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His Royal Hipness - Lord Buckley
by dangaroo
One of the strangest albums I've had a pleasure of listening to recently is this compilation of songs by the jazz artist and all round eccentric Lord Buckley. Most of these songs were recorded in the late 40s, early 50s. An artist that would go on to influence Bob Dylan, The Yardbirds, Tom Waits and Dizzie Gillespie in one way or ... another. However the artist that comes rather close to him in terms of weirdness has to be Frank Zappa and I can't help but feel Buckley influenced him heavily.
I got to know his work through his association the great jazz artist and man who coined the phrase 'hipster' - Harry "the Hipster" Gibson, it seems that at some point they owned a club together, both of them riotous boozers, they are two of a kind but Lord Buckley is considerably odder.
Lord Buckley took on the appearance of a mad British aristocrat - waxed moustached and wearing a tuxedo and pith helmet, his appearance came through in his vocals, which were a bizarre mixture of upper class Englishness (although Buckley was California born and at one point even said to have been a lumberjack, his parents were British) and New York hipster slang.
Two of his most well known tracks feature hardly any music at all - they are basically monologues in his bizarre language "The Nazz" and "Gettysburg Address", occasionally complimented with a little funeral like organ playing and both tracks finishing with about a minute of "The Saints Go Marching In". What "The Nazz" actually translates to is Jesus and this 9 minute long track retells various famous biblical events including walking on water and the paragraph introducing him goes something like this:
"He was a carpenter kitty. Now the Nazz was the kind of a cat that come on so cool and so groovy and so with it that when he laid it down, whabam! It stayed there! Naturally all the rest of the cats said, "Man, look at that cat wail! He's wailin' up a storm up there. Hey, eh, ain't it down right? Hey, get off my back Jack! What's the matter with you? I'm tryin' to dig what the cat's puttin' down!" They're pushin' the Nazz to dig his miracle lick, and the Nazz say, "Cool, babies. Tell ya' what I'm gonna do. I ain't gonna take two, four six, eight of you cats, but I'm gonna take all twelve of you studs and straighten you all at the same time. Say, you cats look like you pretty hip." He say, "You buddy with me."
So that's just a very small part of the first track and Lord Buckley recreates numerous famous historical and legendary moments such as "Jonah and the Whale" and "Marc Anthony's Funeral Oration", the latter containing the famous line: "Hipsters, flipsters and finger-poppin' daddies: knock me your lobes" which is Buckley's version of Shakespeare's "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears."
It's difficult to judge his jazzy musical prowess because the album is largely monologue but Buckley is a master of word play though and my money would be on him against the majority of hip hoppers and spoken word artists of today.
This album contains some of his most famous songs but having released 17 LP's, it's definitely worth checking out some of his other albums as well, namely the "Bad Rapping of the Marquis de Sade". A wonderfully bizarre album by an artist who was ahead of his time or perhaps even in his own time.
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My One And Only Thrill - Melody Gardot
by ladybracknell
I first came across this singer when she appeared on Later with Jules Holland and sang an acoustic version of Who Will Comfort Me from her second album, My One and Only Thrill. This was the follow up to her debut offering Worriesome Heart and unlike many singers who produce great first albums and then fail to fulfil that early promise ... when it comes to their next attempt, that's not so here. In fact, this album is even better than the first.
The Singer:
Melody Gardot is a young singer/songwriter who is living proof of the saying 'It's an ill wind'. Whilst recovering from a bad road accident she was having music therapy as part of the treatment for serious head and spinal injuries and discovered in the process that she had a rather good singing voice. She's often been compared to Norah Jones, Duffy and Adele, and I'd agree that there are some similarities between her voice and Nora Jones's, but to my mind Melody's voice is far less breathy and insubstatial and definitely much more warm and sensual in tone than any of the aforementioned ladies. In fact, whenever I listen to any of her songs, I always get a mental image of Jessica Rabbit!
I have to admit to not being a huge fan of jazz and this album certainly leans towards that genre, however there's also a healthy dose of blues thrown into the mix and nowadays the musical lines are very blurred and singers tend to range in style over several genres. What is certain is that the quality of Melody Gardot's vocals together with the excellent song choices and musical arrangements, make this a total listening pleasure.
The Songs:
Baby I'm a Fool gets the album off to a great start. This is big band jazz ballad but with a modern twist beginning with softly sweet strings joined by jazz guitar. As the song title implies, this is about the foolishness that leads us to fall in love. The lyrics are sophisticated and intelligent, very much in the style of Cole Porter or Irving Berlin, delivered in Gardot's velvety and slightly understated voice. The chorus is scat singing and although the words may be meaningless, it's like listening to a language that one should understand.
There's a slightly Latin Astrid Gilberto-like sound to the more upbeat If the Stars Were Mine which carries an acoustic jazz guitar accompaniment with maracas and rhythmic beat and here again the central section has some scat singing. Melody Gardot's voice is smooth as silk and this song definitely falls into the easy listening category.
Who Will Comfort Me is another medium tempo song with a much more bluesy feel to it and an almost gospel theme. Beginning with guitar and clicking fingers and jazz drums. As the song progresses, the song becomes more orchestrated with brass and organ. This showcases Melody Gardot's voice demonstrating that she can extend her vocal range from jazz, to blues, to gospel. This lady has definitely got soul in spades.
The tempo is slowed down for the fourth track which is my absolute favourite on the album. Your Heart is as Black as Night has a sound that's pure 1940s film noire and from the first sleazy strains of the saxophone and solo piano to the final notes from the muted trumpet, this is a totally captivating piece of musical composition. Melody's jazzy bluesy voice blends perfectly with the piano, the saxophone and the sensually undulating rhythm puts this firmly in Jessica Rabbit territory.
Lover Undercover is a torch song in the best American tradition and the Judy Garland influence is strong on this track. This song is a slow and sweet ballad, with simple piano accompaniment and soft strings, brass and percussion added for emphasis. Melody's voice takes on a husky yearning sensuality ideally suited to the lyrics which, though sentimental never stray into the realms of mawkishness.
The orchestral beginning to Our Love is Easy has a classical sound which wouldn't disgrace the start of a symphony. One the song gets going, it's another retro sounding offering, taking the listener into a smoky club or speakeasy. Like most of her songs, this one is a fine balance between the music and the words, the one complementing the other. This is a beautifully romantic ballad which perfectly expresses the perfect love.
Les Etoilles is not only partly sung in French but the music conjures up images of 1950s Parisian nightlife to such an extent that one can almost smell the smoke from all those Gauloises cigarettes! This is a very simple, understated and pleasant song, though not one of my personal favourites. The Rain, on the other hand, is very much more to my liking. This is one of those songs that grows on the listener the more times one hears it. The rain of the title symbolises the end of a relationship and Melody's husky rendition and beautiful enunciation manages to paint a vivid picture of a cloudy, rain-drenched street and two used-to-be-lovers saying a final goodbye. There's a wonderful poignancy to this song.
The eighth, and title track, My One and Only Thrill begins with a classically sounding violin introduction before Melody and piano join in and the slow love song begins. The soft and slow approach lulls the listener into thinking this is just another love song but the slightly strange musical rhythm keeps the interest whilst allowing the music to remain fluid. This is music to listen to in a candle lit room with a glass of wine and the one you love.
Deep Within the Corners of My Mind is a slow and deeply emotional ballad, delivered in Melody's beautifully clear yet husky tones. This is one of those songs which really tugs at the heartstrings. It's about clinging on to a desperate hope that love will find a way and the sentiments of the song, the vocals and orchestration all blend seamlessly into one superb whole.
'But deep within the corners of my mind
I'm praying secretly
That eventually in time
there'll be a place for you and me'
I've never been a fan of Over the Rainbow either Judy Garland's original or any of the cover versions, with perhaps the exception of Eva Cassidy's, and I can't say that Melody Gardot's jazzed up version changes my mind much. On a more positive note, it doesn't really sound very much like the original having been given a samba rhythm and there is some interesting orchestration and as ever, Melody's pure voice transforms anything she sings.
The album ends with a second version of If the Stars Were Mine which is much more orchestrated having additional string accompaniment, though essentially it's the same song and my own preference is the one with less orchestration which allows Melody's voice centre stage.
The Summary:
If I'm honest, this isn't an album I listen to very often in its entirety. The mood of all the music is slow and relaxed and lends itself more to quiet times than the bustle of everyday life. There is an intimacy about this music as though Melody Gardot is singing only for the listener. Her clever use of lyrics blended with the music may hark back to the golden era of jazz but her vocal interpretation also brings a modernity of sound putting her squarely into the 21st century. This is a woman who has a superb singing voice and great song writing skill and who never compromises her integrity for the sake of commercial success. This album is proof that Melody Gardot belongs to that rather niche group of female singers whose recordings will undoubtedly stand the test of time.
The only slight criticism I can give is that I would have preferred the second version of If the Stars Were Mine to have been higher up the track listing and for the album to finish with Deep Within the Corners of My Mind. Despite this, I'm giving the album 5 stars because even though it isn't absolutely perfect, it's still way better than a 4 star recording.
Also posted on Ciao under the same user ID.
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Sheik Yerbouti - Frank Zappa
by cheffrey
Zappa had spent much of his career experimenting with various genres of music with varying degrees of success, from freaky R'n'B to huge jazz ensembles and lascivious pop songs. But his true passion lay in experimental orchestral music, which was both financially demanding and nowhere near as much of a crowd-puller as his loud n' lewd ... rock stuff. Every now and again, necessity demanded a hit single or a more 'accessible' album that would shift enough units to fund his big, expensive orchestral projects.
'Sheik Yerbouti' is just such an album. Stuffed with catchy hooks, flashy guitar parts and the kind of naughty lyrics that entertain and offend in equal measure, Zappa ensured he ended the 1970s with a record that would keep his bank account topped up, and its creator still in the public mind. Zappa's wicked sense of humour is unleashed on a series of very soft targets; punks, disco-frequenting poseurs, Peter Frampton, Bob Dylan and lame middle-America teenagers are all lampooned with grin-inducing precision. Opener 'I Have Been In You' is a play on Frampton's forehead-smackingly titled album 'I'm In You', and it segues into 'Flakes', a scathing tirade aimed at the USA's totaly lack of ability to make anything that isn't utterly useless, complete with Adrian Belew in full-on Dylan rasp. It's a wonderful, woozy faux-protest song, replete with mournful harmonica parts and some typically bonkers time changes. 'Broken Hearts are for Assholes' and 'I'm So Cute' simultaneously knock the wind out of the sails of woeful high school romantics and preening teenage pretty boys in a disco/Ramones pastiche. Frank's sneer drips with sarcasm, while his band provide a host of caricature vocal parts that all add to the humour.
Yet Zappa's humour always sailed close to the shores of controversy, and according to his detractors he was firmly over the boundary of what classed as acceptable pop music. 'Jewish Princess' caused a huge uproar in the Jewish community, as it was taken as a broadside attack on the whole of the culture by some. Zappa's defence was that he was telling it how he saw it; spoiled, self-centred brats exist in every western culture, and the ones he had encountered happened to be Jewish. It's bound to offend some, others may not care.
'Dancin' Fool' is a lot more easy to take, as it hilariously recounts the feverish swoop to the dance floor by those, shall we say, rhythmically challenged to look anything other than ridiculous as 'the beat goes on, and I'm so wro-oong!' The crudest of the lot though, is 'Bobby Brown Goes Down', which recounts the misadventures of a sexually-confused record promo guy trying to make his way in the music business, and loses various bits of his anatomy in the process. Bizarrely, Zappa crooned his way to the number one spot in various European countries, all done in an easy-listenin' style with smooth horn sections and three-part harmonies. Lovely.
But it's not all about belly laughs at the expense of easy targets. 'Yo Mama' and 'Rat Tomago' feature some of FZ's most intriguing gutiar-work, spinning modal lines and moody bass parts together into an atmospheric mix. Meanwhile, 'City of Tiny Lites' features a lyric that one may almost call emotive and heartfelt - and there aren't too many examples of that in Uncle Frankie's back-catalogue.
Zappa's position as self-appointed satirist of pop-music (and American culture, society and politics in general) is affirmed here. Taking the norms and forms of the genres he sneered at, Zappa chucked out a collection of songs that show he set out not only to make sure he deflated his targets in style. Aping the likes of Chic, Dylan, the Ramones and the Bee Gees with ease, he sets out to prove that not only has he got the sharpest tongue in the business, but he'll take the piss while going one better. The riffs are memorable, the tunes tight and punchy (mostly), and the jokes plied on with a trowel. His virtuoso line-up are tight as it comes, with mad polyrhythms and stunt-guitar prominent throughout.
This is a cracking pop/rock album that is bound to entertain, provided your sensbilities aren't too easily offended. The cultural references and satire are obviously of a certain time and place which may alienate some listeners less au-fait with the 70s disco boom, and there are some fairly pointless chunks of studio chatter that stitch the songs together, but these aren't too much of a problem. It's also one of Zappa's more musically accessible records, despite its lascivious lyrical content, as he steers away from the weird and wonderful sounds and rhythms that permeate albums such as 'Bongo Fury' or 'Lumpy Gravy', although his inimitable style pervades. Some Zappa fans may find it all a bit too simple and direct though, with too much emphasis on satire of sonic experimentation. But then, Zappa was never one to stay still or deliver anything predictable, yet still throwing in references to his previous work - all part of his 'conceptual continuity'.
Most Zappa albums are difficult to locate in music stores, but this one seems to be a favourite in HMV's pathetically small Zappa section, although buying it online is usually the best idea as it'll be cheaper and you won't have to fight through the hordes that fill those horrible stores. It can be picked up for about five quid at Amazon, or a vinyl version can usually be found on ebay for about fifteen.
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