Whats on your turntable tonight?

Patrica Barber Cafe Blue 45rpm and Alica Keys LP

Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
Sonny Clark - Cool Struttin (Japanese Pressing)
Joni Mitchell - Hejira

All this talk of Roland Kirk has me playing The Jaki Byard Experience (Prestige), with Kirk on reeds. It's a terrific LP (also now on CD). It also features Richard Davis on bass. I was lucky enough to catch Kirk at the Village Vanguard back in 1973 when I was right out of college. It was around the time he released "Bright Moments," and he used a lot of those songs to really stretch out. Incrediable musician. I had to catch a train so couldn't stay for the end of the second set, to my lasting regret.

•Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - Dap Dippin' etc.: Brooklyn based funk outfit with FAT bass lines and great horn-based groove. Clearly inspired by JB but they also have their own greasy, funky thing going on. Sharon is a hurricane of a front woman. The louder the better.

•Audioslave - Bought this on my son's recommendation and like it better than I thought I would based on what I heard on his system and the radio. Absolutely murders the CD, which has not been the case with Rage Against the Machine's LPs. The mating of Chris Cornell with the RATM rhythm kings doesn't always work, but creates a fatter, deeper groove than RATM when it does. Show Me How to Live is a good example.

•Joy of Cooking - A San Francisco hippy group from the early 70s that played a gently cooking bluesy-jazz-rock hybrid. Songs are quite good but the reason to listen to this one is the awesome Terry Garthwaite. Had vocal qualities that were reminiscent of Janis Joplin but without that center-of-the-earth power. Because of that she used a more nuanced approach. Brownsville Mockingbird is a great tune.

Getting an early start on a rainy Saturday in the East:

Roger Waters "Radio KAOS" (Columbia 40795) Interesting work. A bit of a spill over from some of "The Wall" in that Waters continues to explore the numbing effects of the media, in particular radio and television. Shades of what is to come in the now legendary (for sonics) "Amused To Death" Side 2 opens with a large dog barking off to the left as a transistor radio DJ voice begins in the right speaker and moves to the center. Some will argue that Water's solo works are over-indulgent drivel, but his production values are second to none. No excuse if the music is lousy, but sometimes sonics are fun in and of themselves.

Pink Floyd "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" (Columbia 40599) Too many have dismissed the post-Waters Pink Floyd efforts.
I would invite you to give a listen this LP. "Learning To Fly" and "Sorrow" show some of the spark of the DSOTM and WYWH years.

Supertramp "Paris" (A&M SP-6702) Great live LP, with quiet surfaces and good dynamics. Supposedly the one to get your hands on of this LP is a Canadian pressing. They are alleged to best the excellent Japanese pressings.

Next up:
A Polycarbinate: Pink Floyd "Division Bell" Only because I don't have the LP. The most underated and oft-dismissed of the post-Waters era. I enjoy it's rather cynical look at human relationships. A nice break from the Big Brother, government, media, nihlism Waters is so famous for.