Record Reviews - RecordDB

Artist	Title	Review
Miles Davis	Highlights From Montreaux	<p>This should have been titled "Songs From the Complete Miles Davis Live at Montreux." While Columbia did the utterly admirable and fantastic project of issuing all of Miles Davis' performances at the esteemed European jazz festival on a mega-CD set, this WEA International selection is completely random, has no continuity, and doesn't list any of the better performances from that fine collection, merely generic A-sides form their own catalog that they originally licensed to Columbia. Basically, this is a rip-off.</p>— <b>Thom Jurek</b>
Miles Davis	Live Around The World	<p>This single CD gives one a definitive look at Miles Davis' live show from his last three years. Using funky but unpredictable rhythm sections and leaving space for plenty of solos, Davis created a unique brand of fusion that has yet to be satisfactorily duplicated. Among his more notable sidemen during this era are altoist Kenny Garrett, Foley on lead bass (which he used as a lower-toned guitar), one or two keyboardists chosen from Joey DeFrancesco, Adam Holzman, Robert Irving III, Kei Akagi, and John Beasley, various bassists, drummers, and percussionists, and on "Amandla," the tenor of Rick Margitza. Davis is in consistently strong form throughout the numbers, which include "In a Silent Way," "New Blues," "Human Nature," "Tutu," and "Time After Time." Quite often the live versions of these songs are more creative and exciting than the ones previously issued. This highly recommended CD (released in 1996) concludes with one number ("Hannibal") from Davis' final performance; it is not given a date but is most likely from just a few weeks before his death at age 65. No Miles Davis collection is complete without this important set.</p><p>—<strong>Scott Yanow</strong></p>
Miles Davis	Panthalassa: The Remixes	<p>Panthalassa: The Remixes is the logical extension of the previous year's Panthalassa project, in which longtime aficionado Bill Laswell restructured several Miles Davis recordings in similar fashion to the original production techniques pioneered by Teo Macero on Miles albums In a Silent Way, On the Corner and Get Up with It. Here, several dance producers are brought into the fold, not just to rearrange the material but to remix it as well. The versions that work the best are done by producers unafraid to tamper with the tapes: hence, two separate reworkings of "Rated X" (from Get Up with It) result in darkside drum'n'bass burners by Doc Scott and Jamie Myerson that find the hyperkinetic energy in the original. The highlight of the entire project is an inexplicably vinyl-only bonus track by DJ Krush, who turns "Black Satin/On the Corner" into a minimalist beat odyssey with several different passages and effective scratching in all the right places. The only real disappointment on Panthalassa: The Remixes finds trip-hop deconstructionist DJ Cam creating an uneasy alliance by crudely inserting a loping breakbeat onto Miles' winsome solo from "In a Silent Way." Remix albums are often a mistake for both parties involved, but this one does work on several levels.</p><p>—<strong>John Bush</strong></p>
Miles Davis	The Miles Davis Story	<p>This two-hour documentary was produced by Mike Dibb for the BBC's Channel Four network and as of this writing -- in 2008 -- The Miles Davis Story (2002) stands as the most honest biopic assessment of his life and career that has ever been assembled. Even as the primary focus remains on the music, none of Davis' skeletons are off limits, with plenty of first-hand accounts of him at his best and worst. Few stones are left unturned, from his unsettling relationships to the chronic bouts of substance abuse that fuelled his more disturbing personal incidents. Dibb's narration is sparse as the saga unfolds in the interviews. While all of the performance footage has circulated for decades among Davis devotees, it is actually the engaging and revealing comments -- courtesy of those he shared his life with on and off the bandstand -- that provide insights into the man behind the horn.</p><p>Among the key contributors are Clark Terry -- Davis' mentor from his early days in East St. Louis, IL -- as well as Jimmy Cobb, who was the last surviving member of the Kind of Blue (1959) musical dream team. Herbie Hancock (keyboards), Ron Carter (bass), Dave Holland (bass), Jack DeJohnette (drums), Joe Zawinul (keyboards), Keith Jarrett (keyboards), Chick Corea (keyboards), Mahavishnu John McLaughlin (guitar), David Liebman (sax), and Marcus Miller (bass) also provide their respective perspectives. As do two of the most important men behind the scenes: Bob Weinstock, the owner of the Riverside Jazz label, and Columbia Records' George Avakian. Both gentlemen deserve a tremendous amount of credit in their foresight when signing Davis, whose reputation as an irascible force of nature made him undesirable yet magnetic. As mentioned above there are plenty of concert excerpts of the artist. Yet one major oversight is the lack of any full-length performances. Arguably, these might not be appropriate in the context of the main program. However, the lack of substantive extras on this title make the additions a no-brainer. That said, viewers can find a cursory text biography and an equally perfunctory illustrated discography that deals exclusively with Davis' Columbia Records library.</p><p>—<strong>Lindsay Planer</strong></p>
Reverand Gary Davis	Lo' I'll Be With You
Reverand Gary Davis	Ragtime Guitar
Alex De Grassi	Turning: Turning Back
Alex De Grassi	Southern Exposure
Paco De Lucia	Castro Marin
Deadman	Our Eternal Ghosts
Iris DeMent	Infamous Angel
John Denver	Aerie
John Denver	Rocky Mountain High
John Denver	Farewell Andromeda
John Denver	Back Home Again
Derek & The Dominos	Layla	<p>Wishing to escape the superstar expectations that sank Blind Faith before it was launched, Eric Clapton retreated with several sidemen from Delaney & Bonnie to record the material that would form Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. From these meager beginnings grew his greatest album. Duane Allman joined the band shortly after recording began, and his spectacular slide guitar pushed Clapton to new heights. Then again, Clapton may have gotten there without him, considering the emotional turmoil he was in during the recording. He was in hopeless, unrequited love with Patti Boyd, the wife of his best friend, George Harrison, and that pain surges throughout Layla, especially on its epic title track. But what really makes Layla such a powerful record is that Clapton, ignoring the traditions that occasionally painted him into a corner, simply tears through these songs with burning, intense emotion. He makes standards like "Have You Ever Loved a Woman" and "Nobody Knows You (When You're Down and Out)" into his own, while his collaborations with Bobby Whitlock -- including "Any Day" and "Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?" -- teem with passion. And, considering what a personal album Layla is, it's somewhat ironic that the lovely coda "Thorn Tree in the Garden" is a solo performance by Whitlock, and that the song sums up the entire album as well as "Layla" itself.</p><p>—<strong>Stephen Thomas Erlewine</strong></p>
Derek & The Dominos	Layla	<p>Wishing to escape the superstar expectations that sank Blind Faith before it was launched, Eric Clapton retreated with several sidemen from Delaney & Bonnie to record the material that would form Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. From these meager beginnings grew his greatest album. Duane Allman joined the band shortly after recording began, and his spectacular slide guitar pushed Clapton to new heights. Then again, Clapton may have gotten there without him, considering the emotional turmoil he was in during the recording. He was in hopeless, unrequited love with Patti Boyd, the wife of his best friend, George Harrison, and that pain surges throughout Layla, especially on its epic title track. But what really makes Layla such a powerful record is that Clapton, ignoring the traditions that occasionally painted him into a corner, simply tears through these songs with burning, intense emotion. He makes standards like "Have You Ever Loved a Woman" and "Nobody Knows You (When You're Down and Out)" into his own, while his collaborations with Bobby Whitlock -- including "Any Day" and "Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?" -- teem with passion. And, considering what a personal album Layla is, it's somewhat ironic that the lovely coda "Thorn Tree in the Garden" is a solo performance by Whitlock, and that the song sums up the entire album as well as "Layla" itself.</p><p>—<strong>Stephen Thomas Erlewine</strong></p>
Derek & The Dominos	Live At The Fillmore	<p>In his liner notes, Anthony DeCurtis calls Live at the Fillmore "a digitally remixed and remastered version of the 1973 Derek and the Dominos double album In Concert, with five previously unreleased performances and two tracks that have only appeared on the four-CD Clapton retrospective, Crossroads." But this does not adequately describe the album. Live at the Fillmore is not exactly an expanded version of In Concert; it is a different album culled from the same concerts that were used to compile the earlier album. Live at the Fillmore contains six of the nine recordings originally released on In Concert, and three of its five previously unreleased performances are different recordings of songs also featured on In Concert -- "Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?," "Tell the Truth," and "Let It Rain." The other two, "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" and "Little Wing," have not been heard before in any concert version. Even when the same recordings are used on Live at the Fillmore as on In Concert, they have, as noted, been remixed and, as not noted, re-edited. In either form, Derek and the Dominos' October 1970 stand at the Fillmore East, a part of the group's only U.S. tour, finds them a looser aggregation than they seemed to be in the studio making their only album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. A trio backing Eric Clapton, the Dominos leave the guitarist considerable room to solo on extended numbers, five of which run over ten minutes each. Clapton doesn't show consistent invention, but his playing is always directed, and he plays more blues than you can hear on any other Clapton live recording.</p><p>—<strong>William Ruhlmann</strong></p>
Derek & The Dominos	In Concert	<p>The original nine-song double-LP In Concert was the first "new" Eric Clapton release in well over a year, and the first to show up in the wake of The History of Eric Clapton compilation (which, in turn, had helped transform the earlier Dominos album Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs into a belated hit). It was also, other than Eric Clapton's Rainbow Concert -- which actually took place in the same month that this set was issued, and was issued eight months later -- the only new Clapton material that anyone would see for over a year, as the guitarist struggled through personal turmoil that included heroin addiction. No one who wasn't personally close to him knew that at the time -- this and the Rainbow Concert album were issued to keep his name before the public. And at the time, a lot of fans and critics were disappointed by this set -- the Layla album had already started to take on iconic status, with lots of listeners wearing out that album's grooves and reveling in its complexity, intensity, and seeming studio-generated perfection (plus the presence of Duane Allman).</p><p>Comprised of live performances, In Concert never seemed as compelling: for starters, Allman hadn't been present for either of the shows that was recorded (and, in fact, only appeared at a tiny handful of Dominos performances), which made this a somewhat different band. And what we did get was a much more relaxed and often more soulful, involving body of music, starting with the opening track, "Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad" and continuing with "Got to Get Better in a Little While"; there was also some disappointment in the sound quality, however, and with the song selection. Despite the fact that they were touring to support the album that carried its name, the group seldom ever performed their most recognizable song, "Layla"; and their repertory was filled out with material from past Clapton projects rather than more material off the Layla album; in effect, the Dominos had become the first Eric Clapton Band, which made this a little less than a live account of this band's work. Thus, it was the hardcore fans who fully embraced this record, mostly for its transcendent moments and the beautiful interplay of the musicians, especially on their own repertory.</p><p>—<strong>Bruce Eder</strong></p>
Ani Di Franco	Dilate	<p>Ani DiFranco doesn't really expand her sonic palette on Dilate, but she doesn't need to. DiFranco racked up a dedicated cult audience on the basis of her conviction. There's not much melody on any of her songs, but there are messages and, thankfully, a fair share of humor. Dilate suffers from a bit too much repetition, but when DiFranco lands on a good hook -- such as "Superhero" or "Done Wrong" -- the results suggest that she could reach a wider audience.</p>— <b>Thom Owens</b>

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