Album Reviews

Sort By: Post DateTitle Publish Date
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 30, 2016
The second David Bowie box set covers but two years—1974-1976—but for David Bowie that timespan leaped across a few musical universes.

Michael Fremer  |  Aug 01, 2005

“Jazz” and “clarinet” usually equals Dixieland in the minds of many jazz fans, which may explain, in part, why jazz clarinetist Jimmy Guiffre, a most imaginative, and free-spirited musician failed to achieve the acclaim he deserved-not that there's anything wrong with Dixieland.

Michael Fremer  |  Jul 28, 2020
This previously unreleased March 9th 1959 session recorded at Rudy Van Gelder’s Hackensack home studio is a “must have” for Blue Note “completists”, especially for those with an affinity for car and plane crash videos. If you are just getting into the rich Blue Note catalog, your money is best spent elsewhere as this session, despite the stellar group, often sounds listless and forced. Grooves get glossed over in favor of speed.

Michael Fremer  |  Jun 01, 2010

Producer and concert promoter Norman Granz signed Ella Fitzgerald to his Verve label back in 1956 and thus began a series of stellar studio albums, orchestrated songbooks and live set releases, many of which have been reissued on both CD and deluxe vinyl.

Michael Fremer  |  Oct 01, 2007

For those of you who know the pleasures of guitarist John Fahey’s Takoma recordings (Fahey was a rabid audiophile, BTW), or Robbie Basho’s, or even Sandy Bull’s extraordinary experiments in guitar-based world music fusion on Vanguard, James Blackshaw may already be on your radar screen, as may some of the other contemporary guitar experimenters who fly equally low beneath the mainstream musical radar screen, but until this LP, I’d not encountered the 24 year old Blackshaw who’s been recording and performing since 2003.

Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2010

The CTI record label started by producer Creed Taylor in 1968 didn’t immediately get the respect it deserved from jazz snobs who found its musical output as glitzy as its glossy cover art. It was the "smooth” jazz label of its day. By the musical terms of the next decade CTI’s original musical vibe was almost “free jazz” compared to the next decade's elevator music slop labeled as “smooth jazz.” It was smooth alright, but jazz?

Michael Fremer  |  Mar 01, 2009

The gift of uniqueness can easily become the curse of familiarity, easy identification and in the worst case, self-parody.

Michael Fremer  |  Jul 01, 2011

Classical music recorded all-analog using purist microphone techniques are few these days. Here is one from Bob Attiyeh's Yarlung Records that is both sonically and musically exquisite.

Matthew Greenwald  |  Feb 07, 2013
Van Dyke Parks: singer, songwriter, arranger, session musician, producer, creator of soundtracks, music video audio-visual pioneer...raconteur, (I'm sure I'm missing a few)...and above all, an artist. I can't think of another figure in recorded music for whom the title "Renaissance Man" would be more fitting.
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 01, 2007

(This review, originally written back in 1995, appeared in Volume 1, issue 2 of The Tracking Angle as a review of Sony Legacy Gold CD ZK 66220, produced by Bob Irwin. It was an amazing sounding CD).

Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2006

Twelve Broadway chestnuts from the days when Broadway shows were produced for New York sensibilities instead of for the midwest bus-hoards. Nothing poisonal, mind you, but Broadway today is aimed at tourists, not New Yawkers.

Mark Smotroff  |  Feb 03, 2023

As good and desirable as blues guitarist Mel Brown’s 1967 Impulse Records debut album Chicken Fat is, the reality is he’s not quite a household name, even among many jazz and blues aficionados. That said, enough people have discovered Brown’s music to warrant its inclusion in a significant new reissue series from Verve By Request/UMe that’s being pressed by Third Man Records. Read Mark Smotroff’s dive-into-the-frying-pan review to see why you might want to add Mel Brown’s tasty-sweet funky 180g Chicken Fat LP to your vinyl collection. . .

Michael Fremer  |  Jul 01, 2011

Talk about a confusing pedigree: though the jacket reproduces an "electronically reprocessed for stereo" edition of this album, the tape used is  mono, thank goodness.

Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2011

It's easy to make a case for buying this double mono LP reissue of a 1956 Columbia release—unless you're not a jazz fan.

Michael Fremer  |  May 01, 2007

It’s not often that a rock band remains together for more than 20 years and releases consistently swell records along the way, but Yo La Tengo has managed to do that, in part because Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley have beat the odds twice: managing to stay together throughout both as bandmates and husband and wife.

Pages

X