Most of this go around of Quickies is about catching up on some of the more recent big name releases. Spending so much time off the main highway of current music, I sometimes need to get back on it to regain a sense of where the mainstream is to begin with. Well, "mainstream" from the perspective of the middle-aged, anyway. And as I am often reminded, the mainstream still has interesting and worthwhile music to offer. Just not quite as often, that's all.
One of those "big name" CD's I gave a spin is the new offering by Lenny Kravitz, It Is Time for A Love Revolution. Aside from the "The Immigrant Song" soundalike "Love Love Love," this record just didn't grab me, so, I'm not going to write about it. Oops, too late! Oh well, here's the rest in greater detail. But before getting on that main thoroughfare of popular sounds, our journey starts on a dusty road in west Africa:
Akoya Afrobeat P.D.P.
Some large ensembles pay lip service of being multi-cultural and international but Akoya lives up to the billing more than any other acts I've come across lately. This 13-piece ensemble is comprised of members hailing from Panama, Ghana, Benin, South Africa, Japan, and the USA. The lead singer Kaleta is a veteran of Afro-beat legend Fela Kuti's Egypt 80 band. This group sports a five-piece horn section, four percussionists, two backing vocalists and four guitarists. One of those guitarists just happens to be Ryan Blotnick, an up-and-coming jazzer from Maine who Mark Saleski profiled here recently.
So, with all these influences in the band, the product is predictably of a worldly nature, but it's predominantly African blended in with American seventies-style funk and a hint of fusion. Kind of like what you might get if you were to blend Kuti with James Brown, Bob Marley, and occasionally, some Soft Machine. The jams are all extended, ten-plus minute pieces that hold it together for so long with deep grooves, multilingual shouts by Kaleta and the occasional jazzy solo by the keyboardists or a guest sax player.
Article comments
1 - Mark Saleski
i never lost track of Joe Jackson. some of his most amazing material (Laughter and Lust and Blaze of Glory) came out when, sadly, nobody was listening.
i like the new one, but my ears miss the guitar (yeah, i would think like that)
2 - Pico
Yeah, I did say "Joe eventually lost me (and many others)" but fortunately, you're not like many others. His nineties output didn't connect with me but I didn't give them a lot of spins. Maybe they just need time to sink in. On the other hand, I liked Rain right away.
3 - Glen Boyd
Jackson's always been a superb songwriter. It just got kind of hard to follow him during that stretch where he wasdoing one "vanity project" (I know how Saleski loves that phrase) after another. "Blaze Of Glory" was definitely a great one, but for me "Night And Day" remains his finest moment -- and "Steppin Out" is about as perfectly constructed a dance-pop tune as it gets.
He's playing here In Seattle and I'm still on the fence about getting tickets. Maybe this new one will help me make up my mind.
-Glen
4 - Pico
Glen, here's a YouTube on the first cut from Rain, "Invisible Man," performed live. Sounds just like the studio version.
clicky clicky
5 - SFC SKI
You could at least mention that Joe Jackson has kept Graham Mabe as his bass player throughout his career, and Mabe's basslines have provided the overt or subtle hook that makes Jacson's songs so much more than simple backdrops for his fantastic lyrics.
6 - Glen Boyd
Graham Maby is definitely overlooked as a bass player...
-Glen