MayJune, 1980
Ampersand
9
Professor Longhair
Crawfish Fiesta (Alligator)
m
Professor Longhair, who died of a
heart attack earlier this year, was one
of those underappreciated pioneers
whose rhumbaboogie piano style
heavily influenced New Orleans
keyboard tinklers from Fats Domino
and Huey Smith to Allen Toussaint
and Dr. John. Though posthumous
collections (particularly those by
unjustly obscure legends) tend to be
eulogized regardless of quality,
Crawfish Fiesta is an excellent collec
tion of rollicking New Orleans
rhythm &f blues that shows Long-
hair's talents were undiminished.
The production may be a bit odd
to those with ears accustomed to
rock records. The Professor's vocals
and piano, John Vidacovich's drums
and the horns are emphasized but
Jack DeJohnette
Special Edition (ECM)
Jack DeJohnette, drummer, com
poser and pianist, has come up with
an album that might make jazz radio
stations play jazz again, an incredibly
welcome, somewhat surprising rec
ord. Over a decade ago, that same sur
prise and welcome greeted two other
records Tony Williams' Emergency!
and Miles Davis's Bitches Brew that
are oddly linked to Dejohnette's new
work. What happened then was a
confrontation of jazz and rock. It
was a logical step. Where else would
jazz go after Coltrane's "Ascension
and Davis's own travels to the edge of
listenability? How else would jazz
. v.-A.... --'.:':--,;' 'X.v - ':
that's perfectly appropriate for the
syncopated second-line rhythmic
thrust of his music (Dr. John's Gumbo
album is in the same vein). The
material is divided equally between
Longhair classics like "Big Chief"
and "Bald Head" and r&fb covers.
The band, featuring Dr. John on
guitar, cooks up a tasty, danceable
groove throughout.
Don Snowden
BobSeger
Against the Wind (Capitol)
It is quite possible that Mr. Seger has
temporarily lost the ability to top
himself. Against the Wind doesn't have
the strength of Stranger in Town, but
it4s still a worthy addition to the
Seger opus.
Opening cut "Horizontal -Bop'
celebrates a favorite physical pas
and its musicians respond to the
chaos around them and to the new
electronic instruments that spoke so
well for the noisy, acrimonious late
Sixties?
We didn't get the answers right
away. The authority of Bitches Brew
and its few brilliant companions
splintered into a decade with fu
sion's aimless banalities on one side
against a confounded mainstream
and bleep-blopping avant-garde on
the other. The latter music was lousy
with integrity and challenge but it
was damned hard to get next to.
With Special Edition DeJohnette
has made moot both the commercial
antagonisms and the artistic malaise
of jazz in the Seventies. Special Edi
tion swings, with kudos and affection
time with Seger's distinctive raspy
voice and a thundering back-up from
the Silver Bullet Band and session
man Dr. John, an all-stops-out en
trance that leads to "You'll Ac
comp'ny Me," a medium-tempo
pianoacoustic guitar thing about
Seger's desire for an unobtainable
woman.
Like the Eagles' "The Long Run,"
with which comparisons are un
avoidable, "Against the Wind," which
opens side two, sounds destined to
be a classic. From an easy piano intro
it. slides gently into the lilting
pianoguitar melody, accompanied
by Seger's tough-but-tender vocals
and into the long harmony fade-out
by Seger and Glenn Frey. Unfortu
nately, it's followed by'Good for
Me," an ersatz praise-my-woman
song that hovers unconvincingly on
the edge of gospel with quavery
to the mainstream (see "Zoot Suite").
Its two renditions of Coltrane
("Central Park West" and "India")
give us a kind of Coltrane without
tears taking care of dead leaders
and the shadows of giants.
Saxophonists Arthur Blythe and
David Murray summarize tradition
and sketch a new one. DeJohnette
and bassistcellist Peter Warren re
write the literature on rhythm sec
tions. Dejohnette's composition
knits his own and jazz's history into a
new compatibility.
Special Edition is about confidence
and authority. It even swaggers a lit
tle with heady self-assurance. It
answers more than a few of Bitches
Rmn niirl inn
1 Linda M. Eklund
female backup vocals. After the
energetic "Betty Lou's Getting' out
Tonight" and "Fire Lake," the cur
rent single, the album ends on
another piano-oriented, quavering
backup number called "Shining
Brightly," in which Seger assures us
that it's been a long, hard road, but
things are looking better another
filler cut.
Against the Wind is somewhat of a
risk, though it has enough good
tunes to make it worth half of what it
costs and, God knows, inflation isn't
Bob Seger's fault. He's still the same.
Sally Stevens
"Glory Boys"
Secret A ffai r ( I -Spy)
"Glory Boys," available in America
only as an import, owes plenty to the
Sixties and Seventies but has a finely
I'm
LLUU
Intensified! Original ska
1962-66 (Mango) A potpourri of
pre-reggae island hotxtuff, much of it
with ultra-famiiiar mainland roots
but worked thru a Caribbean filter
than makes it all sound downright
otherworldly. So there's alternate R &
B ("Housewife's Choice"), alternate
soundtrack ("James Bond"), even
alternate nutso novelty ("Duck
Soup") all of it hopped up.raucous
and extremely alix'e.
James Brown, People, (Polydor).
Unlike Ray Charles, whose most re
cent LP represented somewhat of a
comeback for him, James just sinks
further into the muck. There're
moments of passable intensity here,
unattractively draped in neo-disco
cloth that isn't even authentic
enough to get James the belated at
tention of that, waning crowd.
(Tragic).
Smokey Robinson, Warm
Thoughts (Tamla). "Let Me Be the
Clock" is a standard lower-echelon
Smokey cutesy wordplay with an
emotional compass still more accu
rate than Mick Jagger's. Otherwise,
black MOR perse, a genre he's always
seemed better suited for than con
spicuously commercial overreachers
like Stevie Wonder or Marvin Gaye.
J.J.JOHNSON, Pinnacles (Milestone).
The goddam inventor of bebop
trombone, J.J. sure doesn't have
much to say er blow anymore.
Title cut features some of the most
nondescript ascending-riff cliches of
the past humpteen years, and his
backup team (inch Tommy Flanna-
gan, Ron Carter and Bl!!y Higgins)
seems bored beyond tears. Z-z-z
z-...Go for The Eminent J.J. Johnson
on Blue Note instead.
David Sanborn, Hideaway
(Warner Bros.). With "mood pieces
ranging from tepid to jive-hot to
'hJj-C'4)
sculpted face of its own. Featuring a
self-production every bit as majestic
and varied as Who's Next, the LP
ranges from the anthemic pop of
'Shake and Shout" through the ut
terly modern rifbrock of "Don't
Look Down" to the slashing aggres
sion of "New Dance," which is as
muscially epic as the W ho's "Won't
Get Fooled Again." Underlying Sec
ret Affair's mod battle cries are
trumpets, saxes and tympani.
The Affair is fronted by 19-year-old
Ian Paige and David Cairns.
Their endlessly catchy melodies,
along w ith Paige's rich, smooth voc
als, distract from the general arro
gance of the lyrics in a manner that is
totally disarming and witty.
Considering it may never be re
leased here, immediately search out
"Glory Boys" in the import bins.
S Mitchell Schneider
(Continued on page 21)
fjjnky-cool, this outing by the
saxophone voice of Saturday Sight
Live is no more of a fiasco than Gato
Barbieri wstrings, which is to say
some terminal cocaine users may
find it simply cosmic.
BUZZCOCKS, A Different Kind of
Tension (I.R.S.). Pouches under the
eyes have called for hazing out Pete
Shelley's features two LPs in a row
now, but the music itself is totally
pouchless (fresh stulT), Better tho is
their debut LP on British UA, which
if you're rich y'rnight pick up.
CRETONES, Thin Red Line (plante).
A shameless coverup for the record
industry's fear of the Real Thing
(i.e., punxperimental), the term
'new wave" has been stretched so thin
it no longer means dogdoo. Out of
an utterly conventional lot with not
one collective ounce of musical our
age between them, the Cretoncs arc
(so far) the lamest, most reactionary
n. wavers of all, with vocals that think
they're Elvis Costello but're really
Paul Simon by way of Roger
MtGuinn.
BLASTERS, American Music (Ritlhn'
Rock). Nice to see some kids under 40
finally get it right the Blasters arc
easily the most unaffected rockabilly
unit on wax. Great covers, great
originals, solid rhythms.
BEACH BOYS, Keepin' the Summer
Alive, (Caribou). These dinosaurs
(meanwhile) have been together
longer than the Who, with whom
they share a common goal of just
iryin' to keep their musical asses
alive. As always, the product is li-
tenable, bearable if ail you wanna
do b listen, bear. At least Jan Dean
have a credible alibi doctor'
note.
KlTTYHA'.VK, (E.M.I.). Fusion music
for 1967 (April), featuring the sitar
of the F.ighties, the Chapman Stkit
When the instrument exceed the
tunes in interest, it tine lo look
cLewhere.