Dirty Linen

Recording Reviews
Just a sampling of the many reviews in every issue of Dirty Linen

Vassar Clements & the Little Big Band Back Porch Swing
Grand GR20203 (1998)

With an illustrious career, playing with everyone from the hip to the worshipped, 70-year-old fiddler Vassar Clements is hardly stopping there. Although Clements has been doing a string of swing releases in recent years, it's been awhile since the Bill Monroe alumnus has had a show band around him like this one. The band's name, The Little Big Band, is a fitting one; a small, yet talented ensemble who knock out a big dance band sound way beyond their number. Several tunes are of the vintage swing variety: Benny Goodman's ragtime "King Porter's Stomp," Glenn Miller's silky "String of Pearls," and the Louie Prima popularized "Old Black Magic," which contrasts Clements' earthy voice with the urbanely sleek, sophisticated singing of Gail Bliss. After that, there's several compositions by pianist/producer Fred Bogert that show Clements' endless versatility, both as an instrumentalist and as a vocalist. "If That's Love" funks out with the low ivories, screeching clarinets and abstract fiddle noodling while Clements gives the vocals a true rock 'n' roll energy. "Ezra's Holler" fuses together building chord progressions and nice bow stretches. "Clemency" runs along modal jazz lines with the melody converging, wandering, and finally converging again. While the one-size-fits-all band peels off solo after flawless solo, Clements is subtly amazing, slicing out a sax, trumpet or clarinet riff or improvising with another unexpected flourish. On the final number, the lonely heart, martini ballad "Take it Easy on My Heart," Clements the crooner pleads for an easy breakup that's knowingly inevitable. The current crop of Squirrel and Daddy bands may be entertaining, but it's Clements who's the real swing thing.

Various artists
The Roots of Gamelan:
The First Recordings
World Arbiter Records The Balinese gamelan orchestra has become a familiar sound to westerners, through both massive amounts of field recording and via the compositions of new music composers like Lew Harrison, Steve Reich, and, earlier, Colin McPhee and Benjamin Britten. It is McPhee who archived the recordings on this set, made by the Odeon, Parlophone and Beka labels in 1928, and the only known commercial recordings made of the music before World War II. They chronicle a music undergoing great changes, as the cultural world began to shrink and art and folklore began to mix and often clash. The set includes unique and, in some cases, extinct styles, notably excellent examples of gender wayang, usually performed by a quartet of metallophones that often accompanied shadow puppet performances. Also on the recording are performances of five transcriptions of Balinese music McPhee made for two pianos, recorded in 1941 by McPhee and Benjamin Britten, as well as two tracks for piano and flute by McPhee and Georges Barrère. These are archival recordings made from the commercial records, and they have suffered from age. Hiss is prevalent. The performances are extraordinary.

This debut from Swedish trio Bazar Blå is a delightful first outing. Bowed harpist Johann Hedin, bassist Bjorn Meyer, and percussionist Fredrik Gille put out an imaginative blend of folk, world, and jazz musics. Hedin is a formidable talent on nyckelharpa, Meyer is a sensitive, responsive bassist, and Gille has a colorful palette of percussion, which he uses to just the right effect. Not a note is out of place; nothing is ever gratuitous or overdone. The sounds these three men make have an organic affinity.

They open the disc with the sprightly title track, a light, breezy bit of fusion pulled along by Gille's subtle work on dumbek. The dynamic "Just Add Water" is a driving piece accented by frame drum booms and rattling anklung. The ancient sound of the traditional "Norsken" features drony nyckelharpa and a few well-placed hand drum beats. "Dalaimama" (parts one and two) are an intriguing pair of tone poems. The first part has an air of sad resignation, with dolorous harp lines and an occasional vocal "shh." This segues into the more upbeat second part, which is a jazzy, rhythmically off-kilter lark.

"Dabadabara" bubbles along, nicely driven by tabla and shakers. It incorporates Middle Eastern scale patterns and fast jazz runs. Meyer gets to show his stuff with some Jaco Pastorius-inspired work on this one and on "Haijaja." His milky, flowing bass lines bring this often-neglected instrument into the fore. "Blues for Elks" is an eerie soundscape with quiet bells and rasps over ominous ocean and wind sounds.

Nordic City is a strong first release that will leave the listener wanting to hear more from this gifted trio.

Koerner, Ray & Glover
Lots More Blues, Rags and Hollers
Red House RHR CD 130 (1998; rec 1963)

It would be hard to find superlatives that haven't already been used to describe this album, which has been around since 1963, influencing musicians and introducing folks to the rich legacy of traditional American folk-blues music. Koerner, Ray and Glover were among the first young, white kids of the folk boom generation to fall under the spell of the blues, and to try to play them in an authentic way. Their approach was based on the sheer joy of playing the blues, which has always come through in their performances.

This album and its companion, Blues, Rags and Hollers (which was re-released in 1996), are classics and have long been sought out as collectors' items. The album has been remastered and sounds very good, particularly when compared to a scratchy vinyl original copy. Five tracks from the original session that were previously released on a separate album are included. The original liner notes, which have been updated and expanded by Tony Glover, are included.

Snakefarm is the new project by Anna Domino, a singer who released four critically acclaimed albums for the Belgian Crépuscule label in the 80s and who is now settled in the U.S. with her Belgian guitarist husband. Domino has had a strong influence on such important groups as Portishead, and her latest approach is as clever as it is unique. She has taken some of the most well-known traditional American folk songs and mated them to modern guitar-based quasi-trip-hop grooves. Like Nick Cave with his Murder Ballads album, Snakefarm's songs, including "St. James Infirmary," "Frankie and Johnny," "John Henry," "Laredo," and "Tom Dooley," are mostly about death, and Domino sings them in a cool and restrained style, sort of like Nico or Annette Peacock, which gives the repertoire a detached and eerie spectre. Some might find Songs From My Funeral too idiosyncratic, but neither the compelling quality of the minimalist yet funky arrangements nor the allure of the singer can be denied.

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