it again. Just think of it—a hard rock band fronted by two sisters, both of whom sound like a female Paul Rodgers. Yeah, just think of it—it's a lot less painful than actually listening to it. M.D.

This month's Rock-a-Ramas were written by Michael Davis, Richard Riegel, Richard C. Walls, Richard Meltzer and Jim Feldman.

AIR—80° Below *82 (Antilles):: Here's a good one for anybody who may have become curious about this avant garde trio after all the rave reviews it's received but was put off by die prospect of thrashing hubkaphone displays, squalling baritone sax solos and the various other rude moves one has come to expect from the freedom/energy contingent. This one's comparatively subdued, with just Henry Threadgill's silvery sounding alto sax, Fred Hopkins on bass and Steve McCall on traps, playing a marvelously loose and up to die minute rendition of Jelly Roll Morton's 'Chicago Breakdown' plus three Threadgill originals, the most impressive being an all-stops-out blues called 'Do Tell.' This is Air's crispest, friendliest album yet, the musicianship is flawless, don't miss it. R.C.W.

MOTLEY CRUE—Too Fast For Love (Elektra):: Yet another high-heeled Hollywood heavy metal band, filled with pretty boys who show off how tough they are by wearting lotsa black leather and metal studs. True, you ve heard and seen it all before but maybe your litde brothers and sisters haven't and they're the target audience, for sure. That these guys can't play, sing or write very well may work in their favor and they do think big—big stage shows, big hair-dos, big bucks behind 'em, so they're not likely to go away tomorrow. Whether they become Kiss-for-the-'80s or just another bunch of would-be superstarz remains to be seen,M.D. CR1S WILLIAMSON-BLUE RIDER (Olivia) :: Folk-pop singer-songwriter (and also pianist and guitarist) Cris Williamson has a rich, emotionally direct vocal style that brings to mind Linda Ronstadt and Jennifer Warnes (to name two). Blue Rider, her tenth record since 1964, mixes ballads and light rockers as well-crafted, intelligent and affecting as any similar songs written in the last several years. (Ronstadt would be a fool not to cover a ballad as lovely and image-dazzling as 'Like An Island Rising.') Whether expressing a level-headed humanism or confronting the uncertainties of romance, Williamson's lyrics are uncompromising and thoughtfully chosen: 'Night Patrol' (another song for John Lennon) begins, 'Somebody always gets it, on the Night Patrol'; in the driving love song 'Lucille' (with slide guitar work and supporting vocals by Bonnie Raitt), Williamson observes 'It's a dog-eat-dog and a lover's world.' Since Blue Rider is on the independent Olivia label, you may have to look around for it, but the music's well worth the search. J.F.

VARIOUS ARTISTS—Life In The European Theater (Elektra):: Another well-meant compilation—the proceeds go to European anti-nuke groups—put together by people that can't figure out that virtually no one buys a rock record for a cause greater than the music itself. Fortunately, this music is pretty good, ranging from the obvious—the Clash's 'London Calling,' which anyone into political rock already has—to the obscure—the Au Pairs' 'Diet,' which cuts just about everything on their new LP. Both the Jam's 'Little Boy Soldiers' and XTC's 'Living Through Another Cuba' have grown in impact since the Falklands fiasco but Elektra's decision to tag on a 12 year old Doors song to the U.S. release just shows how far they are from understanding current English rock at all. M.D.