Here's a statistic for you--I just did a search. The word "rock" isemployed to describe just four of this month's 13 speciallyrecommended albums, while "jazz" graces six. To a certain extentthis is fallout from my Miles column. But it's also the diligentlistener's response to the new instrumental order crystallized bytechno.ARCANA: Arc of the Testimony(Axiom/Island)Expecting some avant-ambient acid jazz venture, you put it on andwonder why the otherguys can't be this smart. Then you check the personnel and decideit's because these aren't actually avant-ambient acid jazz guys--justBill Laswell indulging his fondness for post-Coltranesaxophone and post-Hendrix guitar. Since Laswell has long exploredthese tastes with depressingly competent results, however, youtransfer credit to the late Tony Williams. But unfortunately,Williams hadn't been making such focused records either. So, withBuckethead and Nicky Skopelitis ruled out as decisive variables,the secret comes down to this: Pharoah Sanders doing his thing,Graham Haynes being told what his is. A MINUS[Later]MARY J. BLIGE:Share My World(MCA)Her song sense rooted in slowjams not soul, her soul rooted in radio not the church, Blige is adiva for her own time. As befits her hip hop ethos, she's neversoft if often vulnerable, and as befits her hip hop aesthetic, sheplays her natural vocal cadences for melodic signature andsometimes hook. Too strong to talk dirty, she leaves not theslightest doubt of her sexual prowess. She redefines the New Yorkaccent for the '90s. And she's taken two straight follow-ups to thenext level. A MINUSCORNERSHOP: When I Was Born for the 7th Time(Luaka Bop/Warner Bros.)What's so disarming, and confusing, about Tjinder Singh isthat he doesn't have a lot to say. Here he is realizing ahistorical inevitability a decade or three in the making--namely,an international pop so seamless that its fusion of alt-rock,Punjabi melody, hip hop, and what-all is subsumed into its ownsong-based catchiness right up to the time Singh reclaims"Norwegian Wood" for the land of the sitar. And indeed, his lyricsvaguely express the proper liberal attitudes toward the weightysocial issues his achievement implies. But there's no sense ofmission, just a handsome dilettante enjoying his easy tunes andfound beats; he's not even trying to go pop, especially. Which iswhy he has at least the potential to become a naturalizing force,where OMC is just another airplay fluke. A MINUS[Later: A]BOB DYLAN: Time Out of Mind(Columbia)A soundscape as surely asMaxinquaye or The Ballad of Tom Joad, only more tuneful and lessdepressive--that is, merely bereft, rather than devoid of will oraffect. Lyrically, it splits the difference between generalized ElLay schlock and minor Child ballad; a typical couplet goes, "Youleft me standing in the doorway crying/In the dark land of thesun." So the words are good enough except on the Billy Joel-covered"Make You Feel My Love," yet rarely what you come back for--"Highlands"doesn't approach the Sam Shepardized '80s epic "Brownsville Girl."The hooks are Dylan's spectral vocals--just hislatest ventriloquist's trick, a new take on ancient, yet so real,so inevitable--and a band whose quietude evokes the sleepy postjunkfunk of Clapton's 461 Ocean Boulevard without the nearness of sex.Special kudos to Augie Meyers, the Al Kooper we've all been waitingfor. A MINUS[Later]FOREST FOR THE TREES(DreamWorks)The initial temptation is to gushover how trip-hoppy Carl Stephenson was ere world or underworldheard tell of Tricky or DJ Shadow. But in fact this 1993 recordingshows its age, most tellingly by assuming that tunes are a goodthing. Stephenson cut his studio chops producing rappers--firstwith the Geto Boys, then with the College Boyz, two apparentlydissimilar acts whose hunger for hits transcended pettydifferences. So when he entered the rock world, he saw no reason tobelieve that texture and melody were mutually exclusive. And if itturns out that this was naive, well, naivete is one thing thatmakes this obsession disguised as an album so appealing. Finally wewho prefer Mellow Gold to Odelay have a good idea why. A MINUS[Later]JANET JACKSON: The Velvet Rope(Virgin)Why do I believe that thisself-made object's mild kink and coyly matter-of-fact bisexualityare functions of flesh pure and simple? That for her sex really isabout pleasure rather than power--or even, except as a side issue,love? Because her sex songs are flavorful where her love songs areall cliche, and because her much-berated fluting little-girl timbrewhispers innocence even when she's loosening her new friend'spretty French gown. So in the absence of total personalfulfillment, here's hoping she retains her magical ability to feigndelight, to fool herself as well as everyone else. A MINUS[Later]JAZZ SATELLITES--VOLUME 1: ELECTRIFICATION(Virgin import)Runningthe gauntlet of not just fusion but such ignominious genres asThird Stream, soundtrack, and acid jazz, kowtowing to pretenders,meddlers, mooncalves, and schlockmeisters like Jan Garbarek, TeoMacero, Alice Coltrane, Norman Connors, and a panoply ofpseudonymous English cyborgs on the order of Divine Styler, thisobscurely annotated double-CD is the great lost testament of lateMiles--cacophonous, futuristic, swinging-to-spacy variations oneverything he thought he was doing between Bitches Brew andAgharta. Connecting up the mind-to-the-wall charge of earlyMahavishnu and Tony Williams Lifetime, it ought to demonstrate theobvious to technomancers the world over--raid jazz for avant soundsand leave its beats for hip hop to sort out. In fact it proved soindigestible that in its native UK it vanished without notice. Ihear Other Music imports them by the single unit. If you find one,don't let go. A MINUS[Later]LEON PARKER: Belief(Columbia)A jazz record, indisputably--an acoustic jazz record. But Parker's commitment to minimal means,catchy tunes, up-front beats, and internationalist percussion suitsthe soundscape mindset--if anything, ambient wonks may find hisstructures too clear, his melodies too direct. Moreover, his secondalbum accomplishes these modest but elusive goals so fully thatseekers will be compelled to interface with the music as well asthe ideas. Which is one idea that's almost always a keeper. A MINUS[Later]PHISH: Slip Stitch and Pass(Elektra)Kinda restores your faith inhumanity for these guys to make like they know the differencebetween intelligent and pretentious. Page McConnell plays blues,Trey Anastasio plays Jerry, and David Byrne, ZZ Top, and the19th-century team of Joe Howard and Ida Emerson beef up the feysongwriting. Plus you have to love their long overdue Doorsinterpolation: "Mother . . . I want to cook you breakfast." B PLUSSPRING HEEL JACK: Busy Curious Thirsty(Island)What directconnection John Coxon and Ashley Wales retain to dance music is asobscure to me as their precise relationship to contemporarycomposition. But they mine both modes productively enough to coverover the pitfalls that are always tripping up nonbelievers. I lovethe way "Galapagos 3"'s slowly accreted minimalist detail is blownaway by a brief blast of ersatz symphony, the way "The Wrong Guide"opens up a piece of small-group jazz for simulated drums andsimulated . . . bassoon (?) to (simulated) pizzicato percussion,soundtrack orchestra, and anti-aircraft artillery--all of whichcontinue the improvisation for a while. They're visceral wherecomposition is cerebral and ambient is unmoored. They never fallfor rock-techno's arena-scale gestures or art-techno's fatalconflation of thinking and mooning about. If any competitors outthere can make such claims, their identities are obscure indeed. ATHOMAS JEFFERSON SLAVE APARTMENTS: Straight to Video(Anyway)Ron House makes the sex life of an aging punk in an overgrown collegetown sound active, raunchy, and not without spiritual rewards--inaddition to the professional shank shaker and the prostitute withher leg half chewed off, he fucks several women with truly enormouslibraries. He also bids an unsentimental farewell to Lester Bangsand complains about the age ofthe spectacle. A MINUSTHOMPSON & THOMPSON: Industry(Rykodisc)The second Thompson isbassist Danny, the instrumental interludes of whose north-of-Englandjazz-march unit Whatever set off Richard's six songs in themanner of Charlie Haden or Kurt Weill--with music that intensifiesmeaning as well as sustaining mood. The songs themselves, all ofwhich attend closely to the title concept, were researched in dyingcoalmines and the Karl Marx library, among other places, and let'shope they convince Richard that art is 90 per cent perspiration. Itdoes him a world of good to get out of himself. A MINUSTOWNSHIP JAZZ 'N' JIVE(Music Club)Before mbaqanga's stompingbumpkin intensity swept the townships, small jazz-style ensemblesplayed indigenous tunes with a South African beat you couldjitterbug to. This is that music, the same urbane mode cherry-pickedso infectiously on the Mandela soundtrack: the swinging jiveof the '50s, when social dancing was a passion in everyslapped-together apartheid ghetto. Far suaver than mbaqanga or kwela yet noless African, far simpler than Count Basie or the Mills Brothersyet no less artful, it implied an indoor space even if it couldn'talways find one big enough for its spiritual ambitions. Itsmatchless buoyancy is mostly a matter of two learned rhythms comingtogether. But it evinces an unsinkability nobody would everpuncture. ADud of the MonthEN VOGUE: EV3(EastWest)Sylvia Rhone isn't gonnapull the plug on her copyright just because Dawn Robinson hasdecided she's the reason for her own success. So with yeomanlikehelp from Babyface, the label has laboriously extracted a hit andsome platinum from Rhone's three remaining charges as they strainfor soul and funk as stagily and dutifully as the fabricated bevyof talent-hunt beauties they've always been. Sole exception: theRobinson-led Set It Off smash "Don't Let Go (Love)." There's alesson in that, right? Only what will that lesson be whenRobinson's debut does the dog? B MINUSAdditional Consumer News:Honorable Mention:Clay Harper, East of Easter (Casino Music):ex-Coolie meets Wreckless Eric in totally improbable guitar-organgarage ("The Next Contestant," "Health Food and Homicide," "AirportHoliday Inn")Jimmy King, Soldier for the Blues (BullseyeBlues): Cray's best in half a decade ("Living in the Danger Zone,""Drawers")Oranj Symphonette, Plays Mancini(Gramavision): reconstructing kitsch for the music of it ("MoonRiver," "A Shot in the Dark")Spanish Fly, Fly by Night (Accurate):trumpet-tuba-guitar-(drums) improvise ballet score and othervariations on "My Bonnie" ("Movement 3: Sisters," "Movement 5: End ofthe Night")Dave Soldier, The Kropotkins (Koch):postmodern preblues ("Good Cheap Transportation," "Cold Wet Steel")Coolio, My Soul (Tommy Boy): voice of reason("C U When U Get There," "Homeboy")Khaled, Sahra (Island): panpop move("Lillah," "Detni Essekra")Marlee MacLeod, Vertigo (TRG): I don't knowhow or why (although she was a rock critic once), but this practicalindependent's cadences eerily evoke those of . . . Trotsky Icepick?("Me and Shelley Winters," "Mata Hari Dress")The Rolling Stones, Bridges to Babylon(Virgin): still know how to construct, play, and--sometimes--sing asong ("You Don't Have To Mean It," "Flip the Switch")Dr. John, Trippin' Live (Surefire): for JamesBooker and Roy Byrd ("Tipitina," "Kin Folk")Patti Smith, Peace and Noise (Arista): goodthing she's still a little nuts, because funny's beyond or beneath her("Whirl Away," "Memento Mori")Aaron Tippin, Greatest Hits . . . and ThenSome (RCA): as prole as Music Row gets ("Ain't Nothing WrongWith the Radio," "Cold Gray Kentucky Morning")Choice Cuts:B-Rock & the Bizz, "MyBabyDaddy" (And Then ThereWas Bass, Tony Mercedes/LaFace)David Johansen, "Alabama Song"; William Burroughs,"What Keeps Mankind Alive?"; PJ Harvey, "Ballad of theSoldier's Wife" (September Songs: The Music of KurtWeill, Sony Classics)OMC, "How Bizarre," "On the Run" (HowBizarre, Huh!/Mercury)Junior Cottonmouth, "Physical Stuff," "SomethingScratching" (Bespoke, Atlantic)Duds:Mariah Carey, Butterfly (Columbia)Graham Haynes, Tones for the 21st Century(Antilles)Orquestra Was, Forever's a Long, Long Time(Verve Forecast)Phish, Billy Breathes (Elektra)Todd Rundgren, With a Twist . . . (Guardian)Vanessa Williams, Next (Mercury)Village Voice, Nov. 4, 1997
fallout 3 jazzy interlude 13
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