In an ingenious marriage of media in the Burlington Performing Arts Center’s cabaret, The Marco Benevento Trio played a set of original music in accompaniment to a screening of cult horror director Roger Corman’s House of Usher.
The second volume of Los Lobos’ Live Recordings series supplies multiple reminders why this is not just another band from East LA. The scholar/academician might look for more background content on the locale of such a recording as One Night One /Time Vol.2, and perhaps some rationale from the band (especially archivist/producer of this title, Lobos’ Cesar Roas), as to why this particular show deserves preservation for posterity.
The visceral impact of Matthew Sweet’s rock and roll has placed him somewhat erroneously in the power pop genre when in fact, instead of grabbing the listener as do the hook-laden likes of his peer Tommy Keene, Sweet’s guitar-rock insinuates itself as you hear it.
It was an especially pleasant interlude in a performance that would satisfy any fan of Jackie Greene and sufficiently surprise anyone else they’d be convinced to see him again.
Carefully selected by archivist David Lemieux from various tour stops on the Grateful Dead’s first trip abroad, this package is deliberately conceived as a companion piece to the original Europe ’72. As such, Volume 2 functions brilliantly as a complement to that seminal inclusion in the Grateful Dead discography.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience Winterland single CD, just released by Legacy Recordings through its affiliation with Experience Hendrix, is not the same music as originally put out through RykoDisc in 1987. It is, instead, a distillation of the four CD deluxe package available the same day as this new release, which is, in turn, a condensed representation of recordings made over three nights in October of 1968 at the now defunct San Francisco venue once overseen by the late impresario extraordinaire Bill Graham.
How rare it is for a seasoned band to revisit its past and re-generate the chemistry of days gone by, while simultaneously progressing into contemporary realms? Yet that’s exactly what Bela Fleck and The Original Flecktones have done since Howard Levy rejoined the band in 2009.
With tunes from The Beatles (McCartney’s “I Will”) residing comfortably next to standards of a different era ("I Loves You Porgy"), the array of songs matches the versatility of the musicians involved. Deserving an audience beyond that of the genre itself A Moment’s Peace is a seamless piece of contemporary jazz that that never betrays an unnecessary compromise to broaden its appeal.
With first estimates of one million plus dollars raised from Phish’s Benefit for Vermont Flood Recovery on September 14, it’s going to be hard to quell calls for another such affair, especially in light of the flawless execution of the occasion (from announcement to ticket sales to actual show operations) plus the absence of any negative affects on the surrounding community the day of the concert. After all there’s no shortage of worthwhile causes and the fanbase would certainly welcome a sequel given what they witnessed this full-moonlit night.
Recording with The Combo makes all the difference in the world in the presentation of John Hiatt’s songs. A craftsmanlike composer schooled in Nashville, Hiatt may forever skirt a pro-forma approach to songwriting, but the unified punch of this band brings realism to his material and his performance on Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns.
