Record Reviews
📝 2096 reviews| Artist | Title | Review |
|---|---|---|
| Willis Alan Ramsey | Willis Alan Ramsey | |
| Leon Redbone | On The Track | |
| Leon Redbone | Doubletime | |
| Leon Redbone | From Branch To Branch | |
| Joshua Redman | Mood Swing | <p>In the extensive liner notes of this CD, tenor saxophonist Joshua Redman writes that the main problem with jazz at the time was not the music but the public perception of it as forbidding and overly intellectual; that in reality jazz is quite fun and emotional. Those descriptions can certainly be applied to Redman's music, which, while pulling at the boundaries of modern hard bop, is also fairly easy to grab on to. Joined by his regular bandmembers of the period (pianist Brad Mehldau, bassist Christian McBride and drummer Brian Blade), Redman performs a full set of originals which, although not derivative, do fit into the straight-ahead tradition. At this point in time, Redman was growing from album to album, having already started at a high level. A fine outing.</p><p>— <b>Scott Yanow</b></p> |
| Joshua Redman | Blues For Pat | <p>After recording Wish for Warner Bros. in a quartet with guitarist Pat Metheny, bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Billy Higgins, young tenorman Joshua Redman hit the road with the same group (except with Christian McBride in Haden's place). This European CD, probably a bootleg, shows just how exciting the band was live. On 70 minutes of music recorded in a San Francisco club, Redman often indulges in close interplay and exciting tradeoffs with Metheny; the two clearly inspired each other. The recording quality is decent, and the performances overall actually exceed Wish in passion and creativity. Highlights include "Blues for Pat," an 18½-minute version of "St. Thomas" and "Carla's Groove." All Joshua Redman and Pat Metheny fans will want this one.</p>— <b>Scott Yanow</b> |
| Joshua Redman | Back East | <p>Back East showcases saxophonist Joshua Redman as he leads a few different trios through a cerebral and muscular set of originals and standards. Redman has long evinced the influences of such similarly inclined legends as Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, and John Coltrane, and Back East is no exception — which isn't to say it's business as usual. Admittedly, while this is a straight-ahead acoustic jazz date, it is one ripe with creative energy that finds Redman's knack for deeply thoughtful improvisation and unexpected rhythmic interplay in full flower. Recorded prior to the passing of Redman's father, saxophonist Dewey Redman, in 2006, the album is dedicated in his father's memory and not only features the elder Redman alongside his son, but Redman even gives him a solo turn on the last cut. Interestingly, Back East finds Redman ruminating on alternate meanings of the title: as in the "Back East" of cities like New York and Boston or as in Eastern philosophies and religious beliefs. This leads Redman to myriad musical settings, including the funky swing of "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top" and the more raga-influenced and expansive post-bop of the original "Zarafah." Joining Redman here is a cadre of top-notch rhythm players, including bassists Larry Grenadier, Reuben Rogers, and Christian McBride; drummers Ali Jackson, Brian Blade, and Eric Harland; and saxophonists Chris Cheek and Joe Lovano.</p><p>— <b>Matt Collar</b></p> |
| Lou Reed | Transformer | <p>Being Lou Reed in 1972 was a raw deal: two years after walking away from one of the greatest and most influential bands in rock history, he found himself a penniless, strung-out wreck, with a career suddenly and seriously on the wane. To make matters worse, his self-titled solo debut, released earlier that year, was a monumental flop, a hastily thrown together collection of second rate re-recordings of Velvet Underground outtakes that lacked the intensity and focus of his earlier music. Reed was at a crossroads, unsure of which direction to take his newfound independence. At the same time, a new trend was emerging across the pond.</p><p>Glam rock began to flower in 1971, and by the following year had swept up countless British kids, turning them from restless, discontended youths to consummate, androgynous hipsters decked out in platforms, sequins and imposing hair. It was the first mainstream rock movement to openly acknowledge the Velvets' influence, and in Marc Bolan, Ian Hunter and Bryan Ferry, Reed began to see his protégés: the coarse, primal rock 'n' roll he pioneered had found its audience. One of his progeny, a young David Bowie, was hot off the success of his chart-topping The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust, and was perhaps the most vociferous in his love of the Velvets and the incalculable influence they'd had on his music. When given the chance, Bowie and guitarist Mick Ronson offered to produce Reed's solo follow-up: what followed was undeniably one of both glam rock's and Reed's finest moments, one that gave him a left-field radio hit and a blueprint for much of his solo work to follow.</p><p>Thirty years on, Transformer still sounds startlingly fresh, free from many of the clichés that taint other similarly minded records of the period. It also works as an interesting diversion from most of VU's work: where they clearly had a full-band aesthetic, and often leaned toward the avant-garde, Transformer took the strong pop undercurrent that ran throughout their records and indulged. It's still fascinating to hear Reed outside the messy underproduction of the Velvets, yet even with Bowie and Ronson broadening the arrangements, Transformer feels remarkably natural. Their production work was so loaded that, were it not for the incredibly focused songs beneath, it might have been overbearing. But with a solid base, the ornate arrangements help bring these songs to life, lending Reed's music a broader palette.</p><p>Lou himself, by contrast, sounds as intimate as ever on the record's more sedate tracks, crooning in a sensitive lilt that maintains his blissful, effortless cool. Transformer kicks off with the aptly titled "Vicious", a stiff, snot-nosed Godzilla of a rock song, decked out in leather and eye shadow, and drenched in the kind of punchy power chords intimately familiar to anyone owning VU's odds-and-sods compilations. Its gleefully tongue-in-cheek lyrics are among the album's highlights, with Reed's impetuous condescension beating down his subject's ego: "When I see you walking down the street/ I step on your hands and I mangle your feet/ You're not the kind of person that I even want to meet." Elsewhere, "Perfect Day" earns the distinction of being among the least characteristic songs Reed ever wrote; while its power ballad production and melody are enjoyable on their own terms, the song feels trapped under his dry vocal delivery, and falls somewhat flat as a result. "Satellite of Love" is still the bizarrely affecting centerpiece, serving as a poignant reminder of Reed's underrated gift for melody, which often eclipsed the signature, visceral abrasiveness he's more often recognized for. And of course, there's "Walk on the Wild Side", the classic tale of NYC gender-bending that garnered Reed the only real commercial airplay of his career.</p><p>This new edition adds acoustic demos of "Hangin' Round" and "Perfect Day", the latter notable for a newfound emotional push in its minimalism. The remastering is nicely executed, clarifying the sound without bastardizing the occasionally dated production. This, along with the incredibly thorough liner notes and beautiful packaging make the reissue worthwhile for those who already own the record, and a must for first-timers just delving into Reed's solo work.</p><p>— <strong>Matthew Stephens, Pitchfork</strong></p> |
| Lou Reed | Berlin | |
| Lou Reed | Rock'n Roll Animal | |
| Lou Reed | Retro - The Best Of Lou Reed | |
| Refugee | Refugee | |
| Terry Reid | River | <p>River was a looser and rootsier affair than Terry Reid's first records, taken from a sprawl of sessions in London and California that generated enough material for several albums. The very looseness that gives the effort some charm is the same quality, however, that keeps it from being a major work. The songs mostly sound unfinished, as if they're friendly jams in which Reid and the musicians (including, most notably, David Lindley on half the album and percussionist Willie Bobo on the title track) are working out some song ideas or twisting around some riffs. It often brings to mind those parts of songs where the likes of Van Morrison, Tim Buckley, or Robert Plant sing-scat improvised-sounding vocal passages. The difference is that, for the most part, those singers used such sections to embellish solid songs. On River, the quasi-stream-of-consciousness vocal ramblings are the songs. The first four of the seven songs are very much in a funky, laid-back blues-rock groove, prominently featuring Lindley on steel, slide, and electric guitars. Reid, and the album itself, really begin to find more of an individual voice on "River," where beguiling Latin-Brazilian elements are introduced in the guitar, melody, and rhythm. The final two cuts, "Dream" and "Milestones," back Reid's vocals only with acoustic guitar, and have a romantic melancholy that likewise makes them highlights of this highly personal but uneven record.</p><p>—<strong>Richie Unterberger</strong></p><hr/><p>Much is made of the failures of Terry Reid's career. The man who turned down the vocalist slot in Led Zeppelin (and recommended Robert Plant to Jimmy Page); the man who as a teenage prodigy had his early albums irreparably mangled by manager/producer Mickie Most; in short a man who many name-drop as the artist who fate dealt a bad hand. Yet, few people actually mention his triumphs. For, following a seemingly endless search for a sound and working methodology to suit his incredible voice, Reid did strike creative gold by the early 70s and River was to be his masterpiece.</p><p>High profile tours in the US throughout the late 60s supporting the likes of Cream and the Rolling Stones (Terry was at Altamont on that fateful night) honed his craft into something almost totally new at the time. On his journey he'd befriended legendary multi-instrumentalist David Lindley of psychedelic world music pioneers, Kaleidoscope (coincidentally one of Jimmy Page's favourite bands), whose slide work graces River. An incendiary live turn was captured on film during the 1971 Glastonbury festival and it showed how Terry's funky folk blues was evolving into a similar abstraction that Van Morrison had stumbled over with Astral Weeks.</p><p>It's this jazzy abstraction that makes River such a treasure. With Lindley in tow, Reid made his first attempt to capture his muse in London with Yes's engineer Eddie Offord, but too much 'looseness' made the results somewhat frustrating. Only the freeform acoustic tracks, ''Dream'' and ''Milestones'', survive from these sessions and, while the meandering scat style is hard to grasp at first, the whole ambience is insidious, just as the theme of the river and its journey pervades the whole album.</p><p>Moving to America and working with Atlantic Recordsüber-producer Tom Dowd, the album became a yin-yang experience, with its first side a bluesy electric trip through just three prolonged jams, and the second featuring the two aforementioned tracks plus two other acoustic beauties (''Live Life'' and the sublime ''River'').</p><p>Lindley's guitar work is as fluid as Reid's way with words. Phrases and lines become mere sounds in Terry's mouth. To call these tone poems 'rambling' is to misunderstand the deeply charged emotion and pioneering spirit that marked the turbulent recording process. The river theme is perfectly mirrored by song structures that flow, ebb and never, for one instant, remain static. Of course, the Reid jinx wasn't lifted by this wonderful album. One more classic (Seed Of Memory) was to follow in 1976 and then it seemed as if Terry and the world reconciled themselves to never being as huge as he undoubtedly deserved to be. His influence on subsequent artists was, however, significant. Just try listening to Robert Palmer's Sneaking Sally Through The Alley after this album! Reissued at last, now the world can finally catch up.</p><p>—<strong>Chris Jones</strong></p> |
| Terry Reid | Seed Of Memory | |
| John Renbourne | The Best Of John Renbourne | |
| John Renbourne | The Black Balloon | |
| John Renbourne | The Black Balloon | |
| Return To Forever | Hymn To The Seventh Galaxy | |
| Johnny Rivers | Road | |
| Robbie Robertson | Robbie Robertson |
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