Whats on your turntable tonight?

•Chico Freeman - Kings of Mali: A late 70s India Navigation offering with Chico on reeds, Jay Hoggard on vibes, Cecil Mcbee on Bass, Famodou Don Moye on drums. Mostly free outing but less densely arranged so instrumental textures play a big role in moving the music. Moye is just too cool. His martial cadences pop up in surprising places and rock the joint.

•Green Day - American Idiot: LP kills the CD which is flat and lifeless in comparison. Negativity with a sense of humor and not too self righteous to be fun. These guys play fast, loud and well.

•Peter, Paul and Mary - Album 1700: My daughter loves their harmonies and has a real jones for Jet Plane. Recording is incredibly dated, both musically and sonically. However, Mary Travers voice was recorded with little reverb so she sounds absolutely present. Big, fat acoustic bass is very well presented too.

Peter, Paul and Mary - Album 1700: My daughter loves their harmonies and has a real jones for Jet Plane

Siliab, that alone is reason enough to listen. Sharing music with your kids is the next best thing to love.

The Madmilkman: You go guy! :-)

Siliab: "Incredibly dated, both musically and sonically" is a pretty fair description of my usual listening preferences... :-)

The Contours - Do You Love Me (Now That I Can Dance) [Motown reissue CD, 1988, orig. 1962] This OOP disk was the only straight re-ish of their lone original album (faithful running order, reproduced front cover art), but should be avoided for the ghastly hip-hop remix treatment given the classic title tune, which the outer sleeve totally fails to warn of. (The balance of the program, including the essential Smokey Robinson composition "First I Look At The Purse", later covered by the J. Geils Band, is presented intact.) Who could ever have thought such an idiotic desecration was an improvement that would get people to buy? To this day I believe this great early Motown male group, largely written for by Berry Gordy himself, has not been comprehensively collected, which seems a shame not just because the music is so fine, but because they only ever issued about 25 tracks during their brief history, so it ought to be an easy project to do right. Are you listening Motown?!

The Hollies - Dear Eloise/King Midas In Reverse [Sundazed expanded reissue CD, 1997, orig. 1967] This is how you do a reissue correctly: collect all the tracks from the US Epic LP along with the rest from the British version (entitled "Butterfly"} plus the associated single B-sides, include the original cover art and liner notes, plus add contemporary commentary and an interview with group leader Allan Clarke to go along with the reverentially remastered sound.

Ellery Eskelin - The Sun Died [Soul Note CD, 1996] NYC-based tenor man teams with Marc Ribot on guitar and Kenny Wolleson on drums to present a surprising re-take on the music of a seemingly unlikely inspiration, Gene Ammons.

The Undertones - Get What You Need [Sanctuary CD, 2003] The return of one the best punk-pop groups of the late 70's and early 80's (and the best out of Ireland; their 'hit' was the pubescent lust anthem "Teenage Kicks"), minus distinctive original lead singer Feargal Sharkey, but with original songwriters/guitarists/singers the brothers John and Damian O'Neill and songwriter/bassist/singer Michael Bradley. The album is a little uneven and not up to the level of inspiration embodied by the original band, but is nevertheless a hearteningly sturdy reunion effort. The material harkens back to the first two Undertones records, rather than the artier evolutions they pursued to great effect on "Positive Touch" and swansong "The Sin Of Pride". They played only a literal handful of US reunion tour dates to promote this last year - I was fortunate enough to catch the show and they were sublimely good, playing material from across their entire songbook as if the last 25 years had never passed. Contemporary disciples like the above-mentioned Green Day bow down to these guys every morning, noon and night.

Sunnyland Slim, The Legacy of the Blues Vol. 11, GNP Crescendo GNPS-10021 and Curtis Jones, "Trouble Blues", Prestige 1022 Bluesville, bought new locally last Friday. Both good, with a slight preference for the Slim one because of his great voice.

Herbie Hancock - Speak Like A Child [Blue Note reissue CD, 1987, orig. 1968] This could sound better, it's murky and mechanical. Maybe there's a more recent issue I should check out. The music deserves it.

The Artwoods - Art Gallery [Repertoire expanded reissue CD, 1995, orig. 1964-'67] Very fine Brit R&B group, more on the mod/soul side than the blues side, with touches of psych, will appeal to fans of keyboard-driven bands like The Spencer Davis Group, The Small Faces, The Brian Auger Trinity, etc. With eponymous leader/singer Art Wood, whose younger brother Ronnie you may have heard somewhere, and Jon Lord of Deep Purple fame on organ and Keef Hartley on drums. None of their tunes were originals, but their covers were varied, well-chosen, and not at all the usual fare (except for a few of the bonus tracks), with imaginative arrangements and excellent musicianship. But despite or because of those things, they were only a minor ripple in England and never had any US releases so far as I know. Remastered sound is quite clear and powerful on the original album tracks if a little exagerated in the treble.

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Safe As Milk [Buddha expanded reissue CD, 1999, orig. 1967] As with Zappa, I prefer the earliest stuff, when it was still rockin'.

The Rolling Stones - Aftermath [Abkco CD, 1986, orig. 1966] Listening to this today it struck me, as it does from time to time, that Jagger earned his keep as a lyricist back in the day, before the rockstar rot jet-set in. This sounds fine to me, maybe a bit forward in the low treble, but does the SACD reissue CD layer really sound that much better? My vinyls are in storage...

Nina Simone - The Best Of... [Philips stereo LP, 1969] Before I really got hip to Nina I was once in a used book store that sold records (always one of the best kinds of places to shop for records), where apparently a huge fan had unloaded (or had died and their family had unloaded) an impressive multitude of vintage Simone albums in nice clean condition. I perused them all but not knowing where to begin stupidly bought none, and by the time I realized my mistake they were all gone, so I'm forced to make do until I get lucky again (this disk is shiny as a new penny, but alas most of what I've unearthed of hers since that day has been good only for frisbee practice).

Lorrie & Larry Collins - Another Man Done Gone b/w The Lonesome Road [Columbia white-label promo 45, prob. late 50's] I don't think either of these tunes are included on my Collins Kids compilation LP (they were a teenage brother/sister Rockabilly novelty duo, for those unfamiliar), but again that record's in storage and I'm not positive. Scored this single in beautiful shape at an estate sale the other week and it's wild. The A-side is written by Johnny Cash and features Lorrie without Larry growling her way through a heavily produced, down-tempo minor-key weird-out with whip-cracking sound effects and wordless female chorus over a menacing bass line that's creepy as hell - Wanda Jackson's "Funnel Of Love" played at half-speed is all I can bring to mind to compare it to. At least as odd as the Captain above, and a whole lot sexier.